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THE PRESS.

eating the indifference of the imitation that
we have extracted these verses, but to exem-
plify and reprehend a tendency we perceive
growing up, to treat the war like a border tra-
dition or a fragment of Robin Hood. It should
be left to the hippodrome and the circus to
bring the stern reality upon the stage in a
masquerade of spurs and plumes, and to work
up picturesque situations by a grotesque falsi-
fication of costume and manners. Poetry has
a higher mission, and incurs a graver respon
sibility. Failing in the nobler elements of the
subject, it should At least avoid the mistake
of delineating the experiences of to-day in
the style of our ancestors. What should we
say of a history of the reign of Queen Victoria
modelled on the chronicles of Froissart?

Alma and Inkermann i 7), by Robert Haxell, and
The Battle of Inkermann (8), by a retired Liver-
pool Merchant, hardly justify criticism. The
former is a quiet tribute to the brave—the sort of
vague commonplace we hear every now and then
in the corner of a room, when a timid friendly
man is asked his opinion of the war; the latter
is rather bolder, and is marked by strange
diction, and enthusiasm of the spasmodic type.
The retired merchant talks of " splendrous
rays," " salient steps," " trackless trails,"
" singing vales," and the like ; and his idea of
a battle seems to consist in rolling, crushing,
crashing, and trampling. The force of this
kind of writing lies in the unexpectedness and
profusion of its adjectives—an imagerial style,
which has been brought to perfection in prose
a little way east of London-bridge.

The Occult Sciences. Sketches of the Tradi-
tions and Superstitions of Past Times, and
the Marvels of the Present Day. By the
Rev. Edward Smedley, M.A.; W. Cooke
Taylor, LL.D.; the Rev. Henry Thompson,
M.A. ; and Elihu Rich, Esq. London :

Griffin and Co.
MACAU LAY has dwelt with great force on what
he calls the strange inconsistency of John-
son's mind in its ready acceptance of all tales
of a supernatural character, while at the same
time none were more vigilant and sceptical
than the Doctor in the investigation of all
evidence that bore upon mere human occur-
rences. But it has always seemed to us that
the great critic has here been led astray by
bis desire to convict a political opponent of
the sin of superstition. For surely it is not
unreasonable to expect that the same intellect
which is eminently acute in the discussion of
all such subjects as it may judge to come
within its grasp shoald be also well calculated
to determine at what point that grasp becomes
powerless ; and Johnson's decision that such
questions are not within the jurisdiction of
man's intellect, and can be neither affirmed
nor denied without presumption, is, we think,
one to which few sensible and impartial men
are at the present day unwilling to bow. There
is no more genuine mark of a weak and ill-
regulated mind than excessive incredulity,
which Raleigh termed the "wit of fools."
and we are glad to remark as a hopeful sign
of the times that this one vice is rather on the
decline—that there is growing up among the
rising generation a wholesome distrust of dog-
matism—the
_tornado oppositi of logic—which
may perhaps, under proper guidance. do much
to correct the materialistic tendencies of the
age, and restore a more wholesome tone of
thought in regard to the spiritual and unseen
world.

The book before us, which is a republics
tion from the "Encyclopedia Metropolitana,"
appeals strongly to this more manly and ra-
tional view of the subject in question, and at
the same time denies that there is any danger
to the philosophic ;90; from the pursuit of these
inquiries :
On the contrary, the philosophy of this age has every-
thing to hope from the revival of subjects possessing so
much personal interest, and so important in their bearing
on the chief doctrines of revelation.

The classification of the subject which is
here given appears to us excellent. First we
have the question of the belief in supernatural

(7) Akita and Inkermann. A Heart• Offering to the Brave. A
Poem. Ry Robert Haxell. London. Hope and Co.
(d) The Battle of Inkermann, a Balled; with Balaklava, Alma,
Sinope, &c. By a Retired Liverpool Merchant. London :
Virtue, and Co.

455

beings discussed with great ability and abun-
dance of illustration ; next to that, the " locali-
ties " of incorporeal creatures ; and then the
various occult powers that have at any time
been, or been supposed to be, resident in
mortals. Thus the reader will see the whole
subject is mapped out before him ; and though
the authors do not profess to have exhausted
details, yet the inquirer will find under each
head either the information he is in search of,
or the sources stated from whence it may be
obtained.

