Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

tors of these islands are the missionaries who have taken up their residence among them, and the greatest blessing that has ever been conferred upon them, the religion which the Saviour of mankind has commanded to be propagated in bis name among all nations.

It is surprising with what a spirit of malignity the successful and most beneficial labours of these self-denying men have been reprobated in some of the current literature of the day. Even "The Family Library," as if determined to rob Chris tianity of its exclusive honours as a divine religion, in order to gratify the most vulgar intolerance against those who do not belong to the dominant Church-" The Family Library" has set itself in battle-array against the missionaries, and has found a compiler foolish enough to weave into his account of the mutiny of the Bounty the following shameless statement. Speaking of the Tahitians this writer observes:-"All their usual and innocent amusements have been denounced by the missionaries, and in lieu of them these poor people have been driven to seek resources in habits of indolence and apathy: that simplicity of character which atoned for many of their faults has been converted into cunning and hypocrisy; and drunkenness, poverty, and disease have thinned the island of its former population to a frightful degree: there is too much reason to ascribe this diminution to praying, psalm singing, and dram drinking." The missionaries are farther accused of "taking from them what little trade they used to carry on, to possess themselves of it; that they have their warehouses, act as agents, and monopolise all the cattle on the island; but in return, they have given them a new religion and a Parliament, (risum teneatis?) and reduced them to a state of complete pauperism; and all, as they say, and probably have so persuaded themselves, for the honour of God and the salvation of their souls." In all this statement there is not an iota of truth. The innocent amusements which were intimately associated with the grossest licentiousness, the most ferocious cruelty, and the most loathsome superstition, necessarily gave place to the pure dictates of the Gospel, which bids every man respect himself, love his brother, and honour God with the reverence of one who aspires to the enjoyment of his favour and the possession of immortal life beyond the grave. When did the writer of this calumny ever dis cover simplicity of character in savages? Is not cunning the vice of their barbarism? Were there greater hypocrites upon earth than the uncivilised Tabitians while they were idolaters? Dram drinking was likewise the all-destroying habit of their lives long before they were visited by the missionaries. At that time it was the general character of the people; now, it is the exception, and is regarded as in the highest degree disreputable. Disease, the consequence of depravity, has almost been banished from the island by the introduction of the Gospel; and never did greater improvements mark the progress of a people from barbarism to civilization, than have gladdened the heart of the Christian philanthropist in contemplating the changes which have taken place at Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands. It is not true that the population has decreased; it is not true that pauperism prevails; it is not true that the missionaries sustain any other character than that of the teachers of a pure faith,

and the friendly advisers both of chiefs and people in any case of emergency in which it is deemed expedient to consult them. The missionaries have usurped no property; their families are unprovided for, and must depend upon their personal exertions for their maintenance. All the cattle on the island the property of the missionaries! What can we think of the moral feelings of a man who could, in the teeth of the strongest evidence to the contrary, venture upon such an assertion as this! We refer to Mr. Ellis's "Polynesian Researches" for the code of laws, which the assembled rulers and their people unanimously adopted for the regulation of their social state. It would be well for civilised Europe if its various nations possessed laws as equitable, and institutions as conducive to public good, as those which distinguish the government and jurisprudence of these islanders of the south.

Mr. Stewart's volumes are in perfect corroboration of what we have thus ventured to offer in justice to those who have been so wantonly abused. We were struck with the following sensible and just observation which a woman of rank in Tahiti made to Mr. Stewart on these very topics. "Speaking of the wealth and power of England and America, in comparison with the islands, she remarked, that they were a poor people, but in the arts of reading and writing, and in a knowledge of the word of God, they still had the highest blessings; adding, that all the people, however, did not love these, and that she supposed it was in America and in England as it was with them-some were good and some were bad-some regarding and some disobeying the laws of God."

The letter of Queen Pomare I. to the President of the United States is highly characteristic, and the remarks on the contrast between the former and the present state of the islanders are worthy of the enlightened mind of the Author. He observes:

"If the aspect of the people in general, and the animated declaration and lively sensibility, even to tears seemingly of deep feeling, of those who have a full remembrance, and who largely shared in their own experience of the evils of heathenism, are to be accredited, the islanders themselves are far from being insensible to the benefit and blessing of the change they have experienced; and would not for worlds be deprived of the light and mercy they have received, or again be subjected to the mental and moral darkness, and various degradation from which they have escaped.

