The Press.
London, England, 1858-12-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 25, 1858.

blue sky of their friendship; they kiss, cry, and
confide, and all is serene again. Mrs. Ramsay,
with her quotations, is unpleasantly like Mrs.
Spencer in Mr. Shirley 13rooks's "Gordian
Knot," and little better than a caricature. The
other figures are evidently studied with some
care, are eminently polished, and probably quite
as worthy and entertaining as most of the people
we know in private life. The author (or shall
we say authoress ?) understands good manners
and good society, and finds the description of
them easy. But, then, we do not go to novels
for a full-length photograph of life, least of all
of life as it exists among the upper middle classes
of this country, than which no more uneventful
existence can be conceived. We go to them for
something more dramatic and concentrated—for
some shorthand of passion, and efflorescence of
humour, making us see our own experience in a
new point of view, and sending a stream of light
through the dark places of character. But for
anything of this sort " Hanworth" is not the
place to look. It is natural enough in conception
and description, and blameless in sentiment ; and
to those whom these qualities satisfy it may be safely
recommended. Others who have been accus-
tomed to more variety and vivacity, will hardly
find it up to the mark. The book of which
" Hanworth " most nearly reminds us is " Anne,"
by the author of " Granby," which was popular
about thirty years ago. he amiable elegance of
the personages, the mild species of uncertainty
in which the love-affairs are involved, and the
relative situation of the two principal characters,
are sufficiently similar to give any one who has
read the book to which we refer a tolerably cor-
rect notion of the kind of interest the volume
before us displays. But this, we fear, is rather
a case of ignotum per ignotius, and possibly the
shortest plan will be to call upon Lord Han-
worth himself, who will be found as affable and
courteous as it is possible for a "haughty aristo-
crat" to be, and will give every information
about himself and friends in the course of a short
interview.

Recollections of a Winter Campaign in India in
1857-58. By Captain 0. J. Jones, R.N.
London : Saunders and Otley.
THERE is something novel in the idea of a naval
captain writi❑g the history of a campaign fought
many hundred miles from the sad sea waves.
One would naturally expect that such a narrative
should be fresh, racy, and vigorous, not embel-
lished with rhetorical ornaments, but on the
contrary simple and even familiarly colloquial in
style, verging occasionally on egotism, but still
generous and cordial towards all comrades and
partners in peril, and, with all this, thoroughly
practical, sensible, and observant. Such pre-
cisely is the character of Captain Jones's history
of a winter campaign in India. Himself evidently
a hearty, genial, good fellow, fond of fun and
ever ready for a fight, he has penned a plain,
straightforward, ungrammatical, and—as he him-
self says—almost nautical account of the stirring
events in which the Naval Brigade and
53rd Regiment bore such an honourable part
during the winter of 1857-8. The numerous
engravings with which he has illustrated this
remarkable episode in his career are also exceed-
ingly characteristic and even humorously true to
the life. His sketches of his native servants are
particularly good, as are likewise the delineations
of travelling on the Grand Trunk Road, and of
domestic usages in " the tented field."
. .

But, although a naval officer, Captain Jones
did not serve in any recognized capacity. He
speaks of himself as an " outsider," though he
certainly was not that when there was any hard
fighting to the fore. having failed to obtain
employment from the Admiralty, the organ of
combativeness compelled him to proceed to India
as a volunteer, and to accompany every expedi-
tion which fell in his way that was likely to come
in for a fair share of rough practice. His
favourite character appear to have been that of
a " llorse Marine," in which costume he appears
on the titlepage—far more becoming, if also
more costly, than that in which he is seen enjoy-
ing a "mushuk " at the door of his tent. As far
as one can glean from these pages, the only
reward Captain Jones received for his chivalrous
daring, beyond the invaluable respect and esteem
of his comrades, was a severe wound on the right
hand from a tulwar, and a bad swelling under

the knee, which brought him to the use of
crutches. However, it is manifest that his object
in proceeding to the East was altogether uncon-
nected with mercenary motives. He went in
search of honour, and honour will be freely
awarded him by all who reverence manly courage
and deeds of knightly prowess.

