The Press.
London, England, 1857-06-06 00:00:00

JUNE 6, 1857.

While engaged in making his collection of
tea-seeds, Mr. Fortune did not neglect the op-
portunity of " picking up" an occasional piece
of valuable china or lacquer ware, and acquired
some useful information upon the horticultural
curiosities of the country,—the varnish tree
(Rhus sp.), the wax-insect tree (FraxintlB Bp.), the
soap-bean tree (Cesalpinia sp.), and, above all,
the green-indigo dye, which has attracted so
much attention in Europe. With respect to the
manufacture of the latter, he states that the
bark of two kinds of one tree, the green shrub—
the white, a wild tree, and the yellow, a culti-
vated tree—are used to obtain this valuable
dye, which does not fade in washing. Both
trees are abundant in the neighbourhood of
Ningpo and Tsahlou-pang, where the dye is
manufactured. In the course of his remarks
upon the tea districts Mr. Fortune lets us into
many of the secrets of the tea trade, and it is
a satisfaction to find so sound an authority
assuring us that genuine tea continues to be
exported from China. The idea, he observes,
that because the East India Company had now
no control over the China trade the Chinese
would adulterate their teas, is " simply ab-

Surd" : -
They have plenty of true tea in the country to supply all
demands, were they twice as great as they are. And while
it may be perfectly true that some unprincipled adven-
turers encourage the production of lie teas " by buying
them up, the great bulk of the teas exported are unadul-
terated with other articles. 1 f sloeleaves and beech-leaves,
and other articles of that kind, are found in the teapot by
the consumer, they are much more likely to have been
manufactured in England than in China.
The foreign merchants in China as a class are upright
and honourable men, and quite incapable of lending them-
selves to frauds of this description. Besides, every house
of any standing has a " tea-taster " who has a perfect
knowledge of his business, and who can not only tell true
tea from false, but, in most instances, can tell the identical
district in which the sample presented to him has been
produced.

We have all heard of the " orange pekoe,"
and this brings us to the process of scent-
ing teas, which is simple and beautiful.
Aware of the vast powers of absorption of
the dried tea-leaf, fresh moist flowers are
mixed by the Chinese in certain proportions,
from 40 lbs. per cent. to 50 and 100 per cent.,
with the dried tea-leaves, and the two are per-
mitted to lie together for twenty-four hours.
At ;the end of this time the flowers are sifted
out of the tea, which ever after retains the
delicious fragrance of the orange or jessamine,
or the rose, or the plum-flower, or the aglaia
odorata, and the gardenia jlorida, all of which
are used in certain proportions. It is worth
noting that the Chinese estimate highly these
fragrant teas, for that while they only sell
their coloured, they largely consume their
vot teil teas.

Mr. Forture in his travels met with many
adventures, which he details with much gusto.
lie' is evidently possessed of infinite tact in
the management of crowds, and of a thorough
knowledge of the Chinese character.
After concluding and settling his affairs in
the tea districts, Mr. Fortune visited the
famous silk districts in the north, and some
details of interest are to be found in these
chapters of his diary, which we must postpone
for the present.

The Press, the Pulpit, and the Platform ;

or, the Future of the French Empire.
London : Newby.

THE author of this work has apparently satu-
rated his mind with the writings of Michelet,
Whose manner he occasionally imitates, even
to exaggeration. He takes his motto from
Emerson, "Things are in the saddle, and ride
" mankind "—a sentence which can be inter-
preted in more ways than one. There is some
good matter in parts of the volume, but it is
spoiled by the exceeding grossness of portions
of the composition. Its pages teem with im-
putations, and its style reeks with scurrility.
We are, certainly, no great friends to some of
the notorieties vilified and satirised by the
author, but even in administering literary
punishment to adversaries we disapprove of
the use of weapons which seholars and gentle-
men ought to disdain Impudence is not
irony ; scurrility is not sarcasm; abuse is not
argument. No two things in literature ditl'er
more from each other that witty satire from
savage truculence; and an author who wishes

THE PRESS.

