The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-03 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

Travels and Adventures of an Officer's Wife in
India, China, and Ne'w Zealand. By Mrs.
Muter. Two Vols. Hurst and Blackett.
The experiences of an officer's wife, if she chooses
to follow the fortunes of her husband, are usually
varied and interesting ; but it is not often that a
lady undergoes such rapid changes of scene and
climate, or passes through so many startling adven-
tures. Mrs. Muter had need to be gifted with an
amount of courage and coolness very rare to the
feminine nature ; for, during the brief interval
when the din of battle and the anxiety of watching
the enemy did not form part of her daily pro-
gramme, she was subjected to perils and disasters
that might well affright the most hardened travel-
ler. She tells us her story pleasantly and simply,
having, as we learn, made her notes her companion
on shipboard, when she and her husband beguiled
the monotony of a tedious voyage by arranging and
correcting them. To this joint supervision we
owe the occasional introduction of professional
topics, and the free expression of Lieut.-Col. Muter's
views on many points connected with the soldier
and the service. Mrs. Muter's narrative of her resi-
dence in India, which opens the book, begins simply
thus :—" On Sunday, 10th May, 1857, I was at
Meerut." These few words lead us to the history
of the following days of terror through which Mrs.
Muter and her husband happily escaped unhurt.
Even at this lapse of time those days can hardly
be thought of calmly by those who had no active
part in them, and the fearful scenes and deeds of
blood, then too familiar to English eyes, can never
be effaced from the recollection of the witnesses.
Our authoress, a fully competent authority,
although she gives few details, fully confirms the ac-
counts of the barbarities practised by the Sepoys. The
horrible character of the outbreak is not yet, she
says, fully understood in England. From the ex-
treme of credulity people paseed to the extreme of
unbelief, and this tendency to underrate the horrors
of the mutiny was increased by the accounts of those
" who saw the retribution but not the provocation ;
who beheld the cringing figure and elapsed hands
of the wretch mercilessly consigned to the gallows,
but not the yelling fiend, with dripping sword and
hands red with blood, mutilating the bodies of those
who had never injured him." According to Mrs.
Muter, the mutiny broke out at Meerut, owing to
an attempt to punish the 3d Cavalry. It is well-
known that its commencement was precipitated,
and the authoress tells us that the original scheme
would have been most disastrous. On the celebrae
tion of the Queen's birthday, a fortnight later, it
was intended that the conspirators should, while
professing to fire the customary salute, load with
ball and aim at the heart of the English seldiers
around them. This, " if carried out with secrecy
and resolution, would have swept every European
soldier from the face of India in one and the same
hoar." After the memorable 10th, many anxious
days and nights Lad to be passed. " The very air
of India was charged with horrors. The weary
watching, the sickening expectation, and the wear-
ing effects of the climate had a depressing effect
that required much resolution to struggle against,
and all the consolations of religion to sustain. The
men were relieved by action, but for the women
there was not this resource." From time to time,
too, came the news of fresh horrors, and the massacre
of Cawnpore lent additional strength to the resolve
of all Englishmen to conquer or die. After the
fall of Delhi, Mrs. Muter joined her hus-
band, whose duties placed him in that city.
She gives an interesting account of its appearance
after the siege, and of the palace of the Moguls,
which she describes as a mixture of splendour and
dirt. From Delhi the authoress subsequently ac-
companied Colonel Muter to Murree, a hill station
in the Punjab, a long and tiresome journey, rendered
doubly uncomfortable by the unruly conduct of the
palkee bearers, who had groWn insolent and extore
tionate, with the news of the outbreak, To add to
her uneasiness, the Colonel's heialth had been much
affected by his exertions, and the tricks played by
the bearers were by no means likely to improve it.
But they were not destined to have peace when
they arrived at the depot, for shortly after the
cholera broke out with the fearful virulence belong-
ing to the climate. Those attacked in the day
could hardly hope to see the sunseti and in asking
for the orderly who had brought a message it was
to learn that he was dead and buried! So severe
an attack of the epidemic was remarkable at a hill
station, but Mrs. Muter records her conviction that
these sanitary establishments are by no means the
most healthy of the stations. It would be well, if
such is the fact, that this should be examined into.
The intense cold of the winter in the Himalayas
proves a singular contrast to the summer in the
plains. After describing the dazzling brilliancy of
the landscape when the rays of the sun were every-
where reflected on snow and ice, Mrs. Muter ex-
claims, " Could any one believe this to be India—
was it not rather Siberia or Spitzbergen ?" One
evening she was terrified to hear the bugle give
the alarm, and on looking out saw the glare
of fire. We can fancy the feelings of one who
had passed through the horrors of Meerut
on beholding such a spectacle. Happily, however,
it was nothing but an occidental conflagration.
