Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

THE DEATH OF A MURDERER.

MR

GIBSON, in his recently-published volume, (see our book notices for the present month,) gives a remarkable account of the last hours of WONGSO, a native soldier of the Bughis race of Ceylon. He had committed murder in cold blood, and was sentenced to be hung. Mr. Gibson visited him in his prison, and, as he tells us, read to him the Scriptures. Wongso begged him to read again and again. I had come (says the writer) with some enthusiasm to rouse up a dull, barbarian mind, an apathetic, semi-pagan, Mohammedan soul; but the savage showed an ardor, an eagerness to find a something to satisfy his soul, in launching into the future, that shamed my weariness. He wanted to hear more, more; and all about Christ, that called bad men to come unto him with broken hearts. The sergeant who read became roused up; he wept; he wished the good dominie he had so often listened to when a boy were here; he proposed that we should do what he had often done before he became a soldier that we should pray; and the soldier and the two prisoners knelt down, and the soldier raised up his voice, appealing to a | throne of grace for mercy upon his own sinfulness, and praying that the man whom he was guarding unto his death in this world might be raised up unto eternal life in another and a better one.

Wongso wept, as the sergeant wept; he continued to weep; he thought not of his soon being raised on a gallows for his crimes, but of One who had been raised up ignominiously for what such as he had done. It was a terrible scene, the agitation, the weeping of that murderer. But

he was becoming calmer; was his animal nerve giving way? was this a reaction of mental excitement? perhaps so; but Wongso said that he believed in Christ; not the "prophet Jesus," but Him who died for sinners; and now Wongso was not afraid to die.

It was now nearly daybreak; at six o'clock the sun rose; and at seven the guard would come for the prisoner. I left the Testament with the sergeant; Wongso wished to hear something read to the last. I said some parting words; he wept again, but seemed to possess a joy that I did not understand. All that I had done was to help to ease the mind of an unfor

tunate man. He had given some directions, that were to be communicated to the judge advocate, that all the little property he possessed should be given to the family of the man he had murdered; he gave eleven rupees to the sergeant to buy two Testaments in the Malay language, the same as the one from which I had read, to be given to two of his comrades in prison who could read. He begged of me to go and talk to them. The time came to part; I asked him to raise up his right hand to heaven the moment before they pinioned him under the gallows, as a sign that his heart felt strong to the last; and with profound emotion I parted with Wongso.

A solemn roll of the drum, and harsh voices of command, roused up the prison at sunrise. A guard entered the court; the sergeants delivered up their charge, and I saw one wipe his eyes with his sleeve as he turned away from the man whose moments were counted. The turnkey afforded me an opportunity to see through the grating that overlooked the field of death. Long lines of troops were formed into a hollow square, the bayonets glistened in the sun, the horses of a commanding officer and his staff pranced about the field, loud voices resounded, and there was great stir and pride of warlike array.

In the center of all this was the gloomy gallows. A man in a dark robe, the judge advocate, stood with a roll, the death warrant, in his hand; he read it to Wongso, who stood near him; then a man in uniform, a military sheriff, took the regimental coat and cap from off Wongso; he was degraded as a soldier upon earth, and was given up to the hangman; then Wongso mounted steps, and before the cords were passed around him he made the sign; he raised up his right hand toward heaven, affirming, at his last moments on earth, that he was a steadfast soldier of the cross.

I saw no more; I could not look upon the horrible mode of Dutch hanging. I cannot give the details, but look into their laws upon death; a man to be hung is so foully bound that ere his neck is broken his bowels are torn. I heard a signal-tap, a solemn roll of the drum-a man had gone to the land of souls; and then the band struck up a lively tune as the troops marched back to their quarters.

The National Magazine.

JANUARY, 1856.

EDITORIAL NOTES AND GLEANINGS.

THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE.-Tendering the compliments of the season and our best wishes for the health and happiness of all our readers, the NATIONAL enters buoyantly, and with renewed vigor, upon a new volume.

