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    1092 C8K fttatttt. [SAtbanxr

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    C.IK10VUK ON Tlllfl SANDWICH IHI.AM>^- ^...

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    Rimdhams Koshutll And Maiiyail I.Ani). K...

    fastidious , we may suggest that " doing ample justice to a repast" — " whether or no "— " embryo conflicts , " and similar phrases , can scarcely be called felicitous ; nor can we greatly admire such superb diction as that which makes Punch the " hebdomadal laugh-compeller "—makes v e " sun strew over the landscape his orient pearl "—and expresses the fact of women having disguised

    themselves as soldiers thus : — " A nation , methinks , must he in earnest when its women spontaneously don the panoply of war" What say you to the turn of that sentence ? " Coat and trousers " sounds very tame and prosaic , elegance of diction requires " panoply of war" ! Mr . Pridham does not seem endowed with a lively sense of bathos $ we thought " panoply of war" was not to be surpassed , yet here is a sentence which surpasses it : —

    " Zamoitski was always ready to fly to the assistance of his country ; to serve her he had served Hungary , and hadlost a finger in a cavalry charge . ' " We must make room for one of his political tirades , which we have read with considerable attention , and failed altogether in comprehending . He is in Vienna , and is supposed to allude to Metternich : — " Yet none could gainsay that the modern

    Machiavelli had perfected his singular destiny . Humanity bore everywhere its sickening traces . Absent though he might be from the laboratory , his spirit triumphed still in his successors . There he sat , still the guiding automaton . What if Gentz were supping with Pluto , Werner still survived to proclaim the divine right of kings , and to make men crouch before the abstractions he had set up . All those chemical processes , which had emasculated the soul of man , were again in motion , distilling drop by drop f rom the mental pores .

    " That infamous market , where the robbed senses of humanity had so long been trafficked in , had bee ? i closed only for a brief interval ; what , if a resistless impulse of the popular will had for a time reinstated man in his pristine dignity , he was again despoiled of all his spiritualism , and the same system which he fancied he had overthrown was again in full activity . Henceforth nature seemed to decree that any remnants of political energy should alternately subseive the an ; irchy of despotism , or combine to exhaust their force in the paroxysms of an anarchy tcarcely less fatal , —that ot the revolution . "

    Tvow why Metternich should not be absent from a laboratory , and why be should st 11 sit there a guiding Automaton , — as if that was peculiarly the sphere of an automaton , and as if automata were remarkable , for " guiding "—puzzled us . Was Mr . IVidhain making a vague dash at the classic : ' . ! , and confounding" Automedon the Driver v . 'ith ; t piece of mechanism ? The . suggestion receives colour from the subsequent allusion to I'luto . Jiuf ; why Automedon should sit in a laboratory , and superintend the . " chemical processes " which have " emasculated the soul , " remains still unexplained . What can be meant by the " market where the robbed senses of humanity bad so long been traflicked in " ? What are the robbed senses of humanity , and of what are they robbed ?

    Without insisting upon " supremest elegance of diction , " from a writer who speaks of having completed a long and laborious literary undertaking , we feel that such slipshod style ought not to pass unnoticed . Having noticed it , we may now say that in spite of its faults the volume in very amusing , as the narrative of some extraordinary adventures . One feels all the interest of romance in his b . ¦ filed persistence ; lie resolves to enter Hungary , let Austria say what she will . And lie enters . To give you a taste of the adventurous quality of these pages , we extract a passage from the account of his arrest . I ( , is only necessary to preface it by saying that In ; had entered Hungary without a passport , and after passing several outposts

    " in turning fmddonly a corner of the road , I came quite unexpectedly ti ]> o ] i an Austrian post , and before I bad time to <¦ fleet a retreat , 1 was greeted by a sentinel on the ; look ont with the martling ' : hallen »< :, 4 IIV . v . v machen Sic ' ? ' Tin : guard turned out . in a twinkling . Kvery o / Iicer chanced to be absent , from the post , or my late might have been reserved as heretofore , but the Holdiers in their ignorance were naturally disposed to view tin ; incident under itn more serious complexion , the more that , they were unable to decipher a syllable of my passport ; and after a long consultation as to what was best to be done ui der the " : ircuinstauce . M , it wan finally resolved that I t-houhl be ioi xvaided to Ilic next |)» Hl . in char » (> 11 afforded of my having l > asstKl \ Jl ^ ujd 2 * 5 w 3 *)| rit ~< Uid 1 'inkafeld unmolested , ^ Hiavm

    sending nve to his superior at the next post ; and in this manner I was ultimately transferred to Friedberg . The civil commissioner happened to be on session . I entered the bureau of the police with a cigar in my mouth , but removed it immediately upon coming in presence of the magistrate . He eyed me , however , in a manner so vindictive , and assumed a scowl so savage and insolent , that , on perceiving he intended to continue smoking himself , I instinctively resumed it , determined rather to commit a breach , of

    decorum than manifest the slightest symptom of trepidation . He ordered me to extinguish it . Ireplied , that I should be happy to comply , the instant he set me a better precedent . For a moment he hesitated , and then removed his pipe ; but while in the act of following his example , my cigar was dashed from between my teeth by one of the bailiffs in attendance . A momentary scuffle ensued between myself and my assailant , but I was in an instant surrounded , while the latter retreated in the rear .