"Yet there are those who have visited the South Seas-men bearing the Christian name, with a reputation for science, and holding stations of honour, who have affected to discover a greater degree of depravity, and more wretchedness, at Tahiti and Raiatea, than was known in the reign and terror of idolatry; and have ventured to pro. claim to the world, that Christianity has here, for the first time in eighteen hundred years, had the effect of rendering the inhabitants vindictive and hateful, indolent and corrupt, superstitious and unhappy, and more pitiable in all their circumstances, than when fully in a pagan state! And that the wars introduced and encouraged by the MESSENGERS OF PEACE, have nearly exterminated the race!

"Whence the data for such a sentiment could have been drawn, must for ever remain a mystery, at least to all who, like ourselves, have hart the advantage of a personal observation in the case.

"The last wars in the islands were previons to any influence gained by the missionaries over either chiefs or people. Since the establishment of Christianity there has been an uninterrupted peace; and as to other bloodshed, the Rev. Mr. Nott assured me, that he had not heard of a murder among the natives for fifteen years.

"Theft is occasionally known, though we met with no evidence of it; and instances of secret vice and licentiousness doubtless occur; and may, when diligently sought, be found-though not openly boasted of-by foreign visitors; but do these facts justify the assertion of a general and utter depravity? and do they forfeit the claim of the nation to the epithet, pure morals, and gennine piety of a Christian people? As well might the traveller, in visiting New York or London, because he has suffered from a thief or discovers a haunt of debauchery, gravely state in his journal, that there is not an honest man or a virtuous woman in the United States or in Great Britainan assertion which I have heard made of the Society Islands-and that the state of the one nation is worse than in the time of the Druids, and of the other, than when the red man alone prowled in her forests.

"Such a presentation of the state of this people can arise only from gross ignorance of their original condition, and from a very limited personal experience of the high happiness connected with the moral habits and spiritual affections of sincere piety. What were the characteristics, I would ask-not now discoverable in the islanders --to be seen when they were in a state of heathenism? Only such as would be exhibited in connexion with facts, such as the following-facts to which I have, at the Sandwich Islands, when they were in a similar condition, myself been an eye-witness. A vessel would scarce have dropped ber anchor before she would have been surrounded and boarded by crowds of hooting and shouting savages-men and women, almost, if not entirely, in the nakedness of nature, testifying their joy in a prospect of gain from the visitor, by every variety of rude noise and levity: and this only in prelude to a licentiousness of intercourse, extending frequently from the cabin to the forecastle, too gross to be named, while pilfering and dishonesty in every form-filth, vermin, and disease, followed in the train. Such would be the exhibitions on ship board-and what would be the character of those on shore?

"No neatly whitened European cottage would meet the view, beneath the foliage of their groves, nor lofty temple invite the admiration of the eye, while it raised the thoughts to heaven; the hum of no thriving school would come like music on the intelligent ear, nor the hymn of devotion be beard floating on the breeze: but the putridity of a corpse, lying in cruel sacrifice before an idol of wood or stone, would direct to the altar of their gods, while the shouts and wild sounds of the song and dance, and the beating of drums, would proclaim a scene of revelry and sin.

"And could the veil be removed from all the iniquity of the system under which they dwelt, besides the terrors of superstition by which they

were burdened, and the many goading evils arising from a slavery both of mind and soul, abominations would be disclosed against which the eye would revolt in involuntary disgust-while the shrieks of victims torn from their midnight slumbers to be burried to a terrific death, and the plaintive moanings of infants, writhing in the agonies of dissolution, beneath the murderous grasp of an inhuman parent, would

Wake the nerve where agonies are born,' and fill the soul with a horror not readily to be forgotten!"

The gross misrepresentations on this subject, to which we have referred, and for which certain voyagers have made themselves responsible, Mr. Stewart has accounted for very satisfactorily, in some measure exonerating them from the guilt of having deliberately invented the falsehoods which they have propagated.

