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Leader (1850-1860), 17th December 1853, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1219

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      the bar exposed to an elaborate investigation ; he is allowed to display his eloquence and ingenuity , and the Public Accuser retorts . In another case the prisoner merely appears and hears his sentence . " Press of business " was the excuse of this unseemly baste . Very much is this the case with the literary Public Accuser . He selects , from among the " authors at the bar , " one whose case happens to fall within the sphere of his knowled ge or interest . He is minute , microscopic ; he states the case , throws doubt on it , admits the prisoner perhaps to mercy , but counsels him to be careful for the future . Others he treats in batches . Better men he lets pass by without question ; worse men without detailed accusation . The trial is summary ; the sentence brief ; and as , after all , the sentence is the aim and end of the trial , the more swiftly it is pronounced the better . . "

      We are about to pass sentence . Some of the prisoners have only to present themselves to be judged . A lengthened examination would be tiresome , unless it were carried to a length not compatible with the exigencies of this court . Take the first , as an example ; it is an edition of Gvotiusde Jnre Belli et Pads ( J , W . Pabker & Son , 3 vols , price 42 s . ) . I > r . Whewell has edited this great work , affixing also a translation , with the notes of Barbetrac and others . Grottos is not a bad subject for a quarterly review article , in which might be discussed his Ethical principles , bis influence , his learning and Latinity , winding up with the criticisms of J > ugaij > Stewart and Hax : lamappreciated and contrasted . But in the

      , space which our columns can spare / nothing of the kind can be done . Let us therefore Briefly state what are the claims of this edition , prepared for the Syndics of the University by the Master of Trinity . There is the text , handsomely printed , notes , and at the bottom of each page Dr . Whe-WEX . T . s translation . This is peculiar : it contains all the original in nearly half the bulk , not by compression , but simply by the omission of all the unnecessary quotations with which Grotius ornamented and obscured his * * \ . Everyone who has looked into Grotics is aware of his prodigious erudition . Like most learned men , he was hampered by his learning ; he could not shake it off ; he was forced to show all he knew . In this

      translation Dr . Wheweli . preserves only , such quotations as are necessary to carry on the argument , the rest are indicated by the names of . the ¦ authors quoted ; and as the quotations are given on the same page , in the original , we have only to refer thereto if we desire it . On the other hand , " the didactic and argumentative parts are in general so far from being abridged , that explanatory expressions and clauses are introduced in a great number of passages where they seemed likely to make the meaning clearer . " From such inspection as we have made , the translation seems to us admirably executed . Altogether it is a valuable edition of a work which has lon « r been a classic .

      . The Speeches of the Right ^ Honourable T . B . Macaulay ( Longman & Co ., toce 12 s . ) need not detain us long . A delighted perusal of them issues n an emphatic commendation . "We are even disposed to applaud the act ^ Macaulay so indignantly stigmatises , since its result has been to enrich our literature with so remarkable a volume . While engaged on his History , which is now , he tells us , "the business and the pleasure of his life , " he was suddenly , though reluctantly , forced to publish these speeches , because a bookseller had , without his leave , and without his supervision , given to the world Speeches purporting to be his , which were full of gross blunders

      , misrepresentations , and which did not bear the faintest resemblance to what he actually delivered . There is exaggeration here . The speeches may have been incorrect , but that fault lies at the door of Hansard , more than the publisher . There may also be ground for indignation against a copyright system which allows of such republication ; but for this Mr . Viziteixy is not to be held responsible . Nevertheless , every one will understand Macatjxay ' s objection to have that system turned against himself . Every one will sympathise with him in his indignation ; and every one will secretly rejoice in the wrong which occasioned the publication of so much admirable literature

      , good argument , and splendid oratory . Little need be said of the new edition of Sir James MacIcintosVs History of England ( "Longman & Co ., 2 vols ., price 21 s . ) . It is a republication of the work so well known in its original form among the volumes of Lardnefs C yclopccdia . It has been revised by the author ' s son , who has throAvn into an appendix , certain passages of an insulated character , and has taken upon himself the responsibility of the whole . The work , which describes English History from the earliest period downto the final establishment of the R eformation , is in two handsome volumes , furnished with a full index . ¦ i-Jiere are few books one would sooner p lace upon the library shelves . . Whenever a man has practical experience to aid speculative ingenuity lie 13 Worth listening to . If only thoso who had something of their own to say would publish , what vory few books we should have , and how much richer we should be ! Thomas Gisuornk was a man who had something to

