On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    houring parts . These , a few other drugs of little note , and some iron from the Hindoo Koosh and the Solimanee range , formed the main staple of Afghan commerce . Between the large towns there was a constant interchan ge of commodities ; and long cafilas , or caravans , were ever in motion , from east to west and from north to south , toiling across the sandy plains , or struggling through the . precipitous defiles , exposed to the attacks of predatory tribes , who levied their contributions often not without strife and bloodshed . " After this Introductory Book , Mr . Kaye narrates at considerable length , and with great animation ,

    the complete history of that unfortunate , and not very creditable , episode in our Indian annals—the war from 1838 to 1841 . He does so with a copiousness of detail , a vigour of style , and a trustworthiness of manner which wins the reader ' s confidence . And we think it right to add that the persons best informed on this subject give him high praise for accuracy and impartiality , making some deductions for the bias of friendship in his delineations of some minor officers . We state this because we have no authority ourselves in such matters : our judgment must be restricted to the literary qualities of the book .

    Mr . Kaye has composed his work with the aid of an immense mass of unpublished materials . He has had letters and documents placed at his disposal ; and the personal confidence of some of the chief actors has greatly aided him . To these he joins the advantage of a long residence in India . So much for matter . For its workmanship he has an open candid mindj a clear bright style ; and a mastery over the difficult art of compilation : the three great qualities of an historian .

    But having thus given him his meed of praise , we must not forget to warn him against an occasional laxity of style . In the very first page of the book we were startled at the sight of the odious word " party "—Mr . Kaye waiting till " some more competent party " should undertake the history Nothing so bad as that offends us in the narrative ; but there is every now and then a sort of careless acquiescence in commonplace which , with a general tendency to diffuseness , must be accounted as deductions from the merit of these volumes . We have marked so many passages for extract that we are puzzled where to make the selection . Here is a page which makes you hold your breath : — THE STORMING OF GIIUZNEE . 14 A gusty night had heralded a gusty morn , when Keane , inwardly bewailing the absence of his heavy guns , planted his light rield-pieces on some commanding heights opposite the citadel , and iilled the gardens near tlie city walls with his Sepoy musketeers . No sound issued from the fortress , nor was there any sign of life , whilst unseen under cover of the night , and unheard above the loud wnilings of the wind ,

    the storming column was gathering upon the Caubul road , and the engineers were carrying up their powder bags to the gate . The advance was under Colonel Dennic , of the Thirteenth Light Infantry ; and the main column under Brigadier bale . Captain Thomson , of the Uengal Engineers , directed the movements of the explosion party ; and with him were his two subalterns , Durand and Macleod , and Captain Peat , of the Bombay corps . Three hours after midnight everything was ready for the assault .

    " Then Keane ordered the light batteries to open upon the works of Ghuznee . It was a demonstration—harmless but not useless ; for it iixed the attention of the enemy , and called forth a responsive fire . A row of blue lights along the walla now suddenly broke through the darkness and illuminated the place . The enemy had been beguiled by the false attack , and were now looking out towards our batteries , eager to learn the nature of the operations commenced by the investing force . And whilst the Af ghans were thus engaged , anticipating an escalade niul manning their walln , the British engineers were < l «» iet . ly piling their powder bags at the : Caubul gate .

    " The work was done rapidly and well . The match was applied to the hose . The powder exploded . Above the roaring of the guns and the rushing of the Av i' »« l , the noise of the explosion wan barely audible . ' * ' »( . the effect was as mighty as it wan sudden . A uoluuiu of black mnoke aro . se ; and down with a crash J'anu ; heavy masses of masonry and shivered beams '" awful ruin and confusion . Then the bugle m » uided the .-ulvance . Dennie , at the bead of his wt - «» nnerH , pushed forward through the mnoke and ( bin

    '" ''t of the aperture ; and noon tin ; bayonets of "K'lt companies were ; crossing the swords of the ^ 'Miiny who had rushed down to the point of attack . A l ( - w moments of darkness and confusion ; and then llu foremost soldiers caug ht a gli 114 t . se of the niomj'JK nYs . y , um | ) UH | , i ,, jr gallantly on , wen ; noon ehtuhll nbed in tlui fortress . Three hearty , animating cheers— bo lOU ( i Ulia <; j < , that ; they wens heard "yoiurhout , tlus general camp—aniu > un < : e ( l to their ex-^ d comradcH below that J ) ennie and bin tttormors « a < l e ntered GHuuinee . "

