The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONWN, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 4, 1860

....../, In. .1.....7. uvomett
wards he proceeded to Hong- kong, where he remained still
under the protection of our missionary friends there, till he
decided to go on to Nankin. He is well acquainted with
our religion.'
" ' What day do you keep as a day of worship ; and
what four stars in the cycle of 28 denote the day ?'
" ' Fang, RH, Mau, Sing are the four days on which the
worship day occurs.'
it , And what day in the week is this, then ?'
" ' The second after the day of worship.'
"'The day, then, is the same in your nation as in
ours. "

Their chiefs have had some considerable inter-
course with Christian teachers. TIENWANG, their
head chief, who is now ascertained to be still living,
received elementary instruction from an American
missionary; and a confused reading of the Chinese
Bible appears to have given their characteristics
to the visions and revelations which he fancied
were given him. A relative of his, however, now
second in command, and bearing the title of KAN-
WANG (Shield King), about five years ago spent
seven months with the late Dr. MEDHURST, and
actually wrote out from his instructions a commen-
tary on the New Testament, and was baptised by a
German missionary in 1853. Mr. EDRINS observes,
in speaking of the " Book of Visions," written by
their leader :
"The curious and authentic statements made in this
book are our best lights on the early history of
the rebellion. They vindicate satisfactorily its religious
origin, and show that, while the founder has erred
in regarding- himself as the subject of immediate Divine
revelations, he is a sincere believer in Christianity. The
advent of his relative after several years of instruction
under the Protestant missionaries may produce a painful
influence upon his mind in leading him back to correct
views of Scripture truth."
Of course, there is much in what we hear of them
that would make us smile; much that seems to us
sober Westerns—Protestants, too—blasphemous ;
and much in the propagation of their faith by the
sword, and their Chinese indifference to the suffer-
ings and lives of others, which is truly horrible.
Yet how much may we say for people whose whole
ideas of life and religion have been se utterly in
contrast with our own. People who need the most
careful elementary teaching and training, but who
are almost entirely self-trained, and who have lived
by the maxims which guided the conduct of Com-
missioner YETI. When we remember, however,
with what sentiments the judgment of the PorE is
regarded by Catholic Christendom, may we not
forgive a Chinese of ardent temperament who has
been reading the Hebrew prophets, for thinking
himself, too, inspired and infallible? And when
we remember Perugia and LAMORICIERE'S free
lances, can we wonder that the Tai-pings should take
JOSHUA and the Hebrew judges for their models?
We know not indeed whether, after all, the lan-
guage of our missionary informant be, not merely
appropriate from him, but most appropriate to the
whole case :
" In all this Providence is at work, and we believe that
God will cause the result of the war to further His wise
designs, and in the end to promote the real happiness of
the Chinese people."
d

LATEST NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

TURIN, OCT. 3.

In to-day's sitting of the Chambers a committee
was appointed to examine the project of law pre-
sented by the Government.
The members of this committee expressed full
confidence in the policy of Count Cavour, but de-
sired that all dualism with Garibaldi should cease.

The Espero of Turin states that a rumour is gain-
ing ground in that city of the meeting of a congress
to settle the Italian question. The same journal
adds that it is the Emperor Napoleon who has made
the proposition to that effect.

MADRID, OCT. 3.
The Official Gazette announces that the Cortes
will assemble on the 25th October.

The Espana asserts that the principal Carlist
chiefs are disposed to recognise Queen Isabella 11.

ST. PETERSBURG, OCT. 4.
The Empress of Russia was yesterday happily
delivered of a Prince at Sarskoselo.
The Emperor will leave on the 12th inst., and
arrive at Wilna on the 13th inst.

CALCUTTA AND CHINA MAILS.
SOUTHAMPTON, THURSDAY.
The Peninsula and Oriental Company's steamer
Ceylon, Captain Evans, has arrived here with the
above mails. She brings 124 passengers and a
large cargo, including 2,246 bales of silk value
upwards of £200,000 sterling.
It ;was officially announced from Tangiers that
the Sultan had permitted the exportation of wool
and grain for one year.
The Milazzo from London with excursionists to
Italy put into Gibraltar on the 25th ult.
The brig Christiana Carnell arrived at Gibraltar
on the 18th ult., totally dismasted.
The Ripon left Gibraltar for the East on the 26th
ult.

GIBRALTAR, SEPT. 29.

Exchange on London, 504 to 50i ; on Paris, 5.23;
on Marseilles, 5.34 ; on Madrid, at par. ; Cadiz,
discount ; Malaga, premium.

THE MAGAZINES.

