The Express.
London, England, 1859-11-01 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 1, 1869.

HIPPOPOTAIWS-8/10011110.— Orth day, Whim on
the Tanga river, Pair the ma* I was Welly swaged
fig kippag•Smil, with an sea, a peiesseen. la a very
small sense, jam 'gable earrytag what II had on
myself in the bows, with my 4-bear Massa la bead, while
Captain Burton's measter etepliant-gun, a doubt•-buralled
411-bore, weighing, I believe, Saks., was lying at the stern la
the poises oliarga. The the was • tidal sae, of no great
brenkh, gni the minds weir erivand loy • thick grove of the
thogrisiv shrub, on the houghs sif which the sharp-edged
shells if the tree-oyster stock In things and dusters is
great annebere. The beet tans is catch the hippopotamus is
when the ads is out, and the beaks are bared, for then you
Ind kb* wallowing in the mud or basking on the sand (when
Hen is may), like jungle-hog, end with a well-directed shot
era the ear, or anywhere about the brain-pan, you bay. a
good chance of mewing him. I especially mention this, as
It is quits labour In vain, be places where the water is deep,
to fire at these sahnsls, unless you can kill them outright, as
they dive under like • watee-rat, and are never men more if
they are sly wounded. I, like meat raw hands at this por-
tage:al kind of 'part, began in a very different way from
what, I think, a more experienced banter would
have deass, by chasing them in the water, and
firing at their heeds whenever they appeared above
It; sad ease fired clop about their eyes and ears,
in hopes that I might irritate them sufficiently to
make them charge the canoe. This testing dodge proved
pretty successful, for when the tide had run dean oat, only
pools and reaches, connecting by shallow runnels the volume
of the natural stream, remained for toe hippopotami to sport
I about in ; and my mauouvring in these c places became
so irritating, that a large female came rapidly under water
to the stern of the cacaos, add gave It ruck n sudden and violent
cent with her head or withers that that end of the veinal
shot up in the air, aad sent me sprawling on my back, with
my legs forced up by the seat—a bar of wood—at right
angles to my body ; whilst the poler and the big double pan
were driven like a pair of abatdecocke, flying right and left
of the came high op into the air. The gnu on one side fell
plump into the middle of the stream, and the man on the
other dropped, poet fleet, on to the hippopotamus's back,
bat rapidly scrambled back late the canoe. The hippo-
potataaa then, ea I these animals' wont, remised the attack,
bat I was ready to receive her, and as she came rolling por-
poise-fashion, close by the side of the canoe. I tired • quarter
of a pound of lead, backed by bar drams of powder, into the
middle of her lack, the muzzle of the rifle almost touching
it. She then sank, arid 1 never saw her more; but the gun
(after lying on the sandy bottom the whole of that night) I
insolent d, by the aid of several divers, to find on the follow-
ing day.—Copt, Speke in Bleekwood's ilaga:ine, fee No-
'mbar.

WHO WILL 86T THE FASHION ?—The Pieclizon-
tans here a S.. independent bearing worthy of their
Ligurian ancestors; and the women, generally speaking, are
very handsome, with especially good eyes, eyebrows, and
hair. None of them wear the pretty fresh anow•white
cambric cep so characteristic of their sisters in the north of
France, and the Antwerp nurse.. A grieett• of Nice has
her hair becomingly dressed, end a wile cep profusely
bedizened with showy ribbnne, and often quite dingy with
dust, placed bke the lately fashionable bonnet very far heck
on the heed. Some pattonlse a fringed kerchief of bright-
coloured wool or silk, which, fastened behind with gay piss
and tied under the chin, forms a greenlet enough coiffure.
Others have thick rolls of black velvet twined round the
head with long elide hanging down. On deadeye and fire
daa s this simple coronet is set a by massive gold ear-ringe,
and every day you see both young and old women with
throat-bands of black velvet clasped is front by a heart-shaped
gold ornament with pendant MIS. dome matrons trout the
neighbouring villages wear a singular little cap. with a
booed flyaway border standing back from the face; and
mciesionaily you observe a well-dewed stranger in the
pretty Genoese scarf of whits muslin, which, pinned among
the back plaits of heir, end falling in soft folds over the neck
and ehouldrra, has a most 'tanneries appearance. Those
simple and elegant national heed-dresses! When will the
mothers end daughters of England, known all over the
world fur their had Mete in dress, thecard the Miff ugly
bonnet, hot in Immune sad cold in winter, and take to hoods
as in days far more remote than those or the Apectetor
What English lady with reek, wealth, end been,' on her
aide, will Seat art the fashion for ell to follow Y—Frarcr's
aege:iter, for November.
'tug PEZACHEE'd DISIAPPOINTMENT.—MT. Neale
related a story of "an eminent living prelate," who with
the greatest good hammer Is accustomed to serrate tee Mai-
dent himself as a wattling to his clergy to preach plainly.
While he war still serving a coney, he was anxious to try
his hand at evasive*e presetting, and accordingly took for his
text, '• The tool bath said in has heart there is no Gird." Gs
this subject he dwelt, much to his satiefection, for the mail
time ; he proved from the work, of creation, from the con-
struction of our own bodies, and from the other usual topics,
thee there must be a creative power, and that creative power
is Gol. lie came down from the pulpit with the comfortable
convietkin that he had not done so badly after .11. Happen-
leg to walk boom with a Griner who had attended the err-
vice, he was anxious to learn what Impression he bad pro-
duced, and seenrdlogly made some ob.-ovation which led to
the point he wished to introduce. " A very capital sermon
you gave es, Mr. 8.," remarked c uopenlon, "but some.
how, I can't help thinkins there be • God, for ail you said."
—Ueitieesed Nevisto. for November.

