The New York Herald Newspaper, March 2, 1874, Page 4

— ee eee ae “ASHANTEE. King Koffee’s Reply to the British Military Ultimatum. HIS MISSIONARY MESSENGER. Bev. Mr. Kuhne--His Sudden Appearance, Companions and Commission, INTERVIEWED FOR THE : Description of King Koffee---His Palace, Anny and System of Bule. HIS THREE HUNDRED WIVES. Wolseley’s Route---Onward for Coomassie. CaMP AT PRAMSU, ON THE BaNKS OF THE PRA, } ASSIN Lan, West Airica, Jan. 15, 1874, The answer to Sir Garnet’s third ulumatum has been received from Coomassie. It speaks of the ‘King’s desire for peace with the white men. The enyoy who brought it and his suite of fltteen men ‘were halted at Assaman. Yesterday, also, the ap- Parition of a pale faced captive—a shadow of a man suffering from pulmonary consumption, one Who had lingered in compulsory detention at the ‘eupital of Ashantee since the 12th of June, 1869— ‘gtartled the entire camp. This sick captive is the ‘Rey. Mr. Kuune, of the Basle mission, a zealous missionary, & native of Neachatel, who, alter five years’ residence at Coomassie, was suddenly per- mitted to leave Ashantee and proceed to the camp jot Sir Garnet Wolseley. SEV, MR. KUBNE’S REPORT—THE KING AND HIS DYNASTY. The poor man ts in sucha wretched state of bad health tnat I could not find it in my heart to sub- Yect mm to u prolonged interview, but in the tol- Qowing remarks you will nd interwoven such in- es ation of interest as I have been able to leat The King of Ashantee is a young man thirty- ve or Chirty-six years old, strongly pitted with graces of smalipox, possessing some natural bility, but which has been warped by the assiduous id Constant flattery of his parasiticai and trem- 2 subjects. The adulatory cries of the town of the capital are more than suificient to ftransform any man, white or black, into a vain, Sncarnate despot. They are generally in the strain ‘ol “O King, thou art the king above all Kings! hou art great! Thou art mghty! Thou art Strong! Thou hast done enough! The princes of ‘che earth bow down to thee, and humble them- pelves in the dust belore thy ‘Who is like unto the King of all the Ash- ntees’” King Koffee, though arrogant ‘and vain and cruel beyond measure, has the eye of ‘a King, which means that it is the eye of one pos- Sessing unlimited power over life and death. So little does he value human life that he frequently | Bays, “By the slaughter of one uundred shall I be ‘bie tc produce a thousand.’’ The King is placed ‘on the stool by the united voice of the chiefs, but ‘unmediately he is seatea in nim becomes vested the supreme power over life and death. If the council of chieis and captains propose that he shall ‘engage in war, he dare not absolutely refuse to make war lest some ask him, with a sneer, if he is airaid, when, if he replies in the affirmative, the ®onarch's prestige departs from him. When the chiels propose that he shall make peace, after en- gaging in a war which turns out to be ruinous, ne may then proclaim tuat peace shall be deciared, Without incurring disrespect. A great power in Asbantee is the King’s mother, who often, with her @dvice, has plunged Ashantee into waror hastened @ peace. ‘THE ROYAL RESIDENCE. The King’s palace is a large hut, after the native style of arcuitecture, and adjoining it 1s another residence, the two-storled stone house constructed | for him by Dupins, a traveller who visited Ashan. ‘tee about 1820. The missionaries have lately con- Structed another honse for him 44 feet Jong, 25 feet wide and two stories high, of brick, which ‘they themselves manufactured for the King. BRIGHAM YOUNG BEATEN AS A POLYGAMIST. The King has about 300 wives, though they do not all live in the palace, but are scattered among the suburban crooms, or villages. It is death for a man to look at the female possessions of the mon- arch, When any of the harem ventures out the criers hasten ahead to clear the way and warn the citizens of the advance of the fatal procession with cries of “Ecow! ecow! eh! eh! eh! the first two words being drawn out like our “halloo,” While the three iasé are delivered in quick succes- gion and in higher tones. As they approach the passengers turn their packs to the road and cover theif faces with their hands, so they may Hot be thought to take any advantage of the con- fidence of the King in thus exposing his human treasures to the light of day. WEALTH. Bowdich’s graphic descriptions of the stately processions and the wealth o: barbaric gold dis pensed at Coomassie on grand occasions turn out ‘to be correct. This wealtd principally consists of golden heirlooms, ornaments of massy gold, which generation after generation treasured in secret places. If a hostile army approached the capital | this gold would be hidden, and the death of all #laves would be almost certain, lest they might be- tray the localities where the treasure was con- cealed. CITY POPULATI ‘The permanent population of Coomassie is esti- mated at 10,000 souls—men, women and chilaren, THE ARMY. At the beginning of the war the army of Ash- ntee mustered 48,000. This force was collected from the combination of nations known as Ashan- tee and the tributary countries adjoining the kingdom, which, according to ail accounts, ex- tend far into tne interior, ome of the allied chiefs having volunteered from the borders of the Sahara Desert. The army that returned to Coomassie lately under the famous Amonquatian pumbered only 23,000, the large number of 20,000 having failen victims to disease. chiefs, who had falien in battle or died of disease, enclose B so Many boxes. This army was re- LS eee, : ‘ceived in the great iiarket of Coomassie by the | King, and was thanked and rewarded with pres- ents of gold, 100 sheep and forty loads of salt; bat there was no ovation paid toit. The reception was sing larly silefft, utterly 3 RS. esqrid- able triumphal fanfgFOnadé rormeriy mate ob vaca occasions, Ty The people dispersed to their SrQOMS, their plantations and houses, Fifty-five Blaves wer: Of this year. A COUNCIL OF Wak. Amonquatian and the chiefs who have been en- gaged in battle have sougnt to dispel depression from the mind of the King vy poasting of nis per- formances In the war and declaring to him that there are cnough men still left ital trom any attack. it appears that the British letter created astonishment, aiarm and unmiti- | gaced concempt in the mind of (ue King, The first jeeling was caused by the stern purpose which bis words implied; alarm, by the amount of compen- sation to be exacted *for the injury done to the Assing and Fantees, and unmitigated con- tempt at the long explanation at which the General had seen "St to enter into con- werning the cause whith led to the death of ove of bis envoy’s Suite. It is known now why (he untappy Ashantee Ambassa- dor committed suicide. It seems that it was pro- posed to send a white man to Coomassie with Sir | » Me Garnet's lerms ty bls Kiks, ona What this man vem | some opportunity of ndictine 4 pamishment On the_| again. aud may yet be pssse stool! | With this sadly | reduced army were the remains of 279 officers or | slaughtered to the manes of the de- | parted chiefs on the custom day, tue 1st of January | | to defend the cap- | NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1874.