The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-11 00:00:00

766 The information gleaned from these various ' sources confirmed what previously, perhaps, was but a vague supposition in his mind, that an ocean existed south of the African conti nent which washed the distant shores of India and China. At this day we can but faintly conceive the tumult of wonder and delight which such conviction must have raised in his breast. Not only was Asia regarded as the birthplace of man, and the scene of the miracles both of the Old and the New Testa ment, but as a land which, having once been visited by the presence of God, yet retained some marks of His especial favour. It was the seat of Paradise and the cradle of civilisa tion. It was described as possessing " favor " able stars and smiling skies." The earth was said to be watered by innumerable streams, and to bring forth whatever could contribute to pleasure and luxury. "It heals us," said one of the old writers of our own country, " with its drugs, it clothes us with its " silks, it adorns us with its gems, it enriches .' us with its metals, and it refreshes us with 0 4 its fruits, its spices, and its perfumes." To .pen a practicable way to this favored land Ippeared to the ardent imagination of the b nfante an object worthy the labour of his life ; ut the difficulties were great. Though igno antof the real extent of the African coast, he ust have conjectured that it stretched beyond th e torrid zone, a region which to mention was to raise up frightful terrors to the supersti tious fancies of the seamen of that day. To improve their skill and dispel their prejudices, he kept a few vessels constantly employed in making experimental trips, while he himself laboured to diminish the real perils attending distant voyages, and to smooth the toilsome track of the mariner across an unknown ocean. Under his care navigation was elevated into a science. Improvements were made in the construction of the compass, and maps and charts, at that period little known in Europe, were drawn with tolerable accuracy and brought into general use. This portion of the Prince's career is passed lightly over by Mr. Helps. He tells us that in 1418 the Infante was settled on the pro montory of Sagres, but no mention is made of the naval college he erected there, of the ex tensive storehouses and dockyards he formed, of the ships he collected, or of the large encouragement he afforded to the labours of learned and scientific men. Simple in his own habits and plain in his expense, he de voted the large revenues of his Order to the one object nearest his heart—an earnest mis sionary spirit stimulating his ardoes for dis covery. The ocean was always in his view ; and we can imagine with what anxiety he must have watched for the return of his ships from the distant expeditions on which they were sent. We have not space to notice the successive steps by which discovery was advanced, or the more stirring events of his life, as the expedi tion he led against Tangier and the unhappy fate of his brother Ferdinand, who perished in captivity—his endeavours to compose the quarrel between his brother the Regent and his nephew the young king Alphonso. Some narra tive of these events might have been appro priately introduced by Mr. Helps in his work. Occupied with schemes of pacific conquest and colonisation, he looked with little favour in advanced life on the din of arms. We think we have read, that a year or two before his death, when Alphonse had collected a powerful army to invade Morocco, the Prince Henry visited the fleet, and was earnestly urged to join the expedition and give its leaders the benefit of his wisdom and expe rience. He resisted the persuasions ad dressed to him, returned to his promontory, and died peacefully in the midst of his labours. His death cast a gloom over the army in Africa, and the soldiers suspended their ope rations against the foe that they might mourn in quiet so great a loss to the kingdom. A noble tribute was paid to his genius when De Gama passed the Cape, and Lisbon be came the emporium of the wealth of the East. Men then looked back with reverence to the sagacity which had foreseen and pre pared this great result. The little chapel Which he had built on the banks of the Tagus, near the sea, was replaced by a magnificent THE PRESS. church, with a statute of the Prince in the centre. His noblest epitaph is the motto he took to express the aims of his life—" Le talent de bien faire." The discovery of Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands, and the exploration of the African coast from Cape Non to Sierra Leone, prove the success of his efforts ; but his superiority is perhaps best shown by the care with which his colonising expeditions were sent forth. To him Madeira owes its wine. Never was an island planted with more benevolent care ; and as it had no inhabitants to provoke injustice, the crimes usually attendant on colonisation were avoided. From the first the colony was peaceful and prosperous, and we may fancy that a special Providence has watched over this