The Press.
London, England, 1853-07-09 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

ness of the south-western coast does not ex-
tend to the interior. He has thus not only
himself succeeded, but has probably opened a
route by which others may follow farther.
The difficulties of his journey were considera-
ble, the obstacles in his way being, want of
water, loss of cattle by beasts of prey, the sus•
picions and jealousies of native chiefs, and,
above all, the impossibility of estimating dim
tances beforehand from native testimony. This
arose, not. so much from ignonutee, apathy. or
wilful deceit on the part of the informants, as
from an utter inability to compare, or to form
an abstract idea. We are not aware that this
distinguishing feature of barbarian organisa-
tion—which may also be traced in that of the
more intelligent animals—has ever been more
clearly brought out than by Mr. Galion. He
is here speaking of the Damants:—

They have no comparative in their language, no that yon
cannot say to them, "which is the bogier of the two, the
next stage or the last. one you must say, " the last
stage is little ; the next, is it grcatT"rhe reply is not, it
is a " little longer," " much longer," or " levy much
limger hut simply " it. is so," or "it is not so." 'l'hey
Have a very poor notion of time. It' you say, " Sappose
we start at sunrise, where will the sun lie when we smile
they make the wildest points in the sky, though they are
• 'thing of astr IN. and give names to several stars.
They have no way of distinguising days, but reckon Iy the
rainy season, the dry season. or the pig•tent season. When
inquiries are made about how many days' journey on' a
place may be, their ignoram•e of all numerteal ideas is very
immiying. In !intake, whatever they may possess in
their language, they certainly use no Illmtend greater thou
three. When they wish to express four, they take to
their lingers, which are to them as formidable instruments
of calculation as a sliding-rule is to au English schoolboy.
They puzzle very much tin% beeall.e gu span' hsud
relltitilli4 to grasp situ secure the lingers that are minim!
ILr " units." Yet they schl lose oxen : the way in
which they iliseliver the Illtis of our is, not by the
of the held but by the atilSellee of a faec
they know.

• • • •
(11►ee, What' I watched a I 11111111ra floundering hope-
lessly in a ealenlati .on 1111 4)111 Silk. of uu•, I
!quail, my spaniel, equally einha►'assed on the
other. She was overlooking half a doit•u of 111.1' 110 W-1141111
iiippiCS. Milk)) hail been reunnell Iwo or LlM'e tiutearosin
hen and her anxiety was excessive, its she tried In find out
if they wem all present. or if any were still missing. She
;opt puzzling and is ' g her eyes over thviti bxok wards
and fin-slink, but could tint %misty herself. She a•videntiv
had a vague notion of tanniting, hut thl• ligiiro wax 1410
large for lisa. twain. Taking the tun as they slush, dint
and Ihun,ox, the Cloiteparison rcHtrled Ito great hilikolir silk
the man.

One of the Damara superstit. .• makes it,
difficult to bay or sell meat among them.
They hold it to be in some sense common
property, and every man claims his share of a
slaughtered animal, under penalty of a curse
if refused. Something of the same feeble*
prevails, or used to prevail, among the Irish
peasantry, respecting the right of casual ap-
plicants to the " bit and sup."
The Ovampos, to whom Mr. Gabon intro-
duces us, are a superior race. They are farmers
and not shepherds ; live separately among
their fields, a filet which indicates a peaceful
state of society ; their country, a high table-
land, is healthy ; and the population Mr.
Galion estimates at about 100 per square mile.
Their boundaries, and consequently their
numbers, are unknown. They have no dealings
with slave traders ; and, though not lithos
Fitable, rather avoid intercourse with strangers.
irearms arc unknown among them ; their
bows and arrows are rude ; they sleep in dimi-
nutive but neatly-made huts ; use copper, but
have no iron. Two yearly caravans to the
southward constitute their whole trade in that
direction. Of Benguela, the Portuguese set-
tlements there, and the countries lying north-
ward, they either knew or would tell nothing.
We are left in the dark as to their mode of
government ; but Mr. Galton hears witness
that they are "a kind-hearted, cheerful people.-
orderly and humane withal, of which the proof
is, that their old and sick are carefully tended,
instead of being left to die. The head-quarters
of the tribe might be more easily reached from
Benguela than from Waltisch Bay, and this
route our author recommends to his successors.

