"Already!" said Helen, with faltering accents, as she crept to Miss
Starke's side, while Leonard rose and bowed. "I am very grateful to
you, Madam," said he, with the grace that comes from all refinement of
idea, "for allowing me to see Miss Helen. Do not let me abuse your
kindness." Miss Starke seemed struck with his look and manner, and
made a stiff half curtsey.
A form more rigid than Miss Starke's it was hard to conceive. She was
like the grim white woman in the nursery ballads. Yet, apparently,
there was a good nature in allowing the stranger to enter her trim
garden, and providing for him and her little charge those fruit and
cakes which belied her aspect. "May I go with him to the gate?"
whispered Helen, as Leonard had already passed up the path.
"You may, child; but do not loiter. And then come back, and lock up
the cakes and cherries, or Patty will get at them."
Helen ran after Leonard.
"Write to me, brother--write to me; and do not, do not be friends with
this man who took you to that wicked, wicked place."
"Oh, Helen, I go from you strong enough to brave worse dangers than
that," said Leonard almost gaily.
They kissed each other at the little wicket gate, and parted.
Leonard walked home under the summer moonlight, and on entering his
chamber, looked first at his rose-tree. The leaves of yesterday's
flowers lay strewn round it; but the tree had put forth new buds.
"Nature ever restores," said the young man. He paused a moment, and
added, "It is that Nature is very patient?"
His sleep that night was not broken by the fearful dreams he had
lately known. He rose refreshed, and went his way to his day's
work--not stealing along the less crowded paths, but with a firm step,
through the throng of men. Be bold, adventurer--thou hast more to
suffer! Wilt thou sink? I look into thy heart, and I cannot answer.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] Continued from page 97.
[12] It may be necessary to observe, that homoeopathy professes to deal
with our moral affections as well as our physical maladies, and has a
globule for every sorrow.
From Sharpe's Magazine.
EGYPT UNDER ABBAS PASHA.
BY BAYLE ST. JOHN.
When the late Mohammed Ali heard at length of the taking of Acre by
his troops under Ibrahim, he exclaimed, "That place," adding an
energetic but somewhat unsavory expression, "that place has cost me,"
not the lives of so many thousand men, but, "so many thousand cantars
of gunpowder." These words illustrate pretty forcibly the narrow and
selfish views of that celebrated but overrated man. We do not believe,
indeed, that during the whole period of his sway in Egypt, the thought
ever crossed his mind that he was bound to govern for any other
purpose than his own personal aggrandisement, or that he was to regard
in the slightest degree the feelings, the comfort, the property or the
lives of his people.
The system which arose from this wretchedly egotistical state of mind
was to a certain extent successful. Although great schemes of
conquest, which even a more magnanimous species of selfishness might
have carried out, were destined to end in comparative shame and
disgrace, yet a somewhat brilliant _de facto_ sovereignty was erected
and maintained to the termination of the old man's life; and he died
regretting only that he had not been allowed to march to
Constantinople. To the end of his days he was rolling in wealth, and
possessed of arbitrary power in dominions of great extent, where he
was not the less arbitrary because he was compelled to acknowledge a
superior, and to send a tribute, instead of a fleet and an army, to
the shores of the Bosphorus. The provinces which he called his own,
lay sleeping in a death-like tranquillity; and because he could ride
through the streets without a guard, his flatterers told him that he
had secured the fear, respect and love of the people. For he had many
flatterers, this ancient of days;--not merely his own minions, whose
business it was, but European gentlemen, who affected to be awe-struck
in his presence, and gathered and treasured up and repeated his wise
sayings, his profound observations, and, save the mark! his wit; but
they never could impress on any impartial hearer the belief in any of
these things. His sayings and observations were sometimes very
foolish, sometimes distinguished by respectable common-sense; and his
wit consisted in prefacing a very silly or impertinent remark with a
peculiar grunt. Whenever, therefore, his courtiers, being in a
narrative mood, began to tell how on a certain occasion the pasha
said, "Hunk!" &c., a crowd of admirers were ready to smile, and one or
two disinterested lookers-on were compelled to smile likewise, though,
perhaps, for a very different reason.
Nothing is easier than to surround a man who has sufficient talents to
fight or wheedle himself into a position of authority with a halo of
false reputation; but it is rather more difficult to impress a
character on the civilization of a country, and, now-a-days, to found
an enduring dynasty. We shall not here recapitulate the enormous
blunders of Mohammed Ali, in political and economical questions, nor
explain how these blunders arose from a selfish desire to make what is
vulgarly called a "splash," nor waste an anathema on his crafty
cruelty and abominable tyranny. We wish merely to remind the reader
that his period of power having come to a close, little good had been
done, except, perhaps, improving the method of transacting public
business.
Well, there were plenty of people to succeed him. The pasha had a
large family of children and grandchildren, to whom he had behaved
sometimes with indulgence, but generally with unreasoning and perverse
severity. There was scarcely a member of his family with whom he had
not had many little quarrels, and who did not avoid his presence as
they did the plague. Even the favorite Ibrahim could not bear to live
in the same city as his presumed father; and the rest would have been
little less startled by the last summons of all, than they were by an
occasional order to appear in the presence of the angry and savage old
man. One feeling, however, was pretty general amongst them,--they
regarded the pasha as a wonderfully important personage, and
themselves consequently, being his children, as little less wonderful
and important. Their hopes were in the uncertainty of life; and very
many of them, in their own minds, had arranged what they would do in
case they came to be viceroy--how they would make the money spin, and
what mighty devices they would put in practice, to emulate and surpass
the splendors of "Effendina"--"Our Lord," _par excellence_.
It must be confessed that Abbas Pasha alone had the good sense to take
up a position of his own. Whether he was as crafty and politic as some
pretend before his elevation to power, it is difficult to decide; but
the plan, at that time generally ascribed to him, of forming what was
called a Turkish or bigoted party--a party of discontented great
folks, and fanatical Ulemas--a party which should appeal to the
religious prejudices of the good Caireens, and oppose itself to the
inroad of European adventurers and improvements,--this plan, if
distinctly formed, was certainly a very sagacious one. Let us be
frank: Europeans have done more harm than good in Egypt; that is to
say, whenever they have appeared, except as mere commercial men,
bringing the goods of their own countries, and anxious to take away
the surplus of the luxuriant crops of the valley of the Nile. As
political advisers, partly, perhaps, because men undertook to advise
who were fit only for the counting-house, partly because their own
interests were concerned, their intermeddling has been most
pernicious. Even the benefits, for some such there are, which have
been conferred by their wisdom, have been mingled with an immense
amount of misery. There is one fact which has attained an almost
mythological dignity, from its notoriety, and the admirable manner in
which it symbolises European meddling in Egypt. An English merchant,
who ought to have known the manners of the country, advised the
construction of the Mahmoudiyeh Canal. It has been most useful to
commerce; but twenty thousand people were starved or worked to death
within six weeks, in order to complete it. Fifty illustrations of the
same kind might be given; but we wish merely to have our meaning
understood, when we say that, if Abbas Pasha or his party ever
contemplated, as there is reason to suppose they did, the utter
destruction of foreign influence, the total change of a system, under
which French and English measures alternated like whig and tory
administrations, we must candidly admit they had some very good
grounds to go upon.
The creation of the party was a long and laborious work; very likely
it was brought and kept together more by mutual discontents, ambitious
hopes, and straightforward bigotry, than by any very Machiavellian
policy. Probably Abbas Pasha really liked ram-fighting, and was a
pigeon-fancier, and did not assume these tastes, as the elder Brutus
played the fool, in order to accomplish his ends. But, however this
may be, he certainly occupied a more respectable position than his
uncle Ibrahim, whose whole ideas of the duties of government were
getting money and playing at soldiers; and than any of the other
members of this most obese and heavy-headed family. Even if it be true
that he meditated a revolt against the broken-down conqueror of Syria,
and was only withheld by fear of the European powers, this fact gives
an impression of his energy, and by no means derogates from his
character in this country. The Saids and the Ahmeds, the Ismains and
the Mustaphas, would, each and all of them, strike a blow and rid the
country of their beloved relations, if the little word _impossible_
did not stare them in the face. As it is, they are in perpetual feud
with the head of the family, and there is no end to their bickerings,
heart-burnings, jealousies, and hatreds. Abbas is haughty and
overbearing to them; they as insolent as they may be to him. Be sure
that, on all sides, direful causes of affront have been given; but
probably Abbas has been provoked by unbecoming pretensions. What else
could be expected from a set of ignorant, debauched adventurers, who
have got a temporary footing in the country, and actually talk with
the pride of an ancient respectable line of hereditary princes of
their rights, and their expectations, and their rank, and so forth!
Abbas, of course, has not the same natural influence over this unruly
brotherhood as had the ruthless old man, and his more savage immediate
successor; and probably, in attempting to exert his rightful
authority, has been betrayed into undignified squabbles. It is certain
that many members of his family have fled or retired to
Constantinople; among others, Mohammed Ali Bey, and the notorious
Hazlet Hanem. Some remarks have been made on this subject, to the
effect that Abbas is frightening away his dutiful relations by his
violent and unreasonable conduct; but if Egypt never loses two of its
natives whom it can worse spare than these, it will be fortunate.
Without further inquiry than into their character, one would be
inclined to admire and respect the man who had quarrelled with them.
Mohammed Ali is a debauched worthless lad; and Madame Nazlet cannot
have justice done to her without details into which our pen is not at
liberty to enter.
It is a sad thing, certainly, to view the breaking up of a large
family; but it would be a sadder thing to witness vice unpunished, and
harmony arising out of the reckless indulgence of unbridled passions.
