Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

The last and most important of Mr. Schoolcraft's works, the crowning labor of his life, for the composition of which all his previous efforts were but notes of preparation, is the Historical and Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States: Collected and prepared under the Direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, per act of March 3, 1847. The initial volume of this important national publication, profusely illustrated with engravings from drawings by Captain Eastman, of the Army, has lately been issued in a very large and splendid quarto, by Lippincott. Grambo & Co., of Philadelphia, under authority of Congress. It embraces the general, national, and tribal history of the Indian race, with their traditions, manners, customs, languages, mythology, &c., and when completed will probably extend to six or seven volumes. Until more of it is published, it will not be possible to form any exact judgment of it, except such as is warranted by a knowledge of the author's previous works: but such a judgment must be in the highest degree favorable.

Mr. Schoolcraft's ethnological writings are among the most important contributions that have been made to the literature of this country. His long and intimate connection with the Indian tribes, and the knowledge possessed by his wife and her family of the people from whom they were descended by the maternal side, with his power of examining their character from the European point of view, have enabled him to give us more authentic and valuable information respecting their manners, customs, and physical traits, and more insight into their moral and intellectual constitution, than can be derived, perhaps, from all other authors. His works abound in materials for the future artist and man of letters, and will on this account continue to be read when the greater portion of the popular literature of the day is forgotten. With the forests which they inhabited, the red race have disappeared with astonishing rapidity. Until recently they have rarely been the subjects of intelligent study; and it began to be regretted, as they were seen fading from our sight, that there was so little written respecting them that had any pretensions to fidelity. I would not be understood to undervalue the productions of Eliot, Loskiel, Heckewelder, Brainerd, and other early missionaries, but they were restricted in design, and it is not to be denied that confidence in their representations has been much impaired, less perhaps from doubts of their integrity than of their ability and of the advantages of the points of view from which they made their observations. The works on Indian philology by Roger Williams and the younger Edwards are more valuable than any others of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but it now appears that these authors knew very little of the philosophy of the American language. Du Ponceau's knowledge was still more superficial, and excepting Mr. Gallatin and the late Mr. Pickering, who made use of the imperfect data furnished by others, I believe no one besides Mr. Schoolcraft has recently produced any thing on the subject worthy of consideration. Something has been done by General Cass, and Mr. McKenny and Mr. Catlin have undoubtedly accomplished much in this department of ethnography; but allowing all that can reasonably be claimed for these artist-travellers, Mr. Schoolcraft must still be regarded as the standard and chief authority respecting the Algic tribes.

The influence which the original and peculiar myths and historical traditions of the Indians is to have on our imaginative literature, has been recently more than ever exhibited in the works of our authors. The tendency of the public taste to avail itself of the American mythology as a basis for the exhibition of "new lines of fictitious creations" has been remarked by Mr. Schoolcraft himself in Oneota, and he refers to the tales of Mrs. Oakes Smith, and to the Wild Scenes in the Forest and the Prairie, and the Vigil of Faith, by Mr. Charles F. Hoffman, as works in which this tendency is most distinctly perceptible. In the writings of W. H. C. Hosmer, the legends of Mr. Whittier, and some of the poems of Mr. Longfellow and Mr. Lowell, we see manifestations of the same disposition.

No one who has not had the most ample opportunities of personal observation should attempt to mould Indian life and mythology to the purposes of fiction without carefully studying whatever Mr. Schoolcraft has published respecting them. The chief distinction of the Algic style with which he has made us acquainted is its wonderful simplicity and conciseness, with which the common verbosity, redundant description, false sentiment, and erroneous manners of what are called Indian tales, are as little in keeping as "English figures in moccasins, and holding bows and arrows."

The excellent portrait at the beginning of this article is from a daguerreotype by Simons, of Philadelphia.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Two of these lectures were published in 1834, translated into French by the late Mr. du Ponceau, and subsequently read before the National Institute of France.

THE MARGRAVINE OF ANSPACH.

The death, in London, a few weeks ago, of a daughter of the celebrated Lady Craven, afterwards Margravine of Anspach, has recalled attention to the history of that remarkable and celebrated person, whose life has the interest of a romance.

ELIZABETH BERKELEY, Margravine of Anspach, was born in December, 1750. She was the daughter of Augustus, fourth Earl of Berkeley, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Drax of Charborough. She was brought up under the care of a native of Switzerland, the wife of a German tutor of her uncle. She describes herself as having been a delicate, diminutive child, addicted at an early age to reading, and of timid and retired habits. She first beheld a play when she was twelve years old, and from that occasion she dates the growth of her subsequent partiality for theatrical entertainments. At the age of thirteen she paid a short visit to France with her mother and her elder sister, and at fourteen she had been, as she says she afterwards discovered, "in love without knowing it" with the Marquis de Fitz James. On the 10th May, 1767, she was married to William Craven, nephew and heir of the fifth Lord Craven, whom he succeeded in 1769. She professes to have felt indifference when receiving his addresses, but the marriage was for some time a happy one, and she says, "My husband seemed to have no other delight than in procuring for me all the luxuries and enjoyments within his power, and it was an eternal dispute (how amiable a dispute!) between us; _he_ always offering presents, and _I_ refusing whenever I could." Gifted with genius and beauty, both of which she knew well how to apply; a woman of Lady Craven's rank naturally drew around her a large circle of admirers. She says of herself very characteristically, "In London the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough showed their partiality to me, and Mr. Walpole, afterwards Lord Orford, Dr. Johnson, Garrick, and his friend Colman, were among my numerous admirers; and Sir Joshua Reynolds did not conceal his high opinion of me. Charles Fox almost quarrelled with me because I was unwilling to interfere with politics--a thing which I always said I detested, and considered as being out of the province of a woman."

