The Press. — London, England, 1858-10-02 00:00:00

"7:= of disposing of the bodies; and " the climax of " fortunate coincidences seemed to have arrived " when it was remembered" that the next day was the festival of the Bukra lied. A hundred and fifty were executed, when the oldest of the firing party swooned away : then they took a little rest; then eighteen more were shot down—then, it is reported, the rest " refused to come out of the bastion.' l'reparations are made for a rush ; but on the doors being opened, all is quiet. The tragedy of the Black-hole has been re-enacted, and forty-five sufibcated wretches, whose cries have been drowned in the tumult, encumber the floor. Others were taken to Mecan Meer and blown away front guns, "pour encourager les autres; " and, altogether, about five hundred sepoys perished within forty-eight hours from the commission of their crime. Swift retribu tion, necessary and righteous vengeance; but not of a nature to be gloated over. In this execution Mr. Cooper himself was the principal actor, and received a letter of compliment from the Judicial Commissioner, Mr. Robert Mont gomery : Sunday, 9 a.m. My Dear Cooper,—All honour to you for what you have done, and right well you did it. There was no hesitation or delay, or drawing back. It will be a feather to your cap as long as you live. • • • • congratulate you very heartily on your success. There will be some stragglers ; have them nil picked up, and any you get send us now. You hare had slaughter enough. We want a few for the troops here, and also for evidence. — Believe me, yours sincerely, R. MONTGOMERY. F. Cooper, Esq., D.C. P.S.—T he other three regiments here were very shaky yesterday, but I hardly think they will now go. I wish they wood, as they are a nuisance; and not a man would escape if they We may agree with Lord Canning, who "at " once accorded his high commendation of the summary proceedings narrated in this chapter," and yet find some difhculty in sympathizing with the tone in which Mr. Cooper describes and Mr. Montgomery writes. The former of the passages we have italicised would convey to our mind an implication of over zeal in the person written to, did not the latter show that the bloody task had subdued the hand and mind to that they worked in. The moral of Mr. Cooper's book is directed against the system of centralization and divided responsibility which prevails in all parts of India except the Punjab, and to which he attributes the comparative failure of other attempts to quell the rebellion at its outset. In the l'unjab the Commissioner or Deputy of a district is solely answerable for the good order of all placed under his charge, while elsewhere the revenue and judicial authorities were actuated by no comnion feeling, and only anxious to shift responsibility on each other. What would be the writer's views as to the reorganization of the empire we cannot tell, but we infer that he would lean rather to a military occupation by adequate British forces of every stronghold, and a general system of intimidation, than to the measures of reconciliation which are now becoming more popular, and which Mr. Norton, as we saw last week, would be disposed to support. The book is well written and interesting, though not always as clear in description as might be wished. But in many places there are diagrams of positions which are lucidly done, and those who do not mind the horrible details we have alluded to will certainly find in it a stirring nar rative, whose record of vigour and decision shows an appreciation of the magnitude of the crisis which it may be wished had been more general in some other parts of India. The Backwoods Preacher. An Autobiography of Peter Cartwright. Edited by W. P. Strick land. London : Ileylin. PETER CARTWRIGHT, the Backwoods Preacher, was born on the Ist September, 1785, in the State of Vir g i n i a . Hi s f at h er, a poor man , fought against King George in the War of Inde pendence, soon after the conclusion of which he removed to Kentucky, at that time the chief hunting -grounds of fierce and warlike tribes of Indians. The journey thither was through a Wilderness infested by bands of savages, who cut off all stragglers and frequently surprised and murdered large parties of immigrants. The Word Kentucky is, by interpretation, " the dark and bloody ground," and was chosen as an appro priate designation for a territory which long THE PRESS, OcrotEtt 2, 1858. served as a battle-field for the old and the new inhabitants. The Cartwrights, after some indeci sion, finally settled in Logan County, better known as " Rogues' Harbour " Here ninny refugees, from almost all parts of the Union, fled to escape justice or punishment; for although there was law, yet it could not be executed, and it was a desperate state of society. Murderers, horse thieves, highway rub- bers, and counterfeiters