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980 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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A BATCH 03? BOOKS. Tub best volume on ou...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Turkey—Its History Ani> Progress. From T...
pressed as they were —I suspect by his Majesty—I felt the counter-weight of that pressure . The Doke of Newcastle sent me frequent messages to attend him ; I obeyed . My visit -was as welcome to his grace as Lord Granville had foretold ; he received me with embraces , chocolate was ready , and he as ready to persuade and conjure me to accept of his Majesty ' s offer and to i-etarn to Vienna- He thought I stood on bargaining , offered me any price I should name , as Lord Granville had done , repeated honours , emoluments , & c . ; I as constantly and firmly declined . I fairly told him I wanted neither honours nor emoluments ; 5 f I should go , I desired it might be on the same footing ; I had as much of the King's pay as my station required ; and there had never been a competition or the least discord between Mr . Robinson and me . I wanted no honours which might interfere with his ; that though I had made my plan to stay at home , I would offer a condition or two to his grace on
which alone I could return . 1 hat as he knew Mr . Robinson s affection for me , tnine was not less towards him : though I did not know any particular relation or connexion between his grace and Mr . Robinson , yet I thought there -was some such existing with his brother , Mr . Pelham , whom I had not the honour of knowing personally ; but be that as it may , his grace knew Mr . Robinson was a younger brother with a small fortune , and then married , with a growing family ; that he had never hoarded riches , never had been in the way of exceeding mere living ; his services had been long and great ; and that even in that important event of the peace with Prussia , in which I had some shaTe , he had borne the whole burthen ; that Lord Hyndford , ¦ who had no further trouble than to give , what he with odium and irreroissible labour obtained , had been distinguished and superabundantly rewarded ; that , therefore , if his grace could obtain of his Majesty a thousand pounds a year augmentation for Mr . Robinson , I could perhaps return with such good tidings , and sacrifice my in ^ tere 3 t and time to the King's service during the continuance of the war .
The duke seemed startled at this proposal , and , looking in amaze , said he durst not even propose it to his Majesty ; that , on the treaty of 1731 , Mr . Robinson had been advanced from Envoy Extraordinary to Minister Plenipotentiary , and had then the increased pay of 31 . per diem , so that It was too near the time , i . e ., eleven years , to mention so delicate a matter to the K . ing . I then pressed him to know whether his ¦ merit in the late peace with Prussia * in which both his body and mind had suffered the severest risks and anxieties , would not be rewarded in some solid and substantial manner ; that it was the moment for a . faithful , zealous servant to feel his master ' s bounty and generosity . He said he had thought that as Mr . Robinson had formerly desired the Red Ribbon , it might be the more agreeable to him on this occasion , and that that ostensible mark of the King ' s favour would be a more permanent one of his Majesty ' s approbation .
I spoke of the ribbon with such irtdifFerence "that Surprised his grace . I told him that when mature minds sought rewards , baubles and gew-gaws were not competent ; they might please the vanity and levity of youth , and , perhaps , when he thought that the brilliancy of a Star and Garter might add to the lustre of a single man , he , at that time , might have been flattered with * the splendour ; but now that he had a wife and several young children , the providing for these made up the essential part of his happiness , and for them it was I meant a solid , substantial reward .
Finding , however , that all this reasoning had no weight with the duke , I turned the matter on what I thought more feasible , and in itself just and reasonable ; I told him that as I knew Mr . Robinson ' s desire , on account of the education of his children , was turned towards home , and that , whenever a general peace should happen , he would , seek to return at any rate ; if , therefore , his grace would intercede with the King to give bAm any post or place , or even to secure him one before his arrival , whenever that should happen , the reward would be equally agreeable to that which I had first proposed . The duke , on this point , stroked his face , settled his wig , hesitated , and asked me , with a slow voice , stooping towards my ear , has he a borough ? can . he get into Parliament ? I told him I knew of no borough , no interest which could bring him into Parliament , but his grace's ; on which I rose up , took my leave abruptly , with this Single remark , that I supposed , after twenty years' service , the same question would be put to me , and on such a vague prospect I was confirmed in my first resolution of staying at home . His grace followed me , on my retreat , begging and entreating me to return into Iiis closet , which I absolutely refused .