It appears to have been in the year 1779 that Lady Craven discovered the infidelities with which she charged her husband, when she requested of him the favor "that he would not permit his mistress to call herself Lady Craven." After an interval of about three years spent in partial reconciliation, a separation took place. The indifferent tone in which she treats the whole of this transaction, and her professed readiness to overlook every slight that was not public and glaring, are a stain on her character, which she has by her own animated pen exhibited to an age which had forgotten the accusations to which she was subjected. At the time of her separation from her husband she was the mother of seven children.

Lady Craven had in the mean time produced her first play, "The Sleepwalker," a translation from the French, printed in 1778, at her friend Walpole's press at Strawberry Hill. In 1779 she published "Modern Anecdotes of the Family of Kinvervankotsprakengatchdern, a Tale for Christmas." This was a caricature of the ceremonious pomposity of the petty German courts; it was dramatized by Mr. M. P. Andrews. Soon after the separation, she passed some time in France, where she met with the Margrave of Anspach. They formed a sudden friendship for each other, and agreed to consider each other (we are told) as brother and sister. In June, 1785, Lady Craven commenced a tour, in which, starting from Paris, she passed by the Rhine to Italy, went thence by the Tyrol to Vienna, passed on to Warsaw, Petersburg, and Moscow, proceeded by the Don to Turkey, and returned by Vienna, which she reached in August, 1786. On this occasion she ran, by her own account, a serious risk of being made Empress of Austria. In 1789 she published an account of her tour (1 vol. 4to), in letters addressed to the margrave, saying in the dedication, "Beside curiosity, my friends will in these letters see, at least for some time, where the real Lady Craven has been, and where she is to be found--it having been the practice for some years past for a Birmingham coin of myself to pass in most of the inns in France, Switzerland, and England, for the wife of my husband. My arms and coronet sometimes supporting in some measure this insolent deception; by which, probably, I may have been seen to behave very improperly." This work is interesting from the many sketches it contains of eminent people--such as the Empress Catharine, the Princess Dashcoff, Prince Potemkin, Count Romanzoff, Admiral Mordvinoff, the Duc de Choiseul, and others. It is full of accurate observation and lively description, expressed in clear and simple English--a style from which in later life she considerably diverged. She descended into the grotto of Antiparos, being the first female to undertake the adventure. The French biographers maintain that the tameness of her description of the scene shows a deficiency of appreciation of the wonderful and sublime. She does not indeed ornament her description with hyperboles and exclamations, but it is clear and expressive, and by the distinctness of the impression which it conveys to the reader, shows that the scene was fully noticed and comprehended by the writer. After her return from her journey, she visited England to see her children, and then proceeded to France, where she joined the margrave and accompanied him to Anspach. Here, during a residence of a few years, she established a theatre, which was chiefly supplied with dramatic entertainments of her own composition. They were collected into two volumes 8vo, under the title of "Nouveau Theatre d'Anspach et de Triesdorf," the latter being the name of a country seat nine miles from Anspach, where she laid out a park and garden in the English manner. She established at the same time "a society for the encouragement of arts and sciences." She soon afterwards visited, in company with the margrave, the congenial court of Naples, where she made the acquaintance of Sir William and Lady Hamilton. Her conduct was the subject of much censure both in England and among the officials of the court of Anspach, to whom her interference was a natural subject of distrust; and if it should even be admitted that her own account of the purity of her motives and conduct is correct, it cannot be denied that she afforded material for forming the worst interpretations of them. She maintains that she always opposed the cession of his dominions to the crown of Prussia by the margrave in 1791, but she was almost his sole adviser on the occasion. She states that she received the first hint of his design at Naples. One day while she was dressing for dinner, a servant intimated that the margrave desired to see her. On her appearance he said, "I must go to Berlin _incog._--will you go with me? it is the only sacrifice of your time I will ever require of you." They set out together, and on the way through Anspach they found the establishment nearly in open revolt against her influence. The king, however, was kind and generous in the extreme, and the contracting parties are represented as only striving to excel each other in generosity. Meanwhile the margrave's first wife died, and Lord Craven's death occurred six months afterwards, on the 26th September, 1791. Immediately on hearing of this event, Lady Craven was married to the margrave. "It was six weeks," she says, "after Lord Craven's decease that I gave my hand to the margrave, which I should have done six hours after, had I known it at the time." As the cession of the margraviate to Prussia dates 2d December, 1791, the marriage must have taken place about three weeks before it. The nuptials were solemnized at Lisbon, whence the new married pair passed through Spain and France to England.

