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"Its graceful delineations of character, the many truthful and picturesque descriptions of nature scattered over its pages, and the racy talk of its rustics, combine to form a whole of very unusual merit."- Daily News. "We do not remember ever to have read a story more perfect of its kind than Mistress Judith'; and, since Mrs. Gaskell's 'Sylvia's Lovers,' we have not read a sadder one.. A story from which we would willingly quote could we find where to begin and where to leave off; but which we doubt if a person who felt deeply could ever have borne to tell."-Athenæum. IN the ISLE of WIGHT. 2 vols. crown [Now ready. 8vo. cloth, 218. By Mrs. Arnold, BETTER THAN GOLD. BROKEN BONDS. By Hawley Smart, London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, LOW & Searle, Author of Breezie Langton,'' False Cards,' &c. 3 vols. [January 23. JOHN WILKES. prosecution of Wilkes took place. All the statements on the trial go to show that the Essay was printed in red letter and with a frontispiece and an engraved title. There are many copies in existence now, some of them having lines the same as others, but none that are Wilkes, Sheridan, Fox. By W. F. Rae. printed in red letter, and decorated with a (Isbister & Co.) frontispiece or engraved title. The copy upon SINCE the day when it was preferred as a which Lord Stanhope wrote was printed nine grave charge against Wilkes that "his father years after the trial took place. But setting amassed his fortune by exercising a trade aside all question as to the present existence equally destructive of the health, industry, of a copy of the Essay, we repeat that it is and morals of the people," John Wilkes has now virtually admitted that the Essay was not been a mark for every kind of unwarrantable written by Wilkes at all; and the collapse of abuse; yet we think that, upon examination, this, the gravest of the charges, ought to warn many of the apparently most weighty of the historians against crediting without examinaaccusations that have been brought against tion those charges that are less serious. him prove as worthless as that based upon the only was Wilkes not the author of the Essay, but, as he himself pointed out in his letter to George Grenville, he was not, even upon the false evidence given on the trial, convicted as having been the author of the Essay; but he was convicted for having published that which, except upon the occasion of the trial itself, was never published at all. Not fact that his father was a rich distiller: : SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1874. LITERATURE Oh Wilkes! must I repeat this name, And leave the great, the glorious theme Unsung. No, Muse, the lay begin, Inspire me with his native gin. Why it might as well have been remembered in Wilkes's favour, that he did all he could to get rid of the fortune that his father had left him, and with great success, as it has been remembered against him that his father in much earlier years had made money by distilling spirits from grain. Lord Stanhope, Lord Brougham, Lord Russell, and most of the writers of the present century, have followed the example that Dr. Johnson set in heaping abuse upon the memory of Wilkes. When, a few years ago, a critic attempted in our columns to clear his memory from some of the most scandalous of the charges that had been made against him, it was said that he had "written as an advocate rather than as a judge "; but when grave historians, whose position should have placed them above prejudice, wrote as party pamphleteers against the most popular man of the latter half of the last century, it was difficult to arrive at or even to approach the truth, except by contending against the exaggerations and falsehoods which interest and passion have raised and perpetuated against Wilkes. Junius, who was no blind admirer of Wilkes, put the matter in the right light when he said, "the question to the public is, where shall we find a man who with purer principles will go the lengths and run the hazards that he has done? The season calls for such a man, and he ought to be supported." As for the immorality of Wilkes's private life, can we go further than Wilkes went himself when he wrote these words?-"I do not mean, sir, to be impertinent enough to the public, whom I respect, to descend to those particulars of private life; the frailties of which I have repented, I will not justify." As for the charge of having written the Essay upon Women,' that charge, at all events, has now been given up. It is as clear as is any fact in history, that whoever wrote the Essay, Wilkes, at all events, did not. Wilkes himself stated at the time "that the most vile blasphemies were forged and published" as quotations from the work, and it is these vile blasphemies that are in existence now. Lord Stanhope, who attacked Wilkes as being for certain the author of the Essay, had not only never seen it, but he based his condemnation upon the examination of an essay of a different kind-not even the Essay upon which the The facts relating to the trial ought to have been, and we think, at the time were, far more damaging to the Government than to Wilkes. The real prosecutor was the King himself, for the prosecution took place contrary to the advice of the responsible minister. The wish was to damage in the eyes of the public the writer of the North Briton. The evidence produced in