The Press. — London, England, 1855-06-30 00:00:00

622 to reasonable beings, in reproof, in praise, in entreaty, in anger. We expected to see the wild animal turn from the mangled remains of the husband to tear the wife and child asunder. We were agreeably disappointed. ➢ialleer's rage was satiated, and he now felt remorse for what he had done. You could see it in his drooping ears and downcast head. He took his foot off the shapeless carcass. The wife threw herself upon it, and the elephant stood by re specting her grief. It was a touching spectacle. The woman lamented loudly, turning now and then to the ele phant to reproach him ; whilst he stood as if conscious of his fault, looking sadly at her. Once or twice the uncon scious infant caught at his trunk and played with it. He had doubtless played with it often before ; for it is no un common thing to see the mahout's child playing between the legs of the elephant—it is no uncommon thing to see the elephant waving his trunk over it, allowing it to go to a little distance, and then tenderly bringing it back again— as tenderly as a mother would. The elephant knelt at her command. She mounted. Malleer gave her, first the mutilated carcase, and then her infant son. She sat upon his neck, in her husband's place, and left him quietly away. From that day she was hie keeper, his mahout. He would have no ocher. When most excited, when most wild, must or not midi, she had but to command, and he obeyed. The touch of her hand on his trunk was enough to calm his most violent out bursts of temper. She could lead him without fear or danger to herself; and the authority which she had thus obtained doubtless her son would possess after her. The volume can scarcely be called " A Life " as it relates to a short period only of the reign of Nussir-u-deen. But for the liveliness of the whole narrative, and its spirited sketches of the Court and country of Oude during the period to which it relates, we know no volume more calculated to arrest the attention of the reader. As for the design of the book, that is palpable enough. It is to popularise the cry against Oude and its native Government which has boon so loudly taken up in certain influential quarters. Whether the ci-dsvant " Member of the Household " is justified in lending himself to such a purpose is a question we cannot dis• cuss ; from the hints given, however, he has plainly no very high opinion of either the morality or justice of the rule of the Honour able Company. Monastie Institutions ; their Origin, Progress, Nature, and Tendency. By Samuel Phillips Day, formerly of the Order of the Presen- tation. London : Longmans. WE could have wished for a different book than this under a title so suggestive of valuable dis cussion and research. The gradual change of manners and politics which made monachism a mighty power either for or against the ad vanco of civilisation—the services of monastic institutions and persons in the preservation of learning, and not unfrequently, strange as it may seem, in the assertion of liberty—the events which caused the system to become (like the Church to which it is chiefly attached) diverted, corrupted, and effete, until it fell beneath its own weight ;—these were subjects demanding much more than every-day compi lation and desultory extract. What part the monastery served in the middle ages between the tyrannical and illiterate barons and the op pressed and enslaved villeinage ; how it pre served such arts as were known, and chiefly that of architecture and agriculture ; how the monkish chroniclers, especially of the later age, towards the last great overthrow of the system in these islands, obtained the mate rials of contemporary history ; in fact, the work of monachism, more than its manners, are subjects not yet adequately discussed, though the materials cannot be difficult of access. Such a task, however, Mr. Day did not set before himself. His work is more devoted to a calmly controversial view of the subject, to the exposure of the corruption of manners and falsehood of teaching by the monks, and to the general " pernicious tendency of monastic institutions." From the author's affix on his titlepage we had expected some facts in the form of personal narrative, which, judging from his style, he might have rendered in a very interesting and readable form. In this, however, we were disappointed. He devotes himself to collecting authorities, not of the rarest kind, on the subject of the monastic system, and drawing from them conclusions to fortify the anti-monkish doctrines which he seems earnestly to lay down. Of these in stances there is a large and, to all controver. THE PRESS. sialists, interesting collection, and the book throughout contains a great deal of entertain ing matter on the various orders and the ridiculous monkish legends and miracles. On the politico-economical bearing of the question Mr. Day takes a view in which we should think that Mr. Gladstone, as a financier well skilled in Romish subjects, might feel a considerable interest. On the increase of monastic institutions in England Mr. Day says : . . . . . . The number of monastic institutions in England and Wales are considerably on the increase, as will appear from the following authentic statement:—ln 1847, there were thirty-four convents and eight monasteries. In 1848, there were thirty-eight convents and eleven monasteries. In 1851, the convents for women alone had increased to fifty-three. In 183'2, they numbered sixty-two ; and in 1853, they were further augmented to seventy-five; being an addition of twenty-two in two years. Well, we cannot be far wrong if we allow five more for the past year—in all eighty. Assuming that each convent or monastery con tains twenty inmates—not by any means a high average— it would yield a total of one thousand six hundred nuns, independently of monastics of the other sex. Now, esti mating that each of these women brought into the convent in the shape of dowry, say 4501.