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1857.]

SPANISH CONQUEST IN AMERICA.

From the British Quarterly.

SPANISH CONQUEST IN AMERICA.*

THE English Opium-Eater, in one of his stormy visions, imagines himself in the midst of the age-long conflict wherewith some great cause is assaulted and maintained. What it is precisely he knows not, in the confusion and obscurity, but it is something for which and against which generations play, and plot, and do battle. There are shouts of triumph, and despairThe roar of furious ing lamentations. multitudes, the shock of armed men, the hurrying feet of fugitives are heard; but how the day is going, and whether light prevails, or darkness, the forlorn dreamer can not learn. Even somewhat thus, in old and far-off empires, among by-gone states and vanished races, have long feuds of hostile principle been waged; and the memory of the strife wherewith those long-forgotten causes were once fought out, comes to us dim and distant, and perplexed with shadows, as were the forms and movements of the Opium-Eater's Yet about these causes troubled vision. -about the strife for the emancipation or suppression of a class, for the elevation or enslavement of a race, for the standing or falling of an order, a system, or a faith, all the worst qualities, and all the best qualities, have gathered, and done their utmost. As we read and endeavor to recall the past, and enter into the old strife, and as the eye glistens and the pulse beats quicker in so doing, we seem to see the good assuming angelic brightness, and the bad unearthly hideousness by the fitful light of those battle-fields.

Mr. Helps, in the "History of the Spanish Conquest of America," is the chronicler of one of these great causes. He describes and explains the various fortunes undergone by the cause of mercy as it strove against rapacity-the cause of wisdom, order, law, as they toiled to set some limit to the soldier's cruelty and the adventurer's greed. To conquer the Indies proved not difficult-but how to govern them? The most serious perplexities of

*The Spanish Conquest in America. By ARTHUR
Third Volume. J. W. Parker and Son.

HELPS.

How

the victor began with victory.
shall he satisfy the demands around him,
and the demands from home, yet so con-
trol triumphant avarice that the tree shall
not be cut down to reach the fruit? A
few humane and thoughtful men there
were, who toiled and suffered to maintain
the cause of the Indians-to save that
delicate and gentle race who were perish-
ing by millions before the face of the
Spaniard-to bring them, if prosperity
were hopeless, relief at least, or respite.
To the best of their light and power, they
sought to send succor to nations ship-
wrecked, as it were, upon their shores, to
helpless multitudes around whom their
countrymen were ravening like the hun-
gry sea. Surely such efforts, though suc-
cessful but in part, and though often made
in error, have their record above, and should
be traced by us with an interest more
deep than that which follows the armed
heel of the conqueror. Let us remember
the times, let us remember the evil, how
vast, how crying, and give due honor to
Las Casas, and those devoted Dominicans
who labored with him, or toward the
common end. The zeal of these men (as
Mr. Helps does not fail to remark) was
not the zeal of reaction. In Europe, the
ardor of Loyola and his followers-even
that, to some extent, of the Juans, Theresas,
and the Borromeos-was the ardor of an-
tagonism. Every feat of asceticism, every
exaltation of piety, every penitent and
every proselyte, was a blow struck at
hateful Protestantism. The rival religion
was ever in the thoughts, even in the
devotions of the heroes of the counter-
reformation, as a something they were to
out-pray, out-preach, and out-maneuver.
Now no such
Their very prayers were stamped on the
reverse side with curses.
subtraction (as in this case we can not fail
to make) has to be deducted from the
self-denial of the Spanish monks and pre-
lates, who, in the days of Cortes and Pi-
zarro, sought to rescue from extermi-
nation the Indians of New Spain.
disturbed by the rumors of the great
Current of their thoughts had been little

The

schism, and the foremost of them had reached the prime of life in the cloister before the Reformation had been much talked of in Spain.