    I now underwent a most rigorous search , and my scanty baggage was dragged fro . ni its receptacle and overhauled . At the same moment , my braces and cravat were duly probed , and my unfortunate brandyflask was returned to me smashed in the inside . The searchers passed their hands several times up and down my legs . Fortunately , I had previously turried up the part of the gaiters overlapping the shoes , and thus removed the greatest source of peril . But too cognizant of their dangerous contents , I could distinctly hear the crackling of the silver-paper on which the letters were written , yet , by a miraculous interposition , their ears were as much at fault as their sight and sense of touch , and I , for the first time , escaped the terrible ordeal in triumph .

    " At this stage of the proceedings , the colonel of the regiment stationed at Friedberg entered the court , and seated himself by the side of the local magistrate . He seemed disposed to adopt a summary course of proceeding , and talked of shooting me without any ceremony . I must do the commissioner the justice to say , that he on every occasion interposed to check the violence of his coadjutor . Both , however , concurred in the opinion , that I was neither more nor less than a Hungarian spy , and appealed from the passport , which declared me to be an English advocate , to what they were pleased to call niy military aspect and bearing , and even to the dress I then wore .

    " At length , a suggestion of the commissioner ' s , that I should be pent off" under escort to Gratz , in order that the pleasure of the Impeiial Government might be taken as to my fate , prevailed ; and I was removed to the den in which I was destined to pass ihe night , and remain until one o ' clock the next day . The ]) ace was about six feet square , and dismal enonjji t << make a do ; , ' howl . The money I carried < n my person had been seized ; no food was provided , ; ui <] a dirty earthenware pot of water was placed at such a cistauce from without the bars of the cage that it could not be reached .

    " 1 passed ; is good a night as the litter of dirty straw provided for n : e would permit ; and at one o ' clock was summoned again to appear before the commissioner . I was once more searched . No inquiry was made as to whether 1 had tasted food for the last twenty-four hours , and , ) however faint and weary , I was myself too much absorbed , at the possible discovery of the gaiters , to ask for any . Intense as was the heat at mid-day , I was brought out to inarch at once to Ilartherg , between a file of soldiers with fixed bsyonetH .

    " And well did the soldiers fulfil their brutal mission . Not a drop of wine or water was I permitted to taste during the first stage of eight miles , and it was not until we had readied the next stage ( the escort , it may be mentioned , was relieved every eight miles ) that I was permitted a moment's refreshment . In vain I adduced the insufficiency of the food bo dearly paid for ; I was forbidden any further rest , and when in a state of exhaustion I attempted to snatch a brief respite on a bank by the road-Hide , 1 was struck liy the escort with the butt-end of tlitir inuski-tH , and experienced every kind of evasion at the next post , when I endeavoured to obtain the name of the principal offender .

    " The third party , composed like the preceding of Havage (' roats , fitting ngentM of Mich a Government , behaved , if possible , more brutually still , and actually proceeded m > far as to prick me with their bayonets , for the pnrpo . se of expediting my movements , when I suddenly started up , and pointing to my heart , intimated I bat . they might run me through , but that I neither could nor would then move . Seeing that I was determined they desitited from their persecution , and , Kitting down by my side , lit , their pipes . It needed the nooth in ^ influence of the weed lo tame their baffled pum-ion . s , mid I watched with some interest its hIow but . sure effects on their Hwarthy fiend-like conn t . enunce . s .

