The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-23 00:00:00

LEARNING THE ALPHABET.

There is a curious story connected with the Javanese
alphabet, whether founded on fact or not I cannot say, but
I sh)uld rather be inclined to think an invention, devised to
impress the letters on the mind of juvenile pupils, If such
is the case, we cannot but admire the native shrewdness in
adopt.ng such a plan. A certain priest, whilst walking
through a forest, found he had lost his kriss; but feeling
too fatigued to return in search of it, he approached a
woodman busily at work, and begged him to seek it for
him. The latter obeyed, and while he was absent, the
priest and his servant sitting on the clump of a forest tree,
refreshed themselves with some food which they hal
brought with them. Some hours having elapsed before the
return of the messenger, the priest began to feel uneasy at
the prospect of not completing his long journey before
nightfall, and despatched his servant in quest of the wood-
man. The former had not proceeded far, when he met the
messenger returning with the kriss. As his master had
given him strict orders not to come back without it, he re-
quested the woodman to deliver it to him; a request which
the man, who anticipated a reward for his services, refused
to grant. The consequence was that a violent altercation
took place, ending in the death of Loth.
The story, told in the followieg manner, servos as a sort
of mnemonic aid to the young Javanese learning their

etters

Ho no jto ro ko--He sent the both.
Dho to so wo lo—Who fell out and quarrelled.
Po do djo jo njo—They were equally courageous.
Mo go bo tho ngo—Both were killed.
The wedding ceremonies of Java, which are of great
length, are fully described, as are also many other
of the native customs. On the whole, these two
volumes may be regarded as presenting an
eminently satisfactory picture of life in Java.

Vacation Tourists and Notes 7ravel in 1862-3.
Edited by Francis Galton, author of "The Art of
Travel." One vol. pp. 524. Macmillan and Co.
The editor of these collected travels may very
Justly describe this new volume as containing great
variety in its contents. The eleven papers here
classed together are about as dissimilar in style and
subject as is well possible. The first article by the
Rev. N. B. Tristam, describes " a Winter Ride in
Palestine ;" the second, by J. G. Bertram, Ebci•
relates to " Fish Culture in France ;" the third is
about " the Turks in Constantinople ;" the fourth,
and one of the most charming of the series, contains
"Letters from the Cape," by Lady Duff Gordon.
As M. Jourdain spoke "prose" all his life " withc,nt
knowing it," so Lady Doff Gordon has con-
tributed to a book—and some very in-
teresting contributions they are—without
intending it I " You must have fallen into second
ohildhood," she says to the friend to whom she had
addressed her original letters, " to think of printing
such hasty rambling scrawls as I write. I never
could write a good letter; and unless I gallop as
hard as I can, and don't stop to think, I can say
nothing; only I fancy you will be amused by some
of my " impressions"—the " you" intended for the
private friend may be very correctly addressed to
the public reader. Like the lady writer, who
naively said of herself " I gossip whenever I please,
and I please whenever I gossip"—so Lady Duff
Gordon, in her unpremeditated sketches, will give
pleasure to the many who may peruse at leisure what
she has hastily penned during the progress of her
travels. The remaining papers are as miscellanecui
and as interesting as those we have already particu•
larised. "Poland" and "Paraguay," " Sinai" and
" Servia ," "The Ancient Shell-mounds of Denmark,"
" The Medical Service of the Federal Army," and
" Wilderness journeys in New Brunswick' divide
the attractions of this very amusing and instructive
collection of the reminiscences of " Vacation
Tourists', and Notts of Travel.

Mexico Ancient and Modern. By M. Michel
Chevalier, Senator and Member of the Institute
of France. Translated under the Author's super-
intendence, by Thomas Alpass. Two vols. Max•
well and Company.
Tile name a M. Michel Chevalier on the title

page is sufficient to attract particular attention to
any work. M. Chevalier having for some time oc-
cupied a prominent position in tae literary and
political world at Paris has acquired for himself a
large circle of readers, and also, be it added, a large
circle of admirers. The present work on Mexico
made its appearance in France before the recent
political arrangements in Mexico, and the author
naturally takes credit to himself that the course of
subsequent events has in a great degree justified his
predictions. "The facts now accomplishing," he
observes, " also the re-awakening of that monarchi-
cal sentiment which the authcr had noted as still
vivacious in the hearts of Mexicans, and as that
which would rally round it the great majority of
the Liberal or Republican party, provided Mon-
archy presented itself under the escort of a group
of public liberties suited to the intellectual and
moral state of the country, Every day brings the
adhesion to the new regime of some of those chiefs
who fought under the orders of the Suarez Govern-
ments." " France," saysM. Chevalier a little later
on, "could not go to Mexico to found
there a new order of things except with the
condition of their being in conformity with the
spirit of the time. The honour of France, the
secret of her influence is the world, is that she re.
presents those imrnortel ideas known as the prin-
ciples 0f1789, which ara the terror of oppressors and
the hope of nations oppressed." The author's re-
marks in reference to religious adminis-
tration are not likely to find favour with
the great body of Catholics, indeed his own
religious opinions may be called in question by
many of the readers of his book. The following
remarks on the new
Emperor of Mexico are emin-
ently just, and it is
Who hoped they may also prove
prophetic

MAXIMZIAN OF MEXICO.

