The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-06-20 00:00:00

BEFIETVS OF BOOKS.

Himalayan Journals; or, Notes of a Naturalist
in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepaul Himalayas,
the Shasia Mountains, cke. By Joseph D.
Hooker, M.D. London : Murray.
Aniong the various branches of science that
have risen to eminence during the long period of
European peace, which has prevailed since nearly
the commencement of the present century, few
have received more practical - culture, or yielded
more gratifying results to their cultivators, than
the science of physical geography, and the nume-
rous sub-branches of which it is composed. Ex-
tensive additions have been made to our knowledge
of geodesy, hydrography, botany, and ethnology ;
while geology may be said to have grown into a
science since the thunders of Waterloo, by giving
peace to the continent of Europe, allowed the
energies of her most highly cultivated people to
find other objects of attention than the means of
mutual destruction ; meteorology also has been
studied with sufficient care to enable the observers
of atmospheric phenomena to approximate towards
an exposition of the laws which govern them.
The numerous travellers and navigators who ex-
plore distant regions, instead of acting as mere eye-
witnesses of phenomena which they cannot explain,
and observers of places and circumstances in which
they can do little more than enact the character of
lookers-on, are now men qualified for the task of
inquiring into the minutest workings of the several
natural and artificial operations by which they are
surrounded, and, accordingly, the books of travels
which now issue from the press are, in general,
deeply laden with the results of scientific research.
The traveller in general devotes himself to some
defined object of inquiry, towards which his prin-
cipal attention is directed, and this he is enabled
to embellish, by greater or less attention to all the
cognate branches of science to which it is allied,
in addition to illustrating his narratives by personal
experiences. Such a man is the author whose two
admirable volumes are the immediate subject of
the preceding remarks. Dr. Hooker is the son of
Sir W. Hooker, the celebrated botanist, and curator
of Kew Gardens, he himself having entered the
navy at an early period of his life, and as assistant-
surgeon accompanied Sir James Ross's expedition
to the Antarctic regions, and first acquired literary
celebrity by publishing his admirable Antarctic
Flora; and in 1847, under direction of the British
government, and the East India Company, he
proceeded to India for the purpose of exploring
some portion of the Himalayan region, with respect
to its botanical treasures. Besides an able and
most valuable work on the Rhododendrons of the
Sikkim Himalaya, Dr. Hooker has produced the
two volumes now before us, of his three years'
experiences and investigations in those most in-
teresting and little known regions, in which the
operations of nature have been carried on on a scale
of grandeur and magnificence having no parallel
on the surface of the globe.
Unlike the other mountain systems of the world,
the Himalayas are not a mere ridge, but form the
southern rampart of a lofty table-land embracing
the whole country of Tibet. The general surface
of this immense plateau is about 600,000 miles in
extent, and it has a mean altitude of from 12,000
to 14,000 feet above the level of the sea ; while
some portions of it reach 16,000, and from this
table-land the rugged and picturesque peaks of the
Himalayas shoot up in stony corruscations to a
farther elevation of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet,
some of their peaks reaching 28,000 feet, or five
miles and a quarter of perpendicular altitude.
This stupendous mountain range gives rise to
numerous rivers of immense magnitude and great
celebrity, including the Oxus, the Indus, and the
Ganges, the Brahmapootra, the Yangtse-Kiang,
and the Hoang-Ho. In such a range, and so
intersected by noble rivers, it would be impossible
for any one to miss adventures, or to avoid seeing
and. admiring scenery as varied in aspect as it is
stupendous in its grandeur. The following picture
is graphic and suggestive ; after rising about six
thousand feet upon the southern spurs of the
Himalayas, the Doctor looks, back and gives his

