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< J y , , nities of contrasting the outward-bound emigrants with the same class of men returning to the States after having received a Californian education . Every fortnight two crowds of passengers rushed across the isthmus , one from New York , the other from San Francisco . The great majority in both cases were men of the lower ranks o 3 f life , and it is of coarse to them alone that my remarks apply . Those coming from New York—Who were mostly Americans and Irish—seemed to think that each , man « tntfddo jttst as he pleased without regard to the comfort of his neighbours . They showed » o accommodating spirit , but grumbled at everything , and were rude and uurJy in tiisir manners ; they -were very raw and sttrpid , and had no genins for doing anything for themselves or each other to assist their progress , but perversely delighted in acting in opposition to the regulations and arrangements made for them by the Transit Company . The same men , however , on their return from California , were perfect gentlemen in comparison . They were orderly in their behaviour ; though rough they were not lude , and showed great consideration for others , submitting cheerfully to any inconvenience necessary for the public good , and slowing by their conduct that tliey had acquired some notion of their duties to counterbalance the very enlarged idea of their tights which they had formerly entertained . .
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IKOMBOMBAY TO BUSHIRE . JFroM Bombay to Sushire , mdBuasorat Including an Account of the Present jState of Persia , and Notes on the Persian War . By " W . A .. Shepherd . Bentley . Mb . ' 'SxtefHKRD does not know how to write a book . He deluges his narrative with iiotes of recollected dialogues with commonplace persons , and fancies that to quote the chatterings of his former travelling companions is equivalent to being lively . Consequently , he has sacrificed the interest of fcis desultory observations on the Indian and Persian coasts . It is five years since he first saw Bombay , but only a few months since he last saw the
Persian Gulf , so that he Should have had an attractive story to tell ; indeed , he posasessed some good materials , but has made a very indifferent use of them . His " account of the present state of Persia" is impertinently meagre and superficial , while his " notes on the Persian war" would discredit * a iiewspaper compiler . He begins conventionally , " It was a dull dark night , the sun had gone down some two hours , not a star shone out from , the Idwerrng sky , " &c ., and for many pages no touch of Indian reality brightens the narration . When Mr . Shepherd , however , tries to describe , he is accurate and agreeable ; but it is hts folly to be facetious with intent , so that -Continually he becomes unbearably dull .
Bonvbfty has an ugly natne , and warped old Indians say it is an trasugges tive place ; but it is a gate of the Oriental continent , and the Black rocks , Attd red earth of Malabar hill , tie lofty branching palms , and the graceful bay , form a picture , evert / without the addition of that evening ceremony , which , when the swn is aboiit to disappear , still brings out the Ghebers to worship . Mr . Shepherd speais of them in their colourless garments , whitening the shore , salaaming to the sun , repeating prayers in a mystic language , and prostrating themselves while the great orb sinks , when they are free until the ritual of the morning . The East can afford no spectacle move interesting than this , the relic of Fire-worship , the memorial of
Zocaptive m his house , to remind him , perhaps , of his dignity , as though » L golden hon were not enough , and the gilded ca-ystalhottles and goblet from which cool rose and violet-flavoured sherbet was poured for tWp T ' pean guests . ¦ . ¦ ¦* - ¦ ^^ x ^ uro-A better book than this might have been constructed from the materkl , which Mr . Shepherd had in hand . materials
roaster , which preserves in a practical shape , so many centuries of singularly philosophic tradition . The next oasis in Mr . Shepherd ' s random gossip occurs at Muscat , the principal seaport of Desert Arabia , governed at present "by a venerable and amiable Imaum , the firm ally of the East India Company . Mr . Shepherd was introduced to him in a cool corridor Surrounded by orange and lime trees , and received , from a benign old gentleman with a beard of silver grey , a cordial English shake of the hand , and « deeply-toned welcome in Arabic . He invited his visitors into the principal room of the palace : — -
