Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

and prejudices of historians, their injustice towards foreign nations, and their almost universal neglect The staid, sober, quiet, trading, common-sense of the common daily affairs of peaceful citizens. Dutchman had never received justice from the hands of those, who had presumed to write respecting his country, its laws, institutions, literature and history. The great mass of readers were indebted for what little knowledge they have of these people, to those who had viewed them through the distorted medium of English or French prejudice, and national rivalry.

The lecturer gave an interesting sketch of the early history of the Hollanders, their national characteristics, their early devotion to popular rights, their attachment to religious toleration, their homely virtues, peaceful habits, and commercial enterprise. By reference to their laws, it was shown that most which is valuable in English freedom, those sacred rights of man, for which Vane, Hampden, Eliot, Pym, Russel, and Milton contended, those

Glorious dreams of Harrington,
And Sidney's good old cause,

were proclaimed, and incorporated into the Dutch
laws, years anterior to their triumph in England.

century of their European existence, still sit like barbarous conquerors on the lands they won, though they retain in servitude and degradation millions of Christian subjects, though they perpetuate the hopeless desolation of vast provinces, and though these provinces are the very fairest regions of the known world, and the most famous scenes of ancient story;-yet, for all this, in the event of an invasion, they would command the sympathy and favor of thousands to whom the "balance of power" would be a strange and unintelligible proposition. For the conclusions of statesmen there would no doubt be sufficient warrant in the obvious danger to public peace and freedom from the aggrandizement, by such vast acquisitions, of a power already so menacing and aggressive as Russia; but their main source, we think, must be sought in that popular instinct which naturally inclines to the weaker side-and with a stronger and more decided bias as the violence attempted to be exercised is more gratuitous-and cruel. The considerations which now tend to the disparagement of the Turks are feeble and inoperative, compared with those which are acting in their favor. They are semi-barbarians, and they are misbelievers; they have not improved, by the policy or enlightenment of their rule, the title which they originally derived from conquest. But they are as they were made. They retain their native impress of character, and they have repeatedly shamed states of more lofty pretensions, by their magnanimity, their generosity, their unswerving adherence to their plighted faith and presumptive duties, and by that disdainful grandeur of soul which refuses to avail itself of another's error, and renders to misfortune a homage which had never been extorted from them by power. Very recent events have shown that the communication of European forms to Ottoman institutions, however it may have affected the vigor and elasticity of the national strength, has, at least, not impaired the national virtues; nor has there, probably, been any period since the war, at which the encroachments of an overgrown power upon its defenceless neighbor would excite more general indignation or induce more serious results. These are things within the daily observation of all; what we have previously deduced from the less obvious facts of history may eluci-hearted hosts. It is very rare, in New England, to date, we hope, the character of the long-pending crisis, and facilitate the comprehension of the great problem which will be one day solved.

DR. BETHUNE ON HOLLAND.

THE fame of this distinguished orator and divine attracted an immense audience at the lecture before the Mercantile Library Association last evening. The subject selected by Dr. Bethune was "Holland and the Hollanders." The lecture commenced with some general remarks respecting the errors

The mercantile character and enterprise of the Dutch people were traced by Dr. Bethune in a In the treatment of this most masterly manner. interesting portion of his subject, the speaker evinced the most profound insight in the field of practical statesmanship, and the highest and broadest range of philosophical Christian ethics. It was refreshing to listen to his elevated exposition of the national effects resulting from peaceful commercial enterprise, universal religious toleration, and the absence of a spirit of conquest and aggrandizement. Hollanders in the departments of learning, manuA rapid but graphic survey of the progress of the factures, the arts and sciences, the various branches of trade and banking, was given in a manner both interesting and instructive.

But it was when the lecturer treated of the religious history of the Hollanders, through the period of the Roman supremacy, and the stormy times of theme which enlisted his sympathies, and met with the Protestant reformation, that he touched upon a a warm response from his hearers. The speaker seemed to have caught the broad and tolerant spirit of the people of whom he spoke, and to have become inspired with their lofty Christian virtues and moral heroism. The English Puritans, who sought shelter in Holland from the persecutions their impertinence and bigotry towards their kindof their own countrymen, were justly censured for

hear the Puritans spoken of in terms of even and exact justice. Excessive adulation, or gross caricature, seem to be the only terms employed in depicting these men. It requires a bold man to speak the truth upon this subject; and we honor the speaker who has the courage to do it.

