The Press. — London, England, 1854-02-25 00:00:00

186 77.‘ storms of life. He has been fighting in Africa ever since the first occupation." Changaniier has since shown the some stern, inflexible will and decision at the barricades of the Faubourg St. Antoine and in exile. Whatever his political opinions or errors may be, he has valiantly supported the reputation of the French arms. Equally brave, more dashing, and less cool, the gallant Lamoriciere is the perfection of a hussar . officer. His very convers ation has all the entrain, the lightning speed of a charge of cavalry. As governor of the province of Oran, he was remarkable for the incessant activity, promptitude, and rapidity of his intelligence ; and his bold spirit loved to indulge in brilliant paradoxes, in discussing and study ing the questions of colonial empire and emigration. Ap pointed governor in 1841, in that and the foUowing year he sapped the power of Abd.el-Kader in the west, his stronghold, by his indefatigable razzias ; while Changar nier, the montagnard, as Bugeaud christened him, subdued the province of Algiers. • • • • • • Cavaignac is a man of very different stamp—austere, silent, embittered, full of the glowing but concealed fire of disappointed ambition. A Republican to the backbone,he won his most glorious laurels under a king ; and he com mitted his greatest fault as dictator of a republic. "Abso lute in command, energetic in action, slow in deciding because slow of comprehension, but concealing the labo rious working of his min under a solemn silence, and only speaking when decided, General Cavaignac wns es teemed by all, loved by some, feared by many. Those, however, who had any relations with him were unanimous in allowing that, if you appealed to his heart, the haughty dignity with which lie loved to surround himself disap peared, to make room for a quite paternal kindness; but 'these moments of forgetfulness were rare. The silence in which he lived, the separation from others in which he iked to move, elevated his imagination; and the smo hered fire of his eye disclosed a man who thought his life sacrifice, even when the rank and dignities of the state were thrust upon him ; for we must do him the justice to say that those dignities were received, but that he had far too much pride to seek them. Thus Cavaignac, by raising before his mind an ideal to imitate and worship, and by preferring his own esteem to that of others, ended by giving a false development to his naturally frank and kindly disposition. In his military career Cavaignac has given many proofs of his cool obstinacy. He obtained his rank of commandant at Tlemcen in 1836, at the time of the expedition of Marshal Clanzel, when he held the place for six months, deprived of all succour and news. This was one of the bright actions of his soldier's life ; and it is but fair to add, that, though he sadly mistook his mis sion as a politician, he was never found wanting in war, in the day of danger and strife. In 1840 he held out the whole winter at Medeah, with two battalions of zouaves, and was relieved in April, after five months' imprisonment, by General Bugeaud : his firmness, his noble example, the paternal encouragement of his advice, had been their great support." Travels in Bolivia; with a Tour across the Pampas to Buenos Ayres, &c. By L. Hugh do Bonelli. London : Hurst and Blackett. MR. BONRLLI passed three years in wandering over South America, going out by the West Indies and the Panamese isthmus, descending the Pacific coast to Lima, crossing the conti nent from Bolivia to Buenos Ayres, and thence returning to Europe. An observant and accu rate traveller, speaking the language of the country, might have found materials in such a journey for a volume which should have placed his reputation on the same footing as those of Mutton, Madame Calderon de la Barca, Sir F. Head, or Mr. Mansfield Par kyns. There was not room for a second Hum boldt, nor need every tourist be a walking encyclopedia of all the sciences ; but from such an expedition as that of Mr. Bonelli we had a right to expect a faithful and graphic portraiture of manners, men, and scenery. We might have heard from him something of the fierce civil wars which desolate the Spanish republics—something of the untamed Indian tribes who yet roam over the vast pampas of the south—something of the capa cities of those mighty rivers which the skill of an English diplomatist has opened to the commerce of the world. Nor were the ma terials of personal portraiture wanting. Chiefs like Rosas, Urquiza, Belza, if not attractive as heroes, are worth study as characters, who, for good or evil, have influenced the destiny of nations. Among the settlers in Bolivia, Peru, and La Plata are soldiers of fortune who have served in every army of Europe, anti whose swords, though laid by for the time, are still sharp and ready for use. The bare recital of such men's adventures, as we have heard them told ere now, would form a volume considerably more interestingthan that of the present writer. To say that he has dis appointed us—that he seems neither to have observed judiciously nor to narrate graphically —and that three fourths of his book are made up of personal adventures not remarkable in lIIMIIIMMIIIMIENIMMIIE THE PRESS. themselves, and