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Leader (1850-1860), 25th July 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 715, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      SsS'fesSSSSsSS ^ taS " Sntltive of their vicissitudes . Where national chronology stops short , where the threalTf tradition is broken , the antique genealogy of words that have survived the rl \ , n ofeSel comes in to shed light upon the very cradle of hum an . ty and to consecrate th ^ m elorv of genera t ions long since engulphed in the quicksands of t . me ' T ^ nu ^ fa certainly within the competency of ' Philology ; ' and we may concede to it also the faculty , where tho Historic elements for comparison exist— as m the ranee of Indogermamc , Semitic , and some few other veil-studied groups of tonguesof ascertaining relationships of intercourse between widely-separate families of man- but not always , aa it is fashionable now to claim , and which I will presently "how to be absurdof a community of origin between two given races physiologically

      , and a- ^ offraphically distinct . Again , no tongue is permanent . More than one hundred and fifty years ago , Richard Bentley , perhaps the greatest critic of his age , 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 arid alteration ; some words go off , and become obsolete ; others are taken , in , and by degrees grow into common use ; or the same word is 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 &ee . All are sensible of this in Sieir 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 lanauao-ea , 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 endureand therefore can alone serve as bases for ethnic classification .

      , The work is remarkable for the variety and extent of the learning that enriches it .

      Untitled Article

      SUMMER TRAVEL . Unprotected Females in Norway ; or , The PleasantestWay of Travelling there , with Scandinavian Sketches from Nature . ( Routledge . )—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 ovn tintings , which are fanciful without being false and gay , without being meretricious . Two ladies performed the journey recorded , and af ter this triumph of unprotected independence , they contumaciously declare that ' the only use of a gentleman in travelling is to look Rafter the luggage . ' Having no luggage , they needed the companionship of no gentlemen , and seem never to have missed it . They found the Norway successfullin Chris

      people simple and polite , and began their observations y - tiania , where they saw barristers in suits of green and gold , and judges in . 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 Chvistiania to Trondhjem . Her waflle-hackers m * e always li g ht and fresh ; her cream is rich ; her floors are clean ; twenty horses are in 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 tho pastoral peace of Madame Jerkin ' s parlour . Then in little towns and at successive stations the 'Engliske damen' lived , collecting pleasing notes on fashions and ideas , tracing the influence of legendary lore , and receiving impressions of the most gladsomo and primitive lifo umong valleys and mountains . The book abounds in

      pictures : — The first walk In Bergen is a treat ; to see something ; so singular yet so pretty left in tho world , each house different in size , and all complete little pigcon-uolos , ono After another trying which shall bo the gayest , yet harmonizing together in variety ; while some , anxious for originality , frown in dark green or sober brown , and by thoir demuroness set off tho levity of rows of smiling neighbours . Fancy a hundred such on either side , thoir casements painted cleanest white , littlo balustrades ascending to tho second stories , tho bright garments hanging outside and fluttering for side , an old arch as distanco , rolling sailors , Greek-clothed girls for figures , and that is tho principal street of Bergen . 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 ono more passage descriptive of an evening in n mountain chalet : —

      The door was so low wo had to bend to enter , skipping over a puddle at tlio same time , and found ono small apartment , with a tremendous fireplace and hole in the roof for chimney ; two bods and a table oxi a mud floor ; inside , a large cupboard with a window held all tho churns , bowls of cream , and cheeses , except a few that were perfuming tho atmosphere of the room , and sorveial peasants who wove smoking their pipes loft very littlo space for now . comers . However , o * i « hurried out directly , without being asked , to cdtoh some fish , and wo wore installed inside tho flroplauo liko rolls put to warm . . . . We were beginning to wonder whore wo woro to bo disposed of for tho night ; the natural proprietors of tho domain had , now all finished thoir porridge euppor , mid who knew but that simplicity had oomo to such a pitch that tho aaino roof wns to shelter everybody ? Conveying the suspicion to Hilda , In a moment she cleared all tho poa-Winta out , and put them into a neighbouring shed , whoro the hay was kept , first bringing ewma in , for our couch ; ami w wo thought It would be a , very prickly mattreea > nhQ went to a drawer , taking out a proaious treasure , a email tublo-oloth , spread that above , thon , throwing a cow ' s hide over oil , said , " What oould be > mojro

      been there , it is true , so that Mr . White did well to wander in that direction . From 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 theiT' ancestors . " One of their immemorial 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 roofs , and the decorations of its pink-loving damsels . . We prefer , nevertheless , to follow him into the atelier of a glass-engraver in Ulriehsthal : —

      comfortable ? " Ta make the spoiling complete , she got some of the coffee the las £ 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 aide ; 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 ¦ a a \ * fflVl m . _ T . _ j ^ - _ '— -- —Jl ?_— . ' .. — _ . T — ¦ _ _ 1 \ ^ » 1 rt * a ^ . * . >

      On being told that I had come to see glass engraving , the young man pbed hia 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 . He paints a rough outline of the design on the glass , and selecting the disk that suits inserts it ia the mandrilsets it

      best , he touches the edge with a drop of oil , , 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 .

      Untitled Article

      INDIA AND THE ENGLISH . Les Anglais etVTnde . A Series of Papers contained in the half-monthly numbers of the Jtevue des Veux Mondes , from November , 1856 , to March , 1857 , inclusive . By M . Fridolin . " The 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 Revue eles Uen . r Mondes , who would be indignant at being supposed to derive his inspiration froin . 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 Jaoquemont ( albeit a clever fellow ) , nor Count de Warren ( though he served some years in tho Madras army ) , nor Janciquy , nor Theodore Pavie ( who resided some time in the Deccan ) , nor Ferdinand do Lavoye , a romancing copyist of Jacuuemont . 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 arc rendered the more valuable from the circumstance that this author has not disdained to

      fortify them by consulting tho best modern English authorities upon Indian affairs . Hence , in M . Fridolin , tho purely foreign element is greatly subdued , though ho is still , perhaps , all the more on that account an ' impartial witness . ' To him , the constitution of tho liourd of Control and of the Court of Directors , as well as the mode of obtaining appointments to India , are matters quite familiar . Tho now fimgled system of public competition is reg arded by M . Fridolin as nothing more than a concession to the levelling mul anti-hereditary spirit of tho day . Ha fears that this ostensible piece oj liberalism will hnvo no good result , and that ( especially as regards the civil service ) the infringoinoiit of traditional usage will have ( in immediate ettoct in abolishing tho instinctive loyalty towards their employers which formerly characterized tho members of that service . Ho also inclines to doubt whether tho present facility of running to and fro betwuou Unglund and mum is advantageous to the services , because such facility operates to prevent the lattor country from being regarded , as of yoro , in the light or a second fortunate that thu almost - ortunate tuui ¦

      r ., t ) w . v ) n « ri It is . in this rosnect . norlinns . neces Aithorland . It is , in this respect , porlmps , f w » u » uw »«««» snry expenses of living prevent early retirements . Active extravagance hasi "Tontly diminished of Into yews , but the member * of : either service marry at nn early ngo . Then cornea a family to educate , with the wife resident in Europe , and so forth—whion cannot be oflected at a trifling coat .

      Untitled Article

      no . 383 , Juxy 25 , 1857 . ] _ JMgjg X E A I > E B . 715 _ ¦ i - m ^^^^^^^^^^^^ m ^^ i ^^^^^^^ M ^ M ^^ B ^^ W ^^*^^ " ^*^^*^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ' ' _ . _

      Untitled Article

      • CakuUa . Jioumo . No . M . December ,, 18 G 0 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 25, 1857, page 715, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2202/page/19/