Towards the close of the lecture, specimens of Dutch poetry were recited in a very effective manner. The rare oratorical gifts of Dr. Bethune were displayed to the evident delight of his crowded audience. His full, clear voice, rich modulation, and distinct pronunciation, are admirably calculated for a large popular audience.-Transcript.

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

SELF-GOVERNMENT for colonies is one of the most important and perplexing questions of the day. In principle nothing can be better; nothing more liberal, or more to be desired. But strongly as we have advocated the principle, it must be applied carefully, and with prudent regard to the circumstances of each special case. Where different parties and classes in any country are pretty equally divided, self-government without a controlling power might mean neither more nor less than civil war. Look at France in 1848; that was a specimen of such self-government. Look at Hayti at present for another specimen of such self-gov

ernment.

What does self-government mean applied co Hindostan ? The very notion is chaotic. As a remedy even for the crown colony of Ceylon, what does self-government mean? What would it mean at the Cape, where the Dutch and the Hottentots far outnumber the Englishmen? Or at the Mauritius, where we are but a few officials amidst a population of Frenchmen.

In Australia and its group, on the other hand, self-government really does mean something. Here it is feasible, expedient, inevitable. There is no native race in its way; no slaves, no planters, no Orange or ascendency men; no family compact, no Dutch, no French-nothing but a multitude of industrious and enterprising Englishmen, and a few officials who pretend to master and direct them, but who are as inadequate to the task as England was to reconquer North America in the last century without an army.

But these parties may not be equally balanced. There may be a very large proportion of the poor, the ignorant, the uncultivated, smarting with wrongs, and unenlightened by wisdom or In short-and this is the point we seek to arreligion. Beside them may be a very small rive at-in order to talk with precision and jusnumber of the more intelligent and educated-tice of the colonies, our reformers and agitators a wealthier, proprietorial class. In such cases ought to divide them into classes, and harangue the latter has ordinarily been accustomed to dom- separately upon each class. This is Mr. Roeinate, by means of the support of the mother-buck's plan, and the only just one. It is quite country; whilst the mother-country has checked absurd to predicate the same thing, and recomabuse of power and exaggeration of tyranny. mend the same remedies, for Canada as for JamaiIreland and Jamaica are both instances in point; ca, for Guiana as for New Zealand. Before we both are more or less what we describe; in inconsiderately counsel uncontrolled self-governboth the dominant class is that of the minority, ment for all, it would be well to ask if self-govyet not without control. Pass a decree estab-ernment would have emancipated the negro, would lishing absolute self-government. Give the un- have voted freedom and reciprocity of trade, or controllable power which numbers wield to the would have given the French on the St. Lawrence, Irish peasant or the emancipated negro. That or the Boers at the Cape, their necessary and just is to say-establish self-government, and what rights. would be the necessary consequence ?

In certain epochs of nations it is not the popuGuiana is ruled by a very singular constitu- lar but the kingly power that is the reforming tion; by a Court of Policy consisting of few in- impulse. By destroying superior power too soon, dividuals. The power of the mother-country a dominant proprietary is only confirmed in the alone upholds such a constitution. The planters, prejudice and the tyranny of injustice, which it however, and their friends, clamor for self-gov- loves and practises with the complete impunity ernment, that is, for themselves to govern in the and irresponsibility of what is called, but misinterest of their class. This would be unmiti- called, "self-government." gated oppression, for they would reïnslave the

negroes.

On the other hand, destroy the constitution, and grant universal suffrage, and the negroes would soon drive the buckras into the ocean. Both of these cases answer to the idea of uncontrolled self-government. Which do you prefer?