      Si ty on A griculture ; and he said it . In the Quarterly Review of 1819 and 850 who docs not remember those articles on Cattle and Sheep , Drainage , ^ A gricultural Literature ? They have been reprinted with a fourth , on nvr *' arinin 9- > hitherto unpublished , under the title of . Unsays on Agriculture UWuRnAY , price 5 s . ) . A more readahlo as well r . s a more valuable work n these subjects we cannot name . ¦ "laving dispatched these more serious books , we now turn to a gnyor rowd of Christmas books , tempting the purses of Parents and CJuardinns . *» Qre is another edition of Mrs . S . C Hatx ' s Pilqrimaqcs to Enqlhh Shrines

      UVUTmm Haia , Virtuk , & Co ., price 21 s . ) , a dainty book enough , with «• prodigal illustrations by F . W . Faiuiiom ' , its plcannnt gossip , not free ' ° . "ttectation , however , siml its bine and gilt binding . Thore is an th ! ° l . ° antiquarianism , gossip , local history , and art , which makes L work agreeable to lonngo over « s it lies conspicuous on the dnnvingrV > m table . Beside it , } in its brilliant colours , lot . us place the I llustrated nclc Tom ' s Cahin ( NATiiANiicr , Cooiac , price 12 h . ) , with its hundred und "ty really striking illustrations by Thomas and Macqijoii > . The negro n ° teri 8 tics are well hit oft ' . Topsy is sublime ! But the shape of tho , S ro heads too oftnn lo « on < liA norrm tvno and annroachos the Cjuicnsian—a

      8 »» ncten 8 tic which should have been confined to Undo 'lorn himself . ti n ne ° * illustrations are Frenchified and melodramatic ; but most of mom , «•« excellent , and all striking . , ^ 8 *• ° testantism to bo made elegant and adaptcil to the drawing-room , that

      two such serious subjects as the Life of Luther and the Pi ! grim Fathers cannot appear but as drawing-room books ? We shall find them turned into vaudevilles next . It is true a sort of excuse is made in the preface to this Life of Martin Luther , in Fifty Pictures , by Gvstav Konig ( Nathaniel Cooke , price 12 s . )—an excuse founded on . Luther's notorious love of the Arts , and therefore , says the preface , " it-is particularly appropriate that a book , destined to honour the great Reformer and spread abroad his name and fame , should derive its principal claim to public favour from its beautiful illustrations . " Is this serious ? Can the editor suppose that Luther ' s name and fame are to be spread abroad by a ^ series of illustrations , and Sttcft illustrations ? We must accept that as a flourish of the pen—the logic of advertisements . There can be no objection , quite the contrary , to a Life of Luther pietorially presented ; but something less of the drawing-room table

      style would have been desirable . Waiving this point , and looking at the book for what it is , we may add that the fifty illustrations , which are said to have created a sensation in Germany , are poor as works of art , German in style , deficient in invention , and certainly not destined to create a sensation here . The book is more quaint than beautiful ; but we have very little doubt that its Germanism and its subject will find admirers . The Pilgrim Fathers ; or , the Founders of New England in the Reign of James L , by W . H . Bartustt , ( Arthur Haix , Virtue , and Co ., price 12 s . ) is questionable only in its gay attire ; the book itself is an excellent and interesting compilation , in which may be read the-story of an heroic exodus , and in . which landscape illustrations of very great merit serve really to " illustrate" the text . Mr . Bartlett has chosen a good subject , and treated it lovingly , both with pencil and pen . The eye follows the pilgrims to the various localities , as the mind follows them through their struggles .

      We have one more illustrated work to mention . The Coinage of ( lie British Empire , by Henry Noel Humphreys , ( Nathaniel Cooke , price 21 s . ) . This work is both curious and instructive . It g ives a history of the progress -of coinage in Great Britain and her dependencies , from the earliest period to the present , illustrated by fac-similes of the coins of each period , worked in gold , silver , and copper : the effect of these illustrations is admirable ; you seem to have the coins themselves before you , as if laid out hy a collector . Xn a well-considered introduction , Mr . Humphreys tells of the origin of the art of coining , with specimens of the progressive development through Greece and Rome . He also increases the value of the work by comparisons of British coins with those of contemporary periods on the Continent ; and he has so arranged the work that any student , on gaining possession of a new coin , can at once determine its place in the series . Altogether , we can heartily commend this book .