VIEW OF THE HINDOBTANEE PLAINS

All around, the hills rise steeply five or six thousand
feet, clothed in a dense deep-green dripping forest. Tor-
rents rush down the slopes, their position indicated by the
dipping of the forest into their beds, or the occasional
cloud of spray rising above some more boisterous part of
their course. From the road, and at a little above Pun-
kabaree, the view is really superb, and very instructive.
Behind (or north) the Himalayas rise in steep confused
masses. Below, the hill on which I stood, and the ranges
as far as the eye can reach east and west, throw spurs on
the plains of India. Those are very thickly wooded, and
enclose broad, dead-fiat, hot and damp valleys, apparently
covered with a dense forest. Secondary spars of clay and
gravel, like that immediately below Punkabaree, rest on
the bases of the mountains, and seem to form an interme-
diate neutral ground between flat and mountainous India.
The Terai district forms a very irregular belt, scantily
clothed, and intersected by innumerable rivulets from the
hills,which unite and again divide on the flat, till, emerging
from the region of many trees, they enter the plains,
following devious courses, which glisten like silver threads.
The whole horizon is bounded by the sea-like expanse of
the plains, which stretch away into the region of sunshine
and fine weather in one boundless flat.
In the distance, the courses of the Teesta and Cossi, the
great drainers of the snowy Himalayas, and the recipients
of innumerable smaller rills, are with difficulty traced at
this, the dry season. The ocean-like appearance of this
southern view is even more conspicuous in the heavens
than on the land, the clouds arranging themselves after
a singularly sea-scape fashion. Endless strata run in
parallel ribbons over the extreme horizon ; above these,
scattered cumuli, also in horizontal lines, are dotted against
a clear grey sky, which gradually, as the eye is lifted,
passes into a deep cloudless blue vault, continuously clear
to the zenith; there the cumuli, in white fleecy masses,
again appear, till in- the northern celestial hemisphere
they thicken and assume the leaden hue of nimbi, dis-
charging their moisture on the dark forest-clad hills
around. The breezes are south-easterly, bringing that
vapour from the Indian Ocean, which is rarified and sus-
pended aloft over the heated plains, but condensed into
drizzle when it strikes the cooler flanks of the hills, and
into heavy rain when it meets their still cooler summits.
Upon what a gigantic scale does nature here operate !
Vapours, raised from an ocean whose nearest shore is more
than four hundred miles distant, are safely transported
without the loss of one drop of water, to support the rank
luxuriance of this far distant region. This and other
offices fulfilled, the waste waters are returned, by the Cossi
and Teesta to the ocean, and again exhaled, exported,
expended, re-collected and returned.

To the above reflective and interesting descrip-
tion it would be difficult to add anything by which
its effect could be more finely impressed on the
mind of the reader, and therefore we shall not
attempt it ; but content ourselves with giving as a
supplement his

PICTURE OP A SNOWY RANGE.

The most eloquent descriptions I have read fail to con-
vey to my mind's eye the forms and colours of snowy
mountains, or to my imagination the sensations and im-
pressions that rivet my attention to these sublime pheno-
mena, when they are present in reality • and I shall not,
therefore, obtrude any attempt of the kind upon my reader.
The latter has, probably, seen the Swiss Alps, which,
though barely possessing half the sublimity, extent, or
height of the Himalayas, are yet far more beautiful. In
either case he is struck with the precision and sharpness
of their outlines, and still more with the wonderful play
of colours on their snowy flanks, from the glowing hues
reflected in orange, gold, and ruby, from clouds illumined
by the sinking or rising sun, to the ghastly pallor that
succeeds with twilight, when the red seems to give place
to its complimentary colour green. Such dissolving views
elude all attempts at description; they are far too aerial
to be chained to the memory, and fade from it so fast as
to be gazed upon day after day with undiminished admi-
ration and pleasure, long after the mountains themselves
have lost their sublimity and apparent height.

That Dr. Hooker has been an intelligent as well
as an observant traveller, and is possessed of much
graphic skill in narrating his experience, must
have been apparent from the above extracts, which
have not been selected on account of their marked
eq Hall rity toothers
that might have been
y easily given. Our traveller met with
numerous personal
and was
subject
to adventures of various kinds,
frequent annoyances and dan-
gers, all of which
he relates in a style of unrepining
contentedness which wins '
whilefr?m the reader unqua-
lified approbation,
minute
excitesil sincere sympathy.
To extensive and
and
pleasingin observation, Dr.
delightful powers of Hooker adds ready
and useful
descrip-
tion. His book is at once
and the labours of such a man confer upon his;
country and on his Lind a treasury of knowledge,
which is to be prized alike for its intrinsic value,
and for the honourable distinction it bestows upon'
its possessor and those with whom he is content to

share it.
27ae Poetical Works of William Cowper, with,
Critical Dissertation by the Rev. George Gil-
Allan. Edinburgh : James Nichol.
The volume before us is the second and conclud-
ing one of Cowper's poems contained in the very
handsome serves of Nichol's Library Edition of the
British Poets, of which series it forms the eighth
volume. It is prefaced by an essay on the poetry
and genius of Cowper, by Mr. Gilffilan, in several
of Whose views, as here expressed, we cannot fully
concur, although we must admit that in general
his
estimate is not a greatly inaccurate one. After
stating that the principal characteristic of Cowper's
poetry is its earnest simplicity, Mr. Gilfillan pro-
ceeds with the annexed delineation of

