The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY WENING, AUGUST 14, 1854.

.N'r FTXIO) RANTAI,4.

THE QUARTERLIEB.

the gay world, including Sir Brian's family,
the Kews, M. de Florae' and that very
wonderful woman Madame La Duchess© D'lvry.
The August number of " The Newcomer" informs
us how among the cavaliers in the train of Madame
La Duchesse there is one marvellous little fire-eater

Pald.l

LiAn.wAire.

ueasing
Compans.

k.:lottug Frices
this day.

livailusSs
this day.

The Edinburgh .Review. No. CCIII.

A rather heavy number of the Edinburgh is the
one here recently published. Scarcely one article
out of the nine contributions making up the con-
tents of the present instalment of our Whig con-
temporary has even the superficial merit of an
attractive title. About the least unattractive is
the one vaguely headed "The Great Social Pro-
blem." But a perusal of the argument of the re-
viewer from whose hand the article in question has
emanated will show that, rather disappointingly, ;
while the Problem may be given plainly enough,
the reader will look in vain for its solution in the
_Edinburgh. The Problem referred to has allusion to
the relations between labourers and capitalists.
Turning from this particular paper to the eight
other articles by which it is accompanied, and con-
sidering these eight contributions consecutively—
we come first to the threadbare subject of the
" Diplomatic History of the Eastern Question,',
which we fill(' told all over again with most minute
and, therefore, of course, the most distracting elabo-
ration. The second article is a satiric treatise upon
" Teatotalism and the Laws against the Liquor
Trade"—the Maine Law being, as a matter of
course, the main one particularised. A ripe scho-
lar has taken in hand, in the third paper, the task
of criticising " Hermann's iEschylus"—but he
has done it drily enough, less in the
spirit of an appreciator of poetry than of a
painstaking philologist. Afterwards, in the fourth
contribution, we have another often told (and not
very pleasing) tale of the " Kafir Wars and the
Cape Policy," due reference being made in it, you
may be sure, to Sir Harry Smith and Sir George
Cathcart. Then comes the essay on " The Great
Social Problem," already mentioned, as in title,
not wholly unalluring, but as, in treatment, alto-
gether unsatisfactory. Subsequently another Edin-
burgh reviewer takes serious note of " The Orders
in Council on Trade during War." Another weighs
in the balance " Marshal on the Representation of
Minorities." Another considers the fact, and the
probable effects, the amount and character of
"European Emigration to the United States." The
last of the contributors selecting as his theme, the
theme of the moment, " The Russian War of
1854." From all which it must be manifest that
the new number of the Edinburgh is, in truth, as
we have declared it to be, heavy and serious, rather
than lively or interesting. Satirical though the
writer upon " Teatotalism" cannot help being for
the life of him, his heart is evidently in earnest in
the cause of Sobriety. Insomuch, that he ends his
remarks by declaring, "We wish God speed to the
champions of Temperance"—adding :
"In these days, there is more reason than ever
to welcome every means which may tend to re-
fine and elevate the democracy of England. They
who are carelessly indifferent to the welfare of their
brethren, and feel no Christian sympathy in their moral
progress, should now promote it, if only from selfish
motives. The political changes which are looming in
the distance, wha' ever shape they may take, cannot
fail to give added power to the poor. As years pass on,
the S.,vereign People is likely to become more and more
absolute in its sovereignty. If Lemuel was right, it
would be best for all parties that King Demos should
be a water-drinker. And in the prospect of his reign,
the rich have assuredly every reason to desire an appeal
from Demos drunk to Demos sober."

verse-writing, pistol-firing Gascon, one M. de
Castillonne. The rivalry at the balls of Baden
between Miss Ethel Newcome and Madame La
Duchesse D'lvry is productive of more than one
scene worthy of being remembered. The climax of
all the dancings, and gamblings, and flirtings, and
jealousies, and heartburnings, being the fact of my
Lord Kew coolly knocking down, with an easy
back-bander, the wonderful fire-eating, verse-writ-
ing, pistol-firing Gascon, M. de Castillonne. Be-
fore the last number closes, too, we learn that it is
all up between my Lord Kew and Miss Ethel New-
come ! In spite of all Lady Kew's adroit intrigues
and machinations to bring about the marriage
satisfactorily. It is all up in that quarter—at least
apparently. There is new hope dawning, it would
seem, unknown to him as yet, for Clive. What
though he is more truly than the Lord of Burleigh
little more than " a landscape painter." The
dear old Colonel's dream of Clive's union with
his fair cousin Ethel does not appear to be
quite so far now, as it used to be, from the mere
possibility of realisation.

The Physical Atlas. Part 111. By A. K. John-
ston. Blackwood and Sons.
A steady advance in the issue in a serial form of
this very remarkable publication, shows more and
more clearly through each successive instalment
the superiority of the present edition when com-
pared even with its notable predecessor. Nine of
the comprehensive and elaborately-finished plates
of the " Physical Atlas," extended and improved,
have now made their appearance. The three last
published, those comprised in the part lying before
us for examination, are among not the least im-
portant in the whole collection. One of them—
morally. Another—scientifically. Another—com-
mercially. The first being " A Moral and Statis-
tical Chart of the Geographical Distribution of
Man, according to Religious Belief," collected and
arranged by no other than the accomplished editor
himself, Mr. A. K. Johnston, whose name (it is
not difficult to predict) will hereafter be honourably
remembered as that of the founder of the science
of Physical Geography. Or, at least, if not the
original founder, the practical organisor of that
new study as a distinct branch of education. The
second being a map by Sir David Brewster of the
" Lines of Equal Polarisation in the Atmosphere."
The third, the only one here remaining, being the
joint production of Mr. J. S. Russell and Mr. A.
K. Johnston—a " Tidal Chart of the British Seas,
showing the Hours of High Water." These en-
gravings being accompanied as usual by a mass of
instructive and explanatory letterpress. The Tidal
Chart, besides indicating the progress of the wave
of high water, shows the hour of high water in
Greenwich time at new and full moon, as well as
the depth of the sea—embracing within the limits
of the engraving not merely the United Kingdoms,
not merely the whole of the islands and islets of the
British group or Archipielago, but the southern ex-
tremity of the Norwegian peninsula, and the broad
line of the coast of the European continent from
above Thysted. in Jutland to below Brest in
France, including of course the North Sea
shores of Germany and the entire seaboard of
the Netherlands from Dunkirk to Groningen.
The depth of the sea is marked in fathoms—the
hour of high water being indicated in Roman, and
the rise and fall of the spring tides on the coast in
Arabic numerals. The wonderfully ingenious map
showing the lines of equal polarisation in the
atmosphere, it may be well hero to remark, is
the finished, compact, and accurate result of four
years' observation—four years' observation by Sir
David Brewster, one of the most careful of observers,
and one of the most illustrious of living philoso-
phers. The plate still remaining to be noticed
more particularly is to our thinking of all the most
important yet published—namely, Mr. Johnston's
moral and statistical chart of the geographical dis-
tribution of man according to reigious belief-0,
chart of the whole world, accompanied by four
maps, and three diagrams. The three diagrams
indicating—here the comparative progress of Edu-
cation [the highest being Saxony, the lowest Rus-
sia, France being intermediately situated in this
respect, with Belgium higher, and England lower]
—here the comparative extent and relative num-
bers of the different religious bodies in Europe [the
Jews being represented as 3,000,000, the Heathens
and Mahomedans together as 8,000,000, the Pro-
testants as 62,000,000, the Greek Church as
64,000,0000, and the Roman Catholics as
128,000,0001—here the comparative extent and
relative numbers of creeds, estimating the popu-
lation of the globe in round numbers as One
E Thousand Millions: this last-mentioned diagram
giving the following as the relative proportions:—
Jews
Mahometans
Christians