The portions to which the general reader
will turn with the greatest interest are those
taken up with the history of apparitions, and
that of spirit-rapping, table-turning, and mes-
merism. The idea of the incredibility of
"ghosts" is treated with the utmost contempt
as a sentiment unworthy of philosophy ; and
many stories are here circumstantially nar-
rated which we cannot pretend to refute
Who, then, we may ask (says the writer), are the philo-
sophers in such a case ? They who reason away the plain
evidence of facts, or they who, reverently admitting them,
seek further light, according to the method of Bacon, by
the study of Nature as she exhibits herself in these phe-
nomena?

On the vexata qualtio of table-turning his
opinion is as follows :--
There can be no doubt that a vast amount of delusion,
often of fraud, has been mixed up with it. Perhaps it may
be safely affirmed that Mr. Faraday's hypothesis accounts
for the larger number of instances in which the table has
moved round without rising from the floor. When it rises
or tips, a more occult force is at work, and if the table-
tipping be made to answer as a code of signals, so ILA to
elicit intelligible 'espouses, it can hardly be doubted that
the force employed is under the direction of an under-
standing.

We scarcely know what our old acquaintance
the "practical man" will say to these opinions:
we are somewhat afraid he will set down their
author as a visionary, or perhaps, in his in-
dignation, something worse. For ourselves,
although we think Mr. Rich has in many
places used language likely to startle the
public, we yet entertain no aversion to his
views when interpreted by the intellectual
rule which he has himself laid down; and WO
think, indeed, anything is better than the
ridicule which that " half reasoning elephant,"
the world at large, is prone to shower on all
that it cannot understand. On the whole, we
can pronounce " The Occult Sciences " a very
useful book either for information or amuse-
ment It is full both of real learning and
humorous anecdote ; and, above all, it is ad.
mirable for its union of the philosophic and
reverential spirit in the discussion of subjects
which trench on the domains both of natural
science and theology.

Travels and Adventures in the Province of Assam
during a Residence of Fourteen Years. By
Major John Butler, 55th Bengal N. I.

London : Smith, Elder, and Co.
THIS work, interesting both from its subject
and its execution, belongs to a class of travels
very much too rare. Major Butler, in a plea-
sant and varied relation, enables the reader
to form a pretty fair idea of a wild and bar-
barous district and people, and preserves
throughout sufficient of the personal narra-
tive to give life and action to his descriptions,
without filling the book with himself to the
exclusion of his subject.
Assam, though it would appear one of the
most inhospitable districts, and, as regards
revenue, one of the least productive, has yet
excited of late considerable interest in Europe
as the habitat of the tea plant, the cultivation
of which might help to increase in a valuable
degree the exports of India, the progress of
which is so important both to that great de-
pendency and to the empire. With this par•
ticular view of the present and future of
Assam Major Butler does not deal at any
length, his work being more devoted to its
aspect as the field of future government by
Indian authorities. Of the district of Now-
Gong, however, he gives a very favorable ac-
count, as a field for agricultural, and even
mining, industry
The district of Now• Gong, being intersected by nume-
rous rivers and streams, all more or less navigable for
many months in the year, is thus rendered particularly
well adapted for commerce. The soil is rich ; it abounds
in fine forests of NMI timber in Dantipar, with this advan-
tage over other parts of Assam, that from no point has the
timber to be conveyed a greater distance than four miles

456

to a navigable stream. Coal also has been met with in
several places, though it has not yet been thoroughly exa-
mined as to extent or quality ; but mines will doubtless he
worked to supply steamers ere long. Limestone is found
in abundance in Northern Cachar, but it has not yet been
burned in any quantity.

The staple products of the district are rice, mustard-
seed, cotton, silk, lac, wai, sugar, treacle, ivory, and opium.

In 1847, there were 2,420 poorahs of land cultivated with
opium; and, calculating that a poorah of laud yields ten
seers of cotton cloth saturated with kanee or opium, the
annual produce was 800 mounds 20 seers, which is equal
to 48,520 lbs. Valuing it at the average rate of five rs. per
seer, the Ryutts realised from the sale of opium 121,300 rs.
There is no article of commerce sought after with such in-
tense avidity in Assam as kanee or opium; and its baneful
effects can only be appreciated by those who witness the
degeneracy of the people.

