The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-07 00:00:00

LITERATURE

The North British Review. No. LXXX. Ed

monston and Douglas.

We have already quoted largely from the first
article in the present number, which is devoted to
the memory of a much lamented man, and is penned
in a spirit of warm and well merited friendship.
Curiously enough it begins with an etymological
blunder, by substituting "of " for " in," as if it
were the pages and not their writer that paid the tribute to
Lord Elgin. The career of the noble lord is ably, though
vietly, depicted. His rule in Jamaica and in the Canadas,
his f.mbassies to China and Japan, were remarkable in
their results, and his short tenure of authority in India
closed a cares
1r such as few men have had the good fortune
to achieve. The' writer of this essay, who knew him:well,
displays him in yet another light from the one in which he
is generally regarded, .and by copious extracts from letters
which Lord Elgin wrote when visiting some of the grand
old wonders of Eastern aTt and skill, he shows that the
man of reason and of action partook also of the qualities of
the philosopher and the poet. " A Fortnight in Faroe" is
a fresh and interesting narrative ; the style is light and
animated. The descriptions of the Eider ducks and of the
whale hunt are striking to the English reader. The Eider
down is highly valued in many countries, and is a profit-
able article of trade, so that Pope's famous line about the
fur that warmed a monarch having previously warmed a
bear, may be parodied about this costly article of luxury.
The essay on "Energy" is learned and scientifin, discuss-
ing the properties of heat and motion with all the wonders
of electricity and magnetism in developing telegraphic
agency. Mr Trollope's novels form the subject of an en-
tertaining paler which enters very fully into their merits
and deficiencies. The critic accords high praise to the
novelist, and allots him a very high rank in his own
peculiar school. "The Daydreams of a Schoolmaster"
enters into a sensible inquiry into the mode of education
and the necessity of a change for the better in the manner
of moulding the minds of the rising generation. "Chris-
tian Missions" is the title of a lengthened essay on the
various attempts to promote Christianity among the
heathens, but this kind of literature is, as the reviewer ex-
presses it, not generally "easy reading." " The old Anglo-
Scottish Dialect" is a rather heavy paper, though learned
and able. The writer considers that the old Anglo-Saxon
and the Scottish are twin sisters, and that the Scottish will
gradually die out in the process of time, perhaps in the
present century. An account of " Rambles in the Deserts
of Syria" is both entertaining and instructive, but the
writer contradicts his title, for he says that men do not
ramble in the Syrian desert. "If they be Europeans they
travel principally with a set purpose, and to see a certain
locality. If Arabs they wander because it is their life to do so,
tne condition of their existence as the river Rowe biome ovum.
Thus the tribe of the Anezi circle perpetually in a great
migratory orbit, which takes them to Aleppo in summer,
towards Urfa, Diarbehir, Mosul, and Bagdad in winter,
and leads them round by the southern region of the Desert,
passing near Damascus, Horns, and llama, back to Aleppo.
Or, be they European or native, Syrian wayfarers stray
rather than ramble from the right direction, like the cars •
van of three thousand camels, with six hundred men, which
perished in 1858 near Hara Tji Sheham. It was bound
from Damascus to Bagdad, and lost the way. No Beds-
ween happened to be within reach, and a tribe came upon
their remains long after their death." The essayist's opinion
of army reform being effected in the Turks is by no means
hopeful. The Turks are an intrusion in Europe, they are
irremediably bound up in their old superstitious bigotry, and
will not be reformed. The author says that the constant effort
of most Turks to better themselves belongs to one of two
kinds—plunder or bribed connivance. High and low, offi-
cial and unofficial, rich and poor, all follow the tortuous
groove of peculation, corruption, and extortion, on the one
hand, or are addicted, on the other, to armed depredations.
The author is of opinion that Russia is now in a better po-
si'i:on to conquer the Turks than before the Crimean war,
both from the experience acquired and the submission, or
rather expulsion, of the Circassian, and their immigration
to Turkey. It is a fallacy to suppose that a Turkish em •
pica can be preserved by European allies, for the national
character of the Turk is entirely opposed to such a scheme.
He is, according to this writer, at one moment a moody
bigot, at another a fanatical zealot. "The Turk is still
what he was four centuries ago; he retains the characteris-
tics of his savage, intractable ancestors ; he is utterly un-
improvable ; he hates change, and therefore hates civilisa-
tion, hates Europeans, and hates and fears all that they
propose. Let those who expect improvement under the
Turkish rule examine well the character of the Mohamme-
dan religion, and see whether it be reasonable to expect the
desired changes while Islamism continues the religion of the
State, supported by a priesthood constituted as is that of
Turkey." It is practically proved, says the author a little
on, by the history of 1,100 years, that Mohammedanism
and civilisation are incompatible. Those Turks who have