"And she hath left the gray, old halls where an evil faith had power, The Baltimore Book. A Christmas and New-Year's Present: edited by W. A. Carpenter and S. S. Arthur. Baltimore: Bayly & Burns. 1838. THIS book has very beautiful externals, on which are displayed, in gold, devices appropriate to "the monumental city." It is neatly printed on nice paper; but the engravings with which it is illustrated are miserable in the extreme. They but disfigure the book, and would be considered poor attempts for an apprentice in the art. "The only daughter" is unfit for the outside of a child's copy-book. We are, nevertheless, much obliged to the publishers for their presentation copy, and consider the volume, in its literary character, creditable to the fair city from which it emanates. We wish, however, that the editors had pursued their original design of preparing a collection of specimens of what had been done in literature by Baltimoreans-after the fashion of the Boston, Philadelphia, and New-York books, instead of confining the publication to original tales and poetry. Though the former are interesting and the latter above mediocrity, yet a selected miscellany would have been far more acceptable. Where such men as Kennedy and Calvert are to be found, there could be no difficulty in making up a first-rate book merely of extracts from the works of living authors. A plan like this, however, may be carried out next year by the present capable editors, and we wish every success to their present experi ment. Reviewers Reviewed; a satire: by the Author of "Pelayo." NewYork. Printed for the Author. HERE is a young lady, who seems to have worked herself up into quite a formidable degree of excitement. We trust, for her health's sake, that she did not venture out into the cold air after the ferment into which she must have been thrown while exercising herself on the most sarcastic passages of this poem. A sudden check to perspiration is always dangerous, and to be sedulously avoided. We cannot form, except in imagination, any idea of the fair creature who indited the caustic lines of the "Reviewer Reviewed;" but, if she is as fragile a flower as a poetess ought to be, she should not go out of doors without the protection of a thick blanket shawl, till next Summer at least. Now that she has finished writing her satire, and had it "printed for the author," it is proba ble that the mere thought of its fiery bursts of indignation will induce a certain warmth, which, if too suddenly repressed, would be attended with the most serious consequences. We sincerely compassionate her situation. We must confess, however, that our sympathy would have been still more lively, had she in reality taken cold after certain culinary engagements, such as the making of a cake or a pudding, or some similar employment better adapted than that of concocting a satire to the female hand. The pen is an instrument which should be delicately used by the fair-simply in carving out quaint devices of thought or beautiful little images of expression, not in shaping "Gorgons dire," or severe figures like those statues, with great marble eyes and no nether limbs, that stupify us in the contemplation of Egyptian architecture. When a woman undertakes to utter keen sarcasm or bitter denunciation, we recoil from her words as from something monstrous. A lady's lips should be like the fairy's who spoke pearls; when they are parted to give utterance to her feelings, if words soft, pure, and bright fall not upon the ear, we start with the same shuddering that one would experience in observing a casket opened, where he expected to see brilliants, and beheld, instead, many small lizards lazily crawling about. If the fairer and better part of creation only could realize how loathsome and repulsive to men of taste were slander and sarcasm when falling from their tongues, they would shut up the unruly members within the ivory portals of their delectable mouths whole weeks together, however grievous the self-denial. The authoress of Pelayo has indulged in a little slander and some attempts at sarcasm in the thin (thin in every sense of the term) volume before us. The spiteful and yet playful manner in which she has plied her lash of tow is rather amusing,although she exhibits about as much force and skill as a school-girl does in throwing a stone. The awkwardness and petty anger of the thing would have made us laugh with unalloyed glee, if the fun were not lost in regret that a young lady of respectable talents should thus consent to expose herself. The satire opens, as Milton has it, "To the sound of lutes and soft recorders;" it being dedicated to no less a personage than "The honourable Richard Riker, Recorder of the City of New-York," whom Croaker & Co. whilom celebrated in dulcet strains. Some people may wonder at the fitness of this inscription; but in it truly exists the most satirical point