The Press. — London, England, 1858-12-25 00:00:00

1276 THE PRESS, DECEMBER 25, 1858. and instantly discovering his blunder, bowingly approaches H.M. Minister, be g s that monsieur will forgive his error, and that he sh all (xic) have rooms a thousand times more comfortable, and all that sort of thing. But it's no go ; the Englishman swears he will have the rooms, and commences knocking at the door. The American lady, throwing on a wrapper, opens the door, and on learning the cause of the disturbance begs " his majesty "to desist until her husband returns, when all will be arranged. But his majesty is not to be appeased, insists upon the woman's leaving at once, and uses most insulting language —the ladv seeking protection in another room. Mes.i• while the Yankee Minister returns, and on learning the cause of the row, and that his wife has been insulted, seizes the unlucky Brion by the neck and gives him a moat tremendous hiding, breaking his cane over his head. He then walks O his writing•desk and pens a challenge, which a friend bears. But his majesty is not a fighting•man, and so the affair ends. Mr. Warren does not venture to narrate the above story in the character of an eye-witness. But he is, at any rate, responsible for the garnish of vulgarity with which it is served up, and for the, perhaps, still greater vulgarity deducible from the mere credence given to such a tissue of gross improbabilities. Our patriotic indignation, however, must not make us blind to our critical duties. The regions to which Mr. Warren's vagabond spirit leads him, are California, China, Polynesia, and the Sandwich and Philippine Islands. As the latter mentioned are less familiar to the travelled reader, we shall take leave to accompany him to Honolulu or Manila, rather than to S. Francisco, Whampoa, or Melbourne. Every one must be familiar with the strange and fascinating accounts given by early voyagers of those lovely islet groups included under the collective name of Polynesia. With the soft climate of Sicily, and the gorgeous vegetation of Southern Asia, these ocean gems seemed to realize the fabled )n7:4 ithaMtiVC4 of antiquity. Nor were their inhabitants painted to us in less glow ing colours than the paradise in which they were placed. The women especially woke an enthusiam and a perturbation in the wonder loving mariner which no words were sufficiently expressive to convey. Their grace, their un veiled beauty, their voluptuous charms, seemed to stamp them, one and all, as de jure priestesses of that Aphrodite, to whom, in classic days, their sea-born islands would have been inevitably and pre-eminently consecrated. As, however, our fa miliarity with these magical regions increased, the less reverential feeling bred by that most un idealizing of influences began to assert its sway. The darker side of the picture—and very dark it was—came to its turn of examination. What had before enthralled us as a terrestrial realization of the paradise of Mahomet, revolted us now as the loathsome haunt of the grossest and most ruth less depravity. Even the physical beauty which had captivated the ,sense and won such glowing encomiums, was pronounced a mere traveller's tale; and M'Culloch's " Geographical Dic tionary " asserts that the females of the Sand wich Islands have " coarse and disagreeable features," and that both sexes are alike "gloomy and reserved." . _ _ _ . It is not a little puzzling, in the teeth of this mighty authority, to find the recent experience of Mr. Warren harking up the older account of Sandwich Island beauty, and reviving within us the attractive reminiscences of Cook and Van couver : The little town of Lahalos (he tells us) is embowered in groves of cocoa-nut and bread•frnit, which form long avenues, and beneath whose shade the picturesque cottages are ranged, affording a delightful tropical picture. Around their doors scores of girls were lounging, their beautiful forms enveloped in long loose gowns, pendant from their shoulders, and their beads surmounted with the jauntiest little glazed cap, with a narrow rim, round the crown of which an ostrich feather tastefully floated. These girls are grace personified, and the very perfection of physical beauty ; and , although copper•coloured, still that is lost in their fall expressive eye and animated features. Lolling upon a mat or cane soft, they would motion you to a seat, when an impromptu flirtation 'rould at once strike up in the most incomprehensible jargon of Kanaka and bad English. However, a squeeze of the hand or a gentle pressure of the waist alwa3s elucidates any abstruse remark. If the missionaries of Christianity have suc ceeded in reducing Polynesian " flirtations " to such decorous limits as these, they may indeed be proud of their achievements. Our traveller accords eloquent praise to these noble conquerors, but, turning to the other aspect of the picture, indignantly adds : self-sacrifice of their predecessors had given rise to in the minds of these simple islanders, have