THE writings which we have set down at the foot of our page have been so generally attributed to a gentleman of the name of Helps, that, although even the latest of the series is published anonymously, we have ventured to ascribe them to him. Why the author should withhold his name from the title-page when it has become so currently associated with his works, is a matter of personal taste with which, it may be said, we have nothing to do. It may be genuine modesty, or whim, or caprice, or something bordering on affectation. "It is his pleasure." We would simply suggest that, if we are to talk about books, it is pleasant to have some name to which to ascribe them, although it may teach us nothing more of the author than he had chosen to reveal in his works: it is pleasant to have a name, and it is pleasant also to feel that we have the right one, to feel that we speak with certainty and security. If a writer has a motive for keeping his author ship a secret, by all means let him keep the secret; but if publicity and renown are not avoided, why may we

not have that feeling of certainty which the name on the title-page can alone give to perfect strangers?

To us the name gives no further information than the books themselves. From these we gather that the earlier essays were written by some gentleman in office, who occupied the intervals of business in literary composition; and that the later series are the production of the same gentleman, retired from official cares, and enjoying in some country retreat that combination-surely the most delightful which human life presents-of domestic joys with literary pursuits. We hope this part of the picture is not merely a dramatic artifice of composition. The retirement from official duties has certainly been favourable to the cultivation of literature; the later series are far superior to the former. His last work, Companions of my Solitude, is a very charming little book; and its perusal, by inducing us to revert to its predecessors, has led us to this general notice of his writings.

Mr Helps has, in his quiet way, been somewhat severe upon the pre

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sumption of the critics; we hope we shall not be manifesting any undue or ungracious presumption if we take notice, at the outset, of the very marked improvement his works exhibit. There is a steady progressive movement displayed in each successive effort of his pen. In the list which the reader has before him, and in which the works are set down in their order of publication, each one is conspicuously in advance of its predecessor. The second is better than the first, the third better than the second, and the fourth best of all. There has been a still later publication, The Conquerors of the New World and their Bondsmen; but of this only one volume has hitherto appeared. It is a historical work, and does not run on the same line with the others. So far as we can at present judge of it, we are afraid that it would form something like an anticlimax. We shall therefore take advantage of its unfinished state to dismiss it at once out of court. This steady progress we have noticed is a rather unusual characteristic. At least in our own epoch, men have more frequently given us of their abundance in their first or their second work, and have put us off with scantier measure in their subsequent dealings with the public. With Mr Helps it has been otherwise his last work is the most thoughtful; and if he retains the habits of a student, and is disposed to literary labour, we may confidently expect from him productions still more excellent than anything he has given us. We do not think, however, that he will surpass himself by turning to history. We should petition for a second series of Companions of my Solitude.

The first work on our list, the Essays written in Intervals of Business, has no attractions for us whatever. It is full of good advice, which no one will gainsay, and no one will ever think of applying; and of general truths, so very true, and so very general, that they are worth nothing. These essays seemed to be written for no definite purpose; they have the air of themes, very carefully composed out of pure love, and for the practice, of composition. Very correct is our official author, very formal

and precise, and has an excessive love for giving good counsels. He says, shrewdly enough, that "it is with advice as with taxation; we can endure very little of either, if they come to us in a direct way." But this does not check him for a moment; he goes on to give advice about this very matter of advice, telling folks where and how they may get it. Throughout this little volume there does not seem to be a single sentence that would provoke dispute, and, as a consequence, not a single sentence of any real utility. As we are passing in review the whole of Mr Helps' works, we are compelled to say thus much of his earliest production. But we say it without the least asperity. We should not have gone out of our way to speak a word in disparagement of these essays. Mr Helps has written and thought in so much more effective manner since their publication, that he would probably now agree with us that many of them should have been treated as college exercises-themes that we turn into Johnsonian English, or Ciceronian Latin, and there leave. Practice is an excellent thing in composition, as well as in music; but it is not agreeable to listen to the do, re, mi, fa of the finest voice in the world.