—many bring ten times this amount—it would yield a capital of 720,0001.; and not a dead or inactive capital either; for as quickly as a religious dies out her property becomes immediately avail able ; so that, instead of the longevity of a nun being a boon, her premature death becomes the source of pecu niary profit. Should such establishments go on increasing in the same ratio as they have during the past few years, the immense amount of capital that would accumulate therein must be highly detrimental to the State. Accord ing to Hume, the Roman Court once drew a revenue from this country greater than the entire national revenue of the Crown of England. If monastic establishments are quietly suffered to progress ad libitum, although the Papal Court may not derive proximate advantages therefrom, certainly this country must suffer in a monetary and com mercial point of view, from the enormous amount of wealth that is sure to become accumulated in such places. If the title of this book disappoints us, the promises of the table of contents are equally illusory. Of twenty-three pages (in all conscience sufficiently little space for the subject), headed by the widely suggestive title, " The Society of Jesus," we have twenty devoted to a meagre life of St. Ignatius of Loyola ; which, however, has the advantage of avoiding Mr. Macaulay's very remarkable romancing on that particular sub• ject, and speaking of the visionary as he was in actual life. Mr. Day's work will no doubt find a large class of readers amongst those who generally aware of the evil effects of the monastic system are nevertheless precluded from consulting the separate authorities on the subject, which are in general scattered in various forms and several languages. Some good will be attained in calling atten- tion to the defects of a system to which there has of late been a dangerous disposition to attribute merits, virtues, and advantages greater than in its purest forms it could boast. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. THE late hour at which some of the periodicals for the ensuing month have reached us will prevent our giving any but a hasty notice of their contents. Blackwood opens with the first part of rather a heavy article upon the " Imperial Policy of Russia," in which the object of the writer appears to be to select such points in Russian history as will incontestably prove the existence of a determined aggressive policy on the part of that country, and to propose such a remedy as shall effectually limit her further en croachment upon Europe. This aggressive move ment the writer considers as twofold on the part of Russia, depending as much upon the superstition of the people as upon the policy of the Government, and that, therefore, any hope that peace will be forced upon the Russian Government by the disaffec tion of the Russian people, he regards as illusory, as we have the Crown, Court, and People united as one man against us in the present war. Whether this view is founded upon correct grounds the result must ere long show. The charming romance of " Zaidee " is concluded in the present number, and the readers of Blackwood will regret the termination of so pleasant a story. " Notes upon Canada " are continued, and contain many graphic sketches of the country and amusing anecdotes of the Yankees. Backwood life is here thoroughly well portrayed. A clever article reviews Mr. Maurice's theological works ; and the " Story of the Campaign " is brought down to the latest dates, including the capture of the Mamelon and Quarries, and the expedition up the Sea of Azoff. The only political article in Blackwood is upon the " Two Years of the Condemned Cabinet," in which the treachery and duplicity of the late Government is very forcibly exposed t SATURDAY, Even to view the conduct of the Aberdeen Ministry in the light which they choose, and to accept their own ver sion of the matter, in what a miserable aspect does their conduct appear ! They allege that they resolved from the first to reject and oppose the designs announced by Russia in January, 1853. %Veil, then, they must have known the perilous nature of the struggle that loomed in the dis tance ; but did they make the least preparation to check, encounter, or repel it? Did they augment the military and naval forces of the empire at home, or strengthen our posi. Lion by new alliances abroad ? Did they take France into their confidence, or form an indissoluble alliance for mutual support with the Baltic Powers, which are destined to be