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ward through the county of Durham, leaving behind me the mining district, and passing through a land of rich verdure on the banks of the Tees. At Bishop-Auckland I strolled through the noble park which surrounds the episcopal residence. There is a piece of bad taste, however, in the middle of it: a structure somewhat in the church style, surrounded with stalls for deer. At a distance, it may call up the idea of worship; but as you approach it, you find it a sham, with no reasonable motive. Along the green and beautiful banks of the Tees, I journeyed to Barnard castle, where the river rolls, a brown rapid flood, between lofty rocks and thick woods.

As I came along, the blue hills of Westmoreland, which Wordsworth has made the most poetical of the English counties, invited me westward, and now I am in Penrith, a town clean and neat. Here I am, with fine weather and blue mountains around me, wishing that you were with me, dear Frühling. I am busy in the inn studying a "Guide to the Lakes," and making out for myself a little map (not mathematically correct you may guess,) as I can always remember what I have done better than what I have merely seen.

And now health and peace to you all in Dresden and thereabouts: and believe me, the thought that will give a charm to my solitary rambles through this country is, that I shall, some day, meet you again in Bambergh or in "friendly Mannheim, as Goethe calls it. Adieu! OSWALD HERBST.

در

The whole appearance of the country in this neighborhood is indescribably charming. There is a freshness and variety that I can hardly find in the scenery of the greater part of Germany. Though I will not hear a word detracted from the praises of the Rhine, still, I BI-MONTHLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN ENGLAND must confess, that there are beauties in the AND INDIA -A bi-monthly overland intercourse courses of these less-famed English rivers, between this country and India has been finally which you will hardly discover in our own arranged, and is to come into operation in January noble river, or in the more majestic Danube. next. The East India Company are to continue Shall I mention a few of the leading traits in the conveyance of one mail a month hence to these beauties? See the banks of the almost Bombay, from whence it will be distributed over perpetual green! and mark the variety of the several presidencies. The second mail will trees! the oaks, the beeches, the limes, the be conveyed from Southampton to Madras and chestnuts, the elders, the ashes! Now we and also a mail which is to be transmitted from Calcutta, dropping Bombay letters, &c., at Ceylon, come to an open spot. See that green pasture, thence via Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, to daisy-sprinkled, with two or three ancient China. For this latter service, which includes hawthorns in the middle covered with snowy both the Calcutta and China lines, the Peninsular blossoms; symbols of old age reposing in the and Oriental Company have obtained a contract sunshine of a good conscience, How very for £160,000 per annum; of which sum the East comfortable are those sleek cows (all evidently India Company contribute £70,000, or, what is pets) standing dewlap-deep in the clear stream! much the same, give £20,000 a year, and relinA little further on, we find a village, with its quish the annual grant of £50,000 voted by Parold church and churchyard full of white tomb- liament for the promotion of steam-navigation in stones; the parsonage and its garden, the India. In order to be in a situation to undertake white-washed cottages, and the village green. the line from Suez to Calcutta at the time speciWe pass by a few more turns of the river, and fied, the Peninsular and Oriental Company inbehold the lordly, old, gray castle, with its an- tend despatching immediately the Precursor, of cient woods and spacious park. More of lovely 1,800 tons, and 520 horse-power, to be followed and interesting variety might be found, surely, by the Lady Mary Wood, of 650 tons, and 250 horse-power, as soon as she can be prepared for in this country than among the mountains of Switzerland. I can well imagine, as Garve vessel, of 1,800 tons, and 520 horse-power; and, the voyage. They also propose building an iron says in his essay on mountain scenery, that for the China line, three vessels of 1,000 tons and the first view of Mont Blanc, rosy with morn- 400 horse-power each, which will probably run ing or evening light, while the valleys lie in between Bombay and Hong-Kong, touching at darkness all around, must be striking and im- some ports on the Malabar coast, and taking up pressive; but come, build your cottage and the China mails at Ceylon. Till these vessels live in sight of the mountain: then you will are ready, the China mail will probably be consee if such scenery will last, for a life-time, as veyed by her Majesty's steamers, and by vessels well as this of a humbler character, where, by in the service of the East India Company. The following the windings of a river, or crossing overland communication is likely to be further over hills of moderate altitudes, you may, every improved, as regards the intercourse through day, meet with some sweet surprise in the dis-Egypt, which engaged the attention of Sir Henry covery of some sequestered beauty. I should Hardinge during his brief sojourn in that country. already say that, in the proportion of various Mr. J. A. Galloway, the civil engineer, says that scenery to the extent of the country, England tion of a railway from Cairo to Suez at his own Mehemet Ali is ready to undertake the construcexcels Germany, and, indeed, every country expense, provided the British government will on the Continent of which I know any thing. pay a specified sum for the conveyance of their And, as yet, I have seen nothing of the south. mails; and that if it be completed, the transit of I know nothing of the rich plains in the mid-passengers, baggage, &c., between these points, land counties-nothing of the gently-swelling which now occupies on an average 24 hours, at a hills of Kent and Surrey-nothing of the rich heavy expense, will be accomplished in four valleys and bold hills of Devonshire. hours, at a trifling cost.-Asiatic Journal,

