The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

White and Black. A Story of the Southern States.
3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
This is an interesting work at the present time,
as it alludes to the slavery question in its extent of
sad details and fearful sufferings. The story is told
told with great skill, and the characters introduced '
era described so naturally, and in some instances
are rendered so attractive, that the narrative is
divested of the painful feelings it might otherwise
have produced as to deter many from its perusal.
One of the chief merits of the work in its con-
structive capacity is the fair account given of the
Southern families. We are shown that it is the
system that is wrong, not the people, and that all
are trained from infancy to regard tyranny as
just, and to see cruelty considered a part of the
day's business, when the eager observation of
childhood and the dawning intelligence of youth
only behold as a system what is a sin, and
watch the parents and friends whom they look
up to pursuing the trade in human creatures, how
can they be called callous for not thinking
otherwise Constance Ann ersley was the gover-
ness in the family of Col. Burgoyne, at Chestnut
Brook, and for a time all went smoothly. Fasci-
nated by the ease and grace of the refined and
cultivated members of the household, she thought
the tragic tales of which she had been told were
exaggerated, and that slavery might exist without
any very serious trouble arising. Soon the fair
vision was overcast, and she awoke from her de-
lusion to a dark reality. Those who appeared
the most polished in the drawing-roorn, the most
affectionate in the family circle,
when they stoed
forth as masters of slaves, their whole nature
underwent a change. The manner in which
Mayor conducted himself towards Jonas exhibits,
in a strong manner, the evils that accrue from the
slave children of the planters. Through all the
various branches of the family these evils run ; thus
Mayor rendered his young wife almost frantic by
cruel conduct, and he had to answer for the crimes
that she committed in the frenzied rage to which
he had worked her. Irene, the slave daughter of
Mr. Morton, is a happy idea of the miseries and
misfortunes that are sown broadcast over the land
where such evils abound and are called law. Here
was a young girl who was reared in luxury, and
taught to consider herself a lady, trained, indeed,
in the worship and reverence of the great institu-
tion of slavery. When her father married she was
sent, under the care of her governess, to visit in a
distant city that lady's relations. This was
thought strange by many ; but the girl herself
only believed it to be the foresight of her
father to provide her amusement, while he was en-
grossed with his new marriage. She was unde-
ceived in a terrible manner. Hastening home to
see her father, whom she thought was forgetting
her, she was seized at a station by that father's
overseer, who proclaimed to the crowd around them
that she was a slave, the child of a slave, and thus
she was to be sold to the nearest bidder, that the
jealousy of the new Mrs. Morton might not be
aroused by her beauty and grace. The sub-
sequent perils and perplexities that the
beautiful girl went through are very forcibly told,
and the last sad paragraph, telling us that rumour
whispered she had again been sold among a lot of
slaves, points its own solemn warning that no inter-
vention of friends, no care of strangers, no force of
persuasion, no power of fighting, ever can avail to
stem the torrent that sweeps with deadly might
and irresistible speed into the dark abyss. Irene's
was, indeed, a sad tale; but she stands the figura-
tive emblem, the exemplifying instance of thou-
sands of her race and kind. Jonas, almost
killed with cruel tortures, sold away to
distant plantations, for ever taking leave of his wife
and children, is another type of myriads like unto
him; Clara's infant child, thrown in to make up the
bargain between master and agent, is another proof,
how agonising, those who know a mother's feel-
ings may imagine. The writer of this tale has done
his utmost to show us the full significance of the
beautiful lines of the poet—Cowper in his verses on
" The African Slaves,"
"Dusky limbs, and dark complexion,
Cannot alter nature's claim ;
Skins may differ, but affection
Dwells in White and Black the same."
Again, when Eleanor Burgoyne, animated no doubt
by good intentions, assembles her Sunday class to
dilate to them upon their duties, one could fancy
that they might reply to their teacher in this
strain : _ .