The margrave, on the sale of his principality, resolved to spend his days with his wife in England. They had no sooner arrived, however, than the storm of family and public indignation which had been brewing against the margravine burst upon her head. She received a letter from her three daughters, saying, "with due deference to the Margravine of Anspach, the Miss Cravens inform her that, out of respect to their father, they cannot wait upon her," and her eldest son, Lord Craven, refused to countenance her. The margrave received a message from the queen, through the Prussian minister, to the effect that his wife, though she had received a diploma from the emperor, could not be received at court as a princess of the empire. She says that she refused to derogate from her dignity by appearing merely as a peeress of England; but it is not clear that she would have been received in that capacity. She addressed a memorial on the subject to the House of Lords, but they gave her no redress; indeed it would not have been consistent with the practice of that body to interfere on such an occasion. Soon after their arrival, the margrave purchased through trustees, Lord Craven's estate of Benham, and the mansion of Brandenburgh House, a place celebrated as afterwards affording a retreat to Queen Caroline, the wife of George IV. Until the margrave's death in 1806, it was a scene of continued profusion and gayety, in which the luxuries and amusements of an English mansion were united with those of a German court, "My whole enjoyment," says the margravine, "during the margrave's valuable life, was to do every thing in my power, to make him not only comfortable, but happy. Under my management, the world imagined that he spent double his income." Her attachment to her second husband was strong. She speaks of him with an enthusiasm and devotion which bear the stamp of sincerity. "I believe," she says, "a better man never existed. There never was a being who could act upon more sincere principles. Nothing could divert him from what was right. None could bear with patience, like himself, the ill conduct of those to whom he was attached. None could more easily forgive." After his decease, the margravine, who succeeded to the large property which he left, felt impatient to recommence her wanderings. On the restoration she sailed for France, and, after being interrupted in her movements by the reign of the hundred days, reached Rome, where it was said that she kept open house for all the revolutionists of all countries who chose to accept her hospitalities. The King of Naples afterwards presented her with a small estate, in which she built a palace, where she resided till her death, which occurred on January 13, 1828. Only two years previously, and when she was seventy-six years old, she surprised and delighted the English world by the publication of her well-known memoirs. This work is perhaps one of the best examples of the French memoirs which English literature possesses. It is indeed thoroughly French, not only in spirit but in idiom, and, to the reader, has all the appearance of a translation from that language. It thus affords, in its style, a remarkable contrast to the book of travels above noticed. It contains a vast variety of anecdotes and sketches of character, always amusing if not always accurate. It has no continuity of narrative, leaping backwards and forwards through all ages, and among every variety of subject: from a description of the monument which she erected to the memory of her husband, she takes occasion to give a rapid sketch of the history of the art of sculpture. The least pleasing feature in the work is its intense egotism. The margravine was a woman of wonderfully versatile genius. She wrote with fluency in French and German. She was an accomplished musician and actress; and she tells us, "I have executed many busts myself, and among others one of the margrave, which is generally allowed to be extremely like him."

LONDON DESCRIBED BY A PARISIAN.

M. Francis Wey, who is a college professor and _litterateur_ of some eminence in Paris, has published for visitors from the continent to the Great Exhibition, a volume entitled _Guides a Londres_, composed, we believe, of a series of articles, _Les Anglais chez Eux_ (the English at Home), which he had contributed to the _Musee des Familles_, an old and favorite Parisian journal. It is very amusing to see the manner in which these things are received by the British press. The sensitiveness of which the Americans are accused is quite equalled in that which is displayed in the London criticisms of Monsieur Wey. And just at this time it is all the more pleasant to us, for that our amiable Mother-Country critics are quoting with so much enjoyment the characterizations of us poor United-Statesers, done in the same way, by a gentleman of the same country. Even _Blackwood_ does not seem to have a suspicion that a Frenchman could caricature or in any way exaggerate the publicities or domesticities of New-York; but all the independent, care-for-nothing John Bulls see only "rancor," "ill-will," and "absurdity" in the Frenchman's views of English society. The _Literary Gazette_, the _Weekly News_, and all the rest, have the same tone. French travellers, it is said--

"Instead of patiently collecting their facts, they _invent_
them. Instead of representing social usages as they really
are, they state them as what they choose to suppose. They
mistake flippancy for wit, and imperturbable assurance for
knowledge. They speak _ex cathedra_ of matters of which they
are profoundly ignorant. And the consequence of all this is
that they commit the drollest blunders, make the most
startling assertions, indulge in the most grotesque
appreciations, and flounder in the most extravagant
absurdities."

We wonder if a single British reviewer will introduce, with such a paragraph, his extracts from the Letters on America, by M. XAVIER MARMIER? Not a bit of it.

On the English language, M. Wey says--

"The Englishman has invented for himself a language adapted
to his placid manners and silent tastes. This language is a
murmur, accompanied by soft hissings; it falls from the
lips, but is scarcely articulated; if the chest or throat be
employed to increase the power of the voice, the words
become changed and scarcely intelligible; if cried aloud,
they are hoarse, and resemble the confused croaking of frogs
in marshes."

"The English are passionately attached to their language.
They have only consented to borrow one single word from us,
and that is employed by their innkeepers--_table d'hote_,
which they pronounce _taible dott_. And yet we have taken
hundreds of words from them!"

English women--

"English women give to us the preference over their own
countrymen. Our gallantry is something new to them, and our
politeness touches their hearts. But though they love us, we
are not liked by their lords and masters. There is no
exaggeration in all that has been said of the beauty of
English women--an assemblage of them would realize the
paradise of Mahomet."

Their dresses--

"Many white gowns are to be seen. White is a _recherche_
luxury in that land of tallow and smoke, where linen becomes
dirty in three hours. However, good taste is making some
progress. Ladies may be met with who are well dressed,
although, generally speaking, a sort of audacity is
displayed in wearing the most irreconcilable colors. What
gives English women a somewhat _bizarre_ appearance, is the
custom they have of swelling out their petticoats, by means
of circles of whalebone or iron:--this causes them to
resemble large bells in movement."

