the peace service-men for cavalry commanders, we recognize the same pen which gave us, in the first volume, the picture of the British Cabinet fast asleep at Richmond during the reading of the despatch of the Duke of Newcastle, ordering the invasion of the Crimea.

The only instance that we have remarked of a failure of this conscientious impartiality is the author's treatment of Lord Raglan. Mr. Kinglake's intimate relations with this general during the campaign, and the important assistance rendered him by Lady Raglan, after the war, in placing in his hands the whole mass of her late husband's papers, perhaps make it impossible to speak of him in terms of criticism. Mr. Kinglake, accordingly, tries hard to admire him; but, with all his amiable efforts, is hardly able to make him appear other than as a sort of military Turveydrop, -a master of military deportment. We are led lightly over his repeated instances of gentlemanly stupidity, such as his refusal to believe, or even to notice, the intelligence of the Russian advance on Balaclava just before the battle; "his anxious regard for the personal dignity of the officer and the gentleman," which made it impossible for him to question the tipsy Russian captain made prisoner at Mackenzie's Farm; his constant and weak subserviency to the obstinacy, first of St. Arnand, and then of Canrobert, and his unheard-of genius for getting into the wrong places and narrowly escaping capture or destruction. But, indeed, these traits were characteristic of the whole campaign against Sebastopol. Mr. Kinglake sets down four lost occasions within as many weeks; and there seems little doubt that the list might have been indefinitely multiplied, had not the marvellous energy of Korniloff and Todleben, and the devotion of their garrison, put the great fortress at length beyond the possibility of easy capture.

But it would seem as if the Allies lived by the forbearance of the Russians. Can anybody say, to this day, why their army was allowed for a whole year to pursue its preparations for assault, when the whole immense army of the Russian Empire, consisting, it may be presumed, of seven or eight hundred thousand men, was at liberty to act against them? Mr. Kinglake will, perhaps, clear up this point when he comes to his summing up; but if we can predict his future progress by the light of the past, we shall have to wait for a generation longer before reaching the solution. His fourth volume only carries the story to the 25th of October, six weeks from the landing on the shores of the Crimea; and to reach the death of Lord Raglan in the following

June, would require, at the same rate of progress, somewhere from twenty to twenty-four volumes more.

This work is reprinted by the Messrs. Harper, in what is avowedly a cheap edition; but there is nothing in the price which excuses the exceeding parsimony of the book. The maps in particular, on which so much of the comfort of using the book depends, and which in the English edition are large, clear, and printed in colors, in the American reprint are a disgrace to the publishers. The scale is reduced onehalf, the lettering generally well-nigh illegible, and the whole effect slovenly in the extreme. Such books are a vigorous argument in favor of an international copyright.

C. A. C.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.

*

THE veteran author and renowned missionary, William Ellis, in revisiting Madagascar to explain the objects of the London Missionary Society, and average the different fields of labor, has laid the religious public again under obligation as by his "Polynesian Researches" and "Three Visits to Madagascar." But this time it is to exult over an accomplished work; to gather in the harvest he had helped to sow; to consecrate churches whose corner-stone had been laid in the blood of martyrs. When he reached this island in 1862, Radama II. had replaced the terrible persecutions of his idolatrous mother with friendship, if not favoritism, for Christian teachers. He was not a Christian himself; but anxious to hear, thoroughly humane, and only too zealous in introducing European customs among his half-civilized subjects. With the single exception of occasional intoxication, to which foreigners tempted him, and which he deplored as deeply as any one, and a desire to carry out his own views without regard to the advice of his counsellors, Radama showed a noble character for a hereditary sovereign nurtured by such unfavorable influences. He listened to all grievances, redressed all wrongs, was gentle to the poor, devoted hours to personal improvement, and befriended heartily all who desired the religious elevation of his people, whether Protestants or Catholics. But an obnoxious measure in which he persisted against all remonstrance, in fact, the authorization of duelling, -prompted his assassination by the orders of his prime minister, who, not long after, for his arrogant assumption of

* Madagascar Revisited. By Rev. WILLIAM ELLIS. London: Murray, 1867. Dedicated by permission to the Queen.

power, was driven into exile; Queen Rabodo reigning with more limited sway than any sovereign before.

The sudden murder of so mild and worthy a prince as Radama II. does not promise much for the perpetuity of authority in Madagascar. The abundance of foreign wines during the abolition of impost duties has assailed the self-indulgent native on his weak side. Nothing but the moral energy of the gospel, as Mr. Ellis remarks, can save this interesting race from extinction. Outwardly, our religion has made amazing progress in Madagascar. During these four years, the native Christians have more than doubled, and the communicants increased tenfold. Mr. Ellis now numbers eighteen thousand fellowbelievers, under seven English missionaries and ninety-five native teachers. A fresh opportunity is now offered to this easily moulded race, of entering on that course of intelligent activity which will give them a permanent place among the nations of the earth.

