We highly value the efforts of Dr. Livingstone. Even as an effort to extend our science, his achievements deserve all the praise bestowed upon them all the reward that they are likely to attract. Happily we believe that Dr. Livingstone pushed through his wanderings in Africa, as he pushed through his studies at Blantyre, on the Clyde, from higher motives than men's praise, and for a higher reward than men's gold. He stands out as one of the leading men of his day, and we rejoice to claim him as one of those remarkable Scotch operatives, whose achievements in many lands and many walks reflect honour on their land. The nations whom he has brought to light, will, we trust, experience all the advantages of civilisation, without passing through the horrors that have often attended their introduction. The good that he hopes for, we hope also, and believe will be realised in pleasant lands made still more pleasant, and villages turned into great commercial cities. The gospel that he preaches may soon, we trust, he glad tidings to those in whose ears it sounds now but as a strange tale. Fair may be the land that he has trod, first among British subjects, clear its streams, and deep and wide its great Southern river-its second Nile. Nevertheless, India is fair-there are no mountains like its mountains, no rivers in the old world like its rivers; no other cities in Asia like its cities; no lands open and equal to its lauds; no population more majestic in their multitude, save one, and noue claiming from us, with the same good right, aid and guidance. That is the land we need to penetrate, the people we need to help; and whose help we need in a contest with the plough, as we have had it often in contests with the sword; if we are to wipe away from us the black and burning stain, corroding morality to the heart, of being the Sawards of slave-robbery, the very Fagans of those American Field-lanes, where the Legrees have their home and trade. And in penetrating to India we give life to Egypt, to Mesopotamia, and Syria-to the birth places of arts of literature and science, the early homes of our faith. The Euphratean scheme will treble the produce shipped from the district between the great river and the great sea in twelve months. The Pacha of Bagdad has a representative in this country seeking commercial aid to do exactly what we want done. We presume that a small outlay would make a junction between the Euphrates and Tigris at Bagdad. The link would auswer the object of the Pacha of that city. It would open a new route to Persia, when we have again peace with Persia, and it would throw fresh business into the Euphratean schemes. We are interested in Africa, but more so in Mesopotamia-the birthplace of mankind—and more so still in Syria, around which these schemes will throw a girdle of civilisation; and it is strange that the capacities of the two latter countries to grow cotton has been and is yet so much overlooked. POLITICAL NARRATIVE. DOMESTIC. THE intelligence of the past month is necessarily dull. The season supplies the cause. At this period of the year commercial and political business are comprised within the smallest limit. Parliament will assemble early in February, and the usual activity in rumours will be resumed. A number of seats in Parliament are vacant, and for one county, Lanarkshire, Mr. A. B. Cochrane has been returned. He is a landowner, the Laird of Lamington, with a certain literary reputation, an old character for extreme Puscyism, and a rancorous hatred to Scotland, for which he has paid recently the penance of advocating Scottish rights. The election is one of the many evidences of the power of a Dukedom. All the newspapers of the district opposed Mr. Cochrane's return, but the Duke of Hamilton beat the press without a contest. Mr. Kinglake, the author of "Eothen," is a candidate for an English borough, and will, we trust, be successful; for the Legislature wants genius and literary power in its consultations, and especially men like the author of " Eothen," familiar with the East. The Carlton Club have carefully watched the movements of the Ministry and that party called Peelite, or profanely styled Purgatorial; and they have deduced from certain civilities between people in the Cabinet, and other people in the coffin of Mahomet, that a junction is designed between those who are in and those who are at the door; and they have accordingly proclaimed the banns. Viscount Palmerston objects probably to any partnership of this nature. What strength could he derive from a coalition with Sir James Graham and his friends? Sir James is not according to the programme to join the Admiralty again, but to have another office. Mr. Gladstone is to expend his ecclesiastical learning upon the exchequer and its many figures. Each of the allies must displace an old friend, and the Premier would not accept the certain loss for the chance of gain. A powerful agitation prevails everywhere against the increased income tax, which is still continued, although the Russian war is over in the meantime. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had expressed an intention of continuing this extra charge for another year; but the movement on the subject POLITICAL NARRATIVE. threatens to carry away the present system and leave only a property tax behind. No arrangement can be more unjust than that whereby precarious incomes are taxed at the same rate as annuities, and the latter terminating with life at the same rate as the proceeds of property that may descend from one generation to another. No other subject of a financial character has led to more meetings than those on the income tax during the past month, since the days of the corn laws. The Government might borrow aid from the Peelites upon this subject if it could be procured cheaply; but a coalition would be over the price, especially as it would not give effective resistance to the popular will on taxation, and might afford the Russelite Whigs an opportunity of turning over the coach, and the Derbyites their time to turn it once more on the wheels. Sir Robert Peel was sent to Moscow on the coronation embassy, in the train of Lord Granville. The selection was not adroit. The young Baronet had pleaded strongly for a war to emancipate Poland. These speeches are read in high quarters at St. Petersburgh and remembered. Since his return, Sir Robert Peel has professed to know more of the Baltic and of Russia than many of his friends; and has delivered one or two lectures on these subjects in a graphic style, but more free and easy than became a member of the Government. He called the Governor of Nishni Novogorod "a brick." He stated that another nobleman had swindled him in the hire of horse flesh. He quizzed the ambassadors of all nations, and he talked nonsense; for he informed an audience at Stafford we believe, that the people of Nishni Novogorod had scarcely ever seen an English face until his party went there, and immediately afterwards described the kind of English traders whom he met at the fair. His indiscretions will cost him his place at the Admiralty according to some authorities; but Sir Robert Peel can afford to be idle until he be wise. THE TEMPESTS AND THE STEAMERS. The month began with cruel storms upon sea and land, causing an unusual loss of life upon the 3rd and 4th. The crews of two boats, one on the east and the other on the west coast of England, perished in endeavouring to rescue seamen in distress. Twenty-six men were drowned in the two. The loss of life at sea in these storms around our islands, ran from one to two hundred. Three steamers have been wrecked during the month. One is the Tyne, the best ship of the fleet belonging to the Royal West India Company, who are very unfortunate. This steamer was lost because the captain neglected to take soundings in a fog, and at night. Red-tapeism appears to prevail on these large mercantile vessels, as it lived and throve at Balaklava. The first and second officers | declared upon their examination that the lead should have been used, but they did not deem it necessary to say that to the Captain, for it was not their duty, although the lives of the crew and 123 passengers were placed in jeopardy by their neglect! Nobody was lost, but the fine large ship is firm among the rocks. The loss of the Violet upon the Goodwin Sands was a more serious occurrence. This vessel was compelled, according to postal formalities, to leave Ostend in a storm, which threatened destruction to anything that could float. The Violet never reached the English port, and all her crew perished. The circumstance calls for a reconsideration of the postal route to the Continent. It is stated that the line from Harwich would lead vessels more out of the way of danger. The Government have expended large sums of money from the national funds upon that port, which seems to be the more convenient point of departure for central and northern Europe. conve The Straight lines For a considerable time past, persons engaged in the trade with India have complained of the Marseilles route, and its numerous delays. The late Mr. Waghorn ultimately preferred Trieste. Telegraphic intelligence of the Indian mail is received earlier from Trieste than any other port of Europe. It would appear to offer a more nient route to Alexandria than Marseilles. distance measured in time from London to Harwich, to Rotterdam, and thence by Vienna to Trieste and Alexandria is but 142 hours, and might be reduced. The passage to Egypt from England would thus be brought to six days-and from one of several causes, or all working toge ther, it is now nearly double that time. How the immense interests connected with India submit for three months to lose a week on each Indian mail, except that they think it cannot be gained, is a baffling question. It is a matter of deep moment to them. The mere interest of the money must be a large item in the loss. are now equally necessary on land and waterstraight and short where they can be obtained; and the completion of the Dutch-Rhenish lines, and the capabilities of the Harwich harbour to accommodate large vessels, will together render that town the first stage in Eastern travel; and our half-way house to the continent-giving it, in fine, some claim for those two representatives who have been grudged to it so long, and deservedly grudged too-unless Lord John Russell cut one of them away next session; and in that case, its new line of steamers will compensate Harwich for the loss; and we think will afford the safest mode of transit, or that least exposed to banks and shoals from London to continental travellers. This new line will, we believe, commence to run in the next month, carrying the Dutch mails, and in a very short time will, carry those Eastern mails that, including the Australian, are the most important from this country. We refer necessarily and alone to the Overland Mail, now sent by way of Marseilles, for the slow mails will not take the Harwich Company line, and the Eastern Counties, but the old route from Southampton to Gibraltar. 