The Archduke Maxiordlian accepts the burden of the
Crown of Mexico with a noble courage. The resolution is
a grand one, but not nnlooked for by those who observed
him in Italy. He is sensible that he will have to repeat
more than once the words of a former Emperor of Mexico,
" that he is not on a bed of roses." Everything seems to
indicate that the Mex'cans are going to welcome and treat
him, not as an ambitious individual, led away by an immo-
derate passion for sitting on a throne, but as a high-souled
man, who devotes himself to their cause, and has under-
taken the kitty task of saving a nation subject of old to the
authority of his family.
The Archduke will arrive in Mexico, not with a staff of
Germane, military and administrative, but (as the author
anticipated) alone, with his portfolio under his arm. He
will have two armies to guard his throne—one composed of
Mexican troops, the other formed and disciplined by France,
and commanded by French officers, with a large number of
French soldiery in its ranks. It cannot be denied that the
latter will at first be the chief protection of the new throne;
but why should not the Mexican army, when better directed,
return to those traditions of fidelity to the Sovereign for
which Mexico was formerly conspicuous among all the
other Spanish colonies ? The rivalry of the generals was
what led the Mexican army astray. It will come back to
sentiments of duty when it sees authority permanently cun-
centrated in the hands of a firm and enlightened prince,
around whom has rallied every individual of importance.
After this very interesting political introduction,
M. Chevalier enters upon the history of Mexico,
beginning with the first arrival of Cortez on Holy
Thursday of the year 1519. The whole account of
that romantic and adventurous enterprise, stained
as it is with acts of cruelty and injustice, by which ,
the valiant Spaniard, with 650 men, made himself
master of a mighty and well organised empire, is
here related in full, and although a twice told tale,
will be perused with vivid interest, and enthral
many a reader already familiar with the incidents
which it narrates. The second volume refres to the
war of ihdependence in Mexico, and all the mo-
mentous events of recent times. In many of his
prognostications M. Chevalier, as we have a:ready
intimated, has been justified by the event. It may
be inferred, perhaps that being " behind the scenes,"
he had good reasons for some of his surmises.
Be that as it may his history of Mexico
in its entirety from the days of Mon-
tezuma to those of Maximilian is fall of in-
terest, although all the opinions of its writer are I
not deserving of general approbation.

In Spain. By liana Christian Andersen, author
of The Improvisatore," &o. Translated by Mrs
Bushby. One vol., pp. 300. Richard Bentley.
Another charming " picture.boak without pic-
tures," from the graphic pen or pencil of Hans
Christian Andersen—a Painter without brush or
easel, a Poet without rhyme or metre. What
Pictures, glowing with the hues of nature—what
Poems, full of tenderness and pathos—have we not
many a time rejoiced in from the hands of the
genial, gentle Danish Improvisatore. In his new
book, in which he recounts to us his ad-
ventures "In Spain," he has given us a
most delightful and vivid glimpse of what he saw
during his travels in the Spanish peninsula. The
descriptions, occasionally humorous and fantastic,
occasionally pathetic and tender, are unlike all
other travellers records; they are essentially origi-
nal, and bear about them the stamp of their author's
well-known and intense individuality. On a
seventh of September, some few years back, Chris-
tian Andersen first arrived in Spain. A curious
coincidence marked this day. It was on a seventh
of September," he says, "that, as a child, I
first entered Copenhagen ; it was on the seventh of
September, many years afterwards, I first set foot
in Italy ; and now, on the same dad any month,
Spain opened upon me. It was strange, but chance,
as it is called, so willed it. I had been detained a
day at Myons, waiting for my luggage, which had
gone astray on the railroad; at Perpignan I had
to wait two days, in order to obtain a
place in the coupe of tbedelligence, and so my
seventh of September still held good. I was in a
foreign land," he adds, " yet I felt myself at home :
it wasthe sea which caused that home feeling—the
glorious sea I It rolled up from the coast of Africa
with its swelling waves, like the German Ocean on
the coast of Jutland,
its bluish-graen waves re-
minding me of c summer evening under the rocks
of Moen," As a specimen of Andersen's power of
picture-painting, let us take, almost at hazard, a
glimpse of