    Those who philosophize as they read , glozing the text with" Thoughts beyond the reaches of their souls , '* will find abundant opportunities in this history . Read the following scene , and , taking your eyes from the elite of European advancement , think what centuries must elapse before this race can be moved along the grooves of our civilization : — " It was shortly after the retirement of Shah Soojah to the British possessions that Futteh Khan set out , at the head of an army , to the western boundary of Afghanistan . Persia had long been encroaching upon the limits of the Douranee Empire , and it was now

    to stem the tide of Kujjar invasion that the Afghan Wuzeer set out for Khorassan . At this time he was the virtual ruler of the country . Weak , indolent , and debauched , Shah Mahmoud , retaining the name and the pomp of royalty , had yielded the actual government of the country into the hands of Futteh Khan and his brothers . The Princes of the blood royal quailed before the Barukzye Sirdars . Feroozood-Deen , brother of the reigning monarch , was at that time governor of Herat . Whether actuated by motives of personal resentment or ambition , or instigated by Shah Mahmoud himself , Futteh Khan determined to turn the Persian expedition to other account , and to throw Herat into the hands of the BarukzyeB . The execution of this design was entrusted

    to Dost Mahomed . He entered Herat with his Kohistanee followers as a friend ; and when the chiefs of the city were beyond its gates , in attendance upon the Wuzeer , with characteristic Afghan treachery and violence he massacred the palace guards , seized the person of the Prince , spoiled the treasury , and violated the harem . Setting the croAvn upon this last act of violence , he tore the jewelled waistba nd from the person of the royal wife of one of the royal Princes . The outraged lady is said to have sent her profaned garment to Prince Kamran , and to have drawn from him an oath , that he would avenge the injury . He was true to his vow . The blow was struck ; but it fell not on the perpetrator of the outrage : it fell upon Futteh Khan .

    " Dost Mahomed had fled for safety to Cashmere . The Wuzeer , returning from the Persian expedition , fell into the hands of Prince Kamran , who punctured his eyes with , the point of a dagger . What followed is well known . Enraged by so gross an outrage on a member of the Suddoze family , alarmed at the growing power of the Barukzyes , and further irritated by the resolute refusal of Futteh Khan to betray his brothers , who had effected their escape from Herat , Kamran and his father , Shah Mahmoud , agreed to put their noble prisoner to death . They were then on their way from Candabar to Caubul . The ex-Minister was brought into their presence , and again

    called upon to write to his brothers , ordering them to surrender themselves to the Shah . Again he refused , alleging that he was but a poor blind captive ; that his career was run ; that he h ; id 110 longer any influence ; and that be could not consent to betray his brethren . Exasperated by the resolute bearing of his prisoner , Mahmoud Shah ordered the unfortunate Minister—the king-maker to whom he owed his crown—to be put to death before him ; and there , in the presence of the feeble father and the cruel son , Futteh Khan was by the attendant courtiers literally hacked to pieces . His nose , ears , and lips were cut

    off ; his lingers severed from his hands , bis hands from bis arum , his arms from bis body . . Limb followed limb , and long was the horrid butchery continued before the life of the victim was extinct . Futteh Khan raised no cry , offered no prayer for mercy . His fortitude Avas unshaken to the last . He died as be had lived , the bravest and most resolute of men—like his noble father , a victim to the perlidy and ingratitude of princes . The murder of l ' oyndah Khan shook tlie Suddozye dynasty to its base ; . The assassination of Futteh Khan , soon made it a heap of ruins . " BOOKS ON OUIl TATJLU . The I'iclorial Ft eld-1 took of I lie / Involution ; or . Illustrations l > y I ' cn mid 1 ' nncil of t . ln : Iliitoi ) , Hiotfi ;» 1 »*» V , Scenery , HcIioh , and Traditions olllu : War lor Independence , lly lirimon J . I . OMHin ;' . In ( wo voln . Imported by > S : iiii |) Koi > Low . This is tlie ( ir . st volume of an important American work , which we shall review at length when the Hccond reaches us ; meanwhile we may inform our readers that it in an attempt to combine the history of the American War with a graphic pen-and-pencil sketch of the various localities . A history of tin ; Hitttle of Waterloo , for example , in a very different tiling from a visit , to the Field of Waterloo which should weave in history with local traditions and descriptions . In like manner thin I'icld- Hook of ( he . Revolution in more thini a history of the Revolution . It in a handsome work profusely illustrated , the completion of which we await . The f t ' ritiiius of Douglas Jcnohl . Collect ed Kdilmn . Vol . i ! . Mt : / i oj I luinictij . Uiiidlmiy and Kviiiih . We have ko recently , and at Koine length , considered the ; character of Ji i rold's wiitingH , that we need do little more than announce thin issue of the second volume of the cheap collected edition . It contains

    eight of his humorous extravaganzas which appeared years ago in Blachoood ' s Magazine : very extravagant and droll they are ; but Men of Character is hardly the name for them , as he himself seems perfectly aware , saying : —" Indeed , Men of Character are little other than Men of Outlines ; pen-and-ink flourishes ; with possibly , now and then , 6 ome better trace of human similitude , and now running into mere grotesque . " Let us add , however , that the Jerroldian style is never absent . The Liver , the Great Purifying Organ of the Body ; its Importance to Health , and the extreme Frequency of its Disorder . By Charles Searle , JM . D . H . BailliSre .