—TRIPLE SHEET, | tured s remark to the effect that if any white man | went to Coomassie the King would kill him; where- upon the Envoy, who was his brother, censured him for his unjust suspicion, and to re- | port him to His Majesty. Fully satisfied of the extent of the King’s anger on hearing the cal- umny, he put an end to his own life, When the English General’s letter had been | Tead the chieis, whe composed the council, began to extol themselves, and the sriputary King of Adansi sprung to his feet and shouted, “Benold, | Lam the King of the Adansis, Who can cross my | country without my permission?’ Alttfowah got up and said, “Lo! Iam strong, my Warriors are brave and none can overcome me.” But Amonqnatiah, wno had just returned (rom | the war, said, “He who has seen no war cannot show a scar." COOLING DOWN. savages, that tt may become a tradition among them of what may be expected should they ven- ture to attack any territory under the protection of white men again. It is decided that the white troops shall not move from here before the 23d of this month, because of the non-arrival of sufficient stores. The Second West Indians le/t here iast | night for Assaman. Colonel Wood's regiment left this morning, taking with it provisions for six days, THB ROUTE—“ONWARD |" Sir Garnet Wolseley has just informed me per- Sonally that we shall move on the 23d to occupy | Assaman; that on the 2th we shall reach Acroo- | froom; on the 26th, Quiza, or Fumannah, at which | Place we may probably stay until the 29th, and that by the 3lst we shall probably be in Coo- massie, | Presently cooler councils ana more prudent ad- )~ THE WORK OF CONGRESS, | Vice prevailed; hence the letter which Sir Garnet | Wolseley received she day before yesterday treating | of peace. The King’s frst intention after his Gene- ral’s return to Coomassie was to permit his war- riors a week’s rest aud occupy the Adansi hills, aud when the white people should appear to attack them with vigor. the English back he would slaughter every priso- ner, white or black, he bad taken in this war; | if he were defeated he intended to await at Coo- | massie the arrival of his foe, reserving his prisoners | to plead Jor peace for him, | THE GUN “WHICH SHOOTS ALL Day.” The reputation of the Gatling is now spread throughout Ashantee. “It is a terrible gun, which | shoots all day. Notbing could stand before it; the water of the Prah ran back affrighted.’’ The eifect of this, combined with many other things, has been to induce the King and his Council to de- liberate and reflect on the possibility of peace. { | HOW THE MISSIONARY WAS CAPTURED. | Of himself Mr. Kahne said he kad been captured on the 12th of June, 1569, by the General Addo Butfo; that a valuation of £6,000 sterling was placed by his captor on Mr. Kahne, Mr. Ramseyer and wife and M. Bonat, a French trader, which was finally reduced to £1,000. He afd his brothers were treated as captives who might probably ve of value eventually or not. They were granted a@ sumMicient amount for subsistence, but nothing more. What money was despatched to them was | retained by the King, who doled out to them the | sum of $4.50 per period of forty days for the sub- | sistence of each white man and his servants. They | have preached a few times on the streets to the Ashantees of the capital, but the King never gave permission to his subjects to become converts. | The populace of Ashantee treated them at first with contumely, but when the King gave permis- sion to them to punish insolence with the whip some more consideration was shown to them, It | Was amusing the way in which some of the people endea¥ored to exempt themselves from being sub- ject to the privilege granted to the captives by | going on, and they point to a settlement on the so- | crying out, “Know ye what ye do? Iam the King’s sbhirtwasher! I wash the King’s robes! I wash the King’s feet !” While another would ven- if he were successful in driving | mess Under Way—The Proposed Re- trenchments—The Indians, the Army, the Navy, the Civil Service—The Postal Telegraph —Cheap Transportation — ‘The Currency and Banking Questions— A General Review. WASHINGTON, Feb, 27, 1374. We are within one day of the end of the third | Month of the session, and, trom a superficial exami- Ration of the work done, it will require at leaat six Months more to finish the work on hand. The House has passed severai of: the regular ap- propriation bills, the Senate has passed one—tne Navy bill—and both houses have passed large numbers of special, private and joca! bills of no general importance; but upon the great ques- tions of the currency, the national banking sys- tem, taxation and cheap transportation there are no visible results. Even upon the principal ap- propriation bills we have only the schedules of the committees, and they are more likely to be en- larged than reduced in their final modifications between the two houses, Yet an immense quan- tity of work by the committees of both houses in the preparation and shaping of bills @nd reports upon all the multifarious matters, general, local, special and personal, domestic and foreign, entering into the legislation of Congres has been performed; for instance, on THE BANKING AND CURRENCY QUESTIONS. The regular committees of tne two houses have been working like beavers since the ist of De- cember on estimates and bills of various kinds, and a large proportion of the members of both cham- bers have spent much