mansion, to which, of course, the remarks are inappli- saving's bank, a dispensary, a circulating library, and two schools.

The following description of Redeross, the rector's village, is, we fear, still applicable to many Irish villages. In Ulster many of the small towns are remarkably neat and clean. Some of the prettiest villages that we have ever seen are situated in that province. But there are many Redcrosses in the country-many sadly-neglected places, greatly in need of the Sanatory Commission and the Board of Health :

"As Redcross was a corporate town, it is only respectful to give some account of it before we enter its jurisdiction. It was a small and a poor place, but might have been a respectable one, both in size and wealth, had the inhabitants devoted half as much time to honest industry as they spent in complaining about anything, or nothing, shrugging their shoulders, whining about with their dirty hands in their empty pockets, and wondering

There was one Quaker, who met in his own house; and the rest

The circulating library had been established by the joint exer
tions of Elizabeth Spenser and Carry Woodward. They had
greater difficulties to encounter than yon will easily believe;
their funds were so limited, and there was so much fanaticism to
be encountered in some quarters, and so much selfishness in
others. The wives and daughters of many of the neighbouring
squirearchy wanted to stock the library exclusively with the
usual trash of sentimental novels, and romances of "thrilling in
terest" (to use a favourite phrase of Mr. Dawson's), ghosts and
mysteries, love and murder. The ladies of the evangelical party
would hear of nothing but sermons and tracts, lives of godly
children, biographies of Calvin, and all manner of keys and anti-
dotes to Popery. But what Elizabeth and Mrs. Woodward
wanted, was a useful little library for the poor people of all per
suasions, not excluding religious books (except such as were con-
troversial and probably offensive), but including everything moral,
amusing, and instructive, suited to the young, and to people in
humble life. However, nothing is to be done in this world, even
the foundation of a village circulating library, without mutual
concession and compromise; and fortunately the Spenser party
been formed. As it was, it contained intellectual diet for every
were not as obstinate as others, or the library would never have
sort, condition, and taste; and the books (most of them in a very
hoggish and swinish condition), were jumbled together on the
shelves, or paraded at the little unclean window, mixed with nuts
and gingerbread, tops, balls, sealing-wax, and pop-guns; for Betty
Hogg, the librarian, was allowed to improve her situation by
dealing a little in other toys and sweets beside those of learning.
"One of the schools, too, was entirely Aunt Carry's. It was
a school for boys and girls under ten, and the school-mistress was
of her profession, as well as Shenstone's school-mistress herself.
an Ellen Hogg, who understood her craft, every art and branch
She was a tall, stern-looking, middle-aged, powerful woman,
kindly to the industrious and docile, but the terror of truants
and evil-doers. There grew no birchen-tree in her garden, but
there were birches on the neighbouring hills, which provided her:
with abundant discouragements to sloth, and stimulants to virtue.
Mrs. Woodward was a diciplinarian herself, and discipline reigned
wherever her influence reached. Then Ellen Hogg was as neat
in her person (though people did not expect it from her name),
as any woman could well be. Before her door there were no
Brushes and brooms
beauties of dunghill scenery to be seen.
were known to her. She used, and she enforced the use of
them.