The volume is divided into three parts. The
first is devoted to a stirring narrative of an
expedition to the highlands of Assam under
the command of the author, related by way of
a diary, and forming a picture of a very wild
and rugged district, inhabited by a people bar-
barous and faithless, yet possessing some
curious observances of superstition and social
ceremony. The object of this expedition was
" the conciliation of the tribes and the acquire-
" ment of more accurate knowledge of the
" country;" and if the former may be supposed
•to have been, like similar attempts in other
quarters of India, more in appearance than
reality, Major Butler unquestionably suc-
ceeded in the second part of his arduous task.
The second part is devoted to an account of
the " Hill Tribes of Assam," and, from its
greater detail of manners and customs, will
probably attract in a greater degree the atten-
tion of the general reader. The following are
some curious customs, remotely resembling
similar observances amongst the Celtic tribes
of Northern Europe :

When a man's house is robbed, or cotton or grain is
stolen from the field, if the thief is apprehended he is fined
ten rupees, shich is paid to the plaintiff, who then pur-
chases a pig worth one rupee, and four annas worth of
liquor, and gives both to the council for their decision on
his case. If the charge of theft is not substantiated, the
complainant is fined a pitcher of liquor.

A year after the death of a man's wife he summons her
relatives, treats them with liquor, and solicits permission
to rut his hair. In the second year he again assembles
his late wife's brothers and relatives, and gives them a feast
of a pig, rice, and liquor, intimating that his wife has been
dead so long, and that he is desirous of marrying again.
If his request be acceded to, he may again enter the state
of wedlock; but without permission he cannot marry
again. A widow is bound by the same custom as a widower.
She may marry again after three years have elapsed from
the death of her husband, with the consent of her deceased
husband's relatives.

If a man dies at night his body is burned in the morn-
ing. Vegetables and rice are placed on the spot where the
body was burned, and the relatives of the deceased address
the ashes of the consumed corpse thus: " We bid you
farewell to-day ; whatever money and rice you have acquired
leave with us." On the following day friends resort to the
deceased man's house, and offer up a sacrifice of a fowl to
the gods Tevae and Sangron.

Major Butler found the ideas of these natives
in reference to religion very vague and indis-
tinct, yet evincing some notions of future re-
wards and punishments :
Most indistinct notions are entertained in regard to re-
ligion. The Kookies certainly seem to believe in a future
state of retribution and a plurality of gods or spirits, who
they affirm have equal power. The principal deities wor.
shipped are called Tevae and Sangron, to whom fowls, pigs,
and spirituous liquor are offered in sacrifice on all occasions
of sickness, famine, or other affliction, which they conceive
is the surest method of averting evil and bringing their
wishes and undertakings to a successful termination.

The Rookies have no images or temples of any kind.
When the spirit departs from the body, the angel of death
is supposed t' convey it away according to its merits in
this life. If a good life has been led in this world the soul
is transported, with a song of triumph, to the gods, ever
after to remain at ease, and free to go whither it listeth.
The sinner, however, is subject to a variety of torments—
to impalement, to be cast into a deep, burning gulf, hang-
ing, and to exposure to the excruciating agony of being
immersed in boiling water. As to bow long liberty and
happiness are enjoyed by the good, or how long the wicked
are tormented in the next world, no definite ideas seem to
prevail. They imagine they are born again in some other
state.

These extracts will afford an idea of the
style and matter of this volume, which we
consider unusually successful in creating an
interest ou an Eastern subject. The work is
illustrated by lithographed views of land-
scapes, figures, and antiquities, and a map of
the district. There are also appended to it
some valuable statistical tables of population
and revenue.

THE PRESS.

Our Consuls in the East. By an Anglo-
Levantine.

