The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-28 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 28, 1857.

Pilot°, has been cherishing the pleasing de-
" lusion that I should be the first to suggest
" the idea that the interior of Africa was a
" watery plateau of less elevation than flank-
,. ing hilly ranges." He points out also that
the sugarloaf-shaped land which forms the
Cape of Good Hope may be divided into three
longitudinal bands, each presenting distinct
peculiarities of climate and race. The centre
consists of vast undulating plains, without
much water, and subject to severe droughts.
The eastern band is mountainous, well
watered, and wooded, while the western is
level and barren. The dryness of the central
and western districts he attributes to the
prevalency of easterly winds, which absorb all
the humidity of the atmosphere. The races,
also, inhabiting these logitudinal bands pre-
sent distinct peculiarities. " Nowhere," says
Dr. Livingstone, "is the typical negro to be
" met with. They are all of negro extract,
" some races more than others, but none pre-
" sent the perfect negro type." To the east
and west the tribes are dark, but fringed by
races of lighter colour, while the central tribes
are again perfectly black. The lighter races,
the Makoiolo, hold the negrocs more or less in
subjection. With the exception of the Bush-
men who inhabit the Kalahari desert, and are
a purely nomadic race, all other tribes are
agricultural in their tastes, and possess also a
keen perception of the advantages of com-
merce. In every instance, Dr. Livingstone
relates, they displayed a real desire to discover
a road to the east and west coasts, whereby a
legitimate trade might be carried on. "I am
" perfectly satisfied," said Sekeletu to him, on
his return to Linyanti, "as to the great ad-
" vantages for trade of' the path which you
" have opened, and think that we ought to go
"to the Barotse, in order to make the way
" from us to Loanda shorter ; but with whom
"am I to live there ? If you were coming
" with us, I would remove to-morrow, but now
" you are going to the white man's country to
" bring Ma Robert, and when you return, you
" will find me near to the spot on which you wish
"to dwell." As to the conclusions to be drawn
from Dr. Livingstone's African experience
with respect to the prospects of missions
in these districts, one thing is clear,—that
commerce anti Christianity must go hand
in hand. Some of the tribes are anxious for
instruction—they are all eager for trade ;
there are impediments to instruction,
but trade will overcome every obstacle, and
will prove an invaluable aid to missionary
effort. Slow to coma to any decision on reli-
gious matters, the African is keenly alive to
his own interests. " Sending the Gospel to the
heathen," writes Dr. Livingstone with sound
practical good sense, " must include much
" more than is implied in the usual picture of
"a missionary going about with a Bible under
"his arm "

The promotion of commerce ought 'to be specially
attended to, as this, more speedily than anything else,
demolishes that sense of isolation which heathenism en-
genders, and makes the tribes feel themselves mutually
dependent on, and mutually beneficial to, each other.
With a view to this the missionaries at liaruman got per-
mission from the Government for a trader to reside at the
station, and a considerable trade has been the result ; the
trader himself has become rich enough to retire with a
competence. Those laws which still prevent free com-
mercial intercourse among the civilised nations seem to
be nothing else but the remains of our own heathenism.
hly observations on this subject make me extremely de-
sirous to promote the preparation of the raw materials of
European manufactures in Africa, for by that means we
may not only put a stop to the slare-trade, but introduce
the negro family into the body corporate of nations, no one
member of which can suffer without the others suffering
with it. Success in this, in both Eastern and Western
Africa, would lead, in the course of time, to a much larger
diffusion of the blessings of civilisation than eff.ots ex-
clusively spiritual and educational confined to any one
small tribe. These, however, it would of course be ex-
tremely desirable to carry on at the same time at large
central and healthy stations, for neither civilisation nor
Christianity can be promoted alone. In fact, they are
inseparable.

