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theless , jVIr . Kaye insists on holding the scales justly . Many ai European , says he , made " the native concubilie the companion of Ms life , and worshipped her with his body , in all fidelity , as trolly as though the Church had sanctioned the bond . " With this fidelity often went unfailing kindnesseven tender affection , surviving the youth and beauty of the mistress ; and-when circumstances , as they sometimes did , prevented the performance of the xmion—when the English officer returned to Englandv or when he married an English wife , he was sure to
make provision for the woman who had shared his bed . It was for a higher state of social civilisation and Christian morality than that of which those much-reviled Anglo-Indians boasted , to sanction the practice of casting adrift upon a cruel world the unhappy victim of the sated lust of an English gentleman . Such victims added in India none to the list of public prostitutes . The concubinage , which custom sanctioned , may have been reprehensible in itself , but there was not one seduction at the one end of it , and desertion at the other . "
Mr . Kaye is careful to trace the steps _ of improvement in the social morals of India ; for , notwithstanding all , improvement was possible ; and the India of later years has not been so far behind the standard of the mother country . In both , indeed , the standard has wanted -elevating ; nor , in fact , can we point to any country 'Us a nation of Christians , strictly speaking . Thai , at this period , Cambridge was not a Christian university , is sufficiently proved by the tale told in this volume of Mr . Charles Simeon , through whose agency the Indian mission was recruited . Well might Lord Cornwallis think that there was sinallchance of convei-ting the Hindoo ? small ; chance , indeed , of obtaining proper converters . Mi-. Charles Grant , however , a Director of the East India ConipahyV thought differently , and to his exertions both countries have been
much indebted . The nineteenth century , as we have intimated , shows fairer than the preceding . Its great missionary ornament was Henry Martyn , whose labours are charmingly recorded by Mr . Kaye . Nor must AVe neglect to acknowledge tlie merits of Bishop Heber . Great efforts were made by these men , and others ; yet the work of conversion has been confessedly slow . Every attempt to force the Hindoo to become a convertite has failed . Always
Las it alarmed the native , and of his alarm the Mahometan has constantly taken advantage . Public controversy even was dangerous , if it went to the extent of condemning the religions that it would substitute . Christianity in India can only be promoted by « example , not by the denouncement of error . The Mahoniedan and Hindoo will have it proved affirmativiely and practically , not negativel y and tlieoi ' etically . They will not hear that their own creeds arc false , until , by their conduct , Christians have demonstrated that their own is true . This is the only way left . Ought we to regret it ? We think not . The true Christianity is mot a speculation , but a Life . It must be taught by Lite , not by incomprehensible logomachies .
The revolt of 1857 had its prototype in the mutiny of 1806 ^ There is a marvellous similarity in the antecedents of both ; and both teach the same lesson . There was in 1806 the same kind of apprehension excited , that a "forcible , conversion of the native armv to Christianity" wns intended . "What , however , is meant ' b y tliose who spread' the alarm , according to Mr . Kaye , is the destruction of caste . " The appearance of a Christian ministry in every village m the country ¦ would excite little apprehension in comparison with even a rumour that the Government ore
greasing the cartridges in the magazines with animal flit , or mixing animal bones with the flour sold in the hnmny& . Tho natives know that they may moot tho missionary with argument , or that they may turn a deaf ear to his charmings , charm ho never so wisely ; but covert attempts to destroy caste they can neither grapple with npr evade ; and when they believe that the innnonse machinery of a powoitful foreign Government is set at work to compass thoir pollution , no wonder that a panic is engendered , rtnd that punio rapidly ferments into revolt , '
> There is ' tho moral of tho entire history . Enlightened by it , we must proceed oautiouely . We have an Oriental empire , and , we must consider tho temper and . wishes of our subjects , whether Hindoo , Budxlhiet , MnUomedan , or . Ohristian . The soepti'o Jmuet bo wielded with impartiality ; and matters of
opinion niust be indulged in that liberty \ yhieh is the element of discussion , and without which we can never be sure , when victory is obtained , that it is Truth that has triumphed .
