The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 28, 1857. Pilot°, has been cherishing the pleasing de " lusion that I should be the first to suggest " the idea that the interior of Africa was a " watery plateau of less elevation than flank ,. ing hilly ranges." He points out also that the sugarloaf-shaped land which forms the Cape of Good Hope may be divided into three longitudinal bands, each presenting distinct peculiarities of climate and race. The centre consists of vast undulating plains, without much water, and subject to severe droughts. The eastern band is mountainous, well watered, and wooded, while the western is level and barren. The dryness of the central and western districts he attributes to the prevalency of easterly winds, which absorb all the humidity of the atmosphere. The races, also, inhabiting these logitudinal bands pre sent distinct peculiarities. " Nowhere," says Dr. Livingstone, "is the typical negro to be " met with. They are all of negro extract, " some races more than others, but none pre " sent the perfect negro type." To the east and west the tribes are dark, but fringed by races of lighter colour, while the central tribes are again perfectly black. The lighter races, the Makoiolo, hold the negrocs more or less in subjection. With the exception of the Bush men who inhabit the Kalahari desert, and are a purely nomadic race, all other tribes are agricultural in their tastes, and possess also a keen perception of the advantages of com merce. In every instance, Dr. Livingstone relates, they displayed a real desire to discover a road to the east and west coasts, whereby a legitimate trade might be carried on. "I am " perfectly satisfied," said Sekeletu to him, on his return to Linyanti, "as to the great ad " vantages for trade of' the path which you " have opened, and think that we ought to go "to the Barotse, in order to make the way " from us to Loanda shorter ; but with whom "am I to live there ? If you were coming " with us, I would remove to-morrow, but now " you are going to the white man's country to " bring Ma Robert, and when you return, you " will find me near to the spot on which you wish "to dwell." As to the conclusions to be drawn from Dr. Livingstone's African experience with respect to the prospects of missions in these districts, one thing is clear,—that commerce anti Christianity must go hand in hand. Some of the tribes are anxious for instruction—they are all eager for trade ; there are impediments to instruction, but trade will overcome every obstacle, and will prove an invaluable aid to missionary effort. Slow to coma to any decision on reli gious matters, the African is keenly alive to his own interests. " Sending the Gospel to the heathen," writes Dr. Livingstone with sound practical good sense, " must include much " more than is implied in the usual picture of "a missionary going about with a Bible under "his arm " The promotion of commerce ought 'to be specially attended to, as this, more speedily than anything else, demolishes that sense of isolation which heathenism en genders, and makes the tribes feel themselves mutually dependent on, and mutually beneficial to, each other. With a view to this the missionaries at liaruman got per mission from the Government for a trader to reside at the station, and a considerable trade has been the result ; the trader himself has become rich enough to retire with a competence. Those laws which still prevent free com mercial intercourse among the civilised nations seem to be nothing else but the remains of our own heathenism. hly observations on this subject make me extremely de sirous to promote the preparation of the raw materials of European manufactures in Africa, for by that means we may not only put a stop to the slare-trade, but introduce the negro family into the body corporate of nations, no one member of which can suffer without the others suffering with it. Success in this, in both Eastern and Western Africa, would lead, in the course of time, to a much larger diffusion of the blessings of civilisation than eff.ots ex clusively spiritual and educational confined to any one small tribe. These, however, it would of course be ex tremely desirable to carry on at the same time at large central and healthy stations, for neither civilisation nor Christianity can be promoted alone. In fact, they are inseparable. This view we have consistently advocated in this Journal, and we are proud to find so eminent an authority in our favour. We may rely upon it that commerce, and by commerce Christianity, is the internal remedy we must apply to extirpate the slave trade, and to abolish the vices and miseries of savage life Christianity unsupported by commerce will never take root in the country. The people, writes Dr. Livingstone, " do not desire the " Gospel, because they know notbing of either " it or its benefits, but their instinct teaches " them to value .the advantages of trade.' This is one great result of Dr. Livingstone's travels, and if (as we believe ho must) he suc ceed in impressing these views upon the philan thropic heart of this country, he will open a future fur Africa of which no man can predict the limits. On a future occasion we will examine the results of Dr. Livingstone's reli. gious teaching among the natives, and of his observations upon► the condition and customs of the various tribes with whom he was thrown in contact. Debit and Credit. A Novel. By Gustav Freytag. From the Original, with the Sanction of the Author, by Mrs. Malcolm. London : Bentley. " DEB►T and Credit " is a three-volume Ger man novel—as big, we mean, as an English three-volume. It is written with a purpose, and contains an allusion to " the Beautiful " in the dedication. These are discouraging facts for those who have counted upon it as an addition to their stores of light reading for the winter evenings. It certainly does require some amount of resolution to commence a book which, it is hinted, is an attempt " to " hold before the people a mirror in which " they might see their own capabilities," and is prefaced by re►►►arks on the difficulty of giving the noblest form to the beautiful, and the impossibility of preventing a flow of hatred from the pen "in times when the most violent " political passions force themselves into the " life of every individual." Nor is confidence likely to be restored when it is perceived that the author's operations with the mirror and the beautiful extend to some five hundred closely printed pages. It is only fair, there fore, to inform our readers that the introduc tory observations to " Debit and Credit" are no indication of the tone of the work, being merely a sort of obligate preliminary flourish, analogous to that braying of trumpets and banging of gongs amid which we used to pay our penny at Greenwich to see the pink-eyed lady and the diorama of Richmond-hill by moonlight. They were meant, no doubt, like the clock in The