DR. DURBIN'S OBSERVATIONS IN EUROPE. { stringent, especially in the conquered nations;

From the Spectator.

but the poor soul was forced to it; and when he returned from Elba, he was going to govern quite constitutionally. The Ethiop had not changed his skin, but he would have done it;

we have the Professor's word for that.

The

tone of all this part is Dr. DURBIN's, but the matter is old and pretty nigh obsolete-drawn from Whiggery of five-and-twenty years old, and Voices from St. Helena,

DR. DURBIN is a Wesleyan minister, and the President of Dickenson College in the United States. He has travelled, with what particular object does not appear, over Great Britain, the European Continent, Greece, Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, and Asia Minor. The present account of his travels only embraces a journey through part of France and Italy, vid Havre, The discussions on England relate to reliParis, Lyons, Chambery, and Geneva; a Swiss gion, chiefly among the Wesleyans, and to the tour in search of the picturesque; a descent of political or social condition of the people. the Rhine, with a visit to Waterloo; and a The account of the religious world, so far as railway run from London, by Birmingham Dr. DURBIN saw it, is succinct and informing; and Manchester, to Sheffield, which was follow-though his bias for the Voluntary principle, and ed by a more ramified journey through Scot- the overturning of all churches opposed to that land and Ireland. Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land, are to appear upon some future

occasion.

view, (which scarcely seems a sequence of the Voluntary principle,) is plumply if not needlessly put forth. He traces the evils of the The character of the work is correctly con- social condition of England to the aristocracy veyed by its title. Remark or disquisition and the law of primogeniture, and mainly founded on "observations," predominates over looks to a more equal division of land for their narrative and description. The topics that removal. The moral results of primogeniture employ DR. DURBIN are various, solid, and im- for good or evil, are fair matter of argument, portant in themselves, though not always ap- though not so easily settled as the Doctor sup propriate to a divine, or well adapted to his poses: the economical consequences, which, in handling, at least according to English ideas. an earlier stage of society, might follow from In Paris the author investigates morals and re- an equal division of property, are also a moot ligion with considerable sense, fairness, and point: but the idea of making an old society acumen. He then takes up LOUIS PHILIPPE; such as ours richer by redistributing its wealth, censuring the art by which poor old LA FAY- shows that the President of Dickenson College ETTE, with his throne surrounded by Repub-has not yet conquered the whole range of lican institutions," was duped, and the man-human knowledge. His position that Great ner in which the King's government is carried Britain will henceforth have to rely upon her on, and making some just remarks in a compa- Colonies, mainly, for her foreign trade, and rison between French and English liberty. that we should encourage a large annual emiThe journey to Italy affords opportunity for gration, is sounder. some observations on the agriculture of France, Although observations, such as we have indiGeneva and Switzerland, for various re- cated, give the distinctive character to the marks on politics and religion; but as the facts work, there is still a great deal of narrative. were only gathered en route, they are not very Some of this, though interesting to Americans, remarkable. The Rhine and Holland is little is commonplace to European readers, because more than the narrative of a rapid journey; it merely consists of an account of public but at Waterloo the President and Doctor of places, substantially the matter of a guideDivinity shows off in that peculiar style which book, or of things with which one is familiar the reader may imagine by superadding the either in reality or in description: and as Dr. self-satisfied sufficiency of an American Demo- DURBIN scrupulously avoids any personal crat to the infallibility of an anti-State Church sketches or accounts of private society, the divine. He gives an account of the battle, principal source of attraction in his narrative and sets all right. "Even at this time," some is the interest which the remarks of an observtime between five and seven, "notwithstand-ing stranger always possess. The narrative ing the addition of Bulow's corps of thirty thousand men to the Allied Army, it appears clear that Napoleon would have gained the battle"-but that he lost it. Waterloo, however, is not the only subject Dr. DURBIN settles. In gratitude to "Heaven, that made him with such large discourse," he looks "before and after;" beginning with the French Revolution and ending with the Holy Alliance, the present time, and a slight infusion of prophecy. The intermediate parts are the rule of NAPOLEON, and the consequences of Waterloo-which the Doctor pronounces mischievous to the best interests of mankind. He does indeed admit that the rule of NAPOLEON was somewhat NOVEMBER, 1844. 23

parts, however, are not trite; for Dr. DURBIN is rapid, and has the art of rejecting all common accounts of every-day occurrences.