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AMERICAN LITERATURE , ' Trilbner ' s Bibliographical Guide to American Literature ; a classed list of boohs published in the Umted States of America during ike la&tforty years . With Bibliographical Introduction , Ntites , and Alphabetical Index . Compiled and edited by Nicolas Triilmer . Triibner and Co . Thjb literature of a colony may very properly be said to belong to that of the parent state , more particularly when , as in the case before us , the same language is spoken , the same habits of thought prevail , and the same ardent aspirations after liberty and religious toleration are the chief characteristics of both parent and child . Such would appear to have been Mr , Trubner ' reason for confining his researches to the first half of the present century , or rather to the last forty years . As in all young states , after the American declaration of independence in 1776 , the national enterprise found many other and more congenial fields than literature for its development ; and though there are most honoured names and giant intellects which make the exception , it was not till about the year 1820 , that the United States of America may be said to have possessed a national literature .
Indeed , in confining himself to the limits he has chosen , we think the compiler has used a wise discretion ; for the book-trade of the great republic has of late years become so important a branch of her commerce , that any national writers she may have had before then , whose works properly belong to a nation ' s literature , have no doubt appeared in new editions since the year 1817 j which may be said to be the commencement of her claim as a nation , to be counted amongst the contributors to the literature of the world ;
"In a work . of general reference like the present , one of two methods must necessarily be adopted ; it must either be subdivided into classes , or . be alphabetically arranged throughout . I anv not about to . raise the vexed question of the impossibility of forming a strictly philosophical classification of the productions of the mind ; nor am I going to defend the arbitrary classes which I have adopted , in compliance with the -wishes of many competent judges , who value the practical utility of the work more than its extreme bibliographical > accuracy . These claim the readers indulgence , as all other imperfect productions of mankind must ever do ; and the more so , as ' a full and . general alphabetical , index has been added , by \ vUich a facile reference can readily be made to any work sought , if it is not found at once in the class first referred to . "
The classification , however , needed scarcely this apology ; It is true it is not according to the strict rules of bibliographical science ; but we live in fast days—days of progress would , perhaps , be the better expression—and the classification of books adopted by bibliographers towards the close of the last century would scarcel y meet our present requirements , when the facilities of the printing press , by the aid of steam , multiply books with a rapidity those bibliographers could never have calculated uponl Besides , it is within the . memory of most of us what a miserable failure the picked staff of our own British Museum made in their attempt
to produce a classed catalogue of our national collection ; and what ft far more abortive and laughable affair , had it not cost such a rubious sum of money , is the first volume of the Catalogue of Printed , iJooks in the Library of the British Museum , prepared according to the rules prefixed , which bear tlie signature of its present principal librarian . Mons . Tachereau , to whom the present Emperor of tho French lias entrusted the production of the ' cutalogue of the printed books in the Imperial library at Paris , candidly admits the diUiculty of producing a classed catalogue according , to strict bibliographical canons , auid Mr . Trilbxier may
quote mm as sumcient authority for having deviated from thorn in the the present instance . AnglO"Americim literature , by its rapid rise and increasing importance , forces itself daily more and more on our attention . Tho Americans themselves appear to have no , notion of furnishing a cMalpguo which con . supply a groatand admitted , wivnt ; far they have nothing even like our London Catalogue , the English Booksellers' Trade Manual , and far less any proupect of such a work as Kaysor's " BUoher Lexicon , ' one of the most valuable of all attempts to give a perfect record of tho literary
progress of any nation , in which the titles of all books published in Germany for a lengthened period -are . given in full , with the sizes , number of pages , naiiics of publishers , and such other particulars as can interest any one who . is occupied in literary pursuits , or in the fornintion of libraries and collections of books . Mr . . Triibner has produced a work on the literature -of the United States of America on a plan every ¦ ¦ way' superior to that of the London catalogue . If not so full , as that adopted bylvayser , it must be recollected that he had to gather his materials in many cases , not from the books themselves , but from the very : imperfect , and too of ten slovenly lists of their publications issued by American booksellers . On turning over the pages , it will be seen that the titles " are given sufficiently at length to represent the contents of
the books , that the places of publication , the dates , and sizes are given , and in many cases the number of pages enumerated . There is one feature of the work which claims particular notice . Of all encyclopaidic works , transactions , memoirs , and journals of learned and scientific bodies , a most prolific class of American publications , the enumeration of which fills thirtyi-five closely printed pages , there are full arid accurate tables of contents , drawn out upon the ' plan of lleuss , whose '• " Iicpertorium Bibliographicum " furnishes similar tables of contents of this class of books published in Europe . The . importance of these tables is beyond till value , and if the whole work were even less carefully compiled than it is , it would still j > ut forward a claim as one of the greatest utility , on their account alone . ( To be continued . ') .
