Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

two Latin churches, a Latin hos- photographed for the Exploration

pice, the English church, and many fine houses have been built within the last dozen years; hence the very white and new appearance of the town."

Mr. Conder's conclusions with regard to the Samaritans, founded partly on his own personal inquiry, partly based upon authority, and reinforced by reference to the history and customs of the people, lead him to the belief that they are the only true descendants of Israel, "the only remnant of the Ten Tribes," with the exception, perhaps, of those still dispersed in Assyria, who have, however, deserted their original faith.

This is

their own belief as to their origin; that they are of the same stock with the Jews is confirmed by their physiognomy, notwithstanding that there have been no intermarriages for certainly more than two thousand years, as well as by the fact that their sacred book is a version of the Pentateuch, and their religion a form of Judaism. Before the time of Ezra their religious standard was fixed, and their doctrines are in the main identical with the most ancient Jewish party, the Karaite or Sadducean; and, as Mr. Conder pertinently puts it (vol. 1, p. 60), "It is inconceivable that they should have adopted Jewish dogmas at a period when they were distinguished by their hatred of that nation." Dean Stanley's visit to the Samaritans is well known, and has been told pictorially in his most charming manner; the account (vol. 1, p. 50) of the opening the roll of Abishuah may be taken as a fitting pendant, coupled with the further account of the so-called "Fire-tried Manuscript," inferior, indeed, in importance to the Abishuah roll which Mr. Conder allowably calls the Samaritan Fetish, but still of great interest. It has, we hear, been

Fund.

In conclusion, we heartily congratulate the society on having so good a result to show as these two volumes the forerunner of their great work-and on having found one so competent to describe as well as to organise and carry on the Survey as Lieutenant Conder. They have done wisely in sending them forth as a popular account of what has been done; and Mr. Conder has given to this record of his professional operations the vivacity of personal adventure, as well as placed Palestine vividly before the reader. The hamlets, representing sites older than the time of Joshua, with their deserted appearance in keeping with the antiquity of their history, owing mainly to the absence of the glazed windows of Europe, and of contrast between roof and wall, are for instance thus faithfully described: "The peasant hut is in Palestine merely four walls of mud, with a roof of boughs covered also with mud; hence the village, which consists perhaps of fifty or sixty such cabins, huddled together without plan or order, and gradually climbing the slope so that the floor of one is level with the roof of another, has an uniform grey colour, only broken by the whitewashed dome of the little chapel dedicated to the patron prophet or Sheikh.” Nor is it merely in the actual appearance of the country, the stony colourless land, that the descriptions of these volumes excel, but in the illustrations we may gather from them of other matters or that are brought from elsewhere in explanation of themselves. A mosque, for instance, the second mosque in the middle of the town of Ramleh was visited by Mr. Conder on the road to Jerusalem and found to be probably "the most perfect

specimen of a fine twelfth-century church in Palestine, unchanged, except that the beautiful western doorway is closed, a prayer recess scooped in the southern wall, and the delicate tracery of the columns defaced in whitewash and plaster "-a vandalism not peculiar to Moslem restorers. There is in Ramleh a fine old ruined building, the White Mosque, with its beautiful tower of "The Forty"-according to the Moslems, companions of the prophet, according to Christian tradition the forty martyrs of Cappadocia. This has attracted all visitors, and the second church or mosque has till now been overlooked; and very probably, as he says, Mr. Conder has been the first to visit it since Sir John Maundeville. It is the church described by him as dedicated to the Virgin, "where our Lord appeared to our Lady in the likeness which betokeneth the Trinity." We adduce this as an instance of the many points of interest in these volumes subordinate to the main subject. Palestine was, for instance, emphatically the country of the Crusades; and many a light on the European history of those ages may be thrown by these incidental notices. The magnificent church mentioned p. 19 remains almost intact as erected by the Crusaders over the spring of Ananoth: " on its walls dim shadows of frescoed paintings can be traced, and over these names of pilgrims rudely scrawled."

Something like a commentary on the pretext of protectorate for the Holy Places in the Muscovite Tsar, as a mask for his own inroads, or a plausible pretension that he alone of all men is vindicating at once the rights and liberties of Christians and preserving the actual sepulchre of Christ, and restoring it to its true place, which

has been usurped as a privilege by others, is the significant paragraph (p. 27), "Standing on the approximate site of the old Tower of Psephinus, the Russian Hospice commands the whole town of Jerusalem, and is thought by many to be in a position designedly of military strength."

The Gold Mines of Midian and the Ruined Midianite Cities: A Fortnight's Tour in North-Western Arabia. By RICHARD F. BUrton. London: C. Kegan Paul and Co. 1878.

