The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-16 00:00:00

fittraturt.

A Memoir, Letters, and Diary of the Rev. H. S.
Polehampton, M.A., Chaplain of Lucknow.
Edited by his Brothers. London : Bentley.

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OF the many books, of various degrees of merit,
produced by the Indian mutinies, not one will be
read with half the painful and thrilling interest
excited by this simple record of the earthly career
of a righteous man. And yet it tells of nothing
that may not occur in the life of every Protestant
clergyman in this country—of nothing, indeed,
that does not fall within the personal experience
of very many. In this, perhaps, lies one of its
greatest charms, for its application thus becomes
almost universal. If there be little or nothing in
this unpretending narrative of a startling or
astounding nature, there is very much to win our
love and admiration, and to encourage the most
lowly to hopeful imitation. We are presented
with a beautiful full-length portrait of a Chris-
tian gentleman, and, as a charming pendant, with
that of a true-hearted English wife. Neither
character is in any way extraordinary or abnormal.
Thousands such, we fondly believe, may yet
be found among the honest, homely race that
people these islands, and send forth their off-
shoots to the furthermost parts of the earth. The
only thing unusual is the opportunity of taking
in at a glance a perfect type of a Christian house-
hold as it occurs among the gentry of England.
No higher form of domestic purity, usefulness,
and consequent happiness, exists in this world, or
approaches nearer to what might have been the
social condition of mankind had they never de-
teriorated from their primitive state of moral
virtue. It may be that this really excellent book
will not attain to such a large and vulgar popu-
larity—we use the epithet in its proper, not its
conventional sense—as the memoir of Iledley
Vicars, for it contains no high seasoning or pun-
gent condimets ; but not a few will be the weak
and faultering brethren who will take heart on
seeing these " footprints on the sands of time,"
and be encouraged to strive more earnestly to
make their own lives " sublime."

Henry Stedman Polehampton, we are told, was
born at Greenford, in the county of Middlesex,
on the Ist of February, 1824. His boyhood was
passed at Eton, where he distinguished himself
by his prowess in the sports and pastimes
of British youth rather than by any par-
ticular depth of scholarship. He was a
stout swimmer, a good oar, and a capital
cricketer, and at the same time acquired a taste
for general and polite literature, which refined his
character, and repelled all tendency to coarseness
or sensuality. His career at the University cor-
responded to the promise of his school-days. His
manly fearless disposition enabled him still to
derive pleasure from mere physical recreations,
while his innate goodness and hereditary earnest-
ness gave a serious bias to his graver pursuits,
and finally induced him to become a candidate for
holy orders. But not altogether fruitless or
selfish were the results of his excellence in athletic
exercises, for while at Oxford he succeeded, at
great personal risk, in saving a fellow-creature
from death by drowning.

On the 18th of June, 1848, Mr. Polehampton
was ordained to the ministry by the Bishop of
Oxford, and appears, from his letter to his mo-
ther, to have been deeply impressed by the solemn
simplicity of the ceremony. He had undertaken
the most sacred and responsible of all earthly
duties, but circumstances soon occurred to prove
his fitness for his high vocation. While offi-
ciating as curate in the parish of St. Chad's,
Shrewsbury, he was subjected to the severest
trial to which a young clergyman is liable. The
cholera broke out with great violence, and upon
him, almost unassisted, devolved the visitation
of the sick and the burial of the numerous dead.
He was not found wanting, and very many who
afterwards recovered ascribed to h►s exhortations
the dawn of religious feelings within them. The
Poor especially loved and respected him, for he
went to them as a friend as well as an instructor.
One instance, indeed, is given of the efficiency of
his consolations at the bedside of the dying which
compels a smile, though certainly not one of
derision. An old man, as his spirit paused be-
fore bidding adieu to humanity, turned his glazed
eyes upon his comforter and said, " Ah, sir, I am