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    ¦Qgg T H E Ii E A. D E B. [j[Q. ^ so» No...

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    LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART,

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    MEMOIR CXEREV. H. S. POLTSHAMPTON. Memoi...

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    FELLOW TRAVELLERS. Fellow Travellers; or...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    ¦Qgg T H E Ii E A. D E B. [J[Q. ^ So» No...

    ¦ Qgg T H E Ii E A . D E B . [ j [ Q . ^ so November 6 ^ 1858 .

    Literature, Science, Art,

    LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , & o

    Memoir Cxerev. H. S. Poltshampton. Memoi...

    MEMOIR CXEREV . H . S . POLTSHAMPTON . Memoir oftTte liev . JI . -Si Polehampton , M . A . Edited by the Rev . E . Polehampton and the Rev . T . S . Pole-/ hampton . , Bentley . The volume before us has claims upon our attention at ouce . social ami national . Every brave man who goes forth to serve his country in a foreign land'jcnust bear some portion of our sympathies with Lux ' and when we learn that lie has fallen saiispeitr et- satis reproche as all would wish to die , and in the plain course of duty , as so many , alas , have fallen within the last few months , we cannot but mourn

    the loss of a fellow-citizen , though perhaps in all other respects unknown to us . But when , as in this case , we Lave been permitted to see hiiri in the various relations of life , a gentleman , a philanthropist , a Christian , when we can trace out his career of usefulness from , his boyhood up to the dark hour when death sefc its seal upon his- memory and placed his virtues beyond the reach of change or detraction;—• we then feel more keenly , because with a better and more intimate knowledge , that a man has been taken from us whom we could ill afford to lose . England may have a plentiful , offspring of brave and worthy htl the

    sons , but she cannot , even so , pass ligy over death of a man like Henry Polehampton . The scenes and localities in which the biographer first introduces him to us , the friends and associates in whose company we find him , may be familiar to any of us . The preparatory life of the Eton boy and the Oxford student , followed by a curate ' s round of quiet duties and unpretending activity these seem to admit of few incidents that could mailc one man off from others , so as _ to bring him prominently before our eyes either as hero or philanthropist . Yet even here we find traces of a character distinguished for the true English qualities of courage and honesty , earning the respect and love of all to whom he stood related ; while the

    title even of hero may be fairly claimed for one who , r isking his own life to save another ' s , worthily earned the- medal " Ob eivem servatum . " It was a . strange and almost a startling change tlvat wrenched Polehampton from his peaceful life : England , and led him , within a year from his arrival in India , to share in all the duties and clangers of the devoted Lucknow garrison ; but the incidents of that siege have been already so fully stated by others that we can gather little that is new : from the simple narrative before us * We are glad , however , to find that the volume bears unqualified testimony to the character and conduot of flie financial commissioner , Mr . Martin Gubbins , to whom its publication must , we imagine , be a matter of well-deserved satisfaction .

    ignorant of the native languages . It was , perhaps , Mr . Polehampton ' s duty , as a Christian -minister , to indulge a pious wish for the conversion of the inhabitants , and it was natural that he should speak hopefully on a point on which he felt so strongly . We , however , just as strongly dissent from such views . The first question which presents it-sett is , whether the desired object is a possible one . It is true , indeed , that the New Zealander has learned in some degree to ape the creed , as well as the dress and manners of a 'dominant race ; it is true that the African savage has been tanght to modify his fetish worship with the phraseology of Methodr

    ism , and to describe the changes in his physical organisation bv language which might seem , to European ears-, " to refer rather to the operations of the Holy Spirit : —but we stand opposed , not only to all modern experience , but to the teaching of all history , if we expect the same results to follow from preaching the Gospel among the Hindoos . It is an easy tiling for a tribe of barbarians to change a creed which has not yet become the centre of their modes of thought arid" of the customs of their social life , but , in India , we have to deal with a nation already civilised , though with a civilisation