I left him , I confess , with indignation , and to disburthen my mind of the impression 3 of so discouraging and unsatisfactory a . conversation , I immediately went to Lord Granville , who judged by my countenance the effects of my conference with the duke . He received me with his usual smile , inclined to a laugh—brought me to a detail of the whole ; the singularity of the negotiation not only amused him exceedingly , but heightened his spirits to much mirth . I found , however , by his lordship ' s asking what the duko would fay to the King , that I had the interview by his Mai esty ' a command .
980 The Leader. [Saturday,
980 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
A Batch 03? Books. Tub Best Volume On Ou...
A BATCH 03 ? BOOKS . Tub best volume on our present list is a reprint—revised by the author — of Adventures in Canada and the Backwoods , which originally appeared in Hogg ' s Instructor , and which Messrs . Groombridge have now published in n separate form . The title of the book , Whitlings from the IVest , and the fancy name under which the amthor chooses to conceal himself , " Abel Log , " led us to expect some very flippant , vulgar , and commonplace writing . We were agreeably disappointed by finding that Mr . u Abel Log" was capable of much better things than his name and title-page seemed to promise . Ho has genuine animal spirits , a hearty sense of humour , and a shrewd observation of character ; and ho has produced a narratives which is always readable and often interesting ; . The faults which ho ought to guard against in his next book ( if ho talced up the nen again ) are an inveterate tendency to exaggeration and to that over-lively style of writing , ¦ which mazy do very well to fill a dozen pages in a magazine , but which is perilously detrimental , with a very largo class of rea . « orsto the success of a whole volumeTho
, . 11 Whitings'' are , in plain English , descriptions of scones in tho great towns of Canada , and of adventures on th « o nvers and among tho backwoods . Tho author is tho huro of tho narrative Ho mixes up a groat deal of fiction with his fuels ; but he always contrives—nuiking allowance for the exaggeration which wo have mentioned as his besetting sin—to keep up the appearance of reality and nature in relating liia adventures ; and ho very wisely makes tho human interest tho prominent interest of his story throughout . The characters he meets with always occupy the prominent part of his pictures , ftnd the scenery is kept iix its proper place— -the background . If we had space to spare wo should nuxko some extracts from the author ' s canoe-voyage up the lilack Itiver , fund from his vividly interesting account of the backwoodsmen ' s attauk on " Uutternut Cuatlo . But our columns . have no " places to let" for literary applicants this week . We must be content with reconunonding Mr . Log 8 ixdventuros to our readers .
Nordnfari ; or , Rambtes in Iceland , by Pliny Miles ( Longman ) , forms the last new contribution to " The Traveller's Library , " and is well worth reading . But we must , honestly warn " ¦ travellers" at the outset , that they will find Mr . Pliny Miles ' s style of writing all but unendurable . Such ultra American-English ( Mr . Miles is a Yankee of the most formidable dimensions ) has , we believe , never before been set up in English type . The slang expressions are , in some places , literally incomprehensible —the style is pertinaciously flippant and careless , and the tone of the writer is almost uniformly dogmatic and conceited throughout the book . Tn spite , however , of the very serious drawback of a , singularly offensive style , these " Rambles" are , we repeat , well worth reading . They contain information of tbe most remarkable and most original kind on many deeply-interestin «
subjects m connexion with Iceland—both as to its former history and as to its present condition . The information is dreadfully disfigured by our American informant before he can bring it to light—but it is information , in the best and strictest sense of the word . By holding conversations with learned Icelanders , and by obtaining access to the manuscripts of ancient Iceland historians , Mr . Pliny Miles contrived to make some really remarkable antiquarian discoveries in connexion with men and events in the far north . One of these discoveries , if it can really be trusted , assigns to an Icelander , on apparently reliable evidence , the honour of being the first European who ever sailed to America . " Biarni , the son of Henulf , sailed from Iceland to join his father in Greenland , was driven south , and landed on the American coast—probably Labrador . " This was in the year 986 . Leif Ericsson was the next navicator to America , tie sailed from Greenland