The pages of the present number must speak for themselves, the NATIONAL priding herself upon having too high an opinion of the taste and good judgment of her readers to suppose it necessary to puff herself, or to call special attention to her literary gems or artistic embellishments. So also with regard to the future. We might fill all the space allotted to this de-meston, (609 Methodist Collection),

partment with promises, with expectations from writers of high repute, and with descriptions of engravings, prepared and in preparation. We prefer to let the future develop itself, and to be judged by our works rather than by our profes

sions.

As it has been in the past, so it will be, probably, in the future. Every reader of the NATIONAL will not be pleased with every thing found in its columns; but, claiming the right to speak our sentiments without dictation from any quarter, we are quite willing that all others should have the same privilege. Editors who may deem it a duty to denounce anything found in our pages, playful or serious, or private individuals who have no better employment than to take offense, and print it, when none was intended, shall always have the privilege of the last word. It will be impossible to provoke us into a controversy upon any subject. We have neither the room for it nor the inclination.

But will not the NATIONAL take advice? Most assuredly, from any quarter, and of any quality; and take it not only without a wry face, but with thankfulness. And what then? Why, after taking it, and digesting it, she will follow the dictates of her own judgment, bearing as she best may her own responsibility, and aiming always, in the future as in the past, to elevate the literary taste of her readers, and to furnish them with rational amusement and instruction profitable alike for this world and for that which is to come; where, when we shall all have spent our last HAPPY NEW YEAR, may we enter upon the bliss which is

"Unmeasured by the flight of years."

"Rebuild thy walls, thy bounds enlarge,
And send thy heralds forth;

THE DOUBLE MEANING.-It has long been disputed among Biblical critics whether the prophetical writings of the Old Testament were intended to be taken in a double sense. We enter not upon a discussion of that question, and advert to it merely as introductory to one of a similar character. When the committee appointed by the General Conference of 1848 were engaged in the selection of hymns for the new collection, these beautiful verses of Montgomery's (hymn 229) were under consideration, and one of the committee was specially anxious for their insertion mainly on account of the stanza

VOL. VIII.-7

Say to the South-Give up thy charge!
And,-keep not back, O North!

"It has a beautiful double meaning" said our friend. "It is a request to the SOUTH No longer to charge their brethren with dishonesty in the division of the funds, and an entreaty to the NORTH no longer to keep back a fair proportion of the Book Room profits from their Southern brethren." We rejoice that the prediction in this sense, at least, has been fulfilled.

While on this subject we may advert to a note from a correspondent, in which he says: "Not long since a minister, of many years standing, commenced the public service on the morning of the holy Sabbath, in a large, intelligent, and pious congregation, by announcing the beautiful evening hymn, composed by Ed

'Saviour, breathe an evening blessing,
Ere repose our spirits seal;

Sin and want we come confessing;
Thou canst save and thou canst heal.'

But for the word evening used in a hymn for morning worship, we might find a double meaning in the reverend brother's use of these lines preparatory to a soporific discourse.

'Ere repose our spirits seal'

seems to portend something drowsy; but the selection of such a hymn for public congregational use indicated anything but good taste, or a familiar acquaintance with the Hymn Book."

CLERGYMEN IN CITIES.-The Banner of the Cross estimates the number of clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal Church, including what the editor calls "amateurs," in the city of New-York, at eighty; Brooklyn, twenty-eight; Philadelphia, sixty-six; Baltimore, twenty-four; Boston, twenty-two; Charleston, twenty-one. The editor adds, "that we should thus have two hundred and forty-one clergymen in six of our Atlantic cities, and only about eighteen hundred in the whole United States, suggests some serious reflections which we have not time at present to pursue. We hope others will do it for us."

MEMBERSHIP IN THE PRESBYTERIAN (N. S.) CHURCHES. From an abstract of the statistics of the General Assembly, we learn that of 1,610 churches, the whole number reported, there are, having less than 25 members, 345 churches; 25 and less than 100 members, 821 churches; 100 and less than 200 members, 279 churches; 200 and less than 300 members, 94 churches; 300 and less than 400 members, 38 churches; 400 and less than 500 members, 21 churches; 500 and less than 600 members, 3 churches; 600 and less than 700 members, 2 churches; 700 and less than 1,200 members, 7 churches.

THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH at its last General Synod in this city, by an almost unanimous vote, requested the Classis of North Carolina to withdraw its application for admission into that body-a very courteous method of declining Christian fellowship with slave-holders, without arrogating the right to denounce slavery as sin under all circumstances. The

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

"We think all invitations to clergymen to preach as candidates should be avoided. It is cruel to the persons thus preaching, and productive of nothing but evil to the parishioners. A clergyman's characterthe reputation which he sustains among his brethren -the fruit of his labors where he is settled, should be relied upon much more than a single service in a strange pulpit, and under embarrassing circumstances. We said it is cruel to the clergyman, and so it is. It exposes him to unnecessary temptations-temptations before which many a good man has fallen. It exposes him also to deep mortification. If he is not called, it cannot fail to injure him. There is no surer way of destroying a clergyman's standing than to have him preach in a few parishes as a candidate and be rejected. There is a pride among parishes whic disinclines them to take up with persons who have been rejected in other places. We repeat, therefore, our vestries should avoid this thing.

"But it injures the parishes. If the people feel that they can hear as many persons as they please, and then make a choice from them, it will awaken a critical, fastidious, and exacting spirit-a spirit wholly inconsistent with the Gospel which they would have preached to them. A case illustrating this has come to our knowledge. A small church in one of our cities became vacant. Very soon the attention of the

vestry was directed to a person every way qualified for the post. They were disposed to call him, but before the time for action came other names were brought before them, and then it was thought best to have candidates occupy the pulpit. One and another presented himself; indeed, every person who preached was considered as a candidate. A friend of the parish, meeting one of the vestry, said to him, "When are you going to call a rector ?" "O, I don't know," replied the vestryman; "we have now ten candidates, and it is a hard matter to make a choice.' For aught we know this parish is still vacant, and very likely it will be more and more difficult to make a choice. What could be more unwise than such a course? What tends more directly to distract and divide the parish? For the sake of the parishes, their vestries should avoid having candidates fill their pulpits."

[ocr errors]

SECTARIAN BITTERNESS.-How true, and how everywhere made manifest, the sentiment of Henry Brougham, the great commoner of the last generation, and sworn enemy of intolerance, while defending Williams, who was prosecuted for libel by the clergy of Durham: "It is one of the laws which govern theological controversy almost as regularly as gravitation governs the universe, that the mutual rancor of conflicting parties is inversely as their distance from each other; and with such hatred do they regard those who are separated by the slightest shade of opinion, that your true intolerant priest abhors a sectary far more devoutly than a blasphemer or an atheist."

GAZING AT THE CLOUDS.-An esteemed correspondent furnishes us with the following amusing adventure:-A short time since I jumped into a city omnibus near the Crystal Palace. There were in the vehicle at the time four other persons. One of them was a tall, handsome, elegantly-dressed man, rather stout, with large black mustaches, and a dark, piercing eye. There was a sternness in his look which made it appear disagreeable, and I was puzzled to find out why he gazed so intently upon me. He did not, however, leave me long to think on the subject; for presently, in the most respectful manner, he bade me "Good morning," left the seat he This maoccupied, and took one beside me. neuver I could not account for, but thought he had mistaken me for some acquaintance. For a few seconds he seemed absorbed in meditat