    " A . subsequent brutal proceeding of theno men no exasperated me , that for an instant 1 canvassed in my mind tin ; chances I nhould incur went 1 to seize ; the bayonet of the man before me , and transfix him in my roar . I wa » , saved , however , from a very dangerous , but 1 feel not mi altogether impracticable attempt by the approach of two oiliceiH , to whom I

    repeated in broken German \ UnxxHaTt ^ T *^ had experienced . They addressed XeWh ?* * Sclave dialect so that I could not commend tT observations ; but they spoke in an admonitorv t * for the remainder of the march was perform T ?> peace , though in the most intense agony Z f m by the swelling of the instep and th ? i ^ El 11 ** a sore . This becoming aggravated by ffiSSw °£ the leather and the intense heat , resolved iSf L a frightful ulcer by the time I reached HartW S rendered me for a long time unable to put oriTsW « At Haitberg I was left for Borne Ws ft barrack-yard , among the soldiers , without reL E ment , until a senior officer , less devoid of humanit than the others happening to be passing , and "S that I was half insensible , ordered my rernoval t * a bed . l 0

    " Soon after the commissioner arrived . I must knowledge that while he performed his duty to th letter , he displayed considerable feeling under thl circumstances . Our conversation was in . Latin fa he could not speak French ; but as neither of u « could express ourselves sufficientl y fluently in » lingua mortua at such a nioment of excitement We found it necessary to betake ourselves to the rectot of the place , who spoke French . To him I declared that I never had the slightest intention of joining the Hungarian army m a military capacity , but that I had mei-ely wished to be in as close proximity as possible to the scene of the war , in order the better to carryon the correspondence with which I was entrusted ! My statement appeared in some degree satisfactory ^ and the commissioner resolved that I should be per ' mitted to take up my quarters at an hotel for thp

    night ; but he intimated that he should deem it his duty to keep a light burning in the room , and to place a sentinel by my bed side . As a preliminary , I was taken to the bureau to be once more searched . Nothing was discovered : but still the danger was not a whit the less imminent . " After supper I was shown into my apartment , and now I foresaw that the real crisis of peril was at hand . I had hitherto been couched on straw , and had therefore remained in my clothes ; now , however , it became necessary to disrobe . Fortunately , the commissioner was not present while I was getting into bed , and that little accident , together with the circumstance of the sentinel's beinsr aware of mv

    having been previously several times searched , it was which offered me a ray of hope at this forlorn moment . I rt solved , therefore , to seize every opportunity that an imperturbable coolness could alone furnish me Avith for carrjing out niy designs . Taking off the dreaded gaiters with the same sauij froid with which I had taken off my coat , I contrived by a little sleight of hand , in getting into bed , to whip them under it . Five minutes afterwards the commissioners entered the room , and inquiied ol the

    guard whether they had perceived anything of a suspicious tendency , and whether I had attempted concealment in- any shape . They replied that I had divested myself of everything in front of them without hesitation , and that there ' was nothing to warrant

    a remark . "So the commissioner retired , first giving orders , at my request , that the lights should be extinguished and the sentinels should remain outside . Neither ot these instructions , were for some reason or other , obeyed ; and if I contrived to dozefora fewmiuutes . the gleam of the pale moon beams piercing through the windows , and lighting up the soldiers' bayonets , effectually dissipated sleep . The soldiers , too , dozca once or twice for a few moments during the mgnt , till , disturbed from some cause or other , ihey wouiu suddenly start up , as if under tho impression that i was making iny escape . Then for an hour or two they would direct their glistening orbs upon the spot where I lay as they thought asleep , watching my

    very breath . , "During one of the occasions on which I loun them napping in this manner , I contrived to < raw j the gaiters from their concealment under the » and to place them on the chair alongside of my <> i garments . As eoon as it was lig ht 1 rose , and pui every article of apparel in the same open manner I had divested myself of it on tho night previoys . ^ soon as the commissioner arrived , ho P , ' ' . questions as before to tho Hcntinelf , and tlieyfc , ' similar answer . I now began to breathe more ^ After breakfast , tho commiHsioner conducted n - ^ ^ landau in waiting at the door , and gaveioi- < Ujn ld two Italian corporals , my conductors , that be driven to ( Jriitz . "

    1092 C8k Fttatttt. [Satbanxr

    1092 C 8 K fttatttt . [ SAtbanxr

    C.Ik10vuk On Tlllfl Sandwich Ihi.Am>^- ^...

    C . IK 10 VUK ON Tlllfl SANDWICH IHI . AM >^ - ^ Life in Ihv SanAwiah Islands ; or . the [ iM't rf « Kcvui -i . i . d ll . tniy U >«< -v « ' „ ¦ , „ , The Island World of Ihe Pacific ; being ' ^ . ' ^ 'Tl ^ nnd olhcr and Hesults of Travel through thfiSandwich I >« " (; o || i ,, » . " 1 ' art . H of Poljnniit . Hy t »»> l € ev « r « ii . l Henry U »< v <> . ^ Tiikhk two works present c Y '" %° iw ich Cheever ' H ample experience of the ««" Inland . ; with it he might have writlon a . . ^ roll out book , bad he known the way . As ^^ they can only be acceptable a » J ^^ -ethor , and ends of observation are thrown i » f ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 15, 1851, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15111851/page/16/