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    with a view to cover the entire ground with lines of fire that Colonel Lake prepared and superintended a plan of field works , commanding every avenue of attack , and creating a cluster of minor fortresses wherever the enemy could have menaced with his batteries , either the town or its external defences . The winter and spring of 1855 were spent in preparations . Towards the end of May the Russians approached . Early in June their divisions came in view ; the Turkish outposts were attacked , and the long contest was begun . Had the Ottoman cavalry behaved with nroner spirit , the Cossacks mi « ht on this occasion have been thoroughly

    routed . However , the campaign had been opened . From , thirty-nve to fifty thousand men of all arms were before the place , under Mouravieffwell-disciplined , and abundantly supplied . So much alarm was caused by their appearance that , on the 20 th of June , Lord de Redclifie wrote to Lord Clarendon : " It is his ( the Seraskier ' s ) opinion that the positions at Kars are not tenable against the enemy . " All direct communications with Erzeroum were cut off . And now , when too late , it was found that jFtedpathism had been at work in the stores ; vast quantities of provisions existed only on paper ; blocks of stone had been put with the flour in sack ' s ; the food of the garrison had been embezzled .

    With the course of the struggle between the army inside and the army outside the public is already familiar . The narrative , as presented by Colonel Lake , is solid , serious , authentic , and illustrated by a variety of important documentary matter . It i 6 a military study of rare value , and should become a class book in military schools . Many a future Williams may imbibe from it the inspiration that will enable him to hold some future Kars a <* ainst . the watchfulness and superior resources of a formidable foe . We shall confine our notes , however , to those passages in which justice—reluctant 3 ind grudging justice , we are sorry to say—is done to tke name and deeds of Kmety , the chivalrous Hungarian general to whom so much was owing upon every memorable day in the history of the Kars siege . At the battle of Inje-Dereh , according to a despatch from General Williams , dated February lSj 1855 , he was one of the few who endeavoured , by personal bravery , to encourage the soldiers when abandoned by their officers : — Since that battle General Kmdty kept the outposts , and was the eye of the army until it went into winter-quarters ; and he is still the officer in charge of the advanced

    posts of Kars . General Williams , in the same despatch , complained to Lord de Redcliffe that Kmety was without the pay due to his rank , and that no decoration had been conferred upon him ;—He is one of those men who abstain from complaints or intrigues , and I make this . appeal in his favour without a request on his part . The great battle of the 29 th of September took place . We state Kmety ' s services only as they are stated by Colonel Lake : — Major Teesdale had just reached his tent , and was in the act of dismounting when he was startled by a gun flashing through the darkness directly in front . the from

    This was sp extraordinary an event , that he at once galloped off to battery whence the sound proceeded . He asked the officer at the gun what was going on , and was then told , for the first time , that the Russians were advancing . Nothing could be seen in the valley but a darker shade across it than usual . It was now half-2 > ast four . The guns continued to fire steadily from the Tachmasb works on the approaching mass , and soon all uncertainty ceased , for the Russians , finding that they were discovered , set up a yell from twenty thousand throats . The whole black valley seemed to be alive with the multitude that came rushing on in apparently irresistible numbers . The fire ran along the whole line of the defences almost at the same moment , and showed the busy figures of the Turks hastening to every assailable point .

    Such was the attack , which was continued for hours with signal gallantry by almost overwhelming numbers . Eight battalions rushed upon the Rennison lines , where Kmety commanded in person ; the resistance here was marvellous ; scarcely a ball failed ; the head of the column was several times literally shot away ; hardly a Russian general officer escaped ; the Turks were led out of the batteries by Kmety himself , and the Russians were driven down into the plain at the point of the bayonet ;—This column left eight hundred and fifty corpses upon a space not exceeding an acre in area . Kmdty bad saved that portion of the lines entrusted to his care , but he would not rest : he hurried to the rescue in another part of the field : —