Here are seven chairs on . each bide , those on the right hand arc filled by himself , three sons , and two grandsons , according to their ages ; hut the seat next himself is left vacant—the son "Who ought to fill it , his eldest born , is regent during his atwence from Zanzibar . . A pleasant account of the family follows . From Muscat Mr . Shepherd went into Persian , waters , past Khisnais , past Ormuz , past Lingarr , to the pearl-diveTs' depths of Bahrein !—A . fact curious and interesting stiuck me here , the existence of fresh-water spring 8 beneath the surface , so often met with by the divers ; and I was told that tlie cruisers stationed here , when in want of water , procure it by sending a maxi down with a gun barrel , which he fills and brings up . The pearls collected hero are said to be of great value , and are thus obtained : —The diver , naked as the day he was born , with his
feet resting on a double-headed shot or huge stone attached to a rope ( which is fastened to the boat , and which he holds ) , with his noso in a horn , or his nostrils compressed with wooden pincers , and a basket slung round his neck , is rapidly lowered by hia companions ; his feet barely touch the bottom ere ho is off the stone or shot , which is as rapidly hauled up aa it was lowered down , and another diver occupies it , while our friend who first went down is poking about " astonishing the natives / ' and fast filling his basket with pearl oysters . Up he cornea , empties his basket , takes throe or fbxir deep inspirations , and down he goes again . The yellow pearls are sold in India , the white in Europe , although , as they pass through Constantinople , many are selected by the Sultan to deck the beauties of the imperial harem , Anon , we have a glimpse of Persian military dispositions : —
The soldiers ( of whom tliero were many loitering about , and protending to do duty on th © walls ) presented the most grotesque and mixed appearance . Some ( evidently the body-guard of the governor ) wore , in imitation of our army , shell-jacket a and white trousers , but so loose , that they had room in their flapping legs for at least a corporal ' s & ** .. * & e snoll-jackots had been bought and exported from India . Their arms consisted of tlio Company ' B old flint muskets and bnyonets ; and with those , following a really very respectable fife and drum , they inarched round , morning , noon , and night , to reUwo gu « u-d . But tlie majority of tlio aoldiera were armed with matchlocks and piBtok ., on * or two daggera , and a straight , short sword ; from the fit ™ ^ i Si S 5 ° ? -tnt cart (> UCtt ko *™ . with- differout-sizod cartridges , powtler-SS , ^ dln S , and different « , nea for primi and vnrionB _ flizcd ranfJolia | WUh SEr of tfci mniS " x T * * ° . U f 0 lt Cap ' 8 tuck dowu « tt ono sido > «« ia the custom S ^ wauf- Set X !* r ? "r ? ' r 0 aoMn e down to the knees and drawn in at Sn , S ^™ Wl £ I \ i ° S 1 uckod - » P trousers , stoclungless , and perhaps yellow-£ S to loolT ^ y ° a 8 fi" * *™^ ridiculous « 3 it i 3 possible for irrc - The Governor of Bushire , when Mr . Shepherd visited Win , kept a chained
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STILL WATERS . —MAY HAMILTON . Still Waters . By the Author of " Dorothy . " 2 vols { Parker VThere is some originality in Still Waters . The main divisions of the storT are bolted together by a rusty incident , but the colouring is fresh and top characters are sufficiently vital to inspire an interest . There is a mysterv too , which is not at once penetrable . Therefore the book is of more than average merit ; it will , no doubt , have more than a few readers . The writer however , does not understand how to dispose of all her personages and in ' troduces prominently some who have nothing to do with the drama . The Gascoigne family , foi example , is an excrescence , although at the outset we are led to believe that Clara will be the heroine and Dyne Court the theatre of the tale . Both vanish , and are not missed . Moreover the expianation of Clinton ' s disappearance with a sum of money is extravagant !? melodramatic ; that convict parent , returning to haunt his children , is well known to us , and we are weary of him . The German scenes are pretty but the revival of Jasper in the lineaments of a Heidelberg professor contain * :
something almost comic , which we are sure the author of Dorothy never intended . But judged by the standard of the circulating library , Still Waters may be recommended for quiet evening reading . It is at least superior to many of those three-volume novels , filling daily half a column of announcements , which are ans-werable , we should say , for so large a proportion of the brain fevers and bad manners in vogue . The two volumes are of modest size ; had they "been rendered smaller , by cutting down the dialogues , the obliterated passages would not have been missed—least of all , the mincemeat of pedantry and impertinence presented as children ' s talk . ' Itay Hamilton : an Autobiography . By Juliia Tilt . ( Booth . )—May is a soft-hearted heroine , whose life runs through a " thorny jungle of surprises . She is born at Bath , in the midst of a flourishing family circle , and is
