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January 15, 1853.] THE LEADER. 67
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THE DORP AND THE YELD. The Dorp and the ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Spencer's Tour Through France And Italy....
it , do not deny " the fact . " Here is a mass of evidence , which , if it could be thrown back some eighteen hundred years , would indeed surpass anything of the same kind ever pretended to be possessed by the Christian Church . As a matter of " historical evidence , " which of the miracles rivals it in precision and authenticity P Moreover , observe this : Rose Tamisier did not content herself with performing the miracle in the presence of credulous people , and then appealing to their testimony ; she repeated the miracle on being desired , and did so in presence of a " Commission of Inquiry , " sent by Government for the express purpose of ascertaining the truth . Yet hear the sequel : —
" The credit of unravelling this most mysterious affair of the bleeding Christ is due to the intelligence and assiduity of M . Eugene Colignon , chemist of Apt , who after wasting much time and labour in fruitless researches , at length succeeded in discovering that human blood , disgorged by a leech , having lost its fibrine , was capable of serving the purpose of Rose Tamisier , and might be made to penetrate a painting , and then issue forth in small globules or drops , according to the quantity employed , and which not only does not coagulate for many hours , but continues to flow from the face of the painting , however frequently it may hav e been wiped off while a drop remains .
" In short , the miracle of the bleeding Christ was imitated so successfully by this gentleman in presence of the public authorities , and a large number of the most eminent scientific men of the country , that not a doubt could remain in the mind of the most devoted believer in the miraculous powers of our heroine , that she was an impostor , particularly when it was proved that she invariably insisted on being allowed to pass some time in solitary prayer in the chapel , previous to performing the miracle , when no doubt she took care to saturate those portions of the painting necessary for her purpose with the sanguinous fluid . " The cheat having once become , generally known , such a storm of public
indignation was raised in the country as compelled the authorities to have the impostor arrested and tried as such at Carpentras , the chief town of the district ; but here the jury , we presume , influenced in their decision by a superior power , declared themselves incompetent to pronounce a verdict . This made bad worse , and the authorities , fearing some outburst of popular discontent , the affair was transferred to the assizes at Nisrnes , where about the middle of November , 1851 , after a long and patient investigation , aided by the laborious efforts of counsel ou both sides , the saint was pronounced guilty of escroquerie et outrage a la morale j > uhlique et religieuse , and condemned to six months' imprisonment , with a fine of five hundred francs and costs . "
It is unnecessary for us to comment on such a denouement and its suggestions . Although religion occupies a foremost place in this Tour of Inquiry there are other topics touched on by Mr . Spencer , sometimes with decided effect , as in the chapter concerning the rag-gatherers of Paris , which is very curious . We shall borrow for our " Notes and Extracts" a few passages ,-and , with this brief notice , quit the work .
January 15, 1853.] The Leader. 67
January 15 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 67
The Dorp And The Yeld. The Dorp And The ...
THE DORP AND THE YELD . The Dorp and the Veld ; or , Six Months in Natal . By Charles Barter , Esq ., B . C . L ., Fellow of New College , Oxford . W . S . Orr and Co . Mb . Barter , who intersperses his rapid notes with Greek , and points a small joke by a quotation from the Ag amemnon , has something more than a " classical education , " to show as titles to a hearing upon the subject of our African colonies . He has long been a traveller and a colonist ; he has farmed and lumbered in New Brunswick , traversed Canada from east to west , and is familiar with America as a cockney is with Greenwich ; and he looks at Natal with eyes that can see deeper than most . The little volume wherein he has recorded his experience of the Dorp and the FcW—village life and agricultural life—will be acceptable to most readers , and very acceptable to emigrants . He has " strong views , " and expresses them without equivocation . Ho " goes in" for the extirpation of the Kafir . But wo will not look at those chapters of his work ; there is plenty of matter to extract , both of use and amusement .
