The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-26 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

I Lake Nganti ; or, _Explorations and Discoveries
during Four Years' Wanderings in South-
Western _Africa. By Charles John Anderson.
Mr. Anderson, in this volume of travels and ad-
ventures, presents us with an excellently-written
account of comparatively unknown regions and
tribes ; treating largely of lion hunts and elephant
killing ; of lonely marches and wonderful escapes.
The author does not confine himself to his mere
personal performances, as most modern sporting
book-makers do ; but he descants on the physical
features of the country, the religious rites and cus-
toms of the natives, the historical descent of the
various tribes, and the legends and superstitions
attached to them. He affords information of an
extensive and valuable character relative to the
remote parts of Western Africa ; and the tone of
sincerity and acute observation developed in the
work lead us to imagine that the details may be
relied on. There is abundance of the startling
matter which constitutes a fashionable Romance of
the Rifle ; but the author has wisely remembered
that a book of five hundred and fifty pages re-
quires to be filled with something more than blood
and bullets, if it is intended for the steady perusal
of the intellectual and refined. A chapter devoted
to the ostrich is especially interesting. The natu-
ral history of the bird is graphically and lucidly
given, yielding ample knowledge of the subject,
interspersed with amusing recitals and sound quo-
tations from learned and unquestionable autho-
rities. Mr. Anderson says—
" Anything like a scientific description of the ostrich
would here be out of place; but it may be proper to men-
tion that the lower part of the neck and the body of the
mature male bird are of a deep glossy black, intermingled
with a few whitish feathers, only visible when the plumage
is ruffled. 'ln the female, the general colour of the fea-
thers is of a greyish, or ashy brown, slightly fringed with
white. In both sexes the large plumes of the wings and
tail are beautifully white.'
"The ostrich, when full grown, stands no less than from
seven to eight feet, and instances are recorded where indi-
vidual birds have attained as much as nine. Its weight is
proportionate. Judging from what I have experienced in
carrying the dead body, it is not less, perhaps, than two
or three hundred pounds. Indeed there are persons who
believe that the mature bird, when in prime condition, as
a butcher would say, will attain a weight of thirty stone.

" The white wing-feather of the ostrich (the black ones
are used chiefly for mourning) are a considerable article of
commerce. The market, however, is very fluctuating. At
the Cape the price varies from one or two guineas sterling
to as much as twelve, for the pound, the latter sum, how-
ever, being only paid for very prime feathers. The thinner
the quill, and the longer and more wavy the plume, the
more it is prized. Seventy to ninety feathers go to the
pound. But although half this number may be obtained
from a single bird, only a small portion are of any
value. In the pairing season—and it may be at other
times—the ostrich, like the turkey-cock, the capercali,
and many other birds, is in the habit of drooping its
wings, so that the outer feathers trail on the ground,
which soon destroys their beauty. The proper time to
kill th:ostrich for its plumes, is shortly after the moulting
season, or in the months of March and April.
" The Damaras and the Bechuanas manufacture hand-
some parasols from the black feathers of the ostrich, which
serve as signs of mourning, or are useful in the preserva-
tion of the complexion. `lt is a beautiful sight,' says
Harris, ' to behold a savage, whoseskin, somewhat coarser
than the hide of a rhinoceros, might vie in point of colour
with a boot, protecting his complexion by the interposi-
tion of such au umbrella.' "

