REVIEW.

Otago Witness, Issue 1191, 26 September 1874, Page 8

REVIEW.

Efisaifti, Critical and Xa.rrai'nw. By Wi iaaxm Forsyth, QC, LL.D..M.P. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.

Once more a volume of essays, the author of which desires to rescue his labours from that wave of oblivion which fo soon passes over ephemeral literature. The desire is a natural one, and all readers of this volume will be thankful that the modesty of the writer has not made it necessary for us to hunt tip the well-digested views ho holds in the secret recesses of magazine numbers.

Mr Forsyth lias given us a very readable book. If, in some place*, we feel that his views bear too plainly the impress of the time when they were written, and that we should have been glad if he had taken a .little more trouble to bring his essays up to the times ; yet, on the other hand, there is always something refreshing iv reading remarks of some fifreen or twenty years ago, when they were pungontly and pleasantly written, concerning passing events. Our author's essays indeed are upon subjects which cannot properly be called passing, it is only by way of illustration that he refers to the questions of the day, such as the Crimean War and the ISIB tumults of Paris.

Among the 16 essays which compose tie volume we shall select three for notice more especially. Not that the others are not very good reading, but because these seem to us best adapts! for giving our readers a notion nf the lucid and pleasing way in which Mr Forayth handles a subject.

Criminal Procedure in Scotland and England is the title of an article upon the very different method of proceeding which characterises the two countries. We are of opinion that veiy few Englishmen know the immense difference of the two systems — a difference which goes far deeper than the use of a barbarous lingo of the law — a usage indeed fundamentally different in system and method.

Mr Fovsyth holds the scales with admirable impartiality between the two systems ; and while giving full weight to the numerous points in which the Scotch system must be allowed to be superior to its southern sister, gives the palm, upon the whole, to the English method, more especially uoon the score of the greater publicity attending the preliminary investigations in criminal cases. In this respect he is supported by no less a person than Lord Brougham, who siy* :—": — " There are great inconveniences, no doubt, in the publicity of the examination — there is very great hardship to the party brought before the Magistrate in its publicity." Oa the other hand, considering the security given against malpractice upon the part of the Magistrate, and by the benefit which it gives the Police by enabling thpm to discover evidence, and enabling the parties prosecuting to be put upon tho traces to find witnesses, "unon the whole," says Lord Brougham, "I have no doubt whatever that the benefits exceed the dig id vantages of a public examination." Ia respect to public prosecutors, Mr Forsyth i<s quite ai decided in giving the palm to Sj'idaml. Tlifff can lie tio doubG that the criminal law in Eiijjlukl is often mo.it shamefully perverted to private purposes. Except in cases of high treason, it is no part of the duty of the Attorney- General to institute prosecution, though he ofton does it when a crime of more than usual magnitude has been committed. As a matter of fact, criminal prosecutions are taken up and conducted in the English Courts after a moat haphazard fashion. Too often it is left very much to chance who the prosecutor shall be, or whether, indeed, tt v <ere shill be any prosecution at all, Tie Scotch Courts proceed upon the principle that it is the duty of tho State to detect crime, apprehend offenders, and punish them, and that independently of tho interest of a private party, who may be iafceresfce.d. ?r (Jorrupt, is $tpggsJw Jjvefippn,

sible, and whose dealing with the criminal may effectually defeat justice. Upon one or two other points we gain some novel pieces of information, e.g., "In Scotland it is held that the lapse of twenty years from the commission of an offence, is a complete bar to criminal proceedings. But there is, perhaps, no part of the Scotch which has attracted more attention in linglaud than the verdict of Not Proven. And there are not wanting those who advocate the introduction of it into English Courts, nor are they without plausible arguments in its favour." In a long and very careful examination into the objections to this form of verdict, our author convinces us that it is altogether a mistake. ' ' Where the evidence falls short of proof oE guilt, the prisoner is entitled to a verdict of Not Guilty, for the law has failed to prove him guilty, and by the law alone is he to be acquittedor condemned." In common with all who have given any attention to the subject, Mr Forsyth condemns the starvation method with juries as a relic of barbarism.