time and labor in the prep- aration of bills, reports and speeches, covering every possible theory of banking and currency, and making the whole subject a muddle and entangle- ment, without head or tall, or beginning or end. Nevertheless, the processes of crystajlization are called Four Hundred Million bill, waich means the addition of $46,000,000 to our existing national bank currency, The contractionists ap- ture to cry out, “My sister ts one of the King’s pear strong enough to prevent @ large indation, wives!”” THE FANTEE PRISONERS were exceedingiy iusolent to the white captives. | They were pleased to utterly disbelieve that the | Englisn General would ever approach Coomassie, and omitted no pains to imbue the Ashantees with that idea. sionary brethren entertain the very lowest opinion. | 4 MESSAGE TO THE CROWN. | On the 18th of October Mr. Kuhne wrote to the King requesting leave to return, as he was suffer- ing from a disease which, unless he was aple to obtain good, nourishing food, must soon kill him. Last Friday night his second request was granted, and he left Coomassie at once by torchlight, and arrived in Kassi, a place situate about three miles | from the capital. During Saturday he travelled for eight hours, and reached Kankassi. On Sun- day he made a short march to Quiza, on the other Side of the Adansi hills, On Monday he travelied to Assaman, a village occupied by the British advance, and by ten A. M. on Tuesday he reached this camp, a subject of compassion to all. Mr. Kunne’s opinion ta that the King will not fight; that his fears have been so worked upon by | the reports of his chiefs, who have exag- | gerated the power of the white men and their guns, that be has no combativeness left in him. He does not suppose either that Kimg Koffee would perform the harikari | upon himself, as his illustrious prototype did in Abyssinia, or that he has the moral courage to do anything uncommon. The flow of spirits which | caused him to dance on the streets of Coomassie before his subjects when he heard that his army had arrived at Dunquah, in the early part of the war, and prompted him to order the remorseless | butchery of the white men on the coast, has evapo- | rated and left him like one who has just passea through a long debauch—nerveless, fearful and an object of contemptuous pity. | THE BRITISH ADVANCE IN A STRONG POSITION. As the advance of the British army, under tue | impetuous Russell, has already scaled the Adansi hills and made good its position at Quiza, no one can conceive the possibility of detence left to the Asbantee King. The very fastnesses he boasted of—the frontier of his kmgdom—have been unlocked, and between Quiza and Coomassie is but twelve hours’ march, From which we may accept it as a fact that there is no fighting Spirit left in the King of Ashantee, and that the | Britis campaign of '73~’74 is destined to end in a Peaceful parade at Coomassie. Sir Garnet Wolse- , Jey Bas sent his fourth letter to the King, and en- trusted it to Captain Buller, Gnief of the ntelii- | \ gence Department, wno will deliver it to the Envoy, fio, With his suite of fifteen men, is awaiting it | at Assaman, It is rather disheartening that when | | one has dared the fatigues and the climatic dan- gers of Africa to be told that peace will be made. | Itis more disheartening for an expedition which numbers so many Europeans to have to go through the form of marching to Coomassie only to sign a peace—such a peace as has been made al- ready too frequently. It must be annoying tu | | Great Britain, after such an expense—after | cherishing the delusion that now she had the opportunity to crash the insolent Power which has insulted her representatives during the past cen- | tury—to be told she shali not have the power to punish or avenge her wrongs; but she shali have her expenditures, the losses of life she has in- curred, the sickness and fever which her sons have endured all for nothing. THE ARMY MUST GO TO COOMASSIE. That is of course certain; a score of valuable lives may be lest on the journey, half a million of pounds sterling will be added to the expendirure, but England's honor demands that her army shall enter Coomassie and go through the form of taking possession. Hostages will ve demanded, and probably @ much larger number of ounces of gold than the King can ever pay will be imposed as a fine, and the army will return to re-embark for home, having accomplished absolately nothing, for in ten years or so the Ashantees Will reinvade the protectorate, and the same anger and impotent wrath will be roused just as fruitiessiy | gs before. The desire of the King is for peace, Both the answer to Sir Garnet's letter and the félease of the missionary confirm it, The mis- | sionary sayg that the Ashautees have lost so many chieis that they have become disheartened. They have not lost so many in skirmisies, but by sick- ness. The warriors are returning to their villages, | ana so satisfied is the King with the result of his let- ter that he makes no effort to keep them together. ‘There is only one hope remaining, after this prob- | ably tame ending o! the expedition, that as the nonor of England demands that the troops shall enter Coomassie this event may not be accepted | by the Asnantees as @ sign of amity. The King may be very willing to declare his readiness to sign a treaty, to send any number of hostages to Cape Coast Castle, to pay any reasonable sum as an in- domnity to the Assins and Fantees jor the losses they have sustained ; but will he be willing to allow an invading army to occnpy his capital and dictate | terms or peace to bim from an apartment in men, some deep scheme of reveng massacre, some wholesale spoliation, is the only | hope left to the Englisn that they will not be per- mittea to enter Coomassie bioodlessly or without | nis own palace? That he will fear | treachery on tne part of the white | some bloody | Of the Fantees Mr. Kubne and his mis- | but not strong enough to keep back those $46,000,000; and this proposition of the $46,000,000 will probably be the compromise between the extremists on both sides and between tne two houses, The providing for THE INDIANS. The House committee on the subject limits its appropriations to $4,800,000, which cuts down the estimates of the Interior Department $2,000,000 and reduces the aggregate cost of the Indian