in the year 1000 , and discovered Newfoundland and Nova Scotia . Greenland settlements existed in New England from 1011 to 1014 , and—most startling revelation of all—our author declares it to be " doubly proved , that Columbus sailed to Iceland in the year 1477 " —fifteen years before the date of his first voyage to America . The evidence on which these extraordinary statements rest will be found detailed at full length in Mr . Miles ' s first volume - We have only referred to them here in order to show that , with all his gross faults of manner , the author of the Rqmbles in Iceland has produced a book which has some unusually strong claims to the attention , not of travellers only , but of stay-at home readers as -well . "We have not done -with books about America , or books by Americans
yet . The press swarnas with them just now , and they pour in upon us accordingly in an almost continuous literary stream . No sooner have we done with Whitlings from the West , and Mr . 'Flirty Miles , than Doctor Marshall Hall comes forward with a volume called The Twofold Slavery of the United States . The doctor is a staunch abolitionist , and his plan for the negroes is , that they should free themselves . Task-work and over-work he recommends , instead of day-work ; he would have a " just and generous premium p laced on each slave "— " wages for over-work , secured with liberal interest in . savings hanks "— - " , when accumulated , to be paid over to master " - — and " slave to be declared free . " This plan of self-emancipation is , doubtless , dictated by the sincerest benevolence ; and it looks so well on paper , that we will not pain the amiable projector by examining it from a too practical point of view . We prefer passing ait once from the doctor ' s pleasant
philanthropic dream ( if he will excuse us for using such an expression ) to Mrs . Ann S . Stephens ' s gipsy fiction , which we have not been able to read , doubtless from the defective sensibility , which is the vice of critical natures in general . "Very young ladies who worship the romantic , and relish a style with plenty of adjectives in it , will approve highly of Zana ; or , the Heiress of Clair Hall . The description of the heroine , at the beginning of the story , was too voluptuously eloquent for our severe and Spartan nature . ^ When we found that her cheeks were " peachy crimson , " that her complexion was of a " soft creamy tint , " that she could " bury her tiny foot in the extremity of her raven curls , " that she had a spirited ankle , " and that , when slie wanted to dance , she prepared for that exercise by " giving her person a willowy bend sideways ; " we closed the book before its fascinations overpowered us , and sought to invigorate ourselves morally by opening Life's
Lesson— another American story by another American writer ; anonymous , but evidently of tho fair sex . Much embracing takes place , first and last , among the characters in Life ' s Lesson ; the gentlemen ( as usual with ladies ' gentlemen ) arc always thinking of how they shall marry and who they shall marry ; the ladies , though not possessing " spirited ankles , " or " persons " capable of " bending sideways" in a " willowy" way , are variously fascinating , accomplished , and brilliant , and are always respectfully addressed by their admirers as " Miss Ellen , Miss Jane , Miss Nannie , " and so forth . Offers are made , marriages are solemnised , virtue leads to happiness , vice to misery ; and if that is not " Life ' s Lesson , " who shall say what is ? To be serious , with much that is trivial and absurd , this last new American story shows traces , here and there , of clever observation and attention to the truth of nature . It is above the ordinary novel-iivorage , and we wish it , therefore , all success with the Circulating libraries and tho idlers of the reading world .
Two contributions only from the versifiers have reached us : one is by Mr . John Williata Fletcher , and is called Flirtation ; or , The Way into the Wilderness ; which second title , so far as wo are concerned , has proved itseli to be synonymous with The Way into the Waste * Paper Basket . Tho second volume of rhymes is entitled A Voice from the East ; or , Scriptural jVedita tioiis to Beguile Solitary IIoius ^ by Mrs . St . « Tohn , In a versified pro fneo , Mrs . St . John bogs that the reader will bo » blind like all her friends , ' and will abstain from looking for faults- Being very willing to attend to this injunction , and to treat tho authoress like a friend , we will content ourselves with merely announcing that licr book is published , nnd will leave to sterner reviewers tho business of criticising it . . -,. 11 Of catchpenny literature , avo have also two specimens . Mr . Hum Fnswcli imitates Dickens and ThackeraiV j calls the imitation Houses with the brow Off , and does his best to make las book saleable by disfiguring its coveMViyi
an eye-sore in tho shapo of a coloured caricature . The Rev . lirskino > -V- ^ contributes to keep up tho present cordial understanding between the knfi " liah and French armies by a pink pamphlet , culled My Comrade ana J }* V Colours , with an engraving , on the cover , of tho Duke of Wellington winning the battle of Waterloo , nnd with n motto , reviving such old exp loded non-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 14, 1854, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14101854/page/20/
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