that his pen should gall an eminent opponent,
should never dip it in the kennel.
It is possible that this writer (who is entirely
unknown to us) wants experience, and that
much of his erroneous taste is attributable to
ignorance of literary conventions. It is diffi-
cult, we admit, to treat of repulsive subjects in
a manner that will not offend ; and, from what
wo are inclined to believe, we have no doubt
that some of the literary emissaries employed
in the intriguing journalism attached to the
Church of Rome are deserving of moral repro-
bation. But experience makes us cautious in
accepting wholesale invectives against literary
men whose habitual duties may have raised
enemies against them. It is one of the penalties
paid by a journalist that he must become more
or less obnoxious to his adversaries. The gene-
rous in every party will know how to honour
the genius, and respect the abilities, mar-
shalled against them in open array; but there
are also the ungenerous, the virulent, and the
vindictive, who after the fight is over, seek for•
an opportunity of disparaging the prowess
before which they have reeled in the combat.
We cannot, therefore, approve of a secret
writer who thus assails a Romish journalist
for whom we entertain not the least sympathy,
and whose political purposes we believe to be
most mischievous. The author writes (we
suppress names) :
Monsieur —, leader of the army of invasion, must
not pass without notice, nor without a glance at his
origin, character, and life.
This part of our duty I would rather avoid, but escape
is impossible. The whole character of the movement
against which we may, shortly, be called upon to do battle
can only be understood by an acquaintance with the
writings, the actions, and reputation of its leaders.
does the dirty work. Calumny, falsehood, foul criticism,
unscrupulous assertion, and irritating compariaons are his
favourite weapons. Nor can we deny the man a certain
amount of talent, a ready and cutting pen, with consider.
able amount of satire, and that he is also determined to
fulfil the behests of his very doubtful calling. He has
hard taskmasters, no doubt ; and, straw or no straw, the
tale of bricks must be found. occupies a most
unenviable position in literature. As a man of talent
and cbservation, as one who knows the world, more than
he really admires the Church, he brings down upon him-
self and the cause he represents both the pity and the
•contempt of his equals and superiors—that is to say, of
by far the greater portion of literary men. He makes
money by his trade, and this is the only consolation he
receives. So do the brigands who surround Rome.

He is, however, trusted by his party, and to men who
always like to tind themselves at the head of a forlorn
hope, the editorship of the " - --" is pro.
bably a congenial though servile occupation.
And elsewhere he vilifies the same French
journalist in the following fashion:—

Begotten of a wine•barrel tinker, he received his
primary ideas in a petite gargule, or " cheap and nasty "
cookshop, set up by his maternal parent in the Rue de
Bourgogne, in the faubourga of Paris. His early educa-
tional advantages were slight and irregular; and whatever
position he may have been able to assume in French'
journalism, he is chiefly indebted for it to his own early
ambition and laudable desire to breathe an air of greater
purity than the fumes of his mother's &Nil it la mode, or
his father's logwood mysteries for improving the colour
and flavour of grape juice.
Let the fire and faggot chanipion of the Inquisition
enjoy the credit which unaided industry deserves.
Let him, on the other hand, receive the reproach which is.
as justly, his due. He has not chosen to cleanse himself
from the stains and dirt of wine lees. He has not chosen
to forget the foul slang of the gargole and the faubourg,
but has introduced both the one and the other into
those walks of literature to which he has the privilege to
belong.
—, late of the gargete, but now of the
"cheap and nasty"
eighth clerk of that unclassed animal, a Paris huissier ;

, the rampant duellist, whose very countenance
looks as if hailstoned with swan•shot, is not so famous as a
scholar, so chivalrous a hair trigger, or so reputed as a
gentleman, as he is despised for the vulgar epithets, the
gross insinuations, the miserable lies, and insulting threats,
which he bestows upon those who disclaim rather than
condescend to contradict or to oppose him.
He is a fair type of the order he represents, and it is
probable that the I nquisitionists could find no other tool who
should, in himself, include all the vicious and coarse quali
ties, and at the same time possess a vivid intellect, a lively
style, and, above all, that boll ferocity so necessary for one
who holds the degraded office this man has condescended
to assume.

