The Press.
London, England, 1856-07-19 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Mr. Thackeray has drawn a most amusing
contrast between an Englishman's opinion of
his superiority to the rest of the world and a
Frenchman's. " About the former," says he,
" there is no noise, no obtrusiveness, no
" bluster," but " the calmness of profound
" conviction." This is an exact description of
Southey. His serene conviction of his own
eminence was never disturbed by a doubt.
He smiled unaffectedly at detraction or correc-
tion. He knew he was superior to it.
Gifford, Lockhart, Jeffrey ! " they, forsooth! "
He acknowledges in a condescending manner
the genius of Sir Walter Scott; but had any•
body told him that " Ivanhoe " was a greater
work than " Madoe," he would have pitied him
from the bottom of his heart.
The letters in these two volumes, which we ob-
serve oonclude the " Selections from Southey's
Letters," extend from 1815 to 1839,—the date of
his marriage with Caroline Bowles. Why they
end so abruptly we are not informed. They com-
prise the busiest and most prosperous portion
of Southey's life. Some of his revelations are
amusing, some are almost repulsive, as they
indicate less truthfulness and good faith than
one could wish to find in so fine a character.
His vanity is oddly shown in his references to
the Duke of Wellington, whose character he
had taken under his protection. When one of
his articles relating to the Duke was altered,
he indignantly exclaims :

Fools that these people are, as if there were any living
man who is more disposed to render full justice to the
Duke of Wellington than I am, or who had equally the will
and the power to bestow upon him the highest praise.

Subsequently he discovered that the corrector
was the Duke himself, on which he wrote'
with sublime arrogance :

I found that the interpolations came from no less a
person than the Duke himself, who thought proper through
Croker to make me his tool. I spoke as became me upon
the occasion ; insisted upon stopping the press, carried m y
point, struck out the falsehoods which had teen inserted,
and replaced what had been struck out.

We need give no further examples of Southey's
confidence. The most painful part of the
correspondence relates to his desire to get up
a new Review in opposition to that of Mur-
ray, from which he benefited so largely. It
seems that disclosures respecting his connec-
tion with the Quarterly are in the background.
We fancy that they must he of less importance
than the editor seems to suppose. The illus-
trative notes are too scanty. What book is
that of the " Old Squire " to which Mr.Warter
refers? If Mr. Harter be himself the author,
why not say so?
We feel, however, a great warmth of kind•
ness, after all, towards the good, honest, un-
suspecting bard of Keswick. We willingly
admit he was a remarkable man, if not a great
one. He was, indeed, neither a great poet,
nor great historian, nor great theologian, nor
great essayist; but, nevertheless, a man with
a most rare combination of qualities suitable
for each. His picture, as we gather it
from these letters, is perfect—seated in his
library at Keswick, with a proof for the
" Q. R." on one side, and a box of new books
just received from London on the other, with
perhaps a half-finished letter to the " Senhora "
or Grosvenor Bedford on the desk before him,
and one of his children rushing in to tell him
of some startling domestic occurrence, the
capture of the polecat or the arrival of
" Zombi." There have been many wiser,
many more poetical, many more masculine
men of letters ; but only a few who have ever
united to so much literary merit so much
honourable industry, and who have so fully
reaped the reward of it both in private happi-
ness and in public estimation.

Western Africa: its History, Condition, and
Prospects. By the Rev. J. L. Wilson,
Eighteen Years a Missionary in Africa.
London : Sampson Low and Co.

AT length there is a probability that the in-
terior of the African continent, so long a blot
on creation, will be opened to the civilising
influences of commerce. The recent success-
ful exploration of the rivers Niger and Tsudda
has opened great highways into the heart of
Africa, and shown that river navigation, under
certain favorable conditions, may be prose-
cuted even by Europeans without injury to

SATURDAY,

health. We have a number of books upon
Africa on our table, evincing the interest which
this great division of the globe is at present
exciting. As a commencement, we take the
volume of Mr. Wilson, which conveniently
shows the present state of Western Africa, and
the progress it has made of late years.
Mr. Wilson's volume is one of the most
creditable literary productions lately sent us
from the United States. It is specially impor-
tant as tending to satisfactorily solve the ques-
tions whether the African races are capable of
attaining a respectable degree of civilisation, and
whether those communities which are brought
within the range of European influences are
really making progress. We think the work
would have been more satisfactory had Mr.
Wilson given in a separate form his own per-
sonal observation. As it is, the book is a
compilation, but made by a person competent
to speak with authority on the subjects it
embraces. _ _ .