Abbas Pasha himself, if report speaks true, has little in his private
life to plead for lenity in judging of his public character. His taste
leads him to the most trifling amusements. Just as of old, when he was
the supposed head of a kind of Conservative Turkish party, when he was
Governor of Cairo, and silently nourishing his ambitious schemes, he
spends time and money in the undignified, though not inelegant, and
certainly innocent, occupation of a pigeon-fancier. Near the new
palace which he is building (none of these Turkish princes seem to
care about living where their fathers lived before them) rises a
magnificent square tower, entirely devoted to the loyal winged
favorites of his Highness the Viceroy, who is reported to be quite
learned in this department of natural history. Another of his tastes,
for which Englishmen will have more sympathy, is for horses; and the
public will remember his bold challenge to the Jockey Club. In what
way he passes the remainder of his leisure hours we do not inquire;
but we give him, in common with his relatives, the advantage of an
excuse that has before been urged in their favor--namely, that of an
infamous education.
Abbas Pasha has not exactly carried out the views which were
attributed to him before he reached his present elevation. He has not,
for example, done all that his fanatical anti-Frank friends could
expect in shaking off foreign influence. He began, it is true, by
getting rid, in rather a hasty and shabby manner, of many Europeans,
chiefly English, in his employ; and showed a disposition entirely to
put a stop to that enormous blunder of the Barrage. His first, and
very wise impulse, was either to destroy the works altogether, or,
abandoning them, simply allow the river to work its own majestic will.
But a clamor was raised on all sides! After throwing so many millions
of dollars into the river, why should not a few millions more be
thrown? I believe the French, who have a fondness for this undertaking
because it was suggested by or through Napoleon--(the Osiris of his
day is parent of all wonderful inventions)--I believe, I say, that
France made it almost a national question; and so this work, which
already impedes the navigation of one of the finest rivers in the
world, and which, if successful, would only achieve an object that one
quarter of the expense in the establishment of steam-engines at
various points for raising water would effectually accomplish, is
allowed to drag on slowly towards its conclusion. We must give Abbas
credit for the courageous good sense which suggested to him that the
first loss was the best; and yet we must not withhold from him some
praise for yielding to the influence of friendly persuasion, and
refraining from carrying out his own opinion, however well founded,
when he was told that, by doing so, he would incur the risk of being
accused of treason to his grandfather's fame. The old man had fondly
believed that his Barrage would join the Pyramids that look down upon
it in that restricted category of the "Wonders of the World," and
might well be supposed to lie uneasily in his grave if all the piles
which he had caused to be driven, all the mighty walls, and piers, and
arches, which he had caused to be raised with a disregard of expense
and human labor worthy of Cheops, were allowed to sink and lie
forgotten in the slimy bed of the Nile.
This was the first point on which it appeared that Abbas Pasha was not
disposed to act up fully to his presumed plan of destroying European
influence altogether; but, on many occasions, he early showed a
disposition to temporize between his prejudices and his interest. We
cannot here enter into details of minor importance, but, coming down
to a recent period, we may mention another instance of a similar
nature. For many years before his death, Mohammed Ali had held out
hopes that he would construct, or allow to be constructed, a railway
from Cairo to Suez. This was preeminently an English project--not
likely to be unuseful to the country at large, it is true, but
calculated chiefly to promote the more expeditious and comfortable
transit of passengers to and from India. The Pasha, however, deceived
by an excess of cunning, really entertained no intention of performing
his promise. With great want of sagacity, he confounded the proposed
stations on the line of railway, which he might have held in his own
hands if he chose, with the counters which he was told had formed the
nuclei of the British power in India. He believed the English had some
sinister designs upon his country, and were engaged in all sorts of
schemes for introducing themselves into it. The same policy which made
him refuse to deepen the entrance of the port of Alexandria, lest a
British fleet might come in, made him unwilling to throw a railway
across the Desert of Suez, even if he kept the whole management in his
own hands. The recommendations, he saw, came all from one country: the
objections, nearly all, from another. France was opposed to the
railway because it had another darling Neapolitan project in
hand--namely, the cutting of the Isthmus of Suez, which was much
talked of once, but which now nobody mentions but to laugh at. The
difficulties of execution, immense as they were found to be by the
Austrian commission, were not the most decisive objections. The real
ones were contained in an answer to the very appropriate
question--_Cui bono?_ However, the railway was shelved for a time. It
has lately come again upon the tapis; and although it is now proposed
to lay down a line in the first instance between Alexandria and Cairo,
to compensate for the water communication which M. Moujel is spoiling
by his Barrage, yet there is every probability of proper extensions
and branches being made in due time.
If, indeed, the project be really a serious one. Many say, in spite of
the official manner in which the announcement has been made, that it
is only a _ruse_, a piece of policy in order to propitiate English
influence, and that as soon as certain manoeuvres shall have been
successful or otherwise, nothing more will be said about the railway.
There is no answering for the diplomacy of Eastern courts; but this
explanation seems a little too Machiavellian. I have no doubt the
promise has been made, in part, because it is thought to be agreeable
to the English; but I can hardly imagine Abbas Pasha is so foolish as
not to know that if he coaxes Lord Palmerston with a sugar-plum, and
when his lordship opens his mouth, puts a finger in instead, Lord
Palmerston will bite pretty sharply.
Be these things as they may, it seems admitted on all hands that Abbas
Pasha has now completely thrown overboard the party which he courted
so assiduously as heir-apparent, and is seeking foreign, especially
English, support. All this is fair enough provided he does not fall
into the old error of sacrificing the natives entirely to strangers,
as did his great predecessor, and provided he do not allow himself to
be persuaded by flatterers--and he has flatterers; what man in power
has not?--to engage in grand undertakings for the purpose of emulating
the renown of the old Pharaohs. Egypt wants neither a resuscitation of
old times, nor a hasty imitation of the new. She has to find out the
form of its own civilization: and modern improvements, as they have
been hitherto introduced, will only weigh her down into despair.
But it is said that Abbas Pasha has no views at all about the progress
of the arts, and manufactures, and commerce; no thought of the
amelioration of the country; but that in endeavoring to gain the
good-will of Europe, he wants to serve some ambitious projects of his
own. There may be something in this. Not that it is probable he
intends to play the old game over again and throw off the yoke of
Stamboul; but there is certainly a very arduous struggle now carrying
on, both by open and underhand means, between Egypt and the Porte.
There is an infinity of points of difference between the vassal and
his lord; but the gist of the matter is, that the former wishes to
preserve all the privileges, to be treated with the same indulgence,
to be left with the same freedom of action, as his grandfather; he
wishes to remain, in fact, a vassal little more than in name, free to
indulge any arbitrary whims; whilst the latter is attempting, with
some reason,--with great reason indeed, but perhaps in too precipitate
a manner, and actuated by feelings that resemble private grudge,--to
reduce Egypt to the same subjection as the rest of the Ottoman Empire.
The discussion is a serious one, and much may be said on both sides;
but it must be accorded at once in favor of the Porte, that the
Viceroy of Egypt is not to be considered as an independent sovereign
merely paying tribute to a superior power, but as an officer of the
Empire. Certainly, he holds a distinguished position; and his case is
an exceptional one; but very imprudent would be any who should advise
him to take the same ground as Mohammed Ali, even after his defeat and
expulsion from Syria, was allowed to assume. He has been levying
troops, and is said even to have victualled his fleet to give more
weight to his negotiations; but it is not probable he will draw the
sword when, by giving way a little, he may establish a character for
moderation, and be left undisturbed in a position sufficiently
splendid to satisfy a very respectable ambition.
On the other hand, it is hoped that no undue heat, no petty jealousy,
no minor considerations of self-love--excited and encouraged by the
numerous runagates from Egypt, as Artin Bey and his fellows--will
finally govern the councils of Constantinople. Many missions have
passed from this country to the Porte with the object of warding off
the blows that are being aimed at the authority of Abbas Pasha.
Probably they ask too much, as is always done in such cases; but, if
reports speak true, they have been answered with an asperity which
seems calculated rather to provoke a quarrel than to lead to a
satisfactory settlement. The great question now is about the Tanzamat
promulgated by the Porte, which may be briefly described as a
well-intended attempt to introduce some kind of order into the
administration of the empire, to substitute certain rules in place of
arbitrary will, and generally to control the actions of what are
called the great men in their relations with those who, we suppose,
may be described as the little men. Such a scheme, even if imperfect
in its details and difficult to be applied, must command our
sympathies. The provinces of the Turkish empire--and Egypt is at least
as great in degree as the remainder--have been too long the sport of
caprice; and if it be the secret object of Abbas Pasha utterly to
prevent the introduction of this new system--to refuse it even a fair
trial--he will most certainly, whatever may be the effect of obstinate
passive resistance, receive no countenance or support from England.
It is said, however, that he merely desires--and such is the purport
of his remonstrances--that certain modifications, adapted to the
peculiar situation of Egypt, shall be made. The Porte is the best
judge as to how far these modifications are compatible with the spirit
of its decree; and as the communications that have taken place have
been chiefly verbal, we will not take upon ourselves to say whether
they are even suggested by any peculiar necessity. The negotiations
are in progress; and all we can say is, that unless Abbas Pasha be
considered too dangerous a subject, and his removal be desired, it
will be better to make up by amenity of procedure for the inexorable
requirements of principle.
There was one great grievance in Mohammed Ali's time, namely, the
existence of the _ferdeh_, or tax of one-twelfth upon income of all
kinds, down to that of the poorest fellah. This was a great outrage on
legality. It was opposed to all the constitutions of the Turkish
empire; and it was understood that, after the Syrian affair, it should
be voluntarily done away with by the Pasha. But an easy source of
revenue is not easily given up; and, in spite of all remonstrances,
the tax was maintained. There was no burden to which the people
objected more than this. They paid,--but they murmured somewhat
loudly; and even in the coffee-houses many were sometimes bold enough
to say the ferdeh was illegal. On one occasion, when Ibrahim Pasha was
in Cairo, not long before his father's death, there was the semblance
of a riot on the subject; but the stick and the halter were brought
into play, and the conviction produced that, legal or not legal, the
tax must be paid. Abbas Pasha himself for some time allowed this
copious fountain to gush into his treasury; but it now suited the
policy of the Porte to return vigorously to the charge in favor of
legality; and towards the end of last year the ferdeh was finally
abolished to the infinite delight of the whole population. The
long-wished-for event was celebrated by illuminations in Alexandria
and Cairo; and the general joy might have risen to something like
enthusiasm had not a fresh, though temporary, cause of discontent
accompanied the boon.
