THE ENGLISH MAGAZINES FOR AUGUST. FRAZER.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1965, 3 November 1863, Page 4

THE ENGLISH MAGAZINES FOR AUGUST. FRAZER.

In Frazer the public are this month presented ; with a greater variety of papers than usual ; j and of these, at least a fair proportion are full of interest of various kinds. The one which will, perhaps, attract from the ordinary reader the greatest amount of attention will be the long one headed " Mr. Buckle in the East." The subject is full of interest to all educated Englishmen of the day, who have marvelled at the greatness of promiso held out by their countryman, Mr. Buckle, and who have grieved, as the whole world of letters had cause to gripve, over his early and, as it seemed, his untfa&efy death. The paper is by one who was the fphjlosohpic historian's chosen companion on Sia, journey ; and in his narrative are incorporated a considerable number of scraps of diary |*ntMetters from the late Mr. Buckle's own pen. amount of curiosity is naturally felt; as to how the scenes of an earlier and a more stranger and wonderful civilisation, such as passed before the historian of our English civilisation, as he sailed by the ruins of Thebes, and paused before the temple of Earnak, affected his mind and it is exactly this curiosity that may, in some measure, bo gratified by reading the paper of his fellow traveller. The picturo given of the eccentric traveller by his companion is a vejry living one, and shows us many of the peculiarities which we wore quite prepared to look for in Mr. Buckle. There is his self-con-fidence, to use no harsher term ; his utter disregard of other people's opinions and notions when opposed to his own ; his intense intolerance of whatever he thought intolerant ; and, yet all, which might bo expected to form a very disagreeable picture, forms, in Mr. Buckle's friend's hands, one that is very far from disagreeable, and we feel something of the same feeling of Regretful tenderness as we close the record which is evidently so strongly felt by Mr. Buckle's own friend and late companion. The following lettor of Mr. Buckle's own, to a friehd, will give some idea of the effect produced on his susceptible mind by the position in which ho found himself : — In a letter to another friend, dated the Vtli of February, Mr. Buckle writes : — We have returned to Cairo, all quite well, after a most interesting journeyto the southern extremity of Egypt, and on into Nubia as far at the second cati.ract. I feel better and stronger than I have dona for year». In about ten dayi we leave here for Mount Sinai, and intend proceeding through the Desert to Gaza, and then to Jerusalem by way of Hebron. Fancy me travelling on the back 'of » camel seven or eight hours a day for from five to six weeks, and then travelling on horseback through Palestine and Southern Syria. That I have not already been thrown it a marvel, seeing that among other audacious feats 1 went from the Nile to to Abydos on a donkey, with a cloth for a saddle and two piece* of rope for stirrups, and in this wretched plight had to ride for between eight and nine houis. ITo give you any, even the faintest idea of what I have seen in this wonderful country is imposssble. No art of writing can depict it. If I were to say that the temple of Karnak at Thebes can even now be ascertained to have measured a mile and a half in circumference, I should probably only tell you what you read in books j but I should despair if I were obliged to describe what I felt when I was in the midst of it and contemplated it as a living whole, while every part was covered with sculptures of oxquisite finuh, except where the hieroglyphics crowded on eaoh other so thickly that it would require many volumes to copy them. There stood there literature, in the midst of th« most inagnifioient temple ever railed by the genius of man. I went twice to see it by moonlight, when the vast masses of light and shade rendered it absolutely apalling. ' But I fear to write like a guide-book, and had rather abstain from details till we meet. One effect, however, I must tell you which my journey has produced upon me. Perhaps you may remember how much I always prefeired form to color j but now, owing to the lnagnificient effect of this, tho driest atmosphere 'in the world, lam getting to like color bttter than foam. The endless variety of huea is extraordinary. Owing to the transparency of the air, objects aro seen, as newly .rb I can judge, more than .

