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No. 419, Ann. .8, 1858.J THE LEAqEB. 329
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CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA. Christianity in C...
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SPORTI NG AMONG THE KAFFIRS. Sporting Sc...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Education Of The People. The Educati...
~" ould have the slightest temptatioa to destroy a child of which the State would -Ulingly become the fostering parent . We will quote the last passage in the volume , illustrative of its spirit and design !""" It is well to be acquainted with the processes of industry , with manufactures , with commerce , with navigation ; it is well not to be ignorant of the steam engine , the electric telegraph , or the pr inting-press ; but it is abdicating altogether the character of an Englishman , not to be familiar with that which forms the peculiar pride of our " g political liberty , and the use of those arms by which our forefathers acquired and defended it . Among the Athenians every citizen was taught to read and to ffffim and every Englishman should be taught the value of hia freedom , and the use of arms by which alone it can be defended against the world .
There is another thing of still higher import , which should be every man ' s study , whether slave or free . I mean Religion , or the sum of those duties which we owe to our Creator . Without this there is no dignity , or freedom , or greatness of spirit . The man who is destitute of religion has forfeited the highest distinction of his nature and degraded himself to the level of the inferior animals , from which we are chiefly distinguished by our knowledge of the God that made us . A Roman poet observes that man is the only creature formed with a countenance looking towards the skies , to intimate whence he came , and whither he must ultimately go . All other creatures ' have their faces turned towards the earth , which is to bound their aspirations and their hopes , while , in the language of the spirits in Milton , " By our own proper motion we ascend ; Descent and fall , to us is adverse . "
Every sentiment which will not harmonize with this conviction , should be expelled like poison from the soul . Without it , we cannot bear the ills of life in a calm and dignified manner ; but with it , there is nothing which the mind finds it difficult to subdue . Here we have the sheet-anchor of the English people , their Palladium , their sacred fire , which converts the poorest hearth of the poorest hovel into a great altar , on which God does not disdain to hold converse with man . We must introduce this belief into every form of education , not in a sectarian spirit , but in a great catholic sense , calculated to disperse and obliterate the prejudices which separate man from man . With this conviction the Legislature , it is to be hoped , will shortly approach the momentous subject of Education , not with reference to the poor only , but to all classes . Our system of instruction still falls very far short of what it ought to be , considering the advantages we enjoy , and the great force and capacity of the minds with which nature has gifted us .
Mr . St . John has discussed a subject of universal interest , scarcely omitting from notice a single educational theory of the day , and in all cases rendering justice to individuals . The book is written with warmth , grace , and power , and abounds in practical suggestions .
No. 419, Ann. .8, 1858.J The Leaqeb. 329
No . 419 , Ann . . 8 , 1858 . J THE LEAqEB . 329
Christianity In China. Christianity In C...
CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA . Christianity in China , Tartary , and Thibet . By M . TAbbe" Hue . Vol . III . Longman and Co . The world will hear little more about the subtle civilization of China . The xnannera of that empire will bear no close inspection . It may be tolerable to an overgrown community to eat vermin and even to commit infanticide , but our ideal of Chinese polity has been disfigured by authentic reports from its theatrical interior . Every great viceregal city in the realm has its field of blood , where the executioner ' s axe is seldom idle , and where the crucifixion of women is but a prelude to carving the flesh from their bodies ; every prison is a Black Hole of Calcutta , and it needs a little European light let in to purify the vast den of pestilence and tyranny . If mankind could subsist upon elephants' teeth and tea-caddies it would be possible to trom to
regard China as a polished community ; but an imperial junK a mandarin ' s button everything in that country is hollow , ostentatious , and deceptive . Destitute of a state religion the Chinese are nevertheless among the most superstitious of races ; with a formal code of etiquette their habitual demeanour is that of barbarous insolence ; their paternal government is the most unmitigated despotism upon the globe ; and if there be a point at which the arbitrary action of the Pekin decrees may be said to cease , it is where a vicarious prerogative is entrusted to some half-bred provincial dictator like Commissioner Xeh . These characteristics are stamped upon China to this day , and they colour its history from the remotest times . The Abbe * Hue is not disinclined to favour the blue-robed subjects of the yellow potentate ; he knows them ; he has received their hospitality ; his predecessors of the apostolic order repose upon Chinese territory in honoured tombs ; but he has too keen an eye not to penetrate the grotesque unreality of the show they present to the people of the West . Unprogressive , degenerate , devoid of national spirit , China , it would seem , has passed her zenith , and is now travelling towards some mighty change . The lartar the ire knownthe
dynasty is morally exhausted ; the secrets of emp are ; imperial army has been upon the defensive for several years ; the population is as willing , on the coast at least , to obey a foreign military occupation as a Tartar viceroy , the monuments of ancient generations are irreverently permitted to decay , and , while secluding itself from the rest of the world , the immense but incoherent realm is not only eaten away by political friction on all sides , but settles down into chaos internally . Another Khang-Jii may rise to be the Avator of Manlchu imperialism , but there are no indications of a regenerating spirit . The Chinese are approaching their aphelion , and the Abbe Hue ' s work is valuable and interesting , partly because it illustrates the causes that have operated to the debasement of a nation so celebrated and so unique in its arts and in the vicissitudes of its history . While the problems of Chinese character and policy are attentively studied in the West , this third volume of the Abbe" Hue should command no common attention . It is the continuation of a great narrative extending from the doubtful apostleship ot St . Thomnfi , the early Arab explorations , ^ the . N . cBtorjftrAjn ^ emperors , the embassies of St . Louis , and the brealTof a ChristiaTrd » Wrriara <» rtgthe-mechnnical-reli . gionists of Thibet , to the commencement of the eighteenth century . The first two volumes flowed with the story of romantic adventure , with sunbright legends , with quaint but attractive interludes of Catholic criticism ; the Abbe Huo found the sources of his relation not only among the chronicles of the Wangs , but among the peaks « of the Northern Vurnassus , the frozen fountains of the Eddua ; he ranged from the Sibylline books to
Maricandeya , and quitted Virgil to quote from the Puranas . In this volume his path is more direct , his perspective more clear ; starting with the ignominious collapse of the Ming dynasty , which , was literally strangled out of existence upon a hill-top , the Abbe Hue traces the fortunes of the Jesuit missions to the death of Khang-Hi , the great Mantchu emperor , who began his reign at fourteen years of age , -who empl oyed the apostolic missionaries to found cannon for him , who delighted to witness the confusion of his astronomers by Western science , and who , as Layolaus says , was secretly persuaded to despise Confucius , and regard the image of Buddha as a gorgeous block . To repudiate Buddhism , of course , was never considered imp ious on the part of a Chinese emperor ; but if the holy fathers did succeed in converting Khang-Hi their logic deserves commemoration . It is to be suspected , however , that they laboured for ascendancy , reserving the crowninjr of their work by a sacred triumph for happier and distant days , for fortifications and field
although we find mention of many , guns , -pieces , of dials , astronomical observations , mathematical instruments , and other contrasts between Western incendiarism and the Conservatism of China , the record is modest on the subject of doctrinal victories gained over the imperial conscience . While the chief missionaries , however , were maintaining their intellectual supremacy at the palace , the lesser lights of Catholicism illuminated the provinces , and thus the devotion of Schall and Verbiest was far from fruitless . As they themselves avowed , it was a grand success to secure for their brethren the liberty of preaching in all parts of the empire , even though commentators at home attacked them for dining at golden tables , and accepting effulgent titles of honour . They had a policy , and they developed it with rare genius and persistency . How they met their good and evil fortune , what they saw , what China was at the time of their residence , and how the empire ebbed down to its actual condition may be studied in the Abbe Hue ' s volumes , the last of which is not less a book of brilliant picture and incident than its predecessors .
Sporti Ng Among The Kaffirs. Sporting Sc...
