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Leader (1850-1860), 17th September 1859, Edition 1 of 3, Page 1065, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      at MOST A HEROINE . By the Author of " Charles Auchester , " " Rumour . " &c . 3 vols . —Hurst and Blackett . ROCCABELLA ; A TALE OF A WOMAN'S LIFE . ¦ By Paul Bell . 2 vols . —James Blackwood . EDITH GREY ; OR TEN YEARS AGO . By Charlotte Bonomi . —Hall , Virtue and Co . " Almost a Heroine" is a very good story , but could have been told much better in two volumes than three . Rather too much of the first volume

      is taken up with the early life of Ernesto Loftus . But those that read on and trust in the author will find it a pleasant novel to read and reflect on . That the story progresses rather slowly seems part of the author ' s plan . She seems duly to have digested the subject of her narrative , and to have reflected well what feelings it would be likely to create in the minds of her readers . The story professes to be an autobiography of Ernesto "Lof tus , who leaves his home when young , and comes to

      England to an uncle ' s house on account of his mother marrying again . This uncle is an " eccentrician " of a peculiar order . He , however , soon dieSj and his vast property goes for three years to his faithful and well-beloved John , his servant . Ernesto is disgusted , and leaves the house , much to the discomforture of the said John , who would rather the property have gone to Ernesto at once ; but he is unable to make iin understand this . Thrown on the world

      friendless , Ernesto has to work for his bread , and soon finds himself engaged to Lord Liynneld , a doctor of eminence , and another rather eccentric individual Ernesto is not with him long as private secretary before he breaks a rule about speaking to a . young lady , and is discharged very kindly , and is advised by Lord Lynfield to turn ^ author . Ernesto does so , and through a letter from his late patron he becomes acquainted with Arnold Major ; tie reader , of the great firm of Brown , Jones and Co . Major and Krnesto become friends at once , and here the turning point of the story commences .

      Something about Maj 6 r convinces Ernesto that there is a sad mystery hanging over him ; and his home , with three children in black , who call him uncle , strengthen this suspicion . He is unable to fathom it for some time . His book is published , and , he becomes acquainted with "Lord TVilders , who takes him into society , and , among others , to the house of Horatia Standish , the " almost a heroine , " Horatia is described as a woman of great accomplishments , leading a fashionable life , perhaps for excitement . Ernesto and Horatia soon

      become friends , and the talk turns on the Majors , whom , it appears , she knows , or did know , well . This makes Ernesto resolve on asking his friend Major the nature of their friendship formerly . Major refuses to tell him more than that Horatia was engaged to his elder brother , and that she jilted him . Ernesto cannot believe this , and seeks Horatia for the purpose of ascertaining the truth , because he has some secret feeling

      that the melancholy on the brow of Major is not caused solely by the fact that the lady jilted his brother , but that his friend Arnold loved her himself . It soon appears that Arnold ' s elder brother never did propose to Horatia , but beat about the bush , and getting no encouragement he left the house without doing so , and thtft it was only a false report . As a proof of this ,. she confesses that she could not have received Arnold ' s

      brother as a lover , because she always loved Arnold himself . It here , also , turns out that after Arnold's brother had become a reckless man of pleasure he lived with a mistress , until he found an heiress to marryi lie then deserted the poor unfortunate , leaving her also his throe children . She soon dies of grief ; and Arnold takes the children to his home and becomes their protector . Of course , Ernesto is not long communicating the real story to his friend Arnold ! and , as a matter of course , lie tolls him also that Horatia loved him , and not his brother .

      The characters arc well conceived , though some of them are " eccentricians . " But the best are those in whom the reader feels the most interest , f-he character of Arnold Major , the hero , is by tor the most ably drawn ; and his brother , the ^ an of pleasure in the background , is well man ? £ ? d > and presents the reader with a good picture « a i ' an (* ' altogether , though slow in parts , Almost a Heroine" is a pleasant novel and * eU worth reading .