very indifferently told—is only a plain though possibly unpleasant statement of facts. The best part of ithe work is a description of La Paz and its society, from which we extract only the following:— The law officers, judges, councillors, and attorneys or notaries, in this part of the world, are, without doubt, a most favoured race, since, before they undertake any of their duties, all payments accruing to them must be paid in ad vance. The spirit of litigation and chicanery in this law beridden country seems to have reached the acme of ab surdity. There is scarcely a family or even an individual in respectable society who ►s not involved, more or less, in some one or more lawsuits. The great power which the tribunals exert is maintained chiefly by the extreme intri cacy of their interpretations. Bribes are certainly resorted to, till the least wealthy of the parties is forced to submit simply from the want of means. An extraordinary case came under my knowledge, which I consider worthy of in sertion here. A gentleman belonging to one of the first families in the Republic purchased a large and valuable estate, estimated at from 70,000 to 80,000 dollars. He undertook to hand over this sum of money in certain stipulated payments to various parties to whom the estate had been bequeathed by the deceased proprietor. In consideration of his high repute and general character for probity, he obtained pos session by fixing a day for the first instalment. This point gained, he clandestinely presents 100 dollars to some in dividual to start a claim to the property. This has the desired effect; lawsuit after lawsuit follows. Months and almost years roll away before justice is done to the rightful owners. They at length, at a great pecuniary sacrifice, obtain a judgment in their favour ; when, lo and behold ! another claimant appears. The former judgment is re versed. The time, anxiety, and expense by which it was carried on are found to have been entirely thrown away, and a like process must again be instituted. 13y following up this system the fortunate possessor had enjoyed the proceeds of the estate for at least seven years, and quite unmolested in his nefarious robbery; for, by the use of a powerful interest, he bad obtained from the courts the appointment to an office by which he became the de posit or trust-holder of all properties and rents. This hopeless cause so reduced the circumstances of the rightful —though, by a legal quibble, not the lawful—owners of the estate, that they were unable, at length. to furnish the ne cessary funds for the furtherance of their claims ; and, after seven years of fruitless litigation, the present occupant was left in undisputed possession of a property, thus fraudu lently acquired, worth at the present date at least 100,000 dollars. A great deal of feasting and merriment pre vails in these primitive towns, where the time of the inhabitants is pretty equally divided between gambling, drinking, religious cere monies, and revolutions. These last have very little of a political character, being mere scrambles for power between opposing leaders, carried on by the agency of an armed mob, at the expense of the respectable part of the com munity, the plunder of whose property usually concludes the quarrel. Here is a good picture of Bolivian man ners, drawn from the life at Chuquisaca : One of the judges, a man of letters, but of dissolute habits, was not a personification of Justice, as respects her blindness. The charms of beauty had evidently not been lost upon him, as was clearly evinced by the number of pretty Cholo girls, with infants in their arms, of whom he was the reputed father. One of these women, whose claims upon him had been utterly disregarded by this ad ministrator of justice, unfortunately had no means of redress, as it was hardly to be expected that the judge wbo presided over the tribuntl to which alone the case could be carried would condemn himself in the matter. However, she was determined to shame him into an observance of his duty, and made an appeal to her fellow-citizens in the fol lowing fashion. Having dressed up her little one as a judge, with wig and robe, and all the other paraphernalia belonging to the office, and affixed to it, both before and behind, the name of its father, written in large characters, she carried it in procession through the city to the sound of a drum and trumpet, with a crowd of women, children, and the lowest rabble, who joined in u long-continued volley of shouts, groans, and hisses, coupling, at the same time, the name of the learned doctor with the most opprobrious epithets. This curious proceeding was effectual in gaining the mother's cause, and the judge and father was but too glad to come to any terms, to avoid so glaring a scandal. A description of the Pampas, and a slight sketch of Roses, vague, and apparently drawn from newspaper stories, conclude the book. Minutes on the Resignation of the late General Sir Charles Napier of the Command of the Army in India. London: Murray. "LET the dead rest." Sir Charles Napier is gone ; and now, when soldierly skill and indomitable courage like his are more than ever needed, we feel reluctant to approach a controversy which ought to have ter minated with his life. Itii not while