cowrmit's FA.7CY TtLIGIITS.
When he does shoot his fancy into other climes, its
DIQGPA ryttmlilets rather that of a playful j a than cf

an arrow-like and etherial Ariel. He alights not on the
shivering summits of the Andes ; he shies the awful dome
of Mont Blanc ; he plunges not within that circle of sun-
fire which encloses the interior of Africa, but he stands on
the topmast of the ship which is ploughing the quiet
waters of the Pacific ; he wanders with the gentle Omai
through those islands where the sea ripples up on golden
sands in waves of silver, and where at noonday the large
cocoanut is heard to drop amid the sultry silence ; or he
laughs an elfin, yet amiable, laughter over that wondrous
toy, the palace of ice, constructed by the despotess of the
north—an unintended satire upon herself, her empire,
and all sublunary things.

The above elaborate attempt at producing what
1 the literary slang of the day would call a " word
picture" seems sadly out of place in treating of the
natural and unaffected poetry of Cowper. In point
of fact, the whole essay seems pitched on too high
a key, and the reader becomes painfully aware—or
at least is made to feel—that the poet is, for the
time being, made subservient to the essayist. This
is an error at all times, and should be sedulously
avoided. In every other respect the volume bears
out the high character by which the series has
hitherto been marked. It is beautifully and accu-
rately printed, has evidently been carefully col-
lated, and is entitled to a prominent position in
every library pretending to the name of general or
classical.

THE COLONIAL CHURCH AND SCHOOL

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.

EVENING CLASSES FOR ADULTS.
HOW FAR DESIRABLE, POSSIBLE, AND
SOUGHT FOR.

(PROM A. CORRESPONDENT.)

Ix speaking of adult classes, we must bear in mind that
every adult has been a youth; so that the man will require
little or much education, in the same proportion as the
boy has received much or little. But some suppose that
all are educated, more or less, in our day ; one heari so
much of schools, and education societies, and improved
class-books, and the association of crime with ignorance.
Yet there are many thousands who cannot read; there are
thousands of others who can read, but not fluently ; who
would never do so of their own choice, or for pleasure, but
who can make out the sense as a school-boy would gather
the meaning of a Latin Father. Beyond these, a still
larger number cannot write, but sign with their mark
when they sign at all.
The causes of this state of things are two-fold--Ist,
deficient means, and 2nd, deficient use of existing means.
The former cause may be exemplified as follows :—ln the
town of Liverpool there are so many as 39,000 poor in
five ecclesiastical districts ; yet protestants of all classes,
churchmen and dissenters, do not provide for the educa-
tion of a single individual of them, young or old. Those
parts of the town display not only the greatest ignorance,
but the greatest poverty, and the lowest grade of morals ;
so that, practically, we are like men who labour to heal
the convalescent, while we leave the sick and sorrowing
to die.

