The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-22 00:00:00

,LIGENCE,

LITERATURE,

Quinland ; or, Varieties in. A hiericart, Life. 2 vols.
Bentley.
We have here a very clever work, eminently cal-
culated to engage general attention. It presents
us with some striking social sketches, and also fur-
nishes the more important traits,;that stamp the
characteristics of a nation in the peculiarities of its
people. Although to some the New World's towns
and their denizens may not hold out great attrac-
tions as objects of regard, or subjects of study—
though the lovers of culture and refinement will
look in vain for a new Greece or a second Rome—
there are marvels to excite and interest, if they are
not endued with the majestic beauty, and the ar-
tistic grace, that immortally illuminate the memory
of the cities, of the Violet Crown, and the Seven
Hills. The reader is introduced to all the different
phases of existence in the town, the village, and
the wilderness. Tho account of the creation of
the cities of the Great West is surprising :
" Where, a dozen years before, the wigwams of
Indian villages had smoked, be found cities already
larger than many that for centuries have occupied
the attention of history." The hero, Thomas Quin-
land, was born in a settlement of the same name in
the United States. His father was very proud of
his family. Among his ancestors he counted " one
of the immortal company of the Mayflower." The
first years of Thomas's life were very tranquil, but
in the depths of the forest he learned the wisdom
that cities cannot always teach—to know bivaself,
and to regard the world ia its true light. He was
afterwards more or less influenced by the different
persons with whom he came in contact ; and at
times conflicting opinions seized his mind, but he
never finally lost that reliance on his own energies
which is the key-note to success, and that innate
belief in the good and the true which is the inhe-
rent birthright of the child of Nature. It is inte-
resting to trace the rise and progress of the
children of the settlement. " From such little
border companies are gathered the bravest, the
strongest in the countless hosts that go to and fro
upon the earth, that make seas the highways of
commerce, that ~ prepare new habitations in the
wilderness." The author also describes with great
power the efforts made by many of the youths to
obtain education, bow they worked for their
living while struggling to master knowledge. One
of the few friends of the hero had performed
great things for himself ; he art ived at a college in
Virginia without a dollar, but he did not give up
hope, and he succeeded in his task. "In the
house of one of the professors he performed the
duties of a servant for his board. He sawed wood,
did anything by which he could earn an honest
shilling, and when he was twenty-one years of age
he graduated with the first honouts of his class, not
a penny in debt." The diary of the hero is not so
much filled up with his own individual experiences
as with the brief outlines of the history of those he
meets with in the journey of life, and with the de-
scription of the places he travels to. He tries a
variety of employments at different times, and all
these things materially add to the stores of his
records a richness and rarity. One of the most re-
markable persons he encountered was a Frenchman
of the name of Agincourt. A life of great affliction
had partially affected his mind, but he was a very
kind and worthy man notwithstanding his striking
peculiarities. He was haunted through life by a most
wicked man, who under different names in several
countries had perpetrated great outrages. He came
to America as a Dr. Vampire, and by craft and sub-
tlety possessed himself of the Quinland Settlement.
He was not able however with all his arts to stifle
conscience, but was perpetually a prey to torment-
ing fancies. He continually muttered to himself,
" Dies free, dies ilia," and he was certainly one of
all others to shudder at its advent. His notions
of preferment were too much at last even for the
pushing people a his adopted country, and he who
under the mask of the law, had turned families
from their homes was himself a victim to Judge
Lynch. Adele Agincourt is a pleasing character,
she is strange at times, however, from being under
the influence of supernatural agencies. She and
her father believe in spirit-rapping, and the idea of
her departed mother, hovering over her, and al-
ways informing her hen anything is to occur to
her, appears of course extraordinary to those who
ignore such infatuations. However, it may at-
tract some to dwell upon the working out of such a
thought. Thomas Quinlaud leads on the whole a
melancholy life, be has 110, one to sympathise with
him. His father is of a totally different nature and
cannot understand the character of his son in its
depth and profundity. Thomas is seldom at home,
he -wanders on the highways of the world's great,
cities, and lingers by the twilight of eternal forests
he canna+ Peat: in a. si mnla S+sl.+A rw ha ctai-;,,Aarl arm,
common things. He was too contemplative to
succeed so well as his more praletical friends who
were definite in their purposes, and did not pause
to analyse causes with their reflective companion.
Quinland was deeply hurt with the indifference of
some, and indignant at the presumption of others.
Hewassufciently acute and discerning to form a cor-
rect estimate of persons in general, and could thus be-
hold the discrepancy, between their real value and
their suppo-ed worth, "I could not help thinking
how it would mutually stand with us, if we were
suddenly transported to a city not built with hands,
which is eternal in the heavens. How rich may
there appear the soul of many a beggar, and how
poor the soul of many a king." Towards the con-
clusion the story assumes a more decided com-
plexion, and becomes of greater interest, indeed in
passages it is exciting from its complicated pl,ts,
and critical juncture s. There are a great many
graphic sketches interspersed in these volumes,
Morley, the gambler, is very life-like. With the
scenery of the places vividly described, we have the
actors on the world's stake delineated with a sur-
passing skill, and the passing events recorded with
a surprising intelligence. The chronicles ofQuinland
will be welcomed by all who desire to increase their
knowledge of the " Land of the West," while the
admirers of America will appreciate the full and
complete survey of the inner and outer life here
met with, the panoramic display thus afforded
them—
" Of the young and strong republic that has filled the
world with fame
And with great praise and marvel of the Angle-Saxon
name."