what the Lord-Lieutenant, and this board, and that board, meant to do for them, or whether they meant to do anything at all. The Protestant population belonging to the Established Church, consisted of a grocer, a publican, two tailors, three policemen, and four revenue-officers, with their respective complements of wives and children. The Presbyterians numbered one shoemaker, two blacksmiths, a baker, a carpenter, and a wheelwright. of the burghers of all trades and vocations, a vast majority of the entire population, were Roman Catholics, principally McSwynes, with a few O'Gogarties, races of old renown in the country, but generally at fend with one another, for no assigned reason except a tradition that, fourteen hundred years ago; an O'Gogarty had pulled a McSwyne by the nose; which most legitimate cause of quarrel had been honestly transmitted from generation to generation, and was indeed at present the only inheritance that remained to either of those illustrious tribes. The scenery of Redcross was remarkably fine in its way; I mean, of course, the dunghill scenery. There was a charming picturesque mount, not so sweet as Hybla, fronting almost every house, the loftiest towering be fore the piggeries of the McSwynes, who were as vain of them as the Swiss are of their Alps. The streets of Redcross (for it possessed three or four) were never swept except by the wind, or watered but with aqua celestis; they were consequently as dusty in dry weather, as African plains, and in wet weather perfectly Parisian-in point of mud. The Protestants, who were mostly Hoggs, threw all the dirt of the place upon their fellow-townsmen, the McSwynes, and even went so far as to say that dirt and Popery always went together. Unfortunately, however, for this theory, Amby Hogg, the sexton, and Ralph Hogg, the Presby-by Ellen at school, and whipped at the pump into the bargain. terian shoemaker, were the slovenliest fellows in the borough, save the Quaker, who was perhaps the slovenliest fellow in the world, and had probably, for that reason, taken up his abode at Redcross. Then there was Mary Jane Hogg, wife of Luke Hogg, the grocer, who was a match for any slattern in Europe; but, to be sure, she made up by her finery on Sunday for the neglect of her person on the week-days. Besides, in these days of Protestant ascendancy, the Hoggs had an authority and power

which the McSwynes and O'Gogarties had not. The town had a corporation, and the members of it were all Hoggs, or of the Hogg faction. They might have paved, and swept, and washed, and whitewashed the municipality if they pleased. There were two aldermen of the name, three burgesses, two water-bailiffs, an officer called a bang-beggar, and another styled a butter-taster. The butter-tastership was a very snug thing (two hundred a-year with perquisites), and the holder of it lived at Carrickfergus. The bang-beggar was resident, and terrified the Celtic lazzarone by a furious display of authority annually, every Michaelmas. The rest of the year (three hundred and sixty-four days), mendicancy flourished better than any other profession, calling, or trade, in the borough of Redcross. There were beggars of all sorts, young and old, male and female, lame aud blind, feeble and able-bodieday, even rich and poor. The majority were strapping women and powerful men, women who should have had the alternative of the spinning-wheel or the stocks, and men who should have been put in a dilemma between the tail of the plough

and the tail of the cart.

"As to the theatres, museums, academies, halls, and institutes of the town, there are good reasons for being silent about them. But it had one or two establishments deserving of notice-a||

66

Encouraged by Aunt Carry, she aspired to reform the per sonal habits of the rising generation radically, and the urchin who was not washed by his mother at home was sure to be washed

church on Sunday, with her swarm of children about her, like The blooming Carry visited the school frequently, always after little satellites about a great primary; and then and there was a muster of all the pupils, and much catechising, and a report made. of the doings and misdoings of the previous week."

Ireland has many hard-working men in the Established Church, notwithstanding all the corruptions that undoubt edly belong to that institution. The strong, tall curate of Redcross, the brother-in-law of the rector, was one of these men. He gives the novel its name, although he does not appear to have so much to do with the narrative as many other people; but he is a decidedly likeable character:

2

"They found the great and good curate in that extraordinary study of his, and the apartment amused and astonished them as much as its occupier had done the day before. The ruins of a morning meal were scattered over several tables, the chief one not much more than half covered by the cloth; and the cu rate was sitting amongst them, like Marius in the wreck of Carthage, only that Marius was not employed darning his toga, as Hercules was repairing a rent in his huge pea-jacket, not having his wife to perform that delicate little office for him, The manly simplicity of the rustic clergyman, so cheerful and independent in the midst of his sacred poverty, struck his visitors forcibly. He chased a glossy and corpulent black cat from an oaken chair, to present it to Markham, and dusted a stool with a sleeve of the jacket to make it fit for Vivyan to sit on. Then he flung the jacket aside, and, forgetting that he wanted it on his

shoulders, entered lustily into conversation, suffering the cat to|| The characters are not so interesting as those in some of jump on his knee, to compensate her for ejectment from the chair. the author's former works. The curate bustles hither and Hercules had a partiality to cats, in common with many other remarkable men (including Tasso and Newton); and had surpris- thither most assiduously. Mr. Vivyan acts a very crediting stories to tell of their affection as well as their sagacity, con- able part everywhere, so does the lady to whom he is attrary to the prevailing opinion with respect to that most do- tached. Her brother ends as a reclaimed spendthrift. mestie of all animals. Mr. Dawson, M.P., breaks his neck in a cellar of his old house. The "best of all" in the affair is, that the bishop of the diocese gives the curate an archdeanery and a comfortable living.