Of self-government in the Canadas we have lately spoken. It is at present in the course of trial, and certain of the Canadians seek to escape from it. They wish to be annexed to the United States. Would that bring them more freedom, or a veritable self-government? Just the contrary, as we before attempted to show. The victorious creeds and parties would by annexation to the states be subject to stronger coercion. The Orangeism and the Gallicism of the Canadians would be overwhelmed in an instant by the stronger current of Yankeeism. Hardly an indulgence for which they now struggle as Englishmen would be Vouchsafed them as Americans.

AMERICA.

From the Examiner.

We are not disposed to think the hubbub raised by the American newspapers against British interference in Honduras worth more than the so many columns of type it fills. The affair of the island of Tigré is a mere offshoot of the already existing Nicaraguan dispute. In the heat of rivalry for the privilege of precedence in the construction of the proposed canal to the Pacific, (which surely. admits of that easy and honorable compromise of no exclusive privilege to either country, thrown out not many weeks ago by Mr. Abbot Lawrence, the new minister from Washington,) Mr. Squiers and Mr. Chatfield, who respectively represent the interests of the United States and Great Britain at the Central American republics, have found it easy and not unpleasant to fall by the ears on a new form of what is really the same dispute. But there is no substantial interest of either country

engaged, and it can hardly be doubted that the propriety of at once disavowing the intemperate proceedings taken on both sides will be frankly acted upon by both governments.

fault is in our laws, in the organization of our courts, or with those who plead law in the courts, that the evil exists, and that its removal is deand render judgment from the bench. It is enough manded by every member of the community who The reader would be amused if we laid before values justice or his own safety and the well-being him some specimens of patriotic fervor in behalf of society. It is nearly seven months since a of Mr. Squiers indulged in by his literary fellow-number of persons were indicted for participating citizens. The contrast of these demonstrations in the Astor-place riots-an offence against the with the ordinary tone of public morality prevalent in the same quarters is very curious. In the balance of such judgments nothing weighs against the possible acquisition of an additional squaremile of territory. The most necessary safeguards of civilization kick the beam.

Nor

One of Washington's celebrated associates in the war of independence dwelt often on the instability of the laws as what he feared would prove the greatest blemish in the character and genius of the government he was helping to establish. Seventy years' experience has shown that the fear was well-founded. We hear nothing, at the present day, so commonly or unblushingly repeated throughout the Union, as that the laws are a dead letter when public feeling is against them. is even this plea of public feeling at all times necessary to weaken or impair their efficiency. Private interests will serve very well upon occasion. In a melancholy case which occurred a few years back, when the son of a distinguished American statesman was hanged without trial at the yard-arm of an American frigate for a meditated act of mutiny, Captain Slidell Mackenzie justified the deed in a remarkable narrative afterwards published with his name, in the course of which he stated that it would not have been in nature for the culprit's father not to interpose to save him, and "that for those who had money and friends in America there was no punishment for the worst of crimes."

law, order, and character of the entire city; yet, been brought to trial, nor does it seem likely that with one or two exceptions, those persons have not they will be for months to come, if at all."

The truth of the above remarks, which we find in the Sun, no one will, we think, be disposed to deny. We did hope, from the good beginning made by Judge Daly, that the evil so justly complained of was in the course of removal; but it appears that, in that instance, Justice assumed a position she could not, or dared not, maintain; and that reckless lawlessness is only to be punished in the persons of those whose positions in life, or as political partisans, cannot purchase for them immunity for their crimes.

We do not charge that Judge Daly ingloriously shirked the responsibility of trying the rest of the Astor-place rioters; but we do say that the excuse offered in his name, (a press of business in his own court,) for failing to perform what the community expected from him, was a trivial and unsatisfactory one. There are three judges to perform the business of the Court of Common Pleas, and rarely, or never, we believe, are they all engaged, either in court or chambers, at the same time. And why is it, if, as Judge Daly's conduct would indicate, they are so very scrupulous about neglecting the business of this court, that they do not meet before ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, or sit after two or three o'clock in the afternoon? or that one week out of four the court is closed altogether? or that a vacation of several weeks can be taken, when the atmosphere renders the performance of their duty off when it suits the convenience of the judges or oppressive? Surely, if suitors can be so easily put counsel, they might have been, with more reason and propriety, told to wait when the public interest, and the public safety perhaps, demanded the sacrifice.