Is there, as you sometimes tell us,
Is there One who dwells on high ?
Does He bid you buy and sell us,
Looking from His Throne, the sky ?''
For a further and more particular illustration of
theills of the nefarious system, we need only read
the passage that describes the arrival of the slave
ship fraught with her human cargo. The spectacle
was appalling ; and no one can wonder that, at
its view, the inveterate upholder of slavery
renounced his opinions and withdrew his
strenuous support from the system that carried on
such traffic, and; countenanced such horrors.
Chauncey Burgoyne is a fine character, full of chi
valrous sentiment and animated by noble im-
pulses. It was the theory, not the practice, he
upheld, and when once he had visual demonstra-
tion of its excesses he turned from it, and became
as eager for the abolitionists as before he had been
against them. The kindness of his nature was
shown in befriending the emissary of the North,
Maxwell, when he was hunted down by Chauncey's
own friends and neighbours. He also was called
foolishly lenient to his own slaves in his domain at
West Creek. It is satisfactory to know that his
brightest hours were his last ; and if it is sad to
think of his bride as a widow, and his life cut
down in the promise and glory of its opening, still
he died in a good cause, and he fell fighting for the
oppressed and persecuted. He could have had no
nobler death on any battle-field renowned in story,
and no better inscription could be recorded for his
after praise than that ho redeemed the errors of his
early days by his last effort and his final struggle.
It cost him his life, but it softened his past
faults and crowned his memory with a
glory that lived beyond tie grave. This work
should be perused with attention, as it conveys in
a clear manner the worst features of the slave system
as it affects the general state of society. It does
not exhibit any great exaggeration in its statements,
but again and agaia sets forth the personal merits
of those who live under the pernicious influence of
such social wrongs and such evil customs.
Another strong point is the expense and an-
noyance to which the planters are con-
stantly subjected in watching for sedition,
capturing runaways, driving away abolitionists,
the danger they incur from disaffected outcasts, and
the nightly dread of an outbreak which may over-
whelm the family of the masters. Here human
nature vindicates itself, and the oppressor is assailed
in his stronghold. The perils he can confront him-
self in the pride of his manhood may be too much
for the delicate wife and tender children who con-
stitute his home. A state of society which tolerates
such crime, cruelty, and injustice, is a disgrace
to a civilised land, and the chtyalry of which
they boast is a sham and a delusion. One of
the first duties of the knights who made
memorable the word was to assail tyrants
and protect the oppressed wherever found,
and those who can sympathise with re-
volutions that overthrew kings abroad, and
encourage killing by inches in human traffic at
home, are inconsistent and absurd to the last
degree. —" White and Black" as a tale of the
Times is a good index to refer to, and the skill
and ingenuity which abound in its descriptive
pages and exist in full force in its eloquent
passages, combine to claim for it regard and
ensure it a welcome among those whose boast is,
that no slaves can touch their shores without
being as free as the air they breathe. The spirit
which animates the work is a good one, and thus it
has a higher motive than amusement, and a better
end than instruction in view, :if it makes any
reader think more of those outcast and oppressed
children of humanity, the much-afflicted sons of
the African race. Surely their Maker beholds
their wrongs and will one day call the
ce
ir
persecutors to account. This attempt to evid n
their sad state deserves success, and
it it
that its end will be gained in the attention it meets
with and the converts it may make,
:e ta.od. leading
trusted
those
who were indifferent to the cause
t o
widwellththe on
suf-
e
ferings magnitude of the evils, and teaching those who were
ignorant of the misery to sympathise
of Slavery.