ser- vice over $3,000,000 as compared with the expendi- tures of the passing fiscal year. Meantime it is understood to be the policy of the administratton to gather the outside Indian tribes as fast as prac- ticable into the Indian Territory, in view of the ultimate settlement therein at least of all the trives this side the Rocky Mountains. The scheme, theretore, of white squatters and land speculators | toestablish a regular Territorial government over the Indian Territory 1s not in /avor with the ad- ministration. If such a government were ordered a border war for the extermination of the Indians in | the Territery, it is feared, would speedily follow. | It is probable, however, that by the Indiam bill of | this session the religious snperintendencies will be dispensed with, and that the army oMeers act- ing as guards over the Indian reservations will be given a larger authority over them than hereto- fore. General Sherman and General Sheridan are | certainly each of the opinion that the superfnten- dencies are rather a stumbling bioek than a sup- port to the army in maintaining law and order | among the warriors of the reservations. RETRENCHMENTS AND TAXATION. By the advice from the House committees of Ways and Means and on Appropriations, the exe- cutive departments reduced their original esti- mates respectively forthe ensuing fiscal year as far as they thought it expedient, The committees have atill farther cut them down, to the extent In the aggregate of some $10,000,000, and yet it is believed that increased taxes to the ex- tent Of $20,000,000 or $30,000,000 will be required to Keep Secretary Richardson’s head above water. The Ways and Means Committce propose'to this end a tax on imported still wines of fifty cents a gallon in the cask and $2 per case in bottles, It is probable, too, that an increased internal revenue tax on whiskey and tobacco will be adopted, with the restoration of a small duty on tea and coffee. But there will be no modifications of the tariff or internal revenue taxes tlris session calculated seriously to affect the republicans in the coming fall elections for te next Congress, THE POSTAL TELE@RAri, The Senate committee on the subject are work- ing industriously on a Postal Telegraph bill, but retrenchment and the necessities of retrenchment, which act as a scarecrow upor every new measure invol¥ing an expenditure of money, will doubtless defeat any efforts of the committee to secure even a deliberate consideration of the subject this ses- sion. It will go over among the unfinished busi- ness to the next session. The same may be said of CHEAP TRANSPORTATION—THE GRANGERS, The spectal House committee on the subject are satisfied as to the (uli power of commerce to regu- late the railroads of the country; but they will re- port that it is Inexpedient to legislate upon the subject at this time. This conclusion may satisly the raltroad kings, but it will hardly meet the ex- pectations and demands ot tie grangers. They are o0t a political party, but nevertheless one of the guild informs me that they will hold the bal ance of power in the next Congress, THE ARMY AND NAVY—ABSURD BCONOMY. Refrenchment in both these important arms of the public defence and protection are carried tothe extremity of saving af the spigot to waste at the bunghole. The army is to be reduced and clipped and pruned in every possivle way, when the main- tenance of peace between the whites and Indians in our far Western States cails rather for an in- crease than a redaction of our present military force, The hundreds of lives and miilions of prop- erty destroyed even within the iast year or two on the Mexican frontier wonld ha been saved had the secretary of War been able to add even a regi- ment of mounted troops to the small force scat- | tered along the line of rhat frontier river of 1,000 miles, And so it is with the navy. From one-third to oue-lalf of the ordinary force of workmen of the yards, of the peace estabilshment, are to be cnt of, Ships are to go to waste for want of repairs; but retrenchment, you know, is the order of the day. ‘The Virginius atair secured the Secretary fourextra millions, Oiherwise by this time next year we should hardly have been possessed of half a dozen ships (such as they are) fit for active ser- vice. THE APPAIRS OF THE DISTRICT—TAE INVESTIGATION. The select committee of the two houses ap- | pointed to investigate ihe alleged abuses and cor- Tuptions of Governor Shepherd and his official associates in the administration of the affairs of this District have calle upon the Governor to answer a list of hard questions touching his e2 penditures, In bis defence the Governor has notl- fed the committee thal he will send in bis answer and the vouchers next Monday: but as these pa- | pera will make up a budget of some 20,000 pages of foolscap, in contracts, reports, letters, figures and | comparative #tatistics, we shail not have the corm- mitee’s report, perhaps, till late in the spring. THE PRANKING BILL NOY DEAD. ‘The failure of the Franking (ull in the House by two votes inflicts the joss upon each of the mem- bers on the transmission of thetr public documents by mail of from $1,200 to $1,500 a year; but, as the bit ‘was reyected by only two votes, it will be tried L J | acon: enter eee and) ino | 4 Results—The Various Matters of Busi. | this revolutionary tple ; namely, “Unie yage dans | euilet is LITERATURE. NEW FRENCH BOOKS. — Octave Fenillet—George Sand—Beaumont Nassy— Count de RBemusat—Prince Joseph Lubo- P mirski—F. de Boisgobey—Countess de Mirabeau—H. M. Stanley—Bret Harte. Paris, Feb, 12, 1874, | There have been few books of injasest published | im Parts since sé riéw Year, for authors generally | put oys “heir strength for the Christmas season, d the months ef January and February are slack ones, In March, however, we shall have Victor Hugo's long promised “Ninety-three,” and 6 vel, which, to many, will be more welcome than le monde,” by M. Octave Feuillet. M. one of thoge too iew authors of merit who decline to write for mere money. He composes bis novels as leisure, hurrying his pace for no man, and, as @ consequence produces only good works, | There are no French novels whith can compare for ight grace of style, simple tnterest and pol- ished humor with “Le Roman d’un Jeune Homme Pauvro,”” “Sibylie’ and “Monsieur de Oamors;’’ and there is