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

THE PRESS OCTOBER 2 185th tion required. If the duty were reduced to one-fourth of its present amount, he believed the consumption would increase so enormously, that in a very short time the Exchequer would lose nothing whatever by the reduction. As an instance of the effect which the present high rate of taxation produced, he might mention that in the United Kingdom the annual consumption of tea was about two and a quarter pounds per head, while in the colony of Victoria, in ccnsequence of the absence of taxation, it was ten pounds per head. lie had been induced to make these observations simply because he wished to point out how much good might result from the improved state of our relations with China. Hitherto we had regarded China as a barbarous country ; but he trusted that every year, as our intercourse with that empire extended, such a stigma would be more and more removed. The hon. gentleman, in conclusion, expressed a hop.- that the question of church rates would be settled in the ensuing session. THE EARL OF CARLISLE AND MR. MONCKTON MILNES ON MENTAL CULTURE. ;►r the soiree of the Leeds Mechanics' Institute on Wednesday, which was presided over by Lord Gode• rich, . I called the chiefs of Sarawak together. I told them I had sent for the missionaries, and I told them likewise that the gentlemen who had come would endeavour, with all charity, and in all simple and kindly feeling, to meet their views and their feelings, slid to expound merely the religion of Christ to them, which they might accept or reject as it might please themselves. From that day to this we have not had any unkindly feeling whatever; but I must tell you this at the same time, that exactly in the same proportion as the Christian Iles been earnest, the Mahomedan has been earnest too. When there were only half a dozen Christians in the country—when their deco. (ions were necessarily in their own houses, and in private —there was no Mahomedan mosque at all. You never saw a Mahomedan say his prayers, which he is bound by his religion to do five times a day, in public ; but directly our church arose, and the bell rang to give warning th it ser• vice time was come, directly our services were attended upon, up started Mahomedan mosques; five times a day did the Mahomedana pray, and the large drum, in which they beat at service time, was sounded. And this may all teach—l do not say it lightly, believe me—that the earnestness in the one religion begets earnestness in the other, and that you must look on that nut only as a good effect, but as a difficulty also to the propagation of the Gospel. I will venture to tell you that amongst the llyake, whom you may approach with far greater case than the Mahomedans—amongst the Dyaks, living among their tribes, there is no religion save faint tradition : no super stition, no belief, and, generally speaking, not a knowledge of a God. That sounds very curious, because we are told that men have instinctively had a knowledge of a God, and that that knowledge always acts upon the heart; but, prat , - ticallv speaking, as far as my experience goes, it is no such thing. But they are not without their religious impressions at times, and in the same way that the savage people—a people in the same stage of civilization in the Pacific — were converted in bodies, so the Pyaks, with an impres sion made on them, might come over to you in large bodies, if assured of their safety, and of protection in society. I will venture to mention to you, as giving an instance of the impressibility of these people, an anecdote of what took place with an old Dyak chief. An old friend of mine, whom I knew for some years, came into my library, and seated himself in an easy chair, and seemed as though he wanted to converse. I took no notice of him for some time, but ultimately asked him what WAR the matter. He said, I have got something very particular to tell you—something very particular indeed.' " Well, and pray what may it be? Is there any apprehension? Has any oppression been visited upon you? Have the laws been broken ?" " No, no, not that; but it is some thing very particular. I want to ask you a question. I know that you have got a hook 1 meaning the Mel, and wish to ask you a question. Now, the question is, When the Dyaks die will they he turned into firewo ?" I explained to him that, in my opinion, moat certainly not; that, if they were good men, doing the law of Ged according to their own lights, I did not believe that God would punish them. He told me lie said thatbecause some Malays had told hint that they had got a hook, and that, according to it, every cue •vlio did not believe in it, and do what was rig'it, especially the Dyaks, would be turned into firewood, after death, and horned. There wag reason in that man, and he asked, " What sort of a God have those Malays got? I have always dose my duty. I have always taken care of the stranger who came to my house, never man came to my house hut what I lodged and fed him. I have always done my duty, and paid taxes to the Government, but we have been murdered—our woes and children have been taken awe} ; we have been ill-used and driven into slavery, and yet we are to be burned ; and the Malay, who has murdered our wives and our children, and carried them into slavery, is to be saved ?" I thought the poor heathen without his book had the best of the argument, but I deemed it best, seeing some impression had been made on his mind, to recommend him to go to a dear friend of mine, the Bishop of Lahore, who was then resident at Sarawak. to open the subject to him. He went, and that man, after a month, together with thirty other families, was converted to Christianity. name these facts because they will give you a clearer idea of the