The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-07 00:00:00

MAGAZINES, &c.—(CON'T'INUED.)
BENTLEY.
" at Glance at Sark," wiqi which the Miscellany
for October opens, is an admirably written narrative
of an excursion to one of the most interesting and ex-
traordinary portions of the British dominions, the
only part of the world, perhaps, in which the feudal
laws are still subsisting in their full vigour, and which
form the antiquity of its laws and customs, the pri.
mitive simplicity of its inhabitants, the sublimity of
its scenery, and the rarity of its natural productions,
is interesting alike to the antiquarian, the tourist, and
the student. This is followed by an excellent cri-
tique of the principal paintings in the Dulwich Gal-
ler•y, written in a tine and genial spirit. " Anecdotes
of Duelling" are continued, as is the paper on
' Usury and Usurers." Mr. Alfred Cole gives four
additional chapters of his most interesting and, at the
present time more especially, valuable work, entitled
" The Cape and the Kafirs ; or Notes of Five Years'
Residence in South Africa." In these chap-
ters he points out the great source
of wealthh
which the fisheries offer to the colony, and
whic are entirely neglectid : the bank of Agulhas,
whiell extends along the whole southern coast of
Africa, is more plentifully supplied with fish than any other spet On the globe yet in , and the fisheries are co-
Pletely neglected by the colonists and left entirely
in the hands of only fishermen. " the Malays, who are the
Mr. Cole, You may tske a boat," says
" and ne let down your net at any
point off the coast, and you are certain to
draw it up full of excellent fish. There are no dues,
no restrictions as to locality or reason. Toe country
produces enormous quantities of salt, and everything
fisheries
to combine to force the importance of their
upon the colonists. And yet they are well
pnigh. neglected." It would be well that some enter•
ornTog persons from the mother country should at
_.
ee undertake the task of developing the riches of
tshome South African ocean. Mr. Cole gives us
F
a.„ pears to valuable statistics of. sheep-farming, which
be
at the same ti a most profitable pursuit, but
c3ah, devoteme one of the laziest to which a man
iu
himself; this, perhaps, renders it so po•
t) I.lir among the Cape colonists, wile are, according
r. Cole's account of them, the laziest of mankind.
It would be well that our humanitarians, who take
the plundering ICafirs under their immediate protection,
should read the opening of Mr. Coles's fifth chapter,
in which he says :—" An idea seems the le •prevalent among
sa informed that the English have encroached
on the territories of the Kutirs. Nothing can be
more untrue. There is not an inch of the Cape co-
y that ever belonged to the Kefirs," a fact which
cannot be too often repeated, and which affords a
complete answer to all the cant that has been or may
be drivilled on the subject. Mr. Cole describes the
emancipation of the slaves as having been most direfulhe
in its results in the Cape colony. lie says:—
a: I am not going to defend (even were it possible to
1.7 80) the rinci le of slavery in the abstract; but I
Dto dealpwith simple facts. It is notorious that the
,Jutch were most kind and indulgent masters to their
8,147e5• It is squally notorious that no class of people
were better fed, clothed, or cared for; less overworked,
booth Africa. The Government at home thought
rroper, from the noblest and purest motives, and at a
Great sacrifice, to set these people free. What was the
result? These people (amounting to thirty-six thou-
'v, I'd), who had hitherto had their every want supplied
L'Y their masters, found the responsibility of providing
for themselves thrust upon them without any previous
training or preparation. Selt-reliance they could not
possiblyoss have. But they were dazzled by the name of
new bums, ' freedom.' They thought it a fine thing
to be at the beck and esti of no man; they pictured to
tfhernselves the savage's seventh heaven of delight, the
_leetlota to do nothing except gt drunk. They actually
anoandoned their old masters in a body; those who had
rot one word of complaint to utter against their past
t eatteent, e ,
theue, gully with those who might consider
Ives aggrieved. They abandoned their ancient
!!homes, and curamenced the celebration of those fearful
tt:irnalia which have already immolated two-thirds of
the Walla
sand which to this day fill the streets of every
"'I village in too colony with drunkenness and de-
bauchery.
TheY congregated in the towns in small, confined,
terand loathsome apartmen, living or half-starving on any
u'e
generoustheY could Procure inidleness, in lieu of the
masters. 74 Plentiful meals supplied by their late
huts coveredThe planted themselves in wretched filthy
bags, ,rid.Wlth old hides, decayed rags, rotten sugar-
wind to dirty
thatch, through which came rain and
Places they -ill the miserable occupants. From these
Places
shilling Y "Stleil but seldom, and then to earn only a
f
With it treafh drink trivial service, and to purchase
shall tell continue their debauch. Who
there huts o the horrible scenes of fiendish depravity
_ e4t._ and dens exhibited?
them 1). ilence folio d
ill fOrtns We • Measles and small-pox assailed
could check
hthee
siz2d on t uitraltkp,4ol9vur in. our own country. Nothing
bauched Negro and Progress of these diseases as they
sreshed, and weakened, aud de-
destructive in Enoi Hottentot. The plague was not so
the in
class '
in their huts inand as were these maladies among
the at the Cape. They died not alone
sides, as the towns and villages, but on the road-
open fiocid";qpwandered they knew nut whither; in the
he burnt
oveil miserable cebins (whin were obliged to
Cm destayiug It would remittals of the dead).
ntunber de- u be impussible to estimate correctly the
to
say
that stroyed by this dreadful visitation. Suffice it
visi6hd tr,e coloured races in South A fries were
_Thq,/)
.eecreased by itand
-•1 that it it were not actually
living,ng s red by the state in which
those races were then
trees
it Was at least frightfullyd in its disas-
augmented
, results by the
esuitiasi . w exposed condition
the
eatiou Act bad placed them—by their removal
well as ev
4 guardianship or those whom sell-interest, as
prompted
Cory better and gentler feeling, would have
proteut and aid the.
80 far f
481_3 .or the evils wrought upon the slaves them-
-07 —evils which have not passed away, but whose dire
marteLs are but too visible to this hour. As for their
otittirtiungathered vintages, fallow fields, crops rotten
labour ground, untended flocks, uuserved tables, and
lacking warehouses—these were a few of the evils
elPeriened by the colonists. The Dutch, who had pur-
sued agriculture, were literally ruined. They could nut
/et a labourer to aid them. ['he progress of the colony
Was fearfully retarded by it, and it has not to this day
tecevered from the shock."
Professor Creasy begins a series, entitled "Unsuc-
cessful Great Men," with an admirable analysis of
the character and motives of Demosthenes. Essays
such as this of Professor Creasy, on philosophical
history, are of the very highest order.