English manners--

"English manners, rigid and cold, and dominated by arid
rationalism, are the work of Cromwell. His bigotry and
hypocrisy, his exterior austerity, his narrow formalism,
suit the Englishman; he keeps up Cromwell's character, and
admires himself in his usages. But he has no pity for his
model--he never forgives Cromwell for having made him what
he is. His spite towards that man is the last cry of nature,
and the vague regret of a liberty of imagination of which
neither the joys or the aspirations have been known since
his time." "They have no grace, no _desinvoltura_, no poesy
in them, but are methodical, reasonable, indefatigable in
work and in amassing lucre."

How the English love--

"They love nothing with the heart; when they do love, it is exclusively of the head."

English bankers--

"In France we have the love of display; but in London it is
not so. There, some of the principal bankers go every
morning to the butchers' shops to buy their own chops, and
they carry them ostensibly to some tavern in Cheapside or
Fleet Street, where they cook them themselves. Then they buy
three pennyworth of rye-bread, and publicly eat this Spartan
breakfast. The exhibition fills their clients with
admiration. But in the evening these good men make up for
this by taking in their own palaces suppers worthy of
Lucullus."

Flunkeys--

"The English aristocracy are distinguished by the number,
the canes, and the wigs of their lacqueys. Seeing constantly
a footman, well powdered and bewigged, carry horizontally a
large Voltaire cane behind certain sumptuous carriages, I
asked for an explanation; it was soon given--wig, powder,
and cane are aristocratic privileges. Not only must a man
have a certain number of quarterings to be authorized to
make his servants use such things, but he must pay so much
tax for the lacquey, so much for the wig, so much for the
tail to the wig, and so much for the cane."

What most strikes a Frenchman in London--

"The coldness of the men towards the fair sex, and their profound passion for horses."

Officers of the life and horse guards--

"Cupid seems to have chosen them--they are possessed of such ideal beauty."

English taverns--

"The Englishman likes to be alone, even at the tavern. He
fastens himself up in a box, where none can see him. There
he drinks with taciturn phlegm. He takes tea, boiling grog,
porter of the color of ink, and beer not less black. He is
very fond of brandy, and drinks large glasses of it at a
draught. He does not go to the tavern to amuse himself, but
because drinking is a grave occupation. The more he swallows
the calmer he is. One can however scarcely decide if his
obstinate moroseness be a precaution against drunkenness, or
the effect of spirituous liquors taken in excess. At some of
the taverns are three gentlemen, dressed in black, with
white cravats, who sing after one of them has struck the
table with a little hammer; they are as serious as
Protestant ministers or money-changers."

English food--

"Thick stupefying beer, meat almost raw and horribly spiced;
strong libations of port wine, followed by
plum-pudding--such is the meat of these islanders."

How the English eat--

"They eat at every hour, every where, and incessantly. The
iron constitution of their complaisant stomachs enables them
to feed in a manner which would satisfy wolves and lions.
The delicate repast of a fair and sentimental young lady
would be too much for a couple of Parisian street porters."

Stables and museums--

"Stables are clean and brilliant as museums ought to be; and
the museums are as filthy as stables in Provence."

The Queen's stables--

"They form a college of horses, with pedantic grooms for
professors, and a harness room for a library:"

English omnibuses--

"The omnibuses of London are worn out, ill built, and
remarkably dirty. Even in wet weather nobody is ever allowed
to enter the interior so long as any places are vacant
outside. We had expected to find them built of mahogany and
lined with velvet."

London--

"London, wholly devoted to private interests, offers nothing
to the heart or mind. The city is too large; a man is lost
in it; you elbow thousands of people without the hope of
meeting any one you know. Even if you have a large fortune
you would be ignored. Originality is there without effect;
vanity without an object; and the desire of shining is
chimerical. Intelligence has therefore only one opening,
politics; pride only one object, the national sentiment; but
as the people must feel enthusiasm for something, they adore
horses; and as they must admire somebody, they burn incense
under Lord Wellington's nose."

After midnight--

"At midnight the English leave the taverns, the public
gardens, the theatres, and the open air balls, and fill up
the supper saloons (not very reputable places), and the
oyster rooms, where they eat till morning. After sunrise,
the policemen are occupied in picking up in the gutters
drunkards of both sexes, and all conditions."

London rain--

"It is tallow melted in water, and perfectly black."

A bad quarter--

"Between Cornhill Street and Thames Street, there lives what
is called the populace of London; there pauperism is
frightful. The wretched inhabitants of that district are
brawlers, drunkards, and prize-fighters."

At Westminster Abbey--

"Shakspeare slumbers at a few steps from Richard II. The
tombs bear traces of Presbyterian mutilations; but in other
places the Calvinists scattered the bones of the deceased
Bishops of Geneva. Such is the intolerance of the
Protestants that they have not admitted the statue of Byron
to the Abbey, and his shadow may be heard groaning at the
door."

