SIR GILBERT LEIGH.

Inangahua Times, Volume V, Issue 47, 24 June 1878, Page 2

SIR GILBERT LEIGH.

A Bffliw* Tho volume <>f IrWeh Mr W. L. Rocs is the author hia been io loudly praised by nowspapot eritios that wo real somo hesitation in taking a plaoe among tho | dissontiont minority . We havo tried in viow tv ndfniro the book, but our admiration oapnot got beyond the work of tho printer • and bindor. Isolated passages aro to bo found Mattered hero and thero which have beon 'done' into vigorous Saxon, and. tbo chaptort upon the Indian Mutiny, although condomnod or not op« proved t by >9H%t.fi igrf>i-Beleuletod to sustain the attention ot tbo reader, While ho shays away (torn the high road lupoji which he commenced his journey. Tlio vblnmo, taken altogothor, contains a strange modlcy of ill-assorted materials. What the appendix upon the ' Great Pro* Consul 'had to do with Sir GilbortLoigh wo have been unable io discover; tho reason is past finding out. Had tho ProConsul beon a distant rolstivo of ono of tho • partios,' thoro might havo boon a faint show of reason for his todily introduction ot the end of tho tenth ehaptor. It ia truo tho ProsConatll is represented as tho friend of missionaries and apostlos (p. 829), whilo the ohiof narrative dis* oonrsos very largely upon Oongregational ministers and their students ithe Indopendent Churoh at Clifton (p 87), end tho Oongregational Ohnrobel and missions in India (p. IS.) Perhaps the connecting link betweon the narrative and appendix Js tb be found in the faot that missionaries, apostles, and Congregational churches ore cognate to both* And this leads' to the observation that we do not remember ever having read, within tho snine limited eorapsM, as paintolly bvpr« Whelming i *otMettftf letipiuraj quota* tiots, md rhapwMeal atefamaUons. as ffibattolt ftmnl In Ihe volume before VI. A • lay aermon* fa not the approo priate phrase at ait The book taami mn nwUlWed tod nnadelteraUd rant, asciaa oat night be required to listen to |b 2 fo»Vib*at# maeting-boose in some bae&WOOds J»ltle«r»»te in tb* W.storn mt&M In striking eootrast to tho author's ' eaored * style, wa light in suddon attd nntxpeoUd juxtaposition upon much Slang and a great deal of cant. This may be termed ' the author's ' secular ' style. At page St, we 'find Professor Irving Mntlonlng'Halph Onslew agaiust a besotMt imttm **• , . talk slant. Onslow j its a bad hobft,and aaa rule distinguishes a bad set I have found too that alnng often degenerates into swearing— mind yon do not fall into that, It is a thousand pities tho author did not take the IVofessor's cantion to hoart. as chapter after ehaptor is ropleta with irredeemable slang, and suoh slang as ono ia not in tho habit of meeting with, or hearing, oven in Colonial soeiety. Wo quote a fow spooimen*2 of the author's • sooular ' stylo a— Look hero yoa fellows, nono of your larks. I say, Moo, hero's Onslow bragging liko mad about, his driving—let him handle tho ribbons for heaven's sake. -.- r • •■ , • ,'. ■ • ♦ » '• I say, draw it mild. •,.• • • • IJoooy*hs Biiro as fate we shall have a row— thoro aro two or throe policeman knooking obout-r««d you can't hido that infernal shooter of your's for ovor. All sorono old Blowbard. Tho yokol went straight to a bobby, and they carno up to a drag. If you don't tako' he into custody, d— d ifl don't warm the hido ov im. . • • ♦ • ' „ Are you roferring to mo, my man, sma Cavendish, with about tho biggest amount of coolnoßs and ohook I ovor saw. % i * • • Granted . • that tho Almighty has nothing bettor to do amid tho vast cont corns of tbo univorso than to look after tho twoponnyhalfpenny affairs of Tom, Dick, and Harry, whiob I tako to bo nn impertinenco to tho Deity, Ao. ■**• # • • Ho has some swoll relations at homo, oqd brought out introductions to all tho big bugs in the Colonios, Ac Phil West is a dcuood sight too thick with him. Now thoaojduotations havo been all culled at random from pages 98, 34, 42, and 47, so tho reader having got that longth may pnuso to oonsidor whothor it is wortii while to proceed furthor, unless indood, tlio sooular stylo to which be is thus introduced has its attractions for him. ] Again, thoro is a strange introduction of tho names of living personages— of itself a most unusual thing whero the prinoipal characters are dressed up in some disguiso however thhn Thus we havo Profossor Irving,' of tho Melbourne University, put forth as tho horo of a cricket match. Thon " Billy Wentworth* makes his anpoaranco, although perhaps wo should withdraw him from the category of living porsons. Again, the stately Chancellor, Sir Redmond Barry is intoduood to givo vont to an oracular utteranoe, while the studonts 4 poke fon' at him. Dr Braggo of Hnwthorno. makes his bow at page 87. Thon ot page lOQwo find the following} That is a theusand ponade en) also ; aid moreover not one ftf tleao fear