Lovers of the terrible and wonderful may be gra.
tified at such "narrow escapes" as Mr. Anderson
here describes in au encounter with a rhinoceros—
"ln heading back to my skarm,' I accidentally took
a turn in the direction pursued by the black rhinoceros,
and by ill luck, as the event proved, at once encountered
her. She was still on her legs, but her position, as be-
fore, was unfavourable. Hoping, however, to make her
change it for a better, and thus enable me to destroy
her at once, I took up a stone and hurled it at her with
all my force; when, snorting horribly, erecting her tail,
keeping her head close to the ground, and raising clouds
of oust by her feet, she rushed at me with fearful fury.
I had only just time to level my rifle aud fire before she
was upon me ; and the next instant, whilst instinctively
turning round for the purpose of retreating, she laid me
prostrate. The shock was so violent as to send ray
rifle, powder-flask, and ball-pouch, as also my cap spin-
ning iu the air ; the gun, indeed, as afterwards ascertained
to a distance of fully ten feet. On the beast charging me,
it crossed my mind that unless gored at once by her horn
her impetus would be such (after knocking me down,
which I took for granted would be the case) as to carry her
beyond me, and I might thus beufforded a chance of escape.
Su, indeed, it happened ; for having tumbled we over (in
doing which her head, and the forepart of her body,
owing to the violence of the charge, was half buried in
the sand), and trampled on me with great violence, her
fore-quarter passed over my body. Struggling for life, I
seized my opportunity, and as she was recovering herself
for a renewal of the charge, I scrambled out from between
her hind legs.
_ _

" But the enraged beast had not yet done with me !
Scarcely had I regained my feet before she struck me
down a second time, and with her horn ripped up my
right thigh (though not very deeply) from near the knee to
the hip ; with her fore feet, moreover, she hit me a terrific
blow on the left shoulder near the back of the neck. My
ribs bent under the enormous weight and pressure, and
for a moment, I must, as I believe, have lost consciousness
—I have at least very indistinct notions of what after-
wards took place, All I remember is, that when I raised
my head, I heard a furious snorting and plunging amongst
the neighbouring bushes. I now arose, though with great
difficulty, and made my way, in the best mannei I was
able, towards a large tree near at hand, for shelter; but
this precaution was needless ; the beast, for the time at
least, showed no inclination further to molest me. Either
in the melee, or owing to thp confusion caused by her
wounds she h .1 lost sight of de, or she felt satisfied with
the revenge she had taken. Be that as it may, I escaped
with life, though sadly wounded and severely bruised, in
which disabled state I had great difficulty in getting back
to my skarm.'
" During the greater part of the conflict I preserved my
presence of mind; but atter the danger was over, and when
I had leisure to collect my scattered and confused senses,
I was seized with a nervous affection, causing a violent
trembling. I have since killed many rhinoceroses, as well
for sport as food ; but several weeks elapsed before I could
again attack those animals with any coolness."

A map of the country is appended, and nume-
rous engravings illustrate the most astonishing
adventures. Altogether, the book is one of the
best of its class.

William Penn. An Historical Biography. By
Hepworth Dixon. New Edition. Chapman
and Hall.

