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Leader (1850-1860), 25th July 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19, SUMMER TRAVEL. Unprotected Females in No...

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      Indigenous Kaces Of The Earth. Indigenou...

      become sufficiently acquainted with the grammatical characteristics of the remainder . We do not even , possess a complete catalogue of the names of all tongues ! Yet , " What studious man is there , " inquires Le Clerc , " whose imagination lias not been caught straying from conjecture to conjecture , from century to century , iu search of the debris of a forgotten tongue ; of those relics of words that are but fragments of the history of nations . ?" . EichhofF eloquently continues the idea : " The sciences of Philology and History ever march in concert , and the one lends its support to the other ; because the life of nations manifests itself in their language , the faithful representative of their vicissitudes . Where national chronology stops short , where the thread of tradition is broken , the antique genealogy of words that have survived the rei ^ n of empires comes in to shed light upon the very cradle of humanity and to consecrate the memory of generations long since engulphed in the quicksands of time . " Thus much is certainly within the competency of l Philology ; ' aud we may concede to it also the faculty , where the Historic ' elements for comparison exist—as in the range of Indogermanic , Semitic , and some few other veil-studied groups of tonguesof ascertaining relationships of intercourse between widely-separate families of man ; but not always , as it is fashionable now to claim , and which I will presently show to be absurd , of a community of origin between two given races physiologically and geographically distinct . Again , no tongue is permanent . More than one hundred and fifty years ago , Richard Bentley , perhaps the greatest critic of his nge , exemplified this axiom while unmasking the Greek forgeries of Alexandrian sophists : '" Every living language , like the perspiring bodies of living creatures , is in perpetual motion and alteration ; some words go off , and become obsolete ; others are taken in , and by degrees grow into common use ; or the same word ia inverted in a new sense of notion , -which in tract of time makes as observable a change in the air and features of a language as age makes in the lines and mien of the face . All are sensible of this in £ heir own native tongues , where continual use makes a man a critic . " But at the same time that this is the law deduced from the historical evidences of -written languages , its action is enormously accelerated among petty barbarous tribes , such as a few of Asiatic , many African , several American , and still more frequently among the Malayan , and Oceanico-Australian races . Here , mere linguistic landmarks are as often completely effaced as re-established ; while the typical characteristics of the race endure , and therefore can alone serve as bases for ethnic classification . The work is remarkable for the variety and extent of the learning that i enriches it .

      N<X 383, Juxt 25, 1857.1 The Xll Ad3bb. ...

      N < x 383 , Juxt 25 , 1857 . 1 THE Xll AD 3 BB . 715

      Summer Travel. Unprotected Females In No...

      SUMMER TRAVEL . Unprotected Females in Norway ; or , The Pleasaniest Way of Travelling there , with Scandinavian Sketches from Nature . ( Iioutledge . )—A lady has travelled in Scandinavia and written a book which makes the North appear as bright and fascinating as the South . The simple reason is that she possesses the art of seeing , and the judgment to describe only what she saw . Seldom does a tourist so completely avoid the sin of bookmaking-. The whole of this volume is original—a diary of July wanderings , with now and then . sparkles of womanly wit and pleasant personal sketches . A few coloured illustrations of Norwegian manners and costumes are introduced in harmony with the writer's own tintings , which are fanciful without being false and gay , without being meretricious . Two ladies performed the journey recorded , and after this triumph of unprotected independence , they contumaciously declare tliat ' the only use of a gentleman in travelling is to look After the luggage . ' Having no luggage , they needed the companionship of no gentlemen , and seem never to have missed it- They found the Norway people simple and polite , and began their observations successfully in Christiania , where they saw barristers ia suits of green , and gold , and judges ia gold and green , and drank unadulterated Madeira . Through the Golden Valley they drove to the Dovre-Fjeld , an expanse of dull lakes and pools , grassy plateaus , and hillocks ; and hero the youthful English dame , being . agreeable to a Norwegian station-mistress , was seized upon by her , and attired in the costume of the maidens of Dovre-Fjeld . The station-mistress in question is , we are informed , the pride of the road from Christiania to Trondbjeni . Her waflle-hackers nre always light and fresh ; her cream is rich ; her floors are clean ; twenty horses are hi her stable and forty cows on her pastures , and she , a descendant of the Norway kings , keops a good stock of salted mutton . But hither came the savages of travel , certain grand English folks , salmon fishers , and others , who brought their vulgarity , . selfishness ^ and pomposity to ruin the pastoral peace of Madame Jerkin ' s parlour . Then in little towns and at successive stations the 'Engliske damen' lived , collecting pleasiug notes on fashions and ideas , tracing the influence of legendary lore , and receiving impressions of the most gladsomo and Drimitive lifo UlUOncr vallevs ftnrl ninnnf . nins Tim 1-innlr iihrmmla iii l-iw . -

