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    LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &o-

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    MEMOIR OF REVV H . S . POLEKAMPTOtf . Memoir of the Rev . IT . S . Polehampton , 31 . A . Edited by the Rev . E . Pblehampton and the Rev . T . S . Pole-Aampton . Bentley . The volume before us has claims upon our attention at once social aad national . Every brave man who gbes forth to serve his country in a foreign land must bear some portion of our sympathies with him : and when we learn that he has fallen sanspeur et sans reproche as all would wish to die , and in the plain course of duty , as so many , alas , have fallen within the last few months , we cannot but mourn

    the loss of a fellow-citizen , though perhaps in all other respects unknown to us . But when , as in tins case , we have been permitted to see him in the various relations of life , a gentleman , a philanthropist , a Christian , when we can trace out his career of usefulness frOm his boyhood up to the dark hour when death set its seal upon his memory and placed his virtues beyond the reach of change or detraction;—¦ w e then feel more keenly , because with a better and more intimate knowledge , that a man has been taken from us whom we could ill afford to lose . England may have a plentiful offspring of brave and worthy htl the

    sons , but she cannot , even so , pass ligy over deatli of a man like Henry Polehampton . The scenes and localities in which the biographer first introduces him to us , the friends and associates in whose company we find , him * may be familiar to any of us . The preparatory life of the Eton boy and the Oxford student , followed by a curate ' s round of quiet duties and unpretending activity , these seem to admit of few incidents that could niaik one man off from others , so as to bring him prominently , before our eyes either as hero or philanthropist . Yet . even here we find traces of a character distinguished for the true English qualities of courage and honesty , earning the respect and love of all to whom he stood related ; while the

    ignorant of the native languages . It was , perhaps , Mr . Polehampton ' s duty , as a-Christian minister , to indulge a pious wish for the conversion of the inhabitants , and it was natural that he should speak hopefully on a point oil which he felt so strongly . We , however , just as strongly dissent from such views . The first question which presents itself is , whether the desired object is a possible one . It is true , indeed , that the New Zcalauder has learned in some degree to ape the creed , as well as the dress and manners of a dominant race ; it is true that the African sa-vage has been taught to modify his fetish worship with the phraseology of Methodism , and to describe the changes in his physical organisation by language which might seem , to European ears , to refer rather to the operations of the Holy Spirit : —but we stand opposed , not only to all modern experience , but to the teaching of all history , if we expect the same results to follow from preaching the Gospel among the Hindoos . Tt is an easy tiling for a tribe of barbarians to . change a creed which Ixas not yet become the centre of their modes of thought and of the customs of their social life , but , in India , we have to deal with a nation already civilised , though , with a civilisation very different from our own . We have to deal with an " ancient form' of polytheism , " compared with which , the Christian faith is the creation of yesterday . The whole individual and political life of the people is bound up with the tenets of their reli < rion . Thus , satisfied with , what they believe ,

    and with what they are , they oppose passive immobility to the approaches of innovation . Again , our apparatus theologicus must be confessed fatally deficient ; the clergy whom we send forth as the champions of our cause in the East seem cither to meet more than their match in the native doctors , or , owing to the absence of any settled rule of faith , to waste in disputes among themselves , and with the emissaries of " their fallen sister , " those precious gifts which mi g ht be elsewhere put to better use . There remains yet the further and more important question , how far we ought to desire success , at least that amount of partial success which is all that we could expect or hope . When we find Mr . Polehampton expressing his satisfaction that the six hundred youths at the Company ' s College at Benares , though not trained to be Christians , were at least in the way of being taught to despise their own religion , we see an instance of the dangerous kind of spirit in which missionary labours in India may be undertaken . The cleifalsi e bugiardi are , at least , the only ones the Hindoos kno \ v or are likely to believe in ; and , in destroying their faith in these , should we not be taking away their only guide in this life—their only hope for the life hereafter P Irrespectively of the political effect of our proselytism , this serious consideration might well make us pause before giving the bridle to religious ardour .

    title even of hero may be fairly claimed for one who , risking his own life to save another ' s , worthily earned the medal " Ob civem servatum . " It was a strange and almost a startling change that wrenched Polehampton from his peaceful life : England , and led Mm , within a year from his arrival in India , to share in all the duties and dangers of the devoted Lucknow garrison ; but the incidents of that siege have been already so fully stated by others that we can gather little that is new from the simple narrative before us . We are glad , however , to find that the volume bears unqualified testimony to the character and conduct of the financial commissioner , Mr . Martin Gubbtns , to whom' its publication must , we imagine , be a matter of well-deserved satisfaction .

    The chaplain did not live to witness the conclusion of the siege ; he was a sharer in its privations and perils , but the hour of deliverance came for him too late . Ho received a wound from a musket ball , and , though this was not at first considered dangerous , yet the combined effects of fatigue and anxiety , and of a climate which he was not yet trained to bear , made it fatal . He left a young widow behind him , not only to mourn his loss but to continue in the discharge of duties like his own . She .

    poor thing , seems to have regarded the prospect of deliverance and of return to England with utter apathy . She had lost all that she loved—her husband and her child ; and she looked now with something more than mere indifference upon the ever present front of death . Wo would trust that in the honours paid to her husband ' s memory , and jba the calm satisfaction of noble duties nobly performed , she has found some recompense for afl that has boon taken from her . There is a human as well

    as a divine meaning in the promise that " Blessed arc the mcfclful , for they shall receive meroy ; " and tbo nnme of Emily Polehampton h « s nlrcndy taken its place on the roll of our female worthies beside those of Florence Nightingale and her Crimean Sisterhood . The opinions we find scattered through the volume on matters which concern our relation to the natives of India must be regarded as curious Tatlier than valuable . They are really nothing ? more than the first impressions , genuine , no doubt > of © no who had passed a very few months xn the country of which ho writes , and who was almost

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    will be discovered , but- because there is just so much life , cleverness , and variety of character and persons and motives as will create a thorough ¦ sympathy , and carry the reader uiiweariedly and pleasantly 011 to the end . Our space will not permit anythin g like a detail and description of incidents and persons . We must , however , select a character or two , which will put in a favourable light the author ' s powers . The pivot on -which the story turns appears to be the fortunes of Avicc Desborbugh and Walter Osborne ,. the first the youngest and most mentally gifted daughter of Colonel Desborough , a man of high familv and low estate , aud the latter the son of an

    atheistical reprobate of immense wealth—the very opposite in morals of his parent . Colonel Desborough dies ; his three daughters and son find a home with Miss De JJurgh , a venerable maid of honour , occupying apartments in Hampton Palacea lovable character throughout . Avicc is destined to early misfortune . Her brother Phillip , to whom she is devotedly attached , dies . suddenly of a brain fever ; ( lie shock kills her aunt , Miss De Burgh , aud the family is thrown on tho . world , witli a slender purse , and no friend except their nurse Hit ' son , who has saved a few hundreds which she has put out at interest with an Oxford-street liucndrapcr , who is always in a bustle and always

    crying out for " more capital to throw into the concern . " At tlic time Phillip Desborough is seized with brain fever , Avice and Walter Osborne become acquainted . Walter is Phillip ' s fast friend , and on his death-bed he accepts a trust to watch over and protect Avice . This trust , however , " Walter _ is unable to discharge , owing to the unfeeling and selfish conduct of Avicc ' s eldest sister , and her aunt , Lad y Otlcy . Avice , with her nurse , takes up her abode in \ he draper ' s family , and being reduced nearly , to penury , she accepts a situation as shopwoman with the ' family . Here she becomes acquainted with Mr . Thorpe , . mine ' manager to Walter Osbornc ' s father — a stern-looking , hardfeatured Radical — but of kind and honest na *

    ture . After rendering much assistance to Avice , who appears to be utterly forsaken by her friends aud relations , she consents to marry him , though we must advise tlie reader that an unconfessed attachment has all along existed between her and Walter Osborne . Avicc marries and goes with her husband to the mining district m Yorksliirc , where his future home is situated . Alter a brief period , she is called upon to assist her husband in humanising the rugged population . Mr . Thorpe had alruudy erected a school-house for the education of the miners' families , and here we extract a picture which , we trust , is a bygone picture of the inner life of our mining population : — He had caused a rough boarded shed to be erected not fur from tjic minecontaining forms and desks as rouguly # »» bp 01