No American could be more at home amongst the industries of Birmingham than the Worcester Blacksmith, Elihu Burritt. He has spent so many years in England, that he is really to the manner born. He is so universally known as a philanthropist, that he finds an equal welcome in peasant's cottage and nobleman's castle. He is so thoroughly practical, that his page is crowded with valuable intelligence. He has, moreover, such genial hopefulness, that any sombre clouds around English life are seen lighting up with the rising sun of future progress. His "Walks in the Black Country" with his friend Capron, give the latest and liveliest accounts of every species of manufacture within a day's walk of Birmingham, besides iron, brick, glass, &c. Then such pioneers, inventors, reformers, and philanthropists as connect themselves with this most productive part of England are not forgotten, from the printer Baskerville, to the peaceman Sturge; from steam-engine Watt, to Rowland Hill of the penny post. And these sketches are generally successful in giving what we want to know, without quite burying it in what nobody cares about, or can be profited by. Then there are chapters of the usual traveller's descriptions of Kenilworth, Warwick, Lichfield, and Stratford, done with sufficient freshness, good taste, and feeling. But two things ought to be generally known in America. The largest glass factory in

* Walks in the Black Country and its Green Borderland. By ELIHU BURRITT. London: Sampson Low, 1868.

the world announced only last November that "all the young persons in its employ must possess a fair acquaintance with reading, writing, and arithmetic, with the addition of free-hand drawing for the ornamental department; that boys were expected to attend the evening school three times a week for at least six months in the year, and girls and women for such longer period as appears desirable." And then Lord Stamford's success in opening his garden of seventy-three acres to the sooty-faced, hard-handed, heavy-shod men of the mine, forge, furnace, who may ramble through the ever-varied and almost endless beauties of the fairy scene without restraint, who it is found do not abuse their privileges, and to whom the noble earl, has given some grand festivals. This general statement is of so much value, that we can forgive the worthy Elihu for stating that there are four hundred thousand pots of geraniums in the garden, and that the conservatories consume £2,000 worth of coal every year. Something similar is told of a Baronial Hall near Lichfield, where private parks are kept as picnic grounds for the toiling million.

F. W. H.

"MYTHS of the New World" will suggest to most persons a pleasant bouquet of Indian stories, freshly arranged, with little other purpose than to amuse, favoring, as far as might be, some dream about the Lost Tribes or Phoenician voyagers, Welsh princes or Buddhist priests. Dr. Brinton has no patience with any such quackery. He wants to know why we find certain numbers held by every race as sacred; why certain symbols, as the bird, the serpent, the cross, belong to universal humanity; what are the laws of growth of natural religions, and what their influence upon the races. He has not succeeded in establishing all his points: he could not have expected to give equal satisfaction with scanty as with abundant materials. He has done more and better than any one in winnowing the wheat from vast heaps of chaff, in showing the philosophical meaning of what had been an impenetrable riddle, in helping us to feel that the wildest savage is a man still.

Let us see the sacred number, four; which there can be no chance about because it is recognized in every language, and derived from the immutable laws of the universe. Dr. Brinton refers it to the points of the compass, and thinks it may have been suggested by the right

* Myths of the New World. By DANIEL G. BRINTON, M.D. Leypoldt & Holt, 1868.

New York:

and left, the front and back, of the human body. He shows the associations that naturally group around each of the cardinal points, especially sunrise and sunset, or East and West; and declares that they are mirrored on the surface of language, and have directed the current of thought. Following the arithmetical series, 4+8+12+16, comes the number forty, the limit of sacred dances among the Indians, and the highest number of chants employed in exorcising disease. So that the number four begins with the savage adoration of the cardinal points! In like manner with the bird and serpent symbols. The bird has the incomprehensible power of flight, it soars toward heaven; its plumage has the hues of the rainbow and the sunset; its song was man's first hint of music; it spurns the clouds, and soars over the wearisome mountains. So the Indian believed birds to be divine nuncios, the souls of the departed, interpreters of heavenly decrees, &c.

And then the wisdom of the serpent: its annual rejuvenation making it a symbol of eternity; its sinuous course suggesting a river; its quick, zigzag flash imaging lightning, the Shawnees call thunder the hissing of the great snake. Yet he thinks no tribe attaches any ethical significance to the symbol, and that it was mainly used to express the propitious and agreeable.

F. W. H.

Ir is a remarkable fact, that while Christian Missions are pushed earnestly in India, and send back such confident and glowing accounts of success, the erection of heathen temples should go on with increased zeal in the Hindu cities.* Benares to-day, with its 2,500 years of religious history, rivals Chicago and New York, cities of yesterday, in the number and the splendor of its new religious edifices. The ruins of the ancient fanes are hidden and lost in the glory of the shrines which have risen since the days of the Marahtas, and are still rising. There is more magnificence of new architecture in temple and dome and spire on the banks of the Ganges than on the banks of the Tiber or the Thames or the Seine. If outward signs are to be trusted, the pleading of the missionaries, and the auxiliary arts of Western civilization, have not yet overturned the

*The Sacred City of the Hindus: An Account of Benares in Ancient and Modern Times. By the Rev. M. A. SHERRING, M.A., LL.B. With an Introduction, by Fitz Edward Hall, Esq., M.A., D.C.L., Oxon. London: Trübner & Co, 1868. 8vo, pp. xxxvi., 388.