and to the Jew that our Lord and Messiah has already come. On the importance of this it is needless to enlarge. We all know that the stronghold of Jewish infidelity is the doubt cast by the rabbins upon Daniel as a prophet. If he were a true prophet, then must the Messiah have appeared at the time he predicted. But the Duke of Manchester proves that Daniel's prophecy as to the exact continuance of the daily sacrifice has been fulfilled to the letter. Hence, then, there can be no question that Daniel's was a true prophecy; and, if a true prophet, then that his prophecy of Messiah's coming before the seventy sevens expired was fulfilled in the person of our Redeemer. The noble author has foreborne all discussion of the details of unfulfilled prophecy. His own views, like those of Justin Martyr, Irenius, and Augustin, amongst the ancients, Marshall, Goodwin, and Bunyan, amongst the Puritans, and Fletcher of Madely, Toplady, and Wesley, and a vast number of our leading divines in the Established Church, are well known to embrace the reorganization of the Roman empire under the great personal antichrist, who is himself to be destroyed in battle with the restored and converted Jews. On these points he avoids all discussion, not wishing to embarrass, by matters controverted amongst Christians, those great objects for and to which he has devoted so many years to obtain. There are, however, incidental points touched on by the duke in this laborious volume, in which, although the balance of probability be on his side, the evidence he adduces appears to us not wholly irrefragable. We refer to his opinion that Coresch and Nebuchadnezzar, both of whom he proves chiefs of that Circassian race from which have sprung all those aristocracies of Europe or the East which do not descend from Abraham, were alike only pashas or satraps of the Persian king. We confess ourselves rather doubtful whether history records any instance of a Circassian people having been conquered by one of Semitic, but not Arabian descent. Might it not be contended that Nebuchadnezzar was himself the Great King, but that a fresh Circassian tribe pouring down from the mountains of Caucasus, after his death, and subduing Babylon and Persia alike, but fixing their rule in Iran, mixed his history with that of their own chiefs, just as the Welsh, during the reign of the Tudors, endeavoured to forget all remembrance of Norman rule, and to make it appear that they themselves had been the noblest tribe inhabiting Britain? The same spirit of self-glorification which characterized the Cymri may have preyed on the Persians. We find that their historians in later times endeavour to make Alexander a native Persian prince; why may they not have therefore sought to blot out all memory of the Babylonian conquest, which was of but short duration-as short as the usurpation in England of the House of Lancaster? The Scotch, of all nations the most moral and veracious, generally forget that their country was ever conquered by England, having lost all recollection of Cromwell's campaign. It is not probable that the Persians, who had few written documents, were even less particular. May we not presume that the races being identical, and the families allied by blood, they transferred the exploits of the house of Nebuchadnezzar to their own reigning family? We mention this but as conjecture, yet it is only as conjecture that on this point the duke announces his own views. We cannot, however, but feel gratified in perceiving the long years, during which illness has deprived the head of one of our noblest and purest Norman families of the power to fulfil the usual duties of his rank, thus laboriously employed. Those who know the Duke of Manchester are well aware that nature and mental organization have qualified him rather to be a leader of brave men in the death struggle for a nation's independence and freedom, like his gallant ancestors, than for the quiet pains-taking, laborious commentator on the word of truth; so much the greater is the merit of having accomplished a task which might have wearied the most learned, and having bent those energies which are qualified to shine out brilliantly in the eyes of the world, to strengthening the faith and removing the scepticism of the humble and meek. Our Era; a Soliloquy, in three parts-Social, Political, and Religious, with Miscellaneous Pieces. By W. LEASK. London: Jackson and Walford. The THE title of this work is rather a singular one for a poetical production. The present time is emphatically England's era. excitement is unrestricted by sphere or subject; all classes of society are moved by the general impulse. Science is putting forth her energies to the utmost; invention is more productive than at any former period; speculation is all qui vive in some new project; national politics are undergoing great changes; the sacredness of religion is not secluded from the general stir, and philosophy herself can scarcely maintain the calm and tranquillity of her own appropriate region. All men take cognizance of these facts which give to the present era its character. These vicissitudes are neither self-originated nor ultimate; they have a cause above themselves, and are subservient to an ulterior and grand result. The devout