The first inquiry of the yachtsmen was, of course, for the lady whom so alarming an accident had befallen. Hercules had been actually preparing to walk over to the rectory, to satisfy himself on the same point, and he was in raptures at the proposition which Markham made to bear him company.

*But will your friend be equal to it?' he asked, compassionately contemplating Vivyan's slender frame, much as Pantagruel may be supposed to have contemplated the pilgrim whom he found in the salad.

Anything under ten miles, sir,' said Vivyan, smiling.

Not five, by the route I shall take you,' said the curate; 'so I'll put on my coat and my shoes, and we'll start immediately.'

**I foresee I shall fall in love with this curate,' said Markham, when he left the room. 'How odd that Bonham said nothing of him!'

"They were not half done admiring the detail of the study, when Mr. Woodward reappeared, wonderfully metamorphosed, for, out of respect to the travellers, he had put on his full black suit. The coat, indeed, was an iron-gray, but he called it his black one, and it answered the purpose. His wife was the only person living who thought the clerical dress improved him; and, indeed, his frame and his features were more in keeping with the garb which he commonly wore on week days.

"Now,' said he, taking down the hat that was intended to match the suit (a low-crowned and broad-leaved one, but nothing of the shovel), 'now, gentlemen, let us take the road--but come, I must provide you with sticks.'

We have been admiring your formidable array of them in the corner,' said Markham, smiling.

"Aye,' said Hercules, 'I'm a stick-fancier. There's a cudgel there, I believe, of every wood that a cudgel was ever made of, oak, ash, hazel, holly, blackthorn, and bamboo, and some there have seen service. Take your choice, but I recommend you, Mr. Vivyan, to choose the bamboo; you will find it stout enough, and light into the bargain.'

"Vivyan took the curate's advice; Markham selected a powerful oak sapling, and Hercules himself sallied forth with the blackthorn.

"And so you actually bivouacked!' said Woodward, as they crossed the court-yard, that's a thing I never did myself, and I thought I had done most things of that kind.'

Markham gave a full account of the night they had passed, and the story of the cave excited the curate's curiosity greatly. It was utterly incomprehensible, and for some time he could talk of nothing else, minutely inquiring into all the circumstances, and framing theory after theory to explain them, then demolishing them himself without mercy. At length the charms of the scenery diverted the conversation into another channel.

"The walk was enjoyed prodigiously by all three. The curate! was, never so vigorous, either in mind or body, as when he was on the hills; he seemed to grow greater and greater as he got higher and higher; his mind became elastic as the turf he strode on; and his heart as expansive as the concave over his head. Markham resembled him in his passion for the heath, and his in

satiable love of muscular exertion.

"'You would make a capital mountain curate,' said Hercules, as George kept pace with him manfully, Vivyan lagging a little behind, and thinking that men might be very good pedestrians, without walking quite so fast.

"I fear,' said George, 'I should have no other qualification but a love for the mountains.'

"You would soon begin to love the mountaineers,' said Hercules; 'the only fault I find with my brother-in-law is that he can't walk-or won't walk; it comes to the same thing;-but now we are on the brow, and there is Redcross Rectory, that white house in the wood, beyond the water.'"

As in all similar works, after many trials and difficulties, vice is punished and virtue is rewarded. The work has no special application to Ireland. The same or similar incidents might have been cast in any other country,

The People's Dictionary of the Bible. In two vols. 8vo.
London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co.