After some time Colonel Muter and his wife pro-
ceeded to England, turning their backs en India
with feelings of relief and gratitude. They em
barked in the Eastern Monarch, said to be the
fivest merchant ship afloat. They arrived safely
within sight of Portsmouth, and the night before
they were to land Mrs. Muter listened with a
thankful heart to the sound of letting go the
anchor, Musing on their escape from the dangers
of India she fell asleep, to be roused by the shock
of a catastrophe as perilous and as unexpected. The
vessel went on fire, and being loaded with saltpetre
a fearful explosion took place, killing some, and
injuring many more. A scene of great danger and
anxiety had to be passed through before Colonel
and Mrs. Mnter were safely landed in their native
country, without any of their possessions. This
scarcity procured them but a sorry welcome from
the hotel-keepers, and it is not surprising that Mrs.
Muter's long-tried health and spirits gave w
when she was at length safely housed. Her ad-

ventures, however, had not damped her spirit, for
it was not long after that she accompanied the
Colonel to Canada, of which country she gives but
a brief account, and subsequently to Hong Kong,
on the occasion of the Chinese war. Of this place,
less often described by English visitors, we have a
fuller account. Its unhealthiness is terrible.
"In Hong Kong men take to their beds
and die, and neither they nor the doctors
who attend them can tell what is the matter. There
is some great element of life wanting in the atmo-
sphere; what it is I cannot tell." The explanation
which some have found for this, in the dissipation of
the victims, is not accepted by the writer. The
health of the soldier is, she maintains, a fair test of
the salubrity of a climate ; and she compares the
condition of a regiment in New Z eland and Hong
Kong. In the former they are quartered in sheds,
and exposed without thought of weather or season ;
in the latter, every care and precaution is taken,
even to the supply of coffee or wine when on night
duty. "Yet, years en years of New Zealand pro-
duce little effect on the battalion ; while a few sea-
sons of Hong Kong sweep out of existence the
soldiers that landed with the regiment on its bane-
ful shore." Mrs. Muter penetrated as far as Pekin,
being one of the only three European ladies who
have entered that city, but her impressions of the
Celestial Empire were by no means favourable, and
she was glad to leave it. Not, however, to rest ;
for after a brief period we mud her visiting New
Zealand, en route to India once more, though only
for a short time, as the regiment which her hus-
band went to join was about to return to England.
A trip round the world, however, had no terrors
for a lady of such varied experience, and, accord-
ingly her last chapters are devoted to recording her
visit to New Zealand, which she considers the finest
colony we possess. Her work is animated, and
interesting alike from its descriptions of foreign
parts and from its narrative of personal adventure.
It has fallen to the lot of few ladies to pass through
such startling scenes, or to visit so many places ;
and in her double capacity of heroine and tra-
veller, Mrs. Mater has powerful claims on the
attention of the public.

Sir Goodwin's Folly. A Story of the Year 1795.
By Arthur.,Cocker. Three Vols. Chapman and
Hall.
This is a most complicated narrative, and will
puzzle the reader who does not take pains to study
its numerous dramatis personae, and to bear in mind
all the chief points of its elaborate plot. Being in
the last century, it of course brings before us quite
a different style of society to that which exists
nowadays ; and as the epoch described is a very
critical juncture, we meet with some very notice-
able incidents in the lives of individuals, and trace
some important events in the history of nations. It
was a trying time for English rulers when the
great French Revolution broke out in all its vio-
lence and vehemence. Even many well-disposed
individuals became infatuated by the notion that
a glorious era had dawned upon the world, and
that the establishment of freedom in one country
would be but the herald of regeneration in another.
Too soon was the bright dream dispelled, and the
fair vision vanished away. While the rapt enthu-
siasts were exclaiming with delight, and spreading
the glad tidings through the land of the liberation
of one country from oppression, which should be the
signal for the happy deliverance of another, sober
and earnest men learned a different lesson, and,
sadder but wiser, they strove to impart their intel-
ligence to others. While they had been singing
in their rejoicing exultation of spirit—
" O'er the vine-covered hills and gay vallies of France
See the day-star of liberty rise,"
the dictates of reason bade them know
that what they had hailed as the advent of
mercy was the introduction of a reign of terror.
These sentiments are fully discussed and fairly
exemplified in these pages. In a vivid manner and
with a glowing style the author puts before us
some of the chief characteristic of the times. We
thus meet with a work that blends historical inte-
rest with romantic sketches, and puts before us a
most stirring and animated picture of adventures.