established an auto eratic thraldotu of which they themselves are the head, as despotic as is the tiovernment of the Rosales, highly satisfactory-to their own pride and love of power, but of incalculable injury to the interests of the religioo•of which they are the high priests, and tending, by its restrictions and shallow and transparent hypocrisy, to undo inwardly all that has been effected in the true conversion of the natives. With the government in their own hands, their power is unlimited. The King, a mere puppet, scarcely dares call his soul his own, but, surrounded by the tinsel and pinchbeck paraphernalia of a ridiculous royalty, he moves, as does his prototype on the chess-board, when and where these republican players may indicate. If the author's premises are true (and, as he is speaking of his own countrymen, they may safely be assumed so), few will deny the justness of these conclusions. The demoralizing effect ofhis position upon the " puppet king " is placed in the clearest terms before us. his copper-coloured majesty devotes every leisure moment left him by a wearisome and unmeaning court etiquette, to getting drunk, lounging about the hotels, and playing billiards with the first comer. Mr. Warren himself was edified by seeing " the old " chap rolling around the streets with a bottle " tucked under one arm and a Kanaka Wyheenie" (Polynesian for a " social evil ") " under the other, " both gloriously drunk." " Dust and Foam " is quite amusing enough to repay perusal. But there is a very decided smack of republican vulgarity about it, and its pretentious, though not fatiguing, style acquires occasionally an extra tawdry air from the slip slop grammar which mars its pages. Take the following by way of a specimen:— There, too, we made acquaintance with the albatross. At first sight I was disappointed, expecting to see a much larger bird, but as they became less shy and ventured nearer to us, I was astonished at their dimensions and charmed with their graceful gyrations, or as unconsciously they, with heads beneath their wing, slept peacefully upon the billow; or, rising with the gale, 'hey madly wheeled and shrieked as if glorying in the elemental strife. Brother Jonathan insists, we believe, on being the special guardian of that "English undefiled " which the first settlers are supposed to have carried over with them to Virginia in the year of grace 1607. The lexicographical fame of the great Samuel pales its ineffectual fires, we are told, before the resplendant glory of Nat. Webster. Without entering upon this knotty question— without presuming to determine witether Quail phrases as "riled a few," "hitch up the horses," take their origin nearer to the source of the "pure well" than their British representatives— we must express our regret that, while thus cle verly outrunning Dr. Johnson, these 'fransat• lantic purists have allowed themselves to be so shamefully distanced by Lindley Murray ! So nature from her seeming death Fresh energy shall bring, To give a new creation breath, And wake another spring. 2. We turn with equal pleasure to the " Rewa r d Pictures, illustrating the Miracles of Our Blessed Lord." This packet contains sixteen cards, each surrounded by a golden border, and headed by a very beautiful illustration of the particular miracle, the account of which is given verbatim from the New Testament. The chaste and attractive appear. ance of the whole does not, however, constitute the only merit of these cards. They are evidently ad. dressed to imnressing the miracles of our Lord in delibly upon the memory of the pupil, and, as far as may be without wearying the attention by com mentary, to explain the sense of the narrative. This is most successfully accomplished by printing the words which are most important, or upon which special emphasis should be made, in " italics." It the Bible is only put into the hands of our poor children in this brief, attractive, and most im pressive form, we shall find less of that lamentable ignorance both of the text and meaning of Scripture so prevalent at the present day amongst the lower orders. These cants have only to be seen to be at once appreciated and plentifully distributed in our schools nod cottages throughout the country. a. "The Children's Almanack fur 1559" is also very prettily got up. While conveying all the in formation customary in such publications, it contains the addition of a Scripture text for each Sunday or holy day throughout the year, and at the end of each mouth some verses of poetry are quoted from the best sources, calculate.i to draw the cnild's atten tion to whatever may bt; most important at the parti cular season. There is indeed nothing omitted in this little Almanack which could at all come within the reach of a child's capacity, end no child who can read ought to be without it. We congratulate the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge on the eminent merits of these three publications, and we trust that its endeavours to meet the intellectual