beginning to ripen into angelic beauty when her father dies . Though a magistrate and a member of the Somersetshire hunt , with a reputation for opulence , lie leaves his -widow poor and his daughter portionless . The poor and the portionless go up to London , to look for lodging and means of living , and May is fortuitously knocked down by tie carriage of an old friend , which accident introduces her once more to Buhl cabinets and Aubusson carpets . 2 SText , going to a certain office to draw her mamma ' s slight income , she encounters one of those monstrous young men , imagined by novelists , who have musical , luscious voices , jet hair , rich , clear * skin , wondrous smiles , upper lips like women ' s , and classical stature . By this being she is entranced , and he is ravished by her , and calls ' on her mother . While " mamma and him . are chattering ; away , " Miss Hamilton sinks deeper
into her entrancenxent , and they twain at length promise to become one . Finally , however , Rosa comes upon the scene—raven hair , marble skin , hectic eye—May tends her bed of misery and sickness—the monstrous young , luscious-voiced , jet-haired man , with an upper lip like a woman ' s , comes in , and there lies the g irl he has abandoned , and there stands the other girl he has deceived ; his beauty is forgotten now ; he gets murdered ; May clasps his coipse lying on a committee table amid a Board of Directors , and transmits herself to an ugly Mr . Mnitland , whom she marries , and whom she sincerely loves , in spite of the dark-skinned secretary . " And all my friends are still living . Death has been very good to me , " . writes May Hamilton , otherwise , Miss Julia Tilt , who has a very peculiar notion of human nature , and of the constituents of a modern novel .
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IRRIGATION IN SOUTHERN INDIA . The Cauvery , Kistnah , and Godavevy . By E . Baird Smith , F . G . S ., Licutcnaut-Colonel Bengal Engineers . Smith , Eldur , and Co . LiEUTENANT-CoLONEii Bairjd Smith—a name inseparably connected with all the great works of irrigation in Upper India—having expressed a desire to strengthen his own experience by the knowledge to be expected from a personal examination of similar works in the Madras Presidency , this Court of Directors issued instructions that every facility should be afforded for the accomplishment of this object . The result of the observations niiulc under these advantageous circumstances lias very judiciously been presented to the public by order of the late Governor-General . By those who , ia tlio words of old Fuller , prefer reasons to railing , these reports-will bo deemed a conclusive answer to the senseless clamour that accuses the Indinn Government
of neglecting the improvement of the country and the material well-being of its subjects . A simple statement of suck facts is of more real value than all the oratorical declamation that so unprofitably distracts the attention of the legislature during the parliamentary session . Rising in the Western Ghauts , the river Cauvel * y drains a , basin computed to contain nearly 32 , 000 square miles . In its course through the district of Trichinopoly it becomes divided into two channels , the northern branch being called the Coloroon , while the southern retains its original appellation . The Coleroon , however , being more rapid in its full , more direct in its course , and larger in volume , luid gradually diverted into its
own bed such a large proportion of the waters of the parent stream as to threaten the ultimate extinction of { the other branch , and consequently the ruin of Tnnjoro . This was the state of things when that province eiuneinto the British possession in . 180-1 . To avert tho evil that was becoming more and more imminent , recourse was had to measures Lardy adequate to postpone , but wholly insufficient to prevent the expected catastrophe . For the space of twenty-five years the unequal struggle was maintained , until the supply of ¦ water had so far diminished , that extensive tracts of huul ivcro thrown out of cultivation , tho revenue impaired , and the people impoverished . Between 1830 and" 1836 , works on a larger scale were executed , but thoso also fell short of the occasion . The necessity , however , produced
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S L 2 had subsequentlwhile residing on the isthmus of Nicaraguaconstant opportu-22 THE EABEB , [ g ^ gg ^ Saturd ay ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 21, 1857, page 282, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2185/page/18/
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