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Northern Star (1837-1852), 6th November 1852, Edition 1 of 2, Page 13, Untitled Article

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    • WAIFS AND STRAYS
    • = LITERATUEE. ^ LITERATURE. n
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      Untitled Article

      v THE MAGAZINES FOR NO VEMBER . This month there is some improvement in magazine literature dlllt enoug h of late , but it is slill mediocre . An interesting paper ' , entitled « Valparaiso to San Francisco , " by Joseph Anthony , Llv d oes something towards relieving the tedium of Ainswqrth but of a very different character is the concluding paper on the Du ' ke of Wel lington- It is a mere repetition of the unqualified sycophancy ihat . has aided the daily journals in getting through ihe flat season £ e > ides these contributions , and the continuation of "The Lanca shire Witches , " and of " The Confederates , " there is a tale by Margaret Casson and some minor papers . __

      .. The Exhibition Jury Reports , " in Frazer , our readers will readily pardon our passm over . « Hypaiia , " « Autobiography of Capt ain D . gby Grand , and « Sketches of Rome under the Pope and the Republic , are continued . "The Northmen m Britain " is interesting , but our space will not allow of extract . In an ar ticle entitled " Ihe Ionian Islands and their Government " we have a laboured attempt to clear the character of ihe English H aynau , S > r Henry Ward . Of course the whi g Hi * h Coromissi ouer is a veritable martyr , the blessings of whose mifd and paterule the le of thIonian

      , ml r peop e Islands have not been able to properly appreciate . From this the writer concludes that the Ionian people are totally unfit to have any share in their own government . From the spirited resistence offered to the arbitrary proceedings of High Commissioner Ward , we would draw precisely the opposite conclusion . An excellent account of the family of Mrs . Beecher Stowe is given b y "An Alabama ' Man . " It seems that of the Beecher Stowe famil y , consisting of twelve persons , nine are authors ! We gather the following particulars of the life of

      The Authoress of " Uncle Tom ' s Cabin . " Harriet Beecher was born in Litchfieia about the year 1 S 12 After the removal o f t h e f am il y t o Bo s ton , she enjoyed the best educational advantages of 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 earlj age she began to aid her eldest sister , Catherine , in the management of a flourishing female school , 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 years after her removal to this place , Harriet Beeeher continued to tenrh in

      connexion with her sister . She did so until her marriage with the Rev . 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 atBowdoin College , Maine , and taking his theological degree at Andover , he had been appointed professor at Dartmouth College , New Hampshire , whence he had 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 her 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 alwayi 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 fay 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 . Por 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 facts to relate , many of which made the blood run chill with horror . Those spread out on the pages of "Uncle Tom ' s Ca b in , " reader , and which your swelling heart and overflowing eyes would not let you read aloud , are co ld i n c o mpar i son , The discussion was soon ended , f or a ll 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 students 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 yonng men into evening schools and the children into day schools , and devoted themselves to teaching them ; others organised benevolent soc i eties for aid i n g them , and orphan asylumns for the destitute and abandoned

      ch ild ren : an d ot h ers , again , left all to aid fugitive slaves on their way to Canada , or to lecture on the evils of slavery . The fanaticism was sublime ; every student felt himself a Peter the Hermit , and acted as if the abolition of slavery depended 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 regular study , they thought it high time to stop . It was too late ; the current was too strong to be arrested . The commercial interests of Cincinnati took the alarm : manufacturers feared the loss of their southern trade . Public sentiment

      exacted the suppression of the discussion and excitement . Slaveholders came over from Kentucky , and urged the mob on to violence . For several weeks there was imminent danger that Lane Seminary , and the houses of Dr . Beecher and professor Stowe , would be burnt or pulled down by a drunken rabble . These must have been weeks of mortal anxiety for Harriet Beecher . The Board of Trustees now interfered , an d a ll aye d t h e excitement of t h e m ob b y fobidding all further discussion of slavery in the seminary . To this the students responded oy withdrawing en masse . Where hundreds had been , there was l eft a mere handful . Lane Seminary was deserted . For seventeen years after this Dr . Beecher and Professor Stowe remained there , endeavouring in vain to revive its

      prosperity . In 1850 they returned to the eastern states , the great project of their life defeated . After a short stay at Bowdoin College , Ma i ne , Professor Stowe accepted an appointment to the chair of biblical literature in the Theoligical Seminary at Andover , Massachusetts , an institution whirfi stands , to say the least , as high as any in the United States . These events caused a painful reaction in the feelings of the Beechers . Repulsed alike by the ianaiicism they had witnessed among the foes , and the brutal violence among the friends of slavery , they thought their time for action had not come , and gavenopubuc expression of their abhorrence of slavery . They waited for the storm to subside , and the angel of truth to mirror Ins form in tranquil waters . For a long time they resisted all attempts to make them bow the knee to slavery , or to avow

