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    I D B MrPhilli Calviuistand believed tha...

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    ORACLES FROM THE COLONIES. The Rise and ...

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    S 1 * < I < To To So - . And , Of - Misc...

    religion , Mr . Phillips was a Calviuist , and believed that the Holy Scriptures were the inspired word of God ; while Mr . Parker , rejecting all creeds and disowned by all sects , held the Bible to contain ouly the wisdom of fallible rneai , aud claimed for lriniaeLf and for future sages the possible power of improving thereon . Mr . Phillips was a lawyer , but he seldom appeared in the courts ; Mr . Parker was a clergyman , and , though without a church and eschewing the holy sacraments , preaclied constantly to a large but shifting congregation- Mr . Phillips excelled in oratory , Mr . Parker was a greater master of the pea . The former studied men , the latter books . Mr . Parker had a wider reputation—Europe had heard of him ; but those who knew both would have forsaken him to hang upon the lips of Mr ; Phillips . Mr . Parker had secured his triumph -when he had uttered his speech : Str . Phillips found his chief satisfaction

    in the accomplishment of the end at which his oratory was aimed . Mr . PMllips had tie garb and gait of a gentleman ; Mr . Parker , as he moved along with stumbling steps and prone looks , had the aspect of a redu . se student . In their physical characteristics , they differed not less than in mental and moral traits . Sir . Phillips was a person of commanding height and elegant proportions ; his features were cast in tlie Roman mould , Ms head was rounded and balanced almost to the ideal standard . A ruddy complexion , fair hair , and eyes of a sparkling blue , showed him to be of the true Saxon race- Mr . Parker , outhe contrary , was of inferior stature and ungraceful foTm ; he had the face of a Diogenes , and his massive head , capacious of braiu in the frontal region , was not symmetrically developed . He had an atrabiliar complexion , dark hair , and large , dark eyes , that looked forth from behind spectacles with a steady ; unwinking gaze .

    There are few readers who will not be interested in this description . In illustration of English , oratory , the Messrs . Griffin ( London and Glasgow ) 3 iave published a second series of Speeches of Eminent British Statesmen during t ? ie Thirty-nine . Tears ^ Peace , containing Lord Brougham ' s matchless appeal to the House of Peers on if egro Emancipation , and some of the best speeches delivered , on various occasions by Mr . Macaulay , the Earl of Derby , Daniel O'Connell , Mr . Shiel , Lord Palmerston , Sir Robert Peel , and Lord Lyndhurst . An excellent manual for geographical students lias been compiled by Mr . \ Villiam Hughes , —The Treasury of Geography , Physical , Historical , Descriptive , and Political , containing a Succinct Account of Every Country in the World , Preceded by tin Introductory Outline of the History of Geography ; a Familiar Inquiry into the Varieties of Race and Language Exhibited hy different Nations , and a Yield of the Relations of Geography to

    Astronomy and the Physical Sciences . It was designed and commenced by Mr . Samuel Maunder , who possessed an uncommon aptitude for the preparation of manuals , the Biographical , Historical , Scientific , and Literary Treasuries , the Treasury of Natural History , and the Treasury of Knowledge . Sonve deficiencies might bei pointed out , which detract from the practical utility of tBe volume ; but it is , upon the whole , a satisfactory work of reference . A work of another kind , very xinsatisfactory , is , Louis Napoleon and'theBonaparte Family ( Trixbner ) , by Henry W . De Puy . It is a ragged compilation composed of fragments appropriated from various histories , and thrown together without art , and even without common csire . Mr . Samuel Eliot ' s Manual of Unite d States History from 1492 to 1850 { Trubner ) , is an American book of a highly creditable character . We have met with no outline of the kind so complete , so clear , so simple . It might

    be advantageously adopted in English schools . Special illustrations of ] S ew World history are contained in . the History of Immigration to the United States ( Triibner ) , an elaborate volume by William JY Bromwell , of great interest to those who have -watched the progress and decline of the KnowJSTothing organization . Other useful manuals are , Elements of Modern History , by Alexander F . Tytler , Lord Woodhouselee , fourth edition ( A . and C . Black ) , continued to the end of the Hussian war ; and The Student' s Handbook of Meditcval History from the Fall cf the Western Empire to the Close of the Fifteenth Century ( Griflin and Co . ) , edited by Isaiah McBurrey , - with Dissertations on the State of Europe and on the Feudal System , by Colonel Procter . This is a very meritorious volume . The Life of Sir William Pepperell , by Usher Parsons ( Trtibner ) , is a curious specimen of biography , detailing the career and achievements of the liero Louisburg , " the only native of New England who was created a baronet during our connexion with the mother-country . " Mr . Thomas T . Lynch sends in a second edition of his Lectures in aid of Self- Improvement addressed to Young