124 SWITZERLAND. POLITICAL NARRATIVE. The quarrel between Prussia and Switzerland concerning Neufchatel, was the innocent cause of extensive armaments. The Swiss have put 140,000 men under arms, and were prepared to offer a rough resistance to the Prussian armies, if they had entered the republican territory in hostility; but the business appears to be settled. AMERICA. The latest intelligence from America left the adventurous General Walker in a critical position upon the lake, and the shores of the lake of Nicaragua, where his army were greatly reduced, and so surrounded by the exasperated natives on every side, that he could not describe himself, in the language of Alexander Selkirk, as the monarch of all he surveys for his authority was limited to a district not exceeding twelve miles in length, and of still more contracted breadth. Recruits continue to leave the States for his service, but the service swallows them upon arrival, and the war against Central America will probably be unsuccessful at this turn; except in the destruction of lives and property; for many men have already perished, and in killing them much property has been destroyed. CHINA AND TEA. The war with the Chinese creates even a deeper interest than that with the Persians, for of them we know more than of the descendants of the Medes and their friends. Knowing that the Bogue forts, those of Canton, the Cantonian palace, and the war junks in the river had all been destroyed or taken by Admiral Seymour without producing any change upon the imperturable Yeh; the public want to learn what next? This is one of those cases in which the telegraph is very desirable. Are we to prosecute the quarrel with Yeh, and endeavour to seize Canton, or to be contented with Chusan, as a compensation for the twelve men taken from the lorcha, and very probably long ago beheaded? The Chinese and the Persian wars have furnished new excitement at home. The former has caused a rapid advance in the price of tea. The new as company proposed at Calcutta for its cultivation in India would obtain at present any reasonable amount of capital in Britain. The serious character of the intelligence from Canton by the last mail has induced persons to expect the bombardment and ultimate conquest of the city. A noisy party in this country oppose this war they oppose all wars. They work the press with vigour; but the history of events is scarcely known here, and we can only conclude that Sir John Bowring is pretty much still the same man he was when we knew him, before he was member for Bolton, and during the period that he was in Parliament; and if he has not changed greatly he looks on hostilities as the last shift of outraged humanity; and may err in postponing them, but not in carelessly rushing into fire, havoc, and slaughter. We do not suppose that many of the persons who oppose the war have the slightest notion of the brutalities practised at Canton, under Mandarin Yeh, towards the revolutionists. Whether the number of heads cut off by him be, as according to a correspondent of the Times, 70,000, or only 7,000, matters so very little that all the scoun drelism of European tyrants dwindles to a speck before the sins of this wretch. If, therefore, the British fleet can shell him and all the men of blood who accompany him out of Canton, or out of China, or out of the earth, we shall only think that they have done good service to humanity. The British authorities, we trust, will seize the day of actual war as an opportunity of acknowledging the revolutionist chief, who has been de facto king at Nankin for a considerable period; and of assisting him to establish his authority in those parts of China acessible to our forces before the Russian Romanoffs can give that aid to their Tartar cousins the Manchoos; which they are said to have promised in exchange for value received on the coasts of China. THE PERSIAN WAR. The possession of Karack and Bushire, in the Persian Gulf, may satisfy the expedition against Persia, as bases of negociation for the restoration of Herat, with expenses. The Persian ambassador, who has been received at the Court of France, offered at Constantinople to Lord de Redcliffe the restoration of Herat, but he seemed destitute of diplomatic authority to treat, and the British Government probably require some stations in the Persian Gulf, to save expenses in any future movements on their part, that subsequent proceedings against Affghanistan, by or from Persia, may render necessary. The war is treated at home as one for the invasion of Persia from Bushire to Shiraz, from that old capital to Ispahan, and from Ispahan to Teheran, for the Persian Government have gradually removed to the north, until the residence of the Court is within a short distance from the Caspian. At the same time, Brigadier Chamberlain had plunged, it was said, with five thousand men into Affghanistan, with the intention of holding Cabul, and probably pushing westward upon the route of Alexander the Great, of Greece. The confusion was increased by the determination of the Russians to take part in the fray; and the probable march of their armies from the southern Caspian to protect the metropolis of Teheran, which is not in material danger, from an army of ten or twelve thousand men on the Gulf. These events may all spring out of this Persian war, but they cannot occur within a short time. The conformation of the southern provinces of Persia prevents an advance in that direction by a large force. The cheap and quick road into Persia is by the Euphrates and the Tigris to Bagdad, and can only be followed with the concurrence of Turkey, or in opposition to the Sultan. The Shah of Persia might have closed that route, and even regained Georgia and LITERARY REGISTER. the intervening districts, during the last war, if he had afforded assistance to Turkey; but he has decided upon an alliance with Russia, the only power that has recently seized any part of the Persian empire, and the only state likely