ing upon some weighty matter, and, as if studying the weather, looked up at the clouds, and then, turning round to me, remarked, “We are going to have bad weather, sir; very bad indeed. The atmosphere is heavy-it is oppressive-it is intolerable-it is regular suicidal weather, sir." I replied that the weather certainly was bad, but that I did not think, though I might probably be mistaken, it was as bad as he represented it to be. This did not satisfy him, and, viewing me steadily for a moment, he said-" Not so bad-indeed! I am astonished, sir, to hear you speak thus. It is a favorite study of mine. Gaze up at yon cloud! Look, sir, look-look at that awful cloud! that is surcharged, sir, with typhus fever; and that, sir, (pointing to the heavens,) that one you see there in the eastern horizon is crammed with cholera, yellow fever, and other terrible maladies! Look, sir," (and he caught me firmly by the arm,) "look at that tremendous pestilential cloud, how rapidly it moves above us. 0, this sinful city will surely meet its long-threatened fate!" I now became tolerably well satisfied that I was in the company of a lunatic, and heartily wished to be rid of him; but he was not to be so easily shaken off. I moved a few inches from him, and he immediately followed me, remarking that he would be happy to give me suitable instructions on his favorite study," if I had no objection, on another occasion, and, catching me once more by the arm, theatrically exclaimed-Up with your eyes, sir! up! up! I must flee from the threatening danger. The density of the atmosphere-beware of it. Remember my words. Good morning, sir!" He got out of the stage at Fourteenth-street, and feeling somewhat relieved at his departure, I addressed my fellow-passengers thus :-"Poor fellow! What calamity can have deprived him of his senses. It is mournful to see so noble looking a man thus afflicted." Those who were in the stage coincided with me, and we continued to converse on his antics for about ten minutes, when I had occasion to put my hand into my pocket for my pocketbook. I searched for it for some time, but lo! it had vanished. He whom I believed to be a lunatic was a dexterous thief-had actually cut my pocket with some instrument, and carried off my pocket-book! My literary pocket-book, too, good reader! But never was a thief more deceived. It contained one twenty-five cent piece! neither more nor less; about fifty small

paragraphs, gleaned from time to time-some were grave, some humorous, but all were moral, which I hope will be a benefit to him; several flattering editorial notices of THE NATIONAL, from sundry periodicals, which I probably would have presented as a New-Year's gift to the editor; a few lines from an esteemed friend now traveling in Europe, and the private addresses of about two dozen acquaintances, none of whom, I hope, the handsome, well-dressed man with the black mustaches will visit, and in my name introduce himself to their pockets. A more cool piece of impudence and hypocrisy I never before witnessed. Reader, my adventure is not without a moral-Never judge from appearances!

protecting one another from the pressure of the crowd, mutually offering each the best places they could obtain, and conversing quite intimately upon a thousand little things arising out of the circumstances of this rather unexpected promenade. "What a charming woman!" said Lady V- to herself. "I wonder who she is: I shall certainly not leave her until I have inquired her name!" The promenade at last was brought to a close, and the queen left the Exposition. A great crowd again collected at her departure. "How shall I ever find Edward in such a multitude?" exclaimed the young French lady. "Ah," replied the English peeress, your husband's name Edward ?” “Oui, ma chère Madame." The old dowager for a moment had a misgiving about her own son, who bore that name, and whom she had refused to see for more than a year because he ran away from England, where she had with infinite care arranged a great match for him, and married a French girl, whom nobody knew, without a shilling. She would never allow the girl's name to be mentioned in her presence. "Ah! there he is," suddenly cried the young lady, as they arrived at the foot of the great staircase; "what a lucky chance that we have met!" "What, Pauline," rejoined the young lord, " in company with my mother? What has happened?" The peeress, in agony, uttered a shriek of surprise, and then fainted. She had been overcome with emotion, and had to be rested upon a chair in the midst of the crowd which still encumbered the sortie. "O, Edward!" she exclaimed, when she came to herself, "is this the girl you have married against my wish?" "Oui, ma chère mère," the young man replied; "and you seem to get on very well together." "Let us go; let us go immediately," she replied, and the carriage was called. "The whole three of us, mother?" inquired the young man. "Yes; all three," was the answer. And then, taking the hand of Pauline, she proceeded — "Yes; come, dear girl; he who would have said this morning with whom I should visit the Exhibition, and whom I should afterward take home, would have astonished me much more than all Europe is to see the Queen of England visiting a tomb removed from St. Helena to the vaults of the Invalides."