twice the diitan'ce they can' be seen' fl^^^Hßder ,the most "f Avirftble' <oircumstance'i. i \ l OpP^ny eye beoarao habituated to tins, I of ten ' over-fatigued myself by believing that I could reach a cartaiti point in a. certain time. The tesiult it a wealth and exuberance of color whiohjii hardly to be credited, and which I doubt if any painter would daro to represent. 1 From JeruialAn I propose going to Jericho, the Dead Sea, and ,the Jordan ; thence to the Sea of Galilue, and from thence to Damascus and Baalbeo; afterward« to t Oonst»utinople, passing tlirough Boyrout and Smyrna. What think you of this 1 If you wero heie, and felt as I do what it i« to have the brain every day over-excited, mid be constantly drunk with pleasure, you would easily understand how impossible much letter-writing becomos, and how impatient one grows in trying to fix on paper thoughts that burn ; but, as you know of old, if my friends) were to measure my friendship by the length and froquoncy of my .letters, they would do me greut injustice.' , Of the parts that are by this narrator of tho journeys, , the following account of Mr. Buckle and his dromedary is a very fair example :—: — Mr. Buckle mounted hia dromedary once, but never Again ; and if there is not some little spring in one, the motion, as can easily be imagined, i 3 not fatiguing only, but exciuoiating ; otherwise it is less tiling than horseback. The Arab ideal of dromedary-riding is fifty miles an hour, and so smoothly that the ridur can hold a full cup of coffee in his hand unapilled. But Mr. Buokle's hatred of the animal he could never find words to express. One would have thought he believed them animated by tho transmigrated souls of ideally ' ignorant and morose Scotch fanatics. He raiy, however, have been somewhat prejudiced in his opinion of camelH, as well as of religious Scotchmen. Though Mr. Buckle had hoped, as in a letter above extiactud, to do his seven or eight hours a day on c.unel-back, he had taken the precaution to have for himself a good Cnirone donkey besides his dromedary. For the donkey had to bo piovided n camel to cany the water he needed Sir. Buckle's stiffness was so great that it wa« with difficulty, and at first only with the assistance of three or four men — one helping him yp^. one on the other side keeping tho saddle straight, one holding 1 ! the animal in case of fright — that lie mounted the donkey. For this donkey he conceived a great affection. And the mokes of Egypt are so superior to all other donkeys that they cannot justly be called by tho name of " ass ;" and it was by the more endearing name of "moke" they were celebrated in an EpiniUiau ode by a Pindar of my ucqu.iitt.iuce. Mr. Buckle's costume was an old black dress-coat his butler, he said,- would not have worn, a doublebreasted cloth waistcoat, and winter tiouser-*, all ovei thick flannel undpr-garments ; a wideawake, with an ample pujrgery, crowned his spate, stooping figuie, covered his bald head, and shaded his unshaven f.ice. He often fuither endeavoured to protect himself from the sun in a black burnous. T hinted once th.it all this was rather warm clothing for the Arabian deserts. He replied that, .though the commoner sort of Aiabs certainly wore nothing but a short shn t, yet the great chiefs had several robes. Which was tiue, only they were of light silk, and flowing round the person. Though, of course, a flannel shirt to pi event chills is a necessary precaution, it is to be regietted Mr. Buckle would never make any change in the above attire, as induced the most excessive penpiration, and by thus weakening him prepared the end. " Late Laurels"goes on smoothly enough. Its characters are as brilliant as ever and make the same pi'oportion of jokes, more or less good generally in French, which, we cannot say, we think any improvement upon a good English joke, although possibly a little wit goes farther in that way. It is some satisfaction to find that Charles, who is painfully weak and soft, is not married to tho real heroine, Margaret, who i<3 worth so many dozens of him, that it is provoking she should ever have had such bad taste as to waste a thought upon him. We dont suppose Charles will ever win Laurels, late or early, and rather suspect Erie is the destined winner of tho victor's wreath. Tho sketch of " Slap's" attack in Parliament upon the " Royal Boilers" is a very clever skit indeed upon Parliamentary attacks in general, and very likely — although we do not chance to know this, — upon some aggrieved orator in particular. ' Slap' has been dismissod from the department of Pumps and Fountains, of which he was chief, and takes his revenge upon Ministers by a tremendous attack upon the great 'Royal Boiler's' abuso; the following extract will give an idea of its stylo :—: — Everybody who knew anything wrong about the Royal Boilers, came and poured it into Slap's ear, and received a hearty welcome. Eveiybody who had a grievance (and there were few people who had not a grievance in some way or other connected with the Royal Boileis) knew that the hour of doom had stiuclc, and that the whole system of State boiling was likely to receive its coup de gnice forthwith. Upon no subject was there deeper prejudice or more complete variety of opinion— upon no subject was the public more sensitive, or the Government full of more reasonable apprehensions. Whigs and Tories bandied it about among fcheuibolves, both parties too much afraid either to meddle with it or to leave it alone. A succession of peace-loving ministeis had spent their lives in ingenious experiments to shirk its settlement from their own shoulders to those of their successors. The Duke of Pondgrcast was haunted by it in his di earns. 'Aprfcs nous,' he used to exclaim, the ' Ro)al Boilers !' But the evil day came quicker than he thought, and bis Grocc was doomed to be still alive and flourishing on the night when Slap brought on his motion. There was the greatest interest in the House ; the Speaker s gallery was besieged— the ladies fluttered anxiously from behind their grille— deputation after deputation from various State-boiling Departments auived in town, and thronged the Ministers' door with entreaties, promises, and encouragement. There were other doputations from despeiate people, who wanted to do away with State-boiling altogether, and demonstrated with lunrible distinctness that the Royal Boilers were a monstrous sham. Then there wero meddlesome, suggestive people, 'the tinkerers,' as their enemies cafled them, who said that the Boilers would do well enough, if they were re lined and copper-bottomed ; and obstinate Conservatives, wha maintained that the Boilers were a tiiumph of statesmanship, and weie working, and always would work, to perfection. Lastly^there was ft nervous class, which thought that inteiference with the Boilers was oniy a first si'ep toward the destruction of the empiro ; and fnghteued spinsters, in a paroxysm of tiepidalion, rallied their adherents with a no less teuifying ciy than 'The British tea-kettle in danger !' Into this troubled sea Slap calmly steered his course, and obliged his treacherous fnend to follow. Ko wonder that the Duke had a sudden attack of gout — no wonder that all Slap's friends wiote to expostulate and to implore him even now to withdraw — no wonder that two extraordinaiy Cabinets were convened, and that fiom the First Lord down wauls, every servant of the Crown heartily wished Slap back at the Pumps and Fountains, or inside one of tho Royal Furnaces, or in any other hot, disagreeable place. Nothing could be too bad for a man who refused to leave the State Boilers to theinitlvea. The inferior business of the evening was disposed of, and Mr. Slap, with a formidable array of notes in his hand, arose for the fulfilment of his long-talked of enterprise— the Achilles of the British Senate, whose bitter wrath friends and foes alike were now to feel. 1 See,' said an Opposition on-looker, as Slap cleaied hii throat, and swept his eye in triumph across the Ministerial benches — '

