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sists that the movement was a superstitious attempt to avert epidemic cattle disease , and was unconnected with the agitation then in progress against the European dominion . He was ordered to the hilis on sick leave in April , and was shooting there with Lieutenant Speke , who afterwards fell before Delhi ; News readied them on the 31 st of May of the ' revolt , and of the first massacres . At once discerning their respective duties , they made the best of their vra . y , vid Simla , Kalka , Umballah , and Kurnaul , to the camp before Delhi , whence Mr .
of a sojourn in the country which might have been taken in six days , and its bulk consists of compilations from older books , including a lengthy sketch ( considering the size of the work ) of the war of 1824-20 . We arc far from suggesting that the author has not had the advantages of travel , but we must say that his "journal" or " notes , " might have been elaborated within sound of Bow bells , arid undisturbed by those influences of shipboard , against which he enters his protest . We must in all candour state our opinion that the work is of a kind that the literary constable shpuld by no means allow to pass his barrier , although in the taking guise of Indian literature , and although surrounded by a crowd of very good company .
Dunlop reached his post at Meerut during the second week in June . He found that during his absence the massacre of the 10 th . of May had taken place . The mutineers had made off for Delhi , unpursued by the two fine European corps ( Carbineers and the 60 th Rifles ) who held the station . Mr . Johnston , Dunlop ' s deputy , had died of a fractured skull- military authority had been for a time paralysed . The whites had fortified themselves in an enclosure , called the " Dum Dumma ; " and , on the 29 th of May , Sir Archdale Wilson had left with a column of troops for Delhi .
Mr . Dunlop ' s thoughts soon turned towards the duties of his collectorate . The Meerut treasury of 50 , 000 / . had dwindled down by expenditure necessary since the outbreak to about 10 , 000 / . A show of force was necessary , if not for collection from the cultivators at least for protection against the mutineers and the maintenance of communications . Our author , therefore , succeeded in instituting a volunteer cavalry force on the plan of Daly ' s Guides , called the "Khakee Ressalah , " whose dust-coloured uniform gave them a sombre but workmanlike
appearance . Few of "Dunlop ' s Irregulars , " as they were sometimes Called , had any military experience , but they could all ride ; many were sportsmen ; some were crack shots ; some good swordsmen . Under the leadership of military officers , with two little mountain train guns ,: forty native Nujeebs , and forty of the Rifles , they faced _ the assembled hordes of Sah Mull , one of the most enterprising of the
rebellious partisans . They routed and destroyed by hundreds the marauding tribes who sought to prey upoii the land after the storm of the military revolters had passed overitJ They executed summary vengeance upon rebel villages , and were recognised at Meerut as so serviceable , that their ranks were recruited by several cavalry officers , who , though shy at first of having anything to do with them , did them afterwards the honour of enlisting with them as ordinary troopers .
