culation disfigured coins from abroad, when there is an ample stock of our own genuine money ready for use.

and, on the other hand, it spoils all the grace and charm of those passages where the writer's own peculiar thoughts, actions, or experience can be brought forward. Many a confident assertion, or dogmatic impertinence, now uttered under the mask of plurality, would have been modified, had the writer been distinctly reminded of his individual responsibility by a more natural form of speech; while the interest of many a narrative of personal adventure, or record of personal recollections, has been destroyed by this pompous unsubstantiality: "We felt that a few moments would decide our fate. We were totally alone; we shouted, but no one answered. The projecting ledge on which we had contrived to support one of our feet was now slowly giving way; we looked down; a sheer precipice of a thousand yards yawned beneath us; our hat fell off; our head grew dizzy; our right hand was rapidly becoming benumbed." Pray who can care for a Mr. We in such a situation? The passage is perused with frigid indifference, as not appealing to any human sympathy with a

it is one perhaps rather resembling satisfaction,-a vague notion that somehow or other there will shortly be one newspaper-editor the less in the world.

Then there is Editorialism; for if we laugh at the infirmities of others, we shall not shrink from commenting on those which more particularly affect periodical literature, and are indeed rooted in its nature. If it were possible to suppose that any public writers desired to obtain over the unreflecting an ascendency to which their learning and virtue did not strictly entitle them, one might insinuate that their rule of concealing, not only their personality, but their individuality also, under the mysterious veil of the plural number, was cunningly devised for the express purpose of effecting that object. By the use of this method the reader is impressed with a notion that the vaticinations and denunciations laid before him proceed from some infallible oracle, some fountain of unerring wisdom, or, at the lowest, from some body of sages assembled in solemn conclave to settle the affairs of mankind; certainly not from anything like a fellow-mortal, sitting, perhaps, in no palatial lodging, and biting his fellow-creature; or if any feeling is evoked, pen in anxious search for the materials of an article; dealing, indeed, with the fate of empires and the prospects of the human race, but thinking chiefly of finishing his day's or night's work, and getting to bed. It is use- In considering the perils to which a lanless to say anything to or about those writ- guage is exposed, the constant influence of ers, editors, and proprietors (if any such corruption from colonial sources must not be there be) who maintain this artifice for the overlooked. Our language circulates much purpose of keeping up a popular delusion; as our blood does. It brings back with it to but there are many compositions, especially the heart all sorts of impurities from the exessays in periodical publications, in which by tremities to which it has penetrated, and custom, and without any unworthy motive, unfortunately nature has not provided any this form of expression is deemed to be nec- lungs for the oxygenation of speech. It is essary; and the spirit of unreasoning imita- scarcely necessary to point out whence these tion leads some writers of the second class to impurities arise,—want of social refinement, adopt it, where even this customary necessity the absence of literary men of a high class, does not exist. It is, however, a form which, of universities, of a cultivated bar or pulpit, though not new, has never obtained with the and on the other hand the presence (in some best writers; it is neither elegant nor con- cases) of an aboriginal population speaking venient; and there is really no sufficient rea- a different tongue, are sufficient to account son why it should not be abandoned by all for them; but it is important to observe that those who now use it only in obedience to a the conditions favorable to their adoption in rule established nobody knows how, certainly the mother-country are greatly on the invalued by none, and distasteful to many. Its crease. It would take a long time for a effects are, indeed, more injurious than is strange word or phrase to get naturalized commonly suspected; for, on the one hand, here by word of mouth alone; but vast quanit tempts a man to indulge in Nos-ism, where tities of printed matter now pour in daily modesty and a sense of propriety would have from the very outskirts of civilization; pubmade him shrink from undisguised egotism;lishing travellers take pleasure in reproduc

ing with minute accuracy all the uncouth | scholar (for instance) who wrote etcetera the and barbarous jargon that they hear uttered; other day in a newspaper, as an improvement and when printing once intervenes, there is upon etceteras, may be usefully reminded that no saying where an expression may be carried, his knowledge of the plural of musa has for or what favorable accidents may enable it to once been too much for him. Not that prostrike root and flourish. There seems at the fessed "literary men" are the sole offenders; same time to be an unhealthy passion for everybody who can read now comes forward adoption on the part of the public. Two or as a reformer. Thus, some philological ironthree years ago nobody would have known monger, having discovered that chandelier is what was meant by a Sensation Novel; yet derived from chandelle, and holding himself now the term has already passed through the fully qualified by education and position to stage of jocular use (a stage in which other take charge of the English language, has less lucky ones will sometimes remain for determined that the word is inapplicable whole generations), and has been adopted as where gas is used, and triumphantly imposes the regular commercial name for a particular on us the new word gasalier, forgetting that product of industry for which there is just he has retained half of the candle in the secnow a brisk demand. These considerations ond syllable. Another man offers to supply should put us on our guard, and induce us the world with gas apparata. The word octo be as surly and inhospitable as possible toroon (framed, we presume, in America) to all those strange sounds which come back presents the same blunder as the gasalier; to us like an Irish echo before we have ut-ther in quadroon belongs to the root signifitered them ourselves. cative of four, and octoon would have been