We make no apology for the unasual length of our quotation from the present work: it is, we are aware, a deviation from our almost constant practice. But the extract speaks for itself.

Traditions of Lancashire. Second Series. 2 vols. By J. Roby, M.R.S.L.

We are again debtors to Mr. Roby for a very interesting work. It is not often that a "second series" equals a first. We suspect and with some reason that the more valuable materials had been previously employed-and form our expectations accordingly. In the present instance we have been mistaken; Lancashire is a romantic county, and its store of traditional wealth is not so speedily exhausted as we had imagined. We doubt, indeed, whether the volumes now before us are not more valuable than those by which they have been preceded. A mingling of history with fiction is at all times pleasant and profitable; more especially so when there is a plain and prominent line drawn between both. Mr. Roby is a skilful collector of legends-he exhibits first the naked truth, and then arrays it in the garb of fancy, but always so as to excite the attention and curiosity of his reader. His style is clear and comprehensive where it ought to be so, but strange, wild, and dramatic, where it is but just that imagination should be permitted free licence. We have read some of his stories, until we have actually trembled, our lamp has burned blue, and we have desired a nightly sojourn among the Hartz mountains rather than amid the cheerfullooking villages and the joyous peasantry of Lancashire. To produce such an effect, is, we doubt not, the end and aim of Mr. Roby, and he has fully succeeded. Those who love the wild and wonderful, and in a time of long nights and short days, look upon a blazing hearth and a terrible tale as the chief blessings of the season, will read his traditions of Lancashire with deep delight. They have, however, bigher claims upon the critic. The march of intellect is rapidly destroying the character of gone-by-days. Our grandfathers and grandmothers have told their tales of mystery or magic to those who will not repeat them to their descendants. In a few years old women's tales will be of rail-roads and steam-boats; and it will be necessary to analyse a spirit and a death. candle before we may believe in having seen them. To preserve such legends is, however, not

unworthy a man of the greatest talent-they are
not only amusing, but they often illustrate the
character and habits of a people of whom they
are, it may be, the only records; and it requires
no very deep skill in philosophy to know that
what we are to be depends greatly upon what we
have been. We have not space to enter at greater
length into the work of Mr. Roby, and must
content ourselves with recommending it as one of
A very
the most interesting we have ever read.
learned introduction affords proof that he has
bestowed much thought and labour upon his task,
and that while catering for our amusement, he
has considered it an essential part of his plan, that
he should add to our information.

The volumes are embellished with considerable taste. Each description of scenery is accompa nied by an illustrative engraving from the burin of Edward Finden, and the legends have their wood cuts descriptive of some passage in the

text.

Letters on the State of Ireland in 1831. A temperately written pamphlet about Ireland, in a series of letters, from an Englishman travelling in that country. The conclusion at which the writer arrives is, that the great physical distress which generally pervades the agricultural population of Ireland, is occasioned, not by misgovernment, nor by any acts of the legislature, but by the domestic system which has crept into the state of society in Ireland, and especially as regards the relation between landlord and tenant. The evil, in his opinion, and he seems a reasonable, well judging man, who has taken mach pains to inform himselt correctly on the subject, consists chiefly in the general exorbitance of the rent of land, and the smallness and insecurity of the tenures. He holds that the whole of the state of Ireland would assume a new aspect, the people become contented, orderly, and flourishing, if the condition of the farmers, the large and really important class in that agricultural country, could be improved, so that they might become, in a greater or less degree, capitalists, instead of living from hand to mouth, or starving, as they do now.

If this view be correct, and in the main we think it is, the remedy cannot come from Governmeut, or from the legislature, at least not in the shape of direct enactment. It can only be effected by affording the tenantry encouragement and advantages which they do not now possess, so as to enable them to become the instruments of their own prosperity in the words of our Author, "By lowering their rents considerably, and by enlarging and prolonging their tenures. That the landed proprietors can afford to make this sacrifice may be inferred from the fact, that they are in the receipt of high rents, while they are liable to little or no drawbacks, no taxes, no poor-rates, no repairs of farm buildings, or other outgoings, that reduce, to so great a degree, the value of an English rent-roll." Now we verily and indeed believe, that the cause of Ireland's most unhappy condition is greatly attributable to the indolence and appetency, and other omissions and misdoings of her landed proprietary. But it is a capital defect of the cure here proposed, that it les wholly in the hands of the very persons who, in the first instance, at least, must suffer in their purses by its adoption. The dominion of regina pecunia is, of all others, the most difficult to be over

come.