A

Captain Burton gives us in this book an account of the pioneering expedition undertaken, at the instance of the Viceroy of Egypt, to verify a supposed discovery of gold made by him a quarter of a century ago in the land of Midian. larger expedition has lately returned to Cairo bringing with it, as the first fruits of success, some five and twenty tons' weight of valuable minerals, and announcing discovery of numerous ruined cities and halfworked gold mines. If all that is reported be true, the sorrow of the Egyptian bondholders will at length be turned into frantic joy, and Ismail may indulge in his enlightened but very expensive tastes without the dread of immediate bankruptcy. Captain Burton has done great things in his time, and attempted more. He has travelled over many lands, he has helped to explore the Equatorial lakes, he has joined as a Moslem worshipper with true believers in the temple of Mecca, and he was once ready to enrich his country with the produce of some West African mines if it had not been for the stupidity of a Secretary of State. It appears that when he first attempted to push his Midiantish find he called upon the English Consul-whose name he mercifully withholds-who brusquely repulsed

[merged small][ocr errors]

Gold was becoming too common.' Upon this Captain Burton remarks,

It is

Marvellous to relate, the same answer was made to me by a Secretary of State when I offered to open up some most valuable diggings on the West Coast of Africa, if he would appoint me Governor, assist me with half a West India regiment, and not inquire too curiously into local matters. impossible to understand such men: they go back to the childhood of our race." Captain Burton does not seem to have felt the naïveté of the conditions, nor to have suspected that he was, peradventure, being bantered by the men in authority! (p. 247.)

Mrs. Burton, who has seen her husband's volume through the press, tells us in her preface that twenty-five years ago he was a romantic youth, and only thought of winning his spurs, with a chivalrous contempt for filthy lucre; and so he kept his golden secret until he saw Egypt in distress for gold. This is wifely and becoming on Mrs. Burton's part; but it cannot well be reconciled with his attempt to interest Abbas Pacha in his discovery through the medium of the stolid or facetious consul.

The actual finder of the auriferous sand was not, however, Captain Burton, but one Haji Wali, an old acquaintance of the traveller. Rather ungenerously, Mrs. Burton tries to filch his fame from the poor old Arab, though nothing can be clearer from the narrative than that he and nobody else scooped up the sand which has led to such happy results. It is the old story of sic vos non vobis. The name of the Arab will be forgotten, and that of Burton will go down the ages as the restorer of prosperity to that most ancient land. The glories of the most glorious Pharaohs are to be revived,

or rather transcended. "It is hard indeed," says the enthusiastic captain, "to see any limit to her career." All that is wanted for this colossal future is the gold, which is now to be had without stint from this first, and-thanks to modern quartz crushers-latest of Dorados.

Whatever may be the value of the discoveries-and we hope they may turn out all that is expected, hoping also that the over-lord at Stamboul may not be able to make any valid claim upon the treasures -the narrative is interesting, particularly to naturalists and geographers. Of personal incident there is but little, and therefore the book will be rapidly skimmed by the general reader, who will, however, be amused occasionally by characteristic specimens of encyclopædic ostentation. What Captain Burton believes he states strongly ; and he believes much which many will question, and questions much which many have good reasons for believing.

The first two chapters are taken up with a comparison of the Egypt of five-and-twenty years ago and the Egypt of our own day. Incidentally an account of good old Shepheard-known favourably to so many travellers to and from India will be read by all who knew him with very agreeable feelings.

Those who wish to pronounce accurately words in common use will be glad to learn that Khediv is a dissyllable, and not, as the French make it, Khedivé. Captain Burton is scrupulous in showing, by his manner of spelling, how the Arabic names should be sounded, although it is not easy to see what advantage is gained by writing the familiar Bedouin "Bedawin," and so in similar cases. It is much to be wished that there were some simple recognised code of spelling Oriental

words. We believe that there are at least a dozen ways of spelling the word which the traveller hears first and last in Eastern climesBacksheesh.

The Economy of Consumption. By R. S. Moffat. London: C. Kegan Paul and Co. 1878.