The reader will learn from the interesting account given in this volume the methods of Spanish administration—what the encomienda was, and what the repartimiento-those rights and privileges, on the exercise or abuse whereof hung the misery or welfare of so many myriads of our species. He will see, too, how many were the conditions to be fulfilled, how many the obstacles to be vanquished, before any measures of amelioration could be made effectual to relieve any portion of that vast and suffering population. The interest and the value of the history are alike enhanced by those brief and pregnant reflections with which the narrative is interspersed. These remarks always arise, as such passages should do, from the events recorded. Mr. Helps is quite free from a fault which it is not easy for the philosophical historian always to avoid the tendency to arrange facts in illustration of reflections, rather than to allow any general observations to follow in the train of facts.

The author has been telling us how Cortes was at last so impoverished that he was unable to live with his family for more than a month at a time in that very city of Mexico which he himself had conquered, devastated, repeopled, and rebuilt. He then remarks:

"Those who care to observe human affairs curiously, have often speculated upon the change that would be produced by a very slight knowledge of the future. If men could see, they say, but ten years in advance, the greater part of mankind would not have heart to continue their labors. The farmer would quit his plow, the merchant his merchandise, the scholar his books. Still there would remain a few faithful to their pursuits-lovers, fanatics, and benevolent men. But of all those whom ten years' prescience would induce to lay down their work in utter discontent of the future, as it unrolled itself before their wondering eyes, the conqueror, perhaps, would be the man who first would stay his hand. For the results of conquest are among the greatest disappointments in the world. The policy which seems so judicious and so nicely adjusted that it will repay the anxious nights of thought that have been spent upon it, would, even with the small foreknowledge of ten years, be seen to be inconsequent, foolish, and mischievous. The ends which appear so precious that the blood of armies may justly be spilt in the hope of obtaining them,

would be clearly discerned to be noxious and ludicrous. All the vast crimes which are gilded by motives of policy would be seen in their naked horror, and the most barbarous of men sufferings he was about to inflict upon the world or emperors would start back appalled at the for inadequate and futile causes. When, however, the conqueror happened to be a fanatic, the future on this earth would not disturb him. He would be equally ready to slaughter his thousands, to devastate provinces, and to ruin, the ten years' annals, written prophetically on as mostly happens, his own fortunes, whatever the wall, might disclose to him.

"Cortes, as a statesman and a man of the world, might have shuddered if he could have foreseen the fate of himself, his companions, and the nations he came to conquer. But sheathed as he was in the impenetrable armor of fanaticism, he would probably have counted these things as no loss, provided that the true faith should thereby be proclaimed more widely in the New World. This must be his excuse, and this, no doubt, was his comfort when he contemplated the sorry end of his labors as regarded himself and his own fortunes.

"Later in life we find him writing to the Emperor in the same strain of complaint. The latter days of Cortes bear a strange resemblance to those of Columbus, and, indeed, to those of Charles V. himself. Men of this great stamp seldom know when to put a limit to their exertions, and to occupy themselves solely in securing the conquests they have made, and, as the nature of things is always against an energetic man, some day or other, especially when he to his astonishment, triumph over him. Besides, grows weaker and older, adverse circumstances, even supposing him to be very prudent, and anxious to undertake nothing which he can not master, the field for his exertions inevitably widens with success. Instead of a line to pursue, he has a large area to command. Envy, meanwhile, increases as he becomes more conspicuous. Many men lean upon him when he is known to be strong. His attention is distracted; and even without any deterioration of character, or failing of force, he is destroyed by the large development of new difficulties which grow up around him. As the early history of the Indies teems with commanders who ultimately prove unfortunate, it is but fair to look into the natural causes of failure which would beset them in any country, but which would be stronger in a newly-discovered country than elsewhere."-P. 205.

For many readers, the last hundred and fifty pages of this volume will have most attraction. They contain an account of the early life and voyages of Pizarro, of the history and religion of Peru previously to the arrival of the Spaniards, and then of the conquest of the country by Pizarro, bringing the narrative down as far as to the execution of the hapless Atahuallpa.

WELLS OF FIRE AND RAIN-STORMS | refresh the city, sprinkle the marsh-garAT DISCRETION.-Such is the title under dens and promenades, while permitting which a French writer in a public journal the dispatch of water-bearing vehicles to takes a novel view of the physical possi- make mud in the streets of Algiers." bilities of this globe we inhabit.