Will the time ever arrive when men will be wise, and consider the happiness arising from making others happy more precious than silver and gold?

Considerations on the Necessity and Equity of a National Banking and Annuity System. Second Edition.

It is impossible for us, within the brief limits necessarily assigned to a literary notice, to give any thing like a detailed or satisfactory account of a system which is intended by its author, evidently a man of ability and reflection, as the means of regenerating and permanently amelioWe have rating the whole state of society. already had occasion to mention, in our last namber, a plan for effecting a similar object, by a Mr. John Gray, of Edinburgh. The principle of his project seenied, as far as we could understand it in a cursory perusal, to form the whole nation into one great company, acting with such unity of purpose, under the guidance of a superintending body, appointed for that end, that the proceedings

of no one individual should ever interfere with those of another; and the distribution, both of employment and of reward, be such, that each should have enough, and none too much. The same desirable object is proposed to be attained by the Author of the pamphlet now under consideration, by means, apparently, at least, less restrictive of individual interest and enterprise, by establishing a National Parish Bank System, and engrafting thereupon the system of cash credits, or loans on security, which have been long practised in Scotland with the most beneficial results. To this an Annuity System is proposed to be annexed, and by both combined a large revenue is to be reaped by the State. Of the sanguine expectations of the writer, from the adoption of his proposed change in our monetary system, some notion may be formed from the following declaration:-"There can be no doubt that, if the impulse were once given, such a renovation would succeed in Britain, as would give her people for ever the pre-eminence among the nations; and if any secondary cause, more than another, will have any effect in bringing about the millennial age, it will be the adoption, among all Christian nations, of a system of finance similar to what this essay briefly points out."

However this be, whatever may be thought of the pretensions of this or that particular plan of improvement, we are rejoiced to see the minds of thoughtful and ingenious men earnestly turned towards so great and so truly noble a subject. Sure we are, that great and crying necessity exists for searching inquiry into the present diseased and unhappy state of our social system, and for vigorous remedies to promote the well-being and happiness of the great mass of the community in these kingdoms, where, with plenty to satisfy the wants and wishes of all, and plenty to do in satisfying these wants and wishes, many are involuntarily idle, and most are discontented, and

not without cause.

The Chameleon. By Thomas Atkinson, of Glasgow.

A very clever little volume-a complete Mosaic of prose and verse, which is well worthy of finding a place in the cabinets of the curious, and

which, we have no doubt, like its namesake in the fable, will have twenty dissimilar opinions passed upon it, each awarding it a different, though not less attractive hue, arising out of the particular points of view in which they have seen it. Like the great Volume of Life, viewed at the

onset, and only externally, it appears all couleur de rose; though, turn we over but a few pages, and

lo! there are clonds as well as sunshine, tears as well as smiles. Yet, upon closing the book before as, even its very clouds and tears blend so hap pily with its sunlight, as to form a perfect rainbow of "bright and pleasant memories." Like the annuals in its appearance, with its pretty silk vest and golden letters, it is very unlike them in reality-those literary pic-nics being, in many instances, not unlike Matthews' Pic-Nic, where each individual being ignorant of what the other meant to contribute, the thing terminated in four teen legs of mutton, which left the expectant guests no alternatives but indigestion or starvation; whereas Mr. Atkinson, like an hospitable host, furnishes the whole banquet himself, and in truth with sufficient variety to please all palates. Of bis entertainment we, however, confess that we prefer the viands to the confectionery; that is to say, the prose to the poetry; though we must, in justice, extract the following, which is very simple and touching :—

"THE SILENCE OF THE GRAVE. "There's quiet where the dead are laid, There's silence where they sleep; No matter where a grave be made, There peace will vigil keep,

And spread o'er that small stride of earth
A canopy of gloom;

And noiseless is the step of mirth
Above the tomb!