Some of the anecdotes here mentioned are very
amusing, in the course of his adventures Quinland
tried romance writing, but lie was not well received
at all times.

I called on the editor of a weekly paper who publishes
novelettes. He had thick lips, a coarse brutal face, and
his manners' were those of a savage. He asked whether
I had crammed my story well with thunder storms,
brigands, pirates, love, blood, and murder. I answered
in the negative ; whereupon he stared at me with a look
of contempt and pity, remarking, with a sneer, that in
this fast country and fast age we must have fast novels
or none.
The father of the hero relating the fortunes of his
family brings forward the following curious speci-
men of a notability,
" One night, in the quiet village of Battlefield, there
was heard a great cry in the burying-ground. Every-
body was terrified, and pretty soon the whole village
was collected around the minister's house, shivering with
fear, and inquiring of the pious man if the judgment
hadn't come. The minister knew it wasn't the judg-
ment, but was afraid the witches had come back. He
osllod Deacon Quinland into his study, and wired him to
help him in prayer. ' No,' said the deacon, ' I'm blest
if I'll pray now ; something else's got to be done, and
right off. He buttoned up his coat, went straight home,
took down his big horse-whip, and ran into the burying-
ground, whistling all the way. And what do you think
ho found there ? He found a crczy fellow sitting straddle
of a grave, holding du to the tomb-stone, and crying out
with all his might, 'Ye dead, come to judgment !
Didn't Deacon Quinland lay his horse-whip on the fel-
low. The minister said, in his sermon the next Sunday,
that, in all human probability, the godly courage of the
very worthy and honest Deacon Quinland had saved t-i
parish from all the horrors of witchcraft."
The following remarks are characteristic of the style
of the work.
The mysterious cx-post-facto " we" of newspapers and
history never encounter any of the difficulties of time
and space. "We " must be living, invisible examples
of the pure transcendental, for " we " pertain absolutely
to the unconditioned. Other mortals have to bother
their brains about steamboats, railways, telegraphs, and
other means for abreviating time and shortening space ;
but " we " are troubled with nothing of the sort. Count-
less generations have been , toiling upon the earth, to
build cities, to found empires, to enact laws, to c m
struct temples of wcrship, to open highways of com-
merce, to write books, to paint pictures, to hew statues,
to find the keys to'the celestial realms of music, to spin,
weave, tan, grind, bake, brew, &c. ; the Present steps
into the shoes of the dead Past, and, like a young cox-
comb
time,an aheedi re, a i irreverentlythe
s wondersun, v
iwa,
while the plodding astronomer is t
" governor" didn't do this and didn't do that ; why he
left everything so incomplete, so out of order, so unsat-
isfactory; but " we," irresponsible dogs that we are,
leave the new generation and the old to fight out their
own quarrel ; " we " don't care what, hypothetically,
would become of the Present, if the ungrateful fellow
had not inherited from the Past all that is sindicated by
the names of Moses, Plato, Lycurgus, Homer, Justinian,
Columbus, Mozart, Fulton, Gutenberg, Arkwright, and
others ; " we," the fated chroniclers of things passed
and passing, go from place to place with.a single bound
of imagination, even drop far down the voids of van-
htyhethme van-
ishedold
taking his lunch or
adjusting his glass. Imagination, my good realistic
\
Ir4ther, alone reproducos ; history, or even the passing