      themselves abolitionists . The terrible and dramatic scenes which occurred in Cincinnat i , between 1835 and 1847 , were calculated to increase ths > repugnance of a lady to mingling actively in the melee . That city was the chief battle ground of freedom and slavery . During her long residence on the frontier of the slave states , Mrs . Stow made several visits to them . Mrs . Stowe has observed slavery in every phase ; she has seen masters and slaves at home , New Or l eans markets , fugitives , free coloured people , pro-slavery politicians and priests , abolitionists and colonisaiionists . She and her family havesuffered from it ; seventeen years of her life hare been clouded by it , For that long period she stifled the strongest emotions of her heart . No one but her intimate friends knew their strength . She has given them expression at last . Uncle Tom ' s Ca b in i s the a g on i s i n g cry

      offeelings pent up for . years in the heart af a true woman . . "How we talked about ihe Burmese War , " " Antibiography of Alexander Dumas / ' "A Visit 10 Iialy , " - England s Out-posts , " Wine and Wine Drinkers , " and other articles , render Bentley this month more than mediocre .

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      SSfSiipas rern ^ T '' Holid ^ ' ^ some what JuaaldlT'T ' ! f leOn M The ^ tf" Martial Enthusiasm ; a vvi es ^ an Lnr t TT ? * J *™ * "Mom < ° disband , ad " » ves , an amusing bit of fiction from the French , entitled •« I uric jnd no Luck ; » a highly improbable yam dignified v he tiUe of a H ome « paihic Miracle ; " articles on { he "Irish ec ions " "Louis Napoleon , " « Portugal , " &c ; an account of the "Black Republic" of Liberia , and a continuation of « Norman Hamfl on " combine to make up areadable number of the ever wdcome -Tait -We condense from this , magazine the following account of he new commonwealth ; « the Land of Promise" of the Ion " enslaved and degraded children of Af . ica . 3

      THE MBBRIAN REPUBLIC Owes its existence to a few benevolent Americans , who , in 1816 , instituted t h e American C 0 l 0 nisaa 0 n Society , for co ] onising the * ^ J J ^ tod h Un . ted States . The records of the society show that of the colonist who have been conveyed from America to Liberia , on l y one t hi r d wore p revou y f ree while he remaining two-thirds were slaves emancipated by ZirZZTin order that they might be sent to the African colon ; , where alore iHas con " sidered they could enjoy the full benefit of freedom . The earl y eff o rt s of th society were unfortunate . The first settlement was unhealthily situated and death swept off a large number of the blacks and most of their w Sends An agent of the society , along with Captain Stocktonof the American s ot

      , pwar Alligator , wight a new settlement , and , after encountering many perils succeeded m purchasing » tract of land on Mesurador Bay iu exchange d miscellaneous assortment of goods , sufficient to stock a country shon in th ? 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 reDel their human , or , rather , savage assailants , they 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 pevilous condition , as they had been foi

      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 . Prom 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 the 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 Luing , the distinguished African traveller . No one on board the 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 sympath y wa s exc i te d " 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 s ecure a tr e a t y o f peace . In their humbled condition , after two very severe defeats , th e c hi e f s were di spo s e d f or an accommo d at i on ; and Major Lainj had the satisfaction of restoring amity between the setilers and the

      native tribes . Some of the warm-hearted British seamen , unfortunately for themselves , were not satisfied with rendering this merely temporary assistance . Doubtiug 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 " s peed i ly attacked with fever , and in a few weeks , amid the tears and grief of their newmade ft lends , Gordon and eight of his men * were borne to their last home . "

      From 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 , und 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 pavtly by the occasional purchase of small portionsof 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 lo ne wh i te star " in 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 Liberi a is estimated at 250 , 000 souls . But of this number only about 10 , 000 are emigrants from America . The remainder arc native Africans , who have voluntarily united themselves to the or iginal 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 Conncil . Still the remarkable fact remains , that only the fifth

      twenty- part of the present inhabitants of Liberia were originally natives of a civilised country : and even of this 9 mall number two-thirds were uneducated slaves , and the remaining third were members of a degraded caste—the American " free people of colour . " Yet these ten thousand freed men and par i ah s , most of them wholly , and all of them in some degree of African descent have been able not only to establish an orderly and well-governed republic , with a perfectly free constitution , b a s e d upon un i versa l s uffra g e , 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 . The Liberian President is elected every two years . Mr . Roberts has this year entered on his third term of offiee .