As a specimen of the pleasant humour in which
Captain Jones ever and anon indulges, we shall
select the following anecdote current at Allah-
abad at the expense of the Naval Brigade, who
performed garrison duty in turn with the sol-
diers :

One who was on sentry on the main works of the fort
by moonlight, looking over the parapet saw another who
was sentry on the ravelin, or some outwork. Now, Jack,
though he could tell the head from the stern of a ship,
and perhaps of a horse, had not passed a competitive ex-
amination before his admission into the service, and no
doubt his education in fortification and engineering had
been sadly neglected, and therefore he was not aware that
the outwork was part of the fortification which he was so
vigilantly guarding, and seeing a man walking up and
down outside of what he considered the fort, and of course,
his head being full of spies, lurking sepoys, &c. &c.,
challenged him. The sentry on the outwork, not imagin-
ing that it was he who was the subject of his messmste's
anxious inquiries, held his peace, upon which Jack in the
fort let drive at Jack on the outwork.

The outwork Jack, a little taken aback by the musket-
ball whizzing near his head, sung out—" hallo ! that's your
game, is it, my buck ? Here's let drive at you then ! " and
immediately returned the fire.
On their being relieved and taken to the gaard•house,
all that passed between them was, " Well, I'm blowed,
Jack, but we are mortal bad shots—we arc."

Our author, though a genuine " old salt," had
a good eye for a real soldier. It is thus he de-
scribes the Punjaub Irregular Cavalry :

Contrasted with the 9th Lancers in appearance, though
equally efficient in their duty, were the squadrons of Pun-
jaubees under Probyn. Watson, and poor Younghusband.
Stern, wiry, dark looking men, tall and straight of limb,
their broad brows overhanging piercing black eyes—their
noses rather aquiline and well chiselled—their not too
full lips, which, when parted, showed teeth rivalling the
whitest ivory, and which were shaded by jet black
mustachios, proudly curled, and their chins covered with
silky black beards, carefully par el in the middle, and
combed outwards—their voluminously folded blue or red
turbans—their grey tunics and blight-coloured vests—their
silver-mounted firearms, curved scimitars, and lightly
poised lances—the gay caparisons of their well-bitted and
often thorough-bred horses—the ease and grace with which
they sat and managed them—their proud air and manly
bearing, plainly stamped them as belonging to the aristo-
cracy and chivalry of the northern countries of Asia; and
on all occasions in this war well and nobly have they
seconded the gallantry and daring courage of their dashing
leaders. They are all men of some property, and their
horses are their own.

His description of a camp is also excellent, but
too long to extract. Of the Enfield rifle he
speaks almost disparagingly, on account of its
proneness to become foul, and consequently use-
less. After the affair at the Kola Nuddee, where
some men fired seventy or eighty shots, the ar-
mourers of the 53rd Regiment were employed
some time in drawing the bullets, which had
stuck so fast that they were obliged to be bored
out. The belief in the accuracy and long range
of the arm is likewise prejudicial to its utility,
by leading to distant and indiscriminate " pop-
ping." The shells, too, employed at the final
reduction of Lucknow are described as having
become very defective through the wooden
fusees having been kept a long time in store.
This caused them to burn quickly and irre-
gularly. so that many of the shells burst long
before they reached their destination, occasioning
a waste of ammunition, and inspiring the enemy
with confidence.

