The Press.
London, England, 1858-01-30 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JANUARY 30, 1858.

The third century is characterised by its
want of order and central unity—by its
numerous competitors for power, anti by the
absence of settled government or security for
property. These evils were increased in the
fourth through the additional elements of dis-
cord introduced by the settlement of the Goths ;
but mitigated in some degree by the establish-
ment of Christianity. Of the succeeding
period one great feature is the growth of eccle-
siastical authority ; to which, however, the
sixth century presents a formidable antago-
nist in the person of Mahommed, the conquests
of whose successors bring us to the close of
the next, and are in the eighth diverted from
Christendom by the conquest of Charles
Martel. During the same time, the monar-
chical principle is being restored in the State
by Charlemagne, and introduced in the
Church by the exaltation of the Bishop of
Rome to sovereign power. Want of space
obliges us to omit his characterisations of the
remaining centuries.

Mr. White is generally accurate, or we
should not have ventured, in spite of his good
writing, to recommend him; but we think that
in one or two instances his views are not borne
out by the support of other historians. At
p. 394 he says, speaking of Charles V., " Sel-
" fish as Henry, dissolute as Francis, obstinate
"as Martin [Luther], his career was now
" drawing to a close." Without feeling any
enthusiasm for Charles V., it must surely be
admitted that the author here does him great
injustice. Selfish and obstinate he un-
doubtedly was, but dissolute, in the sense in
which the term is applied to the French king,
he was not. No one, of course, could assert
him to have been a man of immaculate mo-
rality : he had, in fact, one or more natural
children. But this is very different from the
shameless excesses which disgraced his rival
to almost the last hour of his existence, and
which,unlike the Emperor's quiet gormandising
at Yuste, were blazoned in the face of the whole
world. Again, Mr. White's view of the tenets
of the Albigenses is different from that which
is usually entertained. He benevolently sup-
poses them to have been calumniated in being
charged withManicheism,but Hallam,Michelet,
Henri Martin,and Dean Milman support the op-
posite view, and, unless he has had access to
fresh evidence, we do not see how that which
has been brought forward by these writers is to
be overthrown. The question of the real guilt of
the Templars (on the occasion of their aboli-
tion in 1314) is more obscure : Mr. White
appears disposed to take their side, and re-
marks, truly enough, that if they had con-
tinued strong no accusations would ever have
been heard of. But we should like to have
known what he thinks of the testimony which
Von Hanmer-Purgstall professes to have de-
rived from an examination of their monu-
ments, and which has inclined even the im-
partial Hallam, according to his latest views,
to favour their condemnation. We must also
notice one strange oversight. No account is
eiven of the taking of Constantinople by the
Turks !

This book, on the whole, appears to be
exactly suited for that large class of persons
who, without being ignorant of modern his-
tory, have vague ideas both of particular
epochs and of its general progress and connec-
tion. It presupposes some knowledge, and
would be useless to a mere beginner; so that
the reproach which has been cast upon it of
being " likely to promote the conceit and
" superficiality of the lower portion of the
" middle classes" will thus fall to the ground.
No one, we think, who reads it will fail to find
it stimulate his curiosity and lead him to fol•
low the author about among his authorities;
and we could imagine no more improving occu-
pation for a slightly-advanced historical stu-
dent than to go through it and supply it by
his own research with all its appropriate refe-
rences to larger works. Neither such students
nor even the more cursory reader will, we are
persuaded, find their time thrown away in its
perusal. We hope to meet Mr. White again,
and will venture to suggest that the Land-
marks of Ecclesiastical History" would form a
good subject for his pen.