In the essay upon " Literary Style," there are more apposite illustrations and more souud pieces of advice than we have ever seen collated in any previous disquisition upon that most abstruse matter. Few people seem to be at all aware of the very great difficulties that lie in the path of an aspirant to literary honoura. And yet it is an undoubted fact that almost worthless matter has a better chance of the immortality authors crave, when couched in pure English, than even the most profound and valuable originalities strung together after the fashion of a German philosopher. It is possible to lay down many rules for the acquisition of a good style, but the best of all is to read and learn by heart much good pure English. When a style is once formed, it is better to patch and mend as little as possible; until then "too much attention can hardly be paid to the collocation of words and sentences. " We are particularly pleased with the attention Mr Forsyth bestows upon the collocation of sentences, because it id here that authors so often go astray — far more often than in the collection of mere words. Who will not agree in the following?—" We wish, therefore, that more pains were taken than has been the custom in our schools and colleges to teach habits of correct and graceful English composition. Ib ia indeed wonderful how much this has been neglected, and to what a disproportionate extent the time and attention of the young have been devoted to the acquisition of a minute and critical knowledge of the two dead languages without help or instruction in the study of their own. We may say to those charged with the responsible office of education — these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone. And, indeed, the two are not only opposed, but_ the one is perhaps the best method of acquiring the other." Upon one other point of literary style the author waxes eloquent, and that is as to the non-necessity of using italics. No habit betrays the literary tyro more readily than this. Each sentence and each paragraphought so to depend uponits predecessor, and prepare the way for its successor, that the structure of whole pages should lead the reader up to the telling points, and press them home. " To use italics freely is to make mere printing take the place of authorship, to work by rule of thumb. Coleridge's test of a good style was the untranslateableness of a sentence into words of the same language without injuring its meaning; and Mr Forsyth very truly remarks that, "the condition is exactly fulfilled by Cicero." The Duke of Wellington is one of Mr Forsyth's great favourites. We have long since been of opinion that the " despatches " have never received half the credit they deserve for correctness of expression aud clearness of style. Lord Macaulay, like St. John, gains much of his force by double shotting his sentences and using shore paragraphs. "We know of no writer who has so little affection for the pronoun, or who so seldom makes it do duty for a noun, c r/., 'It might therefore have been expected that he would serve his new master with fidelity, not indeed with the fidelity of Nottingham, which was the fidelity of conscientiousness; not with the fidelity of Portland, which was the fidelity of affection, but with the not less stubborn fidelityof despair.'" Wehave always thought that St. John's Gospel gains much of its pathos through the same method of repetition — c y. : "He that hath my commandments, and keepth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will lovo him." Mr F->r-syfch becomes somewhat raoturous indeed over Maoaulay ; yet, after all, what English author has ever rivalled him in the true dramatic pow^r of signifying a volume in a sentence. " They put an end .-it once and for ever to a persecution which had driven thousands of those honest, diligent, and Godfearing yeomen and artizvns who are the true strength of a nation to seek a refuge bejond the ocean among the wigwams of the Red Indians and the lairs of the panthers." The only other author that ever rivals Macaulay in the brilliancy of his antithetic periods is Sir James Stephens.

While we agree with many of our author's criticisms, we think his remaiks upon Dickens extremely foolish. He describes Charles Diokens's style "as oscillating between comic humour pushed to buffoonery and sentiment carried to maudlin excess." Fancy this for an author who has, perhaps, wrung more human hearts with sympathy, and delighted more merry souls than any other the world ever saw. Buffoonery and maudlin excess is it ? then God deliver us from the staid wife and cold compassion Mr Forsyth seems to prefer. Exception is taken to the way in which Dickens sometimes rode hi 3 metaphors hard. We may tell our readers that it is a test-siga of something like genius to be able to see all the various side? and appearances of a metaphor and work it out. The example cited ia in itself expressive and complete, and leaves a definite impression upon our mind of the sceno without anything in the least approaching the wearisome. "Pancks steamed oufc of his little dock at a quarter before six, and bore straight down for tho Patriarch. Pancks instantly made fast to him, and Handed him oufc. Pancks took ia his victuals as if he were coaling, with a good deal of noise — a good deal of drooping about, and a puff and a snort occasionally as if he were nearly ready to steam away." Upon the whole, we tbtels Ur Jfow^th Jukl bettor have JM's