The Claims of Labour, and the accompanying essay on the improvement of the condition of the poor, have a direct and serious object, and this at once raises them into a far higher character than their predecessors. Here the author writes for a purpose, and a very excellent purpose. If we do not dwell long on these essays, it is because the subjects of them have at other times occupied our attention, and will again be frequently discussed in our pages. Mr Helps, however, has the merit of calling public attention to the condition of the poor, and especially to the state of their dwelling-houses, at a time when the subject had not become quite so familiar to men's minds as it is at present. The Report upon the Health of Towns had been lately published, and he was amongst the first to extend the information collected by it, and to insist upon the measures which it pointed out. The relation, too, which the employers

bear to those they employ, whether as domestic servants or paid artisans, is a subject which has lately risen up before us in all its vital importance; and even a little "moral preachment" on the topic was not altogether out of place. We like that fine sense which Mr Helps, on more than one occasion, displays, of the consideration due to the domestic servant who is living under your roof. A very galling tyranny may be exercised by ladies and gentlemen.

"Only think," he says, "what it must be to share one's home with one's oppressor; to have no recurring time when one is certain to be free from those harsh words and unjust censures, which are almost more than blows, ay, even to those natures we are apt to fancy so hardened to rebuke. Imagine the deadness of heart that must prevail in that poor wretch who never hears the sweet words of praise or of encouragement. Many mas

ters of families, men living in the rapid current of the world, who are subject to a variety of impressions which, in their busy minds, are made and effaced even in the course of a single day, can with difficulty estimate the force of unkind words upon those whose monotonous life leaves few opportunities of effacing any unwelcome impressions."

Still more important is it that the capitalist, the great employer of labour, should understand how great a power, and, with it, how great a trust is confided into his hands.

"Can a man," says our author, "who has this destiny intrusted to him, imagine that his vocation consists merely in getting together a large lump of gold, and then being off with it to enjoy it, as he fancies, in some other place; as if, indeed, the parable of the talents were to be taken literally, and that a man should think that he has done his part when he has made much gold and silver out of little?"

And he adds, that men in this position of life would, in the skilful direction and humane supervision of labour, "find room for the exercise of all the powers of their minds, of their best affections, and of whatever was worthy in their ambition."

Nor do those who indirectly employ labour by purchasing articles, and giving commissions, escape from all responsibility in this matter; nor does our author fail to visit them with a due measure of reproof.

"What a striking instance," he says, "the treatment of these poor milliner girls is of the neglect of duty on the part of employers! I mean of those who immediately superintend this branch of labour, and of those who cause it. Had the former been the least aware of their responsibility, would they have hesitated to remonstrate against the unreasonable orders of their customers? And as for the latter, for the ladies who expect such orders to be complied with, how sublimely inconsiderate of the comfort of those beneath them they must have become. I repeat it again: The careless cruelty in the world almost outweighs the rest."

The subject of the second essay is of a practical importance that scarcely admits of exaggeration. When multitudes are crowded together, the dwelling-houses of the poor, the ventilation and drainage of the city, become matters of the most momentous consequence. Foul air, foul habits of living, have been the source of all our plagues, our choleras, our typhus fevers, our pestilences of every description. There never was any other source for these scourges of man's indolence or cupidity. There never was a plague that had any other origin than dirt and idleness, and the injustice that treads down into the dirt.

However such plagues have been propagated when they have once reached their dreadful maturity, this is their only origin. You must look into the alleys and wynds of Constantinople if you would know why the plague has ever travelled to us from the East: it originated there, just as the British cholera rises upon us, the natural exhalation of filth and impurity. Mr Helps seems to be occasionally embarrassed by some presumed objection to the interference of Government in these sanitary measures. We have heard some outcries, more or less sincere, against the centralisation which certain measures adopted by the Legislature have been thought to favour. The machinery which the Legislature had employed has been objected to; and it has been said that our local or municipal governments ought to be more largely intrusted or empowered. But we never heard that any sane man had objected to the fact of legislation itself being applied to what is really a matter of life or death to the com