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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd August 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19, Ho, J8g«, AJJGmv 22, 185*,], TKE: :L£EAB...

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      An Old Blaokwood Contributor. Essays Con...

      fnrt-Mlia to selievea numotonoua paragraph ; . Eor story-telling : be bad no fi ^^& S v , ^ Mle as . fc * hi *^ necdetes , they wena . . the oldest . * nd S ^ SS ! He . related—aadsolteianly- zidieuloos does . * fc appear uvthick ^ SSo ^ a fethev onc e christened bis ^ ii dren Mathew , Mark ^ 1 ^ , John awdAets ; , bow an old woman toot comfort from « the Messed words Mes ^ SSiaia ^ ndEamphylia ; ' how ILord Chesterfield swd . " Ty * auley and I havSaeen dead ibese two-years , but we don't choose f . ^ ff ^ ° ^\ i . kowGawjfck grimaced at the portraovpainter ; aad as so faiifcful to bis habit of exhurmsuj lead b » t unfiMrgottenfkn , that we expect , in each of his essays , to fiaTatl ^ sfe -a scor e of jokes older than the hundredth edition of MiHerr with the

      But he is « rifii » al a * times * that is to say , when r pertness common to small critics ,, he wxites a caBteadiction of every other critic among bis contemporaries . This , it will be observed , is an infallible accompaniment of a c < sk £ mi box * of niodfliied imbecility admired by the superficial and flippant Xou . have only , to imitate MJaisaulay , who talked of ' idiots and biographers * ' talk of' noodles and critics , ' and advanced ( though youthful ) minds- will turn upon you the eye of veneration . Such was Mr . Eagles ' practice . In deference to Christopher North , he graciously and ma ^ nilotmently apostrophised , the spirit of Maga , and r also in reference to North , he undertook , to . eleas ? away sundry critical and historical opinions of the nineteenth century . Aav one who set down Cardinal Wolsey as a proud

      and pampered Ciuirchman , ostentatious , grasping ; ,, selfish , and lusting for poweivhe disposedof as ' a . fellow that has not the smallest conception of the Jumbitioa of such a , mind as the cardinal ' s . ' He thought it bold and also philosophical to sneer at representative institutions ; he attacked Trial by Jury and considered it settled when he had affirmed that there is invariably one pig-headed brute , in the jury-box aad ,: perhaps , more than , one great * o < niei to side with the criminal ; . he was always giving forth Greek and Latin utteraneesy . and brought a-mighty swarm from the anthologies to b uzz about the ears of Mjv Own jone * and the artists of Sydenham , The Essay on ihe Crystal Palace , indeed , as one of Mr . Eagles ' s worst specimens of levity And conceit , is absurdly complimented by being reproduced in a permanent

      form . The writer sought to raise a , laugh against the inaster-colounst by representing him perambulating the world with a pot of polychrome in his handj bedaubing every man ' s door-post , wearing a suit of motley , and yearning to be ^ at . Westminster Abbey with his bright blue and unmitigated vermilion ; moreover , he flung a stone at the Archbishop of Canterbury for allowing the Church of England ' to be dragged in triumph behind the car of a- commercial speculation . ' In fact , although scholarly and entertaining -as a magazine contributor , Mr . Eagles was too superficial and too commonplace to obtain or to deserve more than alight and ephemeral repute strictly as a . ' Sketcher' whose sketches may be reread by Ms surviving admirers , but eertainly are without a , claim , to lasting literary distinction .

      Ho, J8g«, Ajjgmv 22, 185*,], Tke: :L£Eab...

      Ho , J 8 g « , AJJGmv 22 , 185 * , ] , TKE : : L £ EABER . g 811

      Arabian Travel. Jsinai , The Hedjaz, And...

      ARABIAN TRAVEL . jSinai , the Hedjaz , and Soudan : Wanderings around the Birthplace of the Prophet and across the Ethiopian Desert , from SawaMn to Chartum . By James Hamilton , Author of « Wanderings in Nortjx Africa . ' London : Kichard Bentley . Mb . Hamilton is an enterprising traveller and an indefatigable writer . - Scarcely a year has elapsed since be published an account of his journey to the "learning ruins of the Cyrenaioa , and from thence across the burning sands o £ the Lybian Desert , to the oases of Anjola , Jalo , and Slwab . We have now to notice a continuation of his wanderings . The present volume contains his experiences under the sacred shadows of Mount Sinai and its rocky solitudes , a rapid excursion into the Hedjaz . and the environs of Mecca , and bis explorations in the island of Meroe and along the banks of the Nile . It would be difficult for the most original traveller to strike much new out of a trip to the Mountain of the Law , but in his tour from Djidda to Tayf , and his journey back again to Dudda by a different routeMr . Hamilton went over comparatively