to make further appropriations out of that land. The existing hostilities will tend probably to the capture of all the Persian islands in the gulf, and all the towns or stations on the coast. After that has been accomplished, the southern provinces which are of little value, may be occupied and all communication between the interior and the ocean stopped. If these operations do not tend to the restitution of Herat, and compensation to the Heratees-and if the Persians persist in their raids against Affghanistan, the Russians must be well prepared upon the Caspian, for the Emperor Napoleon is reported to have said, and said wisely, that peace or war rested with the Emperor Alexander, and what next-and next-may happen are questions easy to ask but difficult to answer. The opening of the Euphrates Valley by the construction of a railway from the Mediterranean port to the river, and the employment for a time, and until the line can be extended prudently to Bussorah, of steamers on the river, will change all the circumstances of central Asia. It will afford a rapid transit for soldiers although chiefly intended for the conveyance of merchants. The telegraph along the line will place us in daily communication with the Gulf. The railway and steamer systems upon the Euphrates and the Indus, are equivalent to additional fortresses and more numerous armies; and while the steps necessary for the works in Turkey have all been completed, the new line of the Punjaub has all been subscribed. The advance of these great works is not more necessary for the material prosperity, than for the military strength of India and Turkey; and the respective Governments will facilitate their construction for both reasons. RUSSIA The meaning of the Conference of Paris in 1856, regarding Bolgrad and the Isle of Serpents, possessions claimed by both Russia and Turkey, has been defined by the Conference of Paris in 1857, in a manner favourable to the views of Turkey and of the British Cabinet. The Austrians 12 are to evacuate Moldavia and Wallachia early in March. The British fleet will leave the Euxine at the same date. The Russians, at the suggestion of the Emperor Napoleon, have received equivalent ground to that which they have abandoned in consequence of this dispute, but the exchange is supposed to be of no strategic value. The improvement of the Danubian trade may be expected from this solution of the question; and it is a curious fact that recently many of our commercial politicians looked complacently at the probable conquest by Russia of Turkey as a means of advancing mercantile business, and now acknowledge that the restitution of the delta of the Danube to Turkey was necessary for that purpose. The Danube is now entirely a Turkish river at its entrance into the Euxine; and the circumstance will facilitate the construction of the proposed canal through the neck of the Dobrudscha, if that work should be considered necessary. The Russian Government make undoubted preparations for war at Cronstadt. Their war ships are all to be transformed from sailing vessels into steamers with screws and new engines. Their Baltic fleet will be very numerous, but it may not be very powerful. The jealousy of British naval power may occasionally tempt the continental nations to construct an extravagant number of floating batteries; but a numerous mercantile navy is essential to a formidable fleet. FRANCE. The infamous slaughter of the late Archbishop of Paris, while in the performance of his professional duties, by an ex-priest of the name of Verger, has been the talk of Paris for two weeks. The assassin used the knife adroitly. He struck once only. His skill appears to have mollified the Parisians in the loss of their Archbishop-an excellent man we believe, and the murderer is called mad. The crime, however, has not excited the horror that might have been reasonably anticipated. The late prelate was nominated by General Cavaignac, the Republican. His predecessor in the diocese was shot dead at the barricades. became a favourite of the Buonapartes, and the people who deserted the Republicans believed, perhaps, that the prelate should have continued firm to his friends. He LITERARY REGISTER. A Ray of Light to Brighten Cottage Homes. By the Author of a "Trap to Catch a Sunbeam." London: James Nesbit and Co. 1 vol. Pp. 159. Tais little volume's heroine is a peasant girl in an English village, who contrizes to make much go far; and, by the aid of the rector's wife, establishes a school to teach common things to young girls, of which they are uncommonly ignorant often; and, therefore, complaints of careless servants, and what is worse, thriftless wives, abound. Millicent Ray lived in the village of Wetherley, with her father and mother, both infirm people, yet she managed to keep them not only out of the workhouse, but in a comfortable house of their own; and this was her way : With the first morning light, Millicent was up, for it was her day for churning, and she liked to have her butter made up before it grew too hot; this, with the pig and chickens to feed, occupied her amply till breakfast-time, which she wished to get quickly out of the way to-day, for she must | sonneteers, and one of the more elegant of the Indian writers. His works naturally are connected with the East and Eastern subjects, for his military life was passed in India. The present volume contains, as the title explains, not a continuous narrative, but a series of tales, interspersed with very pretty poetry. The Episodes contain many lessons in the natural history of the Burmese Em be off to town to sell her butter and eggs, and back again pire, for their author passed through the first and