Museum OP PATENTS, BOCTII KENSINGTON.—
Number of visitors for the week ending October 29 :—Morn-
tugs, 1,400; overlie" 679 ; total, 1.979. Since the °peeing
of Use museum free daily (thy 12, 1868), 167,200.
'LOYAL FREE HOSPITAL, GRAY'S TRN-ROAD.—
Us somber of patents relieved at this begone], daring the
weak
cummem October 24), is 2,362, of which 630 wore maw

LITBRATUBE.

Sword and Gown. By the Author of " Guy Living
stone" (originally Published in Fraser'. Afornine).-
J. W. Parker. . . _

There is a strong interest in this novel, and as the
tale is a short one the interest is kept up to the end.
The characters are not too numerous, and they are
skilfully contrasted, though all belonging to the
region of conventional good society. The sort of
person typified by "Sword" is represented by one
Rayston Keene, a gallant but rather terrific dragoon,
whose fieroeness and determined bearing have earned
him the regimental sobriquet of the Cool Captain,
though by this time he ranks as major. This irre-
sistible hero, being a lady-killer as well as a man-
killer, and equally cruel in both kinds of destructive
exploit, succeeds by the fascination of his imposing
countenance and manners, enhanced by dark piercing
eyes and copious moustache, in subduing Miss Cecil
Tresilyan, a graceful and queenly but not very pru-
dent young lady. The more's the pity, for she is not
judiciously taken care of, her brother Dick, who has
brought her to winter at Dorado, on the sunny Pro-
venoe shore, being no better than a stupid and igno-
rant squire. The Cool Captain proves overwhelming,
and in the presence of his fatal attractions the in-
fluence of " Gown," in the meek ;lemon of the Rev.
Mr. Fullerton, who ventures, as a tangly man him-
self and a somewhat officious friend of MiAll
Trail-
yen's, to pas in a word of remonstrance, oomes to
nothing. An accident, which tests the manhood of
the clergyman and the soldier, brings their moral
antagonism to a crisis. Having strayed across a
peasant's field the party encounter menace and
insult from this ruffian, who goes so far as to snatch
away the lady's parasol as a material guarantee
for his compensation. Her reverend guide,
being neither athletic nor courageous enough to
punish this outrage, is utterly eclipsed by the
sudden arrival of the Cool Captain. A brisk though
brief affair of pugilism, consisting of a single knock-
down blow from the accomplished Englishman, is
here introduced. In "Adam Bede," and one or two
of Mr. Kingsley'. novels, the requisite display of the
hero's physical-force ability takes place through a
well-sustained bruising match of half-an-hour; but
here, the opponent being a Frenchman, we have the
prompt overthrow of the intrusive blackguard (a.-
companied by two pages of declamation about the
disgusting behaviour of the sonsesdattes in 1792), and
the Cool Captain's magnificent person is unruffled.
Not so his temper, which goes so far to the devil
that, kneeling on the prostrate Frenchman's chest,
and with a deadly gripe of the throat, he actually
proceeds to murder the canaille by sheer strangula-
tion. The clergyman, reminding him of divine
and human laws, is shoved aside, and the
fallen foe, already black in the face, is only
allowed to survive at Miss Cecil's interces-
sion. After such a brilliant display of muscular
energy and " Bereekir rage," the Rev. Mr. Fuller-
ton, by comparison, may well fret under his own
humiliation. Having learnt, however, the existence
of a wife whom the major does not choose to own,
he gets a moment of revenge and fancied triumph,
with the satisfaction of putting Miss Tresilyan on
her guard, by casually mentioning the fact that there
is a Mrs. Keene. The suppressed fury of the Cool
Captain and the doting girl's despairing astonish-
ment
may be conceived, as well as the terror of poor
Mr. Fullerton, when he next meets the lion in hie
lonely path, and has to pay dearly for his temerity,
though not with a beating, with a crushing infliction
of seltcontempt. In spite, then, of this hapless
clergyman's interposition, the mischief goes on. By
a pathetic explanation of his wretched marriage the
conquering hero disarms Miss Trmilyan's resentment,
and after all he persuades her to elope. She is on the
point of taking this shameful step, when a former
rejected lover of hers, Mr. Mark Waring, barrister
of the Inner Temple, comes in time to save her.
Though he be not such a fire-eater as his boer-
spearing, Sikh-sabring rivsl, Mark Waring is valiant,
honest, and true. He prevails on the erring Cecil to
write a note putting of the. elopement sins die, and
to go safe home. He then boldly conveys the note
to Major Keene, avows his interference, and defies
the seducer's vengeance, while refusing on principle
to fight a duel. Somehow, by this exhibition of dis-
interested virtue and honourable affection, the
libertine's hard and haughty heart is melted, and his
wicked game is given up. Mark Waring deserves
to find conselation for the loss of a foolish love, but
we are told that he goes back to " gnash his teeth"
in his lonely chambers. As for the Cool Captain,
military gentlemen when they have dons amiss
enjoy the enviable privilege of going to be killed.
He gets speared to death by the Cossacks in the
Light Cavalry charge at Balaklava ; but he does not
quite die until the penitent and forgiving tenderness
of Cecil Tresilyan, as one of Miss Nightingale's
Sisters of Mercy, has visited his bedside in the Hos-
pital of Scutari. We believe she has since emigrated
to America. Such is the story, and it is very forcibly
, related.