These chronicles of " Sir Goodwin's Folly" belong
to a past generation, but the pride and passion, the
deceit and cunning, the vanity and envy, appertain
but too truly to every time, and form part of every
phase of human society, and every condition of
mortality. It would be quite impossible to give an
account of the plot, it would be a work of superero-
gation to undertake it, but some of the chief points
of interest and excitement in it may be enume-
rated. In the first place there is an excellent
moral to be deduced from the finale of Sir Good-
win's attempts at matrimony. It is always most
presumptuous for any one to fashion his own doom
as it were, and to resolve that all shall give way to
his desires. Time, , place, and circumstance, the
chances of life, the changes of death, must all
work together to accomplish the desires and fur-
ther the ends of such excited and infatuated indi-
viduals. Sir Goodwin was spared the mortification
of rendering. himself amenable to the laws of his
country for uniting himself to one whose husband
was alive, and also he escaped the shame of
bestowing upon his daughter a second
mother, who was not worthy to bear
that title. Yet he was morally guilty
in the sight of all, and he further more
might reflect that he had by his vile machinations
hurried three individuals into the grave. Are there
not many, nowadays, who for greed or gain, ex-
cited by the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh,or
the pride of life, press madly on to wreak their own
doom and ensure others' ruin. Mrs. Norland was a
sad proof of the fatal effects of sin, in luring the
thoughts from rectitude, and making the downward
road of sin all too easy and enticing. She and her
confederate in crime sought to compound felony, as
it were, with their ingenious contrivances, and after
all were completely foiled in their efforts. Major
Norland himself was a dexterous sharper, who
outwitted himself at last with his machinations and
mysteries. His inveterate desire to get the bribe,
Sir Goodwin held out so improperly, incited him to
lay plots for the destruction of his friend. Thus
one crime leads to another, and too much craft will
always betray itself in the long run. The author
of this work may be congratulated for having
brought out so skilful a story, and described with
such eloquence and earnestness his exciting pas-
sages of romantic incident. Besides the graver
portions of the tale, there aro several secondary
personages introduced with much skill, and the
adventures of little Chiqwood are moat ludicrously
painted. Altogether there is enough to suit all
tastes in the contents of this remarkable novel, and
it may well aspire to attract notice from its various
events, vivid details, And ingenious illustrations of
character, all given in a spirited style and a
sparkling manner.

The New Scientific Quarterly,
The Quarterly Journal of Science, No. I. Churchill

and Sons.

We have no distinct remembrance of any new
Quarterly making so auspicious a commencement.
It is as the chipping of the shell, not simply when the
bird is fully fledged, but when it is already strong
upon the wing. There is no 'prenticework any-
where apparent in the whole of the goodly number
before us—the initial number, as we cannot but feel
persuaded it will turn out to be, of what must in all
human probability grow year by year into a very
voluminous publication, Half-a-dezen Original
Articles lead off the contents—highly elaborated
articles almost every one of them. Before the be-
ginning, however, as one may say, without much
extravagance—certainly before the beginning of the
regular staple commodity in the way of contribu-
tions, there is prefixed to the inaugural number of
the journal a very noble and admirable well-written
and carefully-thought-out " Scientific Survey," by
way of introduction. It is beyond any prospectus that
could possibly have been issued by the originators of
the entire enterprise. Besides which it has a dig-
nified air of self-respect that seems wanting some-
ho Kr to almost every preliminary prospectus that ever
came under our observation. There is in this Intro-
ductory Scientific Survey cone of that egotism that
jars so offensively upon the reader of almost any, if
not indeed of every, prospectus. Instead of fair pro-
mises, moreover, as to the future numbers of the
new Quarterly, we have here a series of thoroughly

excellent performances in the very number aetu.Bili
published. After the Survey come the six origlaa
articles already alluded to as the prominent attraed-
tions of the periodical thus ushered full grovin
o.t once completely organised) into the
ters, " The Coal Resources of Great Britain, trl
first of these six papers, deals with a masterly Oil:
prehensiveness with the anxieties awakeVr
in the public mind, nearly a year tag bY,
the
William Armstrong, as President for 1863 has
British Association. " Oceanic Telegraphy•
eub-Atlant
allusion, of course, to the project of a
cable of electric communication between the olds
world o,f, le.te
world and the new. The Late Earthquake bas
called forth an exceedingly clever paper Earthquake
the
subject of earthquakes generally, from one Wh°
evidently not contented himself with merely eaPe
ficia:ly skimming the curious -study of saiso°l4/1;
Besides these three a; titles, there are three other
that demand at least some brief passing eaurnera;
a
tion—one a paper on 3,iagneto-Electricity sand
means of Vivid Lighthouse Illuminati
goat o tla
another on the Relation of Light and
vital powers of vegetation—the concluding paperdisquisitio:t e
Th
of the half dozen being an ingenious
upon the Reputed Fossil Man of Neanderthal. eit
are Reviews (some of them hardly searching en°lige,
Corr.
