about the region of which he writes isn't worth knowing; his book is a cyclopedia of its history, government, geography, geology, and all the ologies.

Mr. Gradgrind would have delighted in it; but readers of less vigorous mental digestion sometimes suffer from a surfeit of facts, such for instance as the descrip ion of the "Marimba," the musical instrument, par excellence, of the natives of Angola, which "consists of a flat piece of wood generally hollowed out, and with a number of thin iron tongues secured on it by cross bits, but so as to allow them to be pulled out for the purpose of tuning. In front is affixed a wire, on which some glass beads are loosely strung when the instrument is played, which is done by holding it between both hands and twanging the tongues with the thumbs," &c., &c. A little of this sort of thing goes a great way, and unhappily there is a great deal of it.

By dint of judicious skipping there is much entertainment and advantage to be gotten from Mr. Monteiro. His book should be read by those interested in foreign missions, and with Baker and Andersson as adjuncts, they will get, perhaps, some new lights on the propriety of "efforts to ameliorate the assumed unhappy state of the much-pitied negro-who is lying in perfect enjoyment and nakedness under a magnificent sky, supplied by nature with food without any work or trouble, and insensible alike to physical suffering and hardship, or mental worry and vexation." "Our efforts to civilize the negro by purely missionary work, have been a signal failure." "I emphatically deny that a single native has been converted, otherwise than in name and outward appearance, to Christianity, or Christian morality." It is of no use to teach a class of little children to say like parrots, "I know dat I hab a soul, because I feel someting widin me," while the fetish house is still kept up in the village. Comment on these remarks will not add to their force.

"Fetish" is about equivalent to witchcraft, and is a word which may be said to designate the mass of superstitions which serve for a religion to the negroes. Anything they do not understand is "fetish." Some of their observances are very curious; probably the most so is the ordeal by drinking "casca," an infusion of a poisonous bark. According to the effect produced, of an emetic or a purgative, the accused is acquitted or convicted. Not the least remarkable fact about this custom is its resemblance to that described in the Old Testament. The natives of Angola, moreover, practice circumcision.

Mr. Monteiro thinks it impossible ever to reclaim the inhabitants of tropical Africa (so far at least as he knew it,) from "their horrid customs and their disregard for life." The unwholesome climate will not support a "higher type of mankind," and nothing less than "a total physical revolution" will fit it to do so.

Slavery as it exists in Africa, either among the natives or the Por

tuguese, the writer thinks no evil. The slaves are well treated by the latter, and it is hard to distinguish those of the natives from their masters, their lots are so similar. When there is a famine, the natives take out their slaves and knock them on the head to save them from starvation. The slaves offer no resistance, preferring this to dying of hunger, and "knowing that it was no use going to the coast to save their lives at the hands of the white men, by being shipped as slaves." Evidently they don't know what is good for them. Perhaps with this exception they are about as well off as their

masters.

In Mr. Monteiro's opinion there is very little to be said in favor of the negro. His character is distinguished rather by the absence of good qualities than the presence of positively bad. He is insensible to kindness, "he knows not love, affection, or jealousy." One tribe described as mild in their manners, knock their parents on the head when they become old and feeble, (a custom which, by the way exists, in other parts of Africa.) While the natives of Angola generally pay great respect to age, one tribe, the finest race of blacks the writer met in Africa, are cannibals, which he thinks may be the cause of their superiority, as they have so much more animal food than other tribes. Only natives who are killed for "fetish" are eaten, and the head and heart are the perquisites of the king of the town. The office of king is hereditary, but the descent is on the female side, that on the other being very doubtful; the nephew, the son of the king's sister, succeeds him. The approaching emancipation of the slaves, (it is to take place in 1878,) in the Portuguese colony will, the author thinks, be productive of great misery to the blacks, and utter ruin to the productive industry of Angola. Emancipation should be gradual, "and in proportion to the industrial and moral advancement of the race." "The natives of Angola," he continues, “are specially fitted for the introduction of habits of industry and usages of civilization, as they are naturally of a peaceable, quiet and orderly disposition. Under a firm and enlightened policy they would become more really civilized and industrious than any other natives of the West coast." There seems to be some inconsistency in these two statements; Mr. Monteiro is evidently rather biased in favor of Africa's, not "peculiar," but very common, institution.

The Portuguese government is atrociously bad, and the author is unsparing in his denunciation of it. It seems to be worse than the Spanish Government in Cuba, which places it very low in the scale of merit. One measure of the home government has been to make Angola a penal settlement, and export their worst convicts there, hanging having been abolished in Portugal. In Angola they are strictly on their good behavior, knowing that otherwise they will either be "killed off quietly," or thrashed to death by the authorities, if their crime is serious. "The more important murderers generally come provided

with money and letters of recommendation, and they start grog shops, &c., where they rob and cheat, and in a few years become rich, and independent, and even influential personages." This reminds us thoroughly of Bret Harte's story of the bad little boy, ending somewhat thus, "and he became very rich, and went to the Legislature, and was an infernal rascal, and universally respected in his native village."

As we must leave Mr. Monteiro here, we will say that we do not suspect either him or Bret Harte of plagiarism.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

The Schuylkill. A Centennial Poem. By M. K. C. Philadelphia: John A. Haddock. [Porter & Coates.]