This was the conscription, which nearly drove Egypt into a revolt last
winter. In old times, when soldiers were wanted, men were pounced upon
suddenly wherever they could be found, and marched off, leaving great
grief behind; but before any dangerous excitement could be got up.
This was justly considered a barbarous and inartificial method; and
when, for what purposes remains a mystery, a certain levy of men was
required, it was determined to proceed with regularity, and to make
each district furnish its quota according to the number of
inhabitants. The idea, at first sight, seems both fair and wise; and
if the people could have been got to acquiesce in the necessity of
their supplying soldiers in any proportion at all, would have worked
very well. But as nobody in Egypt wants to shoulder a musket, as
everybody has the utmost hatred and abhorrence of military service,
arising partly from constitutional want of energy, but chiefly from
the knowledge that the soldier is ill-paid[13] and ill-fed, and
rarely, if ever, returns--we never met but one old discharged
campaigner in the country--it is not surprising if the public
announcement of the intentions of Government produced the greatest
possible perturbation. The first impulse of the whole adult
population, except those who could boast of some very undoubted claim
of exemption, was to fly to the mountains; and every defile, every
cavern, every catacomb, every quarry in the Libyan and Arabian chains,
were soon tenanted by people running away from enlistment. Wherever we
went in our excursions, we became accustomed to see lines of human
beings perched like crows on the summit of seemingly inaccessible
cliffs, on the look-out for the enemy in the shape of the
Sheikh-el-Beled; for the task of catching and forwarding the
prescribed number of "strong active young men" devolved on the civil
authority, aided sometimes by that estimable rural police, the Arnaout
irregular cavalry. On many occasions we surprised these poor people in
their retreats; and once, when they mistook us for recruiters, were
assailed with slings diverted from their original purpose, namely,
that of frightening the sparrows away from the crops. Accounts reached
us at several places that blood had been shed; and the affair in
various ways rendered our journey somewhat melancholy. Now we came
upon a large town, as Geneh, seemingly deserted by its whole
population, with closed shops and silent streets; then we met a party
of recruits, chained neck and neck, going to their destination; and
anon we saw a crowd of women, driven to despair by the loss of son, or
husband, or brother, tossing up their arms, tearing their garments,
and invoking curses on their oppressors. Public opinion in all
despotic countries finds utterance through the weaker sex; they dare
to say what would perhaps bring condign punishment on the men; they
nearly made a revolt once in Cairo under Mohammed Ali, and on the
present occasion they expressed their mind pretty freely. Some of the
more noisy brought a good beating on themselves from some irascible
Sheikh; but in general their anathemas were received with a kind of
sheepish deprecating good-humor. It was difficult to ascertain how
many recruits were at last got together, but, as near as I could
gather, the number ordered was one in about every 180 souls.
The sight of so much unhappiness naturally excited great indignation
and disgust; but not so much perhaps on reflection as the permanent
misery and ill-treatment of a great proportion of the population.
Abbas Pasha has taken the old system as he found it, and, with the
exception of the abolition of the ferdeh, has done nothing to
alleviate the condition of the fellah. It is especially on the lands
of the great men, the pashas and the beys, that these poor serfs are
worst off. Their profession is that of agricultural laborers, but it
must not be supposed that they have freedom to carry their services to
what master they will. They belong to the land as much as do the
palm-trees; and the nature of their occupation, their hours of labor,
and their pay, are regulated by their lord and master in a perfectly
arbitrary way. At Randa, opposite Sheikh Abadeh, we found a sugar
estate occupying 1,300 men, and endeavored to ascertain in as exact a
manner as possible how they were treated. We found that, in the first
place, they were, of course, forced to work, both on the land and in
the factory, at a nominal pay of twenty-five paras, or three-halfpence
a head, and that some of them were in active employment nearly
eighteen hours a day. Now it _is_ possible for a man to exist on such
wages in that part of Egypt, even with a family; and as bare existence
is considered in most countries an adequate reward for unintelligent
labor, there seemed not so much reason to complain. But then came the
question, how was the payment made? The answer in substance was, the
men are paid twenty-five paras a day, but they never get the money;
they receive what is called its value in the refuse molasses; but this
only when it can be of little service to them, when the owner of the
estate has glutted the market, and they can only sell at a loss of
forty or fifty per cent. They would be only too happy to receive
fifteen paras in hard cash; as it is, some of them necessarily eke out
their living by stealing, and others by the produce of little plots of
land, which they cultivate at night when they should be reposing after
the fatigues of the day. The women and children assist them, when the
latter are not pressed into what is called the service of the state;
that is, compelled to dig canals, and perform other light work for
which they receive neither pay nor food. Their parents bring them
food, or some charitable person flings them a morsel of coarse bread,
otherwise they would perish.
Such is pretty nearly the state of things in the private possessions
of all the descendants of Mohammed Ali. In fairness, however, we must
remind the reader that Abbas Pasha is only answerable for acquiescing
in customs handed down. He has not established any new pernicious
regulation that we have heard of; and even if he remain perfectly
quiescent and leave things to go their own gait, King Log is better
than King Stork. The mischievous activity of Mohammed Ali is not to be
regretted; and if, by the influence of Constantinople prudently
exercised, some little check is gradually put upon the caprices and
violence of the proprietors who call themselves princes--and it is for
the interest of Abbas Pasha that this should be the case--Egypt,
though not possessed of all the happiness she wants, might not be very
discontented, and would have no reason to look back with regret on the
time of the old pasha. According to all accounts, some classes of the
agricultural laborers are gradually enriching themselves in spite of
the burdens which they bear; and, although wealth is timid to show
itself, a great amelioration in the state of the country may soon be
perceptible.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] Soldiers will often stop a European in a by-place and beg. They get
about twenty paras (a penny farthing) a day.
From Household Words.
THE JEWS IN CHINA.
There is a quaintness in the notion of a Jewish colony surrounded by
Chinese; the fixed among the fixed. The fact that such a colony
exists, or has existed when found, ought to be especially remarked,
for to ethnologists and others it may prove a valuable opportunity for
speculation. Jews in China, what will they be like? Will the Jew stand
out from the surrounding uniformity of Chinese life, like the one tree
of the desert (for which, see Panorama of Overland Mail, and hear
lecture upon same); or will he become non-entity, like among like,
adding nothing to the first idea--silence in a calm? In the Jewish
synagogue in Kai-foung-fou, concerning which we have presently to
speak, there are Chinese inscriptions. The first placed there in 1444,
by a literary Jew, is intended to prove the close analogy between
Jewish and Chinese points of doctrine. "The author," it says, "of the
law of Yse-lo-ye (Israel) is Ha-vou-lo-han (Abraham). His law was
translated by tradition to Niche (Moses). He received his book on Mt.
Sinai. His book has fifty-four sections. The doctrine which is therein
contained is much like that of the Kings," (which are sacred volumes
of the Chinese). The author of the inscription repeats many passages
to prove that in their worship to heaven, their ceremonies, their
behavior to the old and young, their patriarchal character, their
prayers, and their mode of honoring dead ancestors, the Jews resemble
the Chinese.
The author of a second inscription, a grand mandarin in his own time,
speaks to the same purpose. "From the time of Han," says this
gentleman, whose name is Too-tang, "from the time of Han, the Jews
fixed themselves in China; and in the twentieth year of the cycle 65,
(which is, by interpretation, 1163,) they offered to the Emperor
Hiao-tsong a tribute of cloth from India. He received them well, and
permitted them to live in Kai-foung-fou. They formed then sixty-six
families. They built a synagogue where they placed their Kings, or
Divine Scriptures." This mandarin concludes with an eulogium of Jewish
virtue, after the approved manner of epitaphs.
The Jews emphatically cultivated agriculture, commerce, were faithful
in the armies, upright as magistrates, and rigid in observance of
their ceremonies. One only wants to wind up with the scrap,
"Affliction sore, long time they bore;" but affliction on the part of
the Chinese, at any rate, they certainly did not bear; they were more
than tolerated, they were understood; ceremony-men to ceremony-men
were ceremoniously polite to one another. The Jews and Chinese even
intermarried; on their first introduction by way of Persia to the
Chinese Empire, they had settled here and there in sundry Chinese
cities; but by the marriage with Chinese disciples of Confucius or
Mahomet, the Jewish colonies were melted down into the pure Chinese
metal; and when this history begins, nothing is known of any synagogue
in China, save the synagogue at Kai-foung-fou, which is a city in the
heart of the Flowery Land, the capital of the central province of
Honan; and for an account of which we are indebted to Father Ricci,
one of the Jesuit Missionaries.
Father Ricci died in the year 1610, at Pekin, which was his station.
Father Ricci, at Pekin, first heard of the Jewish synagogue at
Kai-foung-fou, and the information startled him exceedingly. The young
Jew who enlightened Father Ricci on the subject told him that there
were then at Kai-foung-fou barely a dozen Jewish families, and that
for five or six hundred years they had preserved in their synagogue a
very ancient copy of the Pentateuch. The father produced a Hebrew
Bible, and the young man recognized the characters, although he could
not read them, for he knew no language but Chinese. Four years after
this, Father Ricci (whose business at Pekin would not permit him to go
gadding) had an opportunity of sending off to Kai-foung-fou a Chinese
Jesuit, with a letter written in Chinese, to the chief of the
synagogue. He explained to the rabbi his own reverence for the books
of the Old Testament, and informed him of its fulfilled predictions,
and the advent of a Messiah. The rabbi shook his head at that, saying,
"that so it could not be, because they had yet to expect the Messiah
for ten thousand years." The good natured rabbi nevertheless did
homage to Father Ricci's great abilities. He was an old man, and saw
none about him fit to guide his people; he therefore besought the
learned Jesuit to come to Kai-foung-fou, and undertake the guidance of
the synagogue, under one only condition, a true Chinese-Jewish one,
that he would pledge himself to abstinence from all forbidden meats.