      " Roccabella" should have been an excellent romance but the writer has made it only the skeleton of one . There is plenty of rough material and outline , but there is no colouring to give softness ; as it were , to the picture . It is the story of a mistaken marriage—a marriage for money and a position . This subject has been so ably handled by Mr . Anthony Trollope , in his last novel , " Bertrams , " as to leave little more to be said on the question . Yet " Roccabella " is quite an average novel , and the author having something to say , has said it in a straightforward manner , and although we cannot speak in very great praise of

      his characters , we at least can say nothing in censure . Still , there is something wanting to make it very good fiction , and perhaps this is to be found in the general hardness of the characters and the author ' s style . For instance , we are ' first introduced to Rosamond , wedded to a Liverpool merchant , and we are given to understand that she has not one jot of affection for him . Yet there is no moralising , which is the colouring of all novels . As we have said , " Roccabella" is only the outline of a romance . We may say , however , for the story , that it is well sustained , and that the careful reader may glean the author ' s object therefrom .

      " Edith Grey " is a little book deserving notice , because the writer has fallen into a mistake , common among writers . of her class . The work is " Dedicated to the Young Female Protestants of England , " and its object is best explained by the writer : " This little work has been considered likely to be useful to those who are seldom spoken to upon the subject of opposing creeds , and who are constantly open to the misleadings of Rome ; their studies not being calculated to enable them to unravel the- sophistry and mysticism too often prepared for them in the present day , under the guise of Tales and Novels . " Taking the author ' s purport for granted , the story is neatly told .

      Untitled Article

      The Quakers , or Friends : their Rise and Decline . —Sampson Low , Son , and Co . The causes of the' decline of Quakerism are treated in these pages . Sects have their origin in the idiosyncracies of individuals , and these religion strongly developes . Pox , and the Friends , were individuals in whom individuality was strongly developed : but in modern times the individuals have gradually become secularised , and like other people . Now this resemblance to the rest of the world deprives them of their distinctive characteristics . Fox . himself found conventional Christianity unsatisfac ^

      tory , and sought for illumination from above . His disciples in these days have accommodated themselves to conventional forms of religion . Their founder saw no remedy for the wrongs of ecclesiastical presumption , and no way of restoration to faith and holiness , but on the one hand to deny the authori t y and ignore the ground and matter of the clergy ' s teaching , and on the other to insist on a return to the positive guidance of the New Testament in the plainest and most direct acceptation of its word and spirit . A church , according to Fox and his first disciples , vas a society of friends , dependent alone on " the light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world . " For this opinion

      and its resultant practice they suffered much— - spoliation , imprisonment , exclusion from civil rights — but they continued to assert the inviolability of the rights of conscience . But from the beginning they were , both in doctrine and practice , too negative . But they practically exhibited an example , that without all the complex and imposing- machinery of systematic theology , a trained , authorised , venerated , and paid clergy , the practice of ordinances of doubtful or purely human invention ; without ce ' remonial , ritual , or appointments of any arbitrary kind ; it is possible that men can arrive at a knowledge of the essential nature , conditions , and duties of Christian life .

      " With the Friends , intellect was , by their revolt against human authorities , emancipated from outward thrall . Its submission was not transferred from one set of artificial ordinations to another . Even the authority of the Scriptures was regarded as mediate , though superior to all human assumptions . The source of their plenitude and power was fitly regarded the original and final resort of the

      soul . Compliance with thefr OAvri conditions of reception , to the exclusion of all other , was the manner in which Bible-truths were to bo apprehended , digested , and applied . Not to seek grapos of thorns , or flgs of thistles , but receiving with meekness the engrafted word , to bring forth fruit , thirty , sixty , or a hundredfold . They studied , they tested , they appliedj those inimitable delineations and parabolic descriptions of human life and divine teaching . They possessed , as their numbers increased , a larger and more

      confirmed testimony to the practical operation of their principles and effects in ordinary moral and social relationships . " With all their merits , however , the Friends , like other sects , are doomed to extinction . "When they cease to be persecuted they cease to grow . The Quakers have been reluctant to admit proselytes , anji the sect has maintained the succession by the families of its members , not by conversion . Secessions are now frequent among them , and their decay so noticeable that treatises are written to account for the faet . Among them the present pamphlet deserves especial attention . "

      The Thirteenth Report of the Associate Institution for Improving and Enforcing the Laws for the Protect tioii of Women . Tub progress of this society is satisfactory ; and we trust that its efforts at improved legislation may be crowned with success .

