The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

"England to accompany the expedition only four
"survived to witness its glorious close." As a narra-
tive of the campaign Mr. Woods' book is clear and
full. It is written with perfect independence, and
shows iu an equal degree descriptive skill and sound
judgment.
Very different is the "Journal"• of a lady, composed
of fragmtnts and sketches marked with the sensibi-
lity and emotion of a female mind. Mrs. Duberly
set sail with her husband, an officer in the Bth Hus
sars, on the 24th April, 1854. She sailed with the
regiment to Scutari, and thence to Varna. Despite
of Lord Raglan's prohibition, she smuggled herself
on board one of the transports for the Crimea, went
repeatedly on shore, but, instead of joining the army,
went in the Star of the South to Balaklava, and re-
mained on board until her husband could prepare a
hut for her reception. She was continually on
shore, however, and may be said to have gone
through all the dangers of the campaign, as she was
rarely absent when fighting was going on. On the
20th of March last her hut was ready—she joined
her Harry, and resumed "camp life." There we part
company with her at the end of September, three
weeks after she had witnessed the great, final, and
successful assault. The style of the "Journal" in-
dicates in general a highly cultivated, sensitive,
and truly feminine mind, but the circumstances in
which she was placed led her often to express her-
sel,' in a startling manner. For example, at the
Varna camp :—" June sth. Was awoke by the re-
" veillee at half-past two ; rose, packed our bed and
"tent, got a stale egg and a mouthful of brandy, and
" was in my saddle by half•past five." Again :—" A
"welcome sight presented itself in the shape of Capt.
" Fraser and some bottles of beer, one of which I
"drank like a thirsty horse." In another
place : " Our chicken was so tough that we
"could not get them down, even with the aid
"of our daily onions." She was near at hand
during the charge of the light brigade, and pictures
it with a few touches :—" I only know that I saw
" Captain Nolan galloping ; that presently the light
"brigade, leaving their position, advanced by them-
" selves, although in the face of the whole Russian
"force, and under a fire that seemed pouring from all
" sides, as though every bush was a musket, every s*one
" in the hillside a gun. Faster and faster they rode. How
"we watched them! They are out of sight, but pre-
sently come a few horsemen, straggling, galloping
"back. What can those skirmishers be doing? See,
" they form up together again. Good God! it is the
" light brigade." She notices the thin red line which
hurled back the surging mass of Russian cavalry.
Mr. Woods, we may say here, gives a close account of
the whole action of that day, but the description of
Mr. Russell will for ever live as unrivalled for distinct
effect. It is by similar touches that Mrs. Duberly
indicates the battle of Inkermann, the great storm of
the 14th and 15th November—she was in the Star
of the South during the whole tempest—and the most
prominent incidents of the siege. Of the straits to
which the poor horses were reduced, we can judge
by such entries as the following :—" Nov. 10th. On
"Friday the cavalry horses had one handful of barley
"as their day's food. Yesterday they had the same."
The result may be guessed :—" The grey horse, Job,
" died this evening of sheer starvation ; his tail had
"been gnawed to a stump by his hungry neighbours."
As she looked down on the blazing town of Sebas-
topol, the spirit of a soldier's wife rose high in her
breast :

I could not think at such a moment of the destruction
and desolation of war, I could only remember that the long.
coveted prize was ours at last, and I fe t no more com-
punction for town or for Russian than the hound whose
lips are red with blood does for the fox which he has chased
through a hard run. It was a lawful prize, purchased, God
knows! dearly enough, and I felt glad that we had got it.
Scattered through the volume are some highly
poetical passages, as at 264, and some most pathetic
descriptions, as at 134. We catch glimpses too of
what looks much like misrule. A sergeant and nine
men had been out on patrol three days :—" Lord
" Cardigan forbids them to take their cloaks to wrap
" round them at night, as he considers it effeminate.'
"Luckily it is summer, though the dews fall like rain."
In conveying to the lady Lord Raglan's order that
she was not to accompany the expedition to the
Crimea, Lord Cardigan said:—" Should you think pro-
" per to disregard the prohibition, I will not offer any
" opposition to your doing so." The "Journal," it may
be supposed, is not a little singular. It presents some
circumstances of the campaign under a new aspect,
and is altogether very attractive reading.
Mr. Porter's Damascus + is by far the most
valuable work on Syria that has appeared in modern
day. The author is attached to the Church Mission
in Damascus, and these volumes are the fruit of five
years' residence in the city, and of many ,journeys to
the most celebrated places in Syria. "My profes-
" sional duties," he says, "not only obliged me to

• Journal kept duping the Russian War. Hy Mrs. Heuy
Puberty. London; Longsuans.
Five Years in Dainneene. By the Rev. J. L. Potter, A.M
Two Vele. London: Murray.