______
In the author's opinion, the African races
have—with the exception of the Christian
stations of comparatively recent date—rather
retrograded than advanced. He srys that the
tendency of the States of Western Africa for
the last two centuries—that is, since the general
establishment of commercial communication
with the coast—has been towards disorgani-
sation and decline:—

If we can rely upon the alcounts of the earlier voyagers
to the coast, and especially those of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, there were in those days many and
comparatively powerful negro kingdoms in this portion of
Africa. But they have long since been broken up into
many small independent co:nmunities, who have little or
no traditionary knowledge of the more extended organist.
tions which once existed among their foie athtrs.
The Portuguese were at first eminently suc-
cessful in their missionary labours. The
powerful kingdom of Congo was at one time
completely submitted to the Rotnish Church;
yet here, as in America, its influence was
never solidly established. Its foundations
were unsound. It was built on the sand of
human authority, and it has not been able to
withstand the storms to which it has been
exposed. The history of the Jesuits has in-
deed been a melancholy one,—the continual
record of the fruitlessness of the highest
ability and accomplishment and of the most
heroic efforts, simply through proceeding on a
false principle. Of Congo the author writes—
and his remark applies to the other African
States in which the power of Rome was for a
time in the ascendant :

Before the close of the eighteenth century—indeed, for
anything we know to the contrary, before the middle of it
—not only all their former civilisation, but almost every
trace of Christianity had disappeared from the land, and
the whole country had fallen back into the deepest igno-
rance and heathenism, and into greater weakness and
poverty than had ever been experienced even before its
discovery.

Is this decline to be attributed to any natural
incapacity of the Africans for improvement, or
to defect in the means taken to civilise them?
The point is discussed by Mr. Wilson in
various places. He shows that the system of
the Romish Church is unsuited to produce
permanent results from missionary effort;
and he shows, also—which appears to us a
more important consideration—that the pro-
(Tess of the slave trade has had the natural
and inevitable effect of demoralising the
African people, of disorganising their com-
munities, of exciting ware, and of wholly pre-
venting the growth of healthy trade. The
truth of these positions is evident almost as
soon as they are stated. While the slave trade
flourished, it furnished occasion for continual
hostilities bstween different tribes, it dimi-
nished the population, and it prevented the
people from employing themselves in indus-
trial pursuits. As this trade has declined,
other kinds of commerce have sprung up;
and it is to the extension of such commerce
that we must mainly look for the improve-
ment of Africa. We frequently meet with
such sentences as the following, written con-
cerning the kingdom of Loango

Of late years the slave trade has been declining, while
that of ivory, beeswax, and other articles of natural pro-
duce have been increasing, and as a consequence the
trade is passing from Portuguese to English and American
hands.

Of the capacity of the Africans for improve-
ment, the numerous examples given in the
book are decisive. The stock of the negro race

JULY 19, 1856.

has many good qualities. Mr. Wilson, from
his eighteen years' residence in Africa, has
claims to be heard with attention :
Naturally the African is social, generous, and confiding.
..... No one can live among them without
being impressed with their natural energy of character;
th it shrewdness and close observation
They have long since risen above the hunter life; they
have fixed habitations, cultivate the soil for the means of
subsistence, have herds of domestic animals, construct for
themselves houses which are sufficient to protect them
alike from the scorching heat of the sun and the chilly
damps of night; they show a turn for the mechanic arts,
and in the fabrication of implements of warfare and articles
of ornament they display surprising skll ; and, at the same
time, they evince not only a decided taste, but an equal ap•
titude for commercial pursuits. As we see them in their
native country, they show none of that improvidence or
want of foresight for which they have alm3at become pro-
verbial in this country, which shows that circumstances
here have made them what they are in this respect. They
plant their crops with particular reference to the seasons of
the year, and they store away provisions for their future
wants with as much regularity as any people in the world,
so that times of scarcity and want are less frequent among
them than among others who pretend to a much higher
degree of civilisation.
The direct proofs of the capacity of the Africans
to receive civilisation aro numerous ard con-
vincing. We do not lay so much stress on
the progress made by Sierra Leone—though it
has been wonderful—as on the advance made
by some African communities comparatively
free from European control. The history of
Abeokuta is striking:—