      un-, broken ground . There is always something fascinating in the manners and customs of the Free sons of the Desert in the simplicity of their manners and the heartiness of their hospitality . Rude they are as children of nature , hut then there is something strikingly dignified in the flowing robe of the Arab and his . folded turban .. Take , for example , a g entleman of Tayf , what can he more elegant and picturesque than his dress ?—a caftan of Indian silk , « urmoamted by a pale-blue merino jubba with green silk lining ; the kufiek bound ) with a striped cashmere turban , and the gold-handled jewelled poniard ¦ equally a part of his wardrobe . And then , the curiously built cities , with their mosqxtes and minarets and obelisks , and the glaring rocks , and the fiery skies , and the parched plains , and tho scanty water , and the delightful valteys-,, and the palm and date trees , and the tamarinds and tamarisks , Are featurrea which- are to bo depended on in every book of Oriental wanderings as being highly attractive—even when we are requested to anathematize a sheikh or governor who revolts us by some act of tyranny inconceivable to western 1 imaginations .

      , . Thwiwost original portion of Mr . Hamilton ' s volume , howoyer , is that which contains an account of bis adventures from Sawakin to Cbartum in pursuit of the long-sought source of the Nile . We are not aware that he made the attainmen t of this the specific object of his journey , yet he still seems at one time to have entertninett the hope of realizing this long-cherished day-dream of the world . Independent of the immediate excitement which leads on successive travellers in ; pursuit of this mirage-source , there aro other Attractions that repay the toil and the danger of traversing these illcultivated solitary countries , thinly peopled by a barbarous though gentle « we . The waters that irrigate Nubia and Egypt descend from the unknown regions ; and it is also from , the same remote districts that the slaves that find ready sale in tho markets of Cairo and Alexandria are brought ; « o likewise is the ivory , the senna , the wax , the indigo , the akins , which iorin ec * great a source of profit to the caravan masters who penetrate northwards from the burnitiiF sands of those mvsterious reeions . Soudan and WadaX

      hare long foeen ; celebrated "for their productiveness ini each of these articles of commerce before European ? tra-velfors had eet foo * within many degrees of their locality . Tho customs and manners of the people of these tropical regions are very similar , nnetcww government differs worn another only aa on ©

      sheikh is more or less violent than another . "Where clothing is . unneeded , the principal attention is bestowed upon the adornment of the person and the arrangement of the coiffure . In most barbarous countries great artifice is displayed in this respect ; but the ladies of Rifa ' a surpass aay we have heard or read of in bringing this art to perfection . ' - ' Our tents were pitched upon the banks of the river , " says Mr . Hamilton , " at the-place where the servant * went down to fill their jars for the supply of the sheikh ' s establishment . This part of the domestic arrangement is- tha eaxe of the female slaves . I had tken am opportunity of adiaftiring the pitch to which

      the passion of the sex for ornament maybe carried ; it put all the agonies of a coronation toilette to shame . Two of the sheikh ' s slaves , whose poly dress was a piece of cotton round the middle , bad their dark bodies entirely covered with a most elaborate pattern in relief , produced by slashes iato which some extraneous matter had been rubbed to form a raised cicatriee . Pride suffers no pain , so that I suppose the operation was as agreeable as it certainly must have been protracted . The effect was pleasing ; something like embossed black leather . " Mr . Hamilton ' s volume is light and sketchy , and will atKxrd a pleasant hour or two ' s reading without fatiguing the reader by pedantic details or political digressions .

      Life In Kansas. Kansas? Its Interior And...