It is in these narrative parts that Dr. DURBIN is seen to the best advantage; because the faults of his character are national or professional, not individual. Between man and man his opinions are fair and candid; as indeed they are generally where Democracy or a State Church does not enter into the question. Even on religious topics, and on such a form of religion as Popery, which he denouncesand, we think, on the true ground of its tendency to subvert all freedom of thought-he can form an unprejudiced judgment, and even

a hearty approval of its merits, when he is carried into Alpine solitudes. Hear the Wesleyan Doctor on the monks of St. Bernard and

mass:

nearest group, and hardly ever spoke except to cry, 'Hear, hear!' when some especially good thing was saying.

*

*

"There is one feature in which these parties "We found the monks pleasant and agreea- differed from any we have in similar circles at ble men. After a very comfortable meal and home, and which recalled to my mind my earan hour's chat by the fire, we were shown to liest visits to New York, Philadelphia, and our chambers, and slept well, after a fatiguing Baltimore, when sparkling wines graced the day, on the good clean beds of the convent. table and circulated freely even among MethoNext morning we rose early, in time to attend dist preachers. So it is still in England. It mass in the chapel. Within, the tones of the sometimes required a little nerve to decline organ were sounding sweetly, while without, the request of the lady whose guest you were, the wind was howling over the snow-clad to have the pleasure of a glass of wine with mountains as it does on the wild December you,' especially when, according to usage, nights at home. How beautiful it was-the you should have made the request of her. worship of God on this dreary mountain-top! After the ladies retire, the cloth is removed, I felt its beauty, as I listened to those deep organ-tones, and heard the solemn chant of the priests in the mass; and I honored in my heart these holy men, who devote themselves to this monotonous and self-denying life in order to do good, in the spirit of their Master, to the bodies and souls of men. Nor did I honor them the less that they were Romanists and monks of St. Augustine; for well I knew that for a thousand years Romanists and monks of St. Augustine had done the good deeds that they were doing-and that when none else could do them. A man must be blinded indeed by prejudice or bigotry, that cannot see the monuments of Catholic virtue and the evidences of Catholic piety in every country in Europe; and worse than blind must he be that will not acknowledge and honor them when he does see them."

and the wine moves round the table freely. I do not recollect ever to have preached a sermon in England, without being offered a glass of wine afterward in the vestry. Wine was frequently distributed in Conference during its active session. The Temperance movement has not taken hold of our brethren in England; and they see wine-drinking, not as we do now, but as we did twenty years ago."

ENGLISH STAGE-COACHES AND LANDSCAPES.

"At Darlington, for the first time, we embarked in an English stage-coach. All that I had read of the superiority of English roads, coaches, and cattle, was fully realized. The coach is a neat affair, not by any means built on scientific principles, for the centre of gravity is alarmingly high; but yet, such is the excelIt will be seen by the following that Dr.lence of the roads and the skill of the drivers, DURBIN is a "Teetotaller," and was unprepared for the "friendly bowl" he found mingling with "the feast of reason and the flow of soul" amongst

SERIOUS SOCIETY IN ENGLAND.

Although, in general, there is more ceremony in society than is usual with us, it never becomes troublesome, and, being in keeping with the usages of society generally, is not out of place. Precedence in age or office is rigidly observed. Office claims more respect than age; the President and Secretary of the Conference being as commonly addressed by their titles as the Bishops among us. Young persons are less obtrusive and more attentive than in America.

that this is a matter of no account.

"The inside of the coach was fully taken up, so that we had to take our places outside: no loss, however, as it afforded us an opportunity of seeing one of the finest districts in England. There is no rural scenery in the world like that of England. The fields, as we passed, were ripening for the harvest, and groaning under the precious grain; the pastures, with the same deep, luxuriant growth that I have before noticed, were covered with herds of the finest cattle; and now and then appeared one of the noble mansions of England imbosomed in its magnificent park. Well may an Englishman be proud of his native isle when he travels through her unrivalled agricultural districts."