Russia's next victims? Did they enter into imme diate negotiations with Austria and Prussia, and the Ger man Courts, in order to nullity the notorious intrigues and influence of Russia, and win them, by a display of ener getic action, to the side of justice and liberty? Not at all : they did none of those things. Not a gunboat was added to our fleet, not a soldier to our army, not a militiaman to our home-service. They said to the Czar, " Come and walk over us !" They never even hoisted an opposition flag. And if the; German Powers are now favorable to Russia, is it not very much owing to the fact that we allowed Russia to bully and cajole them uncounteracted ? —nay, that at first our Government even set them the ex ample which they are now following? • • • • • Such was the fatal policy of the statesmen to whom Great Britain had in evil hour confided the conduct of the war. Their whole proceedings tallied with their secret designs. The Expedition to the East was meant as an idle parade—to gull the people, and go no further than Malta. When put on their defence at the opening of Par liament in January last year, Lord Aberdeen declared that the reason why he did not hold the invasion of the Prin cipalities a easus belli was, that the Russians in that case being in such force, would have marched straight upon Constantinople before the Turks or we were ready to op pose them; while Lord Clarendon, on the other hand, alleged that the reason was, that the Russian forces were so few that they furnished no cause for apprehending that the peace of Europe would be disturbed ! To such pitiful contradictions and transparent subterfuges does duplicity reduce its votaries. Both statements were untrue. The Government did not design at first to oppose Russia or befriend Turkey. We know this from the blue-books ; from the fabt that no preparations for war were made after the Pruth was crossed, although Lord Aberdeen alleged the want of preparation as his excuse for not interposing at the outset ;—from the fact that the fleet was forbidden to give the slightest countenance or support to the Otto mans ;—and finally, that, even after war was declared, war was still not purposed by the Cabinet. They never took a hostile step until it was forced upon them by public opinion. And we now know " the reason why." They had se cretly resolved not to prosecute the war against Russia— not to " humble" her, not to hurt her; and as the voice of an aroused and indignant nation compelled them, bit by bit, to go forward, they found themselves forced to add mismanagement to duplicity, and embark the empire in enterprises for which they had made no preparation. This is forcible and true, yet the present Cabinet, with one or two exceptions, formed the Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen. Frazer presents an entertaining and varied table of contents. There is a good descriptive story of the "Ascent of Mont Blanc," and an amusing " Essay on Humbug," a review of Sydney Smith's" Memoirs," and of Stirling's " Life and Works of Velasquez," an article upon " The Drama, Past and Present," and a concluding paper upon " Parliament, the Press, and the War," in which the question of Administrative Reform is put upon a tolerably fair footing. As far as the practical Reformers are con cerned, the writer observes : We cannot compliment them on the success of their performance. In the first place, their leader proposed to lay his foundation upon such loose and exaggerated lan guage, that no man who weighed facts could agree to it. How could the House of Commons tell their constituents that they viewed with alarm the state of the nation, when it was notorious that the nation continued to advance in its career of prosperity, hardly, if at all, checked by the vast burdens of the war in which it was engaged? And, supposing there was any ground for such an assertion, what sort of prudence would that have been which selected such a moment to announce to Europe the alarming fact? Surely we can reform our administrative service without asserting such a monstrous hyperbole as that its abuses have brought us to the brink of ruin ! • •-• • • If Mr. Layard and Mr. Lindsay are to be taken as speci mens of the class of men who should be substituted for those at present in the direction of public affairs, it must be owned that the cause of Administrative Reform is not much recommended by such a prospect. From gentle men who demand a change of men on the ground of defi ciency in knowledge and habits of business, one would expect at least accuracy and candour in the statement of facts. But we must again warn Mr. Layard that his vigour and ability will be seriously impaired if they are accompanied by habitual inaccuracy. The member for Aylesbury, without, we are convinced, the least intention to garble or suppress the truth, has an unhappy infirmity of blundering on matters of detail. If ever it behoved him to have been cautions and well-advised in his facts, it was in the statement of the case upon which he founded his attack upon the public offices, the appointments to the public service, and the dispensation of ministerial pa tronage. No one has any doubt that the Civil Service does want a moderate reformer ) but these petty individual