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REPRINTS , REPUBLICATIONS , ETC . The first of our present list in bulk and weight , as in the importance of its preensions and . the value of its materials , is unquestionably the new edition of Mr . T . B . McOulloch's Geographical Dictionary . ( I , ongmans . ) The first edition o f this work of our laborious statistician and economist appeared in 1841 ; the second if we mistake not , ten year 3 after , in which many mistakes were rectified , and the i nevitable omissions created by the lapse of tea busy progressive years of peace with all the attendant activities of a commercial civilisation ; , were , as far as possible , corrected and supplied . In this edition a new preface informs us , ' 'the articles Australia , Russia , and Turkey have been mostly rewritten . " The constant developments required in a work like this , which professes to be a stock-taking of the civilised world to the laiest dates , are in themselves a
notable comment upon that vital law of progress which , surveyed broadly in its ceaseless operation , makes the longest war seetn but a momentary disturbance , and permits us to smile at the puny efforts of all the despotisms and all the reactions to resist their destiny and our own . We have already noticed the - articles on Russia and Turkey , which were published some months since as a volume of the " Traveller ' s Library , " and w& glanced at the contrast in the ¦ writer ' s appreciations of the two empires . Mr . McCulloch ' s barometer is " -feir" w-hea he points to Bussia , and a falling glass when he points to Turkey . In short , the Ottoman Empire , in Mr . McCulloch ' s estimation , is the sick man of 4 hat Mtidecinmalgre lui , the Czar Nicholas . We are far from disputing many of the . facts , accumulated with his accustomed diligence by the statistician ; but his commentary , too often , dry as an invoice , lumbering as law " forms , " and tedious as a
sermon , is not perhaps to be received with equal confidence . It is one thing to collect ( and we may add to arrange ') facts and . data , another to generalise like a philosopher , and to draw conclusions like a statesman . Mr , McGulloch ' s political views are always and exclusively those of the counting-house , and read in that light , they may be occasionally sound and suggestive enough , inasmuch as they represent a large share of the more energetic tendencies of our time . For comprehensive induction , for profound analysis , for large generalisation , for any of the qualities of the political or social philoso-pher , we must not look amidst this lough heap of figures and facts . But it may he stated that few men . have devoted themselves with so much industry , aaid with so much general knowledge
* of the sources of authentic information , to collect facts , statistical statements , . and to place them in order to serve as a Manual . From the turn of Mr . M / iCul loch ' s mind , -which enables him more to estimate the mechanical weight of a fact , almost by a certain instinct , than to understand its convertible use as an -element in the chemistry of argument , theie is much of the pitchfork in his mode of compilation . He can thresh , corn to get rid of the bulk of the chaff , tmt he cannot analyse the chemical extract , which has the virtue without the -dross . " Falling in with the general liberal ideas of Pree-traders and Whigs , he lias been patted on the back , encouraged aad assisted , and his natural taste has found every facility for revelling in the collection of official documents , departmental and commercial figures , and systematic g ^^
The opinions that are necessarily mingled with every condensed form of statement are , in his case , totally devoid of originality . They are essentially ¦ common-place , but as the progress of knowledge and the development of intellect render the common-place of one day the fallacy of the next , Mr . McCulloch ' s application of his facts , so far as it depends upon hia own insight and opinion ,, cannot be trusted ; he was right before 1836 or 1842 , he is considerably out of f date at the present day . A trifling characteristic of his style indicates the moral short-coming of the man . In a work essentially dry and matter-of-fact , he is profuse in the expenditure of notes of admiration . While printing out an increase , he cannot arrive at a large statement without being astonished by it . Having prepared you for the information that the United States produced an immense amount of cotton , when he comes to the statement that , in 184 . 1 , the quantity was 530 , 404 , lOOlfos ., ho puts a note of
admiration to mark his amazement , and then another note of admiration to express his wonder that of that number 523 , 960 , 676 lbs- wore upland . Explaining the 'enormities of smuggling under high spirit duties , the admiring turn of his punctuation is constantly repeated ; lie is astonished at his own facts . His condition of wonderment shows that only by an effort can he conceive the idea of wMch ho is himself the carrier , from the storehouse of statistical information to the reader . Nevertheless it must be presumed that a higher intellect , which 'Could have made a better book , would scarcely consent to the enormous drudgery involved in the construction of such a mass of materials . Since , with all theso foults , which it is so easy to point out , the book is still not superseded by a better , we may conscientiously pronounce Mr . McCulloeh's Geographical Dictionary a standard work of reference , equally valuable to the statesman , the ¦ economist , the merchant , and the journalist .