Regarding volcanoes as the natural escape-valves for "the high-pressure gasometer" existing beneath the crust of the earth, and constantly kept full by the decomposition of water in the great retort of the undercortex, he gravely proposes to bore artesian fire-wells, that is, to tap the gas for fuel and illuminating purposes; and thus dispense with volcanoes as safetyvalves, and with coal, coke, wood, turf, and every other kind of fuel.

"It is only necessary to pierce very deeply through the cuirass of the globe to reach, not the fire, but the subterranean gas; for the Chinese have reached it at the depth of 1033 meters. We should be glad to see the water fail in the brickwells of Passy as the brine failed in the wells of Outing-Kiao; for it was in deepening the bore to regain it that they found the gas, which has proved so valuable for the purpose of evaporating the water found in the bed of rock salt, gathered from more than two thousand holes in the space of ten leagures by four."

The writer goes on to deprecate the indignation of the coal-owners at the utter depreciation of their property; but sets up in compensation the enormous advantages accruing to the city of Paris, by the present made to it of a gratuitous source of light and heat in perpetuity; which, if the public press would only do its duty, would be accomplished by "voluntary contributions of a million of francs as capital outlay in this crusade against the empire of the gnomes and salamanders." Moreover, it is just possible that the municipality of Paris may sell this gas at the rate of one centime the cubic meter; in which case there will be a revenue of 300f. per minute, or 158,420,000f. per

annum.

And then the writer bursts into a gush of patriotic enthusiasm on the noble national pride wherewith Paris city would present an artificial storm to strangerprinces coming to convince themselves that France had attained the power of giving rain and sunshine in physical as well as moral order.

Nothing apparently impossible in this. Manchester, they say, is very rainy by virtue of its large consumption of fuel; and a rainstorm is a common result of an earthquake. It is very likely that had Vesuvius or Etna been located at Snowdon, various means of turning the heat to account would have been discovered, just as the Icelanders utilized the Geysers of Hecla in their monasteries. But why they should be peculiar to Paris we are at a loss to understand; and whether, if a rival bore were made at London, and thus turned off the Paris supply, it would be a casus belli, as between old mill-owners and new water-companies? Would it be turned to account to war-making? Would the French generals, in case of a future war, take advantage of a peculiar state of the winds to utterly drown Ireland with added moisture; or would the philosophers prevail, and turn the currents over the sands of the great African desert, to clothe them in verdure? Will it be practicable to set to work in Greenland, with a sufficient number of jets to thaw the North Pole, and open the North-west Passage? Or would it not be better, instead of boring at Paris in the first instance, to lay on a main from Vesuvius, and another from Etna, direct to Toulon, for the supply of the Arsenal, and then carry a branch to Paris? If the "crust” should be thinner at London than at Paris, it is clear that it might draw off the Paris supply, and lower the pressure, unless the gasometer be continuous. all over the globe. We shall wait with impatience for the commencement of the Puits d'Enfer as the means of converting the Puits de Grenelle into a steam-boiler.

This is not all. The gas-fuel being so cheap, whenever the city of Paris shall feel the need of a rain storm, the gas will be allowed to escape into the air for a few minutes, and then be set on fire, by the The only difficulty seems to be the bore. means of an electrical kite, when resting That accomplished, the French philosoover the city. "A beautiful rain, regulat-pher may say of earthquakes, Nous avons ed to a perfection by the gas-meter, would changé tout cela.