Already Hepworth Dixon's Life of " William
Penn" has taken rank as a classic among the mas-
terpieces of our historico-biographic literature. As
such it may be numbered even now, during its
author's lifetime, among the standard memorials
of our great English Worthies. As it must be borne
in recollection was equally the case with the bio-
graphy of " Horatio Nelhon," by Robert Southey,
and of " Thomas More," by James Mackintosh.
Little, therefore, it must be allowed, remains at
this moment to be said in reference to any
fresh reprint of a production so firmly established
in the favour of the more discerning part of our
reading population. Nothing indeed for that mat-
ter—absolutely nothing in the way of supplemen-
tary criticism upon what is so far out of the range
of the daily reviewer that it has attained a recog-
nised position as an authority, at once, be it said,
in the realms of history and in those of biography.
Nothing—but for a certain curious Preface, " A
New Preface in Reply to the Accusations of Mr.
Macaulay !" A very remarkable argument to say
the least of it—to say the most of it (and not a bit
too much of it), an argument from first to
last perfectly triumphant ! In the biogra-
pher of William Penn, Mr. Macaulay has °de-
cidedly " Caught a Tartar." Never was there
such an expose of a great writer's blunders, weak-
nesses, prejudices, obstinacy, insincerity, and pre-
cipitation. Had the author of " Satan" lived to
read it, he would. have felt himself avenged. The
veteran Quarterly Reviewer, who was once upon a
time Secretary to the Admiralty, and who—rather
more memorably than in that capacity, as far as
the general public were concerned as spectators—
was once upon a time scarified in the great blue-
and-buff contemporary, must have chuckled re-
cently in his arm chair over these thirty-
four pages of scornful and withering comment :
solaced as he read and chuckled !—for any
twinge that may have been provoked
years ago by the perusal of Mr. Macaulay's re-
view of Mr. Croker's edition of Mr. Boswell's
life of Johnson, the Lexicographer ! Yes ! infalli-
• bly this same " Preface" must have been very plea-
sant reading, indeed, to the Right Hon. Nicholas
Rigby, as it would assuredly have been "nuts to
the late Rev. Robert Montgomery. And legiti-
mately thus in either instance—Mr. Macaulay hav-
ing at last discovered a Quid pro Quo, a Roland for
his Oliver, the critic being criticised, the reviewer
reviewed ! Mr. Dixon deliberately and unsparingly
trots his formidable victim out, caparisoned in ail
the pomp and glitter of the resplendent panoply of
his rhetoric—and shows his paces ! He under-
stands obviously all the mysteries of manege, and
the result is altogether a very uncommon exhibition
in the literary amphitheatre. What enhances our
sense of Mr. Dixon's perfect mastery of his subject
is the consciousness, of course, that he is firmly
mounted all the while upon a favourite hobbyhorse
—one very noble and exalted in its proportions.
William Penn's Biography it is—from the height
of which our author-critic-satirist (" three gentle-
man in one" like our old friends Cerberus and
Captain Absolute) hurls down upon the prancing
Pegasus of the great Whig annalist those brick-
bats of argument, hard, and stubborn, and
substantial Facts ! Mr. Macaulay s well-known
charges against Penn are taken verbatim, et
literatim, et seriatim, ! There are eight of
them in number, eight horrible charges in the
black list including among the crimes, and vices,
and immoralities attributed to William Penn, those
of--extortion, lying, seduction, intimidation,
simony and treason ! Penn's latest and greatest
biographer, the biographer indeed of William Penn
from this time forth, Mr. Hepworth Dixon, reso-
lutely takes these eight terrible accusations, one
by one, and refutes them utterly and com-
pletely beyond the possibility of any future