Blackwood's Magazine.
This number of Blackwood is not so brilliant a 5

- -
The first article is called " Seeing is Be-

lieving," and it contains some judicious reflections.
It remarks that, in the arguments on this subject,
both sides are wrong in many cases. " Seeing is
believing, and he that distrusts the evidence of his
own sight will find a difficulty in bringing forward
evidence more convincing. The fallacy lies in con-
founding vision with inference, in supposing that
facts are seen which are only inferred. There can
be no mistake in trusting to the evidence of sense
as far as the eye goes ; the mistake is in supposing
it to go much farther than it does. It is one thing
to believe what you have seen, and another to be-
lieve that you have seen all there was to be seen."
Another very true observation is made regarding
the tendency that prevails among certain people to
take things for granted concerning which they have
no proof, and then to insist upon the accuracy of
their unfounded and unsupported statement. " You
cannot step into an omnibus, or chat with an
acquaintance at a club, without hearing distinct
positive and important statements respecting the
intentions of public men—statements involving their
personal honour, perhaps the national safety, and
uttered with an air of conviction which would be
ludicrous were it not so sad ; yet if you happen to
ask on what evidence the speaker relies, you find,
perhaps, that there is nothing better than the sur-
mise and gossip of our Own Correspondent, or of
some ' ignorant ape walking about in breeches,'
who undertakes to supply a newspaper with his in-
terpretation of the motives of persons he has never
seen, and whose characters he cannot know." There
is a great deal of truth in this, unpalateable as it
may be to some folks, who are always rushing about,
after the fashion of the actors in " The School for
Scandal," slaying reputations, and laying low those
rivals they could not have encountered in open
combat. " The Papal Government" is the name of
the second subject. It criticises a work on Catholic
Italy, written by Charles Hemans, son of the
renowned poetess. This writer, himself a Catholic,
is in favour of a separation of the temporal and
spiritual authority of the Pope. These remarks on
a question of great importance, which is now so
frequently discussed in all quarters, cannot but be
acceptable to many readers. " Tickler 11. among
the Thieves" is a humorous sketch by a celebrated
writer, which is sure to afford general entertain-
ment from its smart style and witty anecdotes.
" The Reputed Traces of Primeval Man," as may be
supposed from the title, is one of those
strange subjects, that are of interest only to a few.
" The Romance of Agostini " is the second part of a
very complicated and romantic tale. Doubtless, as
it proceeds it will become very exciting in its de-
tails, and effective in its general style, The Irish
nurse, Madame Marguritta, is a very clever sketch,
aptly described, and altogether introduced into the
story with very great dexterity and finish of execu-
tion. There is an interesting article on the " Fresco
Paintings of Italy," which is well worthy of per-
usal. The following passage will explain the pur-
port of the Arundel Society, and the general ad-
vantages to be derived from the fresco painting
the most appropriately •in its own forcible and
eloquent language :
" Once more, reverting to the projects of the Arundel
Society, we find abundant cause why the fresco art of Italy
should be brought to the knowledge of the English public.
Fresco-painting was, to the Italian artist, the ready lan-
guage by which he rapidly expressed his thoughts and
emotions. Easel •pictures were by comparison but subor-
dinate and occasional productions. And it is well known
that the greatest masters, from Giotto down to Raphael and
Michael Angelo, executed their most important works
through the medium and material of fresco. Fortunately
for Italy, but unhappily for England, these wall-pictures
admit of no ready removal. Our National Gallery, as we
recently took occasion to show, has become richly endowed
with a consecutive historic series painted upon panal or
canvas ; but the grand contemporary Italian frescoes in
convents and churches, in loggia and stanza—works which,
in fact, constitute the glory, and evince the power of Italian
art—must ever remain, in legal phrase, attached as fixtures
to the freehold. The untravelled Englishman can become
acquainted with these master productions only through the
intervention of copies ; and hence the special and important
service which the Arundel Society seeks to confer upon the
general public. . . . What the directors of the Na-
tional Collection have accomplished upon the walls of the
Gallery itself, the Council of the Arundel Society
will attempt for the portfolio of their subscribers. The
private libraries of our country gentry may now glow
as with the fresco art of a southern clime, and men even of
moderate means may possess, as in a developed history,
illustrations of the rare Italian masters. By such means
the choicest works become diffused and popularised, and
are brought, as it were, to the very door of every English-
man. The dissemination of such productions may be
deemed an important, if not, indeed, an essential part of
that general• education, that extension of cultured taste
which has for some years been among the most happy re-
sults of the art revival in this country. . . .
These fresco-pictures we have seen are now threatened with
destruction. But this, the calamity of Italy, may be Eng-
land's opportunity. We are endowed with wealth and
power, and we must be ready to save and to seize the trea-
sures offered for our use. 'We must wait, ever eager on the
watch. Dynasties are overthrown, and old families have
fallen, and heirlooms, the riches of art, may in sore need be
put to a bidding. Democracy, which sold in our own coun-
try the gallery of a Charles, may not always in Florence
conserve the pictures of the Pitti. The authorities of our
National Gallery, we say, must be upon vigilant watch.
The autonomy' established in Tuscany may yet, like many
other grand conceptions, fall short of money; nobles, who
have still something to lose, may yet be glad to fly from
pillage, with pictures rolled in their portmanteaus. But
some works cannot be carried into safety ; and therefore it
was a happy thought which led the Arundel Society to
secure by copies those frail and fadding frescoes which new,
almcst at any moment, a cannon-shot may destroy."
" Norman Sinclair" is continued, and this instal-
ment is more lively than some of the previous por-
tions of the story.

Dublin Unieversity Magazine.

"The French and English Armaments" is the
first subject treated of. It refers chiefly to the
writings of M. Clarigny on the English and
French navies. The remarks here made appear to
be very sensible, and entirely confute the strange
statements made by the French writer. An ap-
propriate compliment is paid to Sir John Paking-
ton, of whom it is said the Dike of Wellington
remarked, " never heard of him," when told he was
Lord Derby's Colonial Secretary. " Yet," it is
said, "when subsequently transferred from the
Colonial-office to the Admiralty, the adminis•
tration of this midland county baronet won gold(
opinions from the entire service. His energy
in having raised the materiel of the navy from an
improperly depressed state to nearly the required
standard was rendered homage to by the present
Secretary in a statement made to the House of
Commons last session, when the augmentation
effected in a single year was pronounced marvellous
and prodigious. Such a tribute is alike meritorious
to the giver and the recipient, and it should be ever
held in grateful recollection of Sir John Pakington
that he took up the cause before any general ex-
citement prevailed, and insisted on providing a
sufficient force before the popular opinion had been
expressed as it has since been so energeti-
cally. In the conclusion of this article it
is said :—" The true national political tradition
is this—the British Fleet should be maintained
superior in number to any probable combination
of other fleets against it. This precaution, while
insuring against being overwhelmed by sudden
coalition, also leaves in case of war, sufficient
squadrons for protecting British commerce in every
sea round the world." A few pages are devoted to
the consideration of some clerical works recently pub-
lished, and especial attention is directed to the new
book by the author of the celebrated work "Twenty
Years in the Church," which is called Elkerton
Rectory. The remarks on this clever and:good-inten-
tioned work, are well written and evince an entire
comprehension and thorough appreciation of the
motives and plans of the author. The very excit-
ing and interesting narrative of the Count of Elsi-
nore again appears to attract the attention of the
readers of this periodical. The portion here met
with is very remarkable, concerning no less an
event than his escaping the ignominious death that
had been designed him. The way in which this
skilful subterfuge was effected is very strikingly
narrated, and fully establishes the reputation of
LarsVonved as to being one of the most distinguished
characters of his time. The scene is very vividly
described in which the renowned sea Captain
is restored from the gates of the grave
to the midst of his devoted band. Believing
him dead, the governor of the prison had relin-
quished the body to the friends who petitioned to
bury it, and they, hastily returning to the ship,
eluded discovery ! Nearly every man of his devoted
crew by this time were thronging around him in the
great cabin, and the sternest old sea•dog of them
all wept like a nervous woman for unutterable
joy and thankfulness. " Blown off Land" is a
very melancholy reminiscence of an old sailor, who
narrates to his sorrowing auditors how, in long
past years, he had lost his three sons by a calamity
that had befallen them in a perilous fishing excur-
sion. It is related with simplicity and pathos, and can
hardly fail to impress the reader with its genuine
feeling. Our "Political Chorus" contains an epi-
tome of events, whichis well arranged, and gives a
good general idea of affairs to those who may not
have had time or possessed inclination to study
them in detail at the period of their occurrence.

Fraser's 111 vazine.
Fraser has as usual several papers worth reading,
promiment among them being one of A. K. H. B.'s
delightful essays, His title will probably perpl,x
the reader, for he calls it " Concerning Scylla and
Char 3 bdis • with some thoughts t pon the swing of
the pendulum." A few sentences, however, eluci-
date the mystely. His real subject is the prone-
ness of human nature to run into extremes, if
convinced of ore error to rush into the opposite one,
and by the swing of the pendulum he means our