115

The Timely Retreat ; or, a Year in Bengal
Before the Mutinies. By Two Sisters. Lon-
don : Bentley.
Ix speaks well for the application of science
to the purposes of transport and for the
general facilities of travel, when we find two
young sisters—we feel confident of their youth
—Nora and Maud, instead of contenting them-
selves with Florence or the South of France for
the winter, quietly packing their boxes and
taking return tickets for Calcutta and back.
And there is a more serious consideration in-
volved in this fact. Young women appear
to be upon the verge of discovering that men
are in the way as travelling companions, and
that " unprotecteds " obtain attention in the
exact ratio of their utter helplessness, by
exciting a rivalry in the hearts of every two
men thoy meet. To say the least of it, this
must be more pleasant than being tied to a
fellow who has no sympathy for any ill the
travelling flesh is heir too, no heart for the
frailty of a bandbox, and who, if he every
morning pay the hotel bill and look after the
luggage, assumes a right to be disagreeable
for the rest of the day. If we wish to preserve
our rights of protection over our sisters, we
must reform our evil ways, be cheerful over
their luggage, and amusing upon the items
of their hotel bills. But let us leave this
abstract question, and hasten to the case in
point. The two young sisters who present us
with their reminiscences of a tour in India, one
day in November, 1855, in a wild fit for adven-
ture, resolved upon making a dash on their
brother at Meerut. London was empty, and Paris
was dull, and the " brilliant idea" crossed
their minds that they might " just run out
" alone overland to India, take a peep at Keith
" and the country, and be back in next to no
" The more they thought of it the
more " delightful " the plan appeared, for
besides the complete novelty, and the dash of
independence and adventure that seasoned
the plan, an unusual opportunity of collecting
an outfit " of unparalleled elegance," presented
by the close of the French Exhibition, more
fully decided them. " Mamma" saw ob-
jection to the scheme—fiftythree dresses
a-piece were purchased, besides " an immense
variety " of nondescript articles, including,
we presume, some of the loveliest Paris
bunnets and boots; the boxes were packed,
the tickets were taken, and off our fair young
travellers started for Southampton and
Calcutta.

Leave-taking is always unpleasant, and
our two Sisters enjoyed all that luxury of
wretchednes leaving home inflicts upon im-
pressible natures. Your prospects never look
promising at that particular moment :
Never can I forget the dreary desolation of that after-
noon : utterly rejecting all the steward's offers of consola-
tion in the shape of dinner or tea, we spent our time in
wondering bow we could have been such fools as to under-
take the journey at all, and reiterating to each other our
unalterable determination to return within the twelve-
month—while, to complete our miseries, that dreadful
band struck up in the saloon, and we were almost driven
frantic by being compelled to listen to all the waltzes and
gallops of last season, bringing up such vivid pictures of
bygone days, when we never dreamt that steamboats and
India were so soon to be our lot..
The route from Southampton to Suez is
tolerably well known, and our Sisters met
with the usual adventures they saw the
Sphinx and " did" the Pyramids, and we are
bound to say bore that test of temper, crossing
the Desert, with commendable patience. At
Suez, however, Miss Nora discovered that she
had sustained a fearful loss at the hands of
the Arabs. One of her bags was stolen, and
it was the bag which contained " a complete
" set of hair-cushions rollers, anti two lovely
" plaits of hair," with which Miss Nora with
wise precaution had stocked herself, to guard
against the possible ravages of fever.
At Suez you awake for the first timo to a full
consciousness of one feature of Oriental life
—your cabin is usually full of cockroaches :
The Bengal was swarming with cockroachesof enormous
size, and in a rampant state of hunger and liveliness,
apparently ready to attack anything. Hundreds were
slaughtered in the energetic chase that immediately com-
menced, but the more you killed the more numerous their
companions became, till at length, despairing and fatigued
we sat down to contemplate cur position. Mrs. de Vim
stood for two hours outside her cabin, deaf to the expostu-
lations of her husband and the stewardess, positively re.