cheques is posted- W. P. While's. W. M. Tonnant's, Langland's, or A'Bookett nnd Solwyn's. This must hive beon going on I can see ot o glance, for a long time— l daresay for moro than a yonr. liavo you not had anything to direct your attention to it Mr Proudfoot. It was explained that Mr Proudfoot was tho ' manager,' otherwise probably would hnvo beon presumed, from the association of his name with a number of living personages, tbat ho bolongod to a well-known linn of contractors. Again, wo read (108) . Pcoplo would almost as noon havo thronght of Dr Cairn* or Bishop Perry boing guilty of ombcralomcnt as Uul West. .oi who is afterwards spoken of ns ono whom " tho blacklegs fleeced nnd plucked. Wo eatinot well .concoivo tho stato of frenzy into which Dr Cairns or Bishop lWry may 'ho thrown on finding their saintly names mlMducodVin n moral oqufttion or tho'sis of this sort. Thero tuny, however bo both rhyme and reason on the author s side. Wo havo already hazarded a guess at (ho connecting link between tlio narrative nnd appendix and in liko -manner perhaps wo hnvo discovered the author's reason fo** summoning tho two divines to tho front. Phil West, tho forger nnd ombozzlor, being pursued by detectives plunged into tho Yawn. But shortly Woro committing himsof to tho irro-. yocnblo, oo soliloquized aloud than :— I wonder, ho said what Anhan felt, or Ananias when Peter cursed him.or Korah, Dnthan, aud Abiram, or Judas when be wont and hanged hiunclf. Cnn I not retrace my slops P ho again asked himself. * God is good,' and ho looked lovingly up to tho blessed light. Jfow, wo should bo slow to suggest that oitjicr Dr Cnims, or Bishop Perry, cr both minbt not fittingly use tho foregoing words. Unfortunately, Phil West suddenly changes his uoto :— May tho curses of God, and of devils fall upon you— nnd and— ho said aloud, as ho wiped tho groat sweat-drops from his forohead. Oh that you may tuiflor what I suffor now, throughout eternity. Wo nro suro that this would never do for Bishop Porry and Dr Cairns, or oithor of tdem. He hns moreover, vory thinly eoncealod tho idontity of two or three of his leading ohnrnctors. For instance the Phil West already referred to is spoken of ns the cosbior of the Victoria Loan Agency Company (Lhnitod), a distinguished criokcter and nthlote, ns recently marrying a young wife nnd thou making a snd mess of it with his employers' property. It is only a few years ngo that an accountant in tho omploymont of tho Vio torian Sugar Company, Melbourne— answering in nil othor respects to tho idontity of Phil West— was discovered in ombezzlonionts, nnd had to pay the penaltios of his crime, The ill fated man has brothers and connections still living in Victoria, and they nro woll known in New Zealand. And to our minds it isn piece of tho most unexampled and refined cruelty to porpotuato in such thinly disguised characters the lapso and fall of an unhappy man, whoso disgrace is Still fresh in tho recollection of his frionds Dnnedin readers will rocognisein tho Ber R s eb*rd Ward an old mquaintnnco, thd Ray Richard Gonnebce once of Kow, in Victoria, then of Dunedin, and now again of Kew. Clifton Paraonago is not likely to b*> mistaton. , When Donris Markham loft the pnr. nonage ho walkod down tho road toward* Hawthorne, strolled into Melbourne through Richmond, <fee , . , In another piano Itiilfh Onslow is spoken of as crossing tho Hawthorne Bridge on his way to or from tho paraonago. Whon Mr Connoboo rends tho nocount of Mr Ward and tho Clifton Pnrsonngo we nro afraid ho will bo inclined to blush at tho trnnseondentnl or rather beatific, qualities imputed to him, Wo don't know what ho will havo to say to tho unusual intrusion upon tho privacies of domestic life, which marks ' many passages iv the author's work. Down oven to what they eat and drink in tho parsonage, tho particulars condescend. About half past nino Mrs Ward brought in a trny with somo small cakos and biscuits nnd cold water. Now who can possibly caro whether Mr Wnrd nto small cakos or biscuit* or confined hiuisolf to cold wnter P Again wo observo— Ralph . was', .delighted, lie noarly ohq'kod himself striving to pwallow a lnrfco pieco of toaat in order bogin his narrative; the tonst ns is tho nature of most articles 'of human food whon not proporly masticated,. creatod a Beriousobstruction in hia^ throat and hastily swoN lowing, or. rather trying to swallow a oup of toa, in-order to wash down, tho toast complotod tho mnttor, as a niattor of courso tho ton wont tho wrong way and Ralph ohokod ooughod, becamo rod in tho foco and only got right again whon Mrs Ward administered sovoral slaps on his book aftor tho approved fashion, '•Ah I Ralph,' said Mrs Ward, « tho old' proverb, tho moro hasto tho loss sprod, All this Rooms sadlcy irrelevant—cortnittly has littlo to do with the grent Prou Consul— or if rolovnnti vory prolix and coriimonplaco. It is ovidont, however thiA Mr Ward holds high rank in tho author's estimation. That Ralph Onslow is a norn do plumo for Mr Roes himsolf wo hayo as littlo doubt as wo havo of tho idontity of Mr Connoboo. Ralph Onslow was a pupil or student under Mr Ward, in training for tho-ludbporttlont ministry. Ho' was a oriokotor, nnd a s'tidont nt tho Univorsity. Ho was a friond of Phil West's. And tho finishing link in tho chain of proof is auppliod at p. 107' Possessing ample moans, ho had yet dotorminod to enter a profession, that ho might not bo an idle man and tho pro-* fession ho had ohoson was that of tin* law. Ho wns a studont for tho bar* thoroforo not so much that ho liked the law, as that it would tend to dicipline his thoughts, and train his mind in somo particular direction. Ho desired ns soon as he could to outer tho House of Assombly, for tho purposo and hopo of his lifo was to ontor into Colonial politics, Mr Boas, it is woll known, was a student of Mr Conneboo's nt Kow. and at ono timo intondod to booomo a Congrot gational minister* Ho still pronohos. O, that thoro oan bo no doubt. Ho wn« nnd still is a cricketer. Ho at ono time nttonded tho Univorsity of Molbourno, nnd was nn acquaintance of Wardill the oriokotor. Ho is a member of tho Bar. aud has attainod tho object of oarlier ambition in a scat iv tho Goneral

