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December 15, 1855.] THE LEADER. 1207
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CHRISTMAS VARIETIES. Captain Mayne Reid ...
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ME. ANDERSON'S ONE HUNDREDTH NIGHT. Tues...
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JENNY LIND AT EXETER HALL. Last Monday J...
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The Population of CnmA.—We may with tole...
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Transcript
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Arrivabene's Italian Poets. Selections F...
poems of modern times ; and the specimens here printed of Leopardi , Prati * Giusti , Saffi , Foscolo , Berchet , Cantu , Grossi , and many others , give the volume considerable interest .
December 15, 1855.] The Leader. 1207
December 15 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER . 1207
Christmas Varieties. Captain Mayne Reid ...
CHRISTMAS VARIETIES . Captain Mayne Reid does not announce his "White Chief ; a Legend of Northern Mexico , " ( Bogue , ) as a Christmas book ; but as a Christmas book it must be taken . Three volumes or one , such a story is for the warm fireside , and for readers who mean to be amused , forgetful of unities , probabilities , originalities , and all the other " points " of literature . It is , as the title-page confesses , legendary in substance , and its contents will disappoint no one who has perused ( patiently ) , either the " Scalp Hunters , " or ' * The Rifle-Rangers , " by the same author . Captain Mayne Reid has , in fact , a genius for detailing incidents of the thrilling and tropical kind . Every novel from his pen contains material for seven tragedies , or more . He opens the most fearful perspectives to your eye , hangs above them the most dismal clouds , brings upon the scenes the fiercest heroes , and compels them to tight it out with the most mortal atrocity . It is fair to add , with becoming seriousness , that , as a melo-dramatic fiction , " The "White Chief " is all that young or old readers , with a deep relish for adventures , perils , and catastrophes , in perpetual crescendo , could wish it to be .
A better and a wiser book—but of a totally different class—is Mr . Henry Mayhew ' s " Wonders of Science ; or , Young Humphry Davy . " ( Bogue . ) It is " written for boys" the title-page avows , but not boys only will enjoy the pleasant pages in which science is made easy by being made charming . Mr . May hew enters elaborately , though lightly , into the history of Humphry Davy ' s earliest experiments . His narrative is fresh , genial , encouraging , full of instruction for the young , and quite as entertaining as some very good romances . It is the second example Mr . Mayhew has given of a new class of books for youth . Its graceful and happy style , its loving praises of philosophy , its tale of human hopes and struggles , interwoven with a narrative of erudite discovery , render it a treasure among Christmas volumes . Fullom's " Marvels " may feed the Christmas fire ; Mayhew's " Wonders" will brighten the Christmas . circle , and give to young and old many pleasant things to talk of . with
The author of " Mia and Charlie" ( Bogue ) , an irreproachable intention , has not effected much for her child-readers . The story is poor , and in a feeble style . Mr . Birket Foster ' s excellent illustrations are somewhat misplaced in this volume . " Twice Married ; a Story of Connecticut Life " ( New York : Dix and Edwards ) , is a peculiar example of the new order of American fiction . The events are improbable ; but the narrative flows with rapidity , and the interest gathers strongly towards the close . > s The announcement of a new tale by the author of " Matthew Paxton , excited a pleasurable sensation in the minds of many readers . Here it is" Christian Melville " ( Bogue ) , a touching , delicate story , with a meaning and a purpose—the purpose faintly supported , perhaps , and the meaning , a little conventional ; but with a pious tone—worth a library of sermons . We should 'have been fascinated more immediately by the heroine , had not the frontispiece produced an unfavourable impression , both of her shape aud character . .