However, that was very much as if Dr. Jones of Bettws-y-Coed should
offer his practice to Sir B. Brodie of London. Father Ricci had a
larger work in hand, and so he stopped at Pekin.
In 1613, Father Aleni (such an uncommonly wise man, that the Chinese
called him the Confucius of Europe) was directed to proceed to
Kai-foung-fou and make investigation. Father Aleni, being well up in
his Hebrew, was a promising man to send on such an errand, but he
found the rabbi dead, and the Jews, though they let him see the
synagogue, would not produce their books. The particulars of nothing
having been done on this occasion are to be found related by Father
Trigaut, in choice Latin, and choicer Italian, (_de Expedit. Sinica,
lib. 1., cap. 2, p. 118_,) and by Father Samedo (_Relatione della
China, part 1., cap. 30, p. 193_.)
A residence was established by the Jesuits in Kai-foung-fou. _Now_,
thought those who thought at all upon such matters, we shall have
something done. If we can only compare our Old Testament texts with an
ancient exemplar, that will be no small gain. A certain father Gozani
went zealously into the whole subject, entered the synagogue, copied
the inscriptions, and transmitted them to Rome.
The Jews told Father Gozani that in a temple at Pekin was a large
volume, wherein were inscribed the sacred books of foreigners resident
in China. That volume was sought afterwards by Europeans at Pekin, but
not found. Certainly such a volume does exist among the Chinese
records. The Jews, however, told Father Gozani not only about what
existed in Pekin, but all about themselves at Kai-foung-fou. The
Father wrote a letter, dated 1704, containing what he learned in this
manner. It appears that by that application of "soft sawder" which is
or ought to be well understood by men of the world and Jesuits, the
Father gratified the Jews, so that they paid him voluntary visits. He
returned their visits by a call upon them at their synagogue, where,
he says--"I had a long conversation with them; and they showed me
their inscriptions; some of which are in Chinese, and others in their
own tongue. I saw also their _Kims_, or religious books, and they
suffered me to enter even the most secret place of their synagogue, to
which they can have no access themselves. That place is reserved for
their _Chian-Kiao_; that is to say, chief of the synagogue, who never
approaches it but with the most profound respect.
"There were thirteen tabernacles placed upon tables, each of which was
surrounded by small curtains. The sacred _Kim_ of Moses (the
Pentateuch) was shut up in each of these tabernacles, twelve of which
represented the Twelve Tribes of Israel; and the thirteenth, Moses.
The books were written on long pieces of parchment, and folded up on
rollers. I obtained leave from the chief of the synagogue to draw the
curtains of one of these tabernacles, and to unroll one of the books,
which appeared to me to be written in a hand exceedingly neat and
distinct. One of these books had been luckily saved from the great
inundation of the river _Hoang-ho_, which overflowed the city of
Kai-foung-fou, the capital of the province. As the letters of the book
have been wetted, and on that account are almost effaced, the Jews
have been at great pains to get a dozen copies made, which they
carefully preserve in the twelve tabernacles above mentioned.
"There are to be seen also in two other places of the synagogue,
coffers, in which are shut up with great care several other little
books, containing different divisions of the Pentateuch of Moses,
which they call _Ta-Kim_, and other parts of their law. They use these
books when they pray; they showed me some of them, which appeared to
be written in Hebrew. They were partly new and partly old, and half
torn. They, however, bestow as much attention on guarding them as if
they were gold or silver.
"In the middle of the synagogue stands a magnificent chair, raised
very high, and ornamented with a beautiful embroidered cushion. This
is the chair of Moses, in which every Saturday, and days of great
solemnity, they place their Pentateuch, and read some portions of it.
There also may be seen a _Van-sui-pai_, or painting, on which is
inscribed the Emperor's name; but they have neither statues nor
images. This synagogue fronts the west, and when they address their
prayers to the Supreme Being, they turn towards that quarter, and
adore him under the name of _Tien_, _Cham-Tien_, _Cham-ti_, and
_Kao-van-voe-tche_; that is to say, _Creator of all things_; and
lastly, of _Van-voe-tchu-tcai, Governor of the Universe_. They told me
that they had taken these names from the Chinese books, and that they
used them to express the Supreme Being and First Cause.
"In going out from the synagogue, I observed a hall, which I had the
curiosity to enter, but I found nothing remarkable in it, except a
great number of censers. They told me that in this hall they honored
their _Chim-gins_, or the great men of their law. The largest of these
censers, which is intended for the Patriarch Abraham, stands in the
middle of the hall, after which come those of Isaac, and Jacob, and
his twelve branches, or the Twelve Tribes of Israel; next are those of
Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Esdras, and several other illustrious persons,
both male and female.
"After quitting this apartment, they conducted us to the Hall of
Strangers, in order to give us an entertainment. As the titles of the
books of the Old Testament were printed in Hebrew at the end of my
Bible, I showed them to _Cham-Kiao_, or chief of the synagogue; he
immediately read them, though they were badly printed, and he told me
that they were the names of their _Chin-Kim_, or Pentateuch. I then
took my Bible, and the _Cham-Kiao_ took his _Beresith_ (thus they name
the Book of Genesis); we compared the descendants of Adam, until Noah,
with the age of each, and we found the most perfect conformity between
both. We afterwards ran over the names and chronology in Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which compose the
Pentateuch, or five Books of Moses. The chief of the synagogue told me
that they named these five books _Beresith_, _Veelesemoth_, _Vaiiora_,
_Vaiedabber_, and _Haddebarim_, and that they divided them into
fifty-three volumes; _viz._, Genesis into twelve, Exodus into eleven,
and the three following books into ten volumes each, which they call
_Kuen_. Some of these they opened, and presented to me to read; but it
was to no purpose, as I was unacquainted with the Hebrew language.
"Having interrogated them respecting the titles of the other books of
the Bible, the chief of the synagogue replied, that they were in
possession of some of them, but that they wanted a great many, and of
others they had no knowledge. Some of his assistants added, that they
had lost several books in the inundation of the Hoang-ho, of which I
have spoken."
Father Gozani has spoken of the inundation, but we have not, and so we
will do so now. Previously, however, we may call attention to the
distinct adoption of the Chinese "Hall of Ancestors" among these Jews,
and of a place for showing hospitality to strangers as an appendage to
their place of worship. It is in this way that, without violating
their own opinions, they became assimilated more completely to their
neighbors. Father Gozani also notes that their accounts of sacred
history were grossly disfigured with Talmudical legends, or other
stories of that class--a fact not to be lost sight of by the
speculator. The Jews, in the time of Father Gozani, composed seven
families--Phao, Kin, Che, Kao, The-Man, Li, Ngai--including in all
about one thousand souls. They intermarried with each other, and had
their own fashion of hair-cutting. These seven families of
Kai-foung-fou were the remains of seventy who had of old established
themselves in that capital. Now for the inundation. That event took
place in the year 1642, and it occurred as follows:--Li-cong-tse, a
rebel, with a big army, besieged the city. The inhabitants, after
defending themselves for six months, still refused to succumb, because
they expected rescue from the Emperor. The Emperor did come, a vastly
clever fellow, who determined to destroy the enemy by a great
master-stroke. "I'll drown every man-jack!" he said, and broke the
dikes that confined the Hoang-ho, or Yellow River, a league distant
from the city. Out poured the stream and drowned the besiegers, and
besieged the city in its turn, knocked down its walls, and destroyed
thirty thousand of its inmates. The Emperor, a cockney sportsman on
the largest scale, shot at the pigeon and killed the crow. It was in
this inundation that the number of the Jews was thinned; diluted by
the waters of the river, their Pentateuch was damaged and some other
portions of their scripture altogether lost.
Before passing down from Father Gozani, we must extract his rough
picture of the Jewish synagogue, as it existed in his day. He says of
the Jews--
"They have no other synagogue but this, in the capital of the province
of Ho-Nan. I perceived in it no altar, nor any other furniture, but
the chair of Moses, with a censer, a long table, and large
chandeliers, in which were placed candles made of tallow. This
synagogue has some resemblance to our European churches; it is divided
into three aisles; that in the middle is occupied by the table of
incense, the chair of Moses, the painting, and the tabernacles already
mentioned, in which are preserved the thirteen copies of the
Pentateuch. These tabernacles are constructed in the form of an arch,
and the middle aisle is like the choir of the synagogue; the two
others are set apart as places of prayer, and for the adoration of the
Supreme Being. Within the building there is a passage which runs quite
round.
"As there formerly were, and still are, among them Bachelors and
_Kien-sens_, which is a degree different from that of a Bachelor, I
took the liberty of asking them if they rendered homage to Confucius;
they replied that they honored him in the same manner as the rest of
the literati, and that they assisted them in solemn ceremonies, which
are performed in halls dedicated to their great men. They added, that
in spring and autumn they practised certain rites in honor of their
ancestors, according to the manner of Chinese, in the hall next to
their synagogue; that they did not present them the flesh of hogs, but
of other animals; that in other ceremonies they were contented with
offering them porcelain dishes filled with dainties and sweetmeats,
which they accompanied with perfumes and profound reverences or
prostrations. I asked them, likewise, if in their houses or Hall of
Ancestors, they had tablets in honor of their departed relations; they
replied that they used neither tablets, images, nor any thing else,
but only a few censers. We must, however, except their mandarins, for
whom alone they place in the Hall of Ancestors a tablet inscribed with
their name and rank."
Father Gozani adds, that "these Jews, in their inscriptions, call
their law the Law of Israel, _Yselals-Kiao_, which they name also
_Kon-Kiao_, Ancient Law; _Tien-Kiao_, Law of God, and _Tien-Kin-Kiao_,
to signify that they abstain from blood, and cut the nerves and veins
of the animals they kill, in order that the blood may flow more easily
from them."