as it appears to us), and there are Notes and
spondence here in this Scientific QaartellY irlethe
ately before its conclusion. But the feature 0'
.4
whole publication, to our thinking---at °rice the
most valuable and the most interesting divisitglig of
the Scientific Journal, as affording us the atul!'-ito
Science of all kinds, progressively, according to its
regular development, is observable in the dirlfilio
headed simply " Chronicles of Science."
ettraatle,
this wonderfully useful and singularly
division of the Serena& Quarterly, we have,!,erst
cord, a luminous and reliable record, of' the "'-y
advances made in Agriculture, Astronomy, 13°t47:21
Chemistry, Geology, Palaeontology, l‘lier°sc,,°3;
Mining, Mineralogy, Metallurgy, Plint4rf:ree,
Physics (such as Light and Heat), Sanatory Sc'e",,.
and Zoology. Surely—a least for a Philosophe'
fre.o o s'
Can you Forgive Her? By Anthony
Part 11. Chapman and Hall.
forgice
Hardly do we think it likely that we can Ito
her, unless her course and her ,character alter
kiere,,To
very wonderfully indeed as the reel of the°
us,
turns—from the which reel is now beirl aeter
Not a char to
wound the thread of the narrative. u'
here introduced, but has already contriTeo.,
become odious to us. The heroine herselfflsteld
Alice Vavasor is acting sham efully—plaYi°S "01. 3,„roblEs
l
loose between her rejected lover, the Dat°P
George, and her accepted lover, the cornatti Pos
John Grey, who is actually her betrothe too
possible, more disagreeable to us, howaTer] 101°
any of those three individuals, is the horri‘' oft lit
female Marplot, George's sister Bute, Wh° 'far
the close of the number on a visit dein 4,, lII*
mouth with a manoeuvring widow, ber
Greenow, who is evidently bent upon settht.7foar
widow's cap at any eligible comer, Wt'ide3r;y
months from the date of the interment of her, gr.
beloved and tearfully-lamented First:nt up 6
Cheeseacre, the stout farmer, who has g." opoa
Picnic with Mrs. Greenow
co-operatiee
Yarmouth Sands, gives promise app ice
Ug' far
er if,
nishing the reader of " Can You F°rgilet le, the
with a little broad fun in the next-411°'
,

Alarch. instalment.
Le Correspenclant. No. 100. Ch• P°llllri.°el;ll‘
tßlpaianissgNtuheafoosenwpwccoeothat we look in vain for of
flitt,erejoes
nft(Orinli
months,rblmueateend contributed
fiat
rtose
tlie,
of
caatol
rl lreebasyps t
0)
Charlesi, 1
eia tth o(ieeii
Count,t
tt
bb
least to find a heart-thrilling
Montalembert, and afterwards by 'r rived et
ttehnedFerreesntchAcademyt.uhptaTi
laihilenorguepcarpweyel:ufsr!:lloetiessoatit.o,o,:::
as the Amends Honorable, by V. de '1'40.134. is t,111:
poem that are conceived in the loftiest,roo 08
spirit—passages that come 10,0 3cli°
soul of the writer, and that find an Papersil3sta )1
in our own. Among the miscellaneous
rl.e9 0
this hundreth issue of the nevir f)eeeiilirt):,
Le Correspondent are—Leon Reoard'6 „'1313°.'
treatise on "Le Japoa et les EuroPeell9'ooclu'l
mant's " La Question Danoise," and the c;
do ,°-;
of Audeval's nouvelle, " thi Chaugelneu" ijoeo"
tune." The glance taken this month by 3' . d tli.
Pre eedit)°, I
,at the events of the one immediately P-e 0011-1/0
date of the magazine's publication, is :tit o°6
brief. Yet, what little is said there ab hie Ode.
events is said boldly, and with an adlnit°
peddence.
_____---..
----
STATE OF TRADE' lit°
MANCHESTER, Feb. 2 s bees fe-firetPliet
doing here in yarn t d
2.