the grass has scarcely covered the grave of a hero that we wish to be reminded of his shortcomings, if such they were. Nor do we see, after a carefal perusal of the adverse case, sufficient reason to reverse our former judgment in favour of the commaudtr-in-chief as against the governor-general. Lord Dalhousie has on his side strict professional rule and the great authority of the SATURDAY, Duke of Wellington. Sir Charles violated this rule, was held culpable by the duke for so doing, but, in our belief, saved thereby the army of India from a mutiny. Military critics will naturally side with the Horse Guards; but popular opinion holds Sir Charles blameless, and the more so because, with all Lord Dalhousie's undoubted ability, he has the reputation of being—like Sir Robert Walpole—a monopolist of power, simewhat unduly jealous of a "brother near the throne." It is bare justice to him, however, to acknowledge that he has been driven into self justification by the posthumous pamphlet of his antagonist. Magisterial Reform. Suggested in a Letter addressed to Viscount Palmerston. By Sir George Stephen. London : Crockford. • SIR GEORGE STEPHEN IS the author of an amusing book : it was, therefore, with a prepossession in his favour that we opened this pamphlet, but the feeling was dissipated by the first few pages. Sir George prefaces a suggestion ior the abolition of the present system, and the t übstitution of a stipendiary magis tracy, by an unjust attack on the gentlemen who now gratuitously discharge the duties of their onerous office. Sir George mentions acts of corruption and instances of incapacity so gross that, if they can be proved, he should furnish Lord Palmerston privately with the names of the delinquents, so that investiga tion may be made and punishment follow ; but he should never have ventured on specific charges against unnamed members of a particular class, in a manner to bring odium on the whole body to which they belong. Of the literary powers and the accu racy of the author the reader can judge from the following extract : " It redounds but little to the credit of our legislators that they should have been sufficiently alive to the value of the little responsibility which existed, and have passed the 11 and 12 Viet., eh. 41, to render it more difficult to en force, while they have as yet been inaccessible to the po pular complaint, that as magistrates they exercise a power that is oppressive, because it is practically irresponsible both to law and opinion." From the latter part of the sentence one might sup pose that we had neither a Court of Queen's Bench, a Home Secretary, nor public press. Ignorance of legal technicalities is necessarily incidental to a class which includes few lawyers, but we cannot admit that this is an unmitigated evil. Even Mr. Macaulay, in his celebrated sketch of the country gentlemen of England in the reign of Charles 11., enumerates amongst their merits the gratuitous administration of justice. The blunders of " the quorum" is a tra ditionary subject of ridicule, from the days of Shallow downwards. Of Selwyn the it it is even related that the only occasion on which he acted as a magistrate was when he detected his gardener pillaging him ; and then be prosecuted in person, gave evidence, decided the case, and committed the delinquent to prison himself, the whole proceeding having taken place in his own hall ! But country magistrates are no longer what they were in the days of Selwyn. A system of stipendiary magistrates may or may not be advisable, but such a change will certainly not he hastened by the advocacy of the anther of this intemperate pamphlet. Carna tic Stipendiaries. Petition Presented by William Digby Seymour, Esq., M.P., on Behalf of the Stipendiaries, to the House of Commons, in the Session of 1853. London : A PETITION presented by Mr. Digby Seymour on behalf of the Carnatic stipendiaries, complaining that the treaty of 1601 has been violated, and that, as the families of the petitioners have increased, while their allowances have been reduced, they are left in a state approaching destitution. Their claim is supported by letters, extracts, and other documents corrobora tive of the facts here stated. It is quite clear that this case is one with which Parliament cannot deal. We doubt whether there are in the House of Commons fifty members who know of the existence of the Carnatic stipendiaries, or oi the treaty of 1801. And it is quite certain to us that, were the question brought on in the course of this or any other session, a count-out would put a speedy end to the debate. Why is there no authorised tribunal in England to which complaints against the East India Company can be referred? Decimal Coinage. A Letter from William Brown, Esq., M.P., to Francis Shand, Esq., Chairman of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. London : Ridgway. _ _ A CONCISE and popular ristunh of the coinage ques tion by Mr. Brown, chairman and author of the late committee. It contains nothing which has not already appeared in our columns, but is well calcu lated, in respect both of brevity and clearness, to call public notice to the subject. With the pamphlet is printed a letter, written by order of Lord Granville, recommending the decimal system to be taught in I