The preface of " Oeland ; a Thread of Life , '" by Alice Somerton , spares us all criticism . It is by no means a fiction , Alice Somerton says , nor is it «• a collection of facts obtained from various sources . " It is distinctly " a thread of life , perhaps unprecedented , but not less true . " If this be not & lucid explanation , nothing more precise is to be gained from the " thread " itself . For " unprecedented" read " unintelligible . " " Sabbath Bells Chimed by the Poets , with Illustrations by Birket Foster , { Bell and Daldv ) , forms an elegant season book . The illustrations are bright and graceful ; " the ornamental initials representing the wealth of the Whittingham fonts . Among the poets quoted are Miss Landon , Coleridge , Buhver , Cowper , tSouthey , Charles Lamb , Longfellow , and , most famous of all , "Anon , " who appears as " great an author as " Finis . " The volume is beautifully printed , and tastefully dressed in autumnal colours , brown and gold
- .. _ _ . _ .. . . , . „ o _ ... . . . . . . -r ^ Mr . William II . G . Kingston writes under influence of a mission . His heart is in the colonies , where he would wish the bodies of many more Englishmen , and women , and children , to be . His new book is the " Emigrants' Home , or How to Settle" ( Groombridge and Sons ) . This is " a story of Australian life for all classes , at Home and in the Colonies , and it is a very rational story in spirit and manner . Mr . Kingston is not a man who stands in the highways culling on all who hunger or thirst , or who are impatient or ambitious to go to Australia and enrich themselves . In this volume he points out the " characters" who are unlit to succeed as Colonists , and explains to emigrants the essential conditions of success , whether in Australia , or any other of the transmarine territories of Great Britain . It is a timely publicationwell consideredanil admirably written .
, , Running together a number of translations and reprints , —Alexandra Dumas' charming novel , " The Queen ' s Necklace , " in the Parlour Library ; Sir Bulwer Lytton's , " Harold , " "The Caxtom , " and "My Novel , in Routledge ' s Railway Library ; Horace Smith ' s " Bramblctye House and some of Mr . G . P . R . James ' s , and Mr . Ainsworth ' s cheap editions—we come to what seems a new popular Library , " The Amusinff , " of which , four volumes iare on our table , "Romantic talcs of Great Men , " trite and poor ; I ales of "Paris , " with a tinge of true romance ; " Tales of I < ranee ; and 1 ales of Humour ; " the last being the bent , not of this series only , but of many that encumber the railway stalls . In " Adventures of my Cousin Smooth , or Little Quibbles of Great Governments ( Tvvccdie ) , " we have originality ; that is to sav . the book is neither a translation nor a reprint . In style , however , etforts at
it is a gross carictature of " Sam Slick , " the author ' s nmnour resulting in an outpouring of inarticulate crambo , lhc narration is intended as a story , and the story as a satire ; but Mr . Timothy Icmplcton 1 ms mistaken absurdity for wit , and violence fur severity . Ho has published an indescribably stupid book . •'^ Al fre d Leslie ; a story of Glasgow Life , " (( Jlnsgow , Murray ) , is an
illustration of Glasgow society—not of that society alone which naoves and has its being under chandeliers or on Aubusson ' s carpets—if there be such North of the Tweed—but of various classes : in streets , in boats , in drawingrooms , shops , and even less recognisable places . It is amusing enough to ^ be sent with recommendations , to rural friends ; indeed , it might , if read with appropriate emphasis , exorcise the ennui of a party frozen in a parlour during there long Christmas evenings . The Holly- Tr . ee Inn . Being the Extra Christmas Number of " Household Words " " Household Words" Office . What so delightful for Christmas reading as any book or other publication with which the brilliant , many-sided , but always cheerful mind of Mr . Dickens has been associated ? From the time when—now some twelve years back —the "Christmas Carol , " with its covers red as the winter berries of
the holly , its coloured pictures , and its genial humanities , came forth like a glorious Christinas fruit , down to this fifteenth day of December , 1855 , each succeeding Christmas , with a very few exceptions , has been associated with the genius of Mr . Dickens , and the Christmas hearth has derived an additional glow from that companionship . And now , from five shilling issues , Mr . Dickens has descended to a threepenny pamphlet , associating with himself many other intellects worthy to range beside him . " The Holly-Tree Inn " — the present year ' s issue—keeps up the general design pleasantly pursued for the last few years ; and is in fact another offspring of the " Decameron " or " Canterbury Pilgrims" mode of setting a variety of tales within one harmonising framework . A nervous or bashful gentleman is staying at an resolved to
inn at a country town , on his way to America , whither he has go because the " object of bis affections" has , as it seems , jilted him ; and here , despite his retiring disposition , he contrives to get at the history of each of the chief persons about the hostelry- —such as , the Ostler , the Boots , the Landlord , the Barmaid , and the Poor Pensioner . We need not say that the Guest is made happy in the end , for otherwise , it would be preposterously against the genial practice of Mr . Dickens . When we add that " The Holly-Tree Inn" is only issued to the public this day , and that we made our first acquaintance with it late yesterday , it will not be expected that we should go into any elaborate criticism . But we can promise the reader the usual variety , amusement , and literary power , and we are well assured that his threepence will be speedily forthcoming , when he will judge for himself .