With regard to magniloquence and misuse a more proper form, according to analogy. of words, the dean remonstrates earnestly But enough of these; it is needless (as Dr. with the gentlemen who will talk of "en-Johnson expresses it in the Preface to Cymcountering an individual,” “partaking of re- beline) "to waste criticism on unresisting freshment," "sustaining bereavement of a imbecility, upon faults too evident for dematernal relative," and so forth. May his tection, and too gross for aggravation." exhortations produce good fruit! It is true, A few words of special remonstrance might no doubt, that folly, conceit, and ignorance also be usefully addressed to two classes of are not peculiar to any age or any country; authors,-the writers of fiction and the writyet in matters of literature, the present times ers of history; no satire is intended in placdo seem to be specially marked by the bold- ing them together. The gentlemen and laness with which sciolists take the lead as in- dies of the former class must now indulge in novators. The study of Language, as Profes-egotizing prefaces, giving narratives of the sor Max Müller observes, is properly one of circumstances under which their works were the physical sciences; but the difficulties of composed, and the considerations which led future philologers will be greatly increased them to conduct the fable in this manner by the intrusion into modern languages of rather than in that; or making statements changes and combinations which have got with all the formal accuracy of the specificathere by no natural process, but owing to tion of a patent, of the precise points in which the author claims the merits of origconscious and wilful interference,-chiefly, too, by those who have no business to inter- inality. This practicc, like some of the former fere. A long list might be made of words ones, is not altogether new, but it is disagreewhich have been perverted from their legiti- ably on the increase.* Thus, such a one mate use solely by the operation of ignorance will tell the reader, by way of enhancing the in people who have chosen to use them with-likelihood of his tale, that he had at first out knowing what they meant. It is true thought of making Lady Arabella marry Sir that this is to a certain extent one of the ne-Reginald, but had afterward determined on cessary consequences of the spread of literary education; nevertheless, an exhortation to modesty and caution in this respect is not a little needed, especially by those who take upon themselves the responsible office of public monitors and teachers. The profound

*The example of Sir Walter Scott must not be cited in justification of these offences against good taste. His prefaces (it should be remembered) did not accompany his novels when they originally came out; they are only literary gossip addressed to a public whom he assumed to be familiar with the books themselves. It is true that he forgot the case of future generations of readers.

giving her to Walter, in order to enable him | the writer who, for the sake of being called to introduce the death-scene, which he hap-" picturesque," or " graphic," states one pened to have by him out of another manu- circumstance, however trivial, which he has script (for which he is unable just at pres- not good reason, on sufficient historical evient to find a publisher); or that it may be dence, to believe to be true, shows himself interesting to know that down to last Tues- incapable of understanding the duties of his day he had absolutely not determined whether vocation. If it is once to be admitted that the will should prove a forgery or not. He an author may represent anything as having will add, perhaps, that this tale is in some respects a new experiment. in fiction; there being, so far as he is aware, no previous instance of a story in which a young man is represented as falling in love with two middle-aged ladies at once, and a middle-aged man with two young ladies at once. The same materials in other combinations may, no doubt, have been used by other writers; but of this special combination he claims the credit of being the sole inventor. Surely, it is strange that a man with any respect for his art should thus destroy half his chance of touching the affections merely for the sake of indulging in a little trumpery gossip about himself and his intellect: how can a writer hope to move the passions who deliberately destroys that state of mind which he should foster, and takes pains to remind the reader that the incidents placed before him are neither the truth, nor due to the warm and easy flow of inspiration, but are the labored product of cold calculation, the unloved progeny of a brain which feels no genial sympathy with its own creations?

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actually occurred, only because his fancy pictures to him that it may have occurred, all confidence is destroyed. How is the reader to know when the author is giving him fact, and when fiction? One would have thought that the unjustifiableness of such a practice was too obvious to require demonstration; yet it is sometimes justified on the plea of necessity, the necessity of making books “ readable." This is the sort of necessity which compels grocers to sand their brown sugar. If you cannot make your history readable without inserting what is baseless, you had better try some other trade. Then it is said that everybody understands where the author is indulging fancy, and where not. But that is not the case. Readers of high literary acumen, and well acquainted with the subject, may, indeed, often guess that there would be no answer to the " How do you know that?" but the great majority of readers are in capable of judging on such questions; and, surely, it is a monstrous doctrine that, while we are reading history, we are to be perpetually on our guard to separate that which we are intended to believe from that which is only intended for our amusement. It is obvious that, without any intention to deceive, an entirely false view of events and characters may be conveyed to the reader by the artificial light thus thrown over them.