      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 , coffee , 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 iurnished 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 se e ms highly probable that another half-century will not pass away before this great consummation will be attained . If this reasoning be correct , it will perhaps be admitted 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 . The picture of the proud , cold , haughty , impassable lady brought face to face with her terrible secret , is worthy of Dickens . The Priestly Office . A Discourse by the Rav . David Maginnis . Belfast . Mr . Maginnis thinks that , " the setting apart of a distinct order of men for the exercise of the Priestly Office- ^ though

      Untitled Article

      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 . Maginnis . He says : " Priestly corporations have no doubt , always been the wor ? t enemies of the truth . Progress

      they nave uniformly 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 . Maginnis , would do much towards extirpating ignorance , slavery , and misery ; but where are they to be found ? We thank Mr . Maginnis tor his noble sentiments , and wish his Discourse a wide circulation .

      The Stokb-upon-Tr ent Monthly Narrative . October . Our 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 . Dobsoa toilet , should be reprinted for gratuitous circulation .

      Untitled Article

      Mr . Macaulay has preserved in his history the burden of * a ballad which was once sung all over Cornwall by men , w omen , and even by children of every class , but of which he seems to think that on ly these two lines now linger in living memory : — " And shall Trelawney die , and shall Trelawney die ? - \ Then twenty thousand Cornish boys will know the reason why ! Trelawney was one of the seren Bishops whom James the Second sent to the

      Tower ; but it was not the dan « er 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 the feeling has remained too strong , even to our own time , to permit this noble ballad to sink into a mere fragment of a couple of lines .

      Some thirty-five yeaw ago , Mr , Davies Gilbert , then member for a Cornis h borough which he had long represented , and also President of the Royal SoeiQty and a zealous antiquarian , printed some fifty copies of the Trelawney ba llad 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 « Le petit tambour . " The verses belong to that order of which Sydney was thinking , when he spoke of an old ballad stirring his heart like a trumpt : —

      THE EEASON WHY . A CORNISH BAXLAI ) . A good sword and a trusty hand , A merry h ear t an d true : King James'a men shall understand What Cornish men can do . And have they fixed the Where and When 1

      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 1 There ' s twenty thousand underground Will know the reason why I

      Out spake the Captain brave and bold , A gallant wight was he , — "Though London ' s Tower were Michael ' s holcP s We'll set Trelawney free . We ' ll cross the Tamar , han d to hand , The Exe s hall b e no stay Go , side by side , from strand to strand , And who shall bid us nay 1 And shall they scovn Tre , Pol , and Pen , And shall Trelawney die ? 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 , come forth , ye coward 9 all , We ' re better men than you ! Trelawney , he ' s in keep and hold , Trelawney , he ma y d ie ; But twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why l' » And shall they scorn Tre , Pol , sn £ Pen , And shall Trelawney die ? There ' s twent y thousand underground Will know the reason why I " —HmtseJiold Words ,

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      THE EMPIRE OP BEADIED 03 I . Several incidents connected with the recent entry of the Beadle Into the " Arca d e , have been added to the original accownts from various sjurces . We select a few of the principal . When the Beadle was about to salute one of the young girls , his eye fell suddenly upon one of the old guard—a- very old ( Wack ; guard—whom he instantly decorated with an order—for the Olympic . The effect was excellent .

      Everywhere the same enthusiasm . The Beadle gave an entertainment at the di mng-rooms in Rupert-street . There were three covers-one of meat and two of potetow-which had an admirable effect . The dining-room was decorated in the every richest style , with transparencies and other emblems . One transparency was of gla « s , on which some words were U written in gold Utters on a black ground , but at the distance we were at we could not decipher hem The Bbeamatie Band played at the bottom of the staircase durin * the remT At its ^ h ^ owntnTt l 6 ft th / T 7 f ° the y 0 " * ^ ^ 0 trowed him ^ t iCssS : ^ and 9 ^ ParUlkCn f ¦ TWS " «¦* P" — Inthe evening the Beadle visited tbr Concert Room of the Crown , and rewrmen * 0 Ija * the "dtetlon . by the celebrated Miss Hbbkcca , of Le lines written expressly for the occasion under the title of

      LE BEADLEDOM c ' eST- — THE PAY ! It was observed that the Beadlej in drinking the health of the company , did so in an ivpbbxal measure . The fact was significant , and the effect was excellent . Some difference of opinion is said to exist as to the title by which the Beadledom is to be made hereditary . It has been stated that the style intended to be assumed will be that of Bumble II ., Beadle of the Arcade , and » Protector of the Lowther Bazaar , " but as this would imply a disposition to an extension of territory , it has been objected' to as offering unnecessary provocation to foreicn powers . It is true that little resistance could be anticipated from Exeter whose tenantry seem to have resigned in a body , and to have vacated their offices . The Beadle of Exeter is thus thrown upon his own resources , which consisted , when he saw him last , of a pennyworth of walnuts . —Punch . ¦

      Waifs And Strays

      WAIFS AND STRAYS

      Untitled Article

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      = Literatuee. ^ Literature. N

      = LITERATUEE . ^ LITERATURE . n

  • 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/vm2-ncseproduct1703/page/13/