      Untitled Article

      THE COTTON TRADE . I 1 ST treating of the wool and the corn trade we pointed how much both had extended when the ruinous hand of the Protectionist legislator was withdrawn from them . The cotton trade , though the raw material was taxed tiU 1844 , was never subjected to such severe restrictions as the wool and the corn trade , and though it has increased very much , and benefited very much by the extension of other branches of trade under freedom , we shall find , as might he a priori conjectured , the extension of it less rapid of late than of the two

      other trades . It is distinguished , too , from them by deriving all its materials from a foreign source . Every pound of cotton used in the country has to be entered at the Custom House , but of the wool and the corn consumed , the greater part is grown at home . Of this part no Government record is kept—happily we say , though in this we 'differ from those who want to see the eye and the hand of the regulationist everywhere . It is , however , well known that the corn and the wool grown at home

      have increased quite as much or more than the corn and the wool imported since the Protectionist was forced to let go his grip of the national throat These two trades received additional life from home and foreign sources . The raw material of the cotton trade is wholly derived from the foreigner . We transcribe , therefore , to show how our supply of this valuable material has been regularly increased—although for it we are wholly d cpendent on others—the following account of COTTON IMPORTED IN Millions of lbs . Millions of lbs . 1840 .. .. GU 2 1850 .... 063 1841 .. .. 487 1851 .. .. 757 1842 .. .. 5 : jl 1852 .. .. 929 1843 .. .. ( 573 1853 .. .. 8 U 5 1844 .. .. 040 1854 .. .. 887 1845 .. .. 721 1855 .. .. 8 U 1 1840 .. .. 407 1850 .. .. 1023 1847 .. .. 474 1857 .. .. IMD 1848 .. .. 713 1858 .. .. 1034 1840 .... 755

      We must remind our readers , however , that all the cotton imported , as all the wool imported , is not for our own use ^—a portion of it is re-exported . Trade being here comparatively free , though the pre-eminent advantages of freedom have not tempted statesmen entirely to leave the old path of restriction , England is a great emporium , and commodities of different kinds , to the value of £ 23 , 000 , 000 , were imported last year to be reexported . Of these the cotton exported wasiu quantity 1 , 300 , 000 cwts ., almost one-eighth of the imports , and in value . £ 3 , 955 , 000 . 'I he increase in the imports is , therefore , rather an indication of

      the relative increase pf the quantity prouueou abroad than of the quantity we actually consume . The supply , it will be seen , from the table varies much from year to year , as the season is good or bad , but on the whole has increased , one year with another , about 0 per cent , per annum . It has doubled , taking the average of three years , at the beginning and end of the period * between 1841 and 1857 . Between 1840 and 1858 the wool imported , as wo stated last week , increased from 49 , 000 , 0000 lbs . to 126 , 000 , 000 lbs . ; in the same interval the cotton imported increased only from 592 , 000 , 000 lbs . to 1 , 034 , 000 , 000 lbs . ; the latter , scarcely double the former , increased two-and-ahalf times , besides the home-grown supplies . The wool imported has been only a supplement tp them , and , as a consequence , as we pointed out

      Untitled Article

      itfEW NOVELa

      Commercial. -*- ' .

      COMMERCIAL . - * - ' .

      Untitled Article

      * N o . 495 . Sept . 17 , 1859 ] THE LEADER . 1065

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 17, 1859, page 1065, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2312/page/21/