fled here, until they combined, and actually formed a majority. - - The more orderly and respectable citizens accor dingly determined upon taking the law into their own hands, and adopting violent measures to put down violence. They therefore enrolled them selves into a society denominated " The Regu lators," and after some hard fighting and much bloodshed the ropes were at length driven out of the district. " This," observes Peter, "is but one view of frontier life," and he then goes on to sketch a general outline of life in the back woods : -- - When my father settled in Logan County, there was not a newspaper printed south of Green River, no mill short of forty miles, and no schools worth the name Sunday was a day set apart for hunting, fishing, horse racing, card playing, halls, dances, and all kinds of jollity and mirth. We killed our meat out of the woods, wild; and beat our meal and hominy with a pestle and mortar. We stretched a deer-skin over a hoop, burned holes in it with the prongs of a fork, sifted our meal, baked our bread, ate it, and it was first-rate eating too. We raised, orgathered out of the woods, our own tea. We had sage, hohea, cross-vine, spice, and sassafras teas, in abundance. As for coffee, I am not sure that I ever smelled it for ten years. We made our sugar out of the water of the maple tree, and our molasses too. These were great luxuries in those days. We raised our own cotton and flax. We waterrotted our flax, broke it by hand, scutched it; picked the seed out of the cotton with our fingers; our mothers and sisters carded, spun, and wove it into cloth, and they cut and male our garments and bedclothes, &c. And when we got on a new suit so manufactured ,and sallied out into company, we thought ourselves as big as anybody." Our hero, by his own confession, was " a wild, " wicked boy, and delighted in horse-racing, card " playing, and dancing." his mother was a piously disposed member of the Methodist Epis copal Church, but his father cared for none of these things, and allowed him to act much as it seemed good in his own eyes. One night, how ever, after returning home from a wedding-feast at which he had drank a little and danced a great deal, he sat down by the fireside, and, his nerves being unstrung by the exhaustion consequent on excessive exertion, he felt "guilty and con denmed." The blood rushed to his head, his heart beat violently, and his eyes swam in dark ness. The impulsive, ignorant boy (for he was barely sixteen) fancied he was going to die, and under that impression fell on his knees and prayed aloud for mercy. his mother, hearing the unwonted cry, sprang out of bed, and, kneel ing by his side, tried to comfort and exhort him. Next morning he gave up his cards and his rice horse, and some time afterwards at a great camp meeting the spirit fell upon him, and he seemed to himself to be in heaven. his " mother raised the shout," his Christian friends crowded around and congratulated him, and he went on his way rejoicing. At that time there were very few regular itinerant preachers belonging to the Western Conference, and even those few were not altogether settled in their religious convic tions. Some turned Republican Methodists and some Arians ; others became Universalists or New Lights, and denied the existence of a hell ; while others, again, adopted the tenets of the Baptists, and held that, without total immersion, there could be no remission of sins. One even of the two earliest travelling preachers " backslid, quit " preaching, kept a grog cry, and became wicked, " and raised a family to hate Methodists." How ever, at a " glorious revival of religion " he again " got under strong conviction," and " was " saved by mercy, as all seceders from the Me " thodist Episcopal Church will be, if saved "at all." If the preachers were indifferent, the people were utterly ignorant on the subject of religion, and both their hearts and understand ings afforded a tabula rasa for the reception of any sort of impressions, however rude or even grotesque. A Mr. Lee one day had earnestly exhorted his congregation "to take up the Cross ; "no matter what it was, take it up." Now, among his hearers were "a very wicked Dutch man and his wife," the latter moreover being a notorious scold and a very thorn in the side of her unfortunate spouse. The words of the preacher, however, opened the floodgates of their eyes, aud, weeping bitterly, they " resolved to do " better, and from that time forward to take up 963 " the Cross and bear it, be it what it might." The congregation were much affected, and it was some time before Mr. Lee was able to dismiss them. Having taken some refreshment, he mounted his horse, and started for an evening appointment : After riding some distance, he saw a little ahead of him a man trudging along, carrying a woman on his hack. This greatly surprised