With one more extract, and that of a painful
nature, we take leave of the pleasant jottings of
our naval cavalier, who has certainly won his
spurs in the good old style. He accompanied the
lamented Peel to witness the execution of the
Nawab of Furrukabad, a traitor and a murderer,
but still a man. The picture is revolting ; but
it is good to contemplate facts as they really
occur, and learn to realize them in our
mind's eye :

There is a principal street which runs through the
whole length of the town, which is divided by six or seven
gateways, some very handsome. Clone to the middle one
grew a fine tree, and this, from its central position, was
chosen for the place of execution, one of the branches of
the tree being made use of for the gallows. We found an
immense crowd collected, both of natives and inhabitants,
and of the idlers from the camp, besides a considerable
military force to maintain order. One would have thought
that, on so serious an occasion as that of an execution,
especially of a person of rank, there would have been some
decorum and decency of behaviour ; but on the contrary,
most people seemed to think very lightly of it, and were

1275

cutting their gibes and cracking their jokes. Some
country people came up with some poultry, which was
seized and sold by a mock auction, by an officer acting as
auctioneer; in the middle of which good/an the guard
with the convict arrived. He was tied down on a charpoy—
a sort of native bedstead—and carried under the fatal
tree, upon which he cast an anxious look when he saw the
nooso suspended therefrom. He was then stripped,
flogged, and hanged. He had on a handsome shawl,
which an officer took possession of on the spot—an action
which requires no comment The man behaved with
great firmness. While the rope was being adjusted, a
soldier struck him on the face ; upon which he turned
round with great fierceness, and said—" Had I bad a sword
in my hand, you dared not have struck that blow :" his
last words before he was launched into eternity. As Peel
and I rode home to the camp, we agreed that it would have
been much better to have conducted the execution with
more decorum ; and that such a display of jesting and
greediness, and the careless off-hand way with which it
was done, were more likely to make the natives hate and
despise us, than to inspire them with a salutary dread of
our justice.

Dust and Foam; or, Three Oceans and Two Con-
tinents. By T. Robinson Warren. London :
Sampson Low, Son, and Co.
Ix external appearance—in its neat and strong
cloth binding, its clear type and plain cut edges
(an excellent innovation !)—this book is the very
counterpart of the publication by the same firm
which was noticed in TUE PRESS of last week.
Like this latter, too, it is a book of travels, and
the traveller is an American. But here all resem-
blance ceases, and it would, perhaps, be difficult
to find two works ranging under the same cate-
gory more opposite in spirit and more antithe-
tical in the impressions they create. The elder
object of our critical attentions, Miss Johnson's
" Peasant Life in Germany," was moral in aim,
solid in matter, and earnest in tone. As to style,
it made no pretensions to any, but said its say
diffusely and somewhat confusedly, as though all
the exigencies of form were perforce neglected
amid the turgid fulness of substance. Mr.
Warren's Travels, on the other hand, are sug-
gested by that least moral of all stimulants, the
sacra fames auri. The material which he works
up is the light and frothy material—the storm-
painting, the landscape-painting, and the tableaux
de genre—which constitute the staple of tourists in
general. The tone he affects is the dashing and
original; and, with regard to style, there is an
evident straining at brilliancy and effect which
we would gladly dispense with now and then in
the humbler and more useful interests of—
grammar !
In spite, however, of the broad line of demar-
cation between " Peasant Life in Germany " and
" Dust and Foam," there are evidences of " corn-
patriotism" in the two books which cannot be
mistaken. If Miss Johnson represents Transat-
lantic energy under its missionary and rights-of-
woman aspect, Mr. Warren represents the same
characteristic no less accurately, and far more
familiarly, under its pushing and go•ahead
aspect. The motive power is the same in both ;
it is only the mechanism acted upon that
differs.