At Her Majesty's Theatre--

"To go with a blue cravat is _shocking_. When the doors are
open, blows with the fist and the elbow are given without
regard to age or sex. It is the peculiar fashion of entering
which the natives have. If a Frenchman be recognized the
people cry _French dog_. In the pit, the man behind you will
place his foot on your shoulder. The ladies are plunged up
to the neck in boxes. In the theatre there is an echo, which
produces an abominable effect; but such is the vile musical
taste of the English that they have never found it out. In
the saloon you hear the continual hissing of teakettles."

The English Parliament--

"The House of Commons at present meets in a hole. The peers
are in their new chamber. It is small, not monumental, and
heavily ornamented. It reminds one of our tea shops, or a
_boudoir_. The lords, when assembled, are generally placed
on their backs, or rather lean on the back of the neck, and
keep their legs above their heads. The Queen's throne, like
constitutional royalty, is a gilded cage."

The new Houses of Parliament--

"They are an immense architectural plaything, and the
English only admire them because they cost a vast sum."

English love of titles--

"One of my friends gave me a letter of introduction to Sir
William P----, _Esquire_. I left the letter with my card at
the Reform Club, Pall Mall. Two hours after Sir William came
to my residence; but as I was not at home he wrote a line,
and addressed it to me with the flattering designation of
_Esquire_. England is the country of legal equality; but
this sort of equilibrium does not extend to social usages;
and although our _penchant_ for distinctions seems puerile
to the English, it would be easy to prove that they are not
exempt from it. They have not, as we have, the love of
uniforms, laced coats, epaulettes, or decorations; their
button-holes often carry a flower, but never a rosette or
knot of ribbon. But every body pretends to the title of
_Sir_, which was formerly reserved exclusively to members of
the House of Commons, to Baronets, and to some public
functionaries. As, however, the title _Sir_ has become too
vulgar, every body calls himself _Esquire_ to distinguish
himself from his neighbor. This remark, nevertheless, does
not concern my friend Sir William, for he is really an
Esquire."

English soldiers--

"The noise which announces their approach is very singular.
Picture to yourself the monotonous music of a bear's dance,
executed by twenty fifers, whilst a man beats a big drum.
The coats of the infantry are too short, and are surmounted
with large white epaulettes. The men sway their bodies about
to the beating of the drum, and carry their heads so stiffly
that they appear to be balancing spoons on their noses. All
the officers and non-commissioned officers carry long sticks
with ivory handles."

Resemblance of Englishmen one to another--

"All Englishmen are alike. They live in the same way, are
subject to the same logical rules, condemned to the same
amusements. The proof that there exists only one character
amongst them, and that they have only one way of living, is,
that it is impossible, on seeing them, to divine their
profession. A lord, a minister, a domestic, a street singer,
a merchant, an admiral, a soldier, a general, an artist, a
judge, a prize-fighter, and a clergyman, have all the same
appearance, the same language, the same costume, and the
same bearing. Each one has the air of an Englishman, and
nothing more. They live in the same way, work at the same
hours, eat at the same time, and of the same sort of food,
and are all sequestrated when away from home from the
society of women."

The French at London--

"At London the French labor under two subjects of anxiety,
caused by their national prejudices. Accustomed to consider
themselves as the first people in the world, to dazzle some,
to despise others, and to display every where the confident
pride of their supremacy, they, on treading the British
soil, experience the impression of a greatness not borrowed
from them; they are astonished at finding a people as
remarkable as ours, as original as we are, and carrying to a
still prouder degree the sentiment of their pre-eminence.
Then our countrymen become disquieted; the intolerance of
their national faith becomes mitigated; they are ill at
ease, and for the first time in their lives feel constraint.
Ceasing to believe themselves amongst slaves as in Italy,
amongst vassals as in Belgium, or amongst innkeepers as in
Switzerland or Germany, they endeavor to resemble sovereigns
visiting other sovereigns, and by forced politeness render
them involuntary homage."

Feeling of the English toward the French--

"They honor us with a marked attention, though they are
indifferent to the rest of mankind. Our opinions respecting
them cause them anxiety. They either admire us
enthusiastically, or disparage us bitterly; but, in reality,
they are obsequious and servile toward us!"

After a good deal of the numerous statues to Wellington, this at English admiration of Waterloo--

"The trumpet of Waterloo which has been sounded in London
every where incessantly, and in every tone, during
thirty-five years, diminishes the grandeur of the English
nation. This intoxication seems that of a people who, never
having won more than one battle, and despairing to conquer a
second time, cannot recover from their surprise, nor bear in
patience an unhoped-for glory."

How the English judge Napoleon--

"Public opinion has avenged the prisoner of St Helena; but
does it follow that in 1815 the English protested with
sufficient energy against his imprisonment! No. Englishmen
are naturally indifferent and indulgent as regards their
foreign neighbors, so long as patriotism or private interest
is not at stake. Napoleon was the most terrible of their
enemies; he placed England within ten steps of bankruptcy,
and seriously menaced national manufactures. Not possessed
of military instinct, the English do not pretend to
chivalrous generosity. On the fall of the Empire, caused by
the implacable perseverance of coalitions, the nation
remembered that the Hundred Days cost its government a
million an hour, and so long as the deficit was not made up,
their resentment underwent no diminution. But now if you
celebrate his glory before them, they will not display
hostility. You must not, however, touch the till of this
tribe of tradesmen, or they will be your bitter enemies. And
the proof that they are nothing but shopkeepers is that
their first functionary sits in a gilded arm chair on a
wool-sack."

THE BEAUTIFUL STREAMLET AND THE UTILITARIAN.