About thirty years ago a few small, and almost despond-
ing tribes or bands, that were constantly annoyed and
threatened by the slave-hunts carried on in the country,
betook themselves to a notable cavern near the banks of
the Ogun, and about seventy-five miles from the seacoast,
as a place of safety anti refuge from their enemies. In the
course of time they were joined hi others in the same
circumstances, and they leagued together for their mutual
defence. At first they were feeble, were afraid to venture
far from their place of concealment, and were compelled to
feed upon berries, roots, and such articles of food as they
could pick up about their lurking•place. As they increased
in numbers, however, they engaged in agriculture and built
themselves houses, and under the guidance of an excellent
and liberal-minded man by the Paine of Shodeke, all these
various bands, of which it is said that there were the rem-
nants of one hundred and thirty towns, were consolidated
into one Government. They continued to increase until
1853, twenty-eight years from its commencement, when it
is said that their population amounted to 80,000 ; by some
it has been estimated at 150,000. The place received the
name of Understone, or Abeokuta, in honour of the cavern
where the first pioneers found a shelter and a place of con-
cealment.

Perhaps there is no spot in the whole heathen world
where the cause of Christianity and civilisation has made
more steady or rapid progress than here during the last
twelve or fifteen years. One of the most remarkable men
connected with this enterprise is a man of the name of
Crowther (in the Yoruba language he was called Idgai).
He was a native of the country, and was embarked as a
slave on board of a slaver at Badagry, in 1822. This vessel
was captured by a man-of•war, and taken to Sierra Leone.
Here he received a good education, was ctuverted, and
became a minister of the Gospel. He was among the first
to return to his native country and hoist the Christian
banner iu this dark portion of the earth, and has ever since
been one of the most effective members of the missionary
band. He still remains in this good work, and is now la-
boriously engage,l in translating the Bible into the Yourba
language. He found his own mother and several of his
sisters here, and has since had the great satisfaction of
seeing them become humble followers of the Lord Jesus.
Crowther is a very uncommon man, both on account of
his eminent piety and his high intellectual qualifications ;
and his history, in some of its particulars, reminds one of
many incidenst in the lives both of Joseph and Moses.
His attainments in learning furnish a happy illustration of
the capacity of the negro for improvement, and the
high and honourable destiny which awaits his country
when it is brought under the influence of Christianity
and civilisation.

The defeat of the desperate attempt made by
the King of Dahomy to conquer the settle-
ment shows the vitality inherent in it.
The experiment—for at first it was no more
—of Liberia is answering well. The popula-
tion of the settlement is now estimated at
8,000. Monrovia, the capital, has about 1,500
inhabitants :

Monrovia, the principal and largest town in the republic,
will compare without disadvantage, in general appearance,
with most of the inland towns of oar own country of similar
size and population, but not with the energy and rapid
growth which characterise the latter. It is situated on the
peninsula of Cape rilessurado, is about three quarters of a
mile long and half that distance in breadth. Most of the
dwelling-houses are framed buildings of one or one storey
and a half high, raised on a stone or brick foundation of six
or eight feet. Most of them are painted or whitewashed,
and present quite an air of neatness and comfort. There
are else a few brick dwelling-houses of two storeys, neat in
outward appearance and generally well furnished. There
are three substantial brick or stone churches, and the fourth
is in process of erection. Below the high bluff upon which
the town stands, and very near to the water's edge, there

THE PRESS.

are six or seven large substantial stone warehouses,
where most of the commercial business of the place is
transacted.

Trade is the chosen employment of the great lass of
the Liberians, and some of them have been decidedly suc-
cessful in this vocation The Liberian
merchants own a number of small vessels, built by them-
selves, and varying in size from ten or fifteen to forty or
fifty tons. These are navigated by the Liberian sailors,
and are constantly engaged in bringing palm oil to Mon-
rovia, from whence it is again shipped in foreign vessels
for Liverpool or New York. I made inquiry, during a short
sojourn at this place in 1852, on my way to this country,
about the amount of property owned by the wealthier
merchants of Monrovia, and learned that there were four
or five who were worth from 15,000 to 20,000 dots.. a larger
number who owned property to the amount of 10,000 dols.,
and perhaps twelve or fifteen who were worth as much as
5,000 dots. The property of some of these may have in-
creased materially since that time.

The author is satisfied that the United
States are not the country for the free man of
colour. His improvement, in the higher sense
of the term, is impossible on the American
continent, but in Liberia free scope is afforded
for the display of all the better qualities of his
nature :

After the most mature consideration which it has been
in oar power to give the subject, we see no reason why
Liberia may not, in the course of time, take a respectable
stand among the civilised nations of the earth. On this
subject we are free to confess that we entertain more hope-
ful views than we did in the earlier period of our acquaint-
ance with the country.
The author advises the union of Liberia with
Sierra Leone. The latter has now become a
really important settlement :

The slaves taken by the British cruisers on the high seas
have always been taken to this colony and discharged there ;
and this has been the main source of its increase of popu-
lation from that time.

When the colony was transferred to the Government in
1807, its population was less than 2,000, almlst all of whom
were from Nova Scotia or from the West Indies. In the
course of four years it was doubled. In 1820 it had in-
creased to more than 12,000. In 1833 it amounted to very
nearly 30,000. Two years afterward ( 183,5) to 35,000. In
1844 it was 40,000. In 18,53 it amounted to more than
60.000. Freetown, the capital, is said to have a population
of nearly 17,00'J.

The moral and physical progress of the
liberated captives is remarkable :

The foreign control and superversion, which was so ne-
cessary in the earlier periods of their history, is now being
superseded. Most of the Civil offices are filled by persons
from among themselves, or by educated coloured men from
the British West Indies. The commerce of the country,
whizli at first was almost wholly engrossed by white men,
is rapidly passing into the hands of educated recaptives,
who manage it with remarkable efficiency. The soil is
cultivated, and the market of Freetown is well supplied
both with meat and vegetables. Many of these recaptives
have amassed handsome little fortunes, and live in cir-
cumstances of great respectability and comfort. . . .
During a short visit which I made to this place in 1852,
on my way to this country, there were as many as fifteen
vessels lying at anchor in the harbour, of which twelve
were there for the purpose of trade. Now, when we take
into account the circumstances under which this colony
was founded, the materials of which it was composed, the
reverses which it has experienced from lime to time, and
compare all these with the actual improvement which has
been made, it may be seriously questioned whether any
other community in the world have ever made more rapid
strides in the march of improvement.

An extract made from Dr. Ferguson informs
the reader that—
There is at Sierra Leone a very fine regiment of co-
lonial militia, more than eight•tentha of which are liberated
Africans. The amount of property which they have ac-
quired is ample guarantee for their loyalty, should that
ever be called in question. They turn out with great
alacrity and cheerfulness on all occasions for periodical
drill. But, perhaps, the most interesting point of view
in which the liberated Africans are to be seen, and that
which will render their moral condition most intelligible
to those at a distance, is when they sit at the Quarter Ses-
sions as petty, grand, and special jurors. They constitute
a considerable part of the jury at every session, and I
have repeatedly heard the highest legal authority in the
colony express his satisfaction with their decisions.
Can there, after• this evidence, be a doubt as to
the capacity of the African mind and eh a-
nicter to attain a respectable, if not a high,
degree of civilisation ? And considering the
vast extent of the African continent, and the
present degraded state of the people, what a
wide and noble field is here presented fur
exertion !
It has been stated, as adverse to the capacity
of the African intellect, that children who
have been educated under European superin
tendance have shown as much intelligence
and made as much progress as the youth of
other races, up to the period when youth
merges into manhood. The highly educated
negro is found at that critical period to break
down. His faculties seem altogether to

give way, and idiocy or death is not uncom-
monly the result. The authority fin• this
curious statement is too strong to allow us to
doubt it. Nor does it seem improbable that
the African intellect should not, at once, become
susceptible of the highest degree of cultivation.
Races do not either advance or decline in in•
tellectual capacity with great rapidity. Several
generations are required to make any very
marked and radical difference. We think it
might he a great error to set too high the
standard of African improvement at present.
Let us be content to promote as we best can •
the progress of industry, order, and religion.
The foundations of African civilisation, to bo
sure, should be very plain and simple. We
have seen it stated, in some missionary publi-
cations, with great pride, that some African
pupils have made considerable proficiency in
the higher branches of mathematics. We
would much rather have heard that they had
made progress in some kind of mechanical
labour. When we have taught the people to
be ingenious, it will be time to teach them to
be intellectual. Let us have the shoemaker
before the mathematician, and plain rules of
handicraft before skill in conic sections.

It is the more necessary to insist on a sure
and solid foundation, as the African people
show a strong tendency to relapse into barba-
rism when the favorable influences which raire
them from it are removed. With great capa-
city for physical labour they are indisposed to
it. Mr. Wilson speaks of the difficulty found
in getting them to follow any settled course of
industry. Of the Krumen, for example, it is
remarked :
They seldom take with them to their native homes, or
retain for any length of time, any of the civilised habits
they have acquired during their sojourn among strangers.
They soon lose all traces of civilisation, except a smattering
of the English language, which they not unfrequently
retain through life.

There are no limits to the trade which
might be carried on with Africa. Its principal
products thus far, excepting slaves, have been
gold, ivory, cam-wood (a fine red dye-wood),
and palm oil. The latter product has become
important of late years. It is spontaneously
furnished by the soil, and requires only a
simple process of manufacture :
Twentr6ve or thirty years ago, where scarcely a gallon
was produced for sale, now hundreds of tons are annually
exported, and the capabilities of the soil for its production
has scarcely any limit. The oil when fresh is of a trans-
parent orange colour, and is extensively used in this
country, and in England and France, in the manufacture
of the finer kinds of soap, in candles of an excellent
quality, by the apothecary for various purposes, and on the
more delicate parts of steam machinery. The palm-tree
yields a large number of burs in clusters ; each bar is filled
with small oval nuts, black when unripe, bat of a beautiful
red when ready to be gathered. The nut proper is inclosed
in a pulp, from which the oil is expressed in the most
simple manner. The nuts being boiled and bruised in a
mortar, are thrown in a trough of clean water and stirred
for some time, when the oil rising to the surface is
skimmed off, and placed in earthen jars for use. The
kernel, being very hard, is seldom used by the natives,
except in seasons of great scarcity of food. A machine has
been invented it) one of the European settlements for
crushing it, and an oil of fire quality, and in large quanti-
ties, has been produced. Frenchmen use it in making
their best pomattim. This, then, promises to be one of
the largest branches of trade in the world, as the tree
grows without cultivation, and yields fruit for fifty years or
more. The tree itself, a beautiful growth, with its tuft of
fringe-like leaves, is a striking feature in African scenery,
extending, as It does, over a belt of a hundred miles, along
the whole coast from Senegal to Benguela.
We read, " Cotton is produced to a limited ex-
" tent, and might be increased indefinitely :*
and " the sugar-cane grows luxuriantly, hut is
" never manufactured into sugar, the natives
" never having acquired the art of doing this."
The supply of ivory seems to be inexhaustible.
It is supposed that the supply from Southern
Guinea alone must require eleven thousand
elephants to furnish, yet the exportation in-
creases from year to year. As improvement
in Africa advances, new sources of wealth will
be developed. The author says he was the
first to discover the gum-elastic tree; but
what a field would be opened for cotton and
sugar cultivation alone, should the people
ever be brought to devote themselves to in-
dustrial pursuits.
Perhaps the most remarkable instance given
here of a native disposition to improvement
when the mind is once excited is that of the
invention by the Veys—a tribe of the Siena
Leone coast—of a system of written lan-
, guage

The reys.—This family, though not numerous or
powerful, have recently invented an alphabet for wri•
ting their own language, and are enjoying the bless-
ings of a written system, for which they are entirely
indebted to their own ingenuity and enterprise. This
is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable! achievements
of this or any other age, and is itself enough to silence
for ever the cavils and sneers of those who think so
contemptuously of the intellectual endowments of the
African race. The characters used in this system are all
new and were invented by the people themselves within
the last twenty years.

A specimen of the characters is given (p. 95).
It resembles shorthand, and as an invention
of the African mind is extremely curious. In
their native state the Africans are ignorant of
written language, but seem quickly to acquire
it. The Bible has been printed in many
native languages. All seem capable of reduc-
tion to grammatical rules, and exhibit the
regularity of original design. In the Mandingo
dialect, for example, the plural is formed by
adding /u to words ending in o in the singu-
lar; and by changing the termination of
singular words ending in some other sound
into olu. Surely there is more system here
than could be expected from the chance
acquirement of language by a barbarous
people.
They have but one distinct religious idea.
That one, however, is fundamental and im-
portant :

The belief in one great Supreme Being, who made and
upholds all things, is universal. Nor is this idea imper-
fectly or obscurely developed in their minds. The impres-
sion is so deeply engraved upon their moral and mental
nature, that any system of atheism strikes them as too
absurd and preposterous to require a denial. Every thing
which transpires in the natural world beyond the power of
man, or of spirits, who are supposed to occupy a place
somewhat higher than man, is at once and spontaneously
ascribed to the agency of God. All of the tribes in the
c itintry with which the writer has become acquainted (and
they are not few) had a name for God, and many of them
hsve two or more, significant of his character as a Maker,
Preserver, and Benefactor.

In all his travels among strange tribes, and
into► the interior of the country, the author
states that he never carried, and never found
the want of, any weapon to protect himself.
The notices of natural history in the volume
are exceedingly amusing. We may refer par-
ticularly to the chapter on Southern Guinea
(pp. 361 to 378), for some most curious details
on the economy of African ants. The whole
volume is full of instructive matter, and con-
tains the best account of the present state of
Western Africa that has fallen under our ob-
servation.

Life of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. By the
late G. W. Fulcher; Edited by his Son. Lon-
don: Lougmans.
WE wish we had more books of this kind. It
is small, but full of matter. Though only
seventy years have passed since Gainsborough
was laid in his grave, in Kew churchyard, and
though he lived at a time when genius and
accomplishment met in London in most easy
and delightful intercourse, yet few memorials
have been preserved of him. Gainsborough
was, in fact, too completely devoted to his
art to be a sociable man. He cared nothing
for books. His book, he said, was nature ;
and when he indulged in convivial intercourse,
it was that he might completely unbend, not
that ho might take part in the conversation of
Johnson, Reynolds, and Burke. Still he had
great ready wit ; and a few instances of his
keenness in reply have been preserved :
He was once examined as a witness on a trial respect-
ing the originality of a picture, and a counsellor en-
deavoured to puzzle him by saying, " I observe you lay
great stress on a ' painter's eye '—what do you mean by
that expression ?" " A painter's eye," answered
Gainsborough, "is to him what a lawyer's tongue is
to you."

The materials for a memoir of him being so
scanty, we are the more obliged by the publi-
cation of this pleasing volume, in ,which so
many amusing traits of his character are pre-
served.
His career was that of genius. He was, in
the first instance, completely self-taught. Like
poets who have lisped in numbers, his pot-
hooks and hangers were drawings. The
covers of his books were filled with sketches;
and " while ho was engaged in sketching some
well-remembered landscape, or laughter-
" loving face, his schoolfellows busied them-
" selves in preparing his arithmetical excr-