"Breakfast-parties at ten o'clock are very common, and afford opportunities of less ceremonious and more agreeable intercourse than SUEZ.-We are assured that a treaty, the origin at dinner; the ladies remaining all the while in the room. Those which I attended conof which may be referred to 1840, is on the eve of cluded with prayer by some aged minister, and f being concluded, by which England will obtain with (what I had thought antiquated) sub-possession of the port of Suez, free passage from Alexandria to that port, and other advantages of scribing names in the ladies' albums. The tone of conversation was generally lively and which France is said to be no party, is guaranimportance in Egypt and Syria. This treaty, to pleasant; the dinner-talk being varied by dis- teed by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. We know cussions on political, religious, and social not by what intrigue the King of the French has topics-not often heavy, and always good- been prevented from participating in it, but have humored. The junior members of the com- reason to believe that England has had nothing pany would listen to the conversation of the to do with her exclusion. Morning Herald.

THE MERIA GROVE; A TALE OF
SACRIFICE.

BY MRS. POSTANS.

From the Asiatic Journal.

me! Again has the priest of Ruttibarri left in my hand the sword of war, nor sought to lay it with those of her warriors on yonder pile. In silence will I no longer bear this scorn; but now I ask why I, of all my tribe, am alone denied the rights of It was a deep grove in the Alpine region vengeance? Why sacrifice you to the war of Orissa. The roots of the aged trees god, and yet forbid that I, your patriarch's were so thickly knit together, that they son, should go forth to battle with my rendered the pathway rough and difficult tribe? Say you not that from my youth I to tread, while their branches, which had have been favored by the gods; that not never been touched by woodman's axe, alone the god of arms, but even the great grew in such grotesque forms, that the fan-goddess Komeswari (Kali), of whom men ciful and timid Hindoo of the lower coun-speak not but with fear, bestows her choicest try might well be pardoned for the fear that gifts upon me, so that my very presence seized upon him, as, in the still moonlight, blesses every house I enter? Am I not the he hurried forwards to the open plain by a only son of your abbaya (patriarch), and route more circuitous, indeed, but less ter- do not my companions love me as their rible to his imagination, than this grove of brother? And yet now-now, on the eve the Loha Pennee (god of arms). of battle, you again deny me a warrior's

At the time of which I write, however, right. But as I live, even by the sacred a youthful band of warriors were grouped name of Loha Pennee, whom you now proabout the entrance to this grove, while be-pitiate, not a sword nor an arrow shall be neath the shade of a widely spreading lifted from yon pile until you swear that mango-tree a few aged men, among whom none but the chieftain Khourou shall lead were the priest and patriarch of the village his tribe to battle, or prove that one among of Ruttibarri, stood alone, as if engaged you has an arm stronger than his !" The in some religious sacrifice. Before them youthful speaker paused, looking sternly lay the symbol of the war god, fashioned around him for a reply, while his hand by the cunning worker in brass and iron, grasped more firmly the weapon which and sprinkled with the blood of sacrifice; from him alone the priest had not requira vessel filled with the juice of the palm- ed. So full of dauntless courage was his tree was in the hand of the priest, and as mien, so noble his words and action, that a he poured his libation on the ground, scat- stranger would have thought that, among tering grains of rice around the rude altar all that warrior band, none was so fitted as he did so, the elders besought the pre- for heroic deeds, and that his appeal would sence of their deity, and the power of his have found sympathy in soldiers' hearts: might, upon the arms of their young men. but it was not so. The priest silently Invoking, then, the power and favor of all the stretched forth his arms towards the speakwar gods of the neighboring mountains, the er, then raised them, as if in prayer. The priest seems suddenly possessed, as if by the young men seemed as if they heard him actual presence of Loha Pennee; he flings not, but glanced impatiently, first to the his arms wildly into the air, and with dishe-piled arms and then to the distant village, velled locks, and eyes flashing with the ex- while the abbaya alone, in a calm tone, recitement of phrenzied passion, springs to- plied: wards the entrance of the the grove; 66 young men receive him with shouts of joy, while the priest, seizing the arms they bear, piles them hastily together, sprinkling them with pure water. But ere he had waved the cusa grass on high, or could invoke again the presence of the war gods; ere he could distribute again the arms of the young men, or wound with his sacrificial axe the tree nearest to the hostile village, doomed to their attack, a warrior sprung from the group, and, with impassioned gestures, stood before the priest.