    Dr . Searle has here presented to the public a small volume in which the function of the liver in the animal economy is clearly and popularly illustrated in language free from technicalities . Considering the part played by the liver , as the chemical laboratory in which the blood must be prepared for its final change in the lungs , a larger volume might have been devoted to it , and even the unprofessional reader not found it tedious . Dr . Searle has , however , aided his text by two diagrams , —poor , indeed , as representations of the organs , but clear enough as diagrams , —the second so useful in conveying an idea of the circulation through the liver , and the relations in which the liver stands to the principal organs , that it is well worth the small price of the volume .

    Like many others who have devoted themselves to the study of some special organ , Dr . Searle seems inclined to over-estimate its importance . From a perusal of his book the general reader would conclude that the liver was almost always the source of functional derangements . Whereas the complexity and connexity of the human frame is such that the great problem of pathology has alwa } r s been correctly to localize disease . The heart acts on the liver , the brain on the heart , the stomach on the brain , the lungs on the stomach , the liver on the lungs , and so

    on—one eternal corso ricorso , one network of action and reaction , one vast interdependence of separate parts . SVe touch this point in passing as a caution to the unprofessional reader , to whom we commend the work , not by which , to treat his own diseases , but by which he may gain a clear conception of his liver . Dr . Searle shows how there may be disease of the liver without pain , without even appreciable enlargement ; and he enumerates several results of his own professional experience : with which , as laymen , we have nothing to do .

    The physiologj r of his subject Dr . Searle touches only in outlines . We seize the pretext , however , to lay before our readers a modern discovery which will interest them , viz ., that sugar is elaborated in the tissue of the liver ! Hence JNJ . C . Bernard , the French chemist , regards the liver and the lungs as performing two complementary functions : —the liver elaborating the sugar , the lungs consuming it in the act of respiration , { separating from it the carbonic acid which it expires . The . Analomhrs Vade Mecum : a S ystem of Human Anatomy . ]( y Krasmus Wilson , I ' . U . S . J'ifth Kdition . Churchill .

    It is enough to * write Jijth edition on any work of pure science to dispense with criticism altogether . A book like the present can only Hucceed by intrinsic excellence . It is not entertaining . It flatters no prejudice . It backs up no system . Only continued use , and comparison with other works , can make its merits appreciated ; and the sense of its value must be very evident before it could reach a fifth edition . We knew the book of old , and have examined this

    edition with considerable pleasure . It is a compact , closely printed book of some (!/ 5 () pages with ' 200 woodcuts , many of them beautiful , and a full index . The explanations are clear and brief ; but being addressed to the profession are of coure stiff with technical terms . We mention this because the book is a book to work with , not to be read by tin uninstrueted . It forms one of Churchill ' s valuabh series of Manuals , and cannot be too emphatically recommended .

    Travelliny Hours : Curiosities , of Communication . C . Kni ^ hl . " Literature for the Rail" hcciiis now the decided bent of publishers . It would be strange if Charles K night , the creator of cheap , good literature , did not bring his quota . The specimen before us aims more at instruction than entertainment , yet the instruction is entertainingly given . It contains separate articles , brief yet . full , on The . Hoad and the liailieai / , jis it was and in —/ , e . how our fathers travelled by I ' aekhoises , Caniers , Long Stage Waggons , Stage Coaches , and Mail Coaehes ( when ; by the nay a passage or ho

    illicit fitly have been inserted from that wonderful hit , of word painting by I >• ' Quineey , in Wne . kwond some two years iigo , On the (;//>> 1 / of Mtu'l (' ouch Traoe / liin /) , and a very fair outline of Railway travelling . Then come the IJectrie Telegraph the Sail and the Steatner - nm \ Ocean . Steamers , including our l ' orei' / n . Mails . The papers have no preface stating whether the } - arc original or selected ; but wo believe there can he litl . lt ; danger in ascribing the whole to Charles Knight , and we have a rcmcmhriuicc tit having read souk ; of the pagcu before , we think in Household Wordn .

    Untitled Article

    Dec . 13 , 1851 . ] ® t ) t % * & **?* H 89

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 13, 1851, page 1189, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1913/page/17/