' Glittering ho stands beforo th' nssomblcd host, l'alo Troy boholds, and sooras already lost ' The Erst Lord, at any rate, settled himself firmly in his sent, pulled his hat over his brow, and resolved with a smothered anathema at Slap, that it was all up with the State Boilers. Tho orator first laid a tremendous substratum of fact, and every fact told with cruel effect upon the doomed institution. Ho gave instances of Boilers with large holes in them, and boileis with tho wrong iorts of piston*, and Boilei s whose constant explosions were the terror of tho neighhomhood, and Boilers that worked the wiong way, and Boileis that would not work at all, and infirm Boilers, and extravagant Boilers, and superfluous Boilers ; and then he asked, with the air of a man suie of his position, Did his right honorable f i iends, in tho faco of such figures as these, intend to refuse him a committee ? The Government certainly did intend, and not a man of them looked in the least convinced ; but insubordinate murmurs were heard Around, and the applause at each new fact grew louder and more assured. But when Slap, gathering strength as he went, passed on to the comic part of the performance — when he dragged a host of laughable abuses to the light, each in all the nakedness of unexpected exposure, and showed that, take them from what point of view you would, the Boilers were simply a moss of absurdities —then it was that cheer* became no longer perilous, and secret sympathy discarded all restraint : even the First Lord was heard to chucklo ; and Mr. Multiple, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who owed the department a private giudge for the half million it had added that session to his estimates, threw aside the veil of decent leticeuco, and burst into an, approving laugh.

"A Chapter on Chalons and Aldershot," is really interesting and points out a great many things well worthy of notice both in the vastly greater comfort which the [French camp duplays, and the great saving that inhere effected by many things too apparently . trifling to engage the thoughts of the English authorities. Englishmen have certainly not the adaptability to circumstances which is so marked a feature in the Frenchman's charactor, but that is no reason why tlio English Government should throw every possible obstacle in the way of the men learning something by the experience of a few months camp life which may perhaps stand them in good stead if called upon for real campaigning. " Eobertson of Ellon," is an excellent review of an interesting book which opens up a state of things of which we know but little nowadays, and of which a few years will obliterate even the last traces. On these accounts both the book and its review in Frazer ought to be, and probable will be, prized by many. "The Popular Novels of the Year" is a review of some of the novels by new authors, of which so unusual a number have this year become famous. On the whole, perhaps, the review is a just one, although very severe, but there 'are certainly some parts of it with which we cannot, nor do we think the ordinary teader will, at all agree. The extracts are well chosen, and the articlo, on the whole, will well repay a perusal. '• The Last from Nineveh," is a description of the latest excavations at Nineveh, and the results obtained, which last are really very interesting, and of no slight importance. The paper is short and interesting. " iVlcCulloch on Taxation " is exactly what McCulloch, or any one else on sueh 'a' subject, might be expected to be ; namely, far too heavy reading for most readers. Perhaps the article is evou less interesting than might have been expected, but it is quite heavy enough to deter most magazine readers in this country, from a perusal. " The Roman Poets of the Republic," by F. T. Palgrave, is very good, not very long, and very gracefully written ; on the whole an admirable little papei", and which will be read with pleasure by many.