Extracts.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 449, 21 February 1857, Page 5

Extracts.

! " review. ;..■- ■. ..,.:• (From the " Guardian.") .-■.....' Tt ■ Never too Late to Mend. A Matter offact Romance. By C Reade, Author of "Christie Johnstone," &c. Three Yols. Richard Bentley. In point of artistic construction of plot, this ffrmMo and powerfully-written story must be denounced a failure. Six heroes are just five L many, both for the one heroine and for the ordinary reader's powers of attention; and upon the general plot— i.e., the story which wins and ends ; the book—itself improbable and rambling, are engrafted two other episodes totally unconnected both with it and with each other, unless in the accident that they are strung on to the history of the same two men. Moreover, very many more of the contrivances —especially, for instance, the elaborately-pre-pared "ear of Dionysius," by which the Jew finally outwits the' scoundrel of the book—rer jnindus of nothing so much as. of Rob Roy's purse, with its ingenious device for shooting the thief who should be so kind as to attempt its fastenings in the right (or wrong) way instead of using his knife to rip it open below; virile the rascality of Mr. Meadows in its final stmcwles, and even in its earlier stages, seems to be~iiable to much the same imputation, and to need a very accommodating victim in order to its success. That the characters are either taken from low, indeed .from the lowest life, or described in connection with it, is perhapshardly to be made at the present day a formal objection. They are, at any rate,^ not caricatured; the interest of the conversations does not lie in the mere cockneyism, vulgarity, or villany of the language employed, nor are the incidents for the most part very repulsive in themselves wvery melo-dramatic in the way in which they are put together; at least these faults ;do not constitute the substance, of the book as in the modern low school of novel they usually do, although twenty years ago, doubtless, Mr. Eeade' would have been charged in a degree with all of them. Even now he seems to rival Dickens in the rapidity of his transitions from sublime to vulgar, from pathetic to facetious, from tragic passion to coarse humour. ■ One further objection, however, must be made before we come to well-deserved praise. A great deal of affectation may be pardoned as the'price of otherwise vigorous writing.., Better that.strong shoots should occasionally crumple up into over-luxuriance, than that readers should be condemned to mere unvaried smooth inanity. But Mr. Eeade tries our patience a little too much on this point. He writes books, in his own strange phrase, " with the biceps muscle" a good deal too prominent. His choice of phrases would be Carlylean if it could, and he deals also in the rather clap-trap artifices of occasional short chapters, half a page or so in length, with emphatic sentences printed in. capital letters. - One great merit of the book is indicated by the language of its title, and of its dedication. It is a "matter-of-fact romance"—a " solid fiction." As Mr. Dickens tried to reform workliouses by Oliver Twist, so Mr. Reade, first of all, tries to reform prisons by his story of Thomas Robinson, and the chaplain, Francis Eden. But there is this difference —that the prison details of Mr. Reade are literal and historical fact, scarcely coloured by the nervous language and necessary cloak of dramatisation which the novelist, of course, supplies. The inquiry into the Birmingham gaol, a year or two since, furnishes most of his facts. His object is to expose ■ the " separate" system, as well as the cruelties in enforcing it practised in that gaol. The other subject of Mr. Reade's pen is the goldfields of Australia. And .as Mr. Chesterton's recent book coincides with and corroborates the former part of his censures, so the details of Mr. Howitt's Australian expeneiices are worked up in the latter part into -a story exceedingly marvellous and exciting; yet ior every word of which we have no doubt'its writer could produce chapter and verse of evidence. With the motive and general purpose °t both Culminations we in the main heartily sympathise. Like most writers stirred by a zealous motive, the language is occasionally exaggerated; the tone, for instance, in which routine and officialism are assailed are overdone. Nor do we'quite think that justice is rendered to the motives which led to the ori-