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Two Journeys to Japan , 1566-7 . By Ivinahan Cornwallis . 2 vols . T . C . Kewby . Mr . Gorx-vvaixis must be accounted tlie most fortunate or foresighted of literary travellers , for scarcely had'he allayed the cravings of the public for all about " British Columbia ; when that hydraheaded monster , hungering for information that might enable it to comprehend the full advantagesof Earl Elgin ' s treaty with Japan , than our alike ready writer and traveller announces as in preparation two volumes of adventures on the identical subject—the land of fogs , earthquakes , aiid—innocence .
Strangely too"i if avc do not miscalculate , these travels must have happened about the same time that we , in our ignorance , should have s upposed him to have been in the neighbourhood of the leaser River , picking up materials for his work on British Columbia . Be this as it may , these volumes contain a vast amount of / information about Japan and her people , which will be new to those wlio have not at hand Charleroix AJbcrtus Montanns , Kaempfer , and Thunberg , Fisch
or those of morericcent date , by Titsingh , Pool !' , er , Meylan Siebold , and the author of tho narrative ot the American expedition to Japan in 1842-3 . 1 ?™ latter of which , if we except the carelessness ot Air . Gprnwallis ' s diction , and certain personal adventures , which , in despite of ourselves , wo . must takoc « w grano satis , the book before us bears a strong family likeness . This , however , may be accounted for by the fact that our author , in company with Americans , visited tliose parts only which are opened by treaty to our Transatlatic relatives ,
For so cosmopolitan a traveller as , from the many hints in these pages with roferenco to visits to otner countries , we take the author to be , he surprises by the one-sided , rose-tinted vluw he takes ot tnc interesting but semi-barbarous people of . Japan , no will have no spots upon his sun amontf nations } ovon his vision and his lungs wore too strong to teel tnc © fleets , or even notice , cither the precipitous streets of Nangitsaki , which it is Inconvenient , it not dangerous , for equestrians to traverse , or those toarmuy dense and frequent fogs for which this hintl ot volcanoes is proverbial . Then , in his enthusiasm loi these children of the suiv&oddess , ho will sparcenr riflmir . < lm r \ ooeufi \ tv ofChristianity ; and UOKliy ,.
like an honest enthusiast , not only hiiUs the nonnecessity for their ehristianisation , but insists tiiw they arc tlio most Ingenious , aniliiUq , but capoemiiy moat modest and virtuous people in tho worm » that they are children of l » anidlso , now living m «¦ garden of Kdqn , wjth hearts unalloyed as previous w the full of man . * , „ It is scarcely possible tliat onq eo well 'up Japanese matters can bo ignorant ot ij nntw institution at which even the Chinoso Miw > , juw which at once , in our opinion , sots aside > tho attonjpxs which have recently boon made » t tolstinff upon tho public absunl notions of Japanesei innocence . vv « allude to tho publio tea houses , which , although noi noticed by our observant txavollor , Ml wrlw ^ 7 " nvlL earliest and the latest —< teory as tho great social o ^
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398 v ¦^^¦ ¦ ^ ' ; . ; ¦\" 'y- 3 a--Ey , Ii ' , EA-P , ] B . »/ -- - [ Np . 470 , March 26 , 1859 .
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Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1859, page 398, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2287/page/14/
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