SPORTI NG AMONG THE KAFFIRS . Sporting Scenes among the Kaffirs of South Africa . By Captain Alfred Drayson , Royal Artillery . Routledge and Co . Ik these sketches , and the sporting adventures they record , an attempt is made to furnish the novice with . information useful to him when commencing a sporting career in the tropical regions of Africa . For a campaign against the ferce naturee of that portion of the globe , it may be usefully suggested that a double-barrelled smooth bore of eight or ten balls to the pound , having strength and good plain workmanship for its sole recommendation , is perhaps the most eligible weapon the sportsman can select . A . double-barrelled rifle of the same calibre may be useful ; a supplementary
stock should be provided for each gun , the barrels being arranged so as to fit either stock . In the multifarious accidents occurring to an adventurer , amongst rocks and precipices , a broken stock is a not unfrequent event , and it is not easily replaced in the wilds of Africa . A Colt ' s revolver would also be a very available weapon , especially if used from the saddle against elands . It may be tried , when going at full speed , with much greater success than can be attained with an ordinary gun . With respect to the chances of sport offered to a skilful marksman hunting in the deserts of Kaffirland , it may be observed that throughout the interior game is of unlimited quantity , and the reports of Lichtenstein , Harris , Gumming , and Livingstone may be received as literally true . The land is , in fact , overrun with animals of chase , the hunters being in no proportion to their
abundance . In addition to his descriptions of adventure in the pursuit of elephants , elands , and the Cape wild boar , Captain Drayson digresses into some timely and practical observations upon a professional subject now engrossing much , of public attention . We refer to that absurd style of uniform and equipment forced upon the British soldier when engaged on service during the late Kaffir war . Captain Drayson says : — " What , in his ordinary dress and accoutrements , was often the result to the British soldier of a Kaffir skirnrsh in the bush ? Seeing his Hottentot compagnons d ' armes dash into the dense thorny covert , and not wishing to be outdone by these little ' black fellows , he sets its abrading properties at defiance , and boldly rushes in on their wake . His progress is , however , soon arrested ; an opposing branch knocks off the tall conical machine curiously balanced , like a milk-maid ' s pail , , on
the top of his head . He stoops down to recover his lost treasure , and m so doing his ' pouch-box' goes over his head , his * crossbelts' become entangled . Hearing a brisk fire all around , and wishing to have a part in the fun , he makes an effort to get on to the front , but finds himself most unaccountably held in the obstinate grasp of an unexpected native foe . The thick-spreading and verdant bush under which , the l shako has rolled is the ' wacht'een-beetje , ' and to his cost he feels in his woollen garments the tenacious hold of its hooked claws , for the more he struggles to get free , the more he becomes entangled in the thorny web . He now hears < retire * echoing through the adjoining rocks , and his friends the ' Totties , ' as they briskly run past , warn him in their retreat that the enemy—who knows riffht well our bugle calls—is at their heels . Exhausted by his protracted
struggle , whilst maddened at the thought of falling into the power of his cruel foe , the poor fellow makes a desperate effort to escape . In doing so , the ill-omened shako is left to its fate , tliq ? toac / tl-ee / t-beeljc' retains in triumph part of his dress . As ho ' breaks covert , ' the Kaffirs , with insulting yells , Wzo away at him from the bush , and scudding across the plain , towards his party , with the ill adjusted pouch bumping up « nd down behind , the poor wretch , in addition to the balls whistling around him , is exposed , ns he approaches , to the jeers and laughter of Ins more fortunate coni " rades ! ' * —eaptain-DraysonHhowever , ~ hft 8 ~ notahe ^ slight ? st _ infceH ^ from the gonernl efficiency of the Capo troops , in spite of these and a hundred other absurdities by which that efficiency is impaired . He considers that « , man who carries weight ought not to be matched against one unhampered by similar retarding influences , and ho ventures also to believe a , man would bo able both to light and to march better if ho were not half choked ox half crushed by his accoutrements .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 3, 1858, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03041858/page/17/
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