      : . comfortable ? " To . make the spoiling complete , she got some of the coffee the last pedlar had changed with her for the finest lamb ' s wool of the flock , roasted , ground and sugared it ; when she had seen us comfortably encased in the bed ( a yard wide with the stock of wood underneath like Hindoo widows ) , she gave us each a cup ' then retired with her two maidens into the same dimensions on the opposite side the undressing of the three being of the quickest kind , merely slipping off an over-petticoat , and laying it on them as a counterpane . ,. This cheerful story of summer travel in the North is sure to be popular . A July Holiday in Saxony , Bohemia , and Silesia . By Walter White . ( Chapman and Hall . )—Mr . White is another tourist of a light and cordial disposition ; not so fresh in manner as the lady traveller in Norway , yet easy , vivacious , and not given to common-place historical digressions . Last July , being at Frankfort , he asked for a map of Bohemia , and the bookseller said , " No one ever goes to Bohemia . " Few intelligent tourists have been there , it is true , so that Mr . White did well to wander in that direction . Froiii Frankfort he journeyed through rye-fields and vine-slopes to Wurzburg , where the burghers talked of William Palmer , and to Altenburg , where the cuirassed Wend girls perpetuate the Sclavonic practices of their ancestors . " One of their iinniemorial customs is to talk to their bees , and tell them of all household incidents , and especially of a death in the family . " The Bohemian peasant beyond the mountains , used , when , a child was born , to stretch it out at the end of a pole towards the country of the Wends , that the infant might be clever and lucky . Hence to Prague , where Mr . . White made the best of a three days' visit—inspecting its glow of ruby , gold , and azure Bohemian glass , its picturesque crowds , its semi-oriental aspects , its ancient gables and bright red roof : ? , and the decorations of its pink-loving damsels . . "We prefer , nevertheless , to follow him into the atelier of a glass-engraver iii Ulrichsthal : — On being told that I had come to see glass engraving , the young man plied bia wheel briskly , and , taking up a ruby tazza , in a few minutes there stood a deer with branching antlers on . a rough hillock in the centre ^—a pure white intaglio set in the red . I had never before seen the process , and was surprised by its simplicity . All those landscapes , hunting-scenes , pastoral-groups , and whatever else which appear as

      exquisite carvings in the glass , are produced by a few tiny copper wheels , or disks . The engraver sits at a small lathe against the window , with a little rack before him , containing about a score of the copper disks , varying in size from the diameter of a , halfpenny down to its thickness , all mounted on spindles and sharpened on the edge . I He paints a rough outline of the design on the glass , and selecting the disk that suits best , he touches the edge with a drop of oil , inserts it in the mandril , sets it spinning , and , holding the glass against it from , below , the little wheel eats its way in with astonishing rapidity . The glass held lightly in the hands , is shifted about continually till all the greater parts of the figure are worked out ; then , for the lesser parts , a smaller disk is used , and at last the finest touches , such as blades of grass , the tips of antlers , eyebrows , and so forth , are put in with the smallest . Every minute he holds the glass up between his eye and the light , watching the development of the design ; now making a broad excavation , now changing the disk every ten seconds , and giving touches so slight arid rapid that the unpractised eye can scarcely follow them ; and ia this -way he produces effects of foreshortening , of roundness , and light and shade , which , to an eye-witness , appear little less than wonderful . Mr . White keeps up his credit as a s pirited tourist , with a keen eye and a clever pen .

      tures : — The first walk In Bergen is a treat ; to see something ; so singular yet so pretty left in the world , each house different in size , and all complete little pigeon-holes , ouo After another trying which shall bo the gayest , yet harmonizing together in variety ; while aoane , anxious for originality , frown in dork greon or sober brown , and by their demuronoss set off the levity of rows of smiling neighbours . Fancy a hundred such on either side , their casements painted cleanest white , little balustrades ascending to tlio aocond stories , tho bright garments hanging outside and fluttering for sh . Io , an old arch aa distanco , rolling sailors , Greek-clothed giila for figures , and that ia tho principal street of liergen . This is superior to seven-tenths of the writing wo find in narratives of travel . It is at once artistic and simple . We will make room for one wore passage descriptive of an evening in a mountain chulet : — The door was so low wo had to bend to enter , skipping over a puddle at tho same - ^ „ .. „ « juu » u omiuj |» ii tinciir