SATURDAY,

" study the language and customs of the people of the
"land, but to traverse their country, and visit their
" towns and villages." He is well accomplished in all
that relates to the ancient history and geography of
Palestine, and pleasantly blends in his work antiqua.
rian research and biblical illustration with exact
detail of the present state of the country. By per-
sonal observation he has been able to furnish more
precise particulars of the geography of Syria than
are contained in any other book, and has constructed,
mainly from his own surveys, a map of the land,
which marks the principal lines of travel, clears up
many doubtful points, and shows the extent of his
own wanderings. The book commences with a
description of the present state of Damascus, next
gives a rapid sketch of its history, and then relates
the Ode journeys of the author—as, to Palmyra, to
Mount Hermon and the sources of the Pharpar and
Jordan, to the plain of Bastian, to the Lebanon, and
to otber localities especially interesting from their
present state and ancient fame. Damascus well
deserves the care bestowed upon it by the author.
"It has been a city from the time when Abraham
"left his home between the rivers' to journey west-
" ward to the 'Land of Promise.' It is thus a con-
"necting link between the patriarchal age and
"modern days, and its beauty and richness have been
" proverbial for full four thousand years." It has
suffered less than other ancient cities from the
vicissitudes of time. It has known but one great
destruction, that ordered by the remorseless Thnour ;
and even then, it is probable, many of its buildings
escaped the flames, and certainly it did not long
remain desolate. The plough has never passed over
its site, nor has it ever been deserted. It has, how-
ever, suffered cruelly from the barbarism of the
Ottoman rule. When captured by Ibrahim Pacha,
it was for the first time thrown cpen to the repr•sen•
tatives of European powers ; and from that date
improvement has been gradually proceeding. Mr.
Porter represents the Turkish Government as
abominably bad. " Syria," he says, " wasruled, and
"is still ruled, not by power but by intrigue. A
"carefully - compiled and well - written history of
" Turkish rule in Syria would tend greatly to en-
" lighten the eyes of European statesmen and citi-
" zens ; and it would also tend to unfold such a con;
"tinned seiies of tyranny, extortion, and crime, as is
"almost unparalleled in the history of the world."
We cannot pretend to give any idea of the travels of
the author. His narrative of them must be read to
be appreciated. His journey to Palmyra is full of
interest ; and his account of the valley of Damascus,
and of the fountain of the Berea., is captivating
from its precision snd beauty. He is led to severely
criticise the statements of M. de Sauley. " The
"more," he writes, "I read of M. de Sanity's work,
"the more am I inclined to think that its author is
"a clever literary wag, a kind of geographical Miguel
" Cervantes, in tact, whose sole object is to turn into
"ridicule the vast erudition and profound research
" that some have thought proper to expend in attempts
"to defend and maintain silly theories, absurd tradi•
"thins, and insignificant minutiae, connected with the
"topography of this land." The narrative of Mr.
Lynch also meets with correction. The book is in
every respect a genuine one. Mr. Porter is scrupu-
lous in all his statements, and be represents Syria,
and more especially the country about Damascus,
under so attractive a guise, that we anticipate it will
in future allure numerous tourists from Europe.
The drawings and plans contained in the work are
from the author's own pencil. His volumes are
delightful, and will be read with the more pleasure
from the testimony they hear to the accuracy of what
Mr. Porter terms " Bible truths," but which we
should rather term Bible facts.
The reader of Mr. Kennard's volume• may find
some amusement in contrasting his account of a
Nile voyage with that contained in the good-
humoured, and, if ever the word can be applied to a
book, amiable narrative of Mr. Lowth, noticed in our
last issue. Mr. Lowth found his dahabeeli a luxurious
floating home. Mr. Kennard on the first night
started from his bed, awoke by very uncomfortable
sensations :—" Imagine my feelings on counting at
" least a dozen cockroaches, varying in length from
" an inch to an inch and a half, all in close vicinity
" to where my head ought to be on the pillow, fleas
" without number, and a good sprinkling of 'realm-
" gany fiats." Mr. Lowth's dragoman was as
dutiful and as full of resource as a slisve of the lamp ;
the dragoman of Mr. Kennard and his friend was
a disobedient scoundrel, who actually ran away from
them on their voyage up the Nile, and left them to
manage as they best could with the crew. Might
not the difference be in the treatment as well as in
the men ? Early in the narrative Mr. Kennard
writes, "Already our dragoman began to entertain
a wholesome dislike to my friend's boots." Fur-
ther on we read of "a long list of his countless acts
" of stupidity ;" then that they thought " excessively
" small things of him ;" that be got " cantankerous ;"

* Eastern Eaperieueet, Collected Owing a Wister's Tour fu
Egypt and the Holy Land. by A. 8. Xessiird. Loudon
Ungmaas.