    Scarcely were the defenders of Yukselc Tabia freed from this crushing fire , when General Kmety , at the head of four companies of chasseurs , came up from the Rennison lines . Running into Yarimai Tabia , and springing like chamois amongst the rocks , these gallant soldiers made short work of the few Russians who still held their ground there , and then re-forming , wont gaily on to Tachmasb . Here the fig ht continued to rage with unabated fury . Only three companies arrived with the noble Hungarian ; the men supplied themselves ¦ with ammunition from the pouches of the Russian dead : — Sallies were made for no other purpose than to obtain the needful supply , and at one time part of the garrison were employed in stripping oft' the pouches of the fallen on one side of the redoubt , and throwing them to their comrades , who were thus enabled to repulse tb . <* enemy on the other side .

    Colonel Lake places Kmdty at the head of the list of officers who , with Turkish troops under their command , undoubtedly bore the brunt of the battle , in -which , ten thousand men repulsed and routed five-and-thirty thousand . General Williams , in a despatch describing the afthir , bore testimony to the conspicuous courage and conduct of his Hungariun ally , although he scarcely gave due prominonce to his share in securing the victorious ; result of the any . Not a word of alluaion' was contained in Lord Clarendon ' s reply , not a word in the Sultan ' s address . But the following paragraph oloarly shows the importance of Kinety ' a "id to the defenders of The fbttglbiiUy of a Tetreat waa n « w discussed . Secrecy being the element of a successful sortie , the pl « n was only confided to the Mushir , the chief of the staff , and General Kme'ty ; Again .-Retreat having been decided upon , Mqjor T&oadalo was ordered to prepare , wilh General Kmdty , a proposition for the boat line oC march . They decided that a retreat was impossible .

    When it had been determined to surrender , no stipulation was made thaf the Hungarian Generals Kmety and Kollmnnn should not be delivered ove to the Austrians . They knew , therefore , that to capitulate with the rest of the garrison would be to risk the execution of the sentence of death passed against them by the Imperial Courts , and preferred to risk an endeavour to escape . Kme " ty , then , was among the foremost of the heroes of -well-defended Kars , and it would not have detracted from the glory of Sir AVilliam Fen wick Williams had he associated his name in public with the names of Lake and Teesdale .

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    THE NEW ZEALANDERS . New Zealand , or Zealandia , tke Britain of tke South . By Charles Hursthouse . 3 vols Stanford . We have always valued the native New Zcalanders as a race destined to arrive at a high state of civilization . Naturally , or , according to Eolinw . broke , unnaturally , they are particularity ferocious ; but they are intelligent and teachable . The poor Australian seems to belong to that period in the history of man when he collects the seeds of wild grapes , leaves the dead in tree tops to be eaten by birds , roams over uncultivated plains , and dies under the touch of society . We can make nothing of the Ashantee or the Zulu ; the Doko appears as if created for cavern-life and to feed on grubs ; but the Maori is a singularly improvable being . Not that he is easily reclaimed , but that he has a clear and strong intellect , and , after existing

    for a few years among Englishmen , becomes their companion or their rival . Formerly , he liked the flavour of human flesh ; his instincts , in that respect , still force him to despise the poetic doctrine that he who onee eats of a cannibal dish will become a madman ; yet the New Zealander has certain British qualities in his moral and physical composition . lie has never been scorned by the islanders of the West , who have looked with contempt upon Kafirs , Hottentots , and even Hindoos , but who have invariably regarded with respectful admiration a people that fed on dogs and sharks , drank blood , and ran , wrestled , and swam , with the strength and fortitude of gladiators . _ " Mr . Hursthouse , anxious to apologize for his friends , explains that the Maoris were not the only cannibals in the world , since the peculiar institution exists among " that great race of men scattered over the Indian Archipelago , Madagascar , South Sea Islanders , and parts of the American