African sport is an exhausted topic ; and
Mr. Galion, though he occasionally bagged
rhinoceroses, lions, and giro fres, does not dwell
on his exploits in this line. It is eurioue that
of all the larger sort of wild beasts the lion
should be the least dreaded by savages. The
elephant, the rhinoceros, and the buffalo, am
all more duagerous customers.

fri3

Mellon* : or, Better Times to Come. Being the
Contributions if many Mem touching the Pre•
sent State and Prospects if Society. Edited
by Viseount Ingestre. London : Parker and

SOll.
THE " prospeetg of society: in the picture
sketched by the well-meaning authors of this
and the preceding, series of essays under the
Sallie title, are bounded by a narrow and low
horizon. Society, in their view, comprises
solely its most degraded class, or at best that
class of which nothing but their youth en•
conrages the hope that any of its members
will rise above the level of the workhouse anti
the gaol. The sketches of social condition,
therefore, presented in the volume before us are
necessarily imperfect and the prognostics of
" better times to comer which it contains are
deduced but from a single SOUIVO, and directed
towards only a single end, out of the
nlani-
told incitements to hope and effort with which
modern society is so richly endowed. Written
as they are with much ability and a praise-
worthy sincerity of purpose, almost all the
papers of which the volume is composed are
essentially onc•sided. There is a truncated
look even in the best of them.

We say thus much with no intention to dis•
parage the efforts of the benevolent. contri-
butors to the work in our hand. In attacking
the social evils of the time in their lowest and
most sordid developments—in portraying di
lineaments and planning the ifilleliOndion of
society" which has never partaken the
enlightenment. or enjoyed its due share in the
inheritanee of knowledge, eomfort. and well
being that. has fallen to the lot of the content
porary generation—the writers in " Meliora"
Intro undertaken a most arduous enterprise,
and deserve a good report from the critic, if
only for the energy with which their endea
yours have been addressed to the appointed
end. Glancing through their successive papers.
we find, that, under different titles, the main
subject is always the same, and the suggested
remedy one and indivisible. Whether Lord
Carlisle reprints his " Address in aid of the
Evening ('lasses for Young Men," or "S. I i .11
treats of " Immortal tfewerage." or Mr. Leigh
of "Juvenile Offenders," or the noble editor
himself of " Social Evils, their Causes and
Cure," we find the same evil deplored, the
same remedial measure preseribed, by each
and all of them. For the ignorance—
for the cure, education—is their common topic
of remark and exhortation. HOW (tense the
former, there are a multitude of striking facts
set forth and variously illustrated by the
several authors. How urgently wanted, and
how eminently applicable, is the latter, we
find enforced in many iatssages eloquently
and earnestly written. Altogether the book
presents a most forcible appeal for the estab-
lishment of an energetic mid comprehensive
system of education. Its design and execution
will often induce the reader to exclaim with
Ilinuce, Video MI.: omit, yoroboque.

Isthmus al Darien. Ship Canal. Second Edition.
London : Effingham Wilson.
Da. Cullen's book, though not very interceding, is
useful as a repository of facts connected with the
Darien Canal. Its chief value k deriied from the
personal acquaintance of the author with his subject.
To Dr. Cullen is undoubtedly due the credit of having
been the first pioneer of that route, which in a few
years' time will he traversed by the great Pacific and
Atlantic Canal, passing as it does through a country
which no whits• nom had entered since the days of
the buccaneers. In some respects we think the
author's generalisations from his own experience are
more hasty than becomes a scientific writer. Thus,
he pronounces the climate of the isthmus not un-
favourable to Europeans—whereas it is well known

that the combination of tropical heats, alluvial soil,
and constant rains, renders this coast one of the most
unhealthy in the known world. Very full details are
furnished respecting the projected canal, of which
the total cost is estimated at twelve stillinus—a sum,
we believe, larger than Chas ever been expended, in
any age of the world, on a single work—the great
Ganges luu►l, the pride and boast of Indian govern-
ments, requiring for its completion only one-eighth
of that stun. The canal is to be without locks, and,
as the ebb and How of the tide produce a constant
scour, not only will vessels be assisted in their transit,
but it is probablu that a mutant with:l4lu; and deep•

