find in English a clearer or more satisfactory still the same. The triumph over their account of the true relation of Asiatic and European.

"The rapid growth and progress of modern nations in Europe has left Asia so far behind, that the elder race has become as a child in the grasp of the younger, and incapable of any effective resistance in actual conlict. There is a dull consciousness of the

weaker frames and their ignorance of arms does not command any respect, or mental recognition of superiority. They bend their necks to superior force, but harden their hearts, and console themselves under defeat, by hoarding in secret a cumulative and rankling contempt for their conquerors.'

There are exceptions to that rule, the Benfact in the Asiatic mind, and of the giant galee, for example, never having struggled at power wielded by the younger and still de- all; but it is only from an overwhelming spised branches of the great human family. sense of physical power of the stranger. The And only thus is the collateral fact to be ac- very man who crouches and fawns to the counted for, that no people or nation of Englishman, and borrows his ways and acAsiatic blood ever yield to the superior strength of the European, without a dogged and deter- quires his learning, still holds that the Benmined resistance, and a struggle often contin- galee and not the European is the really civued long after all hope of final success must ilized man. “God,” said an old pundit to have died out of their hearts. Like the Greeks the writer one day, "has enabled you for of the Byzantine empire, and later, the polished some mysterious purpose to conquer the but effeminate Italians of the middle ages, the world, and sell cotton, and make penknives; Chinese and Japanese are brought in contact but what else can you do?" In Japan the with races surging in upon them from unknown lands beyond the outer limits of their civilization-barbarians, in a word, far superior to themselves in bone and thew and sinew, in prowess and military tactics, but still barbarians, and thus superiors in all that constitutes superiority in their estimation: in knowledge of their language, literature, religion, and philosophy-the only religion or philosophy they recognize as having a real existence or value. As Goths and Vandals could trample down and sweep before them any array the effeminate Byzantine court could marshal in the field, so can we the hosts of China or Japan, though the latter makes pretensions to be considered warlike. But the result is

past and the present are more closely linked than in any country in Asia, except, perhaps, Arabia, and the Japanese, therefore, scorns while he dreads the intrusion of the foreigner, who with dissonant habits and ways which seem to him savage, wants to teach him as well as control. That is the root of bitterness, and the fact that Sir Rutherford Alcock has detected it under all the forms in which Asiatic politeness addresses a great official, speaks as well for his judgment as the rest of his book for his powers observation.

CHINESE FORTUNE-TELLERS.-These men carry on their profession in the streets of the city also, where there is space available. A mat is spread on the ground, with a stick fixed at each corner, around which a strip of cloth is cast to form an enclosure for the fortune-teller and his hen, which is in a small bamboo cage. By his side is an open box containing a number of very small rolls of paper with sentences or single characters written on them. In front of him is a long row of fifty or sixty small pasteboard envelopes, which also hold single characters, or the divination sentences. A little board painted white, for writing on, and the "inkstone" and pencil are at hand ready for use. An inquirer who wishes to consult him, squats down on his heels outside the enclosure, pays three cash (half a farthing) and tells his story, stating what he wishes to know. He is told to pick out a roll from the box, which having done, he hands it to the man, who unrolls it, and writes its contents on the board. He then opens the door of the cage, and the hen marches

forward to the row of envelopes; after peering over them inquisitively, she picks out one and lets it fall to the ground. A few grains of rice are thrown into the cage and she returns. The envelope is opened, and the characters inside also written on the board, from the two inscriptions on which the consulter's prospects are announced. The hen is regarded as the arbiter of fate, incapable of moral motive in the selection of the roll, and is therefore supposed to give the decree of fate, without the possibility of collusion, or misinterpretation of any kind.-The Medical Missionary in China.

TRADITION THROUGH FEW LINKS.-I have recently met a gentleman, whose mother died at Bath in 1822, at the age of eighty-eight. She had talked with a woman, who, when a child, had seen the dead bodies on the field of Lansdowne in 1643. M. N.