DECEMBER 22, 1855.

and, at last, "the next moment saw me grasping
$$ Ibrahim by the collar and shaking his bead back-
" wares and forwards vi ,lently " Afterwards they
quarrelled with their cook, their rein, and their
whole crew; but even with all these drawbacks Mr.
Kennard confesses to a delightful voyage. He
ascended above the first cataract to the temple of
Aboo Simbel, and was heartily sorry, when he re-
turned to Alexandria, to take leave of his dahabeeh.
He found no difficulty in getting a "party" to join
him in traversing the Desert to Jerusalem, was taken
captive by a party of bedouins, but soon released,
and reached the Holy City safely. Thence he tra-
velled to Damascus, and home by Beyrout. The
book is little more than a plain record of occur•
mimes ; but, on the whole, confirms all that can
be said in favour of the Nile voyage, and the Desert
journey. It does not seem possible to pass a winter
more agreeably. The best parts of the book relate
to Palestine : the author, in spite of a rattling style,
manifests a strong sentiment of reverence as he
moves through the Holy Land, and he possesses a
quick eye for natural beauty. He seems to have met
with none of the disasters in his Desert travel that
be complains of in the Nile voyage ; so, perhaps, the
friend cf whose boots poor Ibrahim stood in so
much dread may have had something to do with the
numerous squabbles which took place. A little for-
bearance is the best requisite a traveller can take
with him ; and in many cases regard for charity, if
not for comfort, should prescribe it.
From the East we past to the West, from the
Old World to the New. Mr. Kingston presents us
with a Canadian tour,* undertaken as a wedding.
trip. It is written, as it should be, with much
brightness of spirit. He arrived at New York early
in September, 1853, stayed two nights at the St.
Nicholas, where he found too much splendour and
too little comfort, then made his way up the Hudson
by Lake Champlain to Montreal, and Quebec. From
the latter city he commenced a new tour—" West-
ward, Ho ! " to Sault St. Marie, and there took a steamer
wnich went through Lake Huron to Detroit. Thence,
by another steamer, he passed by Lake Erie to Buffalo,
whence, instead of proceeding by railroad to Niagara,
he took steamer to the Canadian village of Chip-
pewa, and proceeded by rail end omnibus to Niagara.
He stayed at the falls for five days, surveyed them
from e eery point of' view, and has given one of the
most exact descriptions of their sublimity yet pub-
lished. Thence he made a tour to Hamilton and
Toronto, and back by Kingston, Montreal, and
Quebec, surveying those magnificent public works
which have so wonderfully developed the resources
of the Canadas, and insured for them a magnificent
future. Having well acquainted himself with the
most prominent features of British America, he pro-
ceeded to Boston, where he made the acquaintance
of some of the most eminent literary characters in
the United States, and took his passage from that
port to England. The peculiar merit of Mr.
Kingston's book consists in his excellent deseiip-
tions of the lake scenery of North America, and his
accurate accounts of the social and industrial state
of the Canadas. The country is rapidly growing in
every element of wealth ; the canals and railroads—
perhaps the greatest works ever undertaken in a new
country—are rapidly increasing in usefulness and
value, agriculture extends, trade flourishes, and the
people are warmly attached to the " Old Country "
and to the British Government. As to the States
ever absorbing or annexing British America, the
n ition is out of all bounds of probability. Whatever
f ,rm of Government that country may hereafter
assume, it certainly will never join the Union. The
establishment of an independent republic, when the
is )d becomes too mighty to remain a possession of
the British Crown, is not improbable. Mr. Kingston's
wel'-written and judicious volumes are illustrated
with many pretty wood-engravings from drawings
made by himself.
Mr. Oliphant, in his Minnesota,+ went over much
Of the ground traversed by Mr. Kingston, but ad-
vanced further to the west. His account of the
Caned is is very instructive and highly favorable.
Beyond the rapids of St. Marie he went in a steamer
by ..he south shore of Superior to the head of that
magnificent lake, and marks the first efforts at
settlement now making upon its shores. Thence he
invaded the Indian country by the St. Louis, reached
the hued waters of the Mississippi, and descended them
till he came to St. Paul, the capital of the new State
of Minnesota. It is on the present aspect of this
State, where Yankee enterprise and settlement
are developing themselves with marvellous power,
and on its prospects, that the author dwells with
most particularity. All this part of the book has the
charm of complete novelty, and introduces us to a
new country, and, so far as Yankee maps and plans
are concerned, to grand cities and flourishing town-
ships. In 1847 St. Paul consisted of but a few
trading huts; it is now a city of 7,000 or 8,000 in-

• Western Wanderings; or, A Pleasure Tour in the Canada'
By Wm. H. G. Kinguton. Two Vols. 4:bal nom aria Hall.
+ Minnesota and the Far West. By LawreacelpLaut, Esq.
VlC'Moods