Mr. Warren, however, is less decidedly repub-
lican than his fair countrywoman. He has no
objection whatever to kings and queens, and
notes down with evident gusto his intimacy with a
lord. A rap, nevertheless, at the "mother
country " lets the cloven-foot peep out more
than once; and we trust we are not mistaken in
suspecting that the legitimate owner of that
foot—the Father of Lies himself—has had some-
thing to do with the following most anti-English
and un-English historiette

One unite of rooms on the corner of the Calle de Com-
mercio and the Plazs (at Limal were really quite elegant,
fitted up by a French upholsterer in the last French style,
with handsome mirrors and lit by gas, and in them I was
domiciliated on a subsequent occasion with my family,
much to our comfort. Shortly before oar occupancy quite
an interesting scene was enacted in them. Ou board of
one of the steamers coming down from Panama happened
to be passengers the English Envoy to Peru and the Aine•
rican Minister to Chili, and his wife; on the arrival of the
vessel at Callao both diplomatists sent their servants up to
Lima to Morin's Hotel to engage rooms, but neither of
them speaking Spanish, the major-domo by some mistake
or other thought that they both represented one master,
and consequently assigned them the same suite of rooms.
In an hour or two up drives the American and his wife,
and he is bowed into his apartments. Well pleased at
being so snugly housed, he refreshes himself, makes his
toilet, and goes out to call on the resident Minister, leaving
his wife to rest (in deshabille) from her fatigue. Scarcely
has he left the house before up drives the English Minister
and blusteringly demands to be led to his apartments, and
the servant conducts him to the door of the room occupied
by the American. 'Meanwhile the landlord, smelling a rat,

1276 THE PRESS, DECEMBER 25, 1858.

and instantly discovering his blunder, bowingly approaches
H.M. Minister, begs that monsieur will forgive his
error, and that he shall (xic) have rooms a thousand times
more comfortable, and all that sort of thing. But it's no
go ; the Englishman swears he will have the rooms, and
commences knocking at the door. The American lady,
throwing on a wrapper, opens the door, and on learning
the cause of the disturbance begs " his majesty "to desist
until her husband returns, when all will be arranged. But
his majesty is not to be appeased, insists upon the woman's
leaving at once, and uses most insulting language
—the ladv seeking protection in another room. Mes.i•
while the Yankee Minister returns, and on learning the
cause of the row, and that his wife has been insulted, seizes
the unlucky Brion by the neck and gives him a moat
tremendous hiding, breaking his cane over his head. He
then walks O his writing•desk and pens a challenge, which
a friend bears. But his majesty is not a fighting•man, and
so the affair ends.
Mr. Warren does not venture to narrate the
above story in the character of an eye-witness.
But he is, at any rate, responsible for the garnish
of vulgarity with which it is served up, and for
the, perhaps, still greater vulgarity deducible
from the mere credence given to such a tissue of
gross improbabilities.
Our patriotic indignation, however, must not
make us blind to our critical duties. The regions
to which Mr. Warren's vagabond spirit leads
him, are California, China, Polynesia, and the
Sandwich and Philippine Islands. As the latter
mentioned are less familiar to the travelled
reader, we shall take leave to accompany him to
Honolulu or Manila, rather than to S. Francisco,
Whampoa, or Melbourne.
Every one must be familiar with the strange
and fascinating accounts given by early voyagers
of those lovely islet groups included under the
collective name of Polynesia. With the soft
climate of Sicily, and the gorgeous vegetation of
Southern Asia, these ocean gems seemed to
realize the fabled )n7:4 ithaMtiVC4 of antiquity. Nor
were their inhabitants painted to us in less glow-
ing colours than the paradise in which they
were placed. The women especially woke an
enthusiam and a perturbation in the wonder-
loving mariner which no words were sufficiently
expressive to convey. Their grace, their un-
veiled beauty, their voluptuous charms, seemed
to stamp them, one and all, as de jure priestesses
of that Aphrodite, to whom, in classic days, their
sea-born islands would have been inevitably and
pre-eminently consecrated. As, however, our fa-
miliarity with these magical regions increased, the
less reverential feeling bred by that most un-
idealizing of influences began to assert its sway.
The darker side of the picture—and very dark it
was—came to its turn of examination. What had
before enthralled us as a terrestrial realization of
the paradise of Mahomet, revolted us now as the
loathsome haunt of the grossest and most ruth-
less depravity. Even the physical beauty which
had captivated the ,sense and won such glowing
encomiums, was pronounced a mere traveller's
tale; and M'Culloch's " Geographical Dic-
tionary " asserts that the females of the Sand-
wich Islands have " coarse and disagreeable
features," and that both sexes are alike "gloomy
and reserved." . _ _