The second cause of ignorance is the result partly of
necessity and partly of choice. In the former case, a boy
can carry his father's dinner, or deliver a message, or
relieve guard in an humble outer office. A girl can go to
a neighbouring shop, or can look after the baby. From
that moment, education is interfered with ; and the inter-
ruptions to study increase, as the boy or girl progresses
in years and in capability of discharging household or
other duties. Now, it is well known that attainments
which have not reached a certain point are rapidly for-
gotten ; and this is no doubt the reason why many men
are unable to write, except to sign their own names. But
where ignorance is not of necessity, it is usually the
parent who is to blame. He has never required education
himself, perhaps, and therefore does not value it. He
regards it as desirable when it comes in course—a sort of
luxury, which may or may not be possessed, like what
are called the " extras," in the schools of more fashionable
life. Such a man may live next door to a school, yet still
his children will be ignorant.
Let us next turn from the BOY to the MAN. Assuming
that it is intended I should speak of the labouring classes
only, I shall divide them into skilled labourers and
unskilled labourers. Between the two there is a wide
distinction, and the severance is becoming wider every
year. The skilled labourer serves an apprenticeship,
learns a trade, unites himself with a class for purposes of
mutual interest, is bound by voluntary laws which do not
always harmonise with the laws of the land, and fixes a
limit to the number of those who shall ascend to the plat-
form on which he stands. The unskilled labourer may be
intelligent, but he brings to the market merely his
physical strength, and disease or privation sometimes
leaves him little even of that. Though there are certain
gradations, such as foreman, overlooker, employer, con-
tractor ; and though such names as Brindley, Stephenson,
and Dargan do occur in peculiar times, the law is that the
unskilled labourer remains so from the beginning to the
end. The position into which he falls at twenty years of
age is usually that from which he descends into his grave,
the few exceptions to this only serving to prove the rule.
If he attempt to rise into the atmosphere of skilled labour,
he is met by prohibitory regulations, enacted by those
who are perpetually railing at "class legislation;" and
the man who comes nearest to him in the brotherhood of
rank, denies him that free trade and liberty of action
which both of them claim from all above them. Hence, it
has occurred within the last three months, and in this
town, that the skilled labourer has earned 18s., and in
special circumstances, I have been told, even 225. per day ;
while the unskilled labourer, though industrious, intel-
ligent, and honourable, has been starving, and utterly
unable to procure employment at 10s. per week !
There is a third class which exists in large numbers in
this county, but is scarcely known in Liverpool, viz., the
factory hands. Their occupations necessarily require a
minute division of labour ; and yet recent events have
shown, at Preston, that paupers from the workhouse, and
rustics from the fields, were not long in acquiring all the
manual dexterity that was necessary.
The clam; in which the mere physical labourer is in-
cluded, embraces an unusually large number in the town
of Liverpool. Including wives and families, and widows
and families, it is very far within the truth to say one-
third of the gross population. It becomes an important
question, therefore, what are the inducements and what
the obstacles to self-improvement, in the adults of this
class. At present I may take for granted that facilities
for their education in evening classes exist all over the
town ; or at all events, that where they do not exist, with
willing minds they might easily be provided. My object
has been mainly to ascertain how far these would be likely
to be made use of, by the persons who, in one sense,
mainly require them.
In addition to the fact that the mere labourer is bound
to his position by a law almost as rigid as the Indian one
of caste, the hours of occupation in this town, and the dis-
tances, interfere with many good resolutions. What we
call Liverpool is a tract five miles long and more than two
broad; so that a man who succeeds in obtaining employ-
ment in what he calls " his own town," may reside at the
distance of one, two, or three miles from his occupation.
His hours in summer are nominally from six to six; but
practically he leaves his home a little after five, and seldom
reaches it before seven. The early call of to-morrow's
duties compels him to retire soon ; so that if we subtract
a brief interval for bodily rest, for the evening meal, and
for the most casual conversation with his wife and children,
it becomes next to impossible that he can set apart even
one hour definitely, for any purpose which is altogether
optional or of only possible advantage. In the winter
season, the case is somewhat different ; he is not obliged
to retire to rest so early, yet such is the force of habit that
little difference is made ; but if the advantages of instruc-
tion were obvious, he might possibly snatch a definite
interval, between the termination of labour and the com-
mencement of repose.

[The hours of labour in Liverpool apply to more than
labouring classes. They serve to explain, in part, why
our churches are often thinly attended in the summer
months, especially by men.]
This supposes that the labourer is regularly employed ;
which, lam sorry to say, is far from the fact. Now, it is
evident that if only partially occupied, he has the more
leisure for self-improvement ; but experience shows that
that is just the time at which he has least inclination for
it. He only asks an opportunity for the exercise of
honourable industry, and cannot find it ; he is occupied
with the great fact of whether he can live at all, and we
tell him of an improved manner of living; his whole
thought is how to posses; and we talk to him about
how to enjoy; so that the proposition to which he would
yield a glad assent in favourable circumstances, is
turned aside almost without a thought, under the joint
influence of blighted hopes and partial sustenance. I
am convinced, every day more and more, of the inti-
mate relation that exists between the Physical con-
dition of the poor, and the success of the labours of
intellectual, moral, and spiritual agents. There are thou-
sands of men who have been intelligent, would be moral,
and might be religious, who yet sink into a condition
akin to that of the beasts which perish,—eating and
drinking when they can, and sleeping where they may.
The following facts scarcely require one word of com-
ment. Within the last four years, (1850, 51, 52, 53,) no
fewer than 1,000,487 persons arrived as deck passengers
from Ireland alone, at this port. Of these, rather more than
two-thirds were of the class of humble dealers, labourers,
and emigrants ; but nearly 300,000 were (so far as the
police could judge) absolute paupers !* Of this million, a
large number are now to be found in our colonies ; some
have passed inland and found employment ; a large num-
ber have returned, at the end of some particular season ;
not a few have died ; but after all deductions, a large
number of the most helpless remain. (I may just remark
in passing, that it is not difficult to account for the increase
of Popery in England, when a million of Irish labourers
are either absorbed in Liverpool, or filtered through it, in
the short space of four years.) But my principal object is
to show, that the condition of the humbler classes in this
town must necessarily be deplorable, when a disturbing
cause, permanent in duration, and of such enormous mag-
nitude, exists in the labour market.
• Report on, the Police Establishment in Liverpool, pre-
sented sth April, 1854.