Only the irony of fate could have produced a contrast so amusing as that to which the dull world of economics has lately been treated. Almostly simultaneously with Professor Jevons's admirable little "Primer of Political Economy," appeared Mr. Moffat's "Economy of Consumption," a bulky volume of nearly 700 pages, entitled "An Omitted Chapter in Political Economy." Thus, while Professor Jevons considers it possible to state the leading doctrines of science in 134 pages, Mr. Moffat, were his other chapters on the same scale as this, in order to develop his theory would require the space of Custodi's fifty octavos, so lamented as waste paper by Gioja.

be

Mr. Moffat has really two recommendations fitting him for the task he has undertaken: he is earnest, and he has found a serious flaw in the accepted systems of economics. No juster accusation can brought against modern English teaching of political economy than that it bestows too much attention on production and too little on consumption. The neglect of consumption was the grand error of Ricardo, led to a dilemma in Stuart Mill's doctrine, and still confounds those who deny the existence of a wages fund. To speak of relative values, rates of wages, rates of profits, is to speak of ripples on the stream: the stream itself remains to be considered. What is its apparent source? Supply. In what does it end? Consumption, or demand. But demand replenishes supply as the

sea

or

replenishes the fountain in the hills. It would almost appear that those who deny the existence of a wages fund puzzle themselves over the single question-one that might be relegated to the metaphysician-whether demand supply confers the name of wealth on external nature. This question once at rest, surely it is as undeniable that supply and demand support each other, as it is that the egg produces the hen, and the hen the egg. The same partiality of view is entertained with regard to capital. The capitalist's demand for labour is dependent on the consumer. The capitalist demands only for the consumer. Any argument that even for a moment lays production at the door of capital is short-sighted; for the capitalist not only sells, but buys. He is an exchanger, and the old quibble applies to him, "How can I pay you except you lend to me ?" God created male and female, but not producers and consumers, distinct from each other.

The

Let us enlarge a little. single inducement, economically, which leads a man to convert any part of his possessions into capital is the demand of others for commodities. If the demand be small, with little prospect of considerable profit, the man of wealth spends unproductively what might otherwise have been spent productively. But all that is needed to convert a great part of wealth into capital -even if the wealth be that of a duke-is a sufficiently keen demand upon production. It is demand, rather than production, that determines the quantity of market commodities. Everything a man produces he may not sell; but everything he creates an effective demand for-that is, everything he desires and can pay for he is pretty sure of obtaining. If it be demand, then, that limits profitable production,

it must be demand that limits the source of production-capital. What the capitalist pays for is labour. If it be he, and not the consumer, who stands in need of the labour, he will buy it so long as he has any wealth. But no. It appears that the manufacturer

gives up his mill, dismisses his hands, and stays at home whenever demand for his article ceases. Yet he has plenty wherewith to pay labour. But not capital. It would seem that ultimately the capitalist is the only member of society who does not buy labour for itself. As a man of wealth he keeps a retinue of servants, pays Salvini to act for him, and Patti to sing for him, and Joachim to play for him, and Millais to paint for him; but he tells his workpeople that neither to oblige them nor to oblige the public will he lay out capital, unless with the help of, and under inducement from, demand; and even when demand continues, he is often glad to cease being a manufacturer, so soon as he has earned what is called is called a competency. Here lies the weak point in the argument of such as deny that a demand for commodities is a demand for labour. They do not distinguish sufficiently between demand in the primary sense of the word and demand in its economical sense-effective demand. Effectively to demand is to produce; and to produce is to call into existence effective demand. Anticipation, indeed, may obscure the fact somewhat; but anticipation is a difference of time, not of cause.

Supply-what does it mean? A filling up-of desire. Want first taught man to use his hands. The true solution of the problem here touched upon is probably to be found in the consideration of man's illimitable wants. Labour alone satisfies these wants. On the sea, crest comes after trough, and

[blocks in formation]

purse.

A Parisian produces some novelty"-to use a draper's word. None has seen the like before. It is impossible that a special demand existed for it, when itself it did not exist. Someone may say that I, who buy this novelty, do not demand labour, since I had no conception of the article until I saw it in the shop window. There is a truer view of the case than that. Everyone is pleased with a novelty. The Parisian knew this. Many novelties had he produced before; and they sold till they became as common as dust. His reputation was established. Buyers came yearly from various countries to see what he had to show them. As often as they came, they filled his order-book, and through it his At the approach of last season he said to himself: "These buyers will shortly be here; I must invent something for them.” It was all a tacit agreement. The Parisian was virtually engaged to produce a novelty; the buyers were virtually engaged to purchase it. He produced it; they bought it. Now, it was not that special article they gave an order for, but labour. He was to labour till he produced something good, and they would pay him. So much for the manufacturer and his wholesale customers. But I did I, in buying the novelty, purchase the Parisian's labour? There is no need for saying so, though it might truly be admitted. Why did those firms send buyers to buy of the Parisian? I and a thousand others patronize a certain firm in the City. We are all known in the shop, and those behind the counter have

« НазадПродовжити »