_ .
It is not a little puzzling, in the teeth of this
mighty authority, to find the recent experience
of Mr. Warren harking up the older account of
Sandwich Island beauty, and reviving within us
the attractive reminiscences of Cook and Van-
couver :

The little town of Lahalos (he tells us) is embowered
in groves of cocoa-nut and bread•frnit, which form long
avenues, and beneath whose shade the picturesque cottages
are ranged, affording a delightful tropical picture. Around
their doors scores of girls were lounging, their beautiful
forms enveloped in long loose gowns, pendant from their
shoulders, and their beads surmounted with the jauntiest
little glazed cap, with a narrow rim, round the crown of
which an ostrich feather tastefully floated.
These girls are grace personified, and the very perfection
of physical beauty ; and, although copper•coloured, still
that is lost in their fall expressive eye and animated
features. Lolling upon a mat or cane soft, they would
motion you to a seat, when an impromptu flirtation 'rould
at once strike up in the most incomprehensible jargon of
Kanaka and bad English. However, a squeeze of the
hand or a gentle pressure of the waist alwa3s elucidates
any abstruse remark.
If the missionaries of Christianity have suc-
ceeded in reducing Polynesian " flirtations " to
such decorous limits as these, they may indeed
be proud of their achievements. Our traveller
accords eloquent praise to these noble conquerors,
but, turning to the other aspect of the picture,
indignantly adds :

self-sacrifice of their predecessors had given rise to in the
minds of these simple islanders, have established an auto-
eratic thraldotu of which they themselves are the head,
as despotic as is the tiovernment of the Rosales, highly
satisfactory-to their own pride and love of power, but of
incalculable injury to the interests of the religioo•of which
they are the high priests, and tending, by its restrictions
and shallow and transparent hypocrisy, to undo inwardly
all that has been effected in the true conversion of the
natives. With the government in their own hands, their
power is unlimited. The King, a mere puppet, scarcely
dares call his soul his own, but, surrounded by the tinsel
and pinchbeck paraphernalia of a ridiculous royalty, he
moves, as does his prototype on the chess-board, when and
where these republican players may indicate.

If the author's premises are true (and, as he is
speaking of his own countrymen, they may safely
be assumed so), few will deny the justness of these
conclusions. The demoralizing effect ofhis position
upon the " puppet king " is placed in the clearest
terms before us. his copper-coloured majesty
devotes every leisure moment left him by a
wearisome and unmeaning court etiquette, to
getting drunk, lounging about the hotels, and
playing billiards with the first comer. Mr.
Warren himself was edified by seeing " the old
" chap rolling around the streets with a bottle
" tucked under one arm and a Kanaka Wyheenie"
(Polynesian for a " social evil ") " under the other,
" both gloriously drunk."
" Dust and Foam " is quite amusing enough to
repay perusal. But there is a very decided
smack of republican vulgarity about it, and its
pretentious, though not fatiguing, style acquires
occasionally an extra tawdry air from the slip-
slop grammar which mars its pages. Take the
following by way of a specimen:—
There, too, we made acquaintance with the albatross.
At first sight I was disappointed, expecting to see a much
larger bird, but as they became less shy and ventured nearer
to us, I was astonished at their dimensions and charmed
with their graceful gyrations, or as unconsciously they, with
heads beneath their wing, slept peacefully upon the billow;
or, rising with the gale, 'hey madly wheeled and shrieked
as if glorying in the elemental strife.