-Notes and Queries.

From The Spectator, 21 Feb. offer themselves to death that Poland might THE UNHOLY ALLIANCE. save the nucleus of an army, they shook even THERE are crimes, as there are acts of be- the vast organization of Russia. It seemed neficence, which are possible only to kings; probable that they might hold out till March, and Frederick William of Prussia is about and then be aided by an enormous movement to commit one of the basest among them. expected within Russia itself. There was Unless a statement believed in every capital hope then even for Poland, and the knees of of the Continent be a simple invention, he every oppressor in Europe shook with a novel has leased out a national army to butcher a fear. If that unhappy country, mutilated people with whom neither that nation nor and dismembered and bound, could resist a himself have, or profess to have, any cause of sovereign whose armies almost outnumber serious quarrel. He has entered into a con- her males, no oppression however organized vention with the Government of St. Peters- or however ancient, could be considered safe. burg containing two stipulations. By the With a rare judgment, which proves like so first, he surrenders the first privilege of an many other incidents, that the fire of their independent State—the right of asylum, Rus- long suffering has at last annealed the Poles, sian soldiery being authorized to hunt Poles they abstained from violating Prussian terriwithin the Prussian frontier; by the second, tory, or, as they hoped, from giving cause of he turns condottiere, engaging, of course for offence to Prussia. They forgot that their a price, on the demand of the Czar, to ad- chance of freedom was in itself the highest vance his army and crush a growing rebellion offence, and the court of Berlin resolved to within the Russian dominions. Both agree- teach them their error. They resolved, that ments seem already in partial process of exe-knot of old martinets, middle-aged squireens, cution; Russian soldiers daily traversing and dandy diplomats who surround the serPrussia in full battle array, and an army of geant-major king, to bring the vast strength eighty thousand men being organized on the of an army, organized to keep back the French, frontier with the equipments required only against the unhappy Poles. The odds are for immediate service. Prussia has, in fact, already sixty to six, but what then?—Who without cause or provocation, or inducement gives odds to vermin, or justice to men whom other than reward, declared war upon helpless kings fear? The Prussian army may sucPoland. ceed where the Russian army has failed, and We must recall the antecedents of this af- the soldiery, once innured to the delights fair before we can understand the baseness to of plunder and blood, will be in a mood in which a legitimate king can descend. Not which it may be safe to let them loose upon six weeks since, the people of Poland were over-liberal fellow-citizens. The wretched living, unhappy, it is true, but still in quiet Poles who have fled from a conscription obedience, when the Marquis Wielopolski into the morasses are to be massacred by was inspired with a diabolic idea. If the conscript Germans, who, but for Polish selfwhole youth of the middle classes could be sacrifice, might at this hour have been the arrested at once, and transported for life to serfs of Mussulman lords, and who, patient the Caucasus, the independence of Poland as they are, would have punished a crime would be at an end forever. The nation such as that which Poland resisted by dewould be emasculated at a blow. The poor stroying a dynasty. Imagine Germans half Faust to whom the Marquis acts as Mephis- in revolt for their right to tax themselves topheles, the Archduke Constantine, em- forced to shoot down Poles because they obbraced the idea, the Czar gave a possibly re-ject to be kidnapped against the law! And luctant approval, and on the 22d of January they are to do this solely in order that a small an effort was made to carry out the decree knot of men, using the name of their king, for kidnapping the flower of a nation. The may be more completely prepared to deprive unhappy Poles fled to the woods, and being themselves of the few liberties they have acmassacred for flying, took arms. Aided by quired. the universal support of the people, by the hatred Russian tyranny has inspired even in Russians, and by a spirit of heroism which induced two hundred lads at Wengrow to