HINT TO EM I Oil A NTS . " I mean that of taking out cargoes of goods far beyond those needed for their own use , with the idea , of increasing their little capital by their immediate sale ut a considerable profit . I need scarcely say that their expectations are . seldom , if ever , realized . There is a glut of hucIi imports in the market ; and the emigrant , finding his supposed treasure little more than an incimibrancc , is driven to the alternative of either selling oil ' sit once , ut u very great sacrifice , or of netting up a store , and entering into a ruinous competition with the already established tradesman , without even the prospect of success to justify the undertaking .
" The render will conceive the folly of this practice when I mention that J have seen drills , scarifiers , and other costly implements totally unsuited to a new soil , lying on the beach where they have ; been landed , the owners being unwilling to incur tlio «> xpeiiHO or trouble of removing them , mid that I have known some of Jtansome ' s best ploughs sold for " M .. ( inns and rifles limy generally 1 m ; bought far dumper than in England . Ono of our passengers had brought out , a Scotch cart , which ho told me had cost him 36 / ., before it arrived in Niilal , and he was glad to part with it nt a much less price , for though Immly things on a farm , they are not suitable for long journeys , and do not supersede the necessity of buying a
wagon . " A HT . I G I IT 1 M 1 HTAKK . " lie had fallen in with a herd of qunggiiH . und wits in full pursuit of the *! , when , crossing tt valley , he observed four large animals ut some distance disking at a pool . Judging them from their size to be elands ( Ha . wlaphvs orturs ) , the largest and most cHteemed of the antelope tribe , he immediately abandoned the vile game , and galloped towards them , upon which they retreated slowly up the halt , three in advance , mid the fourth , which ho judged to be tin ? i » nle > , bringing lll » { Xw nm ' - Itarkley had already marked thin one for his own , and was now within two hundred yards of his stern , when the flying party turned slowly round , and to Ins surprise and consternation , ho discovered he had beou dinning « v lion llI 1 ( l tlm' ° lionesses ! .. . " Virgil telln us of a youthful hero who , while enjoy ing the puny sport of staghunting-, longoU to wo a tawny lion approach ; but oven Aacunius might huvo been
taken aback had he found himself unexpectedly brought face to face with four ; and it was no disparagement to my friend ' s courage to say that he felt , as he cand idl y confessed , any thing but comfortable . He was armed onl y wi t h a sing le-barr e lle d rifle , and his horse , old Sclmtkraal , was in no p li ght for a race with the king of beasts , which can outstrip the swiftest antelope . / "In this emergency , h o w e ver , his presence of mind did not forsake him , and knowing that to show any sympto m of fear , would increase the danger of his position , he pulled short up , and sat motionless , with his eye fixed upon his formidable
ad-. " The three females dropped quietly upon their haunches , gravely returning stare for stare ; while the old mannetje , ' as the Dutch familiarly call him , a splendid fellow , with a long black mane , and his sides literally shaking with fat , stood a little in front , e v e r and anon w h isk i n g his tail over his back , but made no movement in advance . Barkley , on his part , had no idea of commencing hostilit ies , and when this mute interview had lasted some minutes , he turned his horse ' s head round , and ro d e slow ly away . No motion was made in pursuit , and as long as the spot was in sight , he could distinguish the four figures , to all appearance remaining precisely in the same position in which he had left them . "
HOW THEY MILK THE COWS . " The dairy was a sad failure , as it is wherever the cows are left to the management of Kafirs . Calves are seldom weaned in Natal till they are at least a year old , and it is no uncommon sight to see a cow g ivin g su c k to' an anim a l q ui t e as large as herself . The milking process is quite a savage affair . The cow is hunted up into a corner of the kraal , and made fast by the horns to one of the posts , as if for slaughter ; her hind legs are then tied together , that the operation may be rendered as disagreeable as possible ; the calf is next permitted to take a draught , when he is pulled aside , and the remainder of the milk is y ield e d p e r force in t o t h e pail . It is the business of the Kafir to prevent the calves from anticipating this
hasty meal by a full e r an d more leisur e ly one , which they will assuredly do , if they can get the opportunity ; and , when the cattle are let out in the morning to pasture , the calves are always driven in an opposite direction to that which is taken by the rest of the herd ; but , no t wi t hs t andin g this precaution , it is a frequent complaint that they have taken all the milk , and that there is none for tea . Nor is this the only inconvenience that results from intrusting the matter to Kafir management . A cow that has been accustomed to native milking will seldom allow a white man to touch her ; still less will she yield her milk to his manipulations ; so that , if , as frequently happens , the Kafirs should take it into their heads to leave the farm , the whole business of the dairy is at a stand-still . "