An article in one of the newspapers brought by the last packet has recalled this incident to our recollection. Have our readers forgotten the riots which drove Mr. Macready from America, and gratified the spleen of a bad American actor at the cost of between twenty and thirty lives? Those disgraceful scenes are now seven months old, and though indictments were preferred and found at the time against the principal rioters, only one man has been punished, and that slightly. The most guilty still walk about unpunished, and do not scruple to assert that the authorities dare not bring them to trial. This state of things has sug-judicial officer. gested a course of remark to the New York Sun and the New York Mirror, which we think extremely creditable to both journals, and a remarkable exception to the tone generally taken in such matters by our transatlantic contemporaries. We quote from the last-named journal of the 8th De-case: indeed, we have very serious doubts if it be

cember :

"There is a laxity in the administration of criminal justice, and of every other kind of justice, in the courts of this city, that is derogatory to the welfare of society, and disgraceful to the name of justice. We are not prepared to say whether the

But we quarrel not with Judge Daly in particular, for we consider every one highly censurable who has been directly or indirectly instrumental in delaying the trials of those rioters and incendiaries, the consequences of whose guilt were so serious and so much to be deplored; and Judge Edmonds' conduct in again procrastinating them, we think, calls for severe reprehension. There was a degree of petulance, too, in his remarks, in announcing the fact that no criminal business would be taken up before the January term, altogether unworthy a Seven months have elapsed since the indictments against these rioters were found, and the most guilty of them yet go unpunished, and impudently boast, we understand, that the authorities dare not bring them to trial; and, from present indications, such would really appear to be the

intended to try any more of them. From month to month some excuse will be found for delay, until the event will be almost forgotten, and then nolle prosequis will be quietly entered, which may or may not come to the knowledge of the reporters, and the public know nothing of the matter.

It is about time that it was known where the

fault lies. It is certainly not in our laws-they are | river which runs S.S.E.; a beautiful stream, in sufficient for all purposes; no, it is in the adminis- some parts very like the Clyde, but frequently tration of them that the evil exists-in that want of broader. The water was rising, and seems to come impartiality, moral courage, independence, and in- from the north, from melted snows, it is so clear tegrity, that should ever characterize ministers of and soft. Two large rivers run into the lake, both justice. This is a serious matter; one, too, in from the north. The Batauana are a numerous which the public are deeply interested; and when tribe; the chief a youth. Many Makoba or Bayeiye such gross neglect of their interests is exhibited as fish and float on the river; darker in complexion in the case of the Astor-place rioters, it behoves than Beckuenas, and speak a language which has a them to adopt unmistakable measures to mark the slight klick. Canoes hollowed out of one tree, very conduct of such unworthy servants with severe and fine scenery on the banks of the river, splendid trees, indignant condemnation. Men who can thus violate mostly new to me, one the fruit like a small yellow the oaths they took when assuming office are totally pumpkin, about three inches in diameter. Mr. unworthy to hold it. Oswell and I go on horseback to-morrow. The the track when we have seen Sebetoane's tribe. wagons go on with Mr. Murray. We follow on The Bayeiye are very numerous, but villages all small. Last observation of sun gave about 19 deg. 7 min. We are N.N.W. of Kolobeng; but we expect when at Sebetoane's to be considerably further north. I may add to the above, by way of explanation, that the Batauana tribe are Bechuanas, and originally of the Bamanuato, which lie eight days' journey north of the Bakuena, among whom Mr. Livingstone has his station (Kolobeng.) The tribe of Sebetoane (the chief's name) are also Bechuanas; the Makoba (which means slaves) are a different race. They possess no cattle, but live on Mr. L. says fish. Bayeiye seems to mean eaters. months. I am sending direct to Colesberg in order that he expected they would reach Kolobeng in two to forward a letter from Mr. Murray to Mrs. Murray, care of Messrs. Dixon and Co., as he expects Mrs. M. to be out at the Cape in November or December. The party were very friendly received at the lake. Mr. L. says the canoes are poor things-very numerous: they go pretty quickly in them, and had it very cold all the way. Country neighborcook and sleep too in them (the Makoba.) They hood of the lake beautiful and fertile. All peace in that part of the world."