It is useless to resort to strong words to denounce a transaction such as this. No language however trenchant, no invective however fiery, could add one iota of force to the simplest state

ment of facts. There have been soldiers sold | discover how many they really are. Great before, but even the wretched Hessian who Russsian nobles protested against the Warsaw handed his conscripts over to England for so conscription. Great Russian families are much hard cash per head, believed that his countermanding orders for travel, ashamed to troops would be used in battle, not employed as mere executioners. Russia, who by a strange irony of fate now undergoes the humiliation she inflicted, committed an equal crime in invading Hungary; but at least she struck at a regular and a victorious foe. The gallant Prussians are to be sent to hunt down wretched lads armed with scythes, strong only in their despair, and the pitying friendship which, spite of themselves, has invaded the ranks of their oppressors. It is useless in such a case even to scorn, but we may ask whether the Western powers intend to suffer .their laws, as well as those of the Almighty to be openly set at defiance. For nearly six years they have enforced, as the cardinal law of Europe, the principle of non-intervention. If a government, however tyrannical crush a people however feeble, that is no business either of its allies or its foes. It is a measure of internal policy, no more to be commented on than the decree which sends a French journalist to die by slow torture within the tropics for an over-sarcastic squib. But then the government must act for itself-show that it can at least command strength sufficient to maintain order, that it need not purchase allies to perform the work of internal police. The day a second power steps in the question becomes European, and the governments which, with some shortcomings, still respect humanity and civilization, have as clear a right of speech and action as the powers which have declared open war on both. From the day Prussia officially intervenes, England and France are entitled to intervene also; if not by open force, at least by that open expression of opinion which, as it reverberates through Berlin and St. Petersburgh, will every honest man to denounce the crime in which he is made by his rulers a reluctant accomplice. It is the fashion to sneer at moral force when exerted by nations, and doubtless opinion has little power on natures capable of acts such as those the Prussian Government has apparently bound itself to perform. But there are good men in every country well inclined to resist oppression, from whom foreign sympathy removes their one fear—the sense of isolation, and by encouraging them to speak out, enables them to

encourage

face the opinion they know their master has outraged. The Prussian Chamber still contains a majority anxious to claim and keep the moral headship of Germany. A vehement protest from England would bring out all into the field an actual physical force. By a these elements of resistance, perhaps bring strange concurrence of circumstances the third of the powers who robbed Poland has become doubtful of the expediency of that successful crime. It has brought Russia too near her throat, and Austria, which has so governed Galicia that it at least does not rebel, looks with no fear at an insurrection which must weaken a dreaded ally, perhaps overthrow the prospects of a deeply detested rival. A protest from England, a menace from Austria, a hint from France as to the Rhine, and the Prussian Government, energetic only when evil is to be safely done, might recoil from intervention, and leave Poland to foe. Delay is all that is required. If in the fight out her battle with her old household spring all Russian society is not dissolved by internal forces, if April finds regular Russian troops still hunting maddened Polish insurgents, Poland must resign herself to the doom which her death would not avert. But, if, as we half believe, foreign action will in if the Poles, holding out amidst their moMarch become impossible, even to the Czar, rasses, stimulated by a suffering which benefits them because it arrests despair, are at last offered terms, the face of Europe will be changed, and the permanent peace of which men dream be one step nearer to possibility. But one great internal revolt, the uprising against the Turks, will then remain to shake Europe, and end, by completing, the great struggle for life which we call the new revolution. Surely, if either our principles or those of France, the right of freedom, or the claim of the nationalities, be more than the merest words, the Western powers are bound to hold back the Government which, in full police uniform, is rushing to assist, not arrest the ravisher. Nobody questions the right of Prussia to defend her own property, however badly acquired. If Posen rebels, crush Posen; if Poland attacks, march on Poland; but to lease out an army to crush strangers who have only asked an asylum is an act as fatal to the the Hohenzollerns. They acquired their share European system of polity as to the repute of of Poland by a theft. Are they now to be permitted to hang the victim, because he claims from an accomplice some small share of what was once his own?