This custom gives to the Jews in China, at the present day, the name
of Cut-Nerves. To the present day our story now descends; for, after
the time of Father Gozani, blank follows in the way of action. Father
Etienne, who meditated a work upon the Sacred Scriptures in reply to
the _Critici Sacri_, was eager to push on investigations. From the
letters of Father Gozani, and from those which Father Domingo and
Gambil wrote upon it, material was obtained for the memoir published
under the direction of M. L. Aime Martin, in which he remarks that the
detail would be regarded with the more curiosity, as it had been often
demanded, and as Father du Halde had contented himself with merely
promising it in his great work, "Description de la Chine." So we have
fairly got out of the past into the present, where our story thus runs
on.
In the year 1815, the Chinese Jews endeavored unsuccessfully to
communicate with Europe by means of a Hebrew letter addressed to
London, which seems not to have been delivered. Last year the Jewish
Society of London determined, however, to communicate with them. Miss
Cooks, an energetic and devoted Jewess, placed her purse in the hands
of the Society; nothing impeded fresh research; the English bishop at
Hong Kong co-operated, Dr. Medhurst was consulted, and two Chinese
Christians were at length appointed to proceed to Kai-foung-fou. The
elder of these two was a bachelor; the younger was a student from the
Missionaries' College at Batavia; but the junior was named to head the
enterprise, because he had previously displayed zeal and ability, and
also because he could write English fluently, and would journalize in
that language. His journals, therefore, could be laid before Miss
Cooks, uninjured by translation.
Our heroes--for so we will call the two adventurers--set out from
Shanghae, on the 15th of last November, by boat to Toing-kiang-tou. In
a car, drawn by mules, they were then jolted along, following the
track of the Hoang-ho, rising at three o'clock on winter mornings, to
save time--a proceeding which involves almost supererogatory
self-denial. Population near the Yellow River they found rare and
unhealthy. Localities which figure in the geographical charts of the
empire as principal places, or as towns of the second class, are but
huge piles of rubbish, surrounded by crumbling walls. Here and there a
gate, with its inscription half-effaced, informs the traveller that he
is entering a mighty town.
Perseverance, and a mule car, brought the travellers to Kai-foung-fou.
They found there many Mahometans, openly exercising right of
conscience, and flying their religion on a flag displayed over their
gate. These Mahometans are, for the most part, hotel-keepers, and with
one of them our heroes lodged. Of him they began asking about
Cut-Nerves. Mine host of the Crescent said there were still some Jews
in Kai-foung-fou, and offered himself as a cicerone to their
synagogue. Thither they went. They found its outer wall in ruins;
briers and dirt filled the grand entrance; "the pillars of the
building, the inscribed marbles, the stone balustrade, before the
peristyle of the temple, the ornamental sculpture--all were cracked,
broken, and overturned." Under the wings of the synagogue, the chapels
built in honor of the patriarchs--nestled together, cold and naked,
sleeping on the bare stones, those objects of our European interest,
"the Jews in China." Poor and miserable as they are, they had begun to
sell the stones of their temple for bread, and a portion of land
within their sacred inclosure had been already sold to an adjacent
temple of the Buddhists.
Still, there were the cylinders inclosing the sacred rolls of the Old
Testament, which, luckily, had not proved eatable. In number, these
rolls were about a dozen, each thirty feet long by three feet wide.
They are of white sheep-skin, inscribed with very small Hebrew
characters.
For fifty years these poor Jews have been without the guidance of a
rabbi, and there is not one left who can read a word of Hebrew. In a
dozen years, probably, the last trace of the Jews in China will
expire. The travellers gave money to the mournful congregation in the
synagogue, and received leave to copy the inscriptions, about which
the Jesuits had previously informed us. Moreover, they obtained, and
have brought home, eight Hebrew manuscripts; six contain portions of
the Old Testament, namely, of Exodus, chapters 1-6, and 38-40; of
Leviticus, chapters 19, 20; of Numbers, chapters 13, 14, 15; of
Deuteronomy, chapters 11-16, and chapter 32; with portions of the
Pentateuch, the Psalms, and Prophets. The other two manuscripts are of
the Jewish Liturgy. The leaves of these manuscripts "are of a species
of card-board, on which the words, as it were, are engraved with a
point; the binding is in silk, and bears evident marks of being of
foreign origin. Two Israelitish merchants, to whom these books were
shown at Shanghae, spoke of having seen similar ones at Aken, and the
presence here and there upon the margins of Persian words,
interspersed with Hebrew annotations, seemed to indicate that the
books came originally from some western country of Asia, perhaps
Persia, or some of the high provinces of India, where Persic has from
time immemorial been the language used among people of education.
Although the annotations mentioned are numerous, and apparently
referring to different epochs, no trace of any Chinese character is to
be discovered, nor any of those marks or signs which immediately
betray Chinese origin. No date exists by which the age can be
determined."
We hope the statement is correct which tells us that these manuscripts
are to be deposited in the British Museum. Fac-similes are at the same
time promised, printed in Hebrew, accompanied with a plan of the
synagogue, made on the spot by the Chinese travellers, and the journal
of our junior hero, written in English and Chinese. The journal in
English would not be a very ponderous affair, the entire expedition
having occupied only two months--the residence at Kai-foung-fou, five
days. We may usefully remember how the good Chinese, rising so
fearfully betimes, did justice to the generosity and zeal of their
patroness. Are there not men of might at work upon investigations for
the public, who, at their ordinary rate, might have come to abandon
this business in forty years, after eliminating fifty pounds of
blue-book?
_Authors and Books._
LUDWIG FUERBACH, the last great philosopher of Young Germany, whose
doctrines have been complacently declared as "more utterly
irreconcilable with pietism or orthodox Christianity than those of any
of his predecessors," has at length published his course of lectures
"On the Existence of Religion," delivered at Heidelberg, from the
month of December 1848 to March 1849. With regard to the apparent
apathy with which he has regarded the great political events of these
latter days, and the reproach that he has taken no active part
therein--in which he forms a somewhat unfavorable contrast with Fichte
and other great thinkers of the last generation--he remarks: "It will
not appear strange that these lectures have not before been published;
for what could, at the present day, be more seasonable than a
remembrance of the year 1848? And by this souvenir I would also
remark, that these lectures have been my only public intimations of
activity during the so-called time of the Revolution. My own share in
all the political and unpolitical deeds and movements of those times,
was merely that of a critical beholder and listener, for the very
simple reason that I could take no part in aimless, and consequently
headless (silly) undertakings, having foreseen, or at least felt, from
the very beginning of the whole movement, that such would be its
result. A well-known Frenchman lately put me the question, Why I took
no active part in the revolution of 1848? I replied, Mr.
Taillandier,[14] if another revolution should break forth, and I take
an active part therein, then may you, to the terror of your
God-believing soul, be certain that this would be an overpowering
revolution, bringing with it the judgment-day of monarchy and
hierarchy. This revolution I should, alas! never survive. But I now
also take an active part in a great revolution, but one whose true
effects and results will be first developed in the course of
centuries. For you know, Mr. Taillandier, according to my
theory--which recognizes no Gods, and, consequently, no miracles in
the sphere of politics--according to my theory, of which you know and
understand nothing, though you assume to pass judgment on me instead
of studying me, if TIME and SPACE are the fundamental conditions of
all being and existence, of all thought and action, of all prosperity
and success. Not that believers in God were wanting to the parliament,
as some one humorously asserted in the Bavarian State
council-chamber--the majority, at least, were believers, and the good
Lord always sides with the majority--but because it had no
comprehension of place or time, on which account it came to such a
disgraceful and resultless end."
This, certainly, will appear to most readers to be, despite its
bitterness, a lame and weak apology for neutrality, though we imagine
that but little good could result from the intensest activity, when
directed by such principles. Taillandier has also, in his own
unassuming way, done, for so young a man, a full share of work "in the
great revolution, whose true effects and results will be first
developed in the course of centuries."
* * * * *
AUGUST KOPISCH, well known as the collector and translator of
_Agrumi_--a choice selection of Italian Popular Songs--has recently
published by Ernest and Korn of Berlin, a _Description and Explanation
of the Monument to Frederic the Second_. A far more elegant work on
the same subject, with no less than twenty excellent views of the
monument, taken from as many points, appears from Decker, to which we
may add another by Kohlheim, illustrated with a selection of ancient
and modern poems relative to the memory of "Old Fritz."
* * * * *
We observe from a prospectus recently sent forth by the publisher, J.
G. Muller, in Gotha, that the _Janus_, a well known and ably edited
quarterly, devoted to medical literature, history, biographies, and
statistics, the publication of which was suspended in 1848, on account
of the political difficulties which then agitated Germany, is again to
make its appearance, under the editorial charge of Doctors
Bretschneider, Henschel, Hensinger, and Thierfelder, who will be aided
in their efforts by many learned correspondents and contributors in
different countries. Like most revived publications, it will be
published in a style superior to its original, and to judge from the
type and paper of the prospectus, which is given as a specimen of that
with which the work is to be issued, its appearance will be truly
exquisite.
* * * * *
FRANZ KUGLER the great historian and critic of Art, has made his
appearance in a small _brochure_ of thirty pages, entitled, _Three
Articles upon Theatrical Affairs_,--which, however, appears to have
met with but little admiration, if we may judge from the hard knock
which a reviewer gives it with the word--"Unpractical as the
suggestions are, which we find allied to these observations, they
would still give us no occasion for remark, had not Herr Kugler made
them a pretence for political discussion." Apropos of Kugler we may
observe that a very excellent work entitled _Denkmaler der Kunst_
(Souvenirs of Art), consisting of very neatly engraved and very
extensive illustrations of Art in all ages and nations, intended
specially as a companion work to the Berlin professor's _History_, has
just been published for the first time in a compact form by Ebner and
Seubert of Stuttgart. Among its authors or contributors we see the
names of Dr. Ernst Guhl, Jos. Caspar, and Professor Voit of Munich.
* * * * *
The conclusion of the late JOHANN VON MULLER'S _History of the Swiss
Confederation_ has just appeared from the hands of MM. VULLIEMIN and
MONNARD. The work was commenced in 1786; when Von Muller died it was
brought down to the year 1489; and it has since been continued by four
other authors in succession. Robert Glutz-Blozheim took up the
narrative where Von Muller stopped, and continued it to 1516; after
his death, John Jacob Hottinger described the progress of the
reformation in the German cantons; but on coming to the part which the
French cantons took in this great movement, it was decided to employ a
native of that part of the Confederation, and the work was accordingly
given to Louis Vulliemin, who completed the history of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. He was followed by E. Monnard, Professor in
the University of Bonn, who carried it as far as the second peace of
Paris, in 1815. Both he and M. Vulliemin had already translated into
French the volumes of their German predecessors. Their own volumes are
now being translated into German, and the entire performance will soon
be printed in both languages.
* * * * *
An interesting contribution to the religious and metaphysical history
of Germany in the last generation will be found in the _Autobiography_
of BRETSCHNEIDER, now being published in parts, by his son-in-law
Horst. It is described as a faithful as well as interesting narrative
of the life of its deceased author and subject, who must fill a
prominent place in the history of that great theological development
of which his country has recently been the scene. He was a
rationalist, but without aiming at the rejection or annihilation of
the Christian supernaturalism. The sense of dependence on God, which
was the foundation of Schleiermacher's theory, he regarded as stupid
mysticism, and the general tendency of the more recent philosophy as
obscure, abstruse, scholastic, and useless. He was a vigorous and
unsparing controversialist, and the greater part of his writings are
of that character.
* * * * *
DR. WURTH, the dramatist and theatrical director, has published a play
"with choruses, dances, _and melodramas_ (_?_) entitled _The Gipsey
Queen of Hungary in the year 1849_."
* * * * *
Those of our Philadelphia friends, who are conversant with foreign
literature, will do well to patronise Herr CHRISTERN, who has recently
opened an establishment of French, German, and Italian works at No.
232 Chesnut-st. Mr. Christern has been for several years the
superintendant of the extensive bookstore of Kaisar, the eminent
bibliographist in Berlin. We are happy thus to recommend Herr
Christern as a scholar, well acquainted with something more than the
mere titles of his wares.
* * * * *
Among "divers diversities," we note that the passion for Slavonic
literature, which has received such an impetus during the last two
years, has induced HERR SIEGFRIED KAPPER to write, after ancient
Servian legends and heroic lyrics, a poem entitled _Lazar der
Serbencar_. A new edition of CLEMENS BRENTANO'S _History of the brave
Kasperl and fair Annerl_, has also been published at Berlin by the
"United Bookselling Establishment," with an illustration.
GLASSBRENNER, the humorist, (who is, however, we believe, not
identical with his Rabelaesian pen-brother BRENNGLASER,) publishes by
Simion of Berlin a third edition of his poems, while the more recent
numbers of _Die Grenzboten_, the _Monatscrift_ and the _Europa_ are
rich in a variety of articles surpassing in general interest any thing
of the kind which we have for a long time witnessed in German
periodical literature. It is to be wished that our own literati and
miscellaneous intellectual purveyors would make a far more extended
use of these German monthlies than they have hitherto done. Except the
_International_, the _Tribune_ is almost the only periodical in the
country that makes any considerable use of the German literary
journals.
* * * * *
IMRESI, _die Ungarischen Fluechtlinge in d. Tuerkei_, (Imresi, or the
Hungarian Refugees in Turkey), being a collection of data relative to
the history of the emigration of 1849, from the journal of an exile,
returned from Turkey, translated from the Hungarian, with additions by
VASFI, has just appeared at Leipzig. "The _data_ alluded to in this
article," remarks a German review, "principally concern the personal
history of the Hungarian exiles in Turkey. In point of time it reaches
to their departure from Widdin to Shumla. Many articles are added
drawn from newspapers and private sources, relative to their
adventures, to the fortune of those who have emigrated to America, and
to the influence of England in these matters. A certain chapter on
Turkish manners and customs, containing nothing which has not been
already better described by other writers, might as well have been
omitted."
* * * * *
THORWALDSEN'S _Jugend_ (or The Youth of Thorwaldsen) is the title of a
work composed from the correspondence, manuscripts and notes of the
illustrious artist, written originally in Danish by Hans Wachenhufen,
and translated by J. M. Thiele, (if we mistake not, the eminent
theologian). "The style and execution is somewhat stiff and dry, which
may, however, be partly the fault of the translator, who appears to
have deemed it his duty to condense as much as possible; and has in
consequence apparently detracted in a degree from the easy,
confidential tone with which it is inspired. Nor is the translation
entirely free from errors and provincial expressions."
* * * * *
Among the most exquisite works recently published in Germany we
observe a second greatly augmented and improved edition of _Alte und
neue Kinderlieder Fabeln, Sprueche und Rathseln_, or, Old and New
Songs, Fables, Sayings, and Riddles for Children, with illustrations
by W. von Kaulbach, C. v. Aeideck, G. Konig, A. Kreling, E.
Neureuther, the humorous and popular Graf. v. Poeci, L. Richter, C. H.
Schmolze, M. v. Schwind, Stauber, &c. We have been thus particular in
mentioning these names, that those who have not as yet seen the work
may form some idea of the excellence of its illustrations. The only
objection indeed which we have to find is, that the text (despite its
title) is too far subordinate to the illustrations. A work of this
description should at least have comprised _a majority_ of those songs
heard in every Germany nursery, and which are given with such _naive_
truthfulness in _Des Knaben Wonderhorn_. In several instances these
old songs were evidently the sources whence the spirit of the
illustration was derived, which illustration is here applied to a
limited scrap of the original; as for instance, in the exquisitely
spirited and droll picture of _das bucklig's Mannlein_, or the
hump-backed dwarf, by _Schwind_, which is far more applicable to the
droll, demi, diabolical popular ballad of that name, than to the old
scrap of verse which it over-illustrates. But as an album of admirable
designs the work is unrivalled. The engraving of the mother and child
illustrating the ballad of _Schlof Kindlein_ is truly beautiful,
conceived in a spirit of naive fantasie, peculiarly applicable to the
odd yet childlike song. _Das Glocklein im Hersen_, in which Christ is
represented as opening the gate of Heaven to a child, by W. Kaulbach,
in its pious, gentle beauty, almost transcends praise. Our notice
already exceeds limit, yet we cannot leave this gem-book without
specially and further commending The Toy-dealer of Nuremberg, a
masterpiece of domestic life, by L. Richter, and _Es staig eim Herr zu
Rosse_, or A Rider mounting his Horse, by Schwind, which forcibly
recall the romantic etchings of Albert Durer.
* * * * *
A convention of Sclavic scholars, under the auspices of the Servian
literary society of _Matica Ilirska_, in Agram, will probably soon be
held, to consider the possibility of combining the different Sclavic
dialects into one language. This will be extremely difficult, if not
impossible, on account of the degree of cultivation which the
languages of the Sclavic stock have attained.
* * * * *
A translation of JOHN MILTON'S _Areopagitica_, a Speech for the
Liberty of unlicensed Printing, to the Parliament of England, in 1644,
has recently been executed by Dr. RICHARD ROePELL, Professor of History
at the University of Breslau, and published by Veit and Co. of
Berlin.
* * * * *
"In every revolution, good or bad, there are blind fanatics and
selfish intriguers ready to take part, and loafers and vagabonds
(_Bummler und Gamins_) willing to raise their voices." This is the
remark of a German medical critic on a recent hydropathically insane
composition, entitled _The Sin-register of the Medical Art of
Healing_. In this work the _servum pecus_ of allopathic physicians are
richly abused, partly with biblical quotations and partly with
original anathemas. Another on the same subject and in the same
curious style, is entitled, _Gustav Schwab, the noble bard of Suabia_,
by GOTTLOB WASSERMAN (or Praise-God Water-man). In this work the
anti-Sangrado author proves to his own satisfaction, that the _noble
bard_ came to his death in consequence of having been imprudently
bled, on one occasion, some six months previous to his death.
* * * * *
At the end of June an eighth edition of OSCAR VON REDUITZ'S
_Amaranth_, was announced, and it has already been succeeded by a
ninth. Many of the poems in this collection are in Uhland's romantic
vein, and abound in the artistic spirit. To this we may add a
_Mahrchen_ in verse, (or Child's Tale,) a beautiful fantasie of birds,
brooks, leaves, and sunshine, reminding us at times of _The Story
without an End_, at others of Sara Coleridge's _Phantasmion_. But as
it is one of those gilded fascinations which invariably charm on a
first perusal, we leave to some more accurate reader the task of
judging more critically as to its literary merit.
* * * * *
A translation of Shakspeare's Plays into the Swedish language by
HAGBERG, Professor of Greek in the University of Lund, is now in
course of publication. Of this twelve volumes have appeared; and
although the first edition consisted of no less than two thousand
copies, the whole have been sold off, and a second edition is in
preparation.
* * * * *
The lectures of NEANDER, _On Church History_, etc., are soon to
appear, in fifteen volumes, edited by Professor JULIUS MULLER, of
Halle. The Interpretation of the Gospel of St. John, will form the
first part of the work.
* * * * *
German books and pamphlets on the Crystal Palace and the Great
Exhibition, are already in the market, or have indeed been extant for
some time. _Der Krystall Palast im Hyde Park_, is among the last in
this line.
* * * * *
M. POUSSIN, recently the minister of France to this country, has in
preparation a volume for popular circulation on the comparative merits
of the French and American constitutions.
* * * * *
The Prussian minister VON RADOWITZ has published a second series of
his _Dialogues on Church and State_, of which the first series
appeared in 1846.
* * * * *
BARON DUDEVANT, husband of GEORGE SAND, the French papers lately
declared had died in an obscure apartment in Paris; but it appears, on
the contrary, that he is still living, in true baronial style, at his
chateau on the Garonne. A correspondent of the _Tribune_ says, "he
never reads his wife's romances, and that his decease was believed in
Paris, for several literary gentlemen of eminence are said to have
laid their hands and fortunes at the feet of the large-hearted woman"
who was supposed to be a widow.
* * * * *
AUGUSTE COMTE has just published the first volume of a new work, his
_Systeme de Politique Positive_. In his great work, _Philosophie
Positive_, he was forced by his method to proceed objectively--from
the world up to man; he now proceeds subjectively--from man to the
world. This system of Positive Polity he calls a Treatise of
Sociology, instituting the Religion of Humanity.
* * * * *
EMILE DE GIRARDIN announces a new pamphlet, the title of which sets
one thinking, _La Revolution Legale par la Presidence d'un Ouvrier_.
(The Revolution Legal through the Presidency of a Workman.)
* * * * *
LAMARTINE has published the first volume of _The History of the
Restoration of the Monarchy in France_. It is intended as a sequel to
his History of the Girondins, and this initial volume comprises the
closing days of the Empire, the last great struggle of Napoleon with
the combined armies in 1814, and the abdication at Fontainbleau. The
tone throughout is derived from the partizan feelings of the present
time. Its characteristic is an elaborate and determined depreciation
of the emperor. The author's apparent ambition is to be striking, and
he sometimes is successful: to be just or wise is scarcely in his
nature. For ourselves, we are so well acquainted with the life of
Napoleon--with the workings of that most powerful practical
intelligence that God has yet suffered to exist among mankind--that we
are not in any way affected by these efforts of a hungry rhetorician
to disparage him. In his new book, as in his _Girondins_, M. Lamartine
has not chosen to give us any authorities. What he says as to facts
may be true, but we have only his word for it; and long ago, before M.
Lamartine became a great man in affairs, we learned from his
_Pilgrimage to the Holy Land_, that his word is of very little value.
We confess an admiration for parts of his _Elvire_ and for some of his
minor poems, but it is the youthful poet we admire, not the author of
the sickly sentimentalism in his recent romantic memoirs, far less the
historian, who to get himself out of difficulties induced by early
extravagancies can play marketable tricks with the most awful shade
that moves in the twilight of men's memories about the world.
* * * * *
MICHELET, driven from his chair in the University, is publishing in
the _Evenement_ his new work, _Legendes de la Democratie_. The preface
is remarkable for its naivete. "This book," he says, "is the true
_Legendes d'Or_ (golden legend)--free from all alloy, and in it will
be found nothing but the truth.--Nay more, every one who reads it will
become a wiser and a better man." A happy author, to have such faith
in his book!
* * * * *
M. GUIZOT'S _History of the Representative Form of Government_, is
prepared from a course of lectures delivered by the author in the
reign of Louis the Eighteenth. The preface contains frequent allusions
to the politics of the day, and the eminent author refers in it to his
attempts to reconcile authority with liberty. M. Guizot's style is
clear, but destitute of warmth or ornament, and his works have
reputation chiefly for their judicial carefulness and
honesty--qualities not so common in France as to be reasonably
neglected there.
* * * * *
M. PROUDHON, the socialist "philosopher," has written, in the prison,
in which it has been deemed necessary to shut him up, a new work,
entitled _General Idea of Revolution in the Nineteenth Century_. Among
the topics of which it treats are the Reaction of Revolutions, the
Sufficient Reason of Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, the
Principle of Association, the Principle of Authority, Organization of
Economical Forces, and Dissolution of Government under an Economical
Organization. The elements of every revolutionary history, according
to Proudhon, are the previous regime which the revolution seeks to
abolish, and which, by the instinct of self-preservation, may become a
counter-revolution; the parties which, according to their different
prejudices and interests, endeavor to turn it to their own advantage;
and the revolution itself.
* * * * *
DR. BUSHNAN, of Edinburgh, under the title of _Miss Martineau and her
Master_, has published a temperate but conclusive refutation of the
_Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development_, by Miss
MARTINEAU and Mr. GEORGE ATKINSON. The shallow performance in which
these persons displayed their atheism was treated by the learned with
contempt. Douglass Jerrold said the sum of their doctrine was
contained in the formula, "There is no God, and Miss Martineau is his
prophet," and those who considered the _Letters_ more seriously, for
the most part expressed surprise and pity--never any one an
apprehension that such wretched stuff could unsettle a conviction of
the feeblest, or confirm a doubt of the most skeptical.
* * * * *
ISAAC TAYLOR, whose "Natural History of Enthusiasm," has been much
read in this country, has in press _Wesley and Methodism_.
* * * * *
Not long ago it was stated that a Mr. SIMONIDES had discovered at the
foot of Mount Athos a great number of important Greek MSS. We ventured
to express some doubts on the subject, and we now perceive that Mr.
RHANGABE, Professor of Archaiology in the University of Athens, has
published a critical examination of these pretended discoveries, in
which he proves very satisfactorily that every manuscript of an
ancient work which Mr. Simonides has allowed others to examine, and
every work which he has published, has turned out to be a modern
fabrication. A more real discovery has been made by persons engaged in
removing the earth for the foundations of a house near the Acropolis.
Fragments of inscriptions, and several relics of sculpture and
architecture, have been dug up, and it is thought they prove that the
senate house, metroon, and other buildings in which the Athenian
archives were preserved, stood in the vicinity. Apropos of M.
Simonides, in a letter from Constantinople it is alleged that from the
examination of ancient manuscripts in different Greek convents, he has
discovered an indication that the original of the _Acts of the
Apostles_ is buried in an island in the Sea of Marmora, and that he
has caused an application to be made to the Turkish government for
leave to search after it, which, it is said, is opposed by the Greek
Patriarch, from fear that the discovery of the important document may
lead to new schisms in the church!
* * * * *
We mentioned in a recent number of the _International_ the discovery
and publication of a supposed MS. work by Origen. In the June number
of the _Quarterly_ it is carefully reviewed, and in several of the
theological journals it has received the attention due to a work of
its pretensions. We see now that the Chevalier BUNSEN has in the press
of the Longmans _Five Letters to Archdeacon Hare, on Hypolitus,
Presbyter of the Church of Rome, author of the recently discovered
book ascribed to Origen, and the bearing of this work on the leading
Questions of Ecclesiastical History and Polity_.
* * * * *
Dr. CROLY has just published a new volume of poems, under the title of
_Scenes from Scripture_. The greater part of them had previously
appeared in annuals, &c. C. B. CAYLEY has given to the world a new
version of the _Divine Comedy_, in the original terza rhyme; EDMUND
PEEL, a poet of Mr. Robert Montgomery's class, has published _The Fair
Island_, descriptive of the Isle of Wight; ROBERT MONTGOMERY himself
has nearly ready his some-time promised _Poetical Works_, for the
first time collected into one volume, similar to the octavo editions
of Southey, Wordsworth, &c., including some original minor poems, and
a general preface, (only the printing being in the style of
Wordsworth.)
* * * * *
The first of the old historians to be edited in the light of the
modern discoveries in Assyria, is _Herodotus_, to appear in a new
English version, translated from the text of Gaisford, and edited by
Rev. GEORGE RAWLINSON, assisted by Col. RAWLINSON and Sir J. G.
WILKINSON, with copious notes, illustrating the history and geography
by Herodotus, from the most recent sources of information, and
embodying the chief results, historical and ethnographical, which have
been arrived at in the progress of cuneiform and hieroglyphical
discovery. This edition will be printed for Mr. Murray in four octavo
volumes. The translation has been undertaken from a conviction of the
inadequacy of any existing version to the wants of the time. The
unfaithfulness of Beloe, and the unpleasantness of his style, render
his version insufficient in an age which dislikes affectation and
requires accuracy; while the only others which exist are at once too
close to the original to be perused with pleasure by the general
reader, and defective in respect of scholarship.
* * * * *
SIR JAMES STEPHEN, whose brilliant contributions to the Edinburgh
Review are familiar through Mr. Hart's Philadelphia edition, has
nearly ready _Lectures on the History of France_, and _The History of
France_, compiled, translated and abridged from the works of De
Sismondi, and of other recent French authors, and illustrated with
historical maps and chronological and other tables.
* * * * *
J. S. BUCKINGHAM, the author of fifty volumes of _Travels_, (of which
eight large octavos are about our own unfortunate country,) has at
length succeeded in his long contest with the East India Company for
indemnification for his losses as an oriental journalist. The bill
before parliament for restitution has been withdrawn, the court of
directors and the government having agreed to settle upon him a
pension of four hundred pounds per annum.
* * * * *
We perceive that the British government has bestowed a pension of five
hundred dollars a year on Mrs. JAMESON. We think of no Englishwoman
who is more deserving of such distinction. Mrs. Jameson has spent a
pretty long life in the most judicious exercise of her literary
abilities, and as a critic of art she is unquestionably superior to
any woman who has ever written on the subject. One of her most popular
works, the _Beauties of the Court of Charles the Second_, will be
issued in a splendid edition, with all the original portraits, in a
few weeks, by the Appletons of this city.
* * * * *
SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON has published _Critical Discussions in
Philosophy, Literature, and Education with University Reform_, chiefly
from the Edinburgh Review, but now corrected, vindicated, and
enlarged.
* * * * *
Several new books of _Travels_ have lately appeared or are in press in
London. Among them are _Eight Years in Palestine, Syria, and Asia
Minor, from 1842 to 1850_, by F. A. NEALE, late of the Consular
service; _A Naturalist's Sojourn in America_, by P. H. GOSSE; a
_Journal of a Boat Voyage through Rupert's Land, and along the Central
Arctic Coasts of America_, in Search of the Discovery Ships under
command of Sir John Franklin, with an Appendix on the Physical
Geography of North America, by Sir JOHN RICHARDSON, C. B., F. R. S.,
&c.; the _Personal Narrative of an Englishman Domesticated in
Abyssinia_, by MANSFIELD PARKINS; _Contrasts of Foreign and English
Society_, or, records and recollections of a residence in various
parts of the Continent and of England, by Mrs. AUSTIN; _Narrative of
Travels to Nineveh, in 1850_, by Hon. FREDERICK WALPOLE, R. N. author
of "Four Years in the Pacific;" _Recollections of Manilla and the
Philippines, in 1848-50_, by ROBERT MACMICKING; _Recollections of a
Ramble from Sidney to Southampton, via Panama, the West Indies, the
United States, and Niagara_, (anonymous.)
* * * * *
J. J. GARTH WILKINSON has just published in London _The Human Body and
its Connection with Man, illustrated by the Principal Organs_, and it
is dedicated to Mr. Henry James of New-York, the author of _Moralism
and Christianity_. "My dear James," says the author, "this book is
indebted to you for its appearance, for without you it would neither
have been conceived nor executed. I dedicate it to you as a feeble
tribute of friendship and gratitude that would gladly seek a better
mode of expressing themselves. It may remind you of happy hours that
we have spent together, and seem to continue some of the tones of our
long correspondence. _Valeat quantum!_ It could not lay its head upon
the shelf without a last thought of affection directed to its foster
parent. That prosperity may live with you and yours, and your great
commonwealth, is the prayer of, my dear James, your faithful friend,"
&c.
* * * * *
Of new novels the most noticeable appear to be _The Lady and the
Priest_, by Mrs. Maberly; _The Tutor's Ward_; _Clare Abbey_, by author
of "The Dicipline of Life;" _Marion Wethers_, by Miss Jewsbury;
_Castle Deloraine, or the Ruined Peer_, by Miss PRISCILLA SMITH; and
_Quakerism, or the Story of My Life_, a splenetic attack on the
society of Friends.
* * * * *
The recent work of Dr. GREGORY on Animal Magnetism has attracted much
attention, and from some intimations in the papers we suspect it is to
be criticised in _Letters on the Truths contained in Popular
Superstitions, with an Account of Mesmerism_, by Dr. HERBERT MAYO,
F.R.S., to be published by Blackwood.
* * * * *
Two new works on the _Apocalypse_ are to be added to the immense
number already printed, for New-York publishers. We not long ago
undertook to ascertain how many expositions of the great mystery had
been written in this country, and paused at the sixty-fifth
title-page. One of the forthcoming works is an ingenious composition
by the Rev. Mr. James of the western part of this state, and the other
(to be published by Mr. Dodd) is by a clergyman in Connecticut.
Longmans advertise in London _The Spiritual Exposition of the
Apocalypse_, as derived from the writings of Swedenborg, and
illustrated and confirmed by ancient and modern authorities, by the
Rev. Augustus Clissold, of Exeter College; and the Rivingtons have in
press a _Commentary on the Apocalypse_ by the Rev. ISAAC WILLIAMS, of
Trinity College. England indeed is quite as prolific of such works as
the United States.
* * * * *
MR. JOHN FINCHMAN, "master shipwright of her Majesty's Dockyard, at
Portsmouth," has published a _History of Naval Architecture_, which is
praised as a just exposition of the progress and supremacy of English
ship-building. Our Mr. Collins could have furnished him, as
illustrations for an additional and very interesting chapter, drawings
of the _Pacific_ and the _Baltic_, which would perhaps make the work a
"just exposition of the supremacy" of American ship-building, of which
this Mr. Finchman seems never to have been informed.
* * * * *
Of collections of Letters on Affairs, that to be published immediately
by Mr. Murray, under the title of the _Grenville Papers_, promises to
be among the most important. It will comprise the Private
Correspondence of Richard Grenville, Earl Temple, and his Brother, the
Right Honorable George Grenville, and their friends and
cotemporaries--formerly preserved at Stowe and now for the first time
made public, and it is given out that it will contain material for the
formation of a pretty conclusive judgment as to the authorship of
Junius.
* * * * *
Among books that will bear a republication, if written with even
average ability and fairness, is _The Present State of the Republic of
the Rio de la Plata_ (_Buenos Ayres_), its Geography, Resources,
Statistics, Commerce, Debt, etc. described, with the History of the
Conquest of the Country by the Spaniards, by Sir WOODBINE PARISH,
F.R.S. Formerly British Consul General and Charge d' Affaires in that
country.
* * * * *
LORD MAHON'S _History of England, from, the Peace of Utrecht_, volumes
5 and 6--the First Years of the American War: 1763 to 1780--was to
appear in August.
* * * * *
A new book has just appeared in London on the Pitcairn's Islanders.
* * * * *
An advertisement of the works of Archbishop WHATELEY contains
thirty-six titles. He appears to be one of the most voluminous writers
among the bishops, as well as one of the most sensible and learned.
* * * * *
MR. MACAULEY has at length completed two more volumes of his _History
of England_, and they will be published the coming autumn by Longmans.
* * * * *
The _Poems of Edith May_, from the press of E. H. Butler of
Philadelphia, will be one of the most beautiful of the illustrated
books of the season. Mr. Butler is an artist in book-making, and he
has never published anything more elegant. The lady who writes under
the pseudonym of "Edith May" is a genuine poet, and the volume will be
popular.
* * * * *
WILLIAM WARE, one of those delightful authors whose names are always
uttered by appreciating readers in tones of affection, has just
published (Phillips, Sampson, & Co., of Boston,) _Sketches of European
Capitals_. The work includes his views of Ancient Rome, St. Peters and
the Vatican, Florence, Naples, the Italians of Middle Italy, and
London, and in his preface he tells us that "the volume comes into
existence, like so many others now-a-days, as a convenient way of
disposing of matter previously used in the form of lectures;" and
adds, modestly, "It is a volume of light reading for the summer
roadside, and though, like the flowers of that season, perishing with
them, one may be permitted to hope that, like some of them, at least
it may exhale a not unpleasing fragrance while it lasts." Such a fate
awaits no book by the author of _Probus_ and _Zenobia_, of whom this
performance is by no means unworthy.
* * * * *
The HARPERS have in press _Drayton, a Tale of American Life_, in which
is traced the career of a young American from the workshop to places
of trust and honor; and a friend, who has read the manuscript, speaks
in warm terms of the frequent beauty of the style, the warmth of the
coloring, the animation of the narrative, and the general progress and
development of the story. The author is THOMAS H. SHREVE, for the last
ten or twelve years one of the editors of the _Louisville Daily
Journal_, and for twenty years well and most favorably known by
frequent and elegant contributions to western literature. _Drayton_,
we are advised, is not one of those easy pieces of writing which are
known as very hard reading, but has engaged the attention of the
author, at periods of comparative leisure, for several years past.
Within a few months it has been entirely recast and rewritten; and, if
our correspondent be not very partial in his judgment of the merits of
the work, the public will find in its patriotic and democratic pages a
mine of poetry and fine reflection.
* * * * *
A few words more of _American Reviews_. The subject is important; a
great periodical in which the best intelligence of the country shall
have expression, is necessary, for many purposes, and never was more
necessary than now. The _Princeton Review_, the _Christian Review_,
the _Biblical Repository_, the _Bibliotheca Sacra_, the _Methodist
Quarterly Review_, the _Church Review_, _Brownson's Quarterly Review_,
and several others, are in large degrees devoted to particular
religious interests, and though for the most part conducted with much
learning and discretion, do not altogether serve the purpose for which
an American Review of Literature and Affairs is demanded. The _North
American_, as we have before intimated, has no character; it
occasionally has good articles, but it has no principles; it is
sectional, which is pardonable, but displays neither the knowledge nor
the tact necessary to a sectional organ. The mineral riches of our
lake region, plans for connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, the
Cuban question, our relations with other republics, the extraordinary
phenomena of Mormonism, the efforts of certain American women to unsex
themselves, and numerous other subjects of present interest in this
country, have been amply discussed in British and other European
Reviews during the last year, but not one of them has been mentioned
in the work to which, from its pretentions, readers would naturally
look for its most masterly exposition. It may be said that the _North
American_ is devoted to philosophy, learning, and literature rather
than to affairs: we have heard this defence, even in the face of its
elaborate papers on Hungary and Austria; but let us see how it
occupies such a ground: the bright and especial intellectual boast and
glory of New England is Jonathan Edwards, of whom Dr. Chalmers says
that he was "the greatest of theologians," Sir James Mackintosh that
"in power of subtle argument he was perhaps unmatched, certainly was
unsurpassed among men," Dugald Stewart that "he cannot be answered,"
and Robert Hall that he was the "mightiest of mankind:" such a
character was undoubtedly worthy of its criticism, but in the half
century of its existence the _North American_ has never once noticed
him! We have an illustration much more pertinent, especially in as far
as the present editor of the _Review_ is concerned: The late Hartley
Coleridge was a man of peculiar and very interesting qualities, and it
may be admitted that he possessed considerable genius; but a pretence
that his life was as remarkable or that his abilities as displayed in
his writings were as eminent as those of Edgar A. Poe, who died about
the same time, would be simply ridiculous; yet we believe every
quarterly and nearly every monthly Review published in Great Britain
has had its article on Hartley Coleridge, while even the name of Edgar
A. Poe has never appeared in our self-styled "great national journal."
And Maria Brooks, admitted by Southey, Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, Fitz
Greene Halleck, and many other masters of literary art, to have been
the greatest poet of her sex who ever wrote in any language or in any
age, though she was born and educated in the shadow of the college in
which more than one of the editors of the _North American_ have been
professors, was never once honored with its recognition.
We do not know that it will strike others so, but it seems to us that
John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, Hugh S. Legare, R. H. Wilde, J. J.
Audubon, Mathew L. Davis, Albert Gallatin, Henry Inman, Chancellor
Kent, Dr. Judson, Dr. Jarvis, Dr. Morton, Dr. Troost, M. M. Noah, Mrs.
Osgood, and many other Americans who have recently completed variously
illustrious lives, and so come before the world for a final judgment,
are subjects quite as deserving and appropriate for the _North
American Review_, as those which it has been accustomed to pick up in
the byways of the literary world abroad; and we cannot understand why
the facts connected with our own development and destiny, facts which
engross and baffle the attention of the profoundest thinkers in the
older nations, should give place in the only Review we possess, to
such foreign, antiquated, and altogether unimportant topics as
continually occupy its pages.
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