Here we have -Mr . Barter ' s answer to the important question , DOES FABMTNa PAT ? " I will answer first in the words of a Dutch gentleman , —a twelve years' resident in Natal , —whose opinion is at all events disinterested , and whose well-known talents and enterprize g iv e wei g ht to his judgment . Of course , he takes matters as they have hitherto been , without making allowance for the improvements which may be introduced , or the discoveries which may be made , for the opening of fresh resources , or fresh markets , or any other effects of an extensive emigration from England . ' Agricultural farming by itself , ' said lie , will not pay in any part of Africa ; and if by stock-breeding a man can live and bring up a family comfortably , it is as much as he can expect . No African farmer can afford to pay high wages , i . e ., to employ white men as labourers , and native labour , since the abolition of slaves , is so uncertain , and so little to be relied upon , that it can scarcely be taken into consideration at all . ' Now , this verdict , although it must be received cum grano , still contains sufficient truth to form a fair starting-point for our inquiries .
" It has been the fashion Avith those who have promoted emigration to Natal , to insist much in their guide-books and prospectuses , on the fact that , throughout the greater part of the country , no clearing is required to prepare the soil for the seed , but that the settler , on arriving at his location , can at once commence ploughing without any of the previous labour or expense which he must incur in an American forest . All counterbalancing difficulties are passed over in silence , and the reader is left to infer that in other respects there is at least an equality of advantages , and that the Natal emigrant is , at first starting , so much in advance of his Canadian brother . Jf the soil of Natal were a rich mass of soft vegetable mould , so easily worked as to need no other preparation than that of a light burrow for the reception of the first scod ; if its natural qualities were such as to enable it to bear the same crop year after year without artificial aid ; if , in short ; , it resembled nn
Jllinois prairie , the comparison would then indeed be altogether in its favour . Hut since , on the contrary , its surface , when not composed of sand , is so completely baked as to offer a strong resistance to plough or spade , since , at least , it is but of an average degree of fertility , by no means independent of manure , still less of irrigation , for whirll moreover the facilities are frequently wanting , the fact of its being , as some of the advertisements triumphantly allirin , ' for miles uncovered by a bush , ' is not a flier all so great a matter of congratulation ; and 1 shrewdly suspect , that if accounts were compared after the first , harvest ,, the crop taken from among the stumps of a Canadian forest , would go farther towards defraying the expenses of clearing than the produce of the unencumbered ground of Natal towards repaying 1 the necessary outlay of ploughing , digging a water-course , & : < :. 1
" 1 have said quite enough to prove ( hat unless in peculiarly favoured situations , or in the immediate- neighbourhood of a town , a system ol small allotments , such as twenty , fifty , or even a hundred ne-rcH , is a manifest , absurdity , and therefore that for labourers without capital Natal does not oiler an advantageous prospect ; . Agriculture ) muni , be combined with . stock farming , not only for the . sake of ( ho maMiire , but also for the simple reason that ; it cannot , support it-self alone . Six thousand acres of land have hitherto been considered necessary to support an undertaking of this doubhi character . Hut wo will suppose- that , one thousand might he sufficient , and thai , on every estate of Mini , size twenty acres of irri-uble land might be found , which is rather above than below the mark , si ill a capital of at , least , 4 , 00 / . would be required for commencing operations with any hope of success . With
thi ? sum in his pocket , and a well-selected lot , ( lor it , is not every farm in Natal that is high and healthy enough for cattle ) , Hies steady , industrious settler who devotes his time entirely to his business , goes rnrel . y to the town , and can do n failday ' s work himself , will run little risk of failure , though , not to him , nor even to a larger capitalist , can I hold out the hope of making anything like n fortune by these ; pursuits . " The other ex . tnu'ln we Imd marked , muni be renewed for oecatuonal use among Notes and Extracts .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1853, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15011853/page/19/
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