From The Saturday Review.
HUGH MILLER'S TALES.*

ranks of science. Besides this, his power of imagination was singularly small. Some of THE character of the late Hugh Miller was the Tales and Sketches before us, and many a very uncommon one. Force of will was its portions of his other writings, especially of principal element; but the power of forming the Testimony of the Rocks, show the exercise a strong purpose was not Miller's highest en- of a certain kind of fancy, but in the higher dowment. He showed, when still far too endowment of imagination Hugh Miller, in young to estimate with accuracy his capacicommon with so many of his compatriot auties and chances in life, an unstained loyalty thors, was almost entirely deficient. Charles to honest freedom, and an instinctive abhor- Lamb remarks, that to tell a story imaginarence of a divided intellectual allegiance. tively is to be so acted upon by your subject Self-education is probably, at the best of that it shall seem to direct you, not you to times, a great deal harder thing than most of have arranged it. In these Tales and Sketches us are disposed to imagine. But to begin self- all is arrangement—all is effort. The editor education by closing up what at the moment informs us that the greater number were appeared to be the readiest, if not the only, composed literally over the midnight lamp, avenue towards it, and deliberately to go to after returning late in the evening from a work in the quarry instead of preparing for long day's work with the ledger and balancecollege, was a deed of heroism. Nor did this sheet. And we can well understand, from blameless allegiance to truthful action go un-internal evidence, that this was the case; rewarded. In due time, the young quarry-only wondering that, under such circumman was able, from a more congenial stand- stances, republication should have been ing-point, to carry out schemes of mental thought advisable. development very far beyond any which would have been within his reach had he yielded, in early days, to the wishes of his friends, and

taken orders in the Kirk.

None but a thoroughly unimaginative writer could have composed the first two papers in this series. They are entitled "Recollections of Fergusson," and "Recollections of Burns," describing several imaginary conversations supposed to have been held between each poet and a "Mr. Lindsay,” who is, of

Hugh Miller. At one point in the "Recollections," Burns and his companion are represented as following the course of the river Ayr on a lovely summer's afternoon, when Burns is made to deliver himself thus:

"Can he be other,' he said, 'than a good and benevolent God, who gives us moments like these to enjoy? O my friend, without these Sabbaths of the soul, that come to refresh and invigorate it, it would dry up within

But Hugh Miller's intellect, however vigorous and acute, was not of so uncommon a type as his moral character. His activity and success were indeed prodigious. These post-course, understood to sustain the part of humous Tales and Sketches make the eleventh of a long series of volumes produced by his pen during a busy lifetime prematurely cut short. By a recent advertisement, we were informed that their aggregate sale had reached no less than eighty thousand copies. But, taken as a test of merit, this high figure tells little or nothing. Like many other successful authors, Hugh Miller in reality considerably over-wrote himself. Gifted with great perseverance and great powers of observation, materially aided by his long practical familiarity with external nature, he had it at one time within his reach to become a firstrate scientific man. But he had the misfortune, for to him it was a real misfortune, to be appointed editor of a public journal-the Witness; and the distractions attending the duties of that office effectually stood in the way of his ever acquiring the solidity and depth indispensable to a position in the front

us!

6

How exquisite,' he continued, how that is good and fair in external nature, and entire the sympathy which exists between all all of good and fair that dwells in our own! And oh, how the heart expands and lightens! The world is as a grave to it-a closely covered grave; and it shrinks and deadens and contracts all its holier and more joyous feelings under the cold earthlike pressure. But these forms and colors of richest beautyamid the grand and lovely of nature — amid there is a disinterment, a resurrection, of sentiment; the pressure of our earthly part *Tales and Sketches. By Hugh Miller. With a seems removed; and those senses of the mind, Preface by Mrs. Miller. Edinburgh: Black. Lon- if I may so speak, which serve to connect our spirits with the invisible world around us,

don Hamilton and Co. 1863.

recover their proper tone, and perform their chison; and as a geologist, not a man of proper office."

