The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN REVIEW.
No. XX. Taylor, London, 1840.
The China question which is just now engrossing so
large .1 share of public attention. is very fully, and,
a 3 it seems to us, impartially discussed in the present
Number of this Quarterly Journal. The Reviewer
commences with a brief sketch of the internal condition
of China, for which he confesses himself indebted to
Mr. Davis's late instructive volumes on this subject,
and then proceeds to speak of the causes of the Ce-
lestial Court's hostility to opium, observing, "Ve e
have been informed by gentlemen who have resided
long in China, and possessed more than ordinary op-
portunities of information, that the substantial reason
which acts upon the Chinese Government, is the drain
of silver out of the country, caused by the importation
of opium." If this be so—if the Celestial Court really
regard the question in no higher light than one of mere
pounds, shillings, and pence, what an enormous amount
of panegyric have. the Tories wasted when they lavished
their praises on the Emperor, for his tender solicitude
for the morals of his subjects Alluding to the pro-
ceedings taken by Captain Elliot on the occasion of
the rupture between the British merchants and the
Chinese authorities, the Reviewer expresses himself fa-
vourably to that Gallant Officer, and expressly states
that our Government are bound to redeem the pledge
given by him to the owners of opium surrendered to
him for the Chinese authorities. The following i 3 the
conclusion at which he arrives, after a careful consider-
ation of the question :
'• The Chinese are by no means reconciled to the Tartar
yoke. We might pull down the Tartar and set up a Chi-
naman in his place, but then, how long would the China-
man remain? When you once begin to pull down an el-
derly edifice, there is no saying where you are to stop. And
so we arrive at the point in the circle where we were some
pages back—viz., that we should incur a terrible responsi-
bility by disturbing the governing forces that at present
act upon the Chinese people. Nevertheless we are in-
clined to think that the latter course would be, upon the
whole, the best; and the course which a ruler or minister
at once bold and able, resolute and wary, would adopt.
We should send out a fleet and army (a draft of troops
from India would probably be sufficient), land as near
to Pekin as possible ; distribute manifestoes everywhere as
we advanced, that we do not mean to plunder the property
of the Chinese, or to interfere in the least with the Chinese
lazes and institutions; that our sole quarrel is with the
Tartar invaders; and our object to place a Chinese on the
throne instead of a Tartar ; and to restore to China what-
evee of her institutions or customs, abolished by the Tar-
tan:, she wished to have restored. We should march to
Pekin, pluck the Tartar from his thro .e, place a Chinaman
in his seat. and make the sole c ndition of giving him his
etapire that he would sanction free trade with all the world.
We think that all this might be done at less expense than
a paltry, peddling, indecisive measure would cost, espe-
cially if we take into account the consequences of these ie.
efficient measures, which, like everything at first cheap
and bad, are always the most expensive in the end."
In the article on " Belgian Literature," which is
ehiefly taken up with an analysis of a curious old
Flemish poem entitled " Reynard, the Fox," we are
told that King Leopold is making every effort to revive
a taate for national literature, and discourage imitations
from the French, which have long been the fashion in
Belgium. This is one of the most praseworthy
schemes that his Majesty has adopted since his acces-
sion to the throne. " Lapland, and the Lap-
landers" furnishes us with some details respecting
the manners and customs of the most uncivilized nation
in Europe. We take little interest in these details ;
for it is not until man has become comparatively civilized,
that he can awaken curiosity, and afford food for spe-
culation. The records of all barbarous tribes are pretty
nearly the same, whether freezing at the pole, or !pelt-
ing beneath a vertical sun. They eat, drink, and sleep
this is about the sum total of what history has
to tell of them, from the cradle to the grave. The
Reviewer states that the " proper Laplanders are but
i
a handful of people, not exceeding eight thousand nch-
viduals"—a paucity of numbers which, we confess, sur-
prises us, considering the vast extent of country over
which they range, and the abundant supply of fish and
game which their lakes and woods afford. " Niebuhr's
Life and Opinions" is an entertaining article, contain.
ing a biographical sketch of this celebrated German
author, whose " History of Rome" has already taken
its placa amongst the foremost works of its class. Nie-
buhr seems to have been a man of infinite simplicity of
mind and manners, an indefatigable student, and en-
dowed with a dogged spirit of perseverance not often
found in the literary character. It is greatly to his
credit that he was a self-taught scholar, and utterly
deOld of that conceit and pedantry so common among
those :I'hose minds have not been regularly disci-
plined in y.uth. "At the age of sixteen," observes the
Reviewer, "11.9 was already familiar with many of the
twenty languagee which he eventually mastered. His
classical studies supplied materials for the day-dreams
which formed his chief occupation and enjoyment. His
vivid imagination brought ancient times as realities be-
fore him, and surrounded with historical accompani-
ments his boyish ideal of virtue and greatness." About
the period of the battle of Jena, Niebuhr was at Berlin
;in the civil service of the King of Prussia, and alluding
to its well-known showy army, he remarked exultingly,
" There is no other army in the world where the indi-
vidteal soldier is so much of a gentleman as ours." This
was t: my observed, and it was this very finical qua-
lity that .led to its ruin. The military gentlemen of
Prussia, whose chief boast was their dashing exterior,
which carried all before it on review-days, were no
match for the rough, hardy soldit rs of Napoleon, who
scattered them with as much ease as if they had been a
mob of mere school-boys. Niebuhr died in the yearl 831,
having just lived long enough to witness the sceoud and
final overthrow of the elder Bourbons, a catastrophe
which filled him—for he was a stanch aristocrat—with
dismay. " Pulpit Eloquence in America" discusses
the literary merits of Dr. Chancing and Mr. Dewey, a
popular transatlantic preacher, both of whom are spoken
of in high terms of praise. Want of space and time
prevent es from noticing the two or three remain-
ing articles, the best of which is on the subject of
_Emigration.