difficulties to be encountered in working up in the rude minds of those men—so rude, indeed, that on religion it is almost impossible to talk with them, because the language does not afford words possible to enable you to speak in the abstract. You can tell them the simple truths of religion—the primary truths—but for the great truths of Christianity they have not yet the language by which to express them, and certainly not the understanding if the language was made for them. We have a great work in this to perform, and we have to perform it in the mode pointed oat to us, with a most unbounded feeling of charity to those unfoi Waste heathens amongst whom we live; and not only to pity—for pity they will not bear any more than we would—hut to live with them, and do our duty to them as man ought to do his duty to man. Short ,f this. I fear there will be little success. To live among the natives ; to know his everyday life, even his everyday associations ; to know his fondly, his children; to know the births, the deaths, and the marriages in the country—this was the way to effect good. When we mix ourselves in the social reit t ions of the natives so intimately as this, then we are in a fair way, and then only, for effecting the conversion of the people. But so long as you are divided• as long as there is this harrier of white and black, the" coloured." as people are pleased to call it, and the " discolonred"—which, I suppose, we are—so long as these prejoidiees remain. go long as we give cause for these feelings by a mere diffe rence) of colour, a mere difference of language, a mere difference of civilization, it cannot he that we are in a way to convert the natives. As lung as this separation lasts, as long as there are barriers of black and white raised ap, the work is but begun. lam sure, my lord, ladies, and gentle• men, you will pardon me; in all sincerity i have given you exactly my own experience, and those thoughts and feelings which in,) experience has suggested to me, The Earl of CATUSSLE moved the resolution : Success to the Leeds Mechanics' Institute and Lite rary Society and all similar societies. as they materially promote the development of tlr, chief resources of intel lectual cultivation. In the course of his speech the noble lord said have rejoiced to perceive the evidences of your moral progress, as it has been testified by the encouragement given to education by the multiplication of mechanics' institutes, literary societies, and schools of art; by the added facilities for public worship ; and, what is the best proof of good education, by the spirit of order and obedi ence to the law which has distinguished your swarming hives of industry. So that, while, on the one hand, your population has recruited the armies that grappled with Russia and reconquered India, on the other hand it scarcely needs for its own control n handful of constables. An 3 no more 'striking proof of this, as has been aptly remarked by our chairman, could have been given than on the late suspicions occasion of the ♦isit to this town of our beloved Queen, whom you received with such a fervour of welcome u burst through all barriers, and with such a for bearance of respect as male yourselves the living barrier when the material one was swept away. Mr. R. MONCKTON MU.NES proposed— The ezteasim of the Schools of Art, as they impart a taste for artistic beauty, and give familiarity with the prin• ciples on which it rests. lii the course of his speech the hon. gentleman said : It was the conscientious study of nature alone that could make the great and complete artist. There had been a time when this was forgotten, when people had considered art as something which was merely to prelticc what was callel effect. They had all seen pictures — probably many of them painted by their friends—of which they had said, when they had nothing else to say about them, " 111 w very pretty the effect is." Perhaps the objects represented were not always like the objects in nature ; perhaps there never were such trees or such cows, and there never was anything the least like the representation of the skies ; still the remark was made, 1' The effect on the whole is very good." That was just such a remark as, in speaking of a subject of science, would be expressed in these words :—" This theory cannot be proved at all ; I don't see that it can be pat to any goof , practical use, nevertheless it is a very good theory, ani has a very fine effect." Nova, that would not be thought at all useful, and they might depend upon it, it was not more useful in art Without careful conscientious study of art nothing worthy could be produced. It wcs the conscientious study of art which was behind the works of the great artist, behind the majesty and dignity of Michael Angelo, behind the he auty and glory of Raphael, and behind all the graces of Corregglo; and it was that which he was very glad to see was the characteristic of English art at the present day. Men might laugh at its peculiarities, they might scoff at some of the extravagances into which it had run; but nevertheless it was a matter of congratulation that the artist no longer thought that he conkd produce certain wonderful effects out of his brain, following his own hand at mere momentary impulses, but that he must be a hard-working student and a careful observer of natine. SIR JAMES BROOKE ON MISSIONARY LABOURS IN SARAWAK. OA Monday evening the annual meeting of the Society fur the Propagation of the Gospel in Fireign Pans was held at the theatre of the Collegiate Institution, Liverpool, which was crowded with a very fashionable audience. The chair was occupied by the Lord Bishop of Chester. Sir JAPES Bitoozz made some interesting state ments as to missionary experiences in Sarawak. Be said ;-- welcome as b! beerance