and meditative man retires from the din of apparently clashing events; looks calmly on the confused and confusing scene, and wonders what it means. The present he cannot comprehend, on the immediate coming future he does not venture a conjecture. Overpowered and perplexed he turns from the distracting affairs of human society and looks above, and there, in all the serenity of his own glory, he beholds the presiding God, watching and directing the intricate machinery of earth's events. Here the wise man derives a solace for his spirit under the conviction, that the ways of God appear mysterious to human vision simply because our views are contracted and our knowledge is imperfect. Order, harmony, and united concurrence, characterize all events which are in the hands of him who "From seeming evil still educing good, And better thence again, and better still The author of "Our Era" is evidently distinguished alike for the genius of poetry and the inspiration of genuine piety. His work will be read with unmingled pleasure by the admirers of Cowper, James Montgomery, and Pollok. The men just budding into manhood may here gather instruction and delight from the same source. We give some specimens of the author's style and sentiment, which have been selected with the utmost impartiality. We present his censures on some of the flagrant vices which disgrace this age and nation : "Compared with London, ancient Corinth was, And more than realized! Those odious pimps ! Who prowl in search of nature's fairest forms, On whom the tints of rural loveliness Bestow attractions art could never match Prowl thus to suck the blood of innocence!"-Pp. 33, 34. Notwithstanding all the subtle attempts which are made to justify the practice of this vice, we are bound to state it as our deliberate opinion that most writers are too lenient in their remarks on the vice of prostitution, and that Mr. Leask is not too severe. The poet Burns was correct when he said of that sin "I wave the quantum of the sin The hazard of concealing; But oh, it hardens all within, And petrifies the feeling." To censure is at all times a difficult task; and to convey appropriate censure, embodied in the beauties of poetry, is a manifestation of no ordinary wisdom. This difficult task Mr. Leask has admirably performed in his classic and enlightened censure upon the vice of intoxication : "Intemperance! origin of woes, and griefs, And tears, and mental anguish, and distress, Of Persia fam'd, and through the Athenian crowds What time the war Peloponnesian rag'd, Wrote not a deadly catalogue so long, Of slain and wounded, as the boasted son Though perishing by thousands, are supplied Have tuned their lyres to spread the madd'ning cup Our space forbids us to indulge in our inclination to quote more largely from this truly interesting volume. The poetry is of a very superior order, the sentiments always moral and at times highly religious, and the composition perspicuous and elegant. The work deserves our unqualified commendation. Memoir of Vidocq, Chef de la Police de Sureté de Paris. M. VIDOCQ we have always regarded as one of the most extraordinary characters of the present day. He is a genius of the highest order in his own peculiar walk; never did human being run a more extraordinary career. Perhaps there is no man living whose history so strikingly illustrates the remark, that truth is strangestranger than fiction. He is an exemplification of the adage, that the romance of real life excels the romance of fiction. M. Vidocq is now to be seen at the Cosmorama, Regent Street, where he has one of the most interesting exhibitions at present in the metropolis. Of course he is himself the principal lion; though in his seventy-third year, he displays all the vivacity of spirits and muscular vigour of a man of thirty. He is a most pleasant and intelligent man, and has already received visits from most of the nobility. We wonder that the proprietors of the Adelphi or some of the other theatres have not already secured his services; he could not fail to prove one of the greatest attractions now on the boards of our metropolitan houses. The little work whose title we have quoted, gives an outline of his eventful history; but we understand that a work in several large volumes, containing his biography, is about to appear in an English dress. THE FINE ARTS. Portraits of Distinguished Persons. By MR. Keith. MR. KEITH, of Kensington Gravel Pits, who has lately settled in London, in the capacity of a portrait painter, has already taken the portraits of various distinguished persons, and is employed on the portraits of several others. Among other gentlemen well known to us, whose portraits Mr. Keith has already taken, are the Rev. Mr. Hill, of Clapham, a highly gifted and popular preacher, and Mr. Wilson, the celebrated singer. Mr. Keith's likenesses are admirable. They are so striking that no one can mistake them, while as works of art they are of a very superior order. Mr. Keith is rapidly rising in his profession, and we have no hesitation in predicting that ere long he will occupy the first place in public estimation as a portrait painter. END OF VOL. XLIII. PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETOR, BY D. A. DOUDNEY, CITY STEAM PRESS, LONG LANE. |