      Mr . Bohn , who is certainly the most enterprising of publishers , and who publishes nothing but works of serious pretensions , lias started a new series of British Classics . He inaugurates the series with Gibbon ' s Decline and Fall , to be completed in six volumes , containing the notes of Guizot , Wenck , Scheeiter , and Hugo . The work is to be unmutilated , although , edited by an " English Churchman , " and will form a valuable as well as cheap edition , fit for any library shelves . What more need here be said of a work which carries with it its own verdict ? No one needs be told what the Decline and Fall is . There is one little point of interest we may mention , however , since it is not generally known , indeed the editor himself seems not to have been aware of it , namely , that the first French translator of the Decline and Full was a king ! M . Leclicrc Seitchentcs was the nominal translator ; but it has since transpired that Louis XVI . was the translator of a portion of it . In a future catalogue of Royal Authors that item should be entered .

      We wind up with two Christmas story books . Xhc first is Cherry and Violet , by the Author of Mary Powell , ( Arthur Haix , Viiituk , & Co . ) a tale of the Great Plague of London , delicately touched , and " got up " in the pseudo-old-fashioned style , which is now , we are thankful to say , passing out of fashion again . There never was a more absurd mania in publishing . To be consistent , publishers should reprint the Classics on papyrus , and translations of Homer should be recited by rhapsodists . Fancy John Cooriou , and Gjcokge Bartjug y , T . R . D . L ., engaged to declaim the woes of Greece and the wrath of Achillas ! The second story ls

      Christn , as Day ; and How it teas Spent by Four Persons , ( Gkougk JIoutlkdqe & Co ., price Is . ) . It is one of those books that would never havo been written , had not Dic . kisns written his Carol and Chimes ; but the traces of imitation , though obvious , do not prevent the work being a very pleasant little Christmas book , full of the season and its agreeable associations , moving through a story simple enough , and simply told . There lire illustrations by Pmz , which do not improve its attractiveness in our eyas , although doubtless they will to others . The author , Mr . Chuistian Lk lios , is new in the ranks ; he will rise .

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      BOOKS ON OUR TABLK . Clinical Lectures mi Pulmonary Consumption . By T . Thompson , M . D ., f-ft-SJohn Churchill . Tho Spirit of the Bible . By E . HuKKhiKon . J <] - T - Whillleld JLoctureH to Young Women . By W . Q . Eliot . Crosby , Nichols , and Co , Lectures to Young Men . By W . G . Eliot . Crusby , Nichols , and Co Familiar Sketches of Sculpture and HcalpCors . 2 vols . Crosby , Niohola . nnd Co . Memoir of Viarra Tonasaiut , horn a Maim hi fit . Jtomiuffo . Crosby , Nichols , and Co . Veina , Analytically Described in Us ' Chief llespvvU and Principal Truths . Hy John Riolmrd Vickmoro . John Chapman . Mawl ; a City Antohtoaraplni . « vols . It . Uontlqy . Tho Wothorhys , Father and Von . Uy John Lan « .. 0 Imj > nmu and Kail . Tho Shot in tho Jfya , and Adventures with Saxon Rijlo Hangers . By « . W . ¥ < ibbor .

      Tho Home Circle . . _ W . B . Johnson . Jiantleu * Monthly Review . J > l l > or - S * n |> l »« n « on , and Co . Cnba vBnGobierno . , t T T , CWood . An Vramhinnmi nfthe Patholniw of Cholera-JtevtilafiotM of tho Past and Present Modes ^ 2 W » . oK of ° '"' - liy J ° KkoUon ' Ml 1 X J - Watson ; The Lady's Almanack for 1851 . J . » ly'B Nownpaiwr Ofllco . The Youtliftd Inquiror Counselled and JHnoonrttffod . By II . N . . Haruotfc . W . l-roomaa . Historical Development < tf S wcufativo Philosophy . from Kant to Hegel , from fheO ^ r tnanqr l > r H M Chalykaus . By tho lt « v . A . JMorshoim . 'L . and H . Clark . Sir Philip Sidney ami The Araadue . { Reading for Travellers . ) By J ; , ^^^ ^^ Science in its Relations to Labour . By Lyou Playftilr , M . I ) . Chajnnau and Hall . "

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      December 17 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 1219

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 17, 1853, page 1219, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2017/page/19/