The Press. — London, England, 1858-06-26 00:00:00

the fern' nature, it was not a mistake in Mr. Metcalfe to subordinate the latter to the former. I As it is, we have none of those exciting descrip tions to present to our readers which we were able to offer them before ; and must content our selves instead with a few little pictures of human life, drawn by Mr. Metcalfe in that queer style of his which fluctuates between humour and absurdity : Halvor Halvorsen, my guide, is a poor weakly fellow, and having seen me prescribe for Ingulfsland, he asks me if I can do anything for him. Good living and less hard work are all he wants; but, unfortunately, while he has plenty of the latter, he gets but little of the former. On hie back is a great load of milk-pails, and some pro visions \ potatoes and fladhrod . . for his spouse, who is taking care of a steter, which we shall pass. At length we arrive there • it is a cot of unhewn stone slabs, and before the door a lot of dried juniper bushes, the only firing which the desolate plateau affords. lino Jobennsdatter, a really pretty-looking young woman, with delicate features, smiles in a subdued manner as we enter, and thanks her husband quietly and monosyllabi cally for bringing up the food. This, together with her little boy, she proceeds to examine with inquisitive, eager eye. The larder was doubtless nearly empty. She then gives her husband, whom she had not seen for some time, a furtive look of affection, but nothing more—no embrace, no kiss. How undemonstrative these people are ! It is a remarkable characteristic of the lower orders of Norway, that, unlike their betters, they never think of kissing or embracing before strangers. Compare this with those de monstrations in Germany and France, where not the opposite sexes, but great bearded men, will kiss each other on either cheek with the report of popguns, regard less of bystanders. Presently they go into the inner compartment of the hnt, and then at length I believe I heard the sound of a kiss. While she makes up the fire, and boils some milk for her husband, who has many hours of mountain still before him, I endeavour to take a slight sketch of her and the abode. No sooner does she become aware of my intentions, than, with true feminine insinct, she lugs me to wait a moment, while she divests herself of an ugly clout of a kerchief which hides a very pretty neck. The sketch con cluded, she asks for a sight of it, and, with a pleased smile, exclaims, " No, no ; I'm not so amuk (pretty smug) as that." The "popguns" are really a stroke of genius ; while the moderation with which the author states his opinion of what took place in the "inner com partment" shows all the diffidence of true philoso phy, and is well worthy of a great investigator of manners. We trust we may yet have to con gratulate him on becoming an eye witness of this secret and gentle ceremony,—a reward to which his deep interest in the subject, and his obvious exertions to attain it, alike entitle him. We should advise him to lay a trap for two eligible parties, and then photograph them in the act, as a naturalist stuffs a rare bird, or pickles a " feathery-gilled serpula." The following specimen of Dutch patriotism is worth extracting : Magoon, the innkeeper, is evidently a man making haste to be rich. He has cows in plenty on the moon twins, but he takes care to keep them there, and there is, consequently, not a vestige of cream or milk in his estal• lishment, let alone meat, or anything but flailbrod and salted trout. He exultingly tells me that he was the guide in-chief to the Dutch prince, and what a lot of dollars he got for it. I do'nt know whether these people belie his royal highness, bnt here is another anecdote at his expense. " Magnus," said the prince, after paying hint, " are you content? Have I paid as much u any Englishman ever (lid? For if any Englishman ever paid snore, tell me, and I'll not be beaten." As far as I could gather, Magnus, in reply, hummed and hawed in a somewhat dubious manner, and thus managed to extract a dollar or two more from his highness. The next passage we shall give shows Mr. Metcalfe himself in an interesting light, as a lady's man and a gay worldling. lie has renewed his acquaintance with the clergyman's family to whom he introdieed . nig fn his "Norway," and the following dialogue ensues Miss Lisa blushed and. smiled, and did not know what to make of it, when 1 wickedly proposed that she should come with me to Oxford. " No," said mamma, " If you Wei* twenty years older, perhaps." •i •;11 l; " And I hope, when next you visit us," said Vie, POPtp "you'll be married, and bring Mrs. M." Married! you know what I've told you about Fellow ships. We are Protestant monks." " Well," retorted his reverence, " I always say England is a great and enlightened country ; but if you wish to ace an effete custom clung to with desperate tenacith r Oo to England." This dangerous youth, be it known, fa 'asarly the Senior Fellow of his College; and it strikes us there might have been a latent sarcaam in the mamma's observation which Mr. Metcalfe did not detect. 