What most surprises us in all this is the surprise expressed by the American journalists. We confess that we look upon the existing condition of the affair as the unavoidable sequel to its commencement. These things move in a circle, which in the instance before us is not yet complete. Let us wait. A more abominable outrage, at a much greater sacrifice of life, will in due course more broadly exhibit the results of impunity to crime. The riots began in that way, and will end in that way. The deplorable deaths of more than twenty persons were originally and solely attributable to a tardy vindication of the law. If the first riot had been firmly repressed, there would have been no second riot to call for a bloody repression.

The more intelligent classes in America would do well to consider the inevitable consequence of thus disabling and disarming the civil power. What has occurred upon a small scale in these Astor-place riots will some day find itself a wider theatre, and more intolerable indulgence. The only security for freedom is the strength and certainty of the laws.

STATISTICS OF LONDON MORTALITY.-The aver

THE South African Commercial Advertiser of the 3d November contains the following interesting in-age mortality of England at the present time may

formation

Among the opening prospects of Africa, if Lord Grey's blight can be arrested, the grandest geographical discovery of modern times has just been announced that, namely, of the great inland lake, so long supposed to exist, to the north of the Cape. The following extract of a letter from the Reverend Mr. Moffat to Mr. Rutherfoord, announcing this discovery, has been kindly given for general information. "I embrace the few minutes which remain before sending a packet to Colesberg to inform you of Friend Oswell and companions. I shall give you the substance of a short letter received from the lake, dated the 2d August. It only came last night, and has afforded us real pleasure, as it will doubtless do to yourself. Mr. L. calls the lake Noka ca Nama, or Ngama. We reached this a day or two ago, after a journey of about 556 miles from Kolobeng, and feel thankful that our path has been one of safety and pleasure. We are now at the Batauana town, and yesterday rode down about six miles to look on the broad blue waters of the lake. We cannot tell how broad it may be, for we could not see a horizon, except one of water, on the south and west. Traversed through much desert country, and were looking for the lake for two hundred miles before we came to it. We traversed about two hundred miles along the banks of a large

be stated at 350,000, and that of London 47,000 per annum. As the population of England and Wales is nearly sixteen millions, and that of London 1,900,000, this gives an annual average mortality of one out of every forty inhabitants for the metropolis, and one out of every 45 for the whole country. This is an astonishing decline in the rate of mortality, compared with the experience of for mer ages; and it presents, at the same time, a most favorable picture of the value of life in this as com pared with other countries. The annual mortality in England, in the year 1700, was about one in twenty-five. About the middle of the last century, from causes not well understood, it increased to one in twenty. From that time to this it has slowly but steadily declined. In 1801, it was 1 in 35; in 1811, 1 in 38; and now it is 1 in 45; so that, in the space of about eighty years, the chances of existence have been exactly doubled in London, a progress and final result which may fairly be considered as without a parallel in the history of any other age or country.

In Paris, about the middle of the last century, the mortality was 1 in 25; at present it is about 1 in 32; in Rome the annual deaths are as one in 25; at Amsterdam, as 1 in 24; at Vienna, as 1 in 22. The inhabitant of London, therefore, has twice as good a chance of living as the burgher of Vienna.-George Gregory, M.D., &c.

From Fraser's Magazine. THE BRIGHT ROOM OF CRANMORE.

"You shall hear! My mother knew this place well in youth. She knew the heroine of the story that I mean to tell you; but get up, walk "A MIXTURE of a lie doth ever add pleasure," with me round the quaint old gardens. Look at saith Bacon. Once at least in thy lifetime, imag- the long, sharp lights that dart through the grand, inative reader, thou wouldst have granted the wide shadows. Look down the dim, tangled truth of the aphorism hadst thou spent the closing walk, overarched with evergreens flourishing in hours of a summer's day in rambling through the the untrimmed glory of neglect. See beyond manor-house and vast old pleasure-grounds of there, over to the pleasant meadows-further to Cranmore, under the bewitching influence of the the wide old woods and ferny dells of Baronsward Scheherazade, from whose lips the following tra--and let your eye wander round till it reaches ditionary tale was gathered.