of the piece. Nothing could be more epigrammatic or significant than the commending of a satire to his Honor, the Recorder. We gather from our authoress's preface, that she once produced a poem called "Pelayo," which was harshly treated by the critics; the inference is palpable that the present production is in accordance with the Lex Talionis. This is the tit for the tat. "Pelayo," remarks the fair poetess, 64 was written at the early age of sixteen." Had our friends Webb of the Courier and Daniels of the Gazette been aware of this fact, they would have shown the very soul of gentleness towards the dear subject of their criticism, instead of so ungallantly repulsing its advances. We know the gentlemen, and can answer for their universal forbearance where young ladies are concerned. As for our cousin of the Knickerbocker, he must defend himself from "the gentle tappings of the lady's fan." Observe how lovingly she pats his little peculiarities. Up starts the PINK OF DANDIES! blooming gay Unfurls the cambric web, whose perfumes rise And simpers then-and smirks complacently, A shining light just issued from the dark! When we say that this is the fairest specimen of the satirist's powers, both of wit and versification, we need say nothing more. We have had the pleasure of a long acquaintance with Mr. Clark, but should never have recognized the fidelity of the portrait. The same remark might with equal truth be applied to Mr. Morris, who, to Miss Pelayo's fancy, appears clothed in the most savage garb of criticism. Now it strikes us that few nurses of infant literature so liberally dispense the milk of critical kindness as the New-York Mirror. But the funniest part of the book-except where Mr. Recorder Riker is called stern arbiter of crime," and invoked "with potent scourge and sceptre," to annihilate the critic race,"--is the outpouring of satirical vengeance on the devoted heads of Messrs. Webb and Daniels. Now we will wager the English edition of Lockhart's Life of Scott against the American one of Mr. N. P. Willis's Inklings of Adventure, the most delightful against the silliest modern book we can think of, that "Col. Webb" never saw Pelayo, nor the criticism in his own paper, nor this satire, nor ever heard of either, till this present reading. We will not venture to say the same thing of Daniels, for, wanting something to make a paragraph of, he may have picked up "Pelayo" and laughed at it. But what will be thought of the friends of our authoress, who have allowed a young woman, not, or but recently, out of her teens, to print a volume, in which the stalest slanders about Mr. Webb, in connexion with Mr. Biddle and Mr. Duff Green, are repeated for the thousandth time, and the grossest ignorance displayed about matters which girls and old women, owing to the diluted state of their intellects, ought never to be permitted to talk about? Yet this is not the worst. Following the stupid verses on Mr. Daniels, the pale of private life is indecently straddled over; and, evidently for the sake of rhyme, a name implying the `most hallowed relation of home is tacked on to "cows, horses, ploughshares, and corncribs." Where was Miss Isabel Pelayo bred? Who was her parent or guardian? The rhymes about "Colonel Stone" are equally untrue; and, though less disgusting, quite as slanderous. But we have grown serious, while intending simply to laugh at the absurd spectacle of a young lady putting on boots and boxing-gloves, and stepping into the ring for a tussle with experienced bruisers. We trust, however, that the rebuke we have administered will be as effective as it is richly deserved. Miss Isabel, or by whatever name she may be known to her unwise advisers, must learn more discretion and better manners than to mix up a mess of stale slander, vapid wit and sloppy verses, and send the compound to critics as a bonne bouche. If she will cause a large fire to be made, into which she can cast the whole edition of "Reviewers Reviewed," she need not be afraid of a red face, induced by the warmness of the blaze; for she cannot blush more deeply than she ought at this moment, at thought of her own indiscretion. MONTHLY COMMENTARY. THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS. ANOTHER blast of the great moral tornado which is destined to purify the atmosphere and revivify the energies of the Republic! When in our last we reviewed the course and summarily exhibited the results of the elections during October, we confidently appealed to the further verdict of the people in those of November, then on the eve of transpiring. We saw in the course of public affairs-in the extent of individual and general suffering from misgovernment—in the very hopelessness of a change for the better, unless that change were founded in political revolution--as well as in the indications of public sentiment afforded by preceding elections, the sure precursors of