1 . Jill iluv Thei legendary stories which Mt. iillOtilfe has woven into his narrative seenlAwstell* worth so 'r HE PRES S, JITNE I 204 much trouble as he has taken with them.. They contain little or nothing that is new. But one of them is the subject of an excellent and spi rited illustration as the frontispiece to the first volume. The following is perhaps the most curious of the many legends here given. The " Tuss" is a fairy or goblin :-- " Well, Sliomon, have you no more tales ? " " Not of the valley here, 4.0 tell yon'tsi of the country up north." ;mull /I " Oh, yes, that will do." .1, " Well, you must know, t'44o was a man M a gaartl up there—let me see, I can't mind the name of it. He was good friends with a Tuss ; wed, in fact, to worship him (dyrkes). The priest got to hear of this, and warned him that i was wron". The man made no secret of the fact, bat persisted that there was no harm in it. indeed, be derived a mint of good trout the acquaintance. His crops were a vast deal liner, and he really could not give up his friend on any consideration. The man spoke with such apparent earnestness and conviction, that the priest was seized with a desire to see the Toss. ' That you skull, and welcome,' said the man ; I don't anticipate any chili colty. I've lent him two rolls of chew-tobacco, and be will be }WM to return theta before long. NJ Christian can be more punctual than he is in matters of business.' The little gentleman put in an appearance soon after, and honestly repaid the tobacco, with thanks for the loan it (tak for laane). ` Bide a bit, my friend,' avid the farmer, our parson wants to have a snak (chat) with you.' ' Impossible,' he replied; ' I've no time; but I've a brother that's a parson. He's just the man; besides, he has more time than me. I'll send him.' The tuts-priest accordingly came, anti had a lung dispute with the priest o this world about various passages in the Bible. The alter was hut a poor scholar, so he was easily nut-argued. 1 " At hat they began to dispute shunt vor Frelser (our Redeemer). " Frelser exclaimed the goblinTriest, I want no Frelser.' " How so ?' " I'm descended from Adam's first wife. When she brought forth the child from which our people trace their descent, Adam had not sinned.' " ` First wife ?' repeated the University man ; ' where do you find anything about first wife in the live btoka of Moses? If you have found any such like thing tacre, you have not read it right, said he. "' Don't you remember,' said the hiss, 'the Bible has it, " This is no's lane of my bone, and leek of my flesh," So he must hsre bow isiarried before to somebody of a different nature: ' ~.• Thelemerken lies in the south-western extre mity of Norway, where the country forms a kind of peninsula, and was visited by Mr. Metcalfe in the summers of 1856-57. He frankly tells us that it was the success of his former work that induced him to write the present one. We do not think it will enjoy the same popularity. In dependently of the reasons we have already given, the second volume is rather spun out. We would warn Mr. Metcalfe against degenerating into a travelmonger, whose volumes shall appear every season as regularly as the May meetings. If the public, whether rightly or wrongly, once come to regard him in that light, his position will be fixed for ever—at a lower point, too, than we honestly believe him to deserve. Ilis peculiarities, though not devoid of piquancy, are not such as will bear repetition often ; and wain fat sorry to see that he is at present engaged i mp.,s work of IA en tirely different characterQln aniit t.,rr t • Ricers in the Desert; or Ifftssion Scenes in Burmah. By the Rev. John Baillie, Author of "Memoirs of Hewitson," &c. London: Seeley and Co.. (4.1 UNTIL we saw this book, we were Mite habit of regarding Augustine Johnson as the first of mis sionaries, ant Regent's Town as the model of a Christian mission. Not that the great names of Schwartz, and Brainerd, and Martyr; were to be lowered before that of the German otloobriaster of Regent's Town ; but that, taken together— the Missionary and the Mission—there was no thing in the histories of Schwartz, or Martyr, or Brainerd to equal ti t o triumphs of Augustine 4olan i son. Alittle further consideration, however, and a Oirefill perusal of' the history of the Burmah Mission, has led us to the conclusion which Mr. Millie expresses, when he terms Dr. Judson " the prince of missionaries." For a village, indeed, nothing could surpass the labours or the successes of Augustine Johnson. Ile was suddenly thrown among an assemblage of negroes, released from the holds of slave-ships, naked, wad in habits and manners, and almostbrutalized by their sufferings. It is difficult to ciuceive a more difficult task than that of civilizing and instructing this crowd of poor, wild Afrims. Yet such was the earnestness, simplicity, d'•zeal with which Augustine Johnson add t himself to the, created and we, more than ing regular enlarged,; times on t God. In taken raised away. _. scene of the labours