4. The Letters and Dispatches of John Churchill, 5. Journals of Sieges carried on by the Army under 6. Aide-Memoire to the Military Sciences; framed ... 59 IV. El Buscapié, by Miguel de Cervantes, with the illustrative notes of Don Adolfo de Castro: translated from the Spanish, with a Life of the Author, and some account of his works, by THOMASINA Ross. London: R. Bentley, 1849. ... ... V.-1. Poems. By RALPH WALDO EMERSON. London: Chapman, 1847. 2. Essays. By R. W. EMERSON. London: Chapman, 1846. 137 5. Essays. By R. W. EMERSON. London: Clarke. 152 VI. 1. The Portuguese Schism Unfolded; being a Reply 2. Annals of the Propagation of the Faith. Vol. i. 3. British Catholic Colonial Intelligencer. No. 4. ... ... 179 VII. Le Protestantisme comparé au Catholicisme dans ses VIII. Journal in France in 1845 and 1848. With Letters ART. CONTENTS OF NO. LII. PAGE I.-An Historical, Political, and Statistical Account of II.-1. Lyra Catholica: containing all the Breviary and 273 2. Hymns of the Heart; for the use of Catholics. ... 300 .. ... and Son, 1848. III.-1. Systemastic Colonisation. By ARTHUR MILLS. 2. South Australia; its Advantages and Resources. 3. The Emigration Circular for August, 1848. 4. Zwolf Paragraphen uber Pauperismus. By THEO- 316 ... IV. Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, compilato dal Cav. Gaetano Moroni. vol. xvi. xviii. Venice, 1842. ... ... V. Visits to Monasteries in the Levant. By the Hon. 338 365 .. VI.-The History of England from the Accession of ... 390 VII. 1. Funeral Oration delivered at the solemn Re- 2. Speculum Episcopi. (The Mirror of a Bishop.) ... ... VIII.-1. Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches. (Constitution of the German Empire.) Frankfurt am Main, 1849. 2. Das Deutsche Parlament und der König von Preussen. (The German Parliament and the King of Prussia) By Dr. HERMANN MÜLLER, Deputy to the Frankfort Parliament for Aix-la-Chapelle. Frankfort, 1849. 3. Frankfurt und Deutschland, (Frankfort and Ger- 4. Stenographische Berichte der Verhandlungen des 5. Verhandlung der ersten Versammlung des Katho- many.) Mayence, 1848. ... ... 441 481 Notices of Books. ... ... ... 522 THE DUBLIN REVIEW. MARCH, 1849. ART. I.-Italy in the Nineteenth Century, contrasted with its past Condition. By JAMES WHITESIDE, Esq., A.M., M.R.I.A., one of her Majesty's Council. In three vols. London, Bentley, 1848. HERE is perhaps no profession, from the members of much, as that of the law. Involuntarily, Cicero's description of the qualities necessary to form the perfect advocate, rises to our mind; and we look to find in the lawyer, combined with the acuteness of intellect necessary to fit him for his peculiar studies, the learning of the scholar, and the varied information and good taste of the gentleman. The title, too, of Mr. Whiteside's book, is attractive; Italy, its present contrasted with its past condition; no mere catalogue of palaces and works; no poetical description of the dress and manners of the people, their mere external condition; the social state of Italy is to be described, its inner life, in all its varied forms, to be laid open before us. In this point of view, we confess we have been disappointed. A keen observer, Mr. Whiteside has marked well what struck the eye, and has added to his own limited stores of information some details relative to the laws, agriculture, benevolent institutions, history, and literature, of the different states, collected from sources of very various degrees of merit. But his information on each of these subjects is only a compilation from some one or two recent works, which have been in the hands of every one, and which afford no new information. Indeed, we may at once predict how far Mr. White VOL. XXVI. NO. LI. 1 side's ideas on any subject will be correct or well founded, from looking to see the name of his one authority; and as we scan the well known quotations, we involuntarily exclaim with Boileau's Canon in the Lutrin, "Un diner rechauffé ne valut jamais rien." Thus, on Tuscan agriculture, he gives the observations of Raumer and of Laing; on benevolent institutions, he translates the excellent work of Turchetti; his account of the Tuscan laws is good, for it is an abridged translation of Ademollo. The history of Florence, which occupies one half of the first volume, is a diluted extract from Sismondi. This leads us to speak of the capital sin of Mr. Whiteside's volumes, the unsparing use which he makes of the works of others. No doubt occasional quotation in illustration or confirmation adds a double charm to a work; but of the three volumes before us, fully one-half consists of lengthy extracts from the works of Mackintosh, Laing, Lady Morgan, Gibbon, Corinne Canina, &c., besides abridged translations of the works of Turchetti, Ademollo, Azeglio, and others. This defect has been so fully enlarged upon by more than one of our contemporaries, that we shall not add another word; but there are some other faults of book-making to be remarked even more reprehensible, because more hidden. In the first volume, (p. 29), he gives a long life of Virgil, which might have been taken from the preface to some school edition, and at page 375 inflicts a disquisition on the Areopagus, the Greek, Hebrew, and Roman law, apropos of a new Tuscan code. In the third volume he seems to share the mistake of most latelearners, that what is new to him must also be new to others, and favours us with copious extracts from the Promessi Sposi of Manzoni, a work which is now to be found in every circulating library, and which may be had complete in an English dress for five shillings.* In the first volume Mr. Whiteside leads us through the Tyrol, of the inhabitants of which he forms a pretty high * We must point out a false translation in one of these extracts, by which a great beauty of the original is lost. The true translation of the end of the paragraph, (p. 144), is, "Even had not the likeness of the two countenances made it evident, that one which could yet express a feeling would have clearly told it." |