Mr. Lee. lie very nutarally sup posed that the woman was a cripple, or had hurt herself in some way, so that she could not walk. The traveller was a small man, and the woman large and heavy. lieforo he overtook them, Mr. Lee begin to cast aliittit in his mind how he could render them assistance. When he came up to them, lo and behold, who should it be but the Duuthinan and his wife that had been so affected under his sermon at meeting! Mr. Lee rode up and spoke to ann, and inquired of the man what had happened, or what was the matter, that he was carrying his wife. The Dutchman turned to Mr. Lee, and said, " ileeure you did tell us in your sermon dat we must take up de cross and follow de Savionr, ur dat we could not be saved or go to heaven ; and I does desire to go to heaven so much as any poly ; and dish vile is so pad, she scold and scold all de time, anal dish woman is de createst cross I have iu ale whole world, and I does take her up and pare her ; for I must save my soul." This Dutchman and his wife were subsequently taken into the Church, of which they became shining ornaments, and the former often told " his experience in love-feasts " with such thrill ing effect that his auditors melted into tears, and on one occasion " broke out into a load shout." Among other consequences of the " blessed re vival of religion " which took its rise in the year 1801, was the sudden appearance of "a new " exercise, called the jerks, which was over " whelming in its effects upon the bodies and " minds of the people " : No matter whether they were 'saints orrsinners, they would be taken tinder a warm song or sermon, and seized with a convulsive jerking all over, which they could not by any possibility avoid, and the more they resisted the more they jerked. If they would not strive against it, and would pray in good earnest, the jerking would usually abate. 1 have seen more than five hundred persons jerking at one time in my large congregations. Mold usually persons taken with the jerks, to obtain relief, us they snit', would rise up and dance. Some would run, but could nut get away. Soule would resist ; on such the jerks were generally very severe. To see those proud young gentlemen and young ladies, dressed in their silks, jewellery, and prunella, from top to toe, take the jerks, would often excite my risibilities. The first jerk or so, you would see their fine bonnets, caps, and combs fty ; and so sudden would he the jerking of the head, that their long loose hair would crack almost as loud as a U aggoner's whip. A "drunken rowdy," having attended a meeting with the intention of disturbing the devotions of the pious, was seized with the jerks, and " started " to run, but he jerked so powerfully he could " not get away. . . . At length he fetched a " very violent jerk, snapped his neck, fell, and " soon expired, with his mouth full of cursing " and bitterness." To do Mr. Cartwright jus tice, he appears to have discountenanced both this and other " wild exercises," such as " the " running, jumping, barking exercise." Ile is very likely correct in regarding these extrava gances as involuntary, and as resulting from a morbid state ofmental and spiritual exaltation. His knowledge of mankind taught him that outra geous fanatics were not likely to be very staunch adherents of any particular creed ; and that the impulse which drove them into one fold would lead them through a dozen before finally depo siting them in unbelief and despair. But, while he disapproved of extravagant demonstrations, he pushed his love of simplicity to the very verge of rudeness and eccentricity. At a camp-meeting near New Lancaster, he observed two fashionably attired young ladies, who " must have had in " rings, earrings, bracelets, gold chains, lockets, " &c., at least one or two hundred dollars' worth "of jewellery about their person." To these fair penitents Master Peter showed considerable attention, praying for them himself, and calling others to his aid. Ile wrestled not in vain : They became deeply engaged; and about midnight. they were both powerfully converted. They rose to their feet, and gave some very triumphant shoats; and then very d e liberately took off ther gold chains, earrings, lockets, &c., and handed them to me, saying, "We have no more use for these idols. If religion is the glorious, good thing you have represented it to be, it throws these idols into eternal shade." At another time a young man, " finely dressed, " with his bosom full of ruffles," whenever there was any excitement in the congregation, " would " rise to his feet, and stand on the seats prepared " for the occupancy of the ladies." The preacher had more than once called him to order : At length I reproved him personally and sharply, and said, " I mean that young man there, standing on the seats of the ladies with a ruffled shirt on." And added, " I doubt