no reason to apprehend that “Un Mariage dans le Monde"’ will fall short of these justly popular stories. The crowning quality in M. Feuillet is his morality, a quality rare at alf times in French writers of. fiction, but almost miraculous in an author who was a court favorite under the Second Empire; indeed, one may say to @ writer who passed through imperial drawing rooms without losing his morality, as somebody did toa man who came out from a Communist meeting with bis watch still in his pocket:—‘0, creature favored by Providence!” In undelect- able contrast to M. Feuillet is Mme. George Sand, who has begun in the Revue des Deux Mondes aserial, “Ma Seur Jeanne.” There is nothing to | distinguish this work from others by the same au- thoress. We find the usual early indications of a grande passion between two French people within | the pronibited degrees of affinity, the same im- | maculate young man, who is learned as a Heldel- | berg prig and itves in low company because he is too fine a fellow to wear social yokes, and the same depressing young woman of strong mind, who — | would attend female rights conventions if she were in America, but who, being French, exerts the ir- repressible female rignt of talking nousense uotil she sets her lover and the reader yawning. There comes a time when most authors, and especially | quthoresses, require to be sent to the schoolroom | again, ke too forward boys, who, having ex- to the second to restudy what they once learned in a hurry and, consequently, forgot as soon. We | have heard all we care to hear about young women imbued with all the sentiments of prosy men; and Mme. George Sand would do well to con over the | maxim that governed literature in her earlier days when novelists wrote to amuse the public, not to lecture them. Reserving a fuller notice of “Ma Soeur Jeanne" till the serial is terminated, I | pass on to sch other of the few recent books that deserve notice. “MEMOIRES SECRETS DU DIX-NEUVIEME SIECLE.") Under this rather too ambitioas titie a M. De Beaumont Vassy has collected a number of letters and anecdotes, some of them curious. Others, how- | ever, scarcely deserve the honor of figuring in “‘se- cret memoirs.’’ Nothing can be less secret, for instance, tuan the story of the noble French ref- | ugee who earned his hving by mixing salads in the | houses of English noblemen. Brillat Savarin told the story long ago in his ‘‘Physlologie du Goat.’” | Among the really interesting documents may be cited some relating to tne French revolutionist, Camille Desmoulins; a letter from the Count of Provence (afterward Louis XVIII), written | during wus extle in England and ing his opinions apout Napoleon; and | some notes on the Revolution of July, 1830, which tell one by what boudoir’s intrigues that great event was prepared. The pages respecting | the Second Empire comprise only a few anecdotes, | more scandalous than authentic, and which, as they were already well known, it was unnecessary torepeat. Altogether this book is readabie. “LIFE OF LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY BY CHARLES DE BEMUSAT.” M. Thiers’ late Foreign Secretary has followed in | this life of “the eccentric Lord Herbert” the plan | he adopted in his preceding works on Abélara, St. Anselm of Canterbury, afi@ Bacon, He vegins by relating the life of his hero, then afalyzeg aud discusses his doctrines. In his preiace M. de Remusat bewails the growing decline and dis- counr of which Lord Herbert was the earliest English | @xpounder in the seventeenth century by means of his treatise, “On Truth,” and he ts especially shocked to see this “natural religion’ so reviled | | by the Positivists, ven Auguste Comte, the founder of Positivism, “speaks with much greater | harshness of the metaphysical age of humanity | | than of the theological age that went before it.’” So says Count Remusat; but I cannot help thinking that his amazement argues want of refiection, for the Postttvists are the radicals Of philosophy, walle the metaphyaicians are the liberals and the theologians the high tories. Now radicals always speak more kindly of tories, whom they despise, than ot liberals, whose good sense and moderation they dread. The metaphysicians sought to place + Christianity on @ solid basis of reason instead of appealiag, as the theologians had done, solely to the faith of their hearers, and the Positivisis find it easier to abuse the metapbysicians than to refute them, | Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, was, according to M, de Remusat, “an nonest, disagreeable man, who had little of apostolic sanctity in him. His itle | Tather resembles that of Don Quixote or Cyrano | de Berger than those of either Plato or st. Augustine. He was a swashbuckling philosopher, with sword alway? ready to fly out of its scabbard, | and lips ablow with oaths, The greater part of an autobiography which he left behind redounds } with accounts of numerous duels, interspersed | here and there by galiant intrigues. He was Eng- | lish Ambassador In France duringa few years of | Louis XIJ.’s monarchy, and wrote his work “On | Truth” at Versailles and Paris, in the intervals of | more frivolous business. He takes care to let us know that few of the French ladies in the Court remained | insensible to the graces of hits person; but, 1n despite of his loose morals, he asserts that he was im- peiled to write his treatise of religious philosophy “py aloud yet muMed noise Which earth could not have rendered and which consequently could have | come only from heaven.” Enghshmen have long ago rated Lord Herbert of Cherbury as an amiably original character, madder than Bolingbroke and ess clever; andit may be doubted whetner such @ person deserved #0 erudite @ notice as this | which the French biographer of Bacon has be- stowed on him. “UN NOMADE,"? BY PRIN SEPH LUBOMIRSKI. Five years ago Prince Lubomirski published a very entertaining volume, in which he recounted his experiences as a ‘Page of the Em- | peror Nicholas; afterwards he gave us his “scenes of Military Lite im Russia; and | now we have a novel which excels these two books, excellent as they were, in interest, In “Un Nomade” ’ rince Labomirski lays his scenes on the extreme confines of the Russian frontier towards Turkestan, and the chief episodes are | enacted at Samarkand, in the ancient palace of Tamerlane, now