The bay'net-scooped and slender grave,
Filled ere the battle 's o'er ;

The corse-gorged dark and yeasty wave
That heaves with sullen roar-
Round these may rave earth's wildest din,
Yet silence droops its head-
It is enough-they hold within
The voiceless dead!

Yon church-yard in the noisy street,
With many a lie paved o'er,
Hath it a quiet, sad but sweet?
Oh no! but it hath more-

A silence, horrid as the gap

Between each fitful sigh

That guilt respires when in the lap

Of agony !

Then, where the flowers their odours throw,
All noiseless in the air,

Where, without voice, the lilies grow,
Oh! be my last rest there!

For, wearied of the world's wild strife,
I fain would quiet be;

And peace were cheaply bought with life
To one like me!"

In "The Focus" there is much shrewdness and originality, and many true and clever observations and all who suffer from conjugating the verb " ennui" cannot do better than peruse "The Chameleon."

Letters from the North of Europe; or a Journal of Travels in Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Prussia, and Saxony. By Charles Boileau Elliott, Esq. of the Bengal Civil Service, of Queen's College, Cambridge, and Member of the Royal Geographical Society.

One striking evidence of the rapid progress which we are making in civilization is the constant and increasing demand for travels al voyages. We are no longer contented to live within ourselves. The whole world is our theatre. We explore all its regions; nor is there a spot visited by the sun that is wholly unknown to us. Our enterprising countrymen go forth to collect their intellectual treasures, and return home to enrich us with their stores. Every month adds something valuable to the general stock. We enjoy the benefit withont encountering the peril. We sympathise with danger, while we feel that it is past, and luxuriate in pleasurable emotions, while our hearts thrill with the interest which the daring adventurer has thrown round himself. This species of writing has also a charm for every reader. The man of science and the rustic, the scholar and the mechanic, sit down with equal zest to participate the mental feast; and thus knowledge is widely diffused knowledge which invigorates the inward man, enlarging his capacity, and extending the sphere of his enjoyment, and which prepares a whole people for liberal institutions, which invests them with political and commercial importance, and thus raises them high in the scale of nations. The success of works of this description stimulates enterprise, and opens the largest field for the useful employment of energies which might otherwise be wasted, or spent in equivocal or dangerous undertakings.

Mr. Elliott justly ranks among the most enlightened and intelligent of his class. His unpretending volume discovers an enthusiastic love of Nature, and the most liberal views of man in all his diversified conditions. We scarcely ever read a work in which there is so little to censure and so much to approve. Unlike many of his brethren, he is a good writer: his style is pure and classical. He is likewise a philosopher and a Christian. We first become his willing associates, and onr intercourse soon ripens into friendship. We close the book with reluctance, and take leave of him with a sigh of regret. We wish to detain our accomplished companion, who imparts to us so much amusement and instruction, and would feel happy, as we have travelled with bim so far, to go with him another and another stage. The most interesting portions of the volume are his descriptions of natural scenery in Norway, and his observations on the Russian character, as displayed on his sojourn at St. Petersburgh. From the latter we select the following passage, which, on several accounts, is highly important to the civilized world, and especially to our own country :

"I have long been convinced of the improbability of our Indian possessions being endangered by a war with Russia. This conviction is confirmed by observations during my short sojourn here. There is a want of system in every public department; in none, perhaps, more than the military; and there is a surprising ignorance of

every thing connected with the east. Between Russia and Persia there is no cordiality. It is not to be expected that it should ever exist: but even could the latter be induced to favour an invasion of India by Russia, could the difficulty of procuring sustenance for an army on the route be overcome; and could the constitutions of the soldiers be fortified against the climate? Yet Russia is not furnished with resources to enable her to carry an efficient army through the territory occupied by the warlike nomade hordes of Afghanistas, and of neighbouring countries. National power consists neither in money nor men, but in the relative proportion of these to the territory occupied, and in the ability to apply them to practical purposes. Tried by this test, the wealth of Russia will be found to be less, and her disposable military force smaller, than that of any of the kingdoms with which she is likely to be embroiled, and greatly inferior to that against which she would contend in the event of her ambitious hand grasping at India. Such is the case at present; but who shall venture to conjecture what may be her power a century hence ?"