first reward of the pious Prince's labours, and has kept it attached to the Crown of Portugal. It does not fall in with Mr. He ) ps's design to notice at any length the discoveries made by the Portuguese subsequent to the Prince's death. But the voyages of Columbus and of the adventurers who followed him, together with the regulations established from time to time for the treatment of the Indians, are copiously related. The second volume is chiefly occupied with the expedition of Cortes against Mexico. With this portion of his work Mr. Helps has taken great pains. It is on the whole eloquently written, and, being mainly derived from the statement of eye-witnesses, reads with great force and freshness. Mr. Helps, with some questionable peculiarities, has many of the best qualities of an historian—great dili gence, mastery over material, and narrative power. But we fear that he has not been for tunate in his choice of a subject. He should have adhered more closely to his original de sign, or as his work grew on his hands have completely merged it in his general history. PERIODICAL LITERATURE. THE new number of the North British contains an article on Sir D. Brewster's " Life of Newton," acutely discussing the obscure and disputed points in the life of our great philosopher. Sir D. Brewster's work is, in the judgment of the reviewer, more an exparte statement than an impartial biography. As Sir David had full access to the famous Portsmouth papers, the fact cannot be concealed, though the biographer will hardly admit it, that Newton was not free from the faults and fraiities of humanity. His jealousy of his contemporaries, his ungenerous treat ment of Liebnitz, his heterodox religious opinions, and his peculiar behaviour with regard to his niece and Lord Halifax, are now established. Hence forward a very great distinction will be drawn be tween Newton's intellect and his morals. The reviewer's conclusion seems just : Homer's heroes are very dry automatons so long as they are only godlike men : but when they get into a quarrel with one another, out come the points on which we like. and dislike. Newton always right, and all who would say otherwise excathedrally reproved is a case for ostracism ; we are tired of hearing Aristides always called the just. But Newton of whom wrong may be admitted, Newton who must be defended like other men, and who cannot always be defended, is a man in whom to feel interest even when we are obliged to dissent from his eulogist. As we have said before, it is the defence which provokes the attack. Newton, with the weak points exposel and unprotected, is not and cannot be an object of assault : our blow is on the shield which the biographers attempt to hold before him. A great predecessor was guilty of delinquencies before which the worst error of Newton is virtue itself: he sold justice for bribes, so committing wilful perjury—for who may dare to deny that the oath of the false judge rose before his mind when he fingered the price of his conscience—that the perjury itself is forgotten in the enormity of the mode of committing it? But how often is this remembered when we think of Bacon? The bruised reed is not broken, because even biographers admit that it is a bruised reed : let them hold it up for a sturdy oak, and the plain truth shall be spoken whenever the name is mentioned. And so, in its degree, must it be with the author of the " Principia." The review of Dr. Peacock's "Life of Dr. Thomas Young," which follows, concludes," that while the bio " grapher, as a mathematician f the first rank, has " been able to analyse the most profound of Dr. " Young's researches, and placed his labours and dis " coveries in the most prominent light, he has never " forgotten to do justice to his rivals and contempora " ries." Five of the principal works of Sir Edward Lytton form the text for an analytical notice upon the merits of that distinguished novelist, to which the writer's faint praise does less justice than the volumi nous extracts from the works themselves. The works of Kingsley upon the schools of Alexandria, Whewell's edition of " Grotius," and Erskine's " History of India," furnish material for elaborate essays upon those subjects; while the question of reform of the " System of Purchase in the Army " is calmly dis cussed, sad "the systom" strictly separated from SATURDAY, any "irregular and arbitrary" departures from it, carefully examined, and a fair estimate of its advan tages deduced : • • - Now, the first thing that strikes us in this singular system ia, that the whole service is gratuitous, or nearly so. Not only are the officers of the army, some six or seven thousand in number, willing to serve her Majesty for the scantiest remuneration, far less than ordinary diligence and activity would command in any other calling, but they are actually willing to pay for the privilege of being thus allowed to serve her for this inadequate pittance. In a country where private enterprise is more lucrative than any other, where merchants give their clerks, and railway companies their inferior servants, salaries