support of the case for the prosecution was partly evidence illegally obtained under a general warrant, and partly the evidence of a man bribed to confess himself a thief. On the other hand, we owe to Wilkes and his friends the abolition, or rather the declaration of the illegality of those general warrants. We referred just now to the private character of Wilkes as having nothing to do with the political controversies that raged round his name; but even here it is worth remark, that while he lived unhappily with his wife, it is clear that he was one of the best of fathers; that his statement in a letter to Junius in 1771, when he was only forty-four years of age, "I live very much at home, happy in the elegant society of a sensible daughter," was literally true; and his daughter herself, a woman of high conduct, seems to have found her mother as unamiable a person as even her father did, and in her will gave directions that she should be buried, not by her, but by his side. These remarks have been suggested to us by the publication of an admirable defence of Wilkes and of the other leaders of the opposition under George the Third, by Mr. Rae, the clever author of 'Westward by Rail.' His three biographies are written in a style which is both brilliant and pleasant, and will interest the general reader, while they do not add much that is really new to the knowledge of the student. In his Wilkes essay, Mr. Rae touches on the Junius controversy, but avoids it; although he speaks of the notion of the day, that Wilkes was the author, as "mistaken," and indicates an opinion favourable to Lord Temple's claims, by saying that not enough attention has been given to them. Surely, however, Mr. William James Smith gave attention enough to Lord Temple's claims in editing the Grenville Papers. Wilkes was generally supposed to be Junius up to December, 1769. There are many incidental facts which favour this supposition. The collected edition of the North Briton,' published in 1763, is dedicated "to the English nation by Englishmen." The collected edition of Junius, in 1773, is dedicated "to the English nation," and the letters are said to be "written by one of yourselves." There is a certain similarity of style between Wilkes and Junius, but we agree with Mr. Rae On that Wilkes was probably not Junius. the other hand, we distinctly differ from him when he indicates a leaning to Lord Temple's claims. Every fact, incident, conjecture, and speculation that could possibly be adduced to strengthen the opinion that Lord Temple was Junius has been dealt with by Mr. Smith in the essay prefixed to the Grenville Papers. The only bit of real proof that Mr. Smith attempted was that which rested upon the letters marked "Anonymous" by George Grenville being letters of Junius-this fact being made out from a similarity of handwriting and the signature "C." But it has been shown that there were dozens of persons writing at the time with the signature of “C,” and there is no more reason to suppose that the "C" of the anonymous Grenville letters was Junius, than to suppose that he was one of the rejected "C.'s" of the Public Advertiser's notices to correspondents, inasmuch as this rejected "C." dated from the place where Lord Temple lived. As for handwriting, fifty persons have been "proved to be Junius" by comparison of handwriting. One of the great arguments against Lady Temple having been the amanuensis of Lord Temple in connexion with the writing of those letters is, that Junius corresponded with several of Lord and Lady Temple's intimate friends, to whom her handwriting must have been perfectly well known. The impossibility that Lord and Lady Temple could have been Junius without employing an agent in London who must have been entrusted with the truth and with a large amount of responsibility as to the dates of the appearance of the letters, is another strong argument against the theory. The most tremendous obstacle to the theory is, however, the want of genius on the part of the Temples, who, though individuals of considerable ability, were persons of an ability of a wholly different kind from that of Junius, and totally wanting in the vigour for which_that writer is distinguished. A scrap-book of Lady Temple, which was in the possession of Mr. Smith, gives evidence against the Temple theory almost as strong as that of the dates. Lady Temple began pasting into this book cuttings from the Public Advertiser in 1768, and she continued her cuttings there in 1769. A list of the cuttings that she made shows that, as acting either for herself or Lord Temple, she wished to retain everything bearing upon Wilkes, but as regards Junius, she cut out only the strongest of the avowed letters, but none of the miscellaneous letters, even of those the Junius authorship of which is certain; which shows that, supposing she acted of her own motion, she had strong opposition feelings, but no knowledge of the subject. Again, Lord Temple quarrelled with Wilkes in November, 1769, and they never spoke afterwards, whereas Junius opened personal communication with Wilkes in August, 1771. Junius, also, attacked Lord Grafton for quarrelling with Wilkes long after Lord Temple had quarrelled with Wilkes. We go further, and maintain that Lord Temple did not even know who Wilkes was. Counsellor Darell was Lord Temple's lawyer. He supplied Junius with his legal information. According to a well-informed writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1831, the very legal citations "were sent by him from Stowe to Mr. Woodfall." At a later date they were sent to Junius through Wilkes, who was a great friend of Darell's. We may add, that we have before us as we write a confession by Mr. Smith, the learned and painstaking editor of the Grenville Papers, couched in the following terms: "Alas! for the one thing needful-the one proof! I have none; not a shadow of a proof. If I have been led into any too confident expressions, I shall regret them. I have only endeavoured to do what most of my predecessors have done-'make out a case. Mr. Rae has not "endeavoured to make out a case," but he has indicated his belief in a that has never been "made out." On the whole, however, we not only agree with Mr. Rae's conclusions, but are grateful to him for having produced an interesting, a truthful, and a wholesome book. 127 66 "" case Fantis being as superior in size and strength to the Ashantis as they are inferior in courage. The Fanti kingdom has for some years past been broken up, and consists now of a host of petty states loosely confederated. The principal states in the Fanti country are Cape Coast, Anamaboe, Abra, Dunquah, Dominassie, Mankessan, and Ajimaccoo. Besides the Fantis there are five large independent tribes in the Protectorate, namely, the Assims, the Akims, the Aquapims, the Wassaws, and the Denkeras, besides other smaller tribes, such as the Apollonias, the Ahantis, Tufels, Elminas, AcApollonias, the Ahantis, Tufels, Elminas, Accras, and Kroboes. Save under the pressure of a common danger, none of the six large and the other smaller tribes ever act together, their only tie in ordinary times being the socalled British protection. The Ashantis are, however, more interesting to us at present than the protected tribes, and Sir John Dalrymple Hay gives a brief but valuable sketch of the growth of the nation :-"When the Moslem invasion of Western Europe was stemmed, and the Christians re-asserted their superiority in Spain, the Moors turned the tide of conquest towards Central Africa, and on the banks of the long mysterious Quorra, or Niger, established their seat of empire at Timbuctoo. They advanced gradually to the Kong mountains, pushing before them the aboriginal race tains, pushing before them the aboriginal race of Central Africa, and having driven them into the low-lying countries between the Kong mountains and the sea, the tide of Mahometan conquest expended itself in establishing the kingdom of Gaman." Among these aboriginal tribes were the Ashantis, whose capital was, about the year 1700, fixed at Coomassie, by Osai Tutu, who, being able to bring 60,000 warriors into the field, conquered or brought under tribute the whole of the Protectorate, except Denkera, and the districts lying between Ashanti proper and the Kong mountains. Denkera soon ceased to be an exception, and, after a bloody war, acknowledged the supremacy of Ashanti. The history of Ashanti for many years is one constant narrative of unsuccessful efforts on the part of feudatory states to shake off the yoke of their suzerain, varied by wars between Ashanti and the rival power of Dahomey. At the beginning of the present century, the Ashantis first came into contact with us through an invasion of Fanti territory. This inroad took place in 1807, and from that time till the present date, excepting the fifteen years during which Capt. Maclean was Governor of Cape Coast Castle, a state of war, more or less active, has prevailed. ASHANTI. Ashanti and the Gold Coast, and what we Know of it: a Sketch. By Vice-Admiral Sir John Dalrymple Hay, Bart. (Stanford.) Fanti and Ashanti. By Capts. H. Brackenbury and J. L. Huyshe. (Blackwood & Sons.) VERY little is known even now about the Gold Coast and the Ashantis, though we have been at war with the latter for nearly a year. Many works have been published from time to time on the subject, but till the other day they were, for the most part, buried in the dust and oblivion of the back shelves of public libraries, or the remote corners of the stalls of those who deal in second-hand books. During the past six months our newspapers have been filled with discursive essays and scraps of information about Fantis and Ashantis; but few, save professional journalists or lecturers, have mastered and digested the facts stated. The two books before us, therefore, most opportunely supply a crying want; and it is not too much to say that it is the fault of the reader if he rises from a perusal of them without, at all events, a fair outline knowledge of the theatre of war, and of both our allies and foes. The authors, moreover, trace in a clear manner the history of our dealings at different times with the Ashanti nation. The public is in the habit of speaking of the whole of the tribes in the British Protectorate as Fantis; but this is an error. The Fantis constitute only a small portion of the protected tribes. The Fantis occupy the country "included nearly within the curvature of the River Prah, and touch the Wassaws on the west, the Assines on the north, the Aquapans on the east, and on the south the sca-coast." They were originally, it is stated, of the same race as the Ashantis; but the marked physical differences between the two nations seem to negative this supposition, the It will be remarked by the reader of the two books before us, first, that Ashanti wars generally