revival of them either in Macaulay's "Histor
of England," or anywhere else in the whole range
of historic or biographic literature: He takes, first
of all, because ho considers it to be the most serious
of these accusations, the charge (I.) directed
against Penn by Mr. Macaulay, to the effect that
he (Penn) extorted money from the Taunton girls
for the benefit of the maids of honour ! Proving
that the Peun really implicated in this transaction
was not William Penn the Quaker, but George
Penne, a pardon-broker and a gamester—a man
in those clays as infamous as he was notorious.
Secondly, Mr. Dixon takes Mr. Macaulay's next
charge (II.) against the hero of his book, to the
effect that be (Penn) tried to seduce Kiffin into
courtly ways ! Proving that so far from Penn being
employed in the work of seduction (as Mr. Mac-
aulay intimates) Kiffin (who, of course, is the chief
authority in the matter) states exactly the reverse
—Penn (as Mr. Dixon puts it) not going to Kiffin,
but Kiffin to Penn. Thirdly, our author takes Mr.
Macaulay's next charge (III.) against the great
Quaker, that to the effect that he (Penn) tried to
gain the Prince of Orange's assent to the Declara-
tion of Indulgence ! Proving by the incontrovert-
ible evidence of dates, that Penn did not go to the
Hague, that he could not go to the Hague
to persuade William to support the Decla-
ration of Indulgence. Fourthly,. Mr. Dixon
takes the next charge (IV.) brought against Penn
by Mr. Macaulay, to the effect that IT (Penn) was
employed to terrify, caress, or bribe the Fellows of
Magdalene ! Proving, in direct opposition to this,
that Penn's influence was positively "in favour
of," instead of "against" the Fellows of
Magdalene. Fifthly, Mr. Dixon takes Mr.
Macaulay's next charge (V.) against Penn
—namely, that he (Penn) accused himsel
before the council with a falsehood ! Proving that
no falsehood at all passed from the lips of Penn be-
fore the council, either expressed or implied.
Sixthly, our author takes Mr. Macaulay's next ac-
cusation (VI.) against the Quaker, the charge that
he (Penn) told Lord Sidney something very like a
lie, and confirmed it with something very
like an oath ! Proving the direct nega-
tive of this by means of Lord Sidney's
letter to King William—a letter, be it observed,
which is actually Mr. Macaulay's sole authority
for his most flagitious statements. Seventhly, ho
takes the annalist's next charge (VII.) against
the unfortunate object of . all these shame-
less misrepresentations, to wit the one asserting
that ho (Penn) sent a message to James
exhorting him to return with 30,000 men !
Proving that the solitary foundation for the charge
anywhere adducable by the historian is one he is
absolutely ashamed to adduce, namely, an obscure
spy, worthy of no credence whatever, one William-
son. Eighthly, Mr. Dixon takes the crowning ac-
cusation upon the black list, (VIII.), that in which
Penn is charged by Mr. Macaulay with doing his
best to bring a foreign army into England !
Proving that Mr. Macaulay's one witness, Avaux,
the only authority mentioned by him in support of
this monstrous accusation, never says anything at
all of the kind, never even suggests any idea of an
endeavour so unpatriotic as this, imputing to Penn,
the man of Peace, the design of abandoning his
native land to internecine war for the advantage of
a cause in which he had no political interest what-
ever, the then fallen and desperate cause of the
Jacobites. Q.E.D., in short, may henceforth be
stereotyped at the close of each of these eight
masterly and triumphant refutations.

Erlesinere ; or, Contrasts of Character.

By L. S.

LaVenn. 2 vols. Smith and Elder.