THE author of this pamphlet blames, as unjust, the
outcry which of late has arisen against the Turks;
pleading as a set-off against their Crimean failure
the previous campaign on the Danube under Omer
Pacha. According to him, diplomacy, instead of
helping, has hindered reform, the Porte being defi-
cient rath-:r in authority to enforce good measures,
than in will or knowledge to frame them. lie praises
Lord Stratford personally, but finds grevious fault
with the Levantine consuls as a class. These officers,
far removed from Constantinople, having often to act
on their own responsibility, and, from the vast in-
fluence which England exercises over Turkey, really
filling diplomatic posts, ought to be equal in educa-
tion and capacity to at least the resident Ministers at
inferior European Courts. The reverse, he says, is
the case. Few are familiar with the language of the
country ; still fewer with its habits ; some arrive full
of prejudices against Mussulinan rule, give cre-
dence to every exaggerated tale of oppression, and
thereby %exasperate, instead of removing, local
quarrels. Nor are these the most serious abuses
which exist and flourish. In the old days of arbitrary
government, most Christian traders, wherever resi-
dent, were glad to entitle themselves, by the pay-
ment of a sum of money, to the protection of sonie
European functionary, undergoing, in fact, a process
of quasi-naturalisation, which secured immunity, not
only from ill-usage, but also from the vayment of
certain taxes. The cause and justification of this
very irregular procedure has long since ceased, but the
practice itself continues and is made a mere pretext
for receiving—we will not say for extorting—money.
"There are consuls in some Turkish towns who
" make several thousands a year, though their salary
"does not amount to as many hundreds." It often
happens that these official personages are themselves
violators of the law. One is named as having—in-
ternational treaties notwithstanding--broken a qua-
rantine strictly and regularly established. Another
intercedes (a stronger term might be used) for the
release of a criminal found guilty of manslaughter
under aggravated circumstances, if not of actual
murder. A third, on the request of one of his pro-
Ugh, summons a large number of persons in the
poorest class to a town a hundred miles distant, there
to prove the invalidity of a pecuniary claim set up
against them, to which it was naturally thought they
would submit rather than incur the expense and in-
convenience of resisting it. A fourth is mentioned
as notoriously accepting'presents or value, and oven
demanding them where not freely tendered, under
threats of withdrawing his consular protection.
In each instance the pamphleteer supplies details of
these alleged offences. We repeat them without com-
ment, not vouching for the accuracy of each parti-
cular narrative, but knowing too much of the system
under which such officers are appointed to discredit
them when related on competent authority, and with
every appearance of truth.

The Christ of History. By John Young, M.A.

London: Longmans.
IT is the aim of this " argument," as it is styled by
the author, to show—

that the manhood of Christ, as it appealed to the senses
and the minds of the men of his own times, supplies and
sustains the proof of his Godhood.
For this purpose the circumstances of our Lord's life
and ministry are examined to demonstrate that it is
impossible to reconcile his spiritual character, on
any known and natural principles, with the outer
conditions of his life. The following passage affords
a view of the general scope of the volume, and more
particularly as relates to our Saviour's prediction of
his spiritual kingdom :

This, then, is the state of the case, as a mere matter of
history :—A young man, destitute of tesourees, of patronage,
and of influence, commits himself to an enterprise which,
so long as he lives, is not appreciated or even understood.
He is persecuted and scorned, deserted by his friends,
betrayed by one of his disciples, falsely accused, and
condemned to a disgraceful and torturing death. But,
alone, with death before him, and without one earthly
support, he calmly believes that the enterprise shall
triumph, and that he shall reign in the minds and hearts
of men!

Can this have been only human ? Was there ever a
manifestation of mere humanity like to this? Can
anything short of the union of divinity with this humanity
account for the acts and states of Christ's mind

The volume is closely reasoned throughout, and
many passages are remarkable for weighty eloquence.
The contrast between Christ's teaching and that of
the most famous philosophers of antiquity is,
though not perfectly original, yet admirably set
forth :

Christ also is the only teacher who always expresses
himself, not only without doubt, but without effort.
Socrates and Plato reach some lofty and holy thoughts, but
it is with great labour, and atter protracted and severe
study. Jesus Christ utters the highest truths with perfect
facil►ty, and presents them in familiar and simple language.
Re has needed no laborious and prolonged search, he em•

SATURDAY,

ploys no severity of argument, and gives no sign of effort.
Truth is native to his soul, and his words are the imme-
diate, and natural, and unlaboured outpourings of the ful•
ness of his mind. _ _ _