ening of the excavation will take place, until what
was at first an artificial channel becomes an arm of
the sea. Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Brassey are
not men likely to fail in an undertaking of this kind :
and the only doubt is—will it pay? An income of
half a million yearly is wanted to replace the original
investment, exclusive of working expenses, which are
likely to be considerable. On the other hand, there
1400111,4 to be no danger from the competition of the
Nicaragua line—an inferior work, fitted rather for the
accommodation of the coasting trade than for the
opening of an interoceanic passage for vessels of
large draught. All the aid which European Govern-
ments can give to this great design will, no doubt, be
tendered ; and by none more readily than that of
France, whose Emper►r, some years ago, wrote a
pamphlet on the subject.

Selected Series of French Literature. No. I. Madame
do SiNigni. London : Crockford.

PLEA/urn. and readable sketches principally of the
classic memoir-writers. of French society in its
Augustan aura, among whom the first place is
assigned appropriately to " a lady always in the
fashion."

1114alialt Turkey; or a Greek Empire the inevitable
Solution of the Eastern Question. By IL 1). I'. A
Pamphlet. London : Saunders and Stanford.
AnvocAnNo the claims of the eleven millions of
Christian subjects of the Porte in accordance with
the hints thrown out by Sir N. (1. Ward, and en-
forcing the suggestions of Marshal Marmont, in the
event of the invasion of Turkey by Russia.

The Danger—The Remedy. A Few Remarks on the
Prospects of Conservatism ; addressed to Sir

wer Lytton, Bart. A Pamphlet. London : Bosworth.
BRIEF, true, and to the point, as far as it goes; em-
phasising the necessity of preparing educational
instntments to neutralise the incendiary lalmntrs of
the Radical propagandists, the "Spmtts" and " Bur-
leys" of journalism; deserving attention in respect of
the " I 'anger," but meagre in practical suggestions of
the " ltemedy."

The Reform of Testamentary Jurisdiction. A Pam-
phlet issued by the Committee of l'r.octors in Doc-
tors' Commons. London : Ilutterviortlit4.

VALUABLE 104 a review by qualified Civilians of recent
proposals for dispensing with their special vocation ;
insisting on the importance of maintaining it for
national purposes; and deserving attention if only
for the evidence quoted in the appendix.

Remarks and Suggestions on the System of Farming
adapted to the Climate and Soil of the County Of
Carmarthen. A I'Bllollcl I A nithm : Ridgway.
THE views of a practical agriculturist, conversant
with errors in the system of cropping at present pur-
sued in this part of the Principality, for the printing
of which tl►e county is indebted to Lord Entlyn.

The Memoirs of a Sto►►ach►. London : Painter.
11EIVY as a joke, and slight as a medical treatise,
I►ut containing some useful sanitary suggestions at
the end.

Modern Domestic Cookery, hosed on the irell-known
Work of Mrs. Randal. A new and revised Edition.
: Murray.
THE statement in the preface, which we can rely
upon, that upwards of 210,000 copies of this work
have been sold, is of itself sufficient testimony to its
excellence, for practical persons are here the judges
in a question which concerns them. The novel fea-
tures of value introduced into this edition are—a
great increase in the number and variety of the
recipes; a simplification of the terms of art in which
they are expressed; the printing of numbers and
quantities in figures ; and tables for computing
household accounts. We should add also, that it is
illustrated. independently of the wholesale contri-
bution of recipes from certain erudite personages, we
observe that care has been taken to obtain the
secrets of some opsonia of particular artists.
Thns we observe inter alio the Ereetheium pudding,
the pleasant and ingenious device of a rising man-
" Pie who rs a candidate for future fame ; and from
such little indications as this of vigilant attention to
the most recent social discoveries we infer the gene-
ral completeness of the publication.

The History of trnele Tom's Countrymen, (re. Lon-
don Partridge and Oakey, Paternoster-row.
Tun incidents of negro life, as too roam• negroes still
And it, are traced in this little volume from the first