-

THE CRYSTAL SPHERE, OR REFLECTIONS as we please-if we are to have good ON A DROP OF WATER.- "What is there," water, we must take the live stock with says the author, “" in a drop of water ad- it. Now if the reader can manage to equate to supply the materials for a long shut out from his mental vision the part essay; and such a one as is calculated to which these multitudinous animals are interest those thoughtful persons who taking in his own nourishment, he will perchance may be induced to peruse this find it a very agreeable recreation to spend unpretending little volume? It is true an hour or two with Dr. Sanders in lookthat a drop of water is apparently a thing ing through his microscope. He will be of small moment, almost too unimportant satisfied that "a drop of water, although to come within the cognizance of that a trivial thing, is really an unbounded active mind which is proned to grasp at world, and full large enough for the the vast and the sublime, to the total ex- Creator to exhibit to us in a striking light clusion of what is minute and apparently an illustration of the beneficence and wistrifling." He then proceeds to show that dom which pervade throughout every dethis tiny crystal sphere is a wondrous re- partment of nature." We must, howservoir of various natural forces, chemical ever, remind him that the book in its getagencies, and animate existence, to the ting up is decidedly on the bookmaking latter of which the work is principally de- plan; the smallest quantam of letter-press voted. Here we start and shrink with being spread over the largest quantam of dismay at the sight of those "creeping paper; though this may be no objection things innumerable," which throng every to those who wish to have a pretty volume drop of that very fluid we are daily ac- for the boudoir. The composition also customed to drink with such wonderful displays some Americanisms, which illuscomposure. All the beasts, reptiles, and trate without adorning it. "Prolificacy," insects that ever came within the range though found in Webster's Dictionary, is of our naked eye, are nothing in number not to our liking; and if proned be not a as compared with those myriads of crea- typographical error, in the expression tures which we have unconsciously im- previously quoted, that "the active mind bibed under the impression that we were is proned to grasp at the vast and the drinking pure water. Ay, but what is sublime," we hope that its use as a verb pure water? We suppose it to be the will be entirely confined to the transsimple fluid, the unadulterated mixture of atlantic shores. We would rather have a so much oxygen and hydrogen. score or two additional infusoria in our glass of water, than allow such expressions as these to get into the well of English undefiled.-London Quarterly.

And so

it is; but―lamentable conclusion !-it appears that such water is of no use for drinking. Protest against it as much

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A COMMENTARY, CRITICAL, EXPOSITORY, AND PRACTICAL, ON THE GOSPELS OF MATTHEW AND MARK; for the use of Ministers, Theological Students, Private Christians, Bible-Classes and Sabbath-Schools. By JOHN J. OWEN, D.D. With a Map, Synoptical Index, etc. New-York: Leavitt & Allen, 369 Broadway. 1857. Pp. 501.

good work in writing this commentary. He has erected a monument more enduring than brass or granite; because graven on imperishable minds. We have long known Dr. Owen, and have strong confidence in his talents, his ability, his mature judg ment, his thorough and critical knowledge of the Greek language and its idioms, as well as in his earnest piety and love of divine truth to elucidate the No ordinary responsibility rests on him who writes meaning of the sacred text. In the presence of a commentary on the oracles of God-to evolve and other and able commentaries, we think the lucid explain the mind of the Spirit and thus affect and language, the force and beauty of expression, and sway the minds of his fellow-men on the great clearness of arrangement which Dr. Owen has emthemes and interests of salvation and the soul. But ployed in unfolding and presenting the sublime truths when well, carefully, and prayerfully done, it is a of these two gospels of Christ, will commend his work of surpassing interest and importance, towering labors to ministers, to students of the Bible, as to above and outliving all mere literary performances families, Sabbath-school teachers, with warm and as eternity outlives time. Dr. Owen has done a earnest approbation.

1857.]

LITERARY MISCELLANIES.

A VERY GREAT MAN.-"Mr. Miles Darden, who THE POETICAL WORKS OF LEIGH HUNT. Now first Com-yond all question the largest man in the world. His entirely collected. Revised by himself, and edited, died at his residence in Henderson county, was bewith an introduction, by L. ADAMS LEE. a fraction over 1000 lbs. It required seventeen men plete in 2 Vols. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1857. height was seven feet six inches. His weight was to put him into his coffin, and took over 100 feet of Pp. 300 and 320. plank to make it. He measured around the waist six feet four inches."

In this beautiful diamond edition of the poet's works, the admirers of Leigh Hunt have his gems of thought and art in a very neat and attractive form, characteristic of the taste and enterprise of the publishers. The fact that these volumes comprise the complete works of the poet will add much to their value. They belong to the library of the Muses and will find a place in the boudoirs of lady lovers of poetry.