"My son," he asked, "why urge thy request at such a time as this? Am not I an aged man, requiring the strong arm of youth for my protection, and art thou not so beloved among us, that, didst thou fall, the wrath of the gods would surely descend upon our houses? Why, therefore " "Hold, my father," called Khourou, with impatience; "I can listen to this no longer. Twice have I weakly yielded to arguments so unfit for you to urge or for me to hear; again have I been exposed to the insulting distinction of Loha Pennee's priest; "Brethren," he cried, "and elders, hear but I will endure the contumely no more." |

The youth waved his sword above his head, tired; but that which most distinguished and placed himself between the warriors him, was an expression of pensive and high and their arms, with a front of bold de- intelligence, marking a character that had fiance; but ere he opened his lips, a gal- long made Dora Bissye the friend and comloping of horse was heard, and a party of panion of the helpless, the scourge and terarmed men burst into the inclosure.

"Haste! haste !" they cried d; "the guards of the daughter of Dora Bissye, of Goomsur, have been attacked by the people of Daspallah; they have made a desperate resistance, but are unable again to rally; all our irregulars have fled, and the force is now too small to afford hope that we can long sustain the fray; seize your arms, then, and speed through the grove, or ere long the princess will be their captive."

ror of the cruel and unjust. And now, as he listened to the words of his daughter, and viewed with her the lovely landscape that nature spread before them—the foaming torrent that swept below his castlewalls, the towering ghauts of the rich district of Rodungiah, and the dark forests which bounded the wide and lofty plateaux of rock on every side-these features of the grand and beautiful produced upon the mind of the chief an influence which, though possessing more judgment, yet assimilated so much to that experienced by his daughter, that the look of the father and the daughter was so similar, that a

66

Khourou sought not to hear more, but darting through the mounted band, he threaded with speed the tangled path of the sacred grove, and gained the border of stranger might readily have guessed that the plain. The chieftain was alone; his between the Goomsur chieftain and his sword and bow his only arms, while the sole child a sympathy existed very unusual enemy, strong in number, surrounded the in the families of the East, and gentle as small party of Goomsur, who were falling were her counsels, they met, even in that before them. For a moment, the warrior blood-stained land, with ready acceptance paused; but, as he did so, a piercing shriek by the father she so loved and honored. rang upon his ear, and through an opening My child," was his reply to the brief he noted the hand of their leader laid upon inquiry, "God is great, and it is impossithe closed litter of the hapless princess. ble for man to judge of what are his rightSpringing forward, Khourou loosed an ar- ful symbols. We see, indeed, around us row from his bow, that laid the Daspallah the forests, the mountains, rocks, and torat his feet, while, striking down all who op- rents, and we know the great spirit to have posed his way, he shouted loudly, as if to been their bountiful creator: but the unencourage those who followed. The war- educated and illiterate cannot see through riors of Daspallah, alarmed at their chief-nature unto nature's cause, and thus we give tain's fall, and the expected rescue, fed them symbols, which they call gods; and over the plain in disorder, while Khourou, for each of nature's benefits and functions, ere the guards of Dora Bissye had returned, lifted from her litter the beautiful daughter of Goomsur's chief, and had enjoyed the first triumphs of conquest in the blush and smile which played over her fair cheek, in a trembling effort to thank him for her deliverance.

"And is it not strange that, in such a land as this, which the gods bless so abundantly, man is not merciful!” As the fair daughter of the Goomsur chieftain thus inquired, she turned a countenance beaming with the softest expression, towards the companion who stood beside her, gazing upon the magnificent landscape that stretched over the Alpine region of Orissa. He, whom the sweet Sidruja thus addressed, was of a princely presence and richly at

cause personifications of his bounty to become the means of fixing the attention of men who must have a sensible object of adoration."

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The girl gazed upon her father as he spoke with an eye of kindling wonder and admiration, and then she laid her hand gently upon his robe, and as he turned upon the action, he saw that tears were upon her cheek, and that her lip quivered with emotion. My child," the chieftain anxiously inquired, "tell me what agitates thee thus? the matters of which I spoke grieve thee, perhaps, and are fitter for the ear of learned priests than of gentle maidens; I am wrong so to agitate thy mind with things too deep and painful; yet so full of interest are they to me, that I am wont to speak much of what have long been subjects of deep thought." "Ah, my father!"" exclaimed Sidruja, now clinging

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