the residence of the Russian Governor, This novel will certainly give the Prince @ prominent rank among French novelists. Not only has he closely stadied the localities and the Almost savage populations he describes, but he | Nas avoided a fanit very common to works of this kind, that of straining to give highly colored pic tures of exotic customs and scenery in order to prove that the book ia drawn from the life, The | cnlef characser of the story, Martha, the wife of a Russian general, is a carious specimen of ferocious haughtiness and coquetry—very Russian in the term which Napoleon I. applied to "Grater le Russe et vous trowverez un | Tartare.” The characters of the Khan of Pokhara | and of his worthy Minister, two latter day Mussul- } mans of decrywlt faith and morveless bodies, ayo hausted all the lore of the top class, are put back | state | repute of what he calls the ‘natural religion,” | | cleverty contrasted with that of Sagar Hadjir, the rare and gencrous chieftain of the Turcomans, and of his gentle, pretty wife, Emineb, two Turks Of the poetical age of Islam, Prince Lubomirskt' ook will probably be translated into English, and Americans should read it. “LB CHEVALIER CASSE-COU,” BY M. FORTUNE DE BOISGOBBY. ‘This {8 a dashing novel in the true French style, Ussued with improbabilities, but smart and diMicult to lay by when once the first page has been read. After a performance at the Grand Opera in Paris the box openers going their rounds find ne Private bors beautiful yours woman iyliig dead, ADS beside her @ surprised, but Mot trightenea child, who speaks a jargon which no Frenchman can understand. How did the woman die—na- turally or by a murder? This is a secret which the Chevalier de Casse-Cou takes two volumes towun- ravel. He was going down a passage when he | heard the box openers shout for help, and hasten- ing to the spot he feels stricken with pity for the Uttle foreign child and adopts her, His two vol- eam ames z hunting down the mur- deter oF EP ae Woman, who turns out to have died naturally after all; bat before he arrives at this certainty the Chevaller has dragged us breathless and tascinatéd through all the probabic* and improbable adventurers of Parisian Ife, At the end he discovers, to his astonishment, that his adventures have not been 80 useless as he expected, for his adoption of the cmild has caused him, by slow, but sure degrees, to | become @ respectable member of society, instead | of the spenathrift and rake he formerly was; and, of course, he i rewarded in the al way by the love of his ward, who grows up to be # beautl- ful woman and marries him. “L'BTE DE SAINT MARTIN,’ BY THE COUNTESS DE MIRABEAU. “LiEté de Saint Martin’ is the name which the French-apply to the tew days of bright warmth and sunshine woich now and then exceptionally gladden the earth at Martinmas; and this novel tells us how a lady, having attained the Martin- mas period of life—that is, the forties—becameée seized with @ furious love for a man wholly un- | worthy of her, The lady’s maiden name was | Renée de Mutréux. Her birth was highly noble, | but she condescendin, ly overlooked, at the age + of twenty, in iavor of a hard-working but pro- digiously rich man of mean extraction, M. Fauvel. With this opulent and gifted betng—for he ts both gifted and affectionate—she loves happily for seven years, and at his death she feels 80 inconsolable that she could easily bave been in- duced to bura herseif over his grave in the Indian Suttee fashion, When her grief has softened she leads an exemplary life of widowhood, doing charity and silently worshipping the memory of ber dead husband. But at forty an ignoble fortune- hunter comes across her path, woos her for her money and wins her in a gallop. The scene in which Renée, comtng vo her senses after her folly, recognizes how despicable an individual she has taken for her master are well drawn, and the moral conveyed may be a wholesome one | to other ladies of forty who are be- | sieged by insinuating strangers ten years | younger than themselfes. .1 have noticed this book begause it is beimg much read at present; | but the subject of it is one which would have been | better handled by @ male author than by a lady. | Ladies make strange havoc of the delicacies | when they hold a pen in their hands, | I must conclude by saying that Mr. Henry M. Stanley’s “How I Found Livingstone” has been | translated into French by Mme. Loreau, and is ; published with profuse illustrations. The book has derived additional and sad interest from the death ofthe great explorer, whose wanderings and trials | have been so lately familiarized to the world | through the columsof the HERALD. Bret Harte has also found a French translator in M. Théophile | Bentaon, of the Revue des Deux Mondes, and it may | be said that the American humorist’s very pathetic tales of life in California are as much appreciated in Paris as they aro across the Atiantic. But M. | Bentzon has committed an error in translating the “Condensed Novels.” The fun of them can ouly be understood in Engiish, and by readers thoroughly familiar with the authors whose defects they | parody, To a Frenchman “Lothaw’’ and “No | ‘Title’? must seem like printed nightmare. CHARLiS DICKENS, sen oui 's aati - The Author of David Copperfield’s Per« sonal Character—Forster’s Dickens Not tne Live Man. To Tag Epiror oF THe HERALD:— In last Sunday's issue of the HeRatp ap- | Pears an editorial discussing the views of certain | critics question Charies Dickens’ sanity onac- | count of his strange treatment of his wile. You remark that Mr. Forster has passed over the sub- ject as if too painful to dwell upon, and endeavor to draw a contrast between Charles Dickens? més- | auiance and Lord Byron’s, sir Edward Lytton’s | and other noted Jittérvateurs’ unfortunate mar- | riages. I have carefully read Mr. Forster's ile of Dickens, which is all tinted au couleur de rose, but cannot refrain trom recalling the many stories I | have heard about Charles Dickens from my father | and Mr. Thackeray, who all three were once Bohe- qians on the London Morning Herald and Chroni- | cle. ‘There was nothing in Charles Dickens’ character | to Inspire one with any great admiration. He was the beau ideal of the sinart, cunning, nervous, ex- terprising, fearless reporter, of which,tfere are so few in this country. He was