No one need apologize for telling a ghost story -no one can be so sure of a good reception (in theory) as a probable ghost. Amid the number of modern conveniences, comforts, and luxuries, it is truly amazing that no speculative man has set up as purveyor of ghosts and goblins for the advantage of those proprietors (nouveaux riches, for example) who, having purchased an ancient and noble-named house, find themselves unprovided in the way of a dignified family spectre, to whom they could safely entrust the terrifying of the country neighbors by any of the different modes adopted by ghostly personages for the perfecting of that end.

Cranmore has all the requisites for the scene of a strange old legend and tradition. "She of the seraph tongue" has richly embellished and enhanced its picturesque interest by weaving around real family records a web of romantic fiction, and thus making of truth and falsehood that "mixture of a lie" which thou hast been assured, reader, doth give pleasure.

It was about six o'clock in the afternoon of one twenty-seventh of July that I sat down with my companion beneath the ample shade of the two lime-trees that stand a few hundred yards from the front entrance of the manor-house. The sunset lights were stealing lovingly round the gray walls, and peering into the latticed and ivied windows that face the west. By degrees each diamond-shaped pane glittered like gold, and at last the illumination was complete, and the pale, deserted dwelling seemed of a sudden to have assumed an air of festal life.

[blocks in formation]

the sudden silver gleam of the many-winding river. Follow the bright lacing of the water through the low, rich fields, till it is spanned by a three-arched bridge, and then look along the white road that leads to the village with a gilt-tipped spire shining in the sun; and let your eye and fancy wander onwards to the wide-roofed, treeshrouded dwelling, that has stood there for three hundred and twenty years. That is Hallwoodthe place belongs to the Herberts. But it is of the manor here that we must now speak."

Cranmore belongs to the H- family. About five-and-thirty years ago Lord H. lent it to a widowed relation, who, having been left almost penniless with six children, was very glad to sit down at Cranmore rent free. The place had been once a stately old dwelling of the family to whom it still belongs; but when Mrs. D. took possession thereof it was almost devoid of furniture, though the walls and windows were in sound repair. Lord H. had kindly and considerately replaced a good many missing things, and early in the autumn of the year 1804 Mrs. D. took possession of her new home. She was a woman of strong nerveno imagination, and blessed with plenty of cheerfulness and vigor. Her establishment consisted of a nurse, a cook, and a girl of eighteen, who acted the part of housemaid; this last-named servant had only been hired about six weeks before Mrs. D.'s arrival at Cranmore. From her last place she had brought a good character for sobriety, honesty, and veracity, and there was no reason to suppose from her manner that there was about her any flightiness or excitement of mind; on the contrary, she was a quiet, steady, and industrious servant, and in as large a house as Cranmore it may be supposed that her time was fully occupied by her daily work.

It must be mentioned that Mrs. D., on coming to Cranmore, had fixed on a small suite of rooms fronting the south which she intended to occupy; the other apartments were many of them locked up to prevent the chill draughts, from open doors and windy corridors, sweeping through the great building to the discomfort of the inmates. or two large state-rooms were, however, left open to serve as playground to the children on wet and wintry days when they might not be able to get

One

"Look up," said my companion, drawing me a few paces to the left of the lime-trees. "Do you see that window beneath the turret now in shadow? Well, that is the Bright Room of Cranmore! A bright room lit by no earthly candle. Every night a supernatural radiance gleams on the oak-panelled walls. By the last proprietor everything was done to find out the trick, (everything must be supposed trick now-a-out. These rooms were above those inhabited by days,) but night after night the ghostly gleam returns, and—”

"Who is the proprietor?" I said.

Mrs. D. and her children. Two stairs led up to them; one with a wide and handsome carved oak balustrade, the other was a winding and narrow

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »