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Northern Star (1837-1852), 6th November 1852, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13, THE MAGAZINES FOR NOVEMBER. This This mo...

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  • Departments (2)
    • LITERATURE.
    • WAIFS AND STRAYS.
  • Text (6)
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      )Yovember6 ' C ™ Star Of Freedom. 205

      ) yovEMBER 6 ' ™ STAR OF FREEDOM . 205

      Literature.

      LITERATURE .

      The Magazines For November. This This Mo...

      THE MAGAZINES FOR NOVEMBER . This This month there is some improvement in magazine literature , mil eiull enoug h of late , but it is still mediocre : An interesting paper ! , » title „ titled "Valparaiso to San Francisco , " by Joseph Anthony , Junr ., toes ^ oes soiuetuint ; towards relieving the tedium of Ainswortii ; but g atf a very different character is the concluding paper on the Duke of ^ elHfelJington . It is a mere repetition of the unqualified , sycophancy Hint » hat has aided tlie daily journals in getting ihrough the flat season . Besi « 3 esides these contributions , and the continuation of " The Lancailhirejhire Witches , " and of " The Confederates , " there is a tale by 5 Mars \ lan * aret Casson and some minor papers .

      « ' « The Exhibition Jury Reports , " in Fbazeb , our readers will rreadreadily pardon our passing over . « Hypatia , " « Autobiography of ( CapCaptai n Digby Grand , " and " Sketches of Rome under the Pope anidaiid the Republic , " are continued . "The Northmen in Britain , " iis iris interesting , but our space will not allow of extract . In an jartiarticle entitled The Ionian Islands and their Government , " \ ve jtowfowe a Jao 0 uret * attei « pt to clear the character of . the English llallaynau , Sir Henry Ward . Of course tlie whig High Commisiiouiouer is a veritable martyr , the blessings of whose mild and paternal nal rule the people of the Ionian Islands have not been able to

      pre properly appreciate . Irom this the writer concludes that the lo Ionian people are totally unfit to have any share in their own go government . From the spirited resistence offered to the arbitrary pr proceedings of High Commissioner Ward , we would draw preset ciseiy the opposite conclusion . An excellent account ofthe family of of Mrs . Beecher Siowe is given by " An Alabama Man . " It s £ seems that of the Beecher Siowe family , consisting of twelve pers ( sons , nine are authors ! We gather- the following particulars of tl the life of

      Thb Authoress op "TJkcle . Tom ' s Cabin . " Harriet Beecher was Lorn in Litchfield about tlie year 1812 After the rei moval of the family to Boston , she enjoyed the best educational advantages of 1 that city . With the view of preparing herself for the business of instruction , ! she acquired all the ordinary accomplishments of ladies and much of the learning usually reserved for the stronger sex . At an early age she began to aid her eldest sister , Catherine , in the management of a flourishing femaleschool , which had been built up by the latter . When their father went west , the sisters accompanied him , and opened a similar establishment in Cincinnati . For several rears after her removal to this place , Harriet Beecher continued to teach in connexion -with her sister . She did so until her marriage with the Eev . Calvin

      E . Stowe , professor of biblical literature in the seminary of which her father was president . This gentleman was already one of the most distinguished ecclesiastical savans in America . After graduating with honour at Bowdoin College , Maine , and biking his theological degree at Andover , he had been appointed professor at DatttttoutU College , 3 fevj Hampshire , alienee he Tnad been called to lane Seminary . Mrs Stowe ' s married life has been of that equable and sober happiness so common in the families of Yankee clergymen . It has been blessed with a numerous offspring , of whom five are still living . Mrs . Stowe has known the fatigues of watching over the sick bed , and her heart has felt that grief which eclipses all others—that of a bereaved mother . Much of hev time has been devoted to the education of her children , while the ordinary household

      cares have devolved on a friend or distant relative , who has always resided with her . She employed her leisure in contributing occasional pieces , tales , and novelettes to the magazines and newspapers . Her writings were of a high moral tone , and deservedly popular . This part of Mrs . Stowe ' s life , spent in literary pleasures , family joys and cares , and the society of the pious and intelligent , would have been of as unalloyed happiness as mortals can expect , had it not been darkened at every instant by the baleful shadow of slavery . When they relinquished their excellent position in the east , in order to build up the great presbyterian seminary for the Ohio and Mississippi valley , they did so with every prospect of success . For a year all went well . Lane Seminary was the pride and hope of the church . Alas for the hopes of Messrs . Beecher and Stowe this prosperity was of short duration . The President of the Abolition Convention , which met at Philadelphia in 1833 , Mr . Arthur Tappan , was one of the

      most liberal donors to Lane Seminary . He forwarded its address to the students ; and a few weeks afterwards the subject was up for discussion amongst them . At first there was little interest . But soon the fire began to burn . Many of the students had travelled , or taught school in the slave states ; a goodly number were sons of slaveholders ; and some were owners of slaves . They had seen slavery , and had facte to relate , many of which made the blood run chill with horror . Those spread out on the pages of " Uncle Tom ' s Cabin , " reader , and which your swelling heart and overflowing eyes would not let you read aloud , are cold in comparison , The discussion was soon ended , for all were of accord ; but the meetings for the relation of facts were continued night after night and week after week . What was at first sensibility grew into enthusiasm ; the feeble flame had become a conflagration . The slave owners among the

      student * gave liberty to their slaves ; the idea of going on foreign missions was scouted at , because there were heathen at home ; some left their studies and collected the coloured population of Cincinnati into churches , and preached to them ; others gathered the young men into evening schools and tlie children into day schools , and devoted themselves to teaching them ; others organised benevolent societies for aiding them , and orphan asylumns for the destitute and abandoned children : and others , again , left all to aid fugitive slaves on their way to Canada , or to lecture on the evils of slavery . The fanaticism was subl . me ; every student felt himself a Peter the Hermit , and acted as if the abolition of *^^» f on his individual exertions . At first , the discussion had been encouraged , by the president and professors ; but when they saw it swallowing up everything like tooate

      regular studv , they thought it high time to stop . It was . ; <^ « £ «* wtoo strong to be arrested . The commercial interests of Cincinnati took the alarm ; manufacturers feared the loss of their southern trade . ^ ""^ exacted the suppression of the discussion and excitement . Slaveholder ^» over from KenLky , and urged the mob on to violence . ^^^ there was imminent danger that Lane Seminary , and the ^ * J ^ *? J " and professor Stowe , would be burnt or pulled *™ ^ ' ^^ J ?* ; These must have been weeks of mortal anxiety for Ham rt . ^ ' * £ * £ * of Trustees now interfered , and allayed the excitement of he ^ mob bj fobidd „ g all farther discussion of slavery in the seminary . To ^^^^ by withdrawing « t no ** . Where hundreds had been , theie was left ; meie uy wimarawing eii jhucsc . »• » " -- ¦ » . xi . t »„

      iandful . Lane Seminary was deserted , ^ f" ^ ^^^^ Beecher and Professor Stowe remained there , endeavoring m jam to re ¥ ve xts prosneritv In 1850 they returned to ' the eastern states , the great project oi l ^ ' J ^ S * H hort stay at * ^ <^ ]^^ Stowe accepted an appointment to thechair of biblica liter at ure ,. t * Th « ye * Seminar at Andover , Massachusetts , an institution withstand * £ ^ J %£ as high J any in the United States . These events caused a J ^ hw ^ J the feelings of the Beechers . Repulsed alike by the ^^ J ^^ S among the foes , and the brutal violence among the friends of slave * they thought their time for action had not come , and gave no pubuc express on ^ abhorrence of slavery . They waited for the storm to sub de and he angel of truth to mirror hi , form in tranquil waters For a tont tow W , « ugei oi triitn to mirror nn *»*¦ " -- •«¦ ™ in avow

      them-« . "flvesabolmoalste . Tie terrible and dramanc scenes » ' ^ ° ™^ tf ° U m . be , * . „ U . and W « - ¦ -W- ™ JEM : IL , i ZttttJtt ' * s ^& z ^ « ates , airs . Stow made several visits to them . Mrs . Stove [^^ . ; ^ TJ ^^^^ BSB ssr ^^^ SSr ^ Sss *>« e has given them expression as Jast « u '""*

      <* fcdiuB . pent up for years in the heart af a i ™ J ° ™ ; tWnarAn \ lv ( it « HoVwe falked about ihe Burmese War » < Anuboaply of Al exander Dumas / ' « A Visit to * Mf ^^/ JPgSSSr " Wine and Wine Drinkers , " and other articles , renders Bsntley ftis month more than mediocre .

      The Magazines For November. This This Mo...

      Blackwood has a poem entitled « The Golden Aire , " the podrv of which , s very questionable . It is , however , a noble protS against the trading selfishness of our country a ( ' the pre enuime We are sorry , t should be marred by the imroduc In of 1 sToil denunciation of the Republicans of the Contmem We have a Mticier-. t'TS " ' sothat r i more than ? lance at ^ IZ 1 Z f Tar f ReSjlnCt , onS - " The Holidays" " is somewhat remarkable for the seim-coMemptous manner in which the writPr speaks of the Count de Chambord . Fnllf ! T ' T- ^ ° " " The Fmryof"Martial Eothusiasm ; a Jutland tale designed to convey a lesson of wisdom to husbands and

      wives ; an amusing bit of fiction from the French , entitled « Luck and no Luck ; a highly improbable yarn dignified with the title of a aomecepathic Miracle ; ' articles on the « Irish elections , " Louis Napoleon , " « Portugal , " & c ; an account of the « Black ltepuWic- o ^ Liberia , and a continuation of « Norman Hamilton " combine to make up a readable number ofthe ever welcome . —Tait --We condense from this magazine the following account of the new commonwealth ; " the Land of Promise" of the loner enslaved and degraded children of Africa , °

      THE LIQERIA . N REPUBLIC Owes its existence to a few benevolent Americans , who , in 1816 , instituted the American Colonisation Society , for colonising the free people of colour of the United States . The records of the society show that of the colonista who have been conveyed from America to Liberia , only one third were previously free while the remaining two-thirds were slaves emancipated by their masters in order that they might be sent to the African colony , where alone it was considered they could enjoy the full benefit of freedom . The early efforts of the society were unfortunate . The first settlement was unhealthily siluated , and death swept off a large number of the blacks and most of their white friends . An agent ofthe society , along with Captain Stockton , of the American

      ship-ofwar Alligator , sought a new settlement , and , after encountering many perils succeeded in purchasing a tract of land on Mesurador Bay in exchange for a miscellaneous assortment of goods , sufficient lo stock a country shop in the general line . The colonists removed to their new settlement , but again were attacked by fever and also by some of the native tribes . Assaulted by pestilence and war ; the poor colonists were critically situated . Fortunately to repel their human , or , rather , savage assailants , tliey had forty muskets , and six pieces of artillery . Two furious attacks were made by the natives , and many were killed on both sides , but the assailants were repulsed on each occasion . The colonists were now , however , in a perilous condition , as they had been for six weeks on an allowance of bread and meal , and their provisions were nearly

      exhausted . Their ammunition was also running short ; they had but two rounds of shot left for their guns . From this almost desperate situation they were delivered in a remarkable manner . During the night which followed the second attack , a false alarm was given , and a cannon was fired by one of tlie sentries . This waste of ammunition , was , at the moment , greatly regretted . But the sound of that signal gun , borne at midnight over the sea , reached a vessel which was then passing near the promontory . It was a British schooner , laden with supplies for Capo Coast Castle , and having on board Major Laing , the

      distinguished African traveller . No one on board tlie vessel knew of the existence of this settlement- , and the report of canon on that savage coast excited much astonishment . The ship was hove to , and a boat was sent on shore to make enquiries . When the character and condition of the colony was known , great sympathy was excited on behalf of the settlers . The officers of the schooner gave them all the aid in their power , and Major Laing used his influence with the hostile chiefs , to secure a treaty of peace . In their humbled condition , after two very severe defeats , the chiefs " \ vere disposed for an accommodation ; and Major Laing had the satisfaction of restoring amity between the settlers and the

      native tribes . Some of the warm-hearted British seamen , unfortunately for themselves , were not satisfied with rendering this merely temporary assistance . Doubting the intentions of the native chiefs " Midshipman Gordon and twelve British sailors , " adds the American narrator already mentioned , " signified their wish to remain at the Cape , in order to witness the sincerity of their new professions , and help the settlers to-repair their buildings . Alas ! their generous self-devotion proved their death . Through toil and exposure they were speedily attacked with fever , and in a few weeks , amid the tears and grief of their newmade friends , Gordon and eight of his men were borne to their last home . "

      Prom that period the condition of the colony gradually improved ; although from time to time there ensued fresh wars , in which the Liberians were always successful . They did not make conquests , but it naturally happened that , as they waxed in strength , > . md became at last the dominant power in that region , the weak tribes about them became desirous of being received under their protection . This was invariably granted , on the sole condition that they exchanged their own laws for those of the colony ,, and became Liberian citizens . Partly by this mode of annexation , and partly by the occasional purchase of small portions of territory , the boundaries of the settlement have been gradually extended , until they embrace a coast-line of about four hundred miles . Supposing the territory to extend on an average about forty miles inland , the area of the republic will be about 16 , 000 square miles , that is nearly equal in size to Switzerland . Five years ago Liberia became an independent state ; a republican constitution was adopted : a national flag , consisting of six red and five white

      stripes , with "one lone white star" m the upper and inner angle was hoisted ; and a few weeks afterwards it was formally saluted as the ensign of an independent state by the American squadron and a British sloop-of-war . The British and French governments promptly recognised the new republic , and formed liberal treaties with it . The present population of Liberia is estimated at 250 , 000 souls . But of this number only about 10 , 000 are emigrants from America . The remainder are native Africans , who have voluntarily united themselves to the original colonists . Many of these have been educated in the schools of the colony , and are in all respects civilised men . One of them was lately elected a member of the Liberian Council . Still the remarkable fact remains , that only the twenty-fifth part of the present inhabitants of Liberia were originally natives

      of a civilised country : and even of this small number two-thirds were uneducated slaves , and the remaining third were members of a degraded caste—the American " free people of colour . " Yet these tea thousand freed men and pariahs , most of them wholly , and all of them in some degree of African descent , Itave been able not only to establish an orderly and well-governed republic , with a perfectly free constitution , based upon universal suffrage , but have actually leavened with their own civilisation , and their attachment to freedom , order , and industry , a huge mass of barbarism , twenty-four times larger than their own community , j The Liberian President is elected every two years . Mr . Roberts has this year entered on his third term of office . There is no part of the world in which the chief tropical products can be

      reared so abundantly and so cheaply as in central Africa , Cotton , COfl ' ee , and the sugar-cane , all of the best quality , are found to grow luxuriantly , not only in Liberia but along the whole coast , from the mouth of the Senegal to the mouth of the Niger . If this coast and the vast interior should be hereafter in the possession of a civilised nation of freemen , there can hardly be a doubt that they would be able to supply all the markets of the globe with those products cheaper than they could be furnished by high-priced slave-labour from any other country . Whenever this result is achieved , slavery will be abolished of necessity , not only in the United States but in Brazil and throughout the

      civilised world . Judging from the recent progress of African colonisation , it seems highly probable that another half-century wilS not pass away before this great consummation will he attained . If this reasoning be correct , it will perhaps be adm itted that the remarkable expansion of the Black Republic of Africa is a matter quite as important , in its bearings upon the welfare of the human race , as the equally remarkable-extinction of that parti-coloured republic whose ephemeral life was trampled out under the rnthless heels of its own soldiery in the coup d'etat of December . Bleak House . By Charles Dickens . No , 9 . London : Bradburv and Evans .

      ; We cannot say much for this number ; rather too bleak and dreary for our taste . We except the account of the interview between " the young man of the name of Guppy , " and Lady Dedlock . Tlie picture of the pruud , cold , haughty , impassable lady brought face to face with her terrible secret , is worthy of Dickens . The Priestly Office . A Discourse by the Rev . David Maguinis . Belfast . Mr . Maguinis thinks that the setting apart of a distinct order of men for the exercise \> f the Priestly Office—though

      The Magazines For November. This This Mo...

      open to much abuse , and productive of no little evil , " is nevertheless " a practice that could not well be dispensed with in the present state of the world . " We hold the directly opposite opinion , and for a sufficient reason . We have but to quote Mr . Magaunis . He says : " Priestly corporations have , no doubt , always been the worst enemies of the truth , Progress

      they have uniforml y opposed . " Surely not another word need be added to prove that the priesthood is an obstacle to human enlightenment , the enemy of popular emancipation . Still , we willingly admit that a few priests , like unto Mr . Magiunis , would do much , towards extirpating ignorance , slaverv , and misery ; but where are they to be found ? We thank Mr . Maginiusforhis noble sentiments , and wish his Discourse a wide circulation .

      The Stoke-upon-Trent Monthly Narrative . October . 0 ur unstamped contemporary improves . The present number contains an excellent summary of the month ' s history , together with valuable articles on " The Industrial and Provident Societies Act , " and " The Anti-Knowledge-Tax Agitation . " The last-named article from the pen of Mr . Dobson Collet , should be reprinted for gratuitous circulation .

      Waifs And Strays.

      WAIFS AND STRAYS .

      » — U—Mr, Macaulay Has Preserved In His ...