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Mr . Bonn , undeterred by the war , continues his serial standard editions with spirit and succeas . Indeed , the succoss of these publications is unaffected by the chances and changes to which the other departments of literature are oxj > osed . Once recognised as indispensable additions to the library of a working loader of moderate means , theso editions arc secure of a large and increasing clr « la of steady purchasers . The preaont number of the Antiquarian Library is an able and careful translation of old Florence of Worcester ' s Latin Chronicle , with the two continuations ; the first of -which the translator ascribed to adiuoiplo of Florence , and the second to a monk of Bury St . Edmunds . This latter continuation i # ' now for the first time prcsonted to the English reader . " The volume comprises annals of English history from the departure of the Jiomuua to nearly the close of tho reign of Edward I ., terminating in tho year 1295 . It abounds ¦ with curious information , throwing light on tho manners and politics of that ago . Mr . ForeBtor , the translator , conducts the reader through tho mmeaof * ho Chronich by tho aid of brief and useful illustrative notes , and an elaborate
index . To the student of our earliest history these , chronicles , made readable and intelligible , and condensed into a moderate compass , are a treasure , aud Mr Bonn ' s series has hitherto been very creditably executed . "We are tempted to extract an account of " How the devil , in the shape of a black dwarf , was made a monk . " This happened in a . d . 1138 . But space forbids us , and we pass on . to the Philosophical Library . The present number is a continuation of the Works of Locke , comprising his Essay on the Human Understanding , and an A . ppendix , in which the Editor , Mr . J . A . St . John has , with considerable ' care and judgment , reprinted such portions of John Locke ' s famous controversial correspondence with the Bishop of Worcester as illustrate , without encumbering , the Essay itself ; and without , as Mr . J . A . St . John observes , repeating what he had there stated in a briefer and more masterly style . This selection has been dexterously made , and the Index , which is clear , without being too copious , completes the usefulness of the present edition .
A compact edition of Edmund Bcrke ' s Works was a void to be filled in the shelves of the political student ; and this void is filled by Mr . Bohn . Here is a neat , well-printed volume , containing that masterpiece of irony the " Vindication of Natural Society , " the " Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful , " and a batch of political miscellanies , of which the most notable are the Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent ( 1776 ) , and the Speech on Conciliation with America . " We now come to a more miscellaneous order of publications . Among these , in justice to the fine taste and feeling of the editor , the Ttev . R . A . Willmott we take up first Wilma-M Cowper's Works , in one volume , enriched witk an introductory notice , which Mr . Wilmott has very fairly described as a picture sketch of the poet ' s life and genius ; a sketch , we may add , drawn by a hand at once graceful , sympathetic , and accomplished .