Many parts of this volume, like those gross
passages, exemplify the identical faults against
which this anonymous author declaims.
Apart from its style, the matter of the work
is unequal and unreliable. The author be-
lieves that the Church of Rome is at the present
time making determined efforts to spread it elf
in England, which no news to us. He be-
lieves, also, that there is a Bourbonist con-
sjdracy against the present Emperor, mid that

561

the Henri-Cinquist3 are working in aid with
the Jesuits. On this latter subject we should
like to see full proofs, for such a movement
would result in most serious consequences.
Its promoters would aim at something more
permanent, and more anti-Protestant, than a
mere change of dynasty. His conclusions the
author states thus :

I.—That the Legitimists and Jesuit(' are making large
and secret preparations for another French revolution,
which will not burst forth in barricadoes, but may,
Minerva like, issue from the ballot urn.

ll.—That the " credit mobilier " is rather a political
than a mercantile speculation, and that the profits hoped
to be realised are State emoluments, and the idle run of a
kingdom, rather than the social duties and obligations due
from subjects of an empire.
ll.—That the race is between Bourbonistn and priest•
craft striving for the ascendancy, and Italian freedom
striving for justice and international equality.
IV.—That the colleges of cardinals, with their affiliated
societies, secret and avowed, are at length fully con-
vinced that should an Italian explosion happily occur
without foreign intervention, and should tyranny be de-
throned, the Pope's temporal power will be for ever at
an end.

We shall not follow him further into somo
wild prophecies, but, confining ourselves to
his more positive opinions, we shall quote
part of his assertions on the secret schemes of
the Papal propagandists :

VI 11,--That the aggressionists intend to renew the dis-
cussion of a diplomatic service between our Queen of
many nations, and the Pope of decaying Rome. That
high popery men, convinced that Italy will soon cease to be
their peculiar "school of design," make unceasing efforts
to carry out the papal aggression in England, as their only
harbour cf refuge.
IX.—That the resource of " religious houses " in Eng-
land is one of their strongest points, and that during the
war with Russia, whilst public attention has been otherwise
occuuied, immense progress has been made.
. . .

. -
X.—That as auxiliary to this movement it is intended
to produce a series of brilliant out-door displays of Romish
pomp in the shape of music, man-millinery, miracles,
and other mummery, with a view to a proseiytism by
wholesale.

Xl.—lt is intended to endow each papal diocese carved
out of British territory, under the Wiseman scheme, with
a cathedral ; each cathedral to be surrounded by a Roman
Catholic cemetery of an expensive and tasteful character.
The existing laws against popish processions will thus be
complied with, rather than evaded. All out-door perfor-
mances will be carried on within the private domain of a
religious sect tolerated by the State, namely, the Roman
Catholic dissenters from the Church of England; the
toleration acts will, in fact, be their protection.
It is expected that prosebtes will be gained in large
numbers, and this is probable, although the expense will
be enormous ; but the coffers at Rome and elsewhere
destined for this speculation, although not yet full, are
by no means empty. Another " goddess." well placarded
and handsomely introduced, would realise all that is
wanting.
The cathedrals, the mausoleums of the wealthy, and
the landscape gardening will form a grand county
attraction.

And there is much more to the same effect.
Judging by the style of this writer, we should
infer that he was an Irishman, with a semi-
clerical education, and it is possible that lie
may have been educated at Maynooth. We
infer it from the following passage :

Laymen who quit the fair open fields of Protestantism
for the Roman cloister are more to be trusted than they
who have officiated as respectable clergymen of the Eng-
lish Church ; and as a friend to good order and the family
compact, I rather advise the \Visemen of the Pope's coun-
cil to be cautions. I advise " Rome.jogging" clergymen
of our own creed to be very careful. " Man traps are set
upon these premises "—that is, on the premises of the
confessional. Shrewd men of the world, men who study
animal nature, as well as mental, who regard the physical
as well as the intellectual, and to whom matter is more
familiar than spirit, incline to think that the whole
affair will ultimately break down, and thus work out its
own cure.

It is feared that our Oxford divines, who are but
flesh and blood, and doubtless think with St. Paul that
" it is better to marry than to burn," will drop under
the " double and fiery ordeal of celibacy and the con-
fessional."

It is thought that if over the " Father's " side of the box
" lead me not into temptation " may be written as a
strophe ; the prie-dieu of the " daughter " may be em-
broidered as with an anti-strophe, thus : " deliver me from
evil." The holy men themselves have no conception of
the trial they will be called upon to undergo. This warning
is given in all kindness by one who has both sat and knelt
behind the mysterious green curtain.
There is a spice of Irish humour in the asser-
tion, " The holy men themselves hare no
" conception of the trial they will be called upon
"to undergo." Their fates will, it is to be
supposed, be like that of St. Kevin, assailed by
Tom Moore's Kathleen with
Eyes of most unholy blue.
They will be made, possibly, to think or
Mr. Canning's- description of General Fitz-
patricl,t's speech on the Catholic question