Alphonse Karr's new book, _Travels in my Garden_, is full of social heresies, but quite as full of wit. We find in _Fraser's Magazine_ for May translations of some admirable passages, with specimens of his peculiar speculation. Karr is an ardent lover of Nature; he takes note of all her caprices, and respects them,--remarks under what shade the violet loves to dwell, and tells us how certain plants--the volubulis, the scarlet-runner, and the Westeria, for instance--invariably twine their spiral tendrils from left to right, whereas hops and honeysuckles as infallibly twist theirs from right to left. He knows which are the plants that fold, when evening comes, their leaves in two, lengthwise,--which are those that close them up like fans, and which are the careless ones that crumple them up irregularly with happy impunity, for the next morning's sun smooths them all alike. He loves Nature in all her details, but with disinterested love, and has no idea of making her subservient to his pride, or selfishly monopolizing her; he has evidently no wish to wall in woods and meadows, and call them a park, or to dam up sparkling, bubbling, dancing streams, and turn them into cold, spiritless, aristocratic sheets of water. Indeed, in one of the first chapters of the book, there is a fanciful bit of sentiment about a happy little stream that falls into the hands of a pitiless utilitarian, which we are tempted to quote:--

"That stream which runs through my garden gushes from the
side of a furze-covered hill; for a long time it was a happy
little stream; it traversed meadows where all sorts of
lovely wild flowers bathed and mirrored themselves in its
waters, then it entered my garden, and there I was ready to
receive it; I had prepared green tanks for it; on its edge
and in its very bed I had planted those flowers which all
over the world love to bloom on the banks and in the bosom
of pure streams; it flowed through my garden, murmuring its
plaintive song; then, fragrant with my flowers, it left the
garden, crossed another meadow, and flung itself into the
sea, over the precipitous sides of the cliff, which it
covered with foam.

"It was a happy stream; it had literally nothing to do
beyond what I have said,--to flow, to bubble, to look
limpid, to murmur, amidst flowers and sweet perfumes. It led
the life I have chosen, and that I continue to lead, when
people let me alone, and when knaves and fools and wicked
men do not force me--who am at once the most pacific and the
most battling man on earth--to return to the fight. But
heaven and earth are jealous of the happiness of gentle
indolence.

"One day my brother Eugene, and Savage, the clever engineer,
were talking together on the banks of the stream, and to a
certain degree abusing it.

"'There,' said my brother, 'is a fine good-for-nothing
stream for you, forsooth, winding and dawdling about,
dancing in the sunshine, and revelling in the grass instead
of working and paying for the place it takes up, as an
honest stream should. Could it not be made to grind coffee
or pepper?'

"'Or tools?' added Savage.

"'Or to saw boards?' said my brother.

"I trembled for the stream, and broke off the conversation,
complaining loudly that its detractors (its would-be
tyrants) were treading down my forget-me-nots. Alas! it was
but against them alone I could protect it. Before long there
came into our neighborhood a man whom I noticed more than
once hanging about the spot where the stream empties itself
into the sea. The fellow I plainly saw was neither seeking
for rhymes, nor indulging in dreams and memories upon its
banks,--he was not lulling thought to rest with the gentle
murmur of its waters. 'My good friend,' he was saying to the
stream, 'there you are, idling and meandering about, singing
to your heart's content, while I am working and wearing
myself out. I don't see why you should not help me a bit;
you know nothing of the work to be done, but I'll soon show
you. You'll soon know how to set about it. You must find it
dull to stay in this way, doing nothing,--it would be a
change for you to make files or grind knives.' Very soon
wheels of all kinds were brought to the poor stream. From
that day forward it has worked and turned a great wheel,
which turns a little wheel, which turns a grindstone; it
still sings, but no longer the same gently-monotonous song
in its peaceful melancholy. Its song is loud and angry
now,--it leaps and froths and works now,--it grinds knives!
It still crosses the meadow, and my garden, and the next
meadow; but there, the man is on the watch for it, to make
it work. I have done the only thing I could do for it. I
have dug a new bed for it in my garden, so that it may idle
longer there, and leave me a little later; but for all that,
it must go at last and grind knives. Poor stream! thou didst
not sufficiently conceal thy happiness in obscurity,--thou
hast murmured too audibly thy gentle music."

SIR EMERSON TENNANT ON AMERICAN MISSIONS IN CEYLON.

One of the most respectable persons employed in the English colonial service, is Sir EMERSON TENNANT, LL. D., K. C. B. &c., who was for many years connected with the administration in Ceylon, and is now, we believe, Governor of St. Helena. He has recently published a volume entitled _Christianity in Ceylon_, in which there are some passages of especial interest to American readers, displaying in a favorable light, the services rendered to civilization by the missionaries of this country. These parts of his work have attracted much consideration. The _Dublin University Magazine_ remarks:

"We describe the American Mission, which acts under the direction of one of the oldest and most remarkable of the existing associations for the dissemination of Christianity, "The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions," whose head-quarters are at Boston, in Massachusetts. The first settlers in Massachusetts, like those of New England generally, were missionary colonists. Their charter, given by Charles I., states that one of the objects of the king and of the planters was the conversion of the natives to the true faith; and the seal of the company thus incorporated bore the device of a North American Indian, with the motto "_Come over and help us_." It may be interesting to add, that the "pilgrim fathers" of the New England States were, indirectly, the cause of the Protestant missions of the Dutch. They were, as our author states, 'the first pioneers of the Protestant world, and the first heralds of the Reformed religion to the heathen of foreign lands. Their mission is more ancient than the Propaganda of Rome, and it preceded by nearly a century any other missionary association in Europe. It was encouraged by Cromwell, and incorporated by Charles II.; and Cotton Mather records that it was the example of the New England fathers, and their success amongst the Indians, that first aroused the energy of the Dutch for the conversion of the natives of Ceylon.'