born a newspaper man, and inherited the fickieness, love of ostenta- tion, pride of rising to the head of his proiession, | which the English press so largely encourages. As @ reporter he Was considered the most artiul and cupning, and for a man of his vivid imagination he | had a wide field in the slums of London and the farm houses of the plain, simple folks of the old country. ‘the history of Charles Dickens’ marriage is simple enough. He was at that time earning about | thirty shillings a week, and met Mrs. Dickens, then a moon-iaced, fair-haired, even-tempered, round. | waisted, good-natured, but very commonplace | English girl; one of those women the height of , whose ambition is a large family, @ little cottage, | anew dress, a big bow and @ merry Christmas, She was an honest, virtuous, simple-minded, slightly romantic woman, whose heart was in her home. Charles Dickens at this time was a young | man of @ very nervous temperament, with un- bounded self-esteem, and who would have made a good husband had he not been successiul. It was alter the birth of their second child that Dickens began to realize the importance of doing something to add to his pot au feu. ile himseif has ojten described with what lear and trembling—having a sick wie and two crying babes to provide for at Lome, and an un- hhmited number of smail creditors watching him— how he approached the great, big, yawning ed tor’s box o1 Chapman & Hail and threw tn his first two chapters of “Sketches by Boz.” How astonished he was a few days after fo see an ad- vertisement requesting Boz" to call on the editor, and with what joy and trembling he returned home and told bis wife how he tiad been oifered £20 a chapter for his “Sketches.” The era of Dickens’ “Sketches” consuituted the happiest days of Mrs, Charles Dickens, Oiten has the writer heard | how Dickens woud read them to his wile and dance wildly round the room. With the close of the “sketches” began Mrs. Dickens’ troubles, ‘To better understand the gradual change in Charles Dickens’ treatment of nis wife it 1s neces- sary to analyze naracter and training of the | so-called commonplace English girl in this | country the women casily adapt themselves to their positions in lie. In fact, in this country the woman generally rises superior to the man, Not so, however, with the dull, good-natured, loving HKuglish girl, She, from ner earhest chidnood, is | brought tp in a ‘circle wuose views are narrow and whose edncation is extremely limited. The monotony of her existence is only broken by her | regular attendance at church and the counting of the househoid Imen on washday. LM she goes to the Crystal Palace she wili stare vaguely at @ Correggio and wake quaint remarks when | brougut in contact with a chefd@auvre. Her | eyes will only sparkle as she sits im | the buge’, or diving room. Her circle } of acquaintances will be among het cians, | and that class o/ society, like herself, sees no | beauty in art, nor ¢ ppreciate true genius. This is the chatacter of M natured, loving, motherly wou 4 Cuaries Dickens had to buffet agaist adversity, so long was he contented with his tittie wile. | But as soon as Churles Pickens began to be courted; as soon as he found that he was on the ncaglg im- mortality and fortune ; as soon as he bogan to mix in society and realized the extraordinary fascina- | tion of mixing among the higher tov, then Charles | Dickens for the arst time looked down upon his | | littie wite, who could not do justice to the name of | \ her husband. Theresis ao mystery attached to the | separation; there (8 nO insanity in Mr. | | Dickens’, actions; but tuere ly the patatul | ickens—a truly wood So long as | reaitt of last nat ing himself to & woman who is unable to add justre to his name or comfort to his life. It is useless to deny it, as man of he has bound many who have known Dickens personally are well Sware that he never invited any one to his house, The man’s genius made him susceptible, and sus- Ceptibility made him fickle. He travelled over rope with his wife only to finda woman whose untutored tastes could not appreciate the beauties of the Florentine galleries or the marvellous treag:, ures of the Louvre, and who, when introduge? ‘tg the subtle minds of European genius, 8t00 ‘ike an abashed and wondering damsel, With" sympathy Pappreciation. On the otigt “ang, had Charles aa ihe mi yon his ‘edmirers—cap¢: it aint Him, he wou! pare ee wha The word rout Fespect his wile vharles was w beau ideal es undeniably ie ot the selfis conceited, vain, ambitious Londoner. it in all very well for Mr. Forster to come forward now, and endeavor to Dickens a8 & man of sweet and romantic oharso. teristics, in whose company life seemea but @ ream, Dickens always was a Gola, calculating, isiant, showy man, Who talked loud in society, who never could dress like a gentleman, and who did vee grand tour of Europe and America as a business speculation. His “American Notes” paid him, and American notes, on bis second visit, confirmed his fortune, To bis brother authors he was col Ct) distant, Dever having been known to come, like Thackeray, with his purse, heart and band, and raise from the depths of distress some man who once knew him as Charles Dickens, the reporter, He was a business man throughout, as the sale of ils effects vefore he was scarcely dead well testified, while the Royal Literary Fund was little else to him than a few seutimental speeches and addresses, Yours very respectfuliy, New York, Feb. 25, 1874. The Great Novelist as a Son and Father, BROOKLYN, E. D., Feb, 26, 1874, To tne Eprror oF tHE HeRALD However we may lament for “poor human ‘na- ture,” tt is, 1 am sure, much better to treat tne selfish or other detracting idiosyncrastes of great geniuses as you have treated the overshadowing frailty of Charles Dickens in your very masterly article in Sunday’s HekaLp than to explain away the responsibliity of great minds, and, for the sake of keeping our human idols pericct, misname their wickedness aberration of mind. If the accom- plished apostle to the Gentiles thought it possible, as he admits, to preach to others and yet pe Lim- self a castaway, how foolish should we be to allow the teachings of a great genius to be marred by bis own faulty practice, or his lovely works of im- agination to be viewed through his own faulty con- duct. You have fearlessly cailed a spade a spade, aud I can corroborate your opinion of Dickens’ self- ishness trom two pointsof viewing his character— nawely, a8 ason and as afather. 