    Men and Others ( Longman and Co . ) . Mr . Lynch is chietly known as the author of " The Rivulet , " about-which every possible question was raised—¦ whether it was an evangelical poem ? whether it was not an evangelical poem?— -all but the obvious inquiry , whether it was a poem at all ? We should say that Mr . Lynch writes better essays than veises . For scholars of different classes we have the second part of Mr . C . D . Yonge ' B admirable English-Latin and Latin-English Dictionary ( Bentley ) , a second edition of The Science of Arithmetic : a- Systematic Course of Numerical Reasoning and Computation , with Exercises , by Dr . James Cornwall and Mr . J . Gr . JTitch ( Simpkin , Marshall , and Co . ) , and a beautiful little volume called The Golden A . B . C . ( Triibner ) . A Dictionary of Commercial Terms , with their Synonymcs in various Languages , has been compiled by Mr . Alexander Faulkner , and published at Bombay ( L . M . D'Souza ) . The latest additions to Mr . Bohn ' s very useful Libraries are—two volumes of Foster ' s Essays , edited by Mr . J . E . Ityland , of Northampton , and a volume of D « foe ' s Works , containing the " Adventures of Duncan Campbell , " a " Vovn « e Round the World , " & c .

    With these miscellanies we must announce a work of large pretensions , The Text of the Old Testament Considered : with a Treatise on Sacred Interpretation , and a Brief Introduction to tlie Old Testament Jioohs and tAe Apocrypha , by Dr . Samuel Davidson ( Longman and Co . ) . —This is a massive octavo volume , thto contents of which would fill a middle-age folio . Dr . Davidson , as many of our readers are probably aware , is the author of a learned treatise ou Biblical Criticism , and of a work on Ilermencutics . We cannot undertake to review his elaborate book , and must content ourselves with notifying its appearance to the students of sacred literature . At the same time , we may mention a latter to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford on the Present Slate of Zoology in the Vniver $ itie » and t / te Church of England , and on the Causes of Existing Aaepttciam mid Infidelity , by Clericus ( Oxford : Hamnmns ] , and Sunday , the Rest of Labour , by A Christian ( T . C . Nevvby ) . — ' 1 he Miscellanies on our table , varying from poetry to arithmetic , and from theology to fireside romance , have thus been disposed of

    I D B Mrphilli Calviuistand Believed Tha...

    119 * THE I ^ j ^ D ^ B . rNo . 851 , Bm ^ ..

    Oracles From The Colonies. The Rise And ...

    ORACLES FROM THE COLONIES . The Rise and Progress ofA ? tstra ? ia , Tasmmiia , and New Zealand Bv An TV v v Author of " Commercial before Military Glory , " " Sketclicsi of £ v * > Scottish Scenery , " « A Traveller ' sDiary , " ' ' FiveDramas , " < £ & c . S * D . P ., the Englishman who pretends to give in the present vnW ™ account of the Rise and Progress of the finest and richest of our ^ + ? Oceanic colonies , commenced his literary career as a poet ' 1 W \\ L ,, would none of his inspirations . The fate of his earlier poetic -J ° f therefore , . prompted him to try his hand at prose-Avritino-. Could Z i ? overawed by a pompous list of works achieved—a list supported bv i comitatus of five dramas—and could we be imposed upon bv the \ LL * ? . ~ of a " fifth thousand , " we might perhaps be brought to rocoS T claims which D . P . sets up , and admit the pretensions which inuito r volume . " If two voyages round the world in prosecution of tho ' ddsW ? exclaims our sea-roving Englishman , " excessive toil and personal incnn vemence m collecting materials , and strict impartiality , and a vi <> id 'idherrnp to truth in the execution , —if such features in the character of ° i \ vorl ~ hn any claim on public favour , the humble artist may reasonably auticim- ^ some little return for bis past labour . " These are the grounds upon vnicl . our . author claims for ¦ . himself a pre-eminence of respect , and l >> n- « + « v ™ allowed to constitute himself Sir Oracle . . * tO bo

    ^ Had his px'etcnsions been less absurd , had he not so ¦ consenueiit . ijilly thrust his merits forward , his book might have deserved a ' paragraph 6 f mere announcement . ¦ But when an author is found proclaiming his infallibility and extolling bis claims to authority , we have a right to investigate closely his eredentials . We have done so in . this instance , and are bound to eoivfess that the hubbub about "tzco voyages rowulthe world in prosecution o / : I he design " and a" fifth thousand , " is but a , repetition of the " parl / irinU monies ; " and that so far from the book being impartial , it is in every page . blemislied ' with party prejudice . The writer has evidently been i-eeeived at " Government House , " and inhaled the perfumes of the Court Jr-awin ^ -rooms ; has shaken hands with the small F . Peels of office , talked on colonial subjects with salar ied secretaries , and been taught to regard the rough and un-washed citizens , the democracy of this Anglo-Australasian empire , as a liotbed of corruption , disaffection , and crime .