"We cannot doubt that amongst the main causes of the prosperity of North America are, the permanence of religious feeling, and the blessing attendant on the fact, that the missionary spirit has never perished. The labors of this great people on their own vast continent have been conducted with the greatest judgment, and marked by a success which encouraged their extension in other lands. In the year 1812, they turned their attention to the East, and, under an act of incorporation from the state of Massachusetts, commenced their missionary efforts in the Old World. Their first missionaries to India appeared there in 1812, but were ordered by the Governor-General to leave Calcutta by the same vessel in which they had arrived. One of them landing in Ceylon, on his voyage home, was so struck with the openings which it presented for missionary enterprise, and so much encouraged by the Governor, Sir Robert Brownrigg, to engage in it, that, on his representations, the American Board, in 1816, sent out three clergymen and their wives, who fixed their residence at Jaffina, which has been ever since the scene of their remarkable labors. These were reinforced in 1829, and for many years their establishment has consisted of from seven to eleven ordained ministers, with a physician, conductors of the press, and other lay assistants; these are selected from Congregationalists and Presbyterians. It is gratifying to be enabled to add, that a most cordial good-will and desire to co-operate has from the beginning prevailed between them and the other Protestant missionaries in their neighborhood. For thirty years they have assembled periodically in a "missionary union," to decide on measures and compare results. "With all of them education is," as our author says, "a diurnal occupation; whilst in their purely clerical capacity they have felt the necessity of proceeding with more cautious circumspection, improving rather than creating opportunities, relying less upon formal preaching than on familiar discourses, and trusting more to the intimate exhortation of a few than to the effect of popular addresses to indiscriminate assemblies.'

"'The first embryo instruction is communicated by them in
free village schools, scattered everywhere throughout the
district, in which the children of the Tamils are taught in
their own tongue the simplest elements of knowledge, and the
earliest processes of education--to read from translations
of the Christian Scriptures, and to write their own
language, first by tracing the letters on the sand, and
eventually by inscribing them with an iron style upon the
prepared leaves of the _Palmyra palm_. It will afford an
idea of the extent and perseverance with which education has
been pursued in these primitive institutions, that, in the
free schools of the Americans alone, 4,000 pupils, of whom
one-fourth are females, are daily receiving instruction, and
upwards of 90,000 children have been taught in them since
their commencement, a proportion equal to one-half the
present population of the peninsula.'"

"It was soon seen that, in addition to these primary schools, the establishment of boarding schools was extremely desirable, for the purpose of separating the pupils from the influence of idolatry. The attempt was made, but proved to be attended with difficulties which would have appeared to many insurmountable. In the first place, the natives were suspicious, not conceiving that strangers could undertake such toil, trouble, and expense, without an interested object. The more positive difficulty was connected with caste, with the reluctance of parents to permit their children to associate with those of a lower rank.

"'This the missionaries overcame, not so much by inveighing
against the absurdity of such distinctions as by practically
ignoring them, except wherever expediency or necessity
required their recognition. In all other cases where the
customs and prejudices of the Tamils were harmless in
themselves, or productive of no inconvenience to others,
they were in no way contravened or prohibited; but as
intelligence increased, and the minds of the pupils became
expanded, the most distinctive and objectionable of them
were voluntarily and almost imperceptibly abandoned.

"'When the boarders were first admitted to one of the
American schools at Batticotta, a cook-house was obliged to
be erected for them on the adjoining premises of a heathen,
as they would not eat under the roof of a Christian; but
after a twelvemonth's perseverance, the inconvenience
overcame the objection, and they removed to the refectory of
the institution. But here a fresh difficulty was to be
encountered; some of the high caste youths made an objection
to use the same wells which had been common to the whole
establishment; and it was agreed to meet their wishes by
permitting them to clear out one in particular, to be
reserved exclusively for themselves. They worked incessantly
for a day, but finding it hopeless to draw it perfectly dry,
they resolved to accommodate the difficulty, on the
principle, that having drawn off as much water as the well
contained when they began, the remainder must be
sufficiently pure for all ordinary uses.'"

"In addition to these primary and boarding-schools, the American Mission, in 1830, established schools for teaching English, and for elementary instruction of a more advanced description. These were all under a discipline avowedly Christian, yet the missionaries found that they were able not only to enforce the fee demanded, but to maintain their regulations without loss of numbers.

"'And it is a fact,' says Sir Emerson Tennent, 'suggestive
of curious speculation as to the genius and character of
this anomalous people, that in a heathen school recently
established by Brahmans in the vicinity of Jaffna, the
Hindoo Community actually compelled those who conducted it
to introduce the reading of the Bible as an indispensable
portion of the ordinary course of instruction.'"