spectacle that you are looking at, affords nothing more
than what you bring t 3 it. Think you, Shakspeare saw
no more than you see in the scenes of daily life ?

Delhi, the City of the Great Mogul ; or, Six Years
in India. By Mrs. Cohn Mackenzie. Bentley.
This is one of Mr. Bentley's useful cheap series,
and is a new edition of Mrs. Colin Mackenzie's
works of " The Mission, the Camp, and the
Zenana." At the present epoch this work is full of
interest, as although it was written many years
auo, it gives an account of the various tribes of
Ilindostan, the Ilimdow, Sikhs, Affghans,
and all the little details of national pecularities,
which can only be obtained on the spot. The
authoress travelled over a great part of India, and
by no means confined her observations to Delhi,
although that name has now been bestowed on this
edition in consideration doubtless of the great pub-
lic interest that attaches to the stronghold of the
rebels. Here is a description of it :

So my visit is recorded in the chronicles of the kings
of Delhi. I will just give you some account of Delhi,
from an interleaved Gazetteer with MS. notes, by Sir
T. Metcalf. That pretty canal we saw near Karual, is
the one which conveys the waters of the Jamna from
Kurual to Delhi, and is of the greatest importance to
the latter city, as both the Jamne and the wells at that
place are adulterated with natron and salt, so that there
is hardly any pure water save from the canal* Old
Delh is said to have been twenty miles in circumference,
and this is borne out by the extent and magnificence of
the ruins which remain. The whole distance between
this and the Kut.lb is covered with magnificent tombs
and remains cf palaces, including the observatory and
the tomb of Safdar Jaug, second Vazir or Nawab of
Oude. The appearance of this immense plain studded
with ruins, reminds me of the Campagna near Rome.
Iu one spot I counted fourteen domes in sight in one
direction, so that they might all have been included in a
moderate-sized sketch. Those visible on all sides would
have to be reckoned by scores.

Modern Delhi was built by Shah Jehan, 1631 ; it
oontains between '23,000 and 24,000 dwelling-houses,
mostly pucka, and two magnificent streets, one a mile
long by AO yards broad. The palace was built by Shah
Jehan, who also erected the Jamma Masjid. The en-
trance to the palace is through a most stately and lofty
gateway of red stone (like the walls), and of such great
length that the interior is now used as a public bazar.
The Da wan i Am was filled with lumber and slseping
soldiers of the king's private guard, but the raised
throne and its fine Italian mosaics are but little injured.
The Dewan i Khas, which is welt described as an open
quadrangular arcaded terrace of white marble-' has suf-
fered greatly from the stones being picked out from the
mosaic work. The Moti Ma,jid, built by Aurangzab,
is a beautiful little'domestic chapel of pure white mar-
ble, with a raised balcony adjoining, looking out on the
gardens.

The preface is written at the present time, and as
the wife of an officer and a resident in India, Mrs.
Mackeuzie's opinion of- the present difficulties is
entitled to some respect. She emphasises the fact
that it is a Mutiny and not an insurrection, and
says : . .

The chief causes of the mutiny are the dissatisfaction
of the Mubarumadans at being deprived of their
supremacy, and the intrigues of the deposed princes.
No doubt it arises from a widely-spread Muhammadan
conspiracy, in which the Musalinans, who in India have
adopted all the prejudices of caste, have availed them-
selves of the pretext aff)rded by the greased cartridges
(as they did of the new head-dress at Velcro to rouse
the Hindus.