      ...., * .. u , witu a tremendous ltropiaco ana uolo in tho root for olumnoy ; two bods and a tablo on a mud floor ; inside , a large cupboard with a window held all tho churns , bowls of cream , and cheeses , except a few that wore perfuming tho atmosphere of tho room , anil eon-oral poasnnts who wore amoving tboir pipes loft very littlo space for now . comers . However , ono hurried out directly , without boing aakod , to cutoh aomo fish , anU wo wore inatallod inside tho ureplnuo like rolla put to warm . . . . Wq were beginning to wonder whore wo woro to bo disposed of for the night ; tho natural proprietors of tho domain had . now all finished thoir porridgo auppor , and who anew but that simplicity had ooma to sucii a pitch thnt tho aamo roof was to aholtor everybody ? Conveying tho suspicion to Hilda , in a moment aho cloarod all tho pea-Santa out , and put them into a neighbouring shed , whero the hay was kept , first ( Winging twme in . for our couch ; and as wo thought ifc would be a very prickly matU ; oea > , » lm wont to a drawer , taking out a proaious treasure , a email tublo-oloth , enroad that above , thon , throwing a cow ' s hide over all , said , •» What oould bo > mora

      India And The English. Les Anglais Etvtn...

      INDIA AND THE ENGLISH . Les Anglais etVTnde . A Series of Papers contained in the half-monthly numbers of the Jtevue ties JJeux Mondes , from November , 1856 , to March , 1857 , inclusive . By M . Fridolin . " TriE English public , notwithstanding its conceit or patriotism , is more accessible to French than to Indian criticism . An English publicist will take his views upon an Indian question with the utmost docility from the Revno des Deux Mondes , who would be indignant at being supposed to derive bis inspiration from , the Friend of India . Foreigners come before the tribunal of English opinion as independent , impartial witnesses ; or , at any rate , the foreign bias is supposed to be measurable , and susceptible of easy rectification . "'' If the . foregoing dictum be of universal application , the more pity for India . For what French writer has hitherto succeeded in conveying a just idea of Anglo-Indian society , or in expressing reliable opinions upon any important public question connected with our Eastern empire ? Certainly , neither Jacquemon t ( albeit a clever fellow ) , nor dnntif-. dfi WniTGn f tlinii . trh h « sfirvwd some veura in thn IVIudrns nrmvl rwvi *

      Janciquy , nor Theodore Jb * avie ( who resided some time in the Deccan ) , nor Ferdinand do Lavoye , a romancing copyist of Jacquemont . But M . Fridolin is not to be confounded with those who have chanced to precede him in the same field of labour . He writes as one who has thoroughly studied his subject ; and his own personal experiences are rendered the more valuable lrom the circumstance that this author has not disdained to fortify them by consulting the best modern English authorities upon Indian affairs . Hence , in M . Fridolin , the purely foreign elonient is greatly subdued , though he is still , perhups , all the more on that account an ' impartial witness . ' To him , the constitution of the liourd of Control and of the Court of Directors , as well as the mode of obtaining appointments to Intlui , are matters quite familiar . The now /' angled system of public competition is regarded by M . Fridolin as nothing more than a concession to the levelling and anti-horeditary spirit of the day . He fears that this ostensible piece of

      liberalism will have no good result , and that ( especially us regards the civil service ") the infringeinorit of traditional usage will luivo an immudiatv effect in abolishing the instinctive loyalty towards their employers which formerly characterized tlio members of that service . He also inclines to doubt whether the present facility of running to and fro between Knglnnd and India is advantageous to the services , because such facility operates to prevent the hittor country ft-qni being regarded , as of yoro , in the light of a second fatherland . It is , in this respect , perhaps , fortunate that thu almost necessary oxponscs of living prevent early retirements , positive extravagance has greatly diminished of Into years , but the membera of either sorvico marry nt an early nge . Then cornea a fnmily to educate , with the wife resident ia Europe , and so forth—which cannot be oU'tiCtod at a trilling cost . Calcutta Jitmiviu . No . 04 . Dogouilljor ,, 18150 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 25, 1857, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25071857/page/19/