We are constrained to ask, who was this Jesus Christ;
what could he be, that even the sage of Athens suffers by
comparison with him ? While this question waits solution,
differences between Christ, and Socrates, and Plato, still
wider and more startling than those which have been
named, crowd upon the mind.
First.—Socrates must have laboured thirty or forty
years as a teacher of philosophy, and Plato a still longer
period, both ever necessarily increasing their power, as well
of acquiring as of communicating truth. Jesus Christ
laboured only three years.
Second.—Socrates had advanced to the middle period of
life before he assumed the position of a public guide, and
he was in his seventieth year when he died. Plato also
took no part in forming the minds of others till he had
reached middle life, and he was in his eighty-first year
when he died. Jesus Christ was only thirty-three when lie
was cut off, quite a young man.
Third.—Socrates, before ne ventured to teach, spent
many consecutive years under the most celebrated
philosophers then iu Greece, in studying all the branches
of learning with which that age was conversant. Plato,
having before been taught by other celebrated masters, was
for eight years a pupil of Socrates. After the death of
Socrates he spent many years in travelling into various
and remote countries, in pursuit of knowledge in all its
branches, conversing with the priests of Egypt, perhaps
even the sages of India, certainly the philosophers of
Italy and Greece. Jesus Christ was never beyond the
limits of Judea in his life. He had access to no famous
school and to no celebrated masters in his own or other
countries.

The argument, from its very nature, goes over some
ground occupied in" Paley's Evidences ;" but we do
not think that the proof of Christ's divinity to be
drawn from the acknowledged historical record of
his life, as recognised by sceptics, has ever been so
fully treated before. Mr. Young's volume is likely
to be very serviceable in impressing youthful minds
with a firm conviction of our Lord's divinity, and in
counteracting the current of sceptical fallacy.

Records of the Chase, and Memoirs of Celebrated
Sportsmen. By "Cecil." London : Longmans.
THIS is one of the most agreeable books which have
appeared upon the subject. Without entering into
any of the secret details of kennel management or
the duties of masters of hounds, " Cecil" gives an
entertaining account of the origin, progress, and pre-
sent state of hunting as a field sport, interspersed
with many and interestiug auecdot of the horse
and the hound, not forgetting the animal. hunted,
combined with clever and characteristic sketches of
the different packs which are now kept up, and of the
features of the various counties hunted, together

with personal reminiscences of the most celebrated
sportsmen of the day. It is a book which every man
who hunts should have by him, as offering him the
soundest advice upon most points which affect the
credit or character of a man in the field.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.

Twenty Years' Conflict in the Church J. Chapman.
The Castle of Ehreastein. Hodgson.
Evangelical Christendom. Partridge and Oakey.
The Position on the Alma. Major E. B. Hamley, B.A.
Blackwood.
The Romah Empire of the West. Richard Congreve, M.A.
J. W. Parker.

The Pride of the Mess. Routledge.
The Fairy Tales of the Countess cl'Aulnoy. Translated by
J. R. Planate. Do.

Papers and Correspondence of Lord Metcalf. J. W. Kaye.
Smith, Elder, and Co.
Rational Godliness. Rowland Williams, B. 1). lleighton,
Bell and Co.
The Land we Live in. Orr and Co.

A Day in Nismes. Beatrice Elizabeth Macaulay. Masters.
Art Hints; Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting. James
Jackson Jarves. Sampson, Low, and Co.
_ _ _

Tales and Sketches of New England Life Harriet Beecher
Stowe. Do.

Beatrice; or, the Unknown Relatives. Catherine Sinclair.
Simpkin and Alaraitidl.
To Love and to Be bored. Do.

St. Paul's Epistle to the Co►inthians, A. P. Stanley, M.A.
Murray.
The Heiress of Houghton ; or, the Mother's Secret. The
Author of "Emilia Wyndham," &c. Hurst and Blackett.

PERIODICALS.

►.aw Magazine.
The North British Review.

Butterwortlt.
Kennedy.

Tne Biographical Magazine. Partridge and Oakey.
Church of Scotland Magazine. Hall, Virtue, and Co.
Brownaon'a Quarterly Review. Third Series. No. X.
Dolman.

PAMPHLETS.
Familiar Words. David Urquhart. Trubner.
Iran 111. Chapman and Hall.
Signs of the Times. Partridge and Oakey.
A Few thoughts on the COMM. Hamilton, Adams, and Co.
Balmoral. A Sketch. Bosworth and Co,
The Bouquet. Hope and CO,

M. SAINT-LEON, the dancer, has just received from
the King-Regent of Portugal the decoration of the
Order of Christ, on the occasion of the brilliant suc-
cess which he has obtained at Lisbon.

N