    very different from our own . We have to deal with an ' < ancient form of polytheism , " compared with which , the Christian faith is the creation of yesterday . The whole individual and political life of the people is bound-up with the tenets of their religion . Thus , satisfied with what they believe , and with what they are , they oppose passive immobility to the approaches of innovation . Again , our apparatus theologicus must be confessed fatally deficient ; the clergy whom ' . \ v « send forth as the champions of our cause in the East seem either to meet more than their match in the native doctors ,

    or , owing to the absence of any settled-rule of faith , to waste in disputes among themselves , and with the emissaries of " their fallen sister , " those precious gifts which might be elsewhere put to better use . There remains yet the further and more important question , how far we ought to desire success , at least that amount of partial success which is all that wo could expect or hope . When we find Mr . Polehampton expressing his satisfaction that the six hundred youths at the Company ' s College at Benares , though not trained to be Christians , were at least in the way of being

    taught to despise their own religion , we see an instance of the dangerous kind of spirit in which missionary labours in India may be undertaken . The deifulsi e hugianli arc , at least , the only ones the Hindoos know or are likely to beliove in ; and , in destroying their faith in tliese , should we not be taking away their only guide in this life—their only hope for the life hereafter ? Irrespectively of the political effect of our proselytism , this serious consideration might well mutts us pauso before giving the bridlo to religious ardour .

    The chaplain did not live to witness the conclusioa of the siege ; he was a sharer in its privations and perils , but the hour of deliverance came , for him too late . He received a wound from a musket ball , and , though this was not at first considered dangerous ,, yet , the combined effects of fatigue and anxiety , and of a climate which he was not yet braiued to bear , made ib fatal . He left a young widow behind him * not only to mourn his loss but to continue in tile discharge of duties like his own . She , poor thing , seems to have regarded tho prospect of

    ablivoranco and of return to England with utter api \ thy . She had lost 1 all that she loved—her Husband and her . child ; and she looked now with something moro than mere indifference upon tho ever present front of death . We would trust that in tlje . honours paid to . her husband ' s memory , and in the calm satisfaction ; of noble duties noblv porformed , she has- found some recompense for all that lias been taken from her . There is a human-as wall

    as a . divmc moaning' in the promise that " Blessed arc tho merciful , for they shall receive mercy ; " and tho name of Emily Poloiiampton has already taken its place on tho roll of our female worthies beside those of Florence Nightingale and her Crimean Sisterhood . The opinions wo find scattered through tho volutino oil'matters whloh concern our relation to the natives of India must be regarded as curious rather than valuable . They are really nothing moro than the first impressions , genuine , no doubt , of © no wlio had passed a very few months in tho country of which ho writes , and who was almost

    Fellow Travellers. Fellow Travellers; Or...

    FELLOW TRAVELLERS . Fellow Travellers ; or , Experience of Life . By tho Author of " Margaret ; or , Prejudice at Homo , " 3 vols . Hurst and Blackott . The opening chapters will scaro the timid reader . " Two remarkable-looking men" arc introduced in high converse : one , Charlos Moore , with a " peculiarly wild poetic look" about him ; tho other , James Trnscr , " a wonderful mun , a great dumb manthe personification ' of daring douht , boldinvcstigation , stern questioning-, iron-hearted resoluteness , and

    self-suliiciufr and dchunt ; power time sees no uou and acknowledges none . " JJ'roui the twain emanate a reciprocation of sentiment , closely akin to what may bo deemed tho modern school of Gorman rationalism , which wo suspect will be skipped by impatient readers who arc likely to rofuso to bo detained by such a tough piece of metaphysical or materialistic reasoning . But we bid them be of good ohcer—read on , they will be recompensed ; not , however , by tho clearness and wclUknit composition of thp plot , for the plot is discursive and disconnected , — not by the delineation of special characters , for several appear to bo introduced but to bo buried-i—not by human passion or feeding brought out in vivid truthfulness and force , for very little that will be found quito new by ordinary readers

