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be permitted to remain, only to convince him of his fall,
and to render him sensible of the punishment! "
What more majestic or more pathetic philosophy could
be deduced from such a scene, thus commented upon by a
lofty ecclesiastic ; and what emotion could surpass his ad.
dress to the guilty penitent, already half-buried before his
eyes :—" And you, victim of remorse, descend—go to the
altar; finish your sacrifice. The lire is lighted, the incense
is ready, the sword is drawn! the sword is the vow which
you are about to pronounce—the vow which separates your
soul from this world, and unites it indissolubly and exclu-
sively to God! "
What superhuman efforts were expected of Bossuet if
words such as these did not roach the measure of public ex-
pectation !

We have cited enough to show the dramatic
character of this brilliant essay, which is one
of the finest pieces of writing that ever came
front Lamartine's pen. It vies in literary
grace with the best of Mr. Macaulay's, and it is
marked with more justice. The errors com-
mitted by the Patriarch of the Galilean
Church " are gravely touched upon and ex-
posed by Lamartine, who in many passages
shows himself a thinker as weil us a writer.

The paper on " Milton" is not worthy of the
subject or the author. It is most remarkable
for the enthusiasm of the essayist for Shak-
speare. "Paradise Lost," according to Lamar-
tine, is " void of philosophy and full of tedious-
ness." He observes :
It is, in fact, the dream o! a Riritan who has fallen
asleep over the first pages of his Bible.
The versification alone redeems the inanity of the fable.
it recalls, even to the rhythm, Homer, Virgil, and
Racine. But Milton, notwithstanding his posthumous
renown as the first epic writer of England, remains even
in that position at an immeasurable distance from Shak-
speare, who reminds us of iio one, but who translates
nature instead of following sacred legends. Yet Shak-
speare was born, lived, and died, before Milton appeared,
and his ungrateful country hesitated to acknowledge in
him a supreme and universal poet. Milton, though very
inferior to Shakspeare, was destined for a long series of
years to take precedence of him in the ranks of glory?
Why was this? The answer must be found in the subject
of his work. England had become theological and biblical,
and the man who had versified Jehovah and holy writ, was
rewarded as a sacred poet.
And elsewhere he says :

There was more of infatuation and of patriotism than of
truth in the opinion which exalts Milton over all the poets
of Great Britain, that land of true poetry. The English
were proud of an indigenous epic, which was then con-
sidered the noblest effort of human genius ; the Freneh, at
a later period, fell into the same allusion as regarded the
" Henriatle : " the " Henriade " is dead, but the "Paradise
Lost " lives, and deserves immortality for certain passages.
But as ages roll on, Milton will de dine and Shakspeare
advance, because the former imitated, while the latter
created. A single scene of Romeo and Juliet reveals more
soul, and draws more tears, than the whole of " Paradise
Loit."

We need not expose the mingled truth and
exaggeration of these passages, The pieces
on " William Tell " and " Antar" (or "Pasto-
ral Civilisation," A.D. 000) are written in the
author's earlier style, and aro not the best
in the work. The descriptive, and not
the creative (except in a merely artistic sense),
is the element in which Lamartine's genius
shines. His famous account of the execution
of Marie Antoinette, and his narrative of
Napoleon's return from Elba, are amongst the
finest pieces of writing that we have ever read
in any tongue, and the name of the author
who could so write is one of the few destined
to survive the fleeting reputations of the time.
We recommend this volume for the variety
and interest of its contents to our readers, and
the eloquence of its style. As long as Lamar-
tine can write as he has done upon Bossuet,
we trust he will continue to exercise his
brilliant faculties. He saved France from
great calamities, and in three mouths of his
life, in 1848, more glory and passion were con-
centrated than are diffused in the protracted
career of other statesmen of his age.

The Prison of Welterreden ; and a Glance at the
East Indian Archipelago. By Walter M.
Gibson. London : Sampson Low and Co.
THIS is a work not written without consider-
able power, and in parts even with a species
of gloomy fascination, half attractive, half
repulsive. The form which it takes is this :
A passenger on board an American ship, which
had aided in delivering him, gives an account
to his companions of his wanderings in the
East Indian Archipelago, and his final impri-
sonment by the Dutch authorities in Batavia.
His account of these regions must be adwitted
to be interesting, were it only owing to the
soarcity of books. off} the subject ; while his

233

violent American prejudices interfere very
little with the value of his work as an autho-
rity on the scenery, customs, and native
inhabitants of these islands. Of the pure
Malay race he seems to entertain a high
opinion. The women, he tells us, are beauti-
ful, the men comely and powerful; and
Chastity, retiring from the earth, has set her
last footmarks in Sumatra. Malay maidens
are habitually subject to the grossest outrages
on the part of the Dutch officers, and usually
carry small daggers concealed about their
persons wherewith to protbct their honour.
If this romantic story be true, what must the
male population have been about to endure
for so many generations the " wrong which
" turns the coward's heart to flame "? Mr.
Gibson seems to be animated, however, by a
general hostility to all Dutch and Portu-
guese settlers, and evinces a laudible avidity
to swallow any story to their discredit. The
tale of the dagger we imagine to have been
trumped up to suit his appetite : after so long
familiarity, it is not likely that the Malay girls
should still evince so heroic an aversion to
their Western admirers—even though a Dutch-
man be not a model of symmetry and grace ;
while, on the other haul, Malay mothers, we
are told, are in the habit of selling their
daughters for concubines—a fact slightly at
variance with this account of their chastity in
early youth.

More curious, though not more wonderful,
is the history which Mr Gibson gives us of
a strange kind of being who inhabits the in-
terior of Sumatra, dwelling in caves and tree-
tops, and called the Kubu, or generally by the
Malays themselves oraug•utan. These aie
supposed to be the aboriginal inhabitants of
Sumatra, as te Papuans of New Guinea, the
Wow-wows or Borneo, and the Semangs of
Malacca, who all seem to constitute different
species of' one wide-spread race who were
reduced to slavery by the early Malayan con-
querors of these beautiful islands. Sir Stam-
ford Raffles and Mr. Marsden both agree with
our author that the Malays were not the
original possessors of those countries ; but
the Kubus are not even mentioned by the
former, while by the latter they are spoken of
with some degree of incredulity. (Vide Mars-
den's " History of Sumatra," p 41) We
subjoin Mr. Gibson's own account of what he
says he saw:—

The mention of orang knbu recalled to mind the crea-
tures of the covered creek ; anti 1 spoke to the Panyorang
about them. He stepped out of the room, making sign to
me to follow. We approached some outer sheds, kandang,
or stables for buffalo. I saw coolies at work, some dig-
ging pits and trenches ; others trimming and sharpening
bamboo poles, and engaged in other labour for the erection
of an addition to the kandang.
I heard Some one cry " Lakass," quick and harsh, as
though urging a beast ; " Yuh " a grunt from a gruff voice
in reply. "An orang kubu," said the l'anyorang ; and I
saw a dark-brown form, tall as a middle-sized man, covered
with hair, that looked soft and flowing; the arms, hands,
legs, and feet seemed well formed like the Malays • the
body was straight, and easily bore, on the right shoulder,
the yoke of two heavy panniers, tilled with material for the
building that was going on.
The Panyorang gave me some of the same particulars
about the orang kubu that were told to me by the Dut2h
otlicer on the Soonsang, to which he added some of the
fable that surrounds every Eastern, and especially Malay,
account of any thing.
These were tat orang, the refuse of men: they were the
descendants of some slaves of Alexander, who had fled
from their master. They could tell nothing of their fore-
fathers; they could only speak sonic short grunting words,
and one syllable only of Malay words they could repeat :--
nassee, rice, being flan with them ; and you for orang.
They were brutes ; they had no worship, no marriage, no law,
no clothing, no idea of its use; they were the accursed of
Allah, companions of djins on earth, fit only to be beasts
of turden; and the Malays hunted them and caught them
in pits and tree-tops, and made slaves of them, "as of
right," said the Panyorang, " all beings ought to be, who
are inferior to men." _

The eyes (Attila Kuhu were clearer, the nose fuller, and
the lips were thinner than those of the common Malay, but
the mouth was wide, lips protruding, and chin formed no
part of the hairy face ; yet it was pleasantly human in its
expression, more so than the dirty, mottle•skinned lascars
and coolies I had seen at Minto and Palembang.
Was this, then, some lower grade of human being, some
connecting link, between man and beast, more human
than orang•utan or chimpanze, and less so than Papuan or
Hottentot? I could not say so from what I saw, not from
all the strange stories I heard. But that beings of well.
made human form, covered with hair, almost without
speech, and living on raw food, dwell in the caves and tree-
tops of the forest of Sumatra, are facts that are well estab-
lished.

The cause of Mr. Gibson's imprisonment is
somewhat difficult to understand• He Wag

234

arrested, it seems, on a charge of high treason,
and detained in prison for a considerable
period while the Dutch judges pretended to
examine his case. As tar as we can tell, he
might have been there till now, had he not at
length contrived to escape in the disguise of
a Dutchman. The great fault of the narrative
is this extreme confusedness. It seems to
have neither beginning, middle, nor end ; and
from the account of his prison life it is totally
impossible to glean anything to lay before our
readers succinctly. We have an account of an
execution, and an accouneof a flogging, both
sufficiently brutal; and these are really the
only two salient points that have remained in
our mind.

‘Ve are pleased to find that our author does
full justice to the two Englishmen whose
names are now so famous throughout the
Sunda Islands—Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir
James Brooke, who are both objects of great
dislike to the Dutch. The latter seem to stand
in dread of English and American inter-
ference ; and it is quite possible that they may
regard with jealousy and suspicion the results
of Sir Stamford Raffles' endeavour to ameli-
orate the condition of the Malays. When
gaming, cock fighting, and duelling occupied
all their attention, they were not so likely to
question the policy of their governors ; while,
on the other hand, piracy may perhaps afford a
vent for turbulent spirits not wholly disagree•
able to the ruling minority. One of the most
spirited scenes in the book is the account of
a capture by pirates; but it is too long fur an
extract, and too good to be curtailed.

William Penn. An Historical Biography.
New Edition. With a New Preface, in
Reply to the Accusation of. Mr. Macaulay.
By Hepworth Dixon. London : Chapman
and Hall.

MR. MACAULAY is an excellent judge of human
nature, and knows that mankind are great
believers in general statements when advanced
in a solemn and confident manner. He often
takes advantage of this credulity to give to
actions and events of a perfectly neutral cha-
racter the colouring that suits his purpose—
knowing that a far larger class of minds will
be likely to question the fact itself, which will
probably be true, than to investigate the cha-
racter he gives to it, which will most likely be
false. Among many others who have been
caught in the same trap is Mr. Hepworth
Dixon. Mr. Macaulay is too shrewd a tac-
tician to commit the blunders which Mr.
Dixon attributes to him neither his facts nor
his reasoning admit of that complete reversal
which this gentleman imagines himself to
have achieved. Really to expose him we
must search for the general principle involved
in his charges, and discover the absurdity of
that.

There is, however, one accusation in favour
of which we must make an exception. Mr.
Macaulay has charged Penn with having
extorted money from the Taunton girls fur
the benefit of the Maids of Honour. This
particular calumny Mr. Dixon has, it seems,
triumphantly refuted. The man so employed
was one tieorge Penne, a notorious pardon-
broker ; and we certainly think that Mr.
Macaulay was bound in honour, either to with-
draw his own assertion, or to rebut his oppo
nest's. The historian has allowed judgment
to go by default, and thereby stands convicted
of a most, grass and culpable error. • The only
other serious charge in the whole list is that of
his having "told Lord Sidney something very
" like a lie, and confirmed it with something
" very like an oath." The truth of this charge
depends completely on one construction of
certain very equivocal sentences in Lord Sid-
ney's letter to King William. Penn protested,
" before God," that he knew of no plot. Sidney
then goes on to say :
To the letters that were found with my Lord Preston,
and the paper of the conference, he would not give any
positive answer, but said if he could have the honour to
see the King, and that he would be pleased to believe the
sincerity of what he saith, and pardon the ingenuity of
what he confessed, he would freely tell everything he knew
of himself, and other things that would be much for his
Majesty's service and interest to know, but if he cannot
obtain this favour he must be obliged to quit the kingdom ;
which he is very unwilling to do.