last a long time; secondly, that we have never yet established among the Ashantis a conviction that our military power is irresistible. In both books there is much valuable information concerning the nature of the country, the mode of fighting, and the relations between us and the Fantis. In short, the works are what they aim at being, popular handbooks to the Gold Coast. CAUSES CÉLÈBRES. A Collection of Reports of Celebrated Trials, judged as a work for the criminal advocate or as a performance for the general reader. Indeed, he seems to share our uncertainty on this point, and throughout his labours to have been in doubt whether he were writing for the lawyers or the laity. In his Preface he says: "My object in preparing this volume of reports is simply to present, for the use of the profession generally, in a convenient form, a collection of some of the more important and interesting trials of modern date"; and in the body of his publication he inserts a report of the trial of Frère Léotade, "with a view of rendering the case of Léotade more generally known to English readers." It accords with this uncertainty of purpose, that whilst he in some places burdens his narratives with details which none but lawyers will care to peruse, he in other places, out of regard for the taste and morals of the drawing-room, is reticent about matters that should be mentioned frankly and precisely in a work for professional inquirers. Under the circumstances, we may fairly assume that his interest in curious trials having been roused by the cause célèbre which is slowly coming to an end in Westminster Hall, Mr. Woodall resolved to make a collection of famous causes which should entertain the public whilst being of service to legal practitioners; and that having lost heart for his undertaking, on seeing its magnitude and several difficulties, he has thrown into a volume such few materials as he had gathered for a grand achievement. The vague promise of the "Vol. I." on his title page may be regarded as a convenient form of apology rather than an expression of serious intention. Many years will probably pass before the appearance of "Vol. II." Anyhow, the present result of the compiler's labours is not likely to bring him any encouragement to continue them. Comprising six cases, five from English records and one from the criminal annals of France, the volume opens with the proceedings taken in 1817 and 1818 against Abraham Thornton for the murder of Mary Ashford, which gave occasion for the enactment of 59 Geo. 3. c. 46, abolishing appeals of murder and wager of battel. The story of the girl's mysterious death, and its ludicrous consequences, is so familiar to legal practitioners, that Mr. Woodall can scarcely have imagined them in need of further instruction on the affair, or on the ancient law, which it rendered laughable. Every law-student has smiled over Blackstone's description of the judicial combat, and knows half-a-score books that set forth the facts of the Erdington tragedy, and the ensuing farce in the King's Bench. So far as the lawyers are concerned, Mr. Woodall deserves no thanks for seventy-four pages on the stale subject. Nor was it needful for him to remind the general reader of incidents which, having more than fifty years since produced a mass of popular literature, have in later time been repeatedly re-told in magazines and newspapers. No comparatively recent tale of crime or disaster has found a larger number of effective narrators than this story of a servantgirl, whose diminutive and spiritless brother dared not face her supposed murderer in a fair fight-for truth and justice. It may be found in the Old Stories Re-told,' which Mr. Thornbury wrote hastily for All the Year Round, and republished as a separate volume. Mr. Thornbury's version is not severely accu rate. Indeed, he was guilty of a droll mistake when he assumed that the processes of "appeal" and "battel" had their origin in some "rusty old Act of Parliament." But, treating the familiar subject in his peculiar style, he produced a paper that is superior to Mr. Woodall's longer chapter. revelation he withholds the fact which makes the crime worthy of recollection. Like our present Claimant's case, the case of Thomas Provis was a drama of two acts. Opening with a civil suit, it closed with a criminal prosecution; and it was attended with several circumstances which the proceedings in the later cause célèbre could not fail to bring to recollection. The impostor's counsel in the civil action was the same lawyer who, as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, presided at the civil trial of the Tichborne case. Provis had no sooner broken down utterly in crossexamination, than Mr. Bovill deemed it incumbent on his honour to throw up his brief, and cease to fight for an obvious impostor. It is, moreover, worthy of remembrance that the forger and fraudulent claimant was under the impression that he had not committed legal forgery in fabricating the spurious signatures of a dead man. the jury, after a few minutes' deliberation, re- portation." Jumping from 1818 to 1833, over years fruitful of famous trials on which he might have worked advantageously, Mr. Woodall gives us the prosecution of Josiah Phillips for publishing a libellous account of Sellis's murderous attack on the Duke of Cumberland and subsequent suicide. A worse selection it would be difficult to imagine. Bad on several