SEPTEMBER MAGAZINES. * WHATEV .hR the members of the " Scottish
Rights Association" may say about injustice to the " land of the mountain and flood," they have no right to complain of any want of nationality in the pre- sent number of Blackwood. "The Scot Abroad," as diplomatist, does ample justice to "the remarkable versatility, energy, and adaptation to foreign governments and habits," inherited by the countrymen of John Knox. A much higher article, however, and one still more strongly imbued with a manly feeling of patriotism, as well as with amusing irony and quiet humour, is the promised criticism on that portion of Macaulay's History which relates to Scotland. The skill with which the critic handles the scalpel is not less than his moderation in dealing with the worst faults of the historian. While expressing admiration of the talent and research displayed in the " History of England," he gives some remarkable illustrations of that " knack of historical interpretation " by which the most sweeping inferences are drawn from the most insignificant data; and affirms that, by using the same freedom with the historian and essayist, it would be easy to prove " that Mr. Macaulay himself is one of the dullest and least able writers upon record ; that his Ballads are cloggrel ; his Essays turgid ; his History too heavy and too accurate foranything but a class-book." A second part of the " Sea-side Studies" carries on the history of the writer's experiences among the minor won- ders of creation, in the same pleasant style as that of last month. The history of a duel between two hermit crabs is well told. They are described as walking round and round the vase " eyeing each other with settled malignity,—like Charles Kean and Wigan in the famous duel of the Corsican Brothers.' " " Oldtower, a Brookside Dialogue," is another seasonable playful-earnest article, by an old contributor. The story of " The Athelings " grows in interest as it proceeds. Among the new characters introduced this month, few readers will be at a loss to find out the real name of the old connoisseur who figures at full length as Mr. Agar.
By way of counterpoise to the nationality of the Northern magazine, Fraser gives a somewhat rough rubbing-down to Pro- fessor Aytoun's "Bothwell" ; which is said to be " marked through- out by fatal deficiencies,—a want of story, a want of character, a want of poetic treatment, above all a want of anything like in- tellectual strength." This wholesale condemnation of the author of " Firmilian, a Tragedy," will almost atone, in George Gilfillan's eyes, for the manner in which his own vulgar and impertinent work "The History of a Man" is hacked and hewed to pieces. The East India service is the subject of two articles this month : one, a slight but lifelike sketch of the everyday life of a Sepoy the other, on the " Prospects of the Indian Civil Service," discusses the probable result of the " open " system. A very brief notice of M. de Montalembert's lastpamphlet, " Pie IX et Lord Palmerston," disposes pretty well of anything put forward in the shape of argument by the French orator.
"A Glimpse of Uncle Sam Managing Affairs," in the New Monthly, comes very seasonably at a time when the eyes of the world are turned. towards Washington. " Uncle Sam," in the present instance, means the two Houses of Congress as they pre- sented themselves to the inspection of " T. C. Henley, Esq." during the nine weeks of last winter in which the House of Repre- sentatives was kept in a state of disorganization by the non- election of a Speaker. Mr. Henley's description of the bullying and fighting among the "representative men" of the United States fully corroborates all that has been said about that promi- nent feature in the manners of the Model Republic. On the other hand, the following account of the slow manner in which the reporting business of Congress is managed will surprise many of our readers.
" The gentleman who manages the reporting of the Senate for Congress is an Englishman named Sutton. He is a very respectable type of John Bull. If we meet him in the rotunda presently, when the Senate rises, you will probably see the weightiest man in the Capitol. Nevertheless, Mr. Sutton has become such a Yankee in idea, that in conversation he in- formed me that the debates of no legislative body in Europe were so well reported as those of the United States Congress by the Congressional reporters. I beg to dissent. The Londoner has in the morning paper on his breakfast-table a full report of the debates in both Houses of Parliament, • Blackwood's _Edinburgh Magazine, No. 991. Published by Blackwood and
Sons.
Fraser's Magazine, No. 321. Published by Parker and Son. Colburn's New Monthly Magazine, No. 429. Published by Chapman and Hall. Bentley's Miscellany, September 1856. Published by Bentley. Dublin University Magazine, No. 2815. Published by Hodges and Co. Titan, September 1856. Published by Hogg, Edinburgh. whether the Houses adjourned at six the previous evening or sat till near six the same morning. No newspaper establishment in Washington can accomplish that. There is only one paper, the Congressional Globe, which professes to reportfully the proceedings of Congress. The proprietors of the National Intelligencer, which is at the head of the Washington press, tried it on at once. They engaged a staff of shorthand-writers to report in full : but when Congress sat late, the publication of the paper was delayed beyond post-time, and the thing didn't pay ; so it was soon given up. When there are very heavy debates, even the Globe can't publish them the next day ; but the first part of the report appears, and the conclusion is delayed till the re- porters find time to write out their notes and the publisher time to print. At the close of the session the reporters are far in arrear, and take many days to transcribe their unpublished notes. And then, when members wish to write out their own speeches after delivery, or to revise the reporters' notes, you get nothing in the Globe but the announcement that Mr. So-and-So's speech is kept back for revision. Days or weeks after, it is published, and ultimately the complete report of the debates of the session gets into print."