      LIFE IN KANSAS . Kansas ? its Interior and Ext erior Life . By Sara T . L . Robinson . Sampson Low and Co . This octavo volume is decidedly possessed of very considerable nierrt . It describes with graphic simplicity both the discomforts and the pleasurable excitements of life in a new settlement . It also narrates , though with undisguised partiality , the most startling incidents that have hitherto attended the struggle between the pro-slavery and free-state factions . Mrs . Robinson herself is evidently a genuine , unaffected , warm-hearted woman . The o-enerous impulses of her nature have moved her to throw herself headlong into the contest in behalf of the negro . Feeling warmly , she sometimes expresses those feelings with the tone of a thorough partizan . But her bitterness is excusable , not only as an accident of her sex i but because of

      the terrors and grievous wrongs , she personally endured . Her husband illegally arrested , herself frequently insulted , and her house pillaged and destroyed when it was beginning to look comfortable and ^ homely . A much slighter cause would justify an occasional outburst of indignation , and very few men even , under similar provocation , would have the magnanimity to do strict justice to their enemies . Some allowance , therefore , must be made for the circumstances in which the authoress was placed at the very commencement of her married life . Transplanted from a quiet New England village to a rude settlement in the midst of vast prairies , compelled to labour with her own hands , and in constant expectation of attack from bands of lawless ruffians , the loving , true-hearted young wife bravely shared her husband ' s lot , and encountered adverse fortune with patience , and generally with good humour . Though sometimes speaking of herself as " a little

      thing , " it is clear that , like Diomede , her Kttle body contained a mighty mind . Her style , natural and untutored , indicates real character , but a character cast in a gentle mould . Had it been her lot to settle quietly down in her native village , she would doubtless have proved that incarnation of negative qualities which constitutes the conventional young lady in respectable and civilized society . She would have bad her floweu-gat-den , her aquarium , her vivarium , her aviary , and all such recreations , her piano , her drawing board , her milliner , and her morning calls . But it fell , out otherwise , ' she was removed to a very different scene , and in the midst of thrillino * events her character was struck out and developed . The conthe lish is book of

      sequence that alone concerns Eng public a genuine interest , and which if more dispassionate would possibly lose something of i t s womanly charms . The style , however , would undoubtedly be improved by the excision of certain Xankeeisms , painfully suggestive of a nasal twang . The frequent and peculiar use of the words " realized , " " notified , " " concluded , " " drowsing " - —for dozing—is certainly not English , pure and undefiled , any more than the phrase , " feeling like laughing , yet feeling sober in view of remaining all night with tho prairie wolves . " But these aro minor blemishes , and even impart a certain raciness , as some wines are valued for being flavoured with , a sinack of the goatskin . The natural aspect of the Kansas territory is described as something exceedingly beautiful : —

      Tho prairies , though broad and oxpansive , stretching away miles in many places , seem never lonely or wearisome , being gently undulating , or more abruptly rolling ; and at tho ascent of each new roll of land , the traveller finds himself in the midst of new lovelinessi There are also l » igh bluift , usually at some Httlo diatanco from tho rivers , runnkig through the entire length of the country , while ravines ruu from them to the rivers .. Theae ore at some points quite deep and difficult to cross , and , to a traveller unacquainted with the country , sojuowlwit vexatious , especially whore tho prairie grass is ae high as a person ' s head wnilp seated in a carriage . . . Those ravines axa in many instances pictures of beauty , with tall ,, graceful trees , cotton wood , black walnut , hickory , oak , elm , aud linwood Htanding near , while springs of pure , cold wuter gush from tho rock . . . Iu the eastern part of tho territory moat ofi in laces t de

      tho timber is upon tho rivers and creeks , though tliero ure some p mos - lightful spots 5 high hills , crowned with a heavy growth of treos , nnd doop vnlos whore rippling waters gush amid a dense suado of flowering shrubbery . Higher than the blufFa are natural mounds , which also Uivvo about them tho look of art . They rise to such a height na to bo scon at a great distance , and add jioculiar beauty to tho wholo aspect of tho country . From tho . summit of thosu the proBpoot is almost unlimited in extent and unrivalled iu beauty . Tho prairie for miles , with ita gently undulating rolls , lies before the eyo . Wivers , gliatoning in tho sunlight , flowon between banks crowned with tall trees ; beyond theao , other UigU poiuto arise . Txoo 3 ft » e aoatterod hero and there like old orchards , and cattle iu largo num |> ora « ro grating upoa tho hillside and in the valleys , giving to « 11 tho look of cultlv < U » ° n and Home life . It I * indeed , dlflkmlt to mate * that for thousands of yea * , ^^^ ff Uufl boon a waste uncultivated and solitary , and that months only havo elapsed slnco tho whitn settler , liaa sought hero a Uomp . . The rich black so , il supports a , luxuriant vegetation . Tho pawpaw jana the oitord-apple , the plim , tho chorry , and tho mulberry , gopaobernoa , bl ^ kbiries ,. striwbomoB , and nupbonrioi , «» «« ™&& e * ow . Apples ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 22, 1857, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22081857/page/19/