·

A ROMANCE OF THE PARIS EXHIBITION.-The following rather romantic story is translated from the Independance Belge :· The day on which the Queen of England visited the Exposition for the second time, a considerable number of ladies were, by special favor, seated upon the divans which surround the central fountain in the great nave. Gentlemen had been banished from this privileged spot. They were compelled to resign themselves to the pain of sitting alone within the inclosure along which the imperial and royal cortège had to pass; thus they were isolated from wives, sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts, and friends; and, in some cases, from those whom they loved more than all together. By this means an elderly English lady, of noble and aristocratic appearance, found herself side by side with a charming young French lady, whose simplicity was most beautiful and elegant. The arrival of the august visitors was anxiously expected. A thousand observations occurred to the two neighbors, and some incident soon arose which led to one of those interesting conversations which in many cases only commence with some commonplace about the weather. Soon, however, they passed to other topics, on which they discoursed with a sympathy that speedily became reciprocal. The old English lady learned from the talk of her fair companion that the young Frenchwoman had not long been married, that her husband was somewhere in the crowd, and that he had compelled her to accept the place she then occupied, though it had been given to himself by the Viscount de Ronville, Director of the Industrial Palace. The manner in which the young lady told these and other things so won the esteem of the old dowager that they soon gained each other's confidence. The cortège passed, and a perfect tide of feathers, lace, ribbons, flowers, and silks filled up, as it were, their Majesties' track. Carried away by this sea, impelled a little by curiosity, and moved, perhaps, by the excitement which usually carries ladies away in such circumstances of pomp and grandeur, the old English lady and her new friend got mixed up with the suite; and as it was impossible for them to separate, they took each other's arms among the wives and daughters of the high state functionaries who formed the escort of the Queen of England and of Her Majesty's imperial host into the superior galleries. Hitherto neither of the two ladies knew the name or the rank of the other, but in this way they passed two full hours together,

"is

[ocr errors][merged small]

"He is a little of a brigand, and very much of a knave. We see always in him the poor prince of industry, who lived by his wits in England; his actual prosperity, his triumph, his glory, and his success, go for nothing here; that mantle of purple is dragged under the mire of his boots. Napoléon le Petit, nothing more, nothing less: the title of our book is good. The baseness of his vices detracts from the grandeur of his crimes. What would you have? Peter the Cruel massacred, but did not rob. Henry III. assas sinated, but did not swindle. Timour trampled little children under the feet of his horses, just as M. Bonaparte exterminated women and old men on the Boule vards; but he did not lie. Listen to the Arabian historian: Timour Beg, Sahib Keran, -ruler of the world and of his age, ruler of the planetary conjunctions, was born at Kesch, 1836. He strangled a hun

dred thousand captives. When he besieged Siwas, the inhabitants, to appease him, sent out to him a thousand little children, each bearing a Koran upon his head, and shouting, Allah! Allah! He caused the sacred books to be removed with respect, and the children to be crushed under the feet of horses. He employed seventy thousand human heads, with cement, stones, and bricks, in building towers at Hérat, at Sebzvar, at Tékrit, at Aleppo, at Bagdad. He despised lying; when he had given his word he always kept it.' M. Bonaparte is not of that stature. He has not that dignity which the great despots of the East and of the West mingled with their ferocity. The Cæsarean grandeur is wanting to him. To keep a good countenance, and maintain a proper air among all those illustrious executioners who have tortured humanity these four thousand years, one must not hesitate in his mind between a general of division and a beater of the big drum on the Champs Elysées; one must not have been policeman at London: one must not have endured, with eyes cast down, in full assembly of the peers, the haughty contempt of M. Magnan; one must not have been called pickpocket by the English journals; one must not have been threatened with Clichy; one must not represent, in a word, all that there is in man of the knave."

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

"BUT will come in spite of us. But is reflection. But is the skeptic's familiar, with whom he has made a compact; and if he forgets it, and indulges in happy day-dreams, or building of air-castles, or listens to sweet music, let us say, or to the bells ringing to church, BUT taps at the door, and says, 'Master, I am here.' You are my master, but I am yours! Go where you will, you can't travel without me. I will whisper to you when you are on your knees at church; I will be at your marriage pillow. I will sit down at your table with your children. I will be behind your death-bed curtain. That is what BUT is," Pen said.

"Pen, you frighten me!" cried Laura.