victory. We looked forward with a sanguine hope, which to nine-tenths even of our friends seemed little short of madness, to an Opposition triumph in New-York. And yet we have been somewhat surprised by the completeness and magnitude of that victory. Six Whig senators out of eight-one hundred and twenty-eight representatives in the House of Assembly, and a popular majority of fifteen to twenty thousand-these results might even amaze one who had been confidently expecting them. But when it is considered that the State has been for more than ten years past in the hands of the administration party, which has rigidly monopolized and skilfully employed all the enormous patronage thus placed within its reach-that, under a system of drill and discipline unequalled elsewhere, the majorities of that party have been steadily increased from five thousand in 1828 to thirty thousand in 1836-that it last year carried six of the eight senatorial districts, and obtained a decided majority on other tickets in a seventh-that it elected ninety-four to thirty-four Members of Assembly, losing seven of the remainder by an internal dissension-it must be confessed that its downfall is more sudden and astonishing than any recorded in the history of American politics. It finds no fitting parallel in any event since the abasement of Nebuchadnezzar. Such in itself is the triumph achieved by the Whigs of New-York, in the extraordinary discomfiture of the Administration forces in the recent election. For its consequences within the state it is richly deserving an oration. But when we regard rather its wider effects upon the destinies of the nation-its annihilat ing rebuke not merely to the conduct of those in high places, but its positive influence in circumscribing the present exercise, and affixing a final limit to the duration of the power which they have abused, its importance cannot be overrated. By friend and foe, the revolt of New-York from his standard is regarded as the knell of Mr. Van Buren's political struggle. Were it not for the assurances stintedly given, and the hope faintly indulged, that the state may be regained next Autumn, the President would now be left without a party beyond the few thousands of official stipendiaries who live in daily dependence on his temporary power. Meantime the land resounds with the glad tidings of the regeneration of New-York-it is borne on every breeze-it is wafted to every shore-it blazes from hill to hill, and is proclaimed from city to hamlet by the thunder of deepthroated cannon. It is a truth not liable to be easily effaced from the minds of the American people. Turn we to stanch, unbending, unflinching Massachusetts. Truly as beautifully was it averred, in one of the sentiments elicited by the Whig Celebration, that "American Liberty loves to linger by the cradle where her infancy was nourished." But Massachusetts, always herself, is twice herself this yearowing in no slight degree to the impulse given by tidings of the triumph in NewYork. With a Whig Governor and Lieutenant Governor, by more than eighteen thousand majority; an entire Whig senate of forty members, and seven eighths or more of the popular representation; it must be confessed that Massachusetts has borne the years intervening since "76 with little contamination and with less versatility. From Michigan, the intelligence, though less decisive, is not less animating. The Administration, which till this year has carried every election from the outset by overwhelming majorities, has now, aided by all the patronage of the National and State Governments, been saved from defeat by five or six hundred among forty thousand votes. Had the election been held a month later, there can be little or no doubt of a far heavier majority for the Whigs. Three days of free circulation to the intelligence from New-York, and the contest would have been settled. The opportunity was not seasonably afforded; and so a year of respite is granted to the party in Michigan. From Mississippi we have nothing decisive at the time of this writing. We believe neither party anticipates any signal change in the politics of this state. Thus close the elections of 1837, with a gain of about one hundred thousand popular votes to the Whig party, as compared with the vote of last year; an ascertained majority of nearly the same number, and a real majority much greater; while fourteen of the twenty-one states which have held elections this year have pronounced a verdict of condemnation upon the acts of the Executive, by the residue it can hardly be doubted that the proportion holds good; and who shall say that Virginia, Connecticut, and Alabama can now be properly classed as friendly to the measures of the Administration? Is there, indeed, any state that can, since New-York has enrolled herself in the ranks of the Opposition? Which is it? New Hampshire? We shall see at the approaching election. |