116

fusing to re-enter it unless the body of that cockroach she
had seen was brought oat to her.
The cabin bulkheads in these steamers are
very slight, and conversations are easily over-
heard. Next to our Sisters was a newly-
married couple, one of whom decidedly dis-
approved of cockroaches by night :

"George, I'm certain I heard something crawling."
No response, George being in the land of Nod. " George,"
loader, " are you asleep ? There's a oockroaoh. Oh,
dear George, do get up and kill it." Some sleepy-toned
remonstrance implies he'd rather not. " George, I'll
never love you any more if you don't instantly look for
that cockroach." And on no response being made to this
terrine threat, a sound of weeping and lamentation ensues
of ever having left her dear mamma and her home far ea
unfeeling wretch who doesn't care it she is happy or
miserable. By this time the original instigator of the
matrimonial fracas, the offending cockroach, has marched
off, leaving the unhappy George wide awake, and fully
aroused to the necessity of consoling and soothing the
delicate object of his affections, while every gnff within
earshot is shaking with laughter, and longing to cry out
" Encore I"

Calcutta was reached in due time, without
any very striking adventures, and after a short
stay, our Sisters—who thought Calcutta hot,
stupid, and scandalous—started up country
by dikk to Meerut The description of the
journey and its incidents is given with great
vivacity. Hero is one par exemple :
That first day passed off very well; and when the coach-
man arrived up to titue in the evening, we startel, flatter-
ing ourselves our journey was going to be the easiest
thing possible. The farther we got from Calcutta, how-
ever, the worse our horses became. Every six miles you
arrive at a " chokee," and change horses; harnessing each
fresh horse was the signal for a scene of biting, kicking,
plunging, and rearing, that would have sent most lathes at
house into fits. The horses seemed perfectly unbroken ;
and when, by main force and the assistance of several
coolies, the harnessing was effected, the creature would
stand on her hind-legs for some momenta, and then insist
on turning round to take a good look at us, or at the back
of the carriage, so that we momentarily expected it to
, upset. Sometimes they were dragged out, roaring,
screaming, and biting, like tigers, and, when harnessed by
superior strength, positively refused to move at all • on
which some dozen coolies flung themselves on the wheels,
and, turning them round, pushed the gharrie on the hind-
quarters of the animal ; and if this proves ineffectual, they
tie a rope to his fore-legs, and drag him on till he is com-
pelled to move. It appeared to be an understood thing
between the quadrupeds and bipeds engaged in the struggle,
that if the former was once got into notion, it must go on
to the next chokee, which, atter resisting to the last, fur
form's sake, it generally did at full gallop, making tap for
oat time, and then yielding its place to the next in order,
who went through precisely the same tnanceavres. At
first it was impossible not to feel somewhat anxious as to
what our fate in the melee might be: but afterwards we
earns to look to these constantly-recurring scenes at the
chokees as the ohiesonrce of amusement and excitement
through the night, and felt quite defrauded of our rights
when any mild-tempered animal allowed itself to be quietly
harnessed, and proceeded on its way without giving any
trouble. When a horse totally refuses to move on, these
ingenious people have a mode of lighting a fire under-
neath the animal, and when the heat becomes painful,
the creature gallops off; but I am assured ( though 1
never saw it) that the horses sometimes become so

cunning as to ;West the aim of their tormentors by lying
down on the fire, and so extinguishing it.
After many such adventures, and a capsize
or two, Meerut was at length reached.
Once at Meemt, Indian life was seriously
entered upon. For two " griffs," one would
suppose that even Indian life as it was would
present some features of interest; but after
the first few days, it is quite clear that the
Sisters felt it to be intolerably tedious. They
did their best, however, to render it bearable.
They organised dinner-parties, even ven•
tured on a ball before they had been many
weeks at their brother's house, and acanda-

listed the whole station by such frightful in-
fractions of the red-tape decorum then prevalent
in India—such as talking and laughing while
listening to the band on the course, and wear-
ing cherry-coloured bows to their white satin
shoes—as put some life into the poor mortals
at Meerut. Their bachelor brother, who
lived upon tea and Moorghie cutlets all the year
round, and submitted without resistance to
the peculations of his servants, soon had his
household turned topsy-turvy, his hooks put
in order, his weekly bills keenly scrutinised,
and his table maintained with credit to his
kitchen. These little reforms were not
carried without difficulty. Native servants
are polite, but obstinate, and regarded the
" missies " with no very friendly eye. But kind
words and the support of the master of the
carried .erything before them, and
we feel sure, became a
Our Sisters seemed to
pleasant life ; they rode

house carried every%
Keith's bungalow, w
model for bachelors.
Jaye led a sufficientlj