    continent . " With reference to the Indian Archipelago we suppose he alludes to the Sumatran Battas , occupying a very limited district of a single island . Stedman ' s report that among certain tribes in the interior of Africa the limbs of men , women , and children , are hung up for sale in public shambles is very like an apocryphal story , and wants confirmation . We will not believe , even on the authority of the Sicilian Diodorus , or of St . Jerome , that the ancient Britons were a cannibal nation , although it is true that some Caledonian tribes were accused of delighting in human flesh , killing the shepherd and sparing the flock , and capturing young maidens in order to serve up their legs and bosoms at the repasts of chiefs . All these statements rest upon the most untrustworthy foundation of gossip and calumny , lleally , then , there is no excuse for-such a digression us the following on the part of Mr . Hursthouse : —

    If in the neighbourhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow , a race of cannibals has really existed , wo may contemplate in the period of the Scottish history the extremes of savage and civilized life . Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas , and to encourage the pleasing hope that New Zealand may produce , in some future age , the Hume and Llacaulay of the southern hemisphere . The celebrated New Zealand chief , Hongi , who visited England in 1820 , is styled " the cannibal Napoleon . " He was the cynosure of London drawingrooms . Why not ? Cabrera danced with the daughters of our aristocracy . George IV . gave Hongi a suit of armour ; other folks gave him guns ; beautitul ladies smiled in his eyes ; " he was so susceptible of female criticism , that at a party once , when some fair critics were making merry at his tattoo , ho threw himself across three chairs , buried his head , and remained shut up until the company had departed . " This Maori brave was informed on Ins tribe Prince llinukihad

    way home that some warriors of a rival , ruled by , knocked one of hi ? people on the head . He met Hinaki himself , who sued for peace , sat at the same table with him , and argued witli him— -but to no purpose . Blood must be avenged . There was war , and llongi , alter a murderous battle , shot his foe , scooped out his eye with a clusp-kniio , ate it , stabbed Hinaki in the neck and drank his blood . The two brothers of the dead chief , with about three hundred common men , were eaten ; Hongi took twenty prisoners whose lives he wished to spare , but his daughter , having lost a husband in the battle , slew them all with her own hand . Then rushing into a forest , she attempted to kill herself , but failed ; it was in vain that her friends sought to heal the wound ; she found an opportunity to commit suicido . Mr . Hursthouse quotes a still more striking example ol the lex talLonis in New Zealand . Tumai was a chief who had shun u rival cuioi ,

    Pehi . Tamai was conquered by the Pehi clan : — The victors returned to the vessel laden with 500 baskets of human flesh . Some say that tho flesh was cooked in tho ship's coppors ; and it ie not improbable , us uio vessel was completely in tho hands of tho natives . On reaching KapiU , lumai was given up to tho widow of Tohi , who took him , with his wife and sister , to her own house ; giving up half to their use . Thoy talked so friendly to one another , mid tm behaved so kindly to him , that a stranger would have taken them for niuu ami w » iu rather than for a doomed cnutivo with his deadly foe . She used even to ulutlio him in her finest gnrmonts , and to deck his head with choice fonthora . 'lnw continue" in about two weeks , until cither » he had assembled her frienda , or thought her victim sufficiently fat for killing . She then suddenly caused him to bo seized and uoirau . With his arms stretched to a troo ; and , whilst iu thin position , she took a wpeor , long narrow rod of iron , with which fiho stabbed him in tho jugular artery , ana urn his warm blood an it guahod forth , placing her mouth tp tho oriiico . Wo wa » wards cooked and oaton . . Cnnnibaliam ia now aupposed to bo extinct , in New Zealand ; tho nativ . dislike any allusion to > it . They tattx > & and labour less than lonncrJy , no u fewer slaves , arc not so inveterutely polygamist , and rc < ul ncwspapoie their own language ,

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    450 THE LEADER . [ No . Sjg ^ JSATiritPAY ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 9, 1857, page 450, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2192/page/18/