"This does not seem so strange to us. The shrewd Tamils, as we collect from other observations in the work before us, perceived how the Bible-reading children had improved in demeanor, conduct, and success in life. For these same reasons, and possibly in some cases from a deeper feeling never yet avowed, the Roman Catholic peasantry of Ireland, before the introduction of the National System of Education, and previously to, and, in many cases, long after, the expressed hostility of their priesthood, anxiously sent their children to the schools of the Kildare-place and the Hibernian Bible Societies.

"The other missionaries, we need hardly say, were as active as the Americans. After some years of further experience, they all felt the necessity of founding educational institutions of a still more advanced description for the instruction of the natives in their own language. It became plain to them that, from physical as well as moral causes, the conversion of the natives could be only hoped for through the medium of their well-taught and well-trained countrymen. The niceties of the language and their modes of thought presented difficulties of a most serious character to others; the very terms of the ordinary address of a missionary suggested ideas altogether different from what he intended. Thus, when GOD is spoken of, they probably understand one of their own deities who yields to every vile indulgence; by SIN, they mean ceremonial defilement, or evil committed in a former birth, for which they are not accountable; _hell_ with them is only a place of temporary punishment; and _heaven_ nothing more than absorption, or the loss of individuality. Under these impressions each of the missionary bodies at Jaffna formed for themselves a collegiate institution, in which the best scholars from their other schools were admitted to a still more advanced course, and taught the sciences of Europe. That of the Church Missionary Society of England was established at Nellore, but subsequently removed to Chundically; the Wesleyans commenced theirs in the great square of Jaffna; and that of the Americans was founded at Batticotta, in the midst of a cultivated country, within sight of the sea, and at a very few miles distant from the fort."

"'It was opened in 1823, with about fifty students chosen
from the most successful pupils of all the schools in the
province; and the course of education is so comprehensive as
to extend over a period of eight years of study. With a
special regard to the future usefulness of its alumni in the
conflict with the errors of the Brahmanical system, the
curriculum embraces all the ordinary branches of historical
and classical learning, and all the higher departments of
mathematical and physical science, combined with the most
intricate familiarization with the great principles and
evidences of the Christian religion.

"'The number which the building can accommodate is limited,
for the present, to one hundred, who reside within its
walls, and take their food in one common hall, sitting to
eat after the custom of the natives. For some years the
students were boarded and clothed at the expense of the
mission; but such is now the eagerness for instruction that
there are a multitude of competitors for every casual
vacancy; and the cost of their maintenance during the whole
period of pupilage is willingly paid in advance, in order to
secure the privilege of admission.

"'Nearly six hundred students have been under instruction
from time to time since the commencement of the American
Seminary at Batticotta, and of these upwards of four hundred
have completed the established course of education. More
than one-half have made an open profession of Christianity,
and all have been familiarized with its doctrines, and more
or less imbued with its spirit. The majority are now filling
situations of credit and responsibility throughout the
various districts of Ceylon; numbers are employed under the
missionaries themselves, as teachers and catechists, and as
preachers and superintendents of schools; many have
migrated, in similar capacities, to be attached to Christian
missions on the continent of India; others have lent their
assistance to the missions of the Wesleyans and the Church
of England in Ceylon; and amongst those who have attached
themselves to secular occupations, I can bear testimony to
the abilities, the qualifications, and integrity, of the
many students of Jaffna, who have accepted employment in
various offices under the Government of the colony.'"

"Another of the instruments of conversion adopted by these indefatigable men is _the press_. They were long obliged to have their tracts written out on _olahs_, or strips of the Palmyra leaf, which, when the missionary took for distribution, were strung round the neck of his horse. The printing establishment of the American Mission has for many years given constant employment to upwards of eighty Tamil workmen. Their publications are either religious or educational; and one of their ulterior objects is to supersede the degraded legends still in circulation. The natives of Ceylon, like most other Asiatics, have a strong repugnance to reading. This, however, has been to some extent already overcome, both on the continent of India and in Ceylon, as is evident from the facts of the establishment of native presses in Hindostan, and of the success of a missionary newspaper in Ceylon for the last seven years, which has now more than seven hundred subscribers, of whom five-sixths are Tamils. The Church Missionary Society have also a press amongst the Tamils; the Wesleyans established theirs in the Singhalese districts, and the Baptists have one at work in Kandy. One of the greatest, among the many triumphs of the missionaries in Ceylon, has been in the education of girls. The position of woman in that island, as in most parts of the East, was one of inferiority and toil. She was not permitted to sit at table with the males, or even to eat in the presence of her husband. Her education was so wholly neglected that, amongst the Tamils, no woman knew her alphabet, except such as rather gave the accomplishment a bad name--the dancing girls and prostitutes attached to the temples, who learned to read and write that they might copy songs and the legends of their gods. It was, however, plain that no extensive good would be effected without the education of women. The male converts could not get suitable wives, and the children would be in the hands of idolaters. In addition to their natural influence in a family, the women of the Tamils, where this new attempt in education was first made, had rights of property, which, notwithstanding the inferiority of their social position, gave them peculiar influence.

"'It is, we are told, a paramount object of ambition with
Tamil parents to secure an eligible alliance for their
daughters by the assignment of extravagant marriage
portions. These consist either of land, or of money secured
upon land; and as the law of Ceylon recognizes the absolute
control of the lady over the property thus conveyed to her
sole and separate use, the prevalence of the practice has,
by degrees, thrown an extraordinary extent of the landed
property of the country into the hands of the females, and
invested them with a corresponding proportion of authority
in its management.'"