Literature for Little Folks. First steps in things, thoughts, words, sentences, and child's literature. By Elizabeth Lloyd. Boards 50 cents, cloth 75 cents. Philadelphia: Sower, Potts & Co., 530 Market Street. 1876.

How to write Letters. A Text Book for Schools, and a reference book for private use. By Willis Westlake, A. M. Pp. 264, cloth, $1.00. Philadelphia: Sower, Potts & Co., 530 Market Street. 1876.

The Religious Sentiment; its Source and Aim. A Contribution to the Science and Philosophy of Religion. By Daniel G. Brinton, A. M., M. D. Large 12m0., pp. 284, $2.50. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1876. [Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.]

The Myths of the New World. A Treatise on the Symbolism, and Mythology of the Red Race of America. By Daniel G. Brinton, A. M., M. D. Large 12 mo., Pp. 331, price $2.50. New York: Henry Holt & Co. [Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.]

Ersilia: A Novel by the author of My Little Lady. Price $1.25 New York: Henry Holt & Co.

Leisure Hour Series.

Heaven, from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Edited by B. F. Barrett. Swedenborg Library. 16m0., pp. 282, price $1.00. Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.

Philadelphia:

The Inter

New York: D.

Animal Parasites and Messmates. By Prof. M. Van Beneden. national Scientific Series. No. XIX. With 83 illustrations. Appleton & Co. 1876.

The Life of Alexander Hamilton. In 2 vols. By John T. Morse, jr. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1876.

King and Commonwealth.

A History of Charles I., and the Great Rebellion. By B. Meriton, and J. Surtees Phillpotts. 16mo., pp. 399. Philadelphia: Joseph H. Coates & Co.

Miss Molly. By Beatrice May Butt. Leisure Hour Series. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1876.

The Ancient Régime. By H. J. Taine. Translated by John Durand. 12mo., pp. 421, cloth, $2.50. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1876. [Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger.]

THE

PENN MONTHLY.

JUNE, 1876.

THE MONTH.

[With the present number this department of the PENN MONTHLY passes into new hands, the gentleman who has hitherto borne the burden of its preparation having retired to our great regret, from this post.]

HE Disraeli ministry have encountered their first parliamentary defeat, which may quite possibly be the forerunner of a series such as destroyed the credit of the Gladstone ministry and deprived them of a working majority in a thoroughly Liberal House. The Rev. Prof. Smyth, of Magee College, who represents Londonderry, divided the House on the question of closing the public houses of Ireland on Sunday; and in spite of the opposition of the ministry, who cannot forget that they owe their present lease of power to the publicans, he had a majority. The Indian and Egyptian blunders, the silly speech about Russia in Asia, the slave circulars, the bad management of the admiralty, and many other mistakes, are beginning to tell on Disraeli's strength in the House and before the public.

If we are not mistaken, the refusal to give up Winslow, the Boston forger, as required by the provisions of the Ashburton Treaty, would prove another dangerous mistake. The absurdity of pleading a law of 1870, as preventing the execution of a Treaty made thirty years earlier, is but too evident. It may be part of the foreign policy of vigor promised at the beginning of this ministry, but it is certainly misdirected vigor. Disraeli sees nothing wrong in remanding slaves back from English vessels to the custody of their masters, but he has the tenderest regard for the rights of runagates like Winslow.

Another blunder, we are convinced, would have been the amnesty of the Fenian prisoners, not because that transaction would have been wrong in itself, but because it was said to have been purchased by the support of Irish votes in a critical division. Nothing so weakened Gladstone's ministry as the Irish alliance, and the Liberals are now heartily convinced that if they ever take office again it must be with a majority in which that is not an essential constituent. But all the taunts heretofore flung at them would begin to lose their force were a piece of jobbery like this brought home to their opponents. The British Philistine would never pardon it.

MR. FISH is certainly entitled to honor for the determined stand he has taken in resisting the claim of the British Government in the matter of the extradition of the defaulter Winslow. It would have been an easy and proper thing for the English ministry to have supplemented the act of Parliament of 1870 by negotiation with the United States, looking towards an alteration of the existing treaty in accordance with that measure; and there would doubtless have been little difficulty in inducing the Cabinet and Gen. Grant to accede to a change which certainly seems to rest on an equitable foundation. But no such attempt was made, nor indeed was the matter brought within the view of the United States Government. The clause of the treaty frequently interpreted on both sides of the water remained unchanged, and the Secretary of State is, undoubtedly, perfectly right in refusing to acknowledge in the slightest degree the influence on a treaty of an act of Parliament. The Secretary's last despatch contains a very curious phrase, which must have been introduced there for a very good reason, although it is not easy to

He intimates that the unwillingness to give up the prisoner may be due to a fear that his trial in this country might lead to disclosures that would be damaging on both sides of the water. The British Government having taken its position, will hardly be able to recede from it, nor can the United States afford to yield. The result probably will be the speedy release of Winslow, and the abrogation of the Extradition clause of the Treaty of '42.

THE spectacle recently presented to mankind by the Right Honorable Robert Lowe, ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, was certainly very remarkable and highly edifying. Mr. Lowe is generally believed