grounds, it is execrably bad on the score of taste and decency. The case presented no feature of legal interest, and is memorable only from the rank of the person to whose pain and discredit the libeller revived certain odious and groundless suspicions. All that the defending counsel could do for his client was to question the discretion of his professional opponents, and to argue that SO august a personage as His Royal Highness was imprudent and forgetful of his dignity when he put the law in action against his defamers. In the first instance, the libel was penned to money. alleged to have been given to the claimant by Dials. Of course the claimant had a story of Robert Smith, the notorious miser of the Seven the considerations for, and the circumstances under which the deceased miser had given first an I. O. U. and then the promissory note. But the executor declined, on sufficient grounds, to the gratify private malignity and the vulgar which the Rev. William Bailey was worsted A civil action ensued, in appetite for scandal against people of rank. It would be absurd to suggest that Mr. Woodall had any personal or even unamiable motive in fishing up this almost forgotten business; but its appearance in his book will please only those whom no writer should wish to please. The other English cases are those of Tawell the murderer, the Rev. William Bailey the forger, and Thomas Provis the forger and impostor, who, just twenty years since, proclaimed himself the son of Sir Hugh Smyth, and heir to that baronet's large estate. Told for the public rather than the profession, the report of the murderer's trial is, upon the whole, a creditable piece of work, though, in his care for the ladies, the reporter is not sufficiently mindful for the lawyers. Mr. Woodall alludes to the culprit's confession; but in forbearing to state its one important "In his defence," says Mr. Woodall, "he made a long rambling speech, raising what he deemed to be a point of law, that a man could not be convicted of forging the name of a person who was dead. This objection the judge, Mr. Russell Gurney, who, in consequence of the sudden death of Mr. Justice Talfourd, was presiding at the trial, overruled, and At the assizes which disposed of the pre- Woodall's selections; for whilst it presents Per and completely discredited. Then came the tion. 666 at the criminal trial. 66 The desperate rogue gave the costermonger a shilling as earnest," and arranged to pay him 301. for his false testimony. But before the time for perjury came, the imperfectly virtuous costermonger decided to speak and earn his money on the side of justice and social order. MR. BIRKS'S ETHICS. First Principles of Moral Science: a Course of THE Rev. Thomas Rawson Birks is, our readers "ventured to append" a college prize essay, written just forty years ago, and delivered in Trinity College Chapel in December 1833; and, in fine, he "commits the work to the strong, nothing is holy, the only Fountain of blessing of Him, without whom nothing is moral insight and true wisdom, the uncreated dwells in its perfect fullness, from whom its and eternal Goodness, in whom all truth streams proceed, and to whom they return, after watering the wide universe of moral being through which they flow." predecessors, we took up the volume with Considering who have been Mr. Birks's some interest, hoping to find in it, if not any distinctly new ideas, yet, at any rate, a new and fresh treatment of old and familiar subjects. We were anxious, for instance, to not the Professor's view, either upon these 66 Ethics, then," he assures us, "in one word is the Science of Ideal Humanity. It sets before us Man, not as he is, but as he ought to be. It implies a standard of right and wrong, which does mankind, and is not fixed by past experience, but not depend on the actual state and conduct of which shines out amidst the storm-clouds of human passions and vices like a rainbow of hope and promise, pointing onward to something bright, science of Ideal Humanity is the true mainspring excellent and glorious, not yet attained. This of human progress, which really deserves the name. And it forms also the natural transition to the best and highest field of human thought, Divine Theology. The connexion is no mere result of fancy, or philosophical reasoning. It is inwoven into the very texture of Christian faith. which the whole fabric of the Christian revelation For this is the grand 'mystery of godliness,' on depends, that the ideal Man is no other than the Incarnate Son of God." All this is very well-very re-assuring. But about "conscience" or the "moral sense"? Is it innate, or connate, or acquired? Is it simple and primary, or is it the product of association? If it be a "form" only, whence are we are we to get its concrete contents ? How far has it been adequately described by Shaftes bury, by Hutcheson, by Butler, by Kant? These are the kind of questions upon which— pace Birks-we should have expected a Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy to dwell. Instead of this we find-and most sound and wholesome doctrine it is-that " an awakened conscience, fully alive to the claims of duty, which looks up with reverence to a law it cannot alter and is bound to obey, is the first essential of true morality, the only genuine passport to the temple of ethical science. Where this is absent, learned specu |
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