but little patience with those who fail to see in the stalwart actor's mighty muscles, gusty passions, and intense vitality, all the elements of a most "robust and towering specimen of impassioned manhood." There is a certain savage glee in his attacks upon such "weaklings" as have disagreed with him, and displayed their "ignorance of virile truth in querulous complaints" that Forrest's acting showed both " coarseness and ferocity." Throughout his narrative such misappreciators of his hero keep Mr. Alger constantly employed; he is continually on the watch for those Philistines that beset the path of genius with their feeble criticism; and where he finds one, does not fail to dash upon him with a force of fierce invective beside which Forrest's own might pale. He is not long content without some object of denunciation, and in the intervals often reminds us very strongly of a character in one of Leon Gozlan's novels, who, when conventionalities offended him, was wont to query fiercely, "Mais quand pourrai-je manger un bourgeois?" It would, however, be an injustice both to Mr. Alger and his subject should this inevitable comment on the book's extravagances convey the impression that we have found it, as a whole, either absurd or valueless. It is by no means necessary that we should. In spite of Mr. Alger's somewhat riotous fancy, he has been in the main more faithful to his task than those who agree with him in his heroic conception of the actor's character might wish. The actual narrative, which forms the main portion of the book, though far too richly decorated with the arabesques of Mr. Alger's rhetoric, is at least not itself distorted; and either intentionally, or because of the writer's instinctive conscientiousness, is so easily separable by the reader from the comments made upon it, that one unconsciously clears away the verbiage as he reads, and rises from the book with a very fair idea of what Forrest really was. Sonorous phrase about his slowly swaying equilibrium and balanced consciousness floating upon his surcharged ganglia is, after all, of little consequence when we have here beside it the easily gathered facts of his history and character told with a truth which could have no better testimony than that they often run counter to the design of their narrator. We do not deny that they establish Forrest's claims to a place in the literature of biography as a typical character, the embodiment of a certain force and vigor which there is a common tendency to identify with genius; but that the force was essentially of the earth earthy, and the vigor incapable of use in any very high direction, we are more than ever convinced by reading Mr. Alger's book. 5. Les Secrets d'État dans le Gouvernment Constitutionel. Par le Gé néral ALPHONSE LA MARMORA. Paris: Libraire Militaire de J. Dumaine. 1877. pp. 156. WHILE General La Marmora's latest publication is principally a defence of his own political conduct and previous publications, it is interesting as throwing light upon the relations which now exist between Italy and Germany, and as affording us a glimpse into the negotiations in 1866, which have doubtless contributed to produce those relations. The high positions which General La Marmora has occupied in the service of his country, having filled the functions of Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, President of the Council, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and Administrator of the Kingdom of Naples shortly after its annexation, invest any revelations he may have to make with a peculiar weight and importance. The object of his present brochure is not, however, so much to divulge new secrets as to defend himself for revealing those which caused so much sensation on the occasion of his former work, "un peu plus de lumière"; the statements in which, relative to the negotiations which had taken place between Italy and Prussia at the time of the Prusso-Austrian war, Prince Bismarck stigmatized in the German Chamber as "an impudently false invention," and with characteristic arrogance demanded from the Italian government that they should pass a law rendering any such publication of political documents in future penal. This law was passed; it was a direct insult to General La Marmora, and he now revenges himself on the Minister who passed it at the dictation of the German Chancellor, and on that potent personage himself, by reiterating the assertions to which he took umbrage, and throwing back upon him the charge of falsehood. As between Prince Bismarck and General La Marmora, our experience of the two men would lead us to give the benefit of the doubt as to who is telling the truth to the Italian. Unfortunately his adversary is too powerful even for truth to prevail against him. The publication by Count Arnim of despatches which were undoubtedly genuine, and which did not represent the German Chancellor as a model of truthful diplomacy, did not save him from destruction, and now General La Marmora thinks that if he can prove his case, he has won it. The misfortune in these disputes is that the truth can only be known through a breach of political confidence. It is true that General La Marmora was basely maligned; the worst treachery towards Prussia, of which he was undoubtedly innocent, was ascribed to him by the Prussian government organs, because it suited the German Chancellor to ignore the assistance which Italy had rendered to Prussia in her struggle with Austria, and La Marmora was finally goaded to retaliate and to defend himself, which he could only do by the revelation of state secrets, which did not reflect very much credit upon any of the parties concerned. For this he was generally blamed at the time, and we doubt very much whether he has made his own case better by this last publication. It can certainly not be gratifying to his countrymen, as it proves how completely Bismarck has got his heel upon them; nor can it be pleasing to the German Chancellor, as it gives us some idea of the means usually employed by that eminent statesman whenever he wishes to weave the toils of his diplomacy round a foreign government. The fetters which were flung round Italy in 1866, and against which General La Marmora so bitterly inveighs, are drawn even tighter now, for Italy has no longer France to appeal to, and is in the inexorable gripe of Prussia. She is held in a leash by the German Chancellor, and will be slipped upon Turkey the day that Austria declares war against Russia, and in self-defence finds herself driven to an alliance with the Porte. Perhaps the very campaign which Prussia dictated to Italy in 1866, and his refusal to adopt which is the cause of La Marmora's present quarrel with Bismarck, will be forced upon some more pliable