      » — u—Mr , Macaulay has preserved in his history the burden of a ballad which wag once sung all over Cornwall by men , women , and even by children of every class , but of which he seems to think that only these two lines now linger in living memory : — - " And shall Trelawney die , and shall Trelawney die 1 { Then twenty thousand Cornish boys will know the reason why 1

      Trelawney was one of the seven Bishops whom James the Second sent to the Tower ; but it was not the danger implied to him as a prince of the church which his fierce bold countrymen resented , so much as the outrage committed upon him as the head of a Cornish house that could boast its twenty descents of deedhonoured ancestors . It is a county , as Mr . . Macaulay remarks , in which the provincial feeling was in those days stronger than in any other part of the realm and we are happy to add that thefeeling has remained too strong , even to our own time , to permit tin s noble ballad to sink into a mere fragment of a couple of lines .

      Some thirty-five years ago , Mr , Davies Gilbert , then member for a Cornis borough which lie had long represented , and also President of the Royal Society and a zealous antiquarian , printed some fifty copies of the Trelawney ballad for distribution among his friends , expressly that it might not be allowed to perish * From the accurate recollection of one of those friends— -who lost the copy entrusted to him , but happily retained every word of it in his memory—we have the opportunity of laying it before the reader . The air is " Lciietit tambour . '* The verses belong to that order of which Sydney was thinking , when he spoke of an old ballad stirring his heart like a trumpet : —

      THE REASON" WHY . A COIOttSII BALLAD . A good sword and a trusty hand , A merry heart and true : ' King James's men shall understand . What Cornish men can do . And have they fixed the Where and When ? And shall Trelawney die 1 Then twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why 1 And shall they scorn Tre , Pol , and Pen , And shall Trelawney die ?

      There ' s twenty thousand underground Will know the reason why 1 Out spake the Captain brave and bold , A gallant wight was he , — " Though London's Tower were Michael's IioW , We'll set Trelawney free . We'll cross the Tamar , hand to hand ,

      The Exe shall be no stay—Go , side by side , from strand to strand , And who shall bid us nay ? And shall they scorn Tre , Pol , and Pen , And shall Trelawney die 1 There's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why \

      " And when we come to London wall , A pleasant sight to view , — . Come forth , cotne forth , ye cowards all , We're better men than you ! Trelawney , he ' s in keep and hold , Trelawney , he may die ; But twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why !" And shall they scorn Tre , Pol , and Pen , And shall Trelawney die ? There ' s twenty thousand underground Will know the reason why !" —Household Wsrtfh

      A New Exhibition. As Soon As The Success...

      A NEW EXHIBITION . As soon as the success of the " Wellington Campaign ' s" is exhausted , it will Bene succeeded by an exhibition of the "Louis Napoleon Campaigns . " They wilivii ;; comprise ;—1 . Tlie Boulogne campaign , with the live eagle and the bit of raw beef stacked on the cocked hat . 2 . The Strasburgh campaign , with the real Napoleon coslume . S . The . 10 th of April cmapaign , attended with the special conutabWs staff . 4 . The Plain of Satory campaign , with the distribution of wine and sausagesgesi 5 . The Boulevards campaigns will be omitted as being too terrible for any bu bui an Exhibition of Savages . —Punch . A False Report . —Major Beresford—says the Herald—is not going tg tl Jamaica . All the better for Jamaica , says Punch .

      Holding by a Bad Title . —It has been- suggested by a worn-out wag , wl , wll gives his mornings to conundrums and his nights to puns , that Louis Napoleoileon instead of being called Bojte-a-part , should have conferred upon him the tits titt of Grab-the-wiiole . —Punch . THE EMPIRE OF BEADLEDOM . Several incidents connected with the recent entry of the Beadle into Uo tl ! Arcade , have been added to the original accounts from various swrces . V \ M select a few of the principal . When the Beadle was about to salute one of the young girls , his ejs er fell suddenly upon one of the old guard—a very old ( black ) guard—who ' ' j he instantly decorated with an order—for the Olympic . The effect wt w excellent .

      Everywhere the same enthusiasm . The Beadle gave an entertainment at t at tt dining-rooms in Rupert-street . There were three covers—one of meat and tnd tl of potatoes—which had an admirable effect . The dining-room was decoratorali in the very richest style , with transparencies and other emblems . One trui trtui parency was of glass , on which some words were written in gold letters oirs on black ground , but at the distance we were at we could r . ot decipher them . 1 . 1 ] Pvheumatic Band played at the bottom of the staircase during the repast . At At ; conclusion , the Beadle left threepence for the young girl who had offered hid hi ; with her own hands , the viands he had partaken of . This evidently produrodui the best impression .

      In the evening , the Beadle visited the ConcerfRoom of the Crown , and and mained to hear the recitation , by the celebrated Miss Rebecca , of some line 11 written expressly for the occasion under the title of

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Nov. 6, 1852, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_06111852/page/13/