Zaclkiers Now Quarterly.
The initial number of Zadkiel's new sixpenny
e
quer Die Voice of the Stars, duly made its
pe
on the Ist of January, in company with
talipemtaarraYginazeines. The contents are of course, as any
one might have anticipated, of a very singular cha-
racter. They are not only singular, however,
but they are plural into the bargain. They are
more numerous and more varied than we should
hate expected. Compressed within thirty-two
pages there are no less than sixteen contributions.
The great astrologer's preliminary address to his
readers—readers now, he reminds the public, for
thirty-one consecutive years—cannot fail to be
perused by them with some degree of curiosity. It
is written in a solemn and austere tone, calculated
toimpress those who are numbered among the
forty thousand inquiring purchasers of Zadkail's
Almanack. An " Ode to Darkness," at page 17, is
subscribed by initials as mystical in every way we
would premise as the awful signature of the famous
Zadkiel Tao Tse himself! There are some very.
curious papers in this initial number of The Vow
of the btars, upon themes as attractive and yet
recondite as " The Indian Zodiac and Brahman

Astrology," as" Cosmogony, or the Creation of the
World," as " Astrology and Spiritualism." Two
chapters of biblical criticism aro of a character cal-
culated to fix the attention at any season, but par-
Ocularly at this season of Christmas. " The Star is
the East" is the subject of one, the other having re-
lation to the "Eclipse of the Moon at Jerusalem at
the time of the death of King Herod." There are
among the other contents of the numter certain
remarkable weather predictions for the three first
months of the new year just commenced, by the
president of the Astro-Meteorological Society—from.
the last number of whose Record, just issued.
(No. V.), we quote the subjoined weather predic-
tions for January—predictions penned by the
society's secretary :
JANUAItY.—As the year 1861 is likely to terminate \viat
seasonable wintry weather, so will the year 1862 commence,
from the stationary position of Saturn. There may be a
little mitigation of the temperature ou the 4th for four or
five days. The first week ends gloomy, with d.,wrifall.
The triple aspcct of the Sun, Mercury, and Saturn, en the
12th, will produce cold, stormy, and tempestuous winds,
with snow, from the diminution of temperature about this
time. The third week seasonable weather. The last week
very tempestuous. Mars being no less than three times an-
tagonistic t,) Herschel. Seamen are cautioned to beware,
about the middle of the last wc;ek. Milder temperature
at the end of the month.

The prediction of the late Prince CoNsoi',T's
Death—given a whole twelvemonth since in ZAD-
Almanack for 1861 is certainly very
astonishing. Public attention was drawn to it
the other day, it may be remembered, in the police
court down at the Mansion-house, by Alderman
HUMPHREY. If the prediction of one day's frost
made the fortune of MuRPHEY through the medium
of his weather almanack—Zadkiel, if only by rea-
son of this distinct and positive prediction about
the late lamented Prince, ought to be a millionaire.

THE WEATHER.

METEOROLOGICAL REPORTS.

This Day, . D. F.
' etween 8 and B. E. M. C. I. S.
9 a.m. I
'— , ,----. --
Nairn 29'93 35 1 34 AW.S.W. I 4 3 c. 6
Aberdeen-- , 29'98 35 34 W 3 9' o. 2
Leith. 130.03 37 I
35 NW. 1 3 c. 1
ilerwick 129'95 39 36 W. ' 2 9 c. 3
Ardrossan 1 30.09 36 34 S.S.E. 2 5 14f'. 2
Portrush ' 30.97 41 43 S.W. ' 3 4 0. 2
Shields ;30.05 36 31 N.W. ' 3 3 ;70. 5
Galway ,30•15 38 37 S. 0 9I zn 1
Scarborough 3o'oo 38 38 NN.W. , 4 8 0. 4
Liverpool , 30.09 39 36 S. , 1 9 o. 1
Valentin ' 3018 40 39 z. 1 0 2 b. 2
Queenstown 30.17 41 49 N.W. , 2 0 O. 1
Yarmouth 29'99 36 35 N.N.W. i 4 8, s. 9
London 30'09 35 33 N.W. , 2 9, f. 0
Dover 3,r06 , 37 34 N. , 4 61 C. 2.
Portsmouth 30.11 38 37 N.N.W. , 3 6 m. 2
Portland
Plymouth
Penzance
-------.
EXPLANATION.—B. Barometer, corrected and reduced

EXPLANATION.
o 32 deg at mean si
ausing about 1-100 t
eg above 32 (leg (
Exposed thermomet
evaporation and dew
not magnetic). F.
(Ito 9). I. Initials
f , fog ; h., hail; 1.,
cast (dull) ; r., rain
turl'anee (1 to 9).