    FELLOW TRAVELLERS . Fellow Travellers ; or , Experience of Life . By the Author of " Margaret ; or , Prejudico ot Home . " 8 vol 3 . Hurst and liluckctt , The opening chapters will scare the timid reader . " Two remarkublc-looking men" arc introduced in high converse : one , Charles Moore , with a " poculiarly wild poetic look" about him ; tho other , James JFraser , " a wonderful man , a great dumb mantho personificationo !' daring doubt , bold investigation , stern questioning , iron-hearted resoluteness , and self-sufficing and defiant power that sees no God v * W "i it'll ! j ^_ j . . ! . _„ _ . .. _ 1 a . _ and omauaiu

    acknowledges none . JJrora me warn u reciprocation of sentiment , closely akin to what may bo deemed tho moUorn school of German rationalism , which we suspect will bo skipped by impatient readers who arc likely to refuse to bo detained by such a tough piece ot mctaphysioal or materialistic reasoning . But wo bid them bo of good cheer—road on , they will be recompensed 5 not , however , by tho clearness and woll-knit composition of tho plot , for tho plot is discursive and disconnectednot by tho delineation of special characters , for several appear to bo introduced but to bo buried- —not by human passion or feeling brought out in vivid truthfulness and force , for very HtUo that will be found quite now by ordinary readers

    , M V * * mm ^* •¦• ^ jii v p »»»*> j » ^* w ««»« ^* — — — -. * - -, put together , and here , drawing around liirn as many the men and boys ns could be persuaded to attend , lie employed his own leisure hours in giving them instruction in reading and writing . No one understood letter than himself the worth of example , and shortly , as ue had expected , a few amongst the men who wore bteauy and intelligent in comparison with the rest , voluntarily offered their services to help him . Having made tms small beginning , iSdwarcl Thorpe had the satisfaction 0 seeing that tho work prospered and went on tnougu slowly . He knew well enough that little could be doae towards humanising tho men and boys , so long « s "" - women and tho girla remained umpired for . * before did man single-handed contend with anything so formidable as the gross Ignornnco , the uttur want 01 mornl aonso . the low vices and brutal propensities W » ai

    characterized the wholo . mining population , Tlio women , not loss brutalised than the men , did their boat to ™«> promoting in wrotohed lioinoa tho disorder ana enscomfort that seem to bo tlio peculiar element or m « civilised savage . Lazy , slatternly , dirty , having n » solf-vospoct , having boon themselves drnggod up nu « H » than , brought up , these woman dragged up tlielr f "" " ™" and drank with their husbands—mid swore with tu «» i and encouraged tlio lattcr ' s fouds with one another ; » w bound up their broken lionda with a readiness t »« showed they considered such work to bo a part 0 ww » mission on earth } and frequently fought witli o nj anotherwhich was nothing to women who worouso "

    , all along to bo bqaton by their Jmsbandj . IJjtww a fighting , and drinking , « od gossiping , littlo H '" ™ loft to dovoto to tho children , who soon learned toiiignji and drink , and gosflip ou their own account . Hero w » enough and to spare pfthftt raw material , tha t , » ogaru ae tho peculiar product of another soil and diuorouc

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    H 86 THE LEADER , [ No . 450 , November 6 , 1858 .

    Literature, Science, Art, &O-

    LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , &o-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1858, page 1186, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2267/page/10/