"It is impossible to visit this country, and to think of what she was a hundred years ago, without being astonished at what she is now. The rapidity of her progress is extraordinary. Every new invention in mechanics, and every improve. ment in manufactures, in whatever corner of the world originated, is immediately adopted or tried at St. Petersburgh. An absolute monarch never wants money, and many expensive failures weigh little in the balance against one successful experiment. With arts and manufactures, the moral condition of the people is undergoing a change. There can be little doubt that improvement of the intellectual faculties is the first step to moral elevation. Education must precede a change of habits, and the mind's fetters be struck off before moral obligations can be fully appreciated."

A Sermon preached at Hull on the 13th of November 1831, on the Unknown Tongues. By R. M. Beverly, Esq.

A sermon by a layman-that layman, too, a man of considerable distinction-a Beverly of Beverly! This gentleman is well known to the public as the author of a celebrated Letter to the Archbishop of York, in which he exposes the evils resulting from a secular establishment of Christianity, and suggests the necessity of a complete divorce of the Church from the State. He has consequently been denounced either as a heretic or a fanatic: one party accusing him of Socinianism, and another branding him with insanity. Of his orthodoxy he has given the most decisive proofs in his subsequent publications; and that he is of sound mind the present discourse is a most conclusive evidence. He has proved himself to be both a scholar and a divine. The notes are admirable: in these he has shown up the fanatics, the impostors, and the dupes of the Scotch Church in Regent-square. But what is sober reason when opposed to inspired absurdity! Mr. Irving, we fear, is incorrigible. The gifted sisterhood have caught him in their toils, and the poor man is shorn of his strength, though, it must be owned, his raven locks continue to dangle as heretofore. He is truly a fearsome

object-certainly not an angel blest. What is he, then?-not "a goblin damned;" for he wields the thunderbolts of Heaven-is in the secret councils of the Almighty-and renders blasphemy oracular by the assumption of super-human power. We think he is bewitched or befooled. What can Dr. Chalmers now think of his protegé ? and will the Church of Scotland suffer herself to be any longer disgraced, and one of her noblest edifices desecrated by the nauseous exhibitions which profane every Sabbath, and present an inoculating station for madness till it become an epidemic?

An Essay on the Elective Right and the Rejected Bill. By George Condy, Esq., Barrister-at-Law.

A sound jurist, an acute reasoner, and a writer of considerable strength and command of language, Mr. Condy appears in the lists as one of the most able disputants who have yet turned their attention to the important question which continues to occupy so large a share of popular attention. His essay will be considered by the rational party a complete refutation of the sophisms and subtleties, which the opposers of the great measure of Reform with an obstinate pertinacity, worthy of the schoolmen of former times, have exhausted their energies to prepare, while even those who may differ from him in their views of the point at issue, will at least look upon him with the respect due to a skilful and honourable antagonist. His chief object is to prove the elective right to have been originally vested in all payers of scot and lot, and to trace the gradual perversion of this undoubted popular privilege through the various stages of corruption of the shrievalty, municipal monopoly, Quo Warranto writs, and aristocratic nomination, until we arrive at that epoch which may be considered as the full brightness of the golden cycle of Lord Tenterden, and the season of the free operation of that well-working system, whose effects under our own observation may be briefly expressed by two hundred millions of debt, and something more than a quarter of a century of continued convulsion. The melancholy fruits of this triumph of might over right are next successively traced in the corrupt administration of Sir Robert Walpole, the expulsion of Lord Chatham from the direction of public affairs, the American war, and that consequent upon the first French Revolution, a schedule of events which might be thought quite sufficient in itself to answer the impudent assertions of those who allege the utility of the present plan of representation, were it not well known that self-interest is as obstinately blind, as it is hypocritically specious. The author then proceeds to comment upon the principal features of the lately rejected Bill; and the disfranchisement of decayed boroughs, the throwing open of close corporations, and the limitation of the right of being elected as a representative to actual residents, are ably vindicated. He, lastly, considers the measures which may safely be adopted to secure the ultimate success of a Reform Bill, in the event of its second rejection by the House of Lords. The remedies proposed are various, and all apparently effectual. We shall merely mention the creation of peerages for life; the withholding of the issue of writs to certain boroughs,

« AnteriorContinuar »