Macmillan's Magazine. Edited by DAVID MASSON.
November. Macmillan and Co.

Just when the era of monthly magazines appeared
to be passing away, we are suddenly startled by the
announcement of two, under the auspices of editors
and publishers of the highest name and mending.
We have before us the first number of " Macmillan's
Magazine," edited by Professor David Masson,
and if there be really a public for monthly
magazines of a superior order the present enter-
prise starts well. The opening paper, on the " Poli-
tics of the Present," by the editor, is written with
emphatic fervour of expression, generosity of feeling,
end a broad liberal purpose ; and then we come to
what will, we suppose, be called " a great feature"
in the magazine—namely, a sequel to " Tom Brown's
School Days," by the author of that famous story.
We cannot say that thew first chapters of " Life at
Oxford" make us long very keenly for what
is coming ; the follies of " fast life" at the
University, and the errors of a freshman,
,have been caricatured abundantly before by inferior
though not inadequate humourists ; and the only life
at Oxford worth relating as an example, the life of
study we mean, offers few salient points to the
novelist. No doubt, however, Tom Brown at
Oxford will be a first-rate specimen of young Eng-
lish manhood, and will teach us how fast life
without its folly and extravagance may be
combined in manly proportions with hard read-
ing, without slowness or sappiness. The next
paper that attracts our attentions William
Cobbett, a Rural Ride;" a poem composed
twenty-one years ago by the lamented Henry Lush-
ington and his early friend Mr. Venables, still hap-
pily surviving, and known to the adept as one of the
most vigorous combatants in the preen militant of
England. This poem, with its title taken from Cob-
bett, and its frequent allusions borrowed from his
writings, is one of those joint compositions of the two
college friends which they were wont to throw off in
the play and frolio of conversation; and admirably
see the characteristics of the hearty and healthy
English radical hit off in these vigorous and
racy Saxon hues. " Paper, Pens, and Ink ;
an Excursus in Technology," by Professor
George Wilson, and " Cheap Art," by F.
G. Stephens, are scholarly and suggestive;
and " The Crisis of Italian Freedom," by
Franklin Lushingtan, may be described as " the
right word by the right man." Mr. J. M. Ludlow's
" Moral Aspects of the Idylls of the King" is a warm
and penetrating glance at the subtler beauties of the
poem; and the number concludes with a "Colloquy
of the Round Table," which appears to be an elabo-
rate mechanical apparatus for a discursive dealing
with all things in general and nothing in particular.
This opening colloquy is brisk and smart enough,
and if in succeeding numbers it manages to steer
dexterously between the affectation of too much
, learning and the reality of too much slang we shall
be most agreeably disappointed. On the whole,
" Macmillan's Magazine " may be said to make a fair