Dickens alone, and confined himself to giving his excellent advice to those about to write. "If you wish to write well, your English must be genuine, and not counterfeit. Tio not pollute the pure well of English undefiled with the rubbish of affectation and conceit, nor imagine for a moment that liveliness of style consists in a running fire of jokes, nor that the want of wit can be redeemed by vulgarity. Chaucer says, in praise of his Virginia,

No conlrofcted termes haclde she

To semen wiso. Probably there are not many men whose names are often named about whom so little is known beyond the namt> as of William Cobbett. We are indebted to Mr Porsyth for very ably, and with sufficient fulness, describing a nearly forgotten character. Pieputations must be fleeting things indeed, when one who made so great a stir in the world of his day is now become a mere name. As a political reasoner, he was among the first flight of his own — we may say, of any day. He wrote a Grammar which for many years remained the best published. He quarrelled with two nations, every politician, all his neighbours — was, in fact, a contentious man ; and yet he did a work of unparalleled greatness in his way, since he did much to establish and extend the liberty of the Press by the very liberties he took with it.

We have become more used to plain speaking since Cobbett lived among us, and have been taught by our great English philosopher to speak our minds pretty roughly ; we are not, however, quite used to this kind of thing :—: — "Oh, how I despise the wretches who talk of my vindictiveness — at my exultation at those who inflicted my sufferings. How I despise the base creatures, the crawling slaves, the callous and cowardly hypocrites who affect to be shocked — tender souls — at my expression of joy at the death of Gibbs, Ellenborough, Percival, Liverpool, Canning, and the rest of the tribe. . . . What lam to forgive, am I ? injuries like this, and that too without any atonement. Oh, no, I have not so read the Holy Scriptures." It would be wrong, as Mr Forsyth notes, to look upon Cobbefct as an ill-natured man. On the contrary, he was fond of flowers, and a perfect worshipper of babies. He says, "The man or woman who is mt fond of babies is not worthy of the name ; but where is the man who does not feel his heart soften, who does not feel himself become gentler, who does not lose all the hardness of his temper when in any way, for any purpose, or by anybody, an appeal is made to him on behalf of those ?o perfectly helpless, and so per* tectly innocent little creatures."

The times, however, were curious, and the state of the law was perfectly infamous ; indeed, most of Cobbett's numerous imprisonments were for things which now would only be met by a smile. Speaking of Lord Hardwicke, " I have discovered him to be in rank an earl, in manners a gentleman, in morals a good father, a kind husband, and that he has a good library in St. James's Square I further learned that Lord Hardwicke was celebrated for understanding the mode and method of fattening sheep as well as any man in Cambridgeshire." And for this ho w<is found guilty of having attempted to subvert the King's authority. We sannot be surprised if the result of this kind of thing was at last to render hhn a political Ishmael, whose hand was against every man. Mr Forsyth gives us a tender and appreciative representation of one who was emphatically a product of his age. He wrote his own epitaph couched in English, pure and plain — "Here lies William Cobbett, who was hanged because he would not allow the English labourer to live on the damned root called the potatoe," After that, we must agree with our author that if any one wishes to form a clear, manly, vigorous atyle, he must study the pages of William Cobbetfc. We are much indebted to the essayist for introducing us to one now well nigh forgotten.

On the other essays m thia volume, we have no space to comment. "Three days in Sark," and "An Election in France," are both well worthy of being read. The whole volume is a charming one.