1 recollect some five and thirty years ago seeing the elder Dickens in an English provincial town, who was poiated out to me as the sire of ‘Boz!’ when “Pick- wich” was coming out in monthly numbers, and 1 have every reason to know and to believe that Charles Dickens! conduct to his father, (rom whom he sketched the character of Micawber, Was any- thing but the fulfilment of the fith command- ment. Dickens, Sr., was ® very seedy-lookini and commonplace individual—a superannuated,, think, excise officer, but at all events having don duty 1n some department of the government ser- vicé—who would have done an artist credit tn & picture of ‘distraining for rent; but he was nevertheless the parent of England's great and successful novelist, who certainly tailed to make him as comfortable in old age as his own mesus would permit nim to have done. Again, Uharies Dickens had @ son who was in the army and died in India, im connection with whom the following was told me a very few years ago by a captain in the “Black Watch” (the Forty- second Highlanders) :—My iriend, having known young Dickens intimately and been present at bis death, had sent home tue intelligence of it to his father. On returning from India he called upon vharles Dickens, thinking he might like to learn trom nim all the details of his son’s last days; but. to his surprise, found that he manilested not the least fatherly curiosity nor exhibited the slightest feeling in the matter or manner of bis own son's death. To make his marvellous descfiptive powers tell, it Was 0! course necessary to invest bis char- acter with the choice attributes of homely affec- tions; but I cannot éee that it necessarily 1ollows that a man should possess the character which, alter close study, he describes, any more than a landscape painter should possess spiritual afnity tothe foliage nis brush depicts. inspite o! Ws power Oi moving the hearts ana Jrawing tears irom the eyes of others, there can be little douht that Dickens was in many respects @ heartless aud selfish man, Yours, Cc. P.M. LITERARY CHIT-CHAT. Tue New Lrprary o! the City of Paris, intended to replage that which bh wutortunately destroyed at ‘the ening of the Hotei de Mile by the Gow- ‘uunists, is open to the public. Although buts poor substitute for the splendid collection of 125,000 volumes which perished, the new library contains as many as 23,000 volumes or pampnicts @nd 15,000 engravings. Mr. Hexry H. Gress’ new and privately printed book on the game of ombré is just ready. The writer haa given a very good study of ombré, as described by Pope in the “Rape of the Lock.” The modern game, as described by Mr. Gibbs, is more entertaining than that played by Belinda, having more variety and tun in it. DR. Kart Mark, the leader of the elder branch of the International Association, is engaged in translating his work on “Capitat,” which nas not yet appeared in an English form. A Paris BOOKSELLER has just published a book entitled “Mémoires de Chisejhurst,'’ and M. Rouber hag subscribed for 2,500 copies. ALire oF THE GREAT German sculptor, Rauch, by Duncker, has appeared at Berlin. He was un- doubtedly the first of modern portrait sculptors ia merit. “Tue ACADEMY” commends Commander Mark- ham’s “Whaling Cruise to Bafa Bay,” the latest addition to Arctic literature. It thinks that if a well organized naval expedition iad reached the point where the Polaris was abandoned it would have discovered 4,00) miles of new coast the same year. A Book 1S ANNOUNCRD on the birds of Switzerland by M. C. de Wallenstein. The author has been en- gaged on this work since 1812. ‘TRE First Portion of Mr. J. Orchard (Halliwell) Phillipps’ new “‘Life of Shakespeare” has gone to press, This book will contain the documents which throw so much fresh light on Shakespeare’s connection with the theatres in which he was be- fore supposed to have been @ shareholder, when in fact he was not. DR. H. HULDEBRAND, a learned German, has pub» lished a work on the archwology and numismatics of Sweden. ‘THe Famovs Miss LoNGwortH, now advertising herself as Lady Avonmore, will again appear be- fore the pubtic as an author. She has in the press ® volume of travels, entitled “Teressina Pere- grina.” MR. BAYARD TAYLOR, the translator of “Faust,’” jg at present in Germany, coliecting materials for a joint biography of Gdethe and Schiller. “THe BLack BOOK OF THE ADMIRALTY’ has been published in two volumes in the series of “Roli’s Chronicles” of Great Britain, The work is a kind of encyclopmdia of all things pertaining to the office of admiral in the British navy, and the manuscript o1 tt having been lost for about a cen- tury has only lately been recovered. It is edited by Sir Travers Twiss, and gives @ connected view of the origin and growth of admiralty law. A FINELY ILLUstRaTeD Work by the Kev. George J. Wood, entitled “Insects Abroad,” 18 about to be published by Messrs. Longman. A New Boox oF TRAVEIS, entitled “Through Russia, from St. Petersburg to Astrakan and the Crimea,” by Mrs. Guthrie, tn two volumes, with illustrations, will shortly be issued in London. LIEUTBNANT PARENT, WhO accompanied the late Swedish expedition to the Arctic regions, will shortly publish the results of his experience in the valuabie italian geographical journal, the Cosmos. THE CORRESPONDENCE of Dr, Channing with Lucy Atkin will shortly appear. Dr. Channing's portion of the letters is now published for the first time. A BiG Kook on the maritime provinces of China, by the British customs’ officers ut the different ports, Will appear the present year at Shanghai. THE Spectator dismisses Dr. DeWitt Talmage’s oddities and blunders with the statement that Dr. Talmage 18 a preacher who keeps his hearers al- ways trembling on tue verge of a laugh. Lonp Lyrroy remarks in “The Parisians,” “Six well educated, clever girls, out of ten, keep jour- nal; Not one well educated man in 10,000 does."* PHoresson MOMMSEN, Who 18 @ momber of the Prussian Parliament, has made speech on the Royal Library at Beritu. He thinks It wholly in- adequate to the wants of the pabite, only 20,000 thalers a year being spent in the purchase of books, while six times as much [4 expended by the librarv of the Britian Museum,