    Veracity is not always to be expected even from travellers . Itowever , we are invited to repose implicit confidence in the correctness of D . P . ' s impressions about colonial matters and manners ,, habits and costumes , demoralization and democracy caught en fMssaul . But who is ready to trust to a photographic drawing taken from a railway carriage pushing on at the rate of sixty miles an hour ? And who will put faith in -the . accuracy / of D . P . ' s notes , taken during a brief sojourn in our distant . colonies ? But D . P . brings with him statistics—official statistics . The following copy of a letter from the Colonial-office is to " satisfy the reader of accuracy on that head .: " — . ' . ¦ ' - •¦ - ' - ..- ¦ - ¦ • ¦ . , . ¦¦ - .. . . . .- . - . • ¦ ¦ ' ¦ . ¦ : ¦ ' : ¦ ' ¦ ' \ .

    Downing-street , 29 th . Dec , 1854 . Sir , —I am directed by Sir George Grey to forward you . the enclosed letters of introductionto the Governors of Tictoria , New South Wales , "Van Dienaon ' s Laud , and New Zealand , in compliance with , the request contained in your letter of the lOthinst . ¦ • . .. ( SigTied ) S ^ v > i . "VVniTiinEAD . Who dares doubt the infallibility of Government statistics or official declarations ? " An Englishman , " being introduced to a governor , is necessarily " accurate on that head . " According to our author , Victoria , the first colony described in his volume , had in 1852-33 attained the acme of speculation , ' crime , exciter nuent , and disorder . The magnetic influence of gold had attracted thither the scum of the earth , and , like the vrand of Circe , converted the new

    comers into monsters of colossal dimensions . Gambling , drunkenness , strife , pillage , murder , are some of the mild features which characterized the society of Melbourne at this epoch , whilst every kind of wickedness and extravagance was prosecuted with impunit t y the police and magistrates being intent on making their thousands per diem . " A little hell upon earth ; " " a city of rioters , gamblers , and drunkards ; " " a crowded den of 'human iniquity , " arc terms intended to convey to the reader a fiiint idea of tin ; capital of the Yarra-YaiTa under the first impressions of our author ; and though his second impressions modify his earlier views a little , what , he pathetically asks , can be expected from a shite where " the butter the 1 ' onn ui " existing

    government , the more abusive and . malignant will be found those fiery demagogues who envy in others tho honesty they want themselves , and who merely aspire to place for emolument , and to power with a view to create or perpetuate on an extended scale the abuses they decry P ' We need not inquire the sou : * ce of this evil , the cause of'tins demoralization . For ourselves , we were led to suppose it was the temporary excitement caused bj the discovery of gold that aided in producing this state of things . lWitD . P . kindly takes out the key and opens his cabinet of curiosities lor u . s himself . It is that " the people of the present gencrution have had tho'ir minds polluted , their morals corrupted , and their talents partially if not wholly perverted by a mass of impure matter which , during the greater part oi ' the

    last thirty years , has been vomited from the disorganized bowels of an unhealthy press as Wholesome food J ' vr an ' cnlighlowd people S" Tlmt is to say , certain bowels vomit a people ' s food . Then follows a . list ' of publications which . are D , P . ' s aversion , and which lie objects to have placed in the ba uds of emigrants . Amongst these figure prominently Sunday new . ^ jjtipi'rs an ! novels—not that we arc to consider him altogether as an " iidvoealo for the total extinction of nil works of fiction . '" No ; has he not written , has lie not published Jive dramas ? "i'is true they were unnoticed , " sullenly plunged , and slowly sunk , " but what of that ? Ink and type still purpotuato the deed , although the tragic u Englishman" has undertaken to be u Colonial cicerone .

    D . P . ' b ideas of politics arc no less sage than his views of other matters . " Hulf tho grievances of tho world , " according to him , * ' are Hcnlinie ntftl grievances ; " men don't really suffer , they only imagine they suflbr . Governments know much better how to rule than people know how to ho rulod . " The trashy hurangucs of some low popularity hunters , those mercenary scribblers who would readily sacrifice a people ' s morals or u country ' s * good

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 13, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13121856/page/18/