The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. 67.
Chapman and Hall, London, 1844.
. _ _ _

In an elaborate notice of Mr. Featherstonhaugh's
recently published "Excursions through the Ameri-
can Slave States," the Reviewer points out the demo-
ralising effects produced on all classes in the Southern
States of Yankee-land by the prevalence of this ac-
cursed system—a superfluous task, by the bye, since
no one needs to be told of the debasing influence that
slavery exercises over the human mind, even in its
must mitigated form. Of the newly-formed State of
Arkansas, which has only been admitted within the
Union within the last five or six years, he draws a
most flattering sketch, observing that it has become a
sort of Alsatia for all kinds of thieves and gamblers,
forgers, horse-stealers, and the like, who, " flying from
the inconvenient inquisition of the laws which they
have outraged, take refuge in this happy district, where
they may enjoy the luxury of lawlessness to their
heart's content." In the article on " French Aggres-
sions in the Pacific," Great Britain is taunted with
having been baffled and laughed at by the crafty ag-
gressors, of whose proceedings in Otaheite a very mi-
nute, and apparently authentic account, is given,
though it does not add much to the knowledge which
the majority of our readers already possess on the sub-
ject through the medium of the public press. The
" Military Power of Russia"—a theme always inte-
resting to Englishmen—is suggested by a work that
has recently appeared, and which maintains that the
military strength of this immense empire has been
considerably overrated by all foreigners, a statement
in which the Reviewer seems disposed to coincide.
When we bear in mind that it took Nicholas not less
than two campaigns to put down insurrectionary Poland,
and that with all the vast resources at his command,
he has been able as yet to make little or no impression
on the brave Circassian mountaineers, who scarcely
number two hundred thousand souls, we can scarcely
believe but that the German accounts of his prodigious
military influence are greatly exaggerated. The
" Punjaub" is a graphic description of the past condi-
tion and present prospects of this remote Indian dis-
trict. We subjoin, from the article on American
Slavery, a fearful sketch of a duel that took place not
long since in the State of Arkansas :
" Out of the whole population there are hardly twelve
inhabitants who ever go into the streets without being
armed with pistols or large hunting-knives, about a foot
long, and an inch and a half broad. These formidable
instruments,' says our author, with their sheaths
mounted in silver, are the pride of an Arkansan blood,
and got their names of bowie-knives from a conspicuous
person of this &ery climate.' Amongst other illustra-
tions of the red-hot temper of the people, Mr. Feather-
stonhaugh relates a story of two persons who, without
any quarrel, except of that brutal kind which originates
in pure wanton aggression, fought a duel after a fashion
which, even in America, must have been regarded as
something extraordinary. They were placed in a room
totally dark, from which every glimpse of light was
carefully excluded, stripped to the skin, except their
trousers, their arms and shoulders well greased, and a
brace of loaded pistols and a bowie-knife given to each.
A signal was to be given from the outside before the
butchery began ; but a quarter of an hour elapsed after
the signal before the slightest noise was heard. The
two men were cowering and glaring in the dark, sup-
pressing their breath, and watching their advantage.
All of a sudden a pistol went off, then another, then two
more. The survivor afterwards stated, that becoming
faint from loss of blood, he- stumbled against the wall
and fell. The other approached stealthily with his
bowie-knife to dispatch him. The prostrate mail clutched
his knife, raised himself, listened, but could hear nothing.
At last he saw a pair of cat like eyes gleaming through
the darkness—he lifted his knife with a desperate effort
e:1.21 stuck it into the heart of his opponent. When the
door was opened and the seconds entered, they found the
survivor still hc!ding his knife up to the hilt in the dead
man's body ! Such horrible examples of unmitigated
ferocity ought not to be quoted against the morality or
social civilisation of any country, unless, as in the case
of these States, they are not exceptionable, but ordinary
illustrations of the habits of the people. Extraordinary
duels in former periods have taken place in England—
such as the duel between Buckingham and Shrewsbury
—surrounded by circumstances of peculiar heartlessness
or bravado ; but, in no instance in our annals, or in the
annals of any country in Europe, can there be traced,
even in standing out solitarily from the chronicleser of theand
most brutaliseechivalry, an exampleeofutel;satoffiAi eneerica
reckless spirit which is common oth d
in greater or lesser degree
.o intensity. There is an-
other peculiarity worth noticing in these duels, over and
above their mere criminal ferocity. It is this, that they
11 take place in the open streets, and ordinarily
Le a
the Sabbath-day, because we presume it is the idle day
when the victim is sure to be met with lounging at his door,
or smoking in perfect unconsciousness of impending
danger. This would be incredible, if we had not the
best authority for the facts themselves in the daily papers
of the Union, and if the character of the society out of
which these atrocities spring were not authenticated by
a cloud of witnesses."