This story is of a striking and original, but un-
satisfactory character. It is evidently the work of
a writer of no ordinary ability, and one of deep
thoughts on the elements and tendencies of human
nature, and sensible that no sophisms of mere
speculative morality can ever produce beneficial
results. Nevertheless, setting aside the tragic
tone of the story, the reader lays it down with a
sense of dissatisfaction and disappointment. The
writer, in painting vividly the mistakes and
failures of the philosophers of the tale, the selfish
sentimentalism of the disciple of Rosseau, and the
superficial self-control of the would-be stoic, has
neglected to show us with equal brilliancy a more
satisfactory existence. The individual who, after
years of self-deception and want of purpose, at
length devotes himself to the good of others, and
endeavours to pursue a life of active virtue, in-
stead of dreamy despair, at once disappears from
the scene, to make room for the final catas-
trophes of his misanthropical and melancholy
companions. Even the friend who arouses his
dormant energies appears but little on the scene.
The author, wile condemning in practice the ten-
dencies of the mystics, inclines considerably
towards them in theory. A little of the German
school mingles in the metaphysics and disguises
ideas in paradoxes. Some of the theories are in-
correct and dangerous ; one of these is the asser-
tion that the feelings alone should direct us—that
the heart should govern the intellect, not be ruled
by it. Thus th instructor before referred to,
while rousing his friend to the most worthy aspira-
tions, tells him in some great moral trial to take
what is beautiful as his guide, forgetting how
often error may dazzle for a time, if we have no
surer test than the sense of beauty. The plot is
simple, though novel. Two twin sons, Herbert
and Cecil, are left to the care of their father and a
distant relation named Stephen Harley. Their
father, who is an admirer of the French school of
philosophy of the eighteenth century, dies while
they are yet children, leaving themto the guardian-
ship of Sir Harry Effingham and Stephen Harley.
Sir Hairy is a retired officer in the army, with a
strict idea of discipline and very decided prejudices.
The other guardian, Stephen Harley, is totally
different. Still young he is a cynic and a vision-
ary. Without any clearly-defined principles he
regards mankind with contempt, and endeavours
to be totally isolated from all sympathy with his
fellow-creatures. He makes au exception in the
case of Herbert Erle, who, though the heir, has
always been secondary to his brother from his deli-
cate health and sensitive nature. He looks up to
Mr. Harley with enthusiastic admiration, but it is
in vain that he tries to make him share his stoical in-
difference toall around him. Herbert grows up bit-
terlysensible of his brother's superiority, and hope-
lessly devoted to Mildred Effingham, the heroine
of the story. Cecil, the younger brother, becomes
a selfish and ambitious politician, seeking every
means of advancement, and looking on his brother
with undisguised contempt. Mildred Effingham,
the child of a strict and severe father, whose great
rule is unquestioning obedience, and a worldly
mother, whose nature is totally antagonistic to her
own, is possessed of great powers of mind, and
strong and passionate feelings. But her talents
are undeveloped, and her passions undisciplined.
She meets Stephen Harley, and a fervent attach-
ment follows between the coldand sceptical dreamer,
and the young and vehement enthusiast. Herbert,
meanwhile, has become convinced, though wrongly,
that his brother is attached to Mildred, and retires
from the field. Stephen Harley becomes indig-
nant, however, at some opposition and delay ; his
pride takes offence, and writing a cold farewell to
Mildred he goes abroad. He does not re-
turn for five years, when he meets Mildred
as the wife of Cecil Erle. Though the object
of devotion to Herbert's unselfish heart and
Stephen's lofty intellect, she has chosen the
worldly schemer, the superficial and selfish Cecil.
But her eccentricity and absence of mind are often
noticed. She has never recovered the mental
shock of Harley's desertion, and the excitement of
again meeting her early lover, and his explanations
of the past and renewal of affection, together, with
the ruin and disgrace of her husband, complete the
catastrophe. She is preparing to elope with
Stephen, when she meets her husband at the door,
carried in mortally wounded in a duel. Ske ends
her days a hopeless lunatic. Stephen Harley dis-
appears for some time, when he re-appears as a
R, man Catholic missionary, having devoted him-
.self to a life of penance and remorse. Herbert
Erle remains at Erlesmere, and endeavours, in
benefitting others, to forget his own misfortunes.
Such is the tale, which is told with effect, and the
characters are vividly drawn. The speculations
and theories of the writer will not be attractive
to the general reader, though they will interest
the thoughtful and mystical. A more vivid reality
is wanted in the writer's dreams—a sense of the
true and noble aims of life, to be pursued `with th
same energy through suffering and disappointmen t
as through prosperity and success. The lofty spirit
of the " Psalm of Life" is wanting. The dreams
become nightmares, but leave no lasting impres-
sion ; the theories rise into problems, but furnish
no solution : at least, however, the work proves a
negative truth, the insufficieney and ill-success of
sentimental stoicism ; and the reader is fully con-
vinced by the intricacy and indirectness of the
metaphysical labyrinth of the superiority of the
plain highroad of self-control and high principle.

INQUIRY INTO THE GRESHAM CHARlTlES.—Yester-
day Mr. F. 0. Martin, one of the inspectors appointed
by the Charity Commissioners of England and Wales
opened enquiry at the hail of the Mercers' Com-
pany relative to the administration of the charities 'be-
queathed by Sir Thorns.? Gresham in the city of London,
with a view to improve, if necessary, the mode of
administering the saini-).
CITY SANITARY IMPROVEMENT.—In consequence of
the complaints which have been made by the judges
of the offensive smells that the City courts of law
were subjected to during the sittings. the City Sewers
Commissioners have adopted a plan for the thorough
drainage, not only of the courts of law, but of all
the buildings adjacent to Guildhall.