13. Barometer, corrected and reduced
,ea level; each 10 feet of vertical rise
th of an inch diminution, and each 10
causing nearly 3-100ths increase. E.
ter in shade. M. Moistened bulb (for
r-point). D. Direction of wind (true--
Force (1 to 12—estimated). C. Cloud
:—b., blue sky; c., clouds (detached);
lightning ; m., misty (hazy) ; 0., over-
; s., snow ; t., thunder. S. Sea dis-.

THE ST. LAWRENCE.—A private letter from
Quebec, dated Dec. 13, 1861, says :—" This is a wonder-

fully open season; the river (the St. Lawrence) is still clear
of ice, and the snow that had fallen nearly all melted."
THE AMERICAN QUESTION.-MEETING AT PAD•
DINGTON,—On Sunday evening a public meeting of inhabi-
tants of Paddington was held at the New Lecture Hall,
Edgware-road, to hear an address from Mr. Washington
Wilks, on the question now pending with America. At tho
conclusion of the address a memorial to Earl Russell in
favour of arbitration was adopted.

THE PROFITS OF PIANOFORTE MAX ERS.—The
will, with three codicils, of Mr. Thomas Broadwood, sen.,
Holmbush, near Crawley, Sussex, and of Cadogan-place,
Belgrave-square, was proved by the executors and trustees,
the Rev. John Broadwood, M.A., the nephew, and Mr.
Thomas Broad wood and Mr. John Jervis Broadwood, the
sons The personalty was sworn under £350,000.
THE EASTERN COUNTIES AND CIIRISTMAS.—The
following is the bill of Christmas fare delivered at the Lon-
don station of the Eastern Counties Railway, from the 18th
to the 25th Dec., 1861:—Oxen, 1,498 ; sheep, 9,247 ; pigs,
620 ; calves, 181; turkeys, 6,641; geese, 3,468 ; ducks,
1,561 ; hares and pheasants, 834 ; oysters, barrels of, 2,303 ;
oysters, in bags, 24 tons ; meat, 357 tons ; poultry, 350 tons ;
fish, 329 tons; Stilton and other cheeses, 495; boxes of
oranges, 1,368; bags of nuts, 685; boxes of dried fruit,
2,053 ; boxes of almonds, 150 ; sacks of flour, 15,103 ; quarts
of milk, 57,583 ; casks of beer, 4,129.
ANOTHER FATAL PARAFFIN ACCIDENT.-0 n Fri-
day afternoon Mr. John Humphreys, acting for Mr. Miak-
ley, held an inquiry at the Gower Arms, Store-street, Bed-
ford-square, touching the death of Alice Grace Middleton,
aged four years, who died on last Sunday evening front
frightful injuries received through the ignition of paraffin
oil while a lamp was being trimmed. Mr. John Middle-
ton, bookseller, 20, Store-street, Bedford-square, said—
On the evening of the accident I was burning a paraffin
lamp, which was on the table when my three children
were standing. I was ignorant of the nature of paraffin oil,
and I was pouring the oil into the lamp from a bottle whilo
the wick was lighting, as I had sometimes done before. One
of the children knocked or upset the lamp, and the oil
immediately ignited, and ran over the table in sheets of
flame. The deceased was only a little higher than the
table, and the burning cil ran over her face and set her
clothes on fire. There was over a pint of oil in the lamp,
which all ran towards deceased. Her mother and I put out
the flames with some difficulty, and we sent for Dr. Ri-
chardson, of 36, Bedford-square, who did what was possi-
ble to save her life. The injuries, however, were so severe,
that she died from the shock to the system. The oil had
Leen purchased at Mr. Creed's, Tottenham-court-road, at
sd. per pint. This evidence having been corroborated, the
jury returned a verdict "That deceased died from exbauq-
Con consequent on burns received through the upsetting of
a certain paraffin oil lamp, and that in the opinion of the
jury some means ought to be taken to guard against the
dangerous properties of paraffin oil by warning purchasers
thereof."
THE FRESCOES AT WESTMINSTER PALACE —Mr.