Brother Jonathan insists, we believe, on being
the special guardian of that "English undefiled "
which the first settlers are supposed to have
carried over with them to Virginia in the year of
grace 1607. The lexicographical fame of the
great Samuel pales its ineffectual fires, we are
told, before the resplendant glory of Nat. Webster.
Without entering upon this knotty question—
without presuming to determine witether Quail
phrases as "riled a few," "hitch up the horses,"
take their origin nearer to the source of the
"pure well" than their British representatives—
we must express our regret that, while thus cle-
verly outrunning Dr. Johnson, these 'fransat•
lantic purists have allowed themselves to be so
shamefully distanced by Lindley Murray !

So nature from her seeming death
Fresh energy shall bring,
To give a new creation breath,
And wake another spring.
2. We turn with equal pleasure to the " Reward
Pictures, illustrating the Miracles of Our Blessed
Lord." This packet contains sixteen cards, each
surrounded by a golden border, and headed by a
very beautiful illustration of the particular miracle,
the account of which is given verbatim from the
New Testament. The chaste and attractive appear.
ance of the whole does not, however, constitute the
only merit of these cards. They are evidently ad.
dressed to imnressing the miracles of our Lord in-
delibly upon the memory of the pupil, and, as far as
may be without wearying the attention by com-
mentary, to explain the sense of the narrative. This
is most successfully accomplished by printing the
words which are most important, or upon which
special emphasis should be made, in " italics." It
the Bible is only put into the hands of our
poor children in this brief, attractive, and most im-
pressive form, we shall find less of that lamentable
ignorance both of the text and meaning of Scripture
so prevalent at the present day amongst the lower
orders. These cants have only to be seen to be at
once appreciated and plentifully distributed in our
schools nod cottages throughout the country.
a. "The Children's Almanack fur 1559" is also
very prettily got up. While conveying all the in-
formation customary in such publications, it contains
the addition of a Scripture text for each Sunday or
holy day throughout the year, and at the end of
each mouth some verses of poetry are quoted from
the best sources, calculate.i to draw the cnild's atten-
tion to whatever may bt; most important at the parti-
cular season. There is indeed nothing omitted in
this little Almanack which could at all come within
the reach of a child's capacity, end no child who can
read ought to be without it. We congratulate the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge on the
eminent merits of these three publications, and we
trust that its endeavours to meet the intellectual
wants and spiritual improvement of the poorer classes
will be encouraged and recompensed, by the clergy
especially, in a liberal distribution of "The Monthly
Flower Gaeden," "Time Reward Pictures," and "The
Children's Almanack."

The Monthly Flower Garden. London : The Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Reward Pictures, Illustrating the Miracles of Ovr
Blessed Lord. London The Christian K'i,w•
ledge Society.
The Children's Almanack for the Year :859. London
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
The simultaneous publication of these three little
works clearly proves that the Christian Knowledge
Society does not intend to rest under the imputation
of giving dry morals to the parochial world unaccom-
panied by any features of interest or other attractions.
The contents of the packet now before us, both as
regards composition and appearance, are some of the
best productions of the kind we have ever seen, and
deserve the special notice of the clergy for distribu-
tion in their schools and parishes.
1." The Monthly Flower Garden" comprise.s twelve
cards—one for every month in the year—each beau-
tifully illustrated with a seasonable flower on the one
side and a few verses of poetry on the other. These
latter aro ably written, and wc:ll deserve a higher place
in public esteem than in their present shape they
can possibly obtain. The imagery and diction are
very superior, combining great depth of feeling
with considerable facility of expression and refine.
ment of thought. The cards all bear the initials
"E. H. C.," and it is but just to say that whoever
may be indicated under these letters only requires
to cultivate a taste and ability already good, in order
to take a high rank among contributors to poetical
literature. We quote the following verses on

Now let the weary earth have rest :
Her autumn haves are abed,
And scarce a flower that decked her breast
But 'neath it now lies dead.
As the tired mother sleep*, at length
Her long day's labour done,
And gathers up her wasted strength
To meet to morrow's ettn ;

We sicken when we think that the successors of those
devoted men who so assiduously laboured in reclaiming
the savage from his degradation, taking advantage of the
natural feeling of raverenoe which the blameless lives and