THE ALLIES.-John Bull does not seem to be exceedingly well pleased with his imperial associate, who carries off the lion's share of glory · in the Crimea. The ironical remarks of the French press do not sit well on the English stomach; and a leading British journal seems apprehensive that Napoleon may yet turn his arms against "perfidious Albion :❞—

"We have alluded to the French comments on the services of the English during the recent campaign. The dispatches of General Pelissier and the articles of the Moniteur' are equally honorable to the good feeling, happy taste, and true courtesy of our Allies; but it has struck us that there is a tone of quiet irony in some of the remarks that have appeared in the latter journal. We are complimented, for instance, for the 'taking' (!) of Bomarsund; for the number of our vessels of war; and especially for the circumstance that 40,000' French troops have been taken to the Crimea in English government vessels! These may be excellent indications of the good understanding and friendly feeling existing between the allied governments; but what do they say for the skillfulness of our tactics, or the ability of our generals? If, however, it be meant by such remarks that our successes are owing more to wood, iron, and gunpowder, than to any moral virtues that we, as a nation, may possess, in that case it would be but becoming for us to adopt the man Friday's philosophy, and at once recognize the superiority of metal to man all the world over.

We are constrained to say-what more public journalists have for obvious reasons left unsaid, but doubtless not unthought-that we deeply regret to see the acknowledgment that the principle of revenge is at the bottom of the Emperor Napoleon's course in relation to the present contest. He reported by more than one French journalist to have recently remarked, in speaking of the plan of the campaign, that it is draining Russia of men, and will, therefore, rovenge Moscow.' It is impossible not to recollect, on reading this sentence, that on this principle there is another field to be 'revenged,' and to ask whether he has in contemplation the time when the manes of Waterloo will be appeased? Perhaps it is prudent to say but little on such a subject at present, but it is one which it were well to keep constantly in remembrance. There is an old and trite proverb about 'forewarned' and forearmed,' which may not bo inapplicable to future events."

CAN any one say why it considered impolite for gentlemen to go into the presence of ladies in their shirt-sleeves, while it is considered correct for ladies themselves to appear before gentlemen without any sleeves at all?

MATRIMONY.-A lively female, who found the cords of Hymen not quite so silky as she expected, gives vent to her feelings poetice. We have room for but two of her stanzas. The penultimate line is expressive :—

When I was young I used to earn
My living without trouble;
Had clothes and pocket-money too,
And hours of leisure double.

I never dreamed of such a fate, When I, A-LASS! was courted

Wife, mother, nurse, seamstress, cook, housekeeper, chambermaid, laundress, dairy woman, and scrub generally, doing the work of six,

For the sake of being supported!

DESPOTISM IN FRANCE.-Dr. Baird, in his account of a public dinner given to the members of the Evangelical Alliance, in Paris, says:

"There was no public speaking. Do you wish to know why? The Chief of the Police had required, as a condition of granting permission (think of that!) to hold this public dinner, that there should be nothing said about religion or politics! Fortunately there was no particular desire on the part of those who were present to make public speeches on any subject, for neither the place nor the occasion favored any such thing. Everything passed off, I will not say quietly, but I will affirm that no evil consequences ensued. Order reigns in Warsaw! The order and quiet of despotism reign in Paris and in all France at the pres ent time. It is the reign of the cannon and the bayonet. I would not have believed without seeing that such a change from comparative freedom to what is little better than despotism, could have taken place in the space of four or five years. But all despotic government is founded on the fears of men, and therefore cannot dispense with the military force. Accordingly one sees in Paris, and in every other large city in France, a great number of soldiers, as well as a large staff of policemen."

MILTON. In allusion to his loss of sight, the following passage may be found in Milton's Second Defense of the People of England:

"Let me then be the most feeble creature alive, so long as that feebleness serves to invigorate the energies of my rational and immortal spirit, as long as in that obscurity in which I am enveloped the light of Divine Presence more clearly shines. Then, in proportion as I am weak, I shall be invincibly strong: and in proportion as I am blind, I shall more clearly see. O that I may thus be perfected by feebleness, and irradiated by obscurity! And indeed in my blindness I enjoy in no inconsiderable degree the favor of the Deity, who regards me with more tender

« ПредишнаНапред »