varying from 1001. to 3001. a year ; where the lowest Government copying clerk receives 901. a year to begin with, advancing at the rate of 101. a year; and when even skilled artificers, car penteis, and smiths, earn their tis., 88., or 10s. a day ; and where even policemen and ticket porters get their 80/. a year—there is a most eager competition among young men of family and education for first corn isaions yielding only the pay of 901. a year—and even this subject to deductions. An ensign in the line pays 4801. for his commission, and rece vas Os. 3d. a day. A lieutenant pays 7001., and receives fis. cif. a day. A captain pays 1,6001., and receives Ils. 7d. a day, A. lieutenant•colonel pays 4,0001„ and receives l7s. a day. Nay, more, not only is every vacant commission eagerly purchased at the regulation price, but officers, in addition, pay large sums to others, to induce them to vacate. Thus not only is permission to serve her Majesty at the peril of life and limb anxiously sought for, but as soon as it lb at tained it has a saleable value—it is at a premium —some times at a premium of 00 or 100 per cent. To the objections on the point that gratuitous services are generally the worst that can be had, and that although men may be willing to fight, yet they are not willing to toil, and study, and learn to become experienced generals, it is replied that although there is much force in these representa tions, yet they are overstated; for if competency, proved fitness, knowledge, character, and qualifica tion be made an essential pre-requisite to obtaining a company, with or without purchase— Three•fourths of your lieutenants would be able to pass whatever ordeal you might decide upon. Nay more, they would thank you for the change. It is a mistake to suppose that a life of indolence is agreeable to any, save a small minority of men. It demands, no doubt, an effort to discard it; but, when that effort is insisted upon and enforced, it brings with it its own reward. And the majority of oar young military men, all who are fit for any thing, would be thankful after a year or two for whatever dispelled the " killing languor," the miserable tedium, the overpowering ennui, of a banack or garrison life; they would bless those who compelled them to exert themselves —they would hail with joy the appearance of an object suf ficient to arouse them from their lethargy, and to stimu late their powers ; and if they knew that, unless they could prove their competency for the duties of a captain's rank, they would as surely he passed over as if they had not de posited their purchase-money, and that the cost of their indolence would be continuance in a subaltern's position— we do not for a moment doubt that barrack-rooms and country quarters would become scenes of diligent and sedu lous preparation for the coming ordeal, in place of being scenes of disreputable pastimes or yawning wretohednes', and that observation, practice, and professional studies would replace reckless profligacy or stagnant indifference. Finally, to abolish the system compensation must be given ; and although eight millions would be re. quired to counterbalance existing rights of purchase, yet they would fail to recompense the poor subaltern who alone serves in the hope of obtaining a saleable unpurchased commission as his reward and fortune in future years. Mrs. Norton's "Letter to the Queen," and Ferrier's theory of "Knowing and Being," form the two concluding subjects treated in the present number, which is as remarkable for va riety of matter as for able disquisition. The Dublin continues its biographical sketches of the dramatic writers of Ireland, including some of the less prominent but more modern names of the present century. An amusing paper upon our " Sea Songs" gives rather an unfair estimate of Dibdin. We doubt if Dibdin did exaggerate the qualities of the men he depicted. The jack -tar of that day differed widely in most respects, except that of "pluck," from the British seaman of 1855. The story of "Alberico Porro" is continued; and a long review of the wine question, suggested by Sir Emerson Tennent's volume, opposes any reduction of the wine duties at present, but anticipates the greatest success from the experiment in time of peace, when the revenue could better bear the loss of duty. " Mid day with the Muses" is a light review of new poems; while " Forest 'frees " affords subject -matter for an agree able botanical chapter. Tait this month has no striking artiv'le to recom mend it. "Reading Raids " are continued, Payley's works reviewed, and the popular notion of his " expediency " doctrine combated with some force. Of novels, " &pen Court " and " Eustace Conyers " are both favorably noticed; and the political register for the month decides that Warsaw, and not Sebas topol, should have been the point of attack for the allied armies. Macpliairs Ecclesiastical Journal contains some good original notes upon " China and the Chinese," a review of " Guizot's Meditations," translated by the Marquis of Ormonde, and a forcible article upon "*The War and its Prospeots."