ginal establishment of the " separate" prison system, or to the improvement on the previous state of prisons which it at least attempted. In its condemnation we see Mr.' Chesterton concurs with our author; and we can but hope that this, like other social questions, is now getting knocked into right shape by, and not in spite of, the errors of its pioneers. The blackest colours of Mr. Reade's .palette, however, are rightly bestowed, riot on a system right in its object, although mistaken in its means, but on the atrocious cruelties practised in some instances by those who had to carry it out. , The following account of the dawn of morning in Australia will give a fair idea of the writer's powers of description, and of the coarse but strong thread of originality and of oddity that runs through the web .of his composition :-— ' "And now it was cold, much colder than before* darker too, no moon now, only the silver stars ;it makes one shiver. Nature seemed to lie stark, and stiff; and dead, and that accursed craake (of the quail) is her dirge. All tends to shivering and gloom. Yet a great event approached. "Craake! " A single event, a thousand times weightier to the world each tin-.e it comes, than if with one fell stroke all the kingdoms of the globe became republics, and all the republics empires, so to remain a thousand years. An event a hundred times more beautiful than any other thing the ej'e can hope to see while in the flesh; yet it regaled the other senses too, and;blessed the universal heart. , "Before this prodigious event came its little heralds sweeping across the face of night. First came a little motion of cold air, it was dead-still before; then an undefinable freshness ; then a very slight but rather grateful smell from the soil of the conscious earth. Then twittered from the bush one little hesitating chirp. ..-■ ■ "Craake! went the lugubrious quail, poohpoohing the suggestion. Then, somehow, rocks, and forests, and tents, seemed less indistinct in shape ; outlines peeped where masses had been.. , ?' Jug ! jug ! went a bird with a sweet jurgle in his deep throat. Craake! went the ill-omened one directly, disputing the last inch of nature. But a gay thrush took up the brighter view ; oteck otock took ! o tuee oo ! o tuee oo! o chio chee! o chio chee ! sang the thrush, with a decision as well as a melody that seemed to say, 'Ah! but lam sure of it"; I am sure, I am sure, wake up! joy! joy !' "From that moment there was no more craake: the lugubrious quail shut up in despair, perhaps in disdain, and out gurgled another jug! jug! jug! as sweet a chuckle as Nature's sweet voice ever uttered in any land; and with that a mist like a white sheet came to light, bnt only for a moment, for it dare not stay to be inspected. ' I know who is coming, I'm off;' and away it crept off close to the ground, and little drops of dew sparkling in the frost-powered grass. , "Yock ! yock ! o chio faliera po! Otock otock tock! o chio chee! o chio chee ! : "Jug! jug! jug! jug! '-'Off we go! off we go !: "And now a thin red streak came into the skj% and perfume burst from the bushes, and the woods rang, not only with songs, some shrill, some as sweet as honey,"but with a grotesque yet beautiful electric merriment of birds that can only be heard in the land of wonders, the pen can give but a faint shadow of the drollery and devilry of the sweet merry rogues that hailed the smiling morn. Ten thousand of them, each with half a dozen songs, besides chattering and talking and imitating the fiddle and fife and trombone. Niel gow ! Niel gow ! Niel gow ! whined a leatherhead. Take care o' my hat ! cries a thrush in a soft melancholy voice; then, with a frightful harshness and severity, where is your bacca-box! your box! your box! Then, before any one could answer, in a tone that said devil may care where the box is or anything else, gyroc de doc ! gyroc de doc ! roc de doc ! cheboc eheboe! Then came a tremendous cackle, ending with an obstreperous liool boo! ha! from the laughing jackass who had. caught sight of the red streak in the sky—harbinger like himself of morn ; and the piping crows or whistling magpies modulating and" humming and chanting, not like birds but like practised musicians with rich barytone voices, and the next moment creaking just for all the world like Punch, or barking like a pug-dog. And'thcdelicious thrush, with its sweet and mellow tune.- ■ Fothing in an English world so honey sweet as his otock otock otock !..o tuee o o! o tuee o o! o chio chee! o chio chee! .... " When all this drollery and devilry and joy and absurdity were at their maddest, and these thousand feathered fountains bubbling song were at their highest, then came the cause of all the meiry hubbub ; the pinnacles of rock glowed burnished gold; Nature that had crept from gloom to pallor, burst from pallor to light and life and burning colour—the great sun's forehead came with one gallant stric'e into the sky, and it was day !"

_Mr. Reade is scarcely as powerful in describing the passions of men as he is with the phenomena of nature, or with Aristophanic phoneticism of birds. He paints men with a broader dash of colour, and describes classes rather than individuals. And his pet clergyman, a well and true character on the whole, turns declaimer now and then, and talks unnaturally. He draws however with truth and vigour, although failing rather in delicacy of touch and- originality of conception. But we will have ho room for further extracts. Readers find that their interest will not flag even through three volumes, and that they will not be often tempted to skip. Nor will they be vexed with low sentiments' although introduced to low company, or miss in any part of the volumes the manly and healthy (although somewhat self-sufficient and censorious) tone of thought which rings in Mr. Reade's language, as it has prompted his choice of subjects.