Maclise's large mural picture of the "Meeting of Welling-
ton and Blucher on the field of Waterloo," upon which he
has been almost exclusively engaged for the last two years,
is now completed, and fixed in the place for which it wee
designed in the House of Lords. It is a noble work. The
two heroes constitute the centre of a large and nume-
rous group of figures. They are on horseback, and grasp
each other's hands. The attitudes of both are finely ex-
pressed. Behind each the space is crowded with military
forms, and with the evidences of the fierceness of the yet
unfinished fight. There is young Howard—the gallan
Howard immortalised by Byron in " Childe Harold"—being
borne off to a soldier's grave, and there lies the Marquis of
Anglesea, who lost his leg by almost the last cannon shot
that was fired, when our troops were well advanced to the
front. 1 here is another person especially celebrated—
a wounded Highland piper, who sat on the ground and
blew his pipes till he fainted from loss of blood. Near the
duke are Lord Edward Somerset, who commanded the
heavy cavalry brigade, and Sir Hussey Vivian, the leader
of one of the hussar brigades, with Lord Sandys and the
surviving officers of the duke's staff. Behind these are some
of the Second Life Guards, of whom so few were left, that
when the remnant was mustered towards the close of the
battle, and an officer rode up asking where the regiment
was, Col. Lygon replied with a sorrowful heart, pointing to
the few remaining files, " These are all." Blucher is painted
in a forage cap, which is perfectly correct, the old soldier
was still suffering from the fall he had at Wavre, Behind
him are Bulow, Gniesenau, Ziethen, and other distinguished
officers, and a staff; and again, behind these is the Prussian
band that played " God save the King," which, on the
other side, was received with a British cheer. The whole
spirit of the stirastiriing scene is wonderfully expressed by
the great painter.—Observer.
ALARMING ACCIDENT IN A MENAGERIE.--Ma-
como, "the Af.ican lion tamer," well known throughout
England in connection with Mender's menagerie, is now
confined to his bad at Norwich, having met with rather an
alarming accident a few days since, while going through
some of his exciting performances. It appears that Ma-
como, who is a very intelligent and courageous African,
was engaged in representing a lion and tiger " hunt," when
a young lion suddenly reared and caught him by the shoul-
der. Macomo had a spangled dress on, or probably the
performance would have been his last ; as it was he was
dragged down, and the lion fastened upon his left hand.
Macomo, however, happily slipped, and fell under the lion
near the railing of the large den in which the hunt had
been represented, and his assailant being beaten off with an
iron rod, he was quickly released from his critical position.
It was found that he had been severely bitten in the haidd;
and part of the forefinger has since been amputated. Ma-
como, who was bitten in the leg by a lioness while exhibiting
in Norwich two years since, is now progressing favourably.
MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT MALTON.—On Satur-
day night, the 28th ult., a cattle dealer named Mr. John
Dowson, who had attended Malton-market, suddenly dia.
appeared. His residence is at Pickering, to which be ought
to have gone by train that evening His continued absence
.back to Maltoyi
led to search being made for him, and bills weree
trace
o
a man answering the description had been
belieafaeathreathitb' being
gonmgead to the
0,32 d tfrotaunvell. ed to Hut-
son got into the York mail at Melton,
ton, it is said in mistak®. Hein hed to ge
on both sides. On Fri-
de there
and set off by the river side.
to.,
a hat was found, and in the
missing man three days' Beard, has now been. made in the
dDacynnveignht,t
tahnedrathysetedriytchesy
remained unsolved, but it is stated
that the wife of the missing man cannot identify the hat
found. A party of Pickering volunteers commenced to
drag the river on Saturday. Dowson was well and widely
known as a dealer, and it is probable he had a good sum of
money on him when lost,