SISTERS OF CHARITY, CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT,
AND THE COMMUNION OF LABOR. By Mrs. JAME-
Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1857. Pp. 302.

SON.

SISTERS of Charity in truth are such the world over, in all times, and in all circumstances of human sufferings, wants, trials, and sorrows; where their presence and sympathies avail to alleviate human woe. The title can not be justly monopolized by any It belongs to all the ministering one class or name. spirits and angels of mercy, of whatever name or nation in femaledom, who, like the Saviour, go about doing good, and alleviate the wants and sufferings of the poor and needy. Mrs. Jameson in the volume before us, has struck a tender and vital chord, which we wish may vibrate in ten thousand hearts. Florence Nightingale has immortalized her name, by her self-denying heroism and efforts to alleviate the wounded and sick soldiers in the English Crimean army; and Mrs. Jameson has propounded principles of benevolent action, which, if carefully read and followed, will multiply a thousand-fold sisters of true charity and make them angels of mercy to the suf fering on earth and fit them to wear the crown of angels in heaven. We commend Mrs. Jameson's book to the careful perusal of all ladies who would be sisters of charity and angels of mercy.

BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. The fourteenth annual congress of this Society was com menced at Norwich on Monday afternoon, under the presidency of the Earl of Albermarle, and was well attended. The President, in opening the proceedings, said that he only claimed to be an admirer of the science of archæology, but he believed that the visit of such an important body as this Association, would lead to the dissemination of much information with regard to the antiquities of the city and county. Mr. T. J. Pettigrew then read the usual introductory sketch of the district visited by the Association.

THE Directors of the Madras Railway, acting on a memorial from the Christian portion of the community, have decided against the running of special trains on Sundays.

THE visitors to the Manchester Exhibition continue
64,886, or over 10,000 a day, went
to be numerous.
in last week; 16,275 of these entered on Saturday
afternoon, by payment of 6d.

AT Foochow, confirmatory reports had been received respecting the injury sustained by the tea-plant from not being thoroughly picked. The decrease in shipments of tea from China to the 30th of June was 27,550,000 lbs.

- The

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT DUBLIN.
twenty-seventh annual congress of the British Asso-
ciation was opened at Dublin, on Wednesday, under
circumstances of more than usual interest. The in-
Rotunda, where a numerous and distinguished com-
auguration meeting was held in the evening, at the
pany was assembled, including his Excellency the
Lord-Lieutenant and the principal members of the
Viceregal Court.

THE INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL CONGRESS opens
its third session on Monday next in the Austrian
capital. Eighteen Governments have already pro-
mised to send representatives. The session will only
last a week.

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE met at Montreal on the 12th inst. Amongst those in attendance were His Excellency the Administrator of the Government of Canada, exPresident Fillmore, and a large number of savans from both sides of the Atlantic.

AN official return appears in the Melbourne papers of parcels of unclaimed gold which have accumulated in the last three or four years, and now amount to 156,501 ounces, worth about £626,000.

THE French Government has decided on building a huge hippodrome in Paris, to afford room for 25,000 people.

On the 8th and 12th ult. 469 fathoms and 450 fathoms of the cable of the Atlantic Telegraph Company were recovered.

By the end of September a direct telegraphic communication will be established between Malta and Paris and London.

LOUIS NAPOLEON's valet is the same who resided with him when he lived in Bury street, St. James's, continued to attend him during the captivity at Ham, and indeed throughout the whole of the Emperor's checkered career.

THE Augsburg Gazette states that the Committee formed at Worms for the erection of a monument to Luther, have been informed by Sir Alexandre Malet, has subscribed £40, and Prince Albert £25, towards the object. the English Minister to the Diet, that Queen Victoria

AN attempt has been made to bribe one of the criminal Judges of Vienna by sending him a sum of money equivalent to £600. The Judge has advertised that he will present the cash to a public charity if it be not reclaimed.

THE Curaçoa, steam-vessel, Commander Forbes, is now discharging her cargo, consisting of antiquities cient Carthage. for the British Museum, obtained from the site of an

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