before two o'clock to go to the vicarage. But Millicent was never in a bustle; she managed her work with so much method and regularity, and was so particular in keeping everything in its place, that she was never delayed by having to hunt for auything, for Millicent considered that economy in time was quite as needful as economy in money. She had been early impressed with the belief that our time is not our own,-that each moment of our life is lent us for some wise purpose, and that for every moment needlessly wasted account must be rendered. Well would it be if all would give as good an account as she will be able to render, of constant usefulness to her fellow-creatures, and consistent service of her God. Millicent was no heroine, there was nothing outwardly to distinguish her from many of her class; but all her virtues might be summed up in one,—she did her "duty in that station of life into which God had callde her." "The hand of the diligent maketh rich," seems to have been one of Millicent's opinions, not that she was ever rich in one meaning, and that also the common one, but she was rich in another sense, and that the superior one,-being able to help her neighbours in trouble, and to provide for her self. The rector's lady wanted a reform in the homes of the labourers, for amongst others the following reasons :— I'm sure better managed cottage homes would empty the public-houses sooner than anything. If the tired labouring man was sure of a cheerful, orderly room, with a comfortable meal, nicely prepared, he would far rather, many of them, stay there than seek for such comfort in the beer-shop. So few of the women in that class of life study the comfort of their husbands; they drag on an existence somehow, but without any fixed rule of conduct, any strong sense of duty. Thus the school originated, and, we presume, that the work is designed to teach the use of such schools, where those accomplishments may be taught that are absolutely necessary in common life. The establishment of such schools would be a great blessing to society, if they were well conducted, only we do not quite agree with Millicent that cotton is a fibre, or that a blanket is not clothing; or, again, that "cotton is cheaper than linen," is not a very fair answer from a little girl to the question, "What is the difference between cotton and linen ?" The little book sketches out the means of doing much good in an economic way; although this is done by a narrative, and not by rules. Episodes in the War Life of a Soldier. By CALDER CAMPBELL. London: William Skeffington, 1 vol., pp., 248. OUR readers have been indebted to Major Calder Campbell for very many poetic contributions to our pages. He is one of the most prolific of the more serious Burmese war, and he displays great tact in teaching, while he amuses us, and that is perhaps the very best thing that a narrator of episodes, in any kind of life, can attempt to do. Notwithstanding all the tropical advantages of the Burmese soil, we would rather not have for a daily visitor, the rough and ready PEESHASH. Now, any one who has visited the East will corroborate the fact as regards the aggressive power possessed by those same perambulating obelisks of dust, which, originating no one can tell how, ascends in a swirl from the earth, over which careering in capricious course, it sweeps everything that comes in its way, from a leaf to a lizard, until all at dispersing Heaven and the scientific only know how, for once, with a dying sough, it subsides, as it arose, in mystery; even as you mark its progress rising from the ground till it soars many feet above it, it breaks suddenly away in the air, whilst "function is smothered in surmise" at its singular The natives of Malabar call it kustoopee origin and end. shash, the wind demon; and I myself have seen it unroof the thatched bungalow of a brother subaltern in the twinkling of an eye; whilst on another occasion it made free with the whole paraphernalia of a field officer, who was preparing for a parade on a screen outside his verandah, where he was dressing, when lo! enter the Peeshash, and wheeling round the compound comes upon the screen, where instantly ravishing its military treasures, it carries them several furlongs up into the air, letting them descend on a huge tamarind tree on the parade, to the great admiration of all beholders! As we approached the keoum, one of those things rose directly behind us, and had we stood upon "the order of our going," marching in formal drill style, I have not a doubt but that it would have levelled some of us, and severed the ranks as completely as if we had been so much chaff and straw; but we speedily wheeled right and left to let it pass lovingly, and well it was no Burmans were by to attack us then, for our eyes were blinded with that pungent powder which poor L. E. L. called, "mud in high spirits." And it is not the wind alone that is troublesome, or the rain, or the sun, for these matters being out of our reach might be borne with patience, but the Easterns have a plenitude of insect life that we could not sustain with or without a murmur. We know the tendencies of the climate necessarily, and the sad consequences flowing from the absence of a seasonable frost; yet we may be excused the belief that the Orientalists, both Anglo and natives have given up the combat with. the enemy, in despair, too early. Only think of sailing in a vessel that has shipped twenty millions of cockroaches or so, with a proportionate host of their companions, and whose owners seem to be utterly ignorant of the power of burning brim stone: THE VISITATION OF COCKROACHES. Soon after we three sailed together in the Hastings for |