general, when Italy is ordered by the German government to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them in the present European complication by taking up arms against Austria. Across Central America. By J. W. BODDAM WHETHAM. London. "IF," says Mr. Boddam Whetham in the preface to his book, "my readers only know as little of the subjects of this volume before taking it up as I did before I started on my journey, I trust they will be in some measure repaid by its perusal." The fault we have to find with the author is that he should have limited his literary effort to a desire to satisfy that portion of the public who were as ignorant of Central America as he was himself before he started on his tour across it. Had his ambition been higher, his book would have been better worth reading. As it is, we thankfully accept it as a slight though distinct addition to our knowledge of a very little known region, which our author had great opportunities of rendering far more satisfactory and complete. Assuming that our readers have read Stephens and Morelet, and that their ignorance of Guatemala is not so profound as Mr. Boddam Whetham's seems to have been, they will appreciate the value of his exploration when we tell them that he travelled from Coban to Peten by a hitherto untraversed route. Crossing the range which intersects the unexplored Lacandone country of Guatemala by a path much to the westward of that followed by Morelet, he descended the "Pasion," or Upper Usmuacinta, for three days in a canoe through a region never before described. The importance and interest of this achievement Mr. Boddam Whetham in his modesty does not seem to understand. Thus we have a valuable piece of exploration accomplished, and no map of any kind to illustrate it. We have lovely scenery described, heretofore unvisited, but the only illustrations contained in the book are those of the city of Guatemala and of Peten, both of which we have seen pictures of before. A map and itinerary are essential to a journey of exploration, but beyond guessing from the Preface that the exploration was made last year, we have nothing definite in regard to dates. Our author tantalizes us by telling us that he traversed a forest "whose depths contain innumerable ruins both small and great," but leaves the rest to the imagination. "Hardly a league away on the opposite side of the river," he says on one occasion, "are the remains of a very extensive city, but so thick is the jungle, and so overgrown with great trees are the stone-walls, that it is difficult to trace the form or meaning of any of the massive fragments." And this is all he tells us of ruins that have never before been visited or described by any traveller. If Mr. Boddam Whetham had given the time and the space which he has devoted to the ruins of Quiché, Copan, and Palenque, which we know all about, to the unvisited ruins which must exist in the region he traversed, we should indeed have owed him a debt of gratitude; if, instead of lingering at Peten, which Morelet has exhausted, he had pushed on, as he had an opportunity of doing, to Tickal, only forty miles distant, which we know nothing of beyond the rumor that it is a large city, with many of the buildings three and four stories high, remaining in perfect condition, though still sealed up, he would have imparted an altogether exceptional interest to his book, and might possibly have earned for himself a considerable reputation. As it is, he has written a book which is well worth reading, which is most agreeable in style, and shows the author to be a man of culture and refinement, which must certainly interest and amuse those who care as little about antiquarian and archæological research as he seems to do himself, but which has a tendency to produce a slight feeling of irritation in the minds of that more limited section of the public who feel that Mr. Boddam Whetham has had a magnificent chance, which he has thrown away, of telling them something they did not know before. 7.- The Marquis of Lossie: A Romance. By GEORGE MACDONALD, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1877. pp. 245. To say that the author of "The Marquis of Lossie " ranks among the first novelists of the day is perhaps hardly to render justice to the place which Mr. MacDonald holds in the estimation of a large class of readers. With these he is even more popular than Mrs. Lewes (George Eliot) or Charles Reade. We can quite understand the fascination which he exercises over the minds of his admirers. Mrs. Lewes allows her love of subtle analysis of character, and a thin and often trite metaphysical vein to interfere so seriously with the action of her novels, that the interest of the reader flags, and a sense of weariness and discontent steals over him, even while he recognizes the genius and fine literary faculty of the author. Charles Reade, on the other hand, never allows the "moral" of the story to interfere with its action, but the moral is too often a hobby of his own rather than one which interests the general reader. The abuses of private lunatic asylums and of prisons, or the bigotry and narrowness of the medical profession, to denounce which his last novel, "A Woman-Hater," seems to have been written, may justify attack, but they do not appeal to a widespread popular sympathy. The charm of George MacDonald is, that, while the interest of his narrative is so absorbing that it is difficult to tear one's self away from it, the moral lesson which it conveys is thoroughly suited to the reflecting mind of the day. The thoughts which issue so spontaneously from the lips of his leading characters are exactly those which his readers have been thinking, and want to see expressed in words: the problems which, in "The Marquis of Lossie," puzzle Lady Clementina Thornicroft, are precisely those which are puzzling thousands of the best and most intelligent women of society; and the sentiments which the author puts into the mouth of the Marquis himself will find their response in the breast of every noble and generous nature that is struggling to emancipate itself from those narrow and dogmatic formulas, which the highest religious instinct revolts from as opposed to the spirit of pure Christianity. It is refreshing in these days to meet an author whose whole effort and aim seems to be to do good to his readers, and to do it with all humility and simplicity, for Mr. MacDonald's hatred of pedantry and cant is a conspicuous feature of his teaching. We only regret that so many of the finest and most original ideas should be clothed in dialect of the broadest and most incomprehensible Scotch. Mr. MacDonald increases the difficulty by not spelling his Scotch in the conventional way, but exactly VOL. CXXV. - NO. 258. 25 |