wants and spiritual improvement of the poorer classes will be encouraged and recompensed, by the clergy especially, in a liberal distribution of "The Monthly Flower Gaeden," "Time Reward Pictures," and "The Children's Almanack." The Monthly Flower Garden. London : The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Reward Pictures, Illustrating the Miracles of Ovr Blessed Lord. London The Christian K'i,w• ledge Society. The Children's Almanack for the Year :859. London The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The simultaneous publication of these three little works clearly proves that the Christian Knowledge Society does not intend to rest under the imputation of giving dry morals to the parochial world unaccom panied by any features of interest or other attractions. The contents of the packet now before us, both as regards composition and appearance, are some of the best productions of the kind we have ever seen, and deserve the special notice of the clergy for distribu tion in their schools and parishes. 1." The Monthly Flower Garden" comprise.s twelve cards—one for every month in the year—each beau- tifully illustrated with a seasonable flower on the one side and a few verses of poetry on the other. These latter aro ably written, and wc:ll deserve a higher place in public esteem than in their present shape they can possibly obtain. The imagery and diction are very superior, combining great depth of feeling with considerable facility of expression and refine. ment of thought. The cards all bear the initials "E. H. C.," and it is but just to say that whoever may be indicated under these letters only requires to cultivate a taste and ability already good, in order to take a high rank among contributors to poetical literature. We quote the following verses on Now let the weary earth have rest : Her autumn haves are abed, And scarce a flower that decked her breast But 'neath it now lies dead. As the tired mother sleep*, at length Her long day's labour done, And gathers up her wasted strength To meet to morrow's ettn ; We sicken when we think that the successors of those devoted men who so assiduously laboured in reclaiming the savage from his degradation, taking advantage of the natural feeling of raverenoe which the blameless lives and Post office Directory for 1859. London : Kelly and Co. THIS monster publieation, consisting of :ON pages, is one of the most remarkable instances of human patience, perseverance, and method in the minor istewee7 d wtwdeaw Ames. On a first glance over such an enormous mass of letter-press, closely printed with the names of people and streets, one can scarcely help likening the idea of discovering the whereabouts of A, B, or C to the old-fashiolad huntfor a needle in a bottle of hay, and except that the ingenuity of the editors has proved itself fully equal to their industry, this allusion might be a pretty fair 'tlex to the result. But Messrs. Kelly anu Co. have now been well known for several years, and each year has seen their masterly undertaking becoming more perfect and more comprehensive, without any corresponding increase in size. When a book has reached a high standard of perfection the introduction of improvements iv by no means easy, and the recent typographical arrangement of the streets, the giving of the old numbers, together with those lately ordered by the Metropolitan Board of Works, must have exceeded all calculation. Again, the changes of residence and the variations of trade have evidently required the greatest nicety of care in compiling, and would have defied the energies and accuracy alike of any ordinary publisher. It is . of course impossible in a notice such as this to mention all the advantages of the present edition. There are, however, one or two points which seeni to claim spec'al attention ; for instance, the marks in the lists of stockbrokers, chemists, surgeons, and physicians, to distinguish severally the members of the Stock Exchange, the Pharmaceutical Society, the Royal College of Surgeons, and the names of the univer sities at which the last-mentioned gentlemen were educated, wherever the information could be oh tained, are obvious additions of no trifling merit. The map, moreover, greatly tends to increase the value of the work. It is quite new, having been reduced from the Ordnance survey, and the engraving, corrected up to the present time, has occupied two years in preparation. The postal divisions of the metropolis are also so distinctly given that no one, especially with the map before him, can be at a los s to determine the address initials of any one of his London correspondents. We have therefore no hesi tation in pronouncing the Directory for 1859 superior, on the whole, to all its predecessors, both in accuracy of arrangement and comprehensiveness of detail. London: Printed and Published by ALFRED Iva, at the Office, 110, Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the County of Middlesex, on Saturday. the :nth day of.Deoemtpr.lBs.9.