This view we have consistently advocated in
this Journal, and we are proud to find so
eminent an authority in our favour. We may
rely upon it that commerce, and by commerce
Christianity, is the internal remedy we must
apply to extirpate the slave trade, and to
abolish the vices and miseries of savage life
Christianity unsupported by commerce will
never take root in the country. The people,
writes Dr. Livingstone, " do not desire the

" Gospel, because they know notbing of either
" it or its benefits, but their instinct teaches
" them to value .the advantages of trade.'
This is one great result of Dr. Livingstone's
travels, and if (as we believe ho must) he suc-
ceed in impressing these views upon the philan-
thropic heart of this country, he will open a
future fur Africa of which no man can predict
the limits. On a future occasion we will
examine the results of Dr. Livingstone's reli.
gious teaching among the natives, and of his
observations upon► the condition and customs
of the various tribes with whom he was thrown
in contact.

Debit and Credit. A Novel. By Gustav
Freytag. From the Original, with the
Sanction of the Author, by Mrs. Malcolm.
London : Bentley.
" DEB►T and Credit " is a three-volume Ger-
man novel—as big, we mean, as an English
three-volume. It is written with a purpose,
and contains an allusion to " the Beautiful " in
the dedication. These are discouraging facts
for those who have counted upon it as an
addition to their stores of light reading for the
winter evenings. It certainly does require
some amount of resolution to commence a
book which, it is hinted, is an attempt " to
" hold before the people a mirror in which
" they might see their own capabilities," and
is prefaced by re►►►arks on the difficulty of
giving the noblest form to the beautiful, and
the impossibility of preventing a flow of hatred
from the pen "in times when the most violent
" political passions force themselves into the
" life of every individual." Nor is confidence
likely to be restored when it is perceived that
the author's operations with the mirror and
the beautiful extend to some five hundred
closely printed pages. It is only fair, there-
fore, to inform our readers that the introduc-
tory observations to " Debit and Credit" are
no indication of the tone of the work, being
merely a sort of obligate preliminary flourish,
analogous to that braying of trumpets and
banging of gongs amid which we used to pay
our penny at Greenwich to see the pink-eyed
lady and the diorama of Richmond-hill by
moonlight. They were meant, no doubt, like
the clock in The Critic, to beget an awful
attention in the audience, but we imagine the
sole effect on the mind of an English reader
will be to excite a suspicion that he is about
to encounter a politico-economical essay in
the disguise of a novel, or a treatise on the
solidarity of peoples, or the soul-elevating in-
fluence of art-creations aesthetically considered,
with a slight infusion of romance to take the
chill off. Such is not the case, however.
" Debit and Credit" is a straightforward, un-
pretending story, pleasantly and cleverly
written, and perfectly free from any trace of
highflown philosophy or exaggerated senti-
ment. In fact, it may be characterised as
quiet, as well in general tone as in description,
in the drawing of the characters, and in hu-
mour, of which latter quality there is not a
little. But the great charm of the book lies
in tits fine healthy feeling and naturalness : it
may be a little longer than the exigencies of
the tale justify, but Herr Freytag is too kindly
a genial a writer to be ever tiresome, even
ART the interest less skilfully sustained
throughout. On the whole, though we cannot
quite concede that he has produced the wonder
of wonders which has been claimed for him,
we must say his "Debit and Credit" is the
pleasantest contribution to light literature we
have had for some time from a German
source.
The main plot is of the very simplest con
struction. It is Hogarth's "Two Apprentices"
in a nineteenth-century dress, and with Ger-
man properties. The relations of good and
evil are more complicated now than they were
a hundred years ago; such has been the pro-
gress of civilisation and the improvement in
public morals that a villain to be sue, essful
must be a respectable man, and industry and
idleness will never serve again as distinctive
attributes of the good and the bad. Veitel
Itzig, the bad boy of Herr Freytag's tale, is to
the full as industrious, persevering, laudably
ambitious, and little given to low dissipation
as Anthony Wohlfart, his opposite. He shows