" The Sequel of the Session," by Cyrus Redding, contains some caustic remarks on the sleepy manner in which our Louse of Com- mons has been managing the business of the nation. " We hope the Members did. not adjourn," says Mr. Redding, "with any feeling of self-satisfaction at the sum of their performances. If most of them, like noble Andrew Marvel, had to send to their con- stituents an account in writing of what they did in their behalf, it would at best, we fear, be a very threadbare performance. We confess we cannot understand it." Perhaps Mr. Redding would obtain some insight on the subject were he to ask any of the lead- ing Liberals of the House of Commons their opinion of the Sep- tennial Act.
Those sceptics who believe that the body found on Hampstead Heath, last winter, was not John Sadleir, but a counterfeit got up for the purpose of throwing his angry creditors off the scent, will find their credulous incredulityjustified by Dudley Costello, in his continuation of " The Joint-Stock Banker," in Bentley's Miscellany. The very scene of the catastrophe has been adopted. by the novelist ; who gives the whole particulars of the transac- tion with as much minuteness as the most ardent lover of horrors could desire. A notice of the professional life of Madame Vestris gives some interesting incidents in the brilliant career of that successful artiste. "A Quartet of Quarterly Reviewers " is a pleasant gossiping paper about Scott, Southey, Earl Stanhope, and Croker, in their reviewing capacity. " A Month in the Crimea" is a readable article, but not striking : that topic has almost lost its interest now. An Hour on Serpent Island, in the hands of a clever writer, might have been more amusing.
The first article in the Dublin University is an account of "The United States Navy," by one who appears to be pretty well ac- quainted with that branch of the American service, and who gives reasons for his opinion, that, in spite of the swaggering of Mr. Fenimore Cooper and other American writers, " there is no like- lihood. whatever to anticipate a deadly struggle for the mastery of the seas between Great Britain and her Transatlantic offspring." So far as regards the actual strength of the United States navy, everybody knows that it is insignificant compared with ours ; i but this is not all : a large proportion of the seamen on board the American men-of-war are aliens, and their loyalty could. not be relied. on in the event of a war with England." " This is not mere theory," says the naval critic, " but the actual fact" ; and then he proceeds to give proofs. The description which he gives of the severe discipline in the Ame- rican navy agrees with all that we have read and heard on that subject ; but we question whether this is altogether owing to the cause he assigns. It is no doubt true that the majority of officers in the United. States navy belong to what is called the " Southern aristocracy," or slaveholding interest ; and that they naturally exhibit " their arbitrary, cruel, and almost irrespon- sible notions of authority, when they find. themselves in command of freemen, either by sea or land." Still we must remember that they have an unruly class of men to deal with. The freedom of American institutions and manners is not well calculated to make men submit readily to naval discipline : so that considerable al- lowance must be made for the officers if they do exhibit some- thing of the slave-driver in their treatment of the men. Apropos of General O'Donnel's recent coup d'etat, an article on The Irish in Spain" brings together a number of interesting facts re- lating to the military achievements of emigrant Milesians in the Peninsula. The O'Donnel family appears to have been connected with Spain for centuries, but it is chiefly within the last fifty years that the name has become so renowned. Four individuals of that name, the sons of Irish gentlemen, attained distinction in the Peninsular war ; and at the present day this ancient Celtic family can number four general officers of the highest rank in the service of Great Britain, Spain, Austria, and America. The ar- gaments in favour of " A New Translation of the Bible" are discussed in an article on that topic. Mr. Heywood's ease is fairly stated, but the writer comes to the conduaion that there are not sufficient grounds for the proposed change.
A writer in Titan (the new name of Hogg' s Instructor in an improved form) speaks in very gloomy ter.. of the injury in- flicted on evangelical religion by Millenarianism, which always flourishes in periods of political stagnation like the present. " We fear slat for Popery or infidelity," says the writer, " so long as we have an open Bible and a conscience ; but those visionary hopes of a second advent to precede a thousand years' temporal sovereignty of the saints in Jerusalem and elsewhere—hopes which assume the exclusive sanctity of those who entertain them, and bid them look down on the most pious life without these views as little better than a kind of baptised Paganism-we look, we say, upon this error, which infects evangelical religion peculiarly, and which can so sweetly smile and then betray,' as one of the most fearful signs of the times." This is taking the matter rather too seriously to heart: the Millennarian fever will have its day, as it has more than once had already, and will then pass by, leaving religion as sound and healthy as ever. " The Lords of Lancashire is a pretty fair pen-and-ink sketch of the coal-mining population in that industrious county. But the most noteworthy article in the number is a notice of Froude's History of England, by De Quincy, in which the English Opium-eater speaks in eulogistic terms of that "very eloquent and philosophic book." His concluding re- mark, that " Mr. Froude is the first writer (first and sole) who has opened his eyes to comprehend the grandeur of this tremen- dous reign "is high praise from one so chary in laudation as Mr. De Quincy.
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