Mr. T. S. Forsaith's Lectures on New Zealand. —A London correspondent writing on the 14th of October, says," I have to tell you that we went to. hear Mr. Forsaith lecture on New Zealand, and were highly delighted. He had a large and well got up diagram of the New Zealand Islands, showing their relative position to Australia, and another on a larger scale showing the neighbourhood of Auckland. Then he had also a series of views of scenery, and localities on rollers, so that one was developed after the other as the lecture proceeded. Each view was about 7 by 5 feet, and I think there were ten views all lighted by concealed jets of gas in the most approved lecturer-fashion. His audience which was large was equally astonished and pleased. He is now making a round of visits to public places in the neighbourhood to repeat the lecture.— New Zealander." The following longer account we quote from the 'Morning Chronicle.' On the evening of Thursday, the 16th October, a very interesting and very practical lecture was delivered at the. Young Men's Christian Association, Aldersgate Street, by Mr. T. S. Forsaith, on New Zealand, its geography, history, progress, and prospects. The lecturer's aim was to remove many of the incorrect notions existing with respect to this interesting— dependency of the British Crown. The lecturer, as an old settler, gave his audience a true account of his experience of twenty years, beginning with his first impressions on landing, his first humble log house, and closing with his present ■" out of town " residence, a fairy spot, sheltered by noble hills and surrounded with all that identifies the new home with the " old country." The several statements made by Mr, Forsaith were just and impartial as regards all the settlements, although, as an Auckland man, he naturally praised this the capital of New Zealand, a "position it must maintain from its excellent harbours. In referring to the ancient mythology of the natives, the lecturer said that it was remarkable in many respects on account of the traces of Mosaic origin which it bears. According to their former faith, there was ,a time when nothing existed. First, thought appeared, then spirit, and last of all came matter." They believed in the existence of disembodied spirits, with whom their spirits held converse, but they had no belief in one Supreme Being, the Creator of all things. An old chief once said to Mr. Forsaith, " is not one of you a carpenter, another a blacksmith, another a builder—so it was in the beginning, one God made one thing, and another that." According to their mythology, darkness once universally prevailed, and the heavens and the earth were united in conjugal embraces. The issue of the union was a numerous progeny, who were kept closely confined, between the bodies of their parents. They conspired to separate the heaven from the earth, at first they designed to slay their parents, but at length they agreed to banish the heavens and keep the earth as a nursing mother. The attempt was made by the captive progeny in turn but many failed; at last one by a desperate effort succeeded in rending them asunder, and then it was that darkness and light were both made manifest, Then, too, were discovered innumerable human beings, hitherto concealed between the heaven and the earth. The legend, fraught with poetry, gees on to say that ever since the vast heaven has remained at a distance from his spouse. But their love to each other continues. The sighs of the earth's widowed heart still rise towards him. ascending from the

valleys in forms which men call mist; whilst the heaven, mourning every night the absence of his beloved earth, sheds tears upon her bosom which in the morning are found hanging upon every herb, and are by men called dew. Their account of the creation of New Zealand is equally romantic. The lecture was fully appreciated by a crowded audience, and at the close Mr. Forsaith received due and appropriate thanks from •the.committee, This gentleman, after twenty years' exertion, has attained an independence, and holds the office of a magistrate, in addition to being a member of the Legislative Assembly of Auckland.

The Meeting at Tattpo.—A correspondent of the ' New Zealander,' speaking of the account given by the ' Wanganui Chronicle! of the Native Land-Conference at Taupo, denies on reliable authority the assertion that the resolutions against further sales of land to Europeans were unanimous. Still less was it the case that the authority of the Queen of England was disputed. The resolutions were the production of one chief, and only slightly objected to by the others, who were his guests, out of compliment to him. It is confidently stated that," there was, nothing transpired in that meeting calculated to excite suspicion as to the general good feeling of the native race towards Europeans." Te Whero Wliero,the Waikato Chief, is not dead, as reported by the ' Wanganui Chronicle ' though unfortunately smitten with blindness, and consequently absent from the meeting.