REVIEWS— f HE BOOICSELLEII. 20 1 



lessen its influence and to curb its power, than tlie conscious per- 

 sonality which so frequently gives the tone alike to attack and reply. 



More than one curious discussion has of late occupied the press 

 at home, relative to withheld names of anonymous or pseudony- 

 mous publications. " Adam Bede," the recently published novel, is 

 issued by Blackwood, with a name on the title which, to the ordi- 

 nary reader, seems genuine enough, but those who are in the secret 

 of the authorship of this book, which all the Eeviewers have agreed 

 to praise, must have been amused by a correspondence which has 

 recently appeared in the Times regarding it. A Mr. Anders, rector 

 of Kirkby, says the author is a Mr. Joseph Liggins, of Nuneaton, 

 Warwickshire ; and the author, under his nomme, de flume of Greorge 

 Elliott, denies this point blank, adding : " Allow me to ask whether 

 the act of publishing a book deprives a man of all claim to the 

 courtesies usual among gentlemen ? If not, the attempt to pry into 

 what is obviously meant to be withheld — my name, — ^and to publish 

 the rumours which such prying may give rise to, seems to me quite 

 indefensible, still more so to state these rumours as ascertained 

 truths." This is putting the question on its true grounds ; and — 

 whatever may be said in regard to editorships, or anonymous re- 

 viewing, — nothing can be more unjust, discourteous, or mean, than 

 the attempts frequently resorted to to force the supposed author 

 into an admission, or a refused denial of his literary offspring. In 

 reference to the " Greorge Elliott " impersonation, we rather hope 

 to see the of&cious rector of Kirkby subjected to the penalties of a 

 false seer, in so far as ridicule may supply a fair return for blundering 

 impertinence, George Elliott, we strongly suspect, belongs to the 

 same sex as George Sand, Currer BeU, and other masculine writers 

 of our day. 



The authorship of the "Vestiges of Creation" has of late as- 

 sumed the form of a controversy scarcely less piquant than the older 

 Junius one, or the more popular question with the last generation 

 Relative to " The Great Unknown," which tempted even " the first 

 Gentleman of Europe " to forget his manners, in the excess of his 

 curiosity. " We are authorized," says the JBooTcseller of December 

 last, " to state that Mr. Eobert Chambers is not the author of the 

 * Vestiges of Creation.' " But Mr. Eobert Chambers made the 

 same declaration some seven or eight years ago ; and still the charge 

 turns up with every new mention of that popular compendium of 