of r when the mai Mr. R. M The ezteas taste for anis ciples on whi lit the cow said : It was th coati' make been a time considered at what was ca probably ma' they had said them, " How objects repr nature; perh cows, and renresentatic " The effect just such t science, wo theory cans be pat to ai very good tl that would z depend lINY careful cons be product which was b the majesty beauty and Correggio; was the chat Men might some of tht nevertheless artist no I wonderful hand at me a hard -sod SIR JA O.e Mond Society fic Parts was Institutior very fishii by the Lo Sir JAM ['lents a t lie said ;- attirmlitxt THE ELECTION OF LORD MAYOR RS successor to Sir R. W. Carden, whose term of office will expire on the Bth of November next, took place according to custom on Michaelmas Day, when the Livery of the City of London assembled in the Guildhall for the purpose of nominating a chief magistrate. The natal formalities having been observed, the choice fell on David Williams Wire, Esq., the senior alder man and innholder. The Lord Mayor elect having been invested with the civic chain, thanked the Livery in appropriate terms. THE NEW SHERIFFS FOR LONDON AND MIDDLE. SEX, Mr. Hale and Mr. Conder, entered on their duties on Tuesday, the usual ceremonies, preceded by a splendid breakfast at the Tallowehandlers'•hall, having been gone through. On Thursday the newly appointed sheriffs attanded at the Mansionhouse, and from thence proceeded, with the Lord Mayor, Lord Mayor elect, Recorder, Aldermen, Lord Mayor's Chaplain, anu corporate o fficers, to Westminster, for the purpose of going through the ancient ceremonial of presentation to the Barons of the Exchequer. The civic functionaries were received by Mr. Walton, the Queen's Rem mbrancer, who performed an the °cm. sion the duty which has devolved on one of ti e Barons, since the abolit:on of the office of Curaitor Baron. The Recorder, Mr. Russell Gurney, Q.C., having presented the sheriffs, the Queen's emein brancer, in the name and behalf of the Queen, inti mated her Majesty's approval of the selection made by the Livery, and then congratulated the late sheriffs on the manner in which they hat discharged their duties during the year of office. The Queen's Remembrancer then made the followin7, interesting remarks on the origin of the ceremonial itself : It was now 700 years since the city of London had purehsaed for the King's fee of 100 marks, the right of appointing their own sheriffs, subject to the approbation of the Crown, and he nould find but one instance during that period where the Crown bad interposed—not to object to th" selection of sheriffs, but to impose a condition upon the City before the sheriffs elected were permitted to assume office. It appeared that in the fortieth year of the reign of Henry the Third, the Treasurer and Barons of the conit were directed by the King not to admit the sheriffs until the citizens hail satisfied a debt owing to Luke de Stucker, and the Lord Mayor and sheriffs gave a bond to the extent of twenty marks of gold in payment of the debt, which was afterwards satisfied. It was not, in fa* a debt due by the City, bat by the Crown, and that was the only instance where the Crown had declined to approve of the sheriffs elect. It was satisfactory ;bat during so many centuries the Livery hail so well dis charged the trust reposed them. The various warrants connected with the acceptance of office by the present sheriffs and the retirement of their predecessors were then read and duly filed and recorded. Then followed that portion of the cere mony which, though invested with all the weight derivable from ancient custom, is by no means cal. culated to impress on the public mind very elevated notion of judicial or corporate dignity. The Common Clier of the court then made the following procla mation :—" Oyez ! Oyez ! Oyez ! Tenants and occu piers of a piece of waste land, called the Moors, in the county of Salop, come forth and do our service upon pain and peril that shall fall thereon." Then Alderman Carter, the senior alderman below the chair, took two sticks from a bundle lying before him on the table, ono of which he cut with a hatchet and the other with a bill-hook. The Crier of the court then made • second proclamation as follows : " Oyez ! Oyez ! Oyez! Tetants and occupiers of a certain tenement, called the F:rge, in the parish of St. Clement Danes, Middlesex, come forth and do your service." Then the same alderman counted some horseshoes laying before him, and was ques tioned by the Queen's Remembrancer tints : Remembrancer: How many have you ?—Alderraan : Six shoes. Then the alderman counted the nails. Remembrancer: How many have you?—i!derinan : Sixtyone.—Rembrancer : That is a good numoer. These important matters having beam disposed of, the Recorder invited the Queen's Remembrancer to dine wish the sheriffs, and that functionary nodded his assent. The Corp crate authorities and officials at the close of the prooeedings retired from the mutt, and returned in procession team City. In the even ii.g the sheriffs gave a splendid banquet, which was largely attended. THE THIRD QUARTER. BELL ion THE WEsTNINSTER CLOCK, which was required by the referees to be re cast, has been delivered by MtbSIS. Warner, and the whole peal approved by the referees. Mr. Turle, the organist at the Abbey, states that " he lies no hesitation in giving his opinion that these bells are now all that can be desired both iu tune and quality of tone." They are to be hoisted immed'ately, and we hope no further mishap will delay the long-expected completion of the clock. THE CITY SEWERS CORMISSIoN held their meeting on Tuesday at Guildhall. In reference to the fall of houses in l'ilgrim.street, it was alleged that the culpability lay entirely with the owner ut the property, 963