To pass to the historians. Errors arising from ignorance, prejudice, or stupidity are not within our present province; but the student is now liable to be misled by a practice on the part of the teachers, which regular historical criticism does not, perhaps cannot, always deal with, and which, unless it be classed among faults of style, has some A very flagrant instance of this sort of chance of escaping due reprobation altogether. trickery has just been perpetrated by two We refer to the notion which authors now very notorious offenders at the expense of seem to entertain that it is necessary to make the present Duke of Manchester and of the their works attractive by composing them in public. The duke, with a due regard for the style of historical novels, and introducing the history of his family and the traditions of circumstantial details of all sorts on no bet- his house, seems to have thought it desirable ter authority than their own imaginations. that the papers collected at Kimbolton by sucThe historical romance is going out; but the cessive members of the race of Montagu romantic history is coming in. There are should be examined, and that such of them many modern historians, and those the most as are of historical interest should be prefamous and popular, whose productions force pared for publication. Family papers of one to ask at every turn, "How can you this nature are the most valuable materials know that?" Yet, surely, the first requisite of history, provided they are placed before in a history is that it should be true; and the reader in a plain, intelligible, and authen

tic form. The gentlemen whose assistance | his business to cook or create his facts for and literary skill the Duke of Manchester the sake of being picturesque. has generously acknowledged in the intro- To return to our dean: we cannot close duction to these volumes unfortunately took this article better than by extracting a few a different view of their functions. Catha- lines from his general advice to his readrine of Aragon died at Kimbolton, and accord-ers :ingly "Donna Catalina of the golden hair" is made to flourish in her red locks and far- be honest in your speaking and writing. "Be simple," he says, "be unaffected, thingales through a volume of semi-intelligi- Never use a long word where a short one ble gibberish, from the half-Moorish city of will do. Call a spade a spade, not a wellAlcalá de Henares, where she was born, to known oblong instrument of manual industry. the secluded castle "eight miles from a post... Elegance of language may not be in town and nine miles from a railway line,' "the power of all of us; but simplicity and where she died. It is scarcely fair to the straightforwardness are. late Mr. James to say that this strange production is very inferior in pot of taste and style to the worst of his once popular romances. It is simply history gone mad, and we very much regret that the Duke of Manchester's excellent intentions should have been so very injudiciously fulfilled. If liveliness " is only to be had on such terms as these, then welcome dulness, welcome dryness, welcome an old almanac,-anything, provided one can be sure that it is what it professes to be, and that the author does not deem it any part of

Write much as

you would speak: speak as you think."

These last words contain the key-note of the whole theme. It is affectation which is the root of almost all offences against good language and good manners. The simple and uncouth expressions of a clown are far more nearly allied to the roots of our mother tongue than the high-flown efforts of mannerists and euphemists; and people are never ridiculous as long as they are contented to remain themselves.

It was soon seen that he had great abilities. He was carefully educated by his new friends, and eventually became one of dained in England; since which time he has their missionary agents. In 1840, he was orlabored with great success in an extensive sphere of duty in his own country. Being the right man for the right place, the government have justly selected him for the diocese of the Niger, which, no doubt, he will fill with ability commensurate to his former success. were alive now, how would not his heart rejoice to see the child of slavery thus intrusted by the Church with the highest office she can bestow on one of her members!-London Review, 2 July.

THE TRIPLE EPISCOPAL CONSECRATION.-The Sierra Leone. consecration of the new Bishops of Peterborough, Tasmania, and Niger, which took place on Wednesday, in Canterbury Cathedral, differed externally in no material respect from other ceremonies of the like kind. It was, however, accompanied by circumstances which were deeply suggestive, and by one in particular which marked it as an era in the history of the Anglican Church. One could not but think of the vast distances which were from that day to separate, in three different continents, the three men who knelt before the primate to receive their sacred functions. But the great event-the peculiar feature-which invested the proceedings with the most stirring interest was the presence, in lawn sleeves, of Dr. Crowther, once a poor African slave-boy, but now the brightest ornament of the African Missionary Church, and one of its bishops. His story is briefly told. When a boy he was sold as a slave, and, packed in the usual herring-like fashion, carried in a ship to America. The ship was afterward captured by British cruisers, and young Crowther was taken back, and left in charge of the missionaries at

If Wilberforce

ACRES AND WISEACRES.-A wealthy but weakheaded barrister once remarked to Curran that "No one should be admitted to the bar who had not an independent landed property." May I ask, sir," replied Curran," how many acres make a wiseacre ?”

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.

From The Edinburgh Review. as that of Eugénie de Guérin will find a resEugénie de Guerin: Journal et Lettres pub-ponsive echo in many hearts, both Protestant liés avec l'assentiment de sa Famille. Par and Catholic; for there is in it a depth of G. S. Trebutien. Ouvrage couronné par l'Académie Française. Paris: 1863.