    will be discovered , but because there is just so much life ; cleverness , and variety of character ; and persons and motives as will create a thorough sympathy , and carry the reader unweariedly and pleasantly oil to the end . Our space will not permit any thinglike a detail and description of incidents and per 5 - sons .. We must , however , select a character or two , which will put , in a favourable light the author's powers . The . pivot on which the story turns appears to be the fortunes of Avice Desborough and Walter Osbornc , the first the youngest and most mentally gifted daughter of Colonel Dcsborough , a man of high family and low estate , and the latter the sou of an atheistical reprobate of immense wealth—the verv

    opposite in morals of his parent . Colonel Desb . oro . ugh dies ; his three daughters and son find a home with Miss De Burgh , a . venerable maid of honour , occupying . apartments in Hampton Palacea lovable character throughout . Aviee-io destined to . early misfortune . Her brother Phillip , to whom she is devotedly attached , dies suddenly of a brain fever ; the shock kills her aunt , Miss De Burgh , and the family is thrown on the world , with a slender . purse , and no friend except their nurse Ritson , who has saved a few hundreds which she has . put out at . -interest with an Oxford-street linendrapcr , who is alwavs in a bustle and always

    crying out for " more capital to throw into the concern . " At the time Phillip Desborough is seized with brain fever , Avicc and . "Walter Osborne become acquainted . " Walter is Phillip ' s fast friend , and on his death-bed he accepts a trust to watch over and protect Avioe . Tin ' s trust , however , Walter is unable to discharge , owing to the unfeeling and . selfish conduct" of Avice ' s eldest sister , and hor aunt , Lady Otlcy . Aviee , with her nurse , takes up her abode in the draper ' s family , and being , reduced nearly to penury , she accepts a situation as shopwoman with the ' family . Ilore she becomes acquainted with 3 tr . Thorpe , niino manager to Walter Osbornc ' s father — a stern-looking :,

    hardfeatured Radical— but of kind and honest nature . After rendering much assistance to Avice , who appears to be utterly forsaken by her friends and relations , she consents to marry him , though we must advise the reader that an uuconfessed attachment , has all along existed between her and Walter Osliornc . Avice marries and goes with her husbnml to the milling district in Yorkshire , where his future home is situated . After a brief period , she is called upon to assist her husband in Immunising the rugged population . Mr . Thorpe had already erected a school-house for the education of the miners' families , and here we extract a picture which , we trust , is a bygone

    picture of the miior life of our mining population : — He liud caused a rough boarded shed to be erected not far from the mine , containing forms and desks as roughly put together , and Lore , drawing around him ns many of the men and boys as could bo persuaded to attend , he employod Iris own leisuro hours in giving them instruction in reading anil-writing .. No one understood better than himself tho worth of example , and shortly , ns he had expected , n few amongst tho men who wore steady and intelligent in comparison with tho rest , voluntarily offiwed their services to help him . Having mado tins small , beginning , Edvnrd Thorpe hud the sntislaction ot seeing that tho work prospered and wont on thougu slowlv . Ho know woll enough that little could bo done towards humanising tho men and boyd , so long as tlio for

    women and tho gills remained uucared - ^ Nuver before did man single-handed contend with , anything so formidable as tho gross ignorance , tho utter want ol moral sense , tho low vices and brutal propensities tjiac characterised tho whole mining population . Tho women , not loss brutalised than the man , did their best towards promoting in wretched homoa tho disorder and discomfort that soem to bo tho peculiar element of tno civilised savngo . L , ascy , sluttornly , dirty , having no self-respect , having boon themselves dragged up ratiior than brought up , tliesa women dragged up thoir chudron , and drank with thoir husbands—and swore with them ; and encouraged tho hitter ' s feuds with ono anothor j ana bound up thoir broken heads with a readiness t » at showed they considered such work to bo a part of tlioir

    mission on earth ; and frequently fought with ono anothor , which wns nothing to women who wero uaou all along to bo boaton by tlioir husbands , llotwoon fighting , and drinking , and gossiping ; HUl ° timo wo " loft to devote to tho children , who soon learned to ngi « i nnd drink , and gossip on thoir own aooount . Horo was enough and to spore of that raw matoriul , that , ro 6 ftra < T as tho peculiar proauct of anothor soil and dmorons

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1858, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06111858/page/10/