1161

his badness solely in preferring the oblique to
the direct course in his dealings, and in con-
sequence finds himself placed in circumstances
that compel him to commit a murder, and
perishes miserably in trying to escape the
penalty of his crime. Wohlfart, on the other
hand, is fortified in his position of good hero
by the virtues of integrity, self-denial, and
self-sacrifice, and, like Frank Goodohild,
marries into his master's family and becomes
a great merchant. We must say, however,
if the good boy deserves the plum he gets in
the last chapter, it is plain from the first that
the bad one has no chance whatever of escap-
ing his whipping. Poor Itzig, a Jew, marvel-
lously ill-favoured, and with a congenital taste
for knavery, is thrown adrift on the world at
an early age ; he wriggles himself into the
service of one Herr Ehrenthal, a scheming
trader and money-lender; he studies the mys-
teries of his profession with such assiduity
that he soon becomes a more skilful practi-
tioner than his employer ; he starts in busi-
ness on his own account, and ends as has been
already mentioned, and we really do not see
how anything else could have been expected
under the circumstances. Wohlfart, on the
other hand, a well-brought-up youth, the son
of pious and honourable parents, makes his
start in life as junior clerk in the house of
Herr Schroeter, who is evidently intended to
be the type of the highminded and upright
merchant, as Ehrenthal is of the opposite. On
his way to the capital to enter on his new
calling, he wanders into the pleasure-grounds
of a nobleman's country mansion, and pauses
in admiration at the signs of a wealth and
magnificence to which he is u

:-

A respect for all who were high in position and of noble
family was innate in the son of the poor auditor ; and now,
when, in the midst of all his delight at the grandeur that
surrounded him, his thoughts turned to himself, he felt so
entirely insignificant as not to be worth speaking of—a
kind of social Tom Thumb, scarcely visible on the grass.
Involuntarily he pot his hand into his pocket to get h►s
gloves ; they were of yellow thread, and his good mother
had said they looked like silk, and silk gloves were con-
sidered in Ostrau the greatest of luxuries; so the poor
youth put them on with the firm conviction that through
them he became in some measure more worthy of the
scene around him.

To add to his feelings of awe and rapture, two
ladies make their appearance, and as he is
retiring he is overtaken and accosted by the
younger of the pair, who turns out to be the
only daughter of the Baron Rothsattel, the
owner of the domain. An intimacy is thus
commenesd which influences to a great extent
the career of young Wohlfart. He proceeds
to the capital with his head full of the Frau-
lein Leonora ; he dreams about her, and is
seized with a longing fur the society of his
superiors in social position. He does not,
however, neglect his business, or forget that
that he is only the junior clerk in the office of
T. 0. Schroeter. He enters upon his duties
with enthusiasm, and speedily becomes one of
the most active and methodical of the em-
ployes. The descriptions of the counting-
house and its occupants are among the best
things in the hook, and are almost as graphic)
and original as if they came from the pen of
Nathaniel Hawthorne Here are the portraits
of Anthony's colleagues, as they appeared
to him on his first introduction into their
society :

There was the book-keeper, Herr Liebold, an elderly
little man with a small voice, and a modest smile, which
seemed to ask everybody's pardon for taking the liberty to
exist. He spoke little, but when he did there was one
remarkable peculiarity in his conversation; he retracted
in the last part of his speech what he had maintained in
the first : for instance, " T almost think the tea too weak,
but strong tea, indeed, is very unheathy," and so on.
There was Herr Piz, the despotic wielder of the black
brush in the hall, a decided character, who seemed die-
posed to consider all human relations as retail business,
respectable perhaps, but trivial. As there was a chair
wanting in the room, he disdainfully pushed a small table
near to that on which the tea was laid, swung himself
across it, and remained sitting astride there the whole
evening. There was Herr Specht, who talked a great deal,
and started strong propositions which everyone disputed.
He maintaine 1 that China was governed by a constitution
differing very little from the English, and defended vehe-
mently the opinion that snail soup was the favourite dish
of the late Emperor Napoleon. Besides these, there was
Herr Baumann, a slim gentleman, with shortcut hair,
and a thoughtful, serious turn of mind, who went to
church every Sunday, took a part in all missionary
societies, and, as all his colleagues told him, had the inten-
tion of becoming some day himself a missionary. He
delayed it, however, front a lAitd of *WO habit of