Leaves from the Diaryofan Officer of'the Guards are a few stirring recollections of military service iii " the Peninsula , " in 1809 , dedicated with true feeling to the gallant Brigadier Bentinek , who now commands the Guards in another and not less celebrated peninsula . These sketches of campaigning life have the advantage of being quite < z I'ordre du jour just now , though we are almost forgetting the last war of giants in the overwhelming anxieties of a conflict scarcely less gigantic . The " " Veteran Comrade" of the Guards is still welcome . It is a popular opinion that Maximilian Robespierre did quite enough in the decapitation line before he was himself devoured by the insatiable maw of the Revolution . It is , perhaps , not so generally known , that by some mysterious fatality he continues to exercise that terrible pastime . The most recent victim is Mr . Henry Bliss , one of Her Majesty ' s Council . Any one who will be so bold as to look into the solid pages of Hobespien-e—a Tragedy , will observe , not without compassion , that the perpetrator had lost his head , and all that is
therein , before be sat down to what he pleasantly calls a " labour of love . " Mr . Bliss , perhaps , proposed to himself to make Robespierre comic ; we can only regret that he should have taken so roundabout a way of effecting his purpose . We have seldom met with a more dismally ludicrous performance even in the whole range of modern tragedies than this solemn and sententious caricature , which there is too much reason to believe , Mr . Henry Bliss conceived in gravity , and executed with due premeditation . It is true that in the bald prose preface to the balder v ^ rse of this " Tragedy , " the author informs a legal friend who had preceded him in the tragic career that " the sole merit consists , no doubt , ia attempting to contribute to the amusement of others . " So frank and unassuming an apology anticipates and disarms all serious criticism- The jocose and lively author of Philip Vie Second—a Tragedy , whatever and wherever that tragedy may be , received an announcement of a friend of his intention to publish , with an immediate promise to order an early cop 3 > - of his trunkmaker . " Tu Vus voulu , Georges Dundin /"
Mr . Koutledge continues the cheap edition of Sir Bulwer Lytton s works with the latest and most elaborate , My Novel , which even in double columns fills two considerable volumes of clear but small type . This is not the place to enter into any detailed examination of a work of elaborate construction and most varied power . My Novel is probably not destined to be a popular novel , nor are the " varieties in English life" it proteases to depict such as are often encountered in actual flesh and blood . As types , highly Bulwerised , the characters in My Novel have all the charm of consummate art , all the glow of a brilliant imagination , and all the strength of maturity . There is abundance of observation , of experience , of knowledge of the world , of thought , of feuling ^ of culture , in these vigorous creations . The work is done in a workmanlike way , by a skilful manipulator and an anlent colourist . But the talk is always stagey , and all the personages in the story attitudinize evermore . This , indeed , is Bulwerism , and justifies ita reputation , which we do not at all pretend to dispute . merit of
Olive is one of tho most pleasing of feminine novels : it has the being feminine in its merits as well as in its defects , a rare qualification in the productions of our modern authoresses . Messrs . Chapman and Hall are , wo think , justified in adding Olive to their Select Library of Fiction . Hero is one of those cruelly comic books , designed to draw our laughtor with forby-corkscrcw power . Our readers know by this time how savagely impatient we are of these assaults . The writers of Mirth and Metre have fallen into tho disastrous mistake of taking- tho wind out of the sails of their critics by anticipating tho possible sneers of that churlish herd . Vtcva we disposed to bo illconditioned , wo might suggest to Mr . Frank Smedley and Mr . Edmund Yates that they had not taken into account that unkindest of all criticisms , the criticism of silence . For our own part , we are disposed to bo neither Bilunt nor hostile ; certainly not to charge those Lays and Legends with n servile imitation of Thomas Ingoluaby . There is room for all in every field of literature , aud great originals mny have followers scarcely less original . Ilxcso lngohlsbian laya and legends have a verve , of their own , and wo arc inclined to attribute to Mr . Edmund Yatos a faculty for something better than merely " coima ' writing .
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Among tho serials we can only mention , in tho most cursory manner , tjio Land we Live In ( Orr and Co . ) , originally published by Charles Knight ; tho second pnrt of Zoology , by W . S . Dallas , in tho Circle of tho Sciences ( Orr and Co . ) ; the Family Friend , ono of tho innumerable twopenny tribe , useful and even amusing to tho moderately ingenuous render ; tho Monthly Christian bpvatator ( Freeman ) , a consistently religious , but not fanatical review ; the JJuttcrJltcs of Great Uritain , with their Transformations , by J . O . Weatwood , F . L . S , ( Orr and Co . ) , a pretty contribu tion to tho lighter library of the naturalist ; three sue-
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1098 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 18, 1854, page 1098, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2065/page/18/
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