999

There is no more reason for putting talk of this kind into the mouth of Burns than of anybody else. It is certainly not the kind of reflection with which Burns may be supposed to have accompanied his " 'gloamin' shots at the Muses on the banks of the Nith at Elliesland. The fact is, that the writer was incapable of that peculiar effort of mind which enables it to project itself beyond its own sphere, and to conceive of circumstances and characters wholly distinct from itself. Being powerfully impressed by admiration for Burns's poetry, Hugh Miller, nevertheless, completely failed in understanding the poet. What he did was to write down a number of his own reflections, going through the form of putting them into the mouth of Burns, and then persuading himself that they might have proceeded from that mouth. The illusion reaches a culminating point in the following passage, where Burns is described as coming suddenly on a girl to whom he was attached :—

form.

belles lettres, he will go down to posterity. We cannot but regard it as an indiscretion, to say the least of it, which permitted these crude and uncongenial results of his early literary efforts to see the light in a collected The "Recollections" are followed by seven short tales, not one of which would attract notice in the Cornhill or Macmillan's Magazine. But these are succeeded, and the book is in great part redeemed by a long concluding paper called, "The True Story of a Scottish Merchant of the Eighteenth Century." It is a narrative of the life of William Forsyth, who for about half of the last century was chief magistrate, principal inhabitant, and factotum of Cromarty, the author's native town. On the thread of this biography there are hung a large number of extremely interesting details relating to the origin of modern modes of commerce and modern social usages in Scotland, which country, about a hundred and fifty years ago, was beginning slowly to recover from the state of depression "A little grassy platform that stretched in which it had been sunk during the greater between the hanging wood and the stream part of the century preceding. When Forwas whitened over with clothes, that looked like snow-wreaths in the hollow; and a young and beautiful girl watched beside them.

"Mary Campbell!' exclaimed my companion; and in a moment he was at her side, and had grasped both her hands in his. How fortunate-how very fortunate-I am!' said he; I could not have so much as hoped to have seen you to-night, and yet here you are! This, Mr. Lindsay, is a loved friend of mine, whom I have known and valued for years ever, indeed, since we herded our sheep together under the cover of one plaid. Dearest Mary, I have had sad forebodings regarding you for the whole last month I was in Kirkoswald; and yet, after all my foolish fears, here you are, ruddier and bonnier than

ever.

The notion of the man who wrote,

"Had we never loved sae kindly,

Had we never loved sae blindly-"

meeting a girl of whom he was fond, with "How fortunate - how very fortunate - I am," is more than enough to justify all that we have said above about the writer's failure to conceive a mind quite of another cast than his own. Hugh Miller was a geologist. As a geologist he first attracted the notice of really eminent men, like Sedgwick and Mur

syth settled in Cromarty, about 1740, this was the condition of things there :

"The herring-fishery of the place, at one time the most lucrative on the eastern coast of Scotland, had totally failed, and the great bulk of the inhabitants, who had owed to it their chief means of subsistence, had fallen into abject poverty. They seemed fast sinking, too, into that first state of society in which there is scarce any division of labor; the mechanics in the town caught their own fish, raised their own corn, tanned their own leather, and wore clothes which had employed no other manufacturers than their own families and their neighbor the weaver. There was scarce any money in the district; even the neighboring proprietors paid their tradesmen in kind; and a few bolls of malt or barley, or a few stones of flax or wool, settled the yearly account."

He had, however, the wit to perceive that, though a tradesman would be sure to sink in a district of this kind, yet a merchant might find it to be a field worthy of his attention. He went actively to work, buying a freighting-boat to navigate the Firths of Dingwall, Dornock, and Beauly, that led away far into remote parts of Ross and Sunderland, and hiring a large shop for trading with Holland and the commercial towns of the south. In