The fall of Delhi opened the way for so many of the vqluntcers to their proper duties , that the Khakee Ressalah was forthwith disbanded , but not before Mr . Dunlop and his comrades had picked up some useful military wrinkles , among which his invention , called the " Wallace Guard / ' described with ' an illustration in his remarks upon cavalry swordsmanship , is worth attention . . Some interesting coloured drawings of our friends and enemies , in and out of uniform , illustrate this slight volume , which concludes with , some sound observations upon our future policy . Upon this , nearly all Indian civilians seem agreed ; and we fear that they are too well agreed on a point about which Mr . Dunlop ventures to sneak more plainly than his confreres . The superciliousness with which the counsel of civil officers has often been partially or completely ignored is a sad grievance to him . He speaks of military men of little or no Indian experience ^ " who doom , the people made'for them ana their men , not themselves servitors of the public , and whoso correspondence with the civil authorities often assumes , especially under the delusion of that ' unknown quantity , martial law , an unnecessary defiant tone , which thoy adopt as a protest against civil superiority , and a declaration of their own dignity and importance . " The fact , that civil and military antagonism prevailed during the troubles in , India is beginning to make itself so much Known , that the public will , sooner or later , have to . consider how far it is advantageous to the publio service , now caused , and how to bo remedied—at ^ teast ^ oab . appears ^ o ^ uK ' The Six Months in British Runneth demands some slight notice at the hands of all reviewers in the interest of the pubho , whom it is the author ' s purnoso , aa would appear from the preface , to oaptivato by the apparent connoxon of his title with the on ^ grossing subject of British India . The work has , in faot , no more connexion with llmdostan than has the Burmese Empire . Its original mattqr is comprised in some moagro notes
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BEATRICE CENCI . Beatrice Cenci . An Historical Novel of the 16 th Century , By F . D . Guerazzi . Translated by Charles Alex . Scott . JBosworth and Harrison . Of all the ferocious Roman barons of his time , Francesco Cenci was the most ferocious . His daughter Beatrice , chiefly known to the British public by the celebrated portrait in the Barberini Palace , at Home , lias for centuries been deemed a partaker in his most horrid crimes . Signot ¦ Guerazzi , the historian of the lGth . century , has reopened the case in favour of Beatrice ' s innocence , as Scolari for the ecclesiastical interest , who have ever been charged with the extirpation . of the family with a vieAV to the acquisition of their property by that of Clement "VI 1 L- Scolari contends for the
the 'horrible , and some skill in transferring it to paper without a tinge of the ridiculous . Our hair stood on end as we skimmed over the blasphemies of old Genci , and the hideous delineations of the Papal court of justice . The Minerva Printing Press , with all its traditionally diseased . appetites , would have revolted against this novel , which might have found more favour in the penny serial market than it is likely to attain in its present channel .
justice of a transaction which Guerazzi endeavours to prove judicial murder . The work before us then should more properly be classed among volumes of historic doubts than among novels , and from this point of view the non-citation of authorities by the writer is obviously a grave defect . lie has produced a catalogue of horrors chequered , it is only fair to admit , ' ' with- passages of much pathos . In the absence of all data , the reader must necessarily regard the apology for the beautiful Beatrice as theoretical only , and will no doubt hold with us that both author a * nd translator have misapplied their energies .
One has elaborated a book which it is painful to read , and the othei-, we should hope , might , in the curriculum of modern Italian literature ; have found something better worth the time and talent he has devoted to his task . We hardly know which of these joint devastators of our leisure we should most censure . But as we can guess that in heaping curses on the Church and State arrangements of the 16 th century the Italian liberal was but finding a vent for feelings he may not always safely express against those of to-day , we think the heavier burden of our harmless wrath should fall upon the less excusable translator .
We cannot afford space to abridge the taleplot there is none—which is simply that of the utter extermination of an entire family . We will , however , place in array the characters and their fate : — Count Francesco Cenci , the Assassinated ( on the point Wicked Father . of violating hia daughter ) by Signor Guida Guerra , her lover . Donna Lucretia , his -wife . Beheaded . Gincomo , his eldest son . Torn to pieces with rod-hot tongs , and his heart torn out before his sisters' and brothers' eyes . Beatrice , hti oldest daugh- Tortured ami beheaded , tor .