Assembly. If our conjecture bo a correct one. it is pretty plain th«»t Mr Roes ha- a tolerably eood opinion of Ralph Omlow. At pnge 40 we road— At mid-day Ralph wih standing gloomy and silent in tho quadranwln, whon tho stately Chaneollor (Sir Redmond Harry) passed through. Sir Redmond know Ralph for tho hd had brought him letters of intrnduotioii frnm porsons whom tho learned Clmncollor both knew nnd admired : ami tlio oourtly Judge was much taken by tho polish md good brooding of the young student. Exoollont young man. Thon wo pass on topago 47. Not ono soonied moro likoly to bo ttsofn^ than Phil West,' About 2:1 years of age animated, handsnmo, olever, intelligent, and fairly informed, in a goou position an«t yery respectably • connected, ho was : perhaps, with ono oxeoption, tho nearest in station and modes of thought to Ralph, Onslow ofall tho young- men who had been drawn togothor by Mr Ward Bnt tho choicest morsel of nil in tho way of autobiography is to bo found at pages, 107-8 Tho passigo is too long for quotation, and wo. fool suro ,nfi injustico would bo Hone to' Ralph Onslow, and tlw author, if Wo woro to curtail any part of it. Tho burning of the Siam reminds of tho Auckland lin«r ' CospalricUV fato, but this may bo a moro coinnidouoo. Wo havo been unablo to detect any rosomblaneo to a deftnod plot or settled plan in tho pagos now lying boforo u.i. 3omo low of tho incidents which aro comprised in tlio volume aro written with a good doal of natural pathos and dramatic forco just howover, wlcn wo aro beginning to got fairly in conceit with tho author wo aro carried away by a powerful blast nt thoso rbnpsodical ejaculations and appeals to • Korah, Dallinn and Abiram,' with which somo really good occasional writing ia disfigured, Wo fool bound to admit that Nod Brunton is tho ' most remarkable man' in tho uso of a riflo or rovolvor of whom wo ever road, and wa •hall not soon forgftt him. The volume as a wholo is iv our opinion al togothor undoscrving of tho indiscriminate praiso which has boon lavished upou it ; and ns a Colonial talo foils far heuontli tho statu dnsd of Mr Vincent. Pyko's 'Wild Will Enderby.' or Mr Whitworth's Collodion of Australian and Now Zealand Sketches^ —■Otago Guardian.