QUARTERLIES FOR JANUARY.
TUE first article in the National is not so one-sided as its title, "Mr. Kingsley's Literary Errors and Excesses," may seem to imply. Along with the faults it denounces it takes emphatic note of the fine qualities they partly neutralize ; and in other respects also it does more than it promises. Much of it consists of a parallel, presented with great clearness of view and terseness of expression, between "the two most picturesque and graphic writers of the day.," Mr. Carlyle and Mr. Kingsley. The resem- blances between them have lately been ascribed by the Saturday Review to one sole cause—imitation ; the writer in the National adopts a totally different theory, and regards the two members of his parallel as being indeed cast in the same mould, but fashioned of different clays and animated by different spirits. In many points they are wide as the poles asunder ; in many they resemble each other, but always with variations. This conception gives piquancy and weight to the comparison founded upon it ; for truly some such conception must underlie every successful application
• of the old Plutarchian method. In literature parallelism without contrast would be a vapid thing. Another very interesting ar- ticle in this number discusses the character and labours of Theo- dore Parker, who, "with, all his deficiencies and exaggerations, must certainly be pronounced one of the religious powers of the age." It is written with great cordiality, and in a spirit tho- roughly liberal, but not latitudinarian, though it avers that Christians may be too fastidious in their notions of Church purity, that what they prize so highly may be bought too dear, and that it "can never replace a tithe of the spiritual strength that is lost by the exclusion of one earnest and devout heretic like Theodore Parker." There are two political articles, one of which, "Eng- land's Policy in the Congress," unluckily makes its appearance just at the moment when everybody is saying that there will be no Congress. However that may be, the general belief in a' coming Reform Bill remains unshaken, and therefore the writer of the article on "The History of the Unreformed Parliament, and its Lessons," may hope that he has not lost his labour.
The article in the Westminster which is likely to attract the greatest share of popular attention, is that on "Christian Re- vivals," of which we spoke last week. The important and diffi- cult question of Government contracts is the subject of a useful paper, the more useful perhaps because the mode of treatment is not didactic but expository. " The Realities of Paris" is an amusing and instructive article, and might have been still better if _ the well-informed writer had not troubled himself to notice such trashy books as those by the author of "Flemish Interiors," and by Mr. James Grant. In the remarkable article entitled "The Social Organism," the reader will probably recognize the hand of a distinguished investigator of social and psychological science. The analogy between the body politic and a living individual body was long ago dimly perceived, and has subsequently been re- asserted from time to time, but upon vague grounds, and with a more or less fanciful cast of illustration. The writer in the West- minster traces out this analogy through all its details, with the accuracy of a mind not less conversant with the laws and phe- nomena of animal life than with those exhibited in the growth of societies. In "Sicily as it was and is," we have a vigorous sketch of the history of the island from its prosperous times under its Norman constitution to the present wretchedness in which it lies beneath the heel of the Bourbon tyrant, a dumb witness against the broken faith of England- " During the last ten years t insurrectionary efforts in January 1850, and again in the autumn of 1856, have been the only variations in a dark period of misery and stagnation. (As we write, Sicily is reported to be in the throes of a new revolution.) Martial law is still in force, nay, more strin- gently in force than heretofore, were that possible, throughout the island. Palermo has a garrison of 18,000 troops ; and forty cannons ready loaded are ranged in the square of the palace ; 8000 men hold Messina; WOO Ca- tania. Between the oppressors and the oppressed subsists a deadly ani- mosity; the Sicilian regards the Neapolitan as the Venetian does the Aus- trian. As in the old times already described, the police is all-powerful and unrelenting ; the punishment of the stick, often on the mere suspicion of a political offence, is carried to a pitiless extent. As in those times also, it is the aim of Naples to degrade Sicily in the social scale. The inventions of the day are not applicable beyond the Straits ; railroads are still unknown ; even lighting by gas is denied to the entreaties of the citizens of Palermo. No steamers are allowed to approach the island, but such as touch at Naples, both in going and returning. In the desire to keep them remote from po- litics, when any stirring event is abroad, the mails are sometimes detained for a week together, as if to irritate them by withholding the cautious de- tails of the official journals to which even the Neapolitans have access. Neither is internal communication encouraged. The inland towns are
wholly inaccessible, except by mule tracks. Three or four years ago, a royal lieutenant took measures for repairing some roads. Orders came from Naples to suspend the works.
" The correspondence between Sicily and foreign countries is jealously watched; every one knows their letters will be opened, and that an incau- tious revelation would cost the writer his liberty. Hence the difficulty of obtaining many details illustrative of the actual condition of the island. In a measure it seems cut off from the rest of Europe. Few come and go. Such of the political emigrants as have obtained permission to return to Sicily, have generally found themselves interdicted from leaving it. Wo- men are not beneath the Governmentts vigilant suspicions. The wife of Don Emerico Amari, one of the most eminent of the constitutional party, and of the ancient nobility of the island, has sued in vain for the last two years for perxhission to repair thither to see her aged parents. The widowed Princess Butera is alike unable to return to her native country, unless in her petition to the King she stigmatizes as a rebel the husband in whom she gloried. Not content with harshness to the living, the court of Naples ex- tends its enmity to the dead. The remains of the Prince of Butera, those also of the Marquis of Spedalotto, are not allowed to be conveyed to the vaults of their ancestors. In Malta still lives the venerable Ruggiero set- time. In Paris, Turin, Genoa, and Nice are to be found the other repre- sentative men of the Sicilian revolution. Driven from home, from riches, and from station, they bear their lot with the philosophy of men conscious of suffering in a right cause. They speak of England, without passion, without bitterness, but without hope. If the day of redemption is to dawn for Sicily, they no longer look to it from her."
The number closes with a long and carefully written article, headed " Italy : the Designs of Louis Napoleon," the ability of which will be readily admitted even by those who dissent from some of its conclusions.
Bentley's Quarterly Review, which has come to hand, as usual, several days after the rest of the present batch, opens with an article on "The Coming Political Campaign" from a Conserva- tive point of view.
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