Referring scornfully to the notion (credited by
some) of a Russian attack being made upon our
Asiatic possessions, the writer upon the present
war thus speaks of the bugbear dread, plainly,
bluntly, almost indignantly :
" Really, on calm reflection, it is impossible to charac-
terise ideas of positive invasion of India by Russia at this
juncture but as the idlest phantasies of the brain.' Our
feeling is one of astonishment at fancy, which can so ex-
aggerate the strength and resources of an enemy, which
can attribute to him omniscience and übiquity. It is in-
deed strange Our Indian empire has still all the vigour
of youth. It can hardly be restrained from dancing
from one acquisition to another. It can be reinforced
from home with the utmost certainty ; every circum-
stance connected with it shows that it is passing into a
state of permanence and solidification. It is a curious
system which participates in the vitality of the free con-
stitution of Great Britain by the constant influx of fresh
blood, while it is fenced by military precaution and armed
by administrative concentration. Much as there may be
to correct, inseparable as abuse must be in seine cases,
we have faith in the system and in its effects. Even
were the attempt at invasion made, sufficient energy would
be found to strike it on the head, sufficient means to roll
it back. On the contrary, we cannot have faith in the
omnipotence of the opposite system, also resulting for
the most part from the right of conquest—a system be-
gotten on serfdom, which, for sheer existence, must be
clamped and rivetted as the granite blocks in the quays
of the Neva, to meet the winter frosts. We believe we
have a strong will opposed to us, and that great re-
sources for defence are at the disposal of that will. But
we do not believe in the power of great resources for
attack, except by the slow undermining process, which
has been so insidiously worked by the condottieri of
diplomacy, since the foreign policy of Russia was fa-
shioned by Peter the Great."
We cannot but smile at the complacent credu-
lity with which the Edinburgh afterwards alludes
to the war policy of the present Cabinet, where it
is said of Ministers that " they are determined to
repress the growing usurpation"—the usurpation
of the Russian Autocrat, whose soldiers are, in the
August of 1854, not even yet quite driven out of
the Principalities.

Heathens

53000;000

1,000,000,000
The Heathens being thus distributed :
Miscellaneous Pagans, 100,000,000
Brahmins
Buddhists

530,000,000
The Christians, according to Mr. Johnston, being
thus proportioned in numbers relatively :
Minor Sects
Greek Schismatics 75,000,000
Protestants 95,000,000
Roman Catholics

340,000,000
A rather notable discrepancy, however, is percep-
tible, by the way, between Mr. Johnston's esti-
mate of the latter numbers, and that put forward
by Mr. Macaulay, in a somewhat memorable cal-
culation. We mean where, in his celebrated
panegyric on the Roman Catholic Church, as an
institution, marked according, to his view, by the
attributes of perennial youth and undiminished
grandeur, the Whig essayist wrote in the October
number, 1840, in the Edinburgh Review—" The
members of her communion are certainly not fewer
than one hundred and fifty millions ; and it will be
difficult to show that all the other Christian sects
united amount to a hundred and twenty millions."
An estimate which would not hold good—unless
by ignoring the existence of the 75,000,000 Greek
Christians—according to Mr. Johnston's statistics.
Setting altogether on one side those 75,000,000
members of the Greek Church—Mr. Johnston and
Mr. Macaulay would coincide perfectly well in the
result of their calculation. Not otherwise. For
in that case we find contrasting with each other-
-20,000,000 minor sects, and 95,000,000 Protestants,
the two altogether numbering 115,000,000—and
(upon this point throughout Mr. Johnston and Mr.
Macaulay are agreed) 150,000,000 Roman Catholics.
While it is consolatory to think that in Europe alone
there are in the aggregate as many as 254,000,000 of
believers in Christianity, it is terrible to reflect that
there are scattered over the globe no less than
530,000,000 of Heathens altogether ! The minor
maps introduced by Mr. Johnston into what must
otherwise have been empty portions of this extra-
ordinary Chart, illustrative of the twin studies of
Zoology and Phytology, represent—here the mis-
sion stations of British North America—here the
mission stations of India—here the mission sta-
tions of South Africa. There are besides these
two wonderfully interesting maps of Europe, show-
ing, one the distribution of the prevailing forms of
religion, and the other the distribution of the dif-
ferent European languages. Enough has surely
been said even in these few cursory comments upon
this latest specimen of the new and enlarged edi-
tion of the " Physical Atlas" to intimate clearly
the increasing value of the work as the text-book
of physical geography, and to illustrate anew the
ability manifested by Mr. A. Keith Johnston, both
through his individual share in the labour of its
production, and in the responsible and important
task of its general supervision.