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Me. Anderson's One Hundredth Night. Tues...
ME . ANDERSON'S ONE HUNDREDTH NIGHT . Tuesdw being the one hundredth night of Mr . Anderson ' s " bedeyilments" ( saving jthe reader ' s presence ) , the " Professor" gave an invitation to all connected with the London press to partake of " oysters and other comestibles and condiments , " together with " libations of champagne and other sacrificial liquids to the infernal gods " ( to quote from the circular sent round to us ) , after the performance . The bidding to the feast was , it must be confessed , of a somewhat alarming character , and somewhat peremptory too ; for we were " summoned , cited , and commanded , in the names of " Pluto , Lord Chief Justice of the High Court of Tartarus , Rhadamanthus , Minos , and JEaohvb , Barons of the Tartarean Court of Exchequer , " to appear in person before the Wizard , and state fully all we know of him ; seeing that he has been , " by certain of her Majesty s heges , accused , before the solemn Tartarean tribunal or Vchmgencht , of sundry unlawful and unhallowed doings , of weaving malifieent spells , ot working unholy incantations , and of bewitching and insorcellating thousands ot the said lieges . " Now , we really know nothing of this awful Wizard , except that he is a very clever and amusing gentleman ; and we positively should not like to answer " for anything more , being in nowise convinced of the safety ot such vouching . We were told , moreover , to fail not in our appearance , or to " beware of the Cord and Dagger ; " and the invitation was surrounded toy a very suspicious hieroglyph , representing daggers , Death ' s heads , serpents , and demoniacal faces . Nevertheless , though we have small desire tobe mixed up with the powers of darkness , we attended the Magician s diabolical supper-room ( being assured in the circular that we need not be tcrrineu , nor allow our hearts to " wax faint" ); and we can only say that , judging by tne lateness of the hour to which some of our brethren " kept it up , they had no reason to be dissatisfied witlrtheir sortilegious night .
Jenny Lind At Exeter Hall. Last Monday J...
JENNY LIND AT EXETER HALL . Last Monday JeNny Lind , Madamo Goldschmidt now ( happily for M . Goldschmidt ) sang to the most crowded and critical audience that London could exhibit at this end of the season . Every one was prepared to decide whether the Lin . l ' s voice had faded ; no one went away without resolving to return next Monday , if possible , and hear again the aweetest or We sincers of Europe . Happy are they whose places are taken tor the JUtjan . The performance of that and the Creation we must describe next week .
The Population Of Cnma.—We May With Tole...
The Population of CnmA . —We may with tolerab o safety ™«™»* $ J present population of the Chinese empire as between 350 ,, 000 , 000 > and 4 O ^ W of human beings . The constant flow of emigration from Clnnn , ^^{ ^^ 00 ^ complete absence of immigration into China , in striking " ^^ XjfJ ^ Sned daucy of the population ; For though that omigmuon , „ almost jjoiv oowwea to two province—namely Kwaugtuntf aud /^» n ^~ rf '" XiSfodI to tfatak population of probably from 84 , 000 , 000 to 35 , 000 , I am J ^^^™ , ; that a number newer 3 , 000 , 000 than 2 , 000 , 000 from ' ^™ ° _ P ^ J S » t SeM locat ed in foreigu countries . In the king , lom rf to * »* «* JjX 2 l ^ bL * S ) . arc at least 1 , 51 ) 0 , 000 Chincmo , of which 200 , 000 . re 1 U "' J ™ J k v now by a They crowd all the island * , of the I »^ A « j » P ' £ nH Sth ObW ?» & correct census , there are ^ 000 . J ^ ' «» ^' v u 0 Bfll . tftkllIg chlneno emigrant , colour we are seldom without (™^ $ r J ™ Australia , to the 1 'hJUppines , to %±% zr $ sx tx ^^« sr 2 £ ^ ; Homo havo madeftlieir way to JJritiah India . — Sir John How my-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 15, 1855, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15121855/page/19/
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