-•----Theredha
weaker, but spinners theyto-day, and
prices sr' ster
refer bit'
ping their mills altogether than androake,Bl3,,Yeppest
change. The state of Continental affaLr'sritet, jo
have scared buyers almost out of the Int,ouga it i 9
but few offers are making for export, tu
score paeloo
thought that had affairs assumed s ,eu 6°
hateb6 •llitig
aspect a considerable business might tiol'• o
to-day. In home trade yarns sellers
eadi,ceseepi
ailwould p et,
so
to name any decline, but state their revers °: to
listen to offees. In the cloth naarket 1,60 60011-00,
hardly to have made up their naiads ll'owerl°ted,
take. There are some offering goods at be efillceed
and at lower prices only could btalooo:etaterne 030
but such cases are few. Many ros1111;443. ;' the
holders of cloth are still very P-ttt oi
f, to
mraallrykestpteiallkitnhge,ybushyaelris
baereinkeepiog efiesitle- ae
a betteriiroi t°
iire
form an opinion as to how things arefiletureil tllO
on the Continent. Very few nuthe...oo a" DO
disposed to accept any decided redue'l t;cls/
consequence is that the business dose bas
been of a very limited character. there aced
ritet
LEEDS, 2d.—For a Tuesday's ni--n
.„, col° or,
been a satisfactory trade done in both;foriner
to
and the white cloth-halls to-day. Is. t wierable_4s.o
din ary cloths, chiefly whites, were 11:1 t, tberes‘_Bl,
quest, at late prices. In the coloured all
e'oad.
fair active demand for spring goods, it° „if); g .„$,,,
role op op,
I),
tons, tweeds, and ladies' cloths. 1 j 1 lc. la /bi
trade in the home houses is gradua i t 0 pa
thy par la f$
Still there is great caution used on are 00 be
wholesale and retail buyers, and gooJo ,_ ale Po_,
ordered in general in smaller bulk thllostillsl:3o:ioifrou,
of seasons. Some of the German
_, _OOO ,searo
fDaho-(1° 0 0
sequence of the latest aspect o.
they lop te
are suspending the shipping orders
of the olito jo
and are refraining from sending to uoY
_,, T 1_ 0
of Northern Europe goods on speculatioP.ere Js_a
1413 111 ate°
deemed a prudential measure, altho ore
shit'
war will be averted. There are still 133° „fool der,
,0
The d ito '
hopeful opinion entertained that.
_til_e_sderete
.or,
meats of goods making far Canada.
theket kfleaexpway be (3°l
,age
utw-
strade. steady, and
oa age- cite'
Consuler We tr 0
NOTTINGHAM, 2d.---Thero Wae s e able e%. 00
at this Exchange-hall to-daY• _, _ vita- aebtoiee
the same
meat prevailed in consequence ofttrua:sa
_led
ea to
' efes its
Germany. Buyers would have
t seller's r litli
in lace yarns at lower prices, u
tiy ,ery
is _OO
make any concession ; consequ7
or
on,ivic ilia til;eo
trade was done at late rates. s dsl) have
gdoffl.
he lab brO
2s. to 3s. ner lb, during t A tor d,
way ' -co detain'. $5013
its value; thrown silks (China oF .. fogr el' 0
There is a limited conoumpti
.3,,,,0, is at beet,
nets, and the inquiry for. specuel, Irnivariret 100_0 et
toP a.,
Rocumux, Ist.—The flaun:
_l_, bee) tllit ettcu ,
rather dull to-day, and ouch
wi7.:o",_
~as . Therioeipa:
affairs in "thew arehouses for /au, .6-arnd the 01114
ante of buyers to-day
flannelparties se ett) t° bad stl and
a
sien of other goods. All ~
_. has , oic
inquiry
his feeling 06°' se
by extreme caution, and t .
_orksbire g
_ieril
.1
1 curt
verse c ffact upon business in 1 , wrr run' cu-
o r, .es to . ara
was for fancy was
s, almost "be ectosted,
the high price of these goocihsich rite
coo._
0.100.110
their sale. New orders vv Tbougo ,eet, I ,
urposes. t Pre' hie
until lately have had a goodatiolds.c:
opera,
jog
in
4.
c,
chiefly for shipping p , of wool at t ~.ell 60,1
Curers are not buying frec...37,_
,eiiivg 11, vd,
glisshorts are
in
growto i." 'Woo, Goo:.
, CC tole 010
c Foreign 0
_what 10,
pmraiteers.ialof
t/elt° of
might be bought on s me
AT A gel: 80°,
-- NTLIROI- •---- •ficeo- dist°
A TEIJE PIIILA
the row rolasa even
£l,OOO towards the codsetuciacy
of sb°v:lio dal°.
gil.elolf coniPletin6_ T2°,000/ 100 fr
r £9OO is still tbe 00'1
Paddingtonsehooi l,herehsva:
a,
waiitivg.
t.ohea,
now a sum m
naree 0110111(1 no
quested that his