Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol III, No 13, 1851

by Various

Charles Scribner has published an original Life of Algernon Sidney, by G. Van Santvoord, including copious sketches of several of the distinguished republicans who were his fellow-laborers in the cause of political freedom. Among the biographical portraits introduced by the author, are those of Cromwell, Milton, Sir Henry Vane, Bradshaw, Marten, Scot, and others. They are drawn with considerable spirit, and evident historical fidelity. The character of Sidney is described in terms of warm appreciation, though the partialities of the author have not clouded the fairness of his judgment. Devoted with enthusiastic admiration to the memory of the English martyrs for freedom, in the investigation of their history, he has not neglected the sound principles of critical research. His volume hears internal marks of authenticity; its opinions are expressed with discretion and gravity; its tone partakes of the dignity of its subject; and its style, though not sparkling with the adornments of rhetoric, is sincere and forcible, and presents occasional specimens of chaste beauty.

The first American edition of The Journal and Letters of the Rev. Henry Martyn, edited by Rev. S. Wilberforce, has been published by M.W. Dodd, containing a variety of interesting matter, which now appears for the first time in this country. The original English edition is reduced by the omission of certain portions, which seemed to be of less value to the general reader, but no change has been made in the passages retained, which are a faithful transcript of the language which fell from the pen of the author. They were written in moments of intimate self-communion, or in the freedom of familiar correspondence, revealing the hidden experience of the heart, with the most child-like simplicity; while every expression betrays the intensity of humiliation and the yearnings after holiness, which were so deeply inwrought into the character of the distinguished missionary. With an acute and cultivated intellect, which enabled him to bear away the highest University honors, Henry Martyn combined a fervor of devotion, an unworldly forgetfulness of self, and a passion for the spiritual welfare of his fellow-men, which in another age would not have failed to win him the canonization of a saint. The transparent confessions of such a man, describing the struggles and triumphs of the interior life, must be welcomed by every religious reader. Nor are they less valuable as an illustration of the workings of human nature, when under the influence of the strong emotions engendered by the austere and sublime faith with which the subject identified his conceptions of Christianity. The American editor appropriately commends the work to young men in our colleges and seminaries of learning, with the remark that "Martyn was a scholar of varied and profound attainments, but he counted it his highest honor to lay his laurels at his Saviour's feet, and could all the young men in our colleges go forth in his spirit, the strongholds of error and sin would be speedily shaken."

The Water Witch forms the last volume of J. Fenimore Cooper's Collective Works, in Geo. P. Putnam's tasteful and convenient edition. The opinion of the author on the comparative merits of this novel is briefly stated in the Preface. "The book has proved a comparative failure. The facts of this country are all so recent and so familiar, that every innovation on them, by means of the imagination is coldly received, if it be not absolutely frowned upon. Nevertheless this is probably the most imaginative book ever written by the author. Its fault is in blending too much of the real with the purely ideal. Halfway measures will not do in matters of this sort; and it is always safer to preserve the identity of a book by a fixed and determinate character, than to make the effort to steer between the true and the false." In another passage, Mr. Cooper gives utterance to the fears which haunt his imagination, in regard to the innovating tendencies of the present day. "As for the Patroons of Kinderbook, the genus seems about to expire among us. Not only are we to have no more patroons, but the decree has gone forth from the virtuous and infallible voters that there are to be no more estates.

'All the realm shall be in common, and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass.'

The collected wisdom of the State has decided that it is true policy to prevent the affluent from converting their money into land. The curse of mediocrity weighs upon us, and its blunders can be repaired only through the hard lessons of experience." Mr. Cooper alludes to the great number of typographical errors which are found in the former editions of this work. It was written in Italy and first printed in Germany. The American compositor, conceiving that he had a right to correct the blunders of a foreigner, took the law into his own hands, and exercised a sovereign power over the author's orthography. He has endeavored to do himself justice in this particular, and accordingly claims a greater degree of improvement for the Water Witch in the present edition, than for any other work which has passed through his hands.

The serial publication of London Labor, by Henry Mayhew, from the press of Harper and Brothers, has reached its fifth number, and thus far, we discover no diminution of interest in its contents. Mr. Mayhew has plunged into the thick of what he appropriately styles the nomadic life of London, and brings up its startling revelations to the light of day, without the slightest disguise or embellishment. His work contains the stuff for many novels of real life, which, in the hands of a master, would rival the creations of Dickens or Thackeray. Some of the most interesting scenes, which he describes, are related in the words of the parties concerned, with whom the author appears to have had a perfectly good understanding. As a contribution to the history of social development in the nineteenth century, we regard this work as one of the most important of the day.

The Fruit Garden, by P. Barry (published by Charles Scribner), is a practical treatise on the cultivation of fruit-trees, with over one hundred and fifty illustrations, representing the different parts of trees, all practical operations, designs for plantations, and other important points in this branch of arboriculture. The extent and variety of information which it presents, with the clearness of its practical directions, and its adaptation to American cultivation, will make it a standard work of reference with intelligent fruit growers.

The Female Jesuit (published by M.W. Dodd), is the title of a narrative, purporting to be the history of a religious impostor, who, after a complicated career of intrigue and duplicity in England, was at length detected in her plots, although no light is thrown on their origin and purposes. The work is issued with the conviction on the part of the English editors, that she was the agent of some great system in the Catholic interest, that may have been brought into action far more widely than Protestants are aware. In the absence of positive proof, they hesitate to charge her deception on the Jesuits, but they are evidently of opinion that the suspicion is warranted by the facts in the case. The volume, it must be confessed has too much the air of a romance to command implicit reliance. We should have greater confidence in it as a history, if it did not show such a studious concealment of responsible names, with the omission of other circumstances that are essential to authentic investigation.

The Wife's Sister; or, The Forbidden Marriage is the title of a novel by Mrs. Hubback, niece of Miss Austen (published by Harper and Brothers), written with more than common graphic power, and unfolding a plot of great intensity of passion. It was written previously to the great agitation on the question of the Law of Marriage in England, and was published without reference to that much debated subject, although it presents a vivid illustration of the possible effects of the enactment alluded to, both in its social and personal bearings. Apart from these considerations, however, it is a story of remarkable interest, and is well worth perusal by all who have an appetite for a good novel.

A new volume of Poems, by Mrs. E.H. Evans, has been published by Lippincott, Grambo, and Co., with an Introduction by her brother, the distinguished pulpit orator, Rev. T.H. Stockton. The volume consists principally of effusions marked by a strong religious spirit, and a vein of modest and tender domestic sentiment. Many of them indicate a true poetic imagination, but without sufficient affluence or aptness of diction to do it justice in expression.