Virgilio , hia youngest son . Worried to death . Bernardino , another son . Tortured and imprisoned for life . Nero , his dog . Slabbed in n niolo ' o . Michael , the carpenter of Burnt nlivo by order of tho Via Ripetta . old Cenci . The Curnto of Santa Sa- Robbed of all his possosbina . sions by order of ditto . Mnrzio , ox-bandit , servant Executed by torture . to old Cenci . nOly . nipio ^ baiuUtt-aasassinc— 'Stabbetli-beforo-ft-rahriiio-by &c , employed on job his comrade Mnrzio . work by old Cenci , a sad blabber , Giovanni AKlobrandini , no- Killed ( supposed purposely ) phew to tho Pope . . by « falling flower-pot . The two or throe remaining olm ' rnotors nro uudisposod of , but tho above list is protty well for a one-volume novel . Tho agony is so accumulated iu tho torture scones , that we must concede to Signor Gucnwsi tho merit of a rare appreciation of
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RITA : AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY . RUa : an Autobiography . 2 vols . B . Bentley One of the best novels the season has yet furnished . The interest begins with the very first chapter and is sustained to the last . There is a freshness and verisimilitude about the characters that evince on the part of the author no ordinary powers , and , if we might hazard a conjecture , no unpractised hand . The scene is laid in Paris—the narrator is Marguerite ( ilita , the diminutive ) Percival —a bri g ht and lovable character . The reader is at once introduced to the family . Colonel Percival ,
the father , a handsome roue of broken fortunes , and his wife , a penniless beauty , second daughter of the Hon . Ernest Russborough , retire to Paris for purposes of economy . The family history is simply and pleasantly told—a history , we fear , not purely imaginary . A lucky legacy enables the parents to . make some kind of educational provision for their children . Miss Lateward , a governess , is engaged , and her excellent example and teaching have a beneficial influence on tlie character of Marguerite , who , at an early age , exhibits artistic talent which is turned to profitable account on-the occasion of a debt incurred
by . her thoughtless , unprincipled , and extravagant father . Lady Mary . Dacre , aunt of Marguerite , and her , daughter Emily make their appearance on the stage , tlie first a high-minded woman , once the object of Colonel Percival ' s attentions , and throughout retaining' a cherished vet thoroughly suppressed recollection of her first love , the other , a girl of delicate constitution on her travels with her lady mother in search of renovated health . The pecuniary difficulties of Colonel Percival induce him . to devise a plan of extrication b y entrapping his daughter Marguerite into a marriage with a rich
and profligate nobleman , the Marquis * d'Ofort . One Lady Grey brook , of doubtful character , but clever , and moving among the Parisian elite , undertakes to bring out Marguerite , and to forward the views of Colonel Percival with reference to his daughter ' s marriage . Among the personages in high life with whom Marguerite comes into social contact is Lord Rawdon , an English nobleman of loose morals , but of honourable instincts , blurred , however , b y a wayward but powerful intellect ; and by evil company . Lord Rawdon falls deeply in love with Marguerite ^ tenders his hand , is rejected , but hopes on , and succeeds in rescuing Marguerite from a situation of
embarrassment , but at the expense of a duel in which he is shot through the arm . Marguerite also becomes acquainted with Hubert Rochford , a quiet , observant young Englishman of family and fortune , who takes a deep interest in Marguerite which ripens into love . Marguerite becomes penetrated with Hubert Rochford's fine qualities , and her heart is given to him . Circumstances occur to place Marguerite in a questionable position , and Hubert sets off to England under a delusion . Lord Rawdon , meanwhile , continues his watchful superintendence over ... Marguerite , whose innocence and character are exposed to sore trials and misconception through the complicity of . her father and . Lady Greybrook , aided b y a Countess Barrenes , with whom Colonel Percival has a liaison which
ends in marriage . To savo herself from being sacrificed to the cupidity of her father and tho hatred of her mother-in-law , Marguorite consonts to a marriage with Lord Rawdon . She elopes as far as Amiens , but before the ceremony is completed she repents , and by tho aid of a good-natured couple manages to loavo Aniious and reaoh England . Here she changes hor naino to Hopew 4 ntfrQduoed ^ n-i 7 oH \ lTr * Roobfo ^ nised—explanations take place—misapprohensiona and calumnies cloarod up , and Marguerite Percival and Hubert Rochford aro united . Thoro nro . ft number of other clmmotors who pjay subordinate parts in tho story , but thoy nro nofc brouflM , ra for oflcet or to fill up merely , they assist tho notion and tho progress of events naturally and properly . Wo think wo can predict that . when those volumes aro taken up <» oy will not bo put down until road completely through .
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] Sro . 442 , September 11 , 1858 . ] THE X , E A P E K , __ 941 _
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 11, 1858, page 941, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2259/page/21/
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