of Augustine Johnson from 1818 to 1825, is a village which will bear coo parison with the most moral, educated, and Christian village in England or Scotland, even in this year 1858. Johnson, as a village missionary, could scarcely have been exceeded. But the Great Head of die Church, for the Empire of Burmah, requited something more. He sent to Burmah a man of commanding genius —a man who was tempted to stay at home by the offer of " the largest church in Boston." But the temptation failed to move him. He went forth to savage, persecuting Burmah. There he landed, the only Christian in the empire. There he remained, the whole remainder of his life :—thur and thirty years of incessant labour, more than one year of which was passed in an Asiatic dungeon, in hourly expectation of death. There he translated the whole 13ibIP--a work which, like Luther's Ger man Bible, or 7.4lorrison's Chinese, will retintin the word of Goo to that nation to the end of time. He raised up, too, a native ministry. Before his four and thirty years work was done, he had baptized hundreds of Christians, and sent thrth scores of Christian teachers. It was in 1813 that he and his wife landed at Rangoon, alone, sad, and dispirited. But forty years have passed away And after his death, m February, 1847, — There assembled, on the crest of a hill in the province of Toungboo, a company of two thousand souverts, re presentatives of fortv-live stationa,—robed in all pollaitile variety of oosturne,.from the silks of thelure. Burmese, to the padded jackets of the Slums and the red.striped tunics of the lighsio •, whilst, on the distant margin of the congregation, might be seen sundry; groups from the remoter mountains, listening as they leaned on their spears. Ninety-five preachers were there ; all of them with the exception of about ten, natives of the province and converted. within the last three years. Not ooutent with their home efforts, they longed to evangelize the other wild tribes in the regions beyond; and they were now assembled to pray and to concert a plan. " When we travel among the heathen," said cue of thorn, stimu lating his brethren to fresh eget', " are sernotimes starved, sometimes sick, sometimes honselese by night. Then our hearts are troubled. Why is it so? 131ethren, it is becanse we have little love. We ought to think - of the Lord Jesus, who was full of love. He ruled over all things; and it was proper for Hint to exalt Himself above all : yet He did no snob thing. Jdow did Fie ex hibit His love? Oh I now He buogge fililpy dor now He suffered till He sweat great droopit - Of rood ; and then He died; and for ns—all for us! Oh! 4rhat love was that of oar Lord ! Brethren, we meek tb think of these things more, and to arm ourselves by prayer, sod to work. We must go among the heathen and labour; and then we must pray, as the tli-ciples did on the day of Pentecost, until the Spirit be pou red out, &Rd iff Oise nations become Christians." i , ;1 1 Augustine Johnson' civilize and Christidtsr upon the hearts of in a few short years Christian villagers. Ie panted for tl this he gave up home, peaceful triumphs in to dwell among Asiatic tianity. He seredpersecul He toiled alone, for a NO all thoughts of quitting Burmah the Bible. lie Christian ministry. And ._ ...- _ __ news y which arrived but a few days since, tiers trs that even the Sovereign of Burmah . bintieo ( ields to the Cross, and that JEsrs, not . IPA - -ottito .6tirl be the object of worship in Burinalf.t''' . 9 i /?' We recal, for a moment, the singldiViretilted ness of Judson. He "endured, as neehlig , Him "who is invisible." When he had.spent two or three years in Bnrmah, without making the slightest impression on the native Mind, he writes : T have no doubt that God is preparing the Way Ibr the conversion of Burmrh to IRle ISón. Nor have I any doubt teat we who are now here aM, In sonve little elapse eon tribu Ina to this glorious went. i. kilos' thought fills me with joy. I know not thit I thip Are to see a sintee convert; but notwithstanding, I eel - ilukt. 1 would n ot - I*_ l leave my present situation to be made a king. ii 4_ ' In the same spirit, he repudiated the ides, tipt 0 4 hnson had shown 'lair Wilr to istianize a village—bow to seize of a thousand poor savages, and years to transform them into rs. Judson takes a higher flight. the conquest of Burmah. For bowe l and family, and ease, and he int 11ie native land. lie went Asia* idolaters, hating Chris- , ed t peisecu don, nearly unto death. or a whole lifetime, refusing quitting the field. He gave ble. lie trained itp fin her a ry. And now, the latest news, 091? task, that iu less than seven years grad 1 a Christian village, well built, well pleated, tell cultivated; with schools in whiCh than 1,000 adults and children were reeeiv- plar instruction; and a church, four times ed, in which eager crowds assembled, three an each Sabbath-day, to hear the word of lik l iiearen years, this wonderful man wie but in that short period'he had a Christian village which has never passed Regent's Town, in Sierra Leone, the