Critic, to beget an awful attention in the audience, but we imagine the sole effect on the mind of an English reader will be to excite a suspicion that he is about to encounter a politico-economical essay in the disguise of a novel, or a treatise on the solidarity of peoples, or the soul-elevating in fluence of art-creations aesthetically considered, with a slight infusion of romance to take the chill off. Such is not the case, however. " Debit and Credit" is a straightforward, un pretending story, pleasantly and cleverly written, and perfectly free from any trace of highflown philosophy or exaggerated senti ment. In fact, it may be characterised as quiet, as well in general tone as in description, in the drawing of the characters, and in hu mour, of which latter quality there is not a little. But the great charm of the book lies in tits fine healthy feeling and naturalness : it may be a little longer than the exigencies of the tale justify, but Herr Freytag is too kindly a genial a writer to be ever tiresome, even ART the interest less skilfully sustained throughout. On the whole, though we cannot quite concede that he has produced the wonder of wonders which has been claimed for him, we must say his "Debit and Credit" is the pleasantest contribution to light literature we have had for some time from a German source. The main plot is of the very simplest con struction. It is Hogarth's "Two Apprentices" in a nineteenth-century dress, and with Ger man properties. The relations of good and evil are more complicated now than they were a hundred years ago; such has been the pro gress of civilisation and the improvement in public morals that a villain to be sue, essful must be a respectable man, and industry and idleness will never serve again as distinctive attributes of the good and the bad. Veitel Itzig, the bad boy of Herr Freytag's tale, is to the full as industrious, persevering, laudably ambitious, and little given to low dissipation as Anthony Wohlfart, his opposite. He shows 1161 his badness solely in preferring the oblique to the direct course in his dealings, and in con sequence finds himself placed in circumstances that compel him to commit a murder, and perishes miserably in trying to escape the penalty of his crime. Wohlfart, on the other hand, is fortified in his position of good hero by the virtues of integrity, self-denial, and self-sacrifice, and, like Frank Goodohild, marries into his master's family and becomes a great merchant. We must say, however, if the good boy deserves the plum he gets in the last chapter, it is plain from the first that the bad one has no chance whatever of escap ing his whipping. Poor Itzig, a Jew, marvel lously ill-favoured, and with a congenital taste for knavery, is thrown adrift on the world at an early age ; he wriggles himself into the service of one Herr Ehrenthal, a scheming trader and money-lender; he studies the mys teries of his profession with such assiduity that he soon becomes a more skilful practi tioner than his employer ; he starts in busi ness on his own account, and ends as has been already mentioned, and we really do not see how anything else could have been expected under the circumstances. Wohlfart, on the other hand, a well-brought-up youth, the son of pious and honourable parents, makes his start in life as junior clerk in the house of Herr Schroeter, who is evidently intended to be the type of the highminded and upright merchant, as Ehrenthal is of the opposite. On his way to the capital to enter on his new calling, he wanders into the pleasure-grounds of a nobleman's country mansion, and pauses in admiration at the signs of a wealth and magnificence to which he is u :- A respect for all who were high in position and of noble family was innate in the son of the poor auditor ; and now, when, in the midst of all his delight at the grandeur that surrounded him, his thoughts turned to himself, he felt so entirely insignificant as not to be worth speaking of—a kind of social Tom Thumb, scarcely visible on the grass. Involuntarily he pot his hand into his pocket to get h►s gloves ; they were of yellow thread, and his good mother had said they looked like silk, and silk gloves were con sidered in Ostrau the greatest of luxuries; so the poor youth put them on with the firm conviction that through them he became in some measure more worthy of the scene around him. To add to his feelings of awe and rapture, two ladies make their appearance, and as he is retiring he is overtaken and accosted by the younger of the pair, who turns out to be the only daughter of the Baron Rothsattel, the owner of the domain. An intimacy is thus commenesd which influences to a great extent the career of young Wohlfart. He proceeds to the capital with his head full of the Frau lein Leonora ; he dreams about her, and is seized with a longing fur the society of his superiors in social position. He does not, however, neglect his business, or forget that that he is only the junior clerk in the office of T. 0. Schroeter. He enters upon his duties with enthusiasm, and speedily becomes one of the most active and methodical of the em ployes. The descriptions of the counting house and its occupants are among the best things in the hook, and are almost as graphic) and original as if they came from the pen of Nathaniel Hawthorne Here are the portraits of Anthony's colleagues, as they appeared to him on his first introduction into their society : There was the book-keeper, Herr Liebold, an elderly little man with a small voice, and a modest smile, which seemed to ask everybody's pardon for taking the liberty to exist. He spoke little, but when he did there was one remarkable peculiarity in his conversation; he retracted in the last part of his speech what he had maintained in the first : for instance, " T almost think the tea too weak, but strong tea, indeed, is very unheathy," and so on. There was Herr Piz, the despotic wielder of the black brush in the hall, a decided character, who seemed die posed to consider all human relations as retail business, respectable perhaps, but trivial. As there was a chair wanting in the room, he disdainfully pushed a small table near to that on which the tea was laid, swung himself across it, and remained sitting astride there the whole evening. There was Herr Specht, who talked a great deal, and started strong propositions which everyone disputed. He maintaine 1 that China was governed by a constitution differing very little from the English, and defended vehe mently the opinion that snail soup was the favourite dish of the late Emperor Napoleon. Besides these, there was Herr Baumann, a slim gentleman, with shortcut hair, and a thoughtful, serious turn of mind, who went to church every Sunday, took a part in all missionary societies, and, as all his colleagues told him, had the inten tion of becoming some day himself a missionary. He delayed it, however, front a lAitd of *WO habit of A Mil