This work is published without the author's or editor's name-a great defect in any book of general reference. We learn, from the preface, that the author was a contributor to Dr. Kitto's "Biblical Cyclopædia;" and from his volumes we can ascertain that he is extensively acquainted with biblical subjects; but in all works of this nature, more confidence is felt when the name of some party is given as responsible for their statements.

The two large volumes are thickly interspersed with illustrations in wood, taken chiefly from oriental subjects. The various explanations of the words referred to are concisely given; but as the dictionary professes to be neutral that one scarcely likes. It does not often occur, and is exin doctrinal points, there is a vague dimness on some topics plained by the neutral position of the work. The following extract, from the remarks on the word serpent, will partly explain our meaning:

"The ensuing view, taken from a Mexican painting, represents the celebrated serpent woman, Cihuacobuati, called also woman of our flesh, whom the Mexicans considered as the mother of the human race. She is always exhibited with a serpent. Other paintings give a feather-headed snake, cut in pieces by the great spirit Tezcatlipoca, or the sun personified. These traditions,' says A. Von Humboldt, remind us of the ancient traditions of Asia. In the woman and serpent of the Aztecks (of Mexico), we think we see the Eve of the Shemitic nations; in the snake cut in pieces, the famous serpent Kaliya conquered by Vishnoo, when he took the form of Crishna.' Probably the object seen near the mouth of the woman is an apple, or some kind of edible fruit. The erect attitude of the serpent deserves notice. The whole suggests the idea that the account of the temptation in Genesis is, so to say, a literal trauslation of a hieroglyph similar to the one here represented."

We scarcely remember of an idea on a subject of this nature suggested upon such a slender foundation. Because a man finds in Mexico a drawing of a woman and a serpentthe woman holding something in her hand, and near her mouth, which may be meant to represent edible fruit, or may not, and the serpent standing erect, and looking on || complacently;-therefore the "account of the temptation'' is "* a literal translation of a hieroglyph." Would it not be more probable that the hieroglyph, if it have any connection with the matter, was meant to record the tradition which is more precisely expressed in the passage referred to. It could not be doubted that the narrative would find its way, in a traditionary form, to succeeding generations.

The following passage, taken from the preface to the volumes, deserves much attention. General classical studies are certainly not remarkable for purity, or a good

introduction to life :

"In the progress of the studies requisite for the execution of his undertaking, the writer's estimate of the Bible has been greatly enhanced. Owing to conclusions which had been come to by learned foreigners, it was not without solicitude that he applied himself to the study of some topics

—such, for instance, as the authorship of the Pentateuch. || Zayda, and other Poems. By Thomas Stuart Trail. Lonand the Historical Validity of the Gospels. The result is before the reader. It is not meant to be implied that he has seen no reason to modify previous opinions; but he has met

Neither sound sentiments nor striking poetry; while,The day that's gone for ever, and the glen that's far away;

in an exile, seeking and finding a refuge here, the expressions are ungracious.

POLITICAL REGISTER.

from the throne; but in this instance almost every || turning to the same cash payments of 5s, 2d. per ounce topic of interest is embraced in this brief Ministerial announcement. The Navigation-laws have been discussed on two or three successive evenings in the House of Commons. The measure proposed for their repeal by Mr.. Labouchere closely resembles the bill of last year.

2. Who violated the standard pound, and cheated you and distress. of four ounces ?

3. Who violated the standard bushel, and cheated you tion of our ancient standard of value, and guardians to of a peck?

4. Who gave you a light sovereign, deficient in weight it longer. He attempts to rule England's capital with

Would you not avail yourself of the law for justice? Then this is what you are to do; for this is your case, and the cause of all our misery. On the 3d December last, Sir Robert Peel assured the Commons, " That he had restored to the nation our ancient standard of value, which he considered a wise measure." Now this is false, doubly false, trebly false, and quadruply false; for he has vio

lated our ancient standard of value in all three of its com

ponent parts-1st, Gold; 2d, Silver; and, 3d, Legal ten-|| ders; and also broken the national pledge of 1797, of re