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Second " " The Complete Work, 50 64 80 " 250 " Any Volume Bound, 3 dollars; Unbound, 2 dollars. The sets, or volumes, will be sent at the expense of the publishers. PREMIUMS FOR CLUBS. For 5 new subscribers ($40.), a sixth copy; or a set of HORNE'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE, unabridged, in 4 large volumes, cloth, price $10; or any 5 of the back volumes of the LIVING AGE, in numbers, price $10. From The Quarterly Review. overcome, could face the summer heats and the tropical rains, to say nothing of the ter ous serpents which infest that region. Every one who thought he knew something of Abyssinia or of the East in general, and who had advice to give or a scheme of his own to propose and they were legionwas convinced that unless his particular plan was adopted defeat and annihilation were inevitable. And yet none of the schemes and plans thus suggested had been adopted. One man alone, the commander of the army, had felt from the first perfect confidence in the result of the expedition, and Sir Stafford Northcoate was able to state in the House of Commons to a sceptical audience, that unless some unforeseen accident occurred to derange all the careful calculations of Sir Robert Napier, the expedition would be brought to a successful issue by the end of March. RARELY has popular satisfaction been rible Guinea-worm and the countless poisonmore complete than when one Sunday morning in April, 1868, the telegraphic wire conveyed to this country the laconic but pregnant message that 'Magdala had been taken, the captives released, and Theodore killed.' The public rejoiced that a costly and hazardous expedition, from which little glory and no solid advantage could be anticipated, had been rapidly and successfully brought to a conclusion. From the minds of those who knew all the dangers and difficulties of the enterprise a great weight was taken. Up to the last moment those who were officially answerable for the undertaking, and who advised it, acting under the strongest sense of public duty, felt that the gravest responsibility rested upon them, that the chances of failure were not inconsiderable, and that even ultimate success could only be attained after sacrifices for which the country was scarcely prepared. The news of the fall of Magdala was soon followed by the return to England of a porA triumph so complete and one adding tion of the troops engaged, the arrival of so much to our military and political pres- the captives, and finally the appearance of tige could scarcely have been anticipated the hero of the expedition himself. The even by the most sanguine. The highest usual ovations succeeded: City dinners, authorities' in the House of Commons and the presentation of laudatory addresses, of in the Press had prognosticated every man- swords of honour, and the rights of citizenner of evil. No water and no provisions ship, festivities at the Crystal Palace, a were to be found in the country we were peerage, medals, and dignities. But the about to invade. The army would inevit- glories of the Abyssinian campaign and of ably be starved. It did not even require Abyssinian heroes soon began to fade away the resistance of the enemy to render our into the things of the past. There remained discomfiture complete. If the tribes on the little to remind us of our Abyssinian war way were only hostile, as they were certain but an additional twopence in the pound to be, a rout and a retreat, even more dis- income-tax and the three million deficiency in astrous than that of Affghanistan, were in- the estimates which the Chancellor of the evitable. No army could be moved over Exchequer has recently announced to an lofty mountains without roads, and impass- astonished and indignant House of Comable to beasts of burden. Even if passes mons. were discovered, one accident to a mule or camel in the narrow and precipitous path would delay troops compelled to advance in single file and would render their destruction easy. No English soldiers, moreover, supposing all these difficulties to have been But before the Abyssinian expedition and the events which led to it are forgotten, except as chapters of history, it may be desirable to place the real facts upon record and to clear away some of the misapprehensions which still linger in the public mind with respect to them. An opportunity of now doing so presents itself by the publication of Mr. Rassam's narrative of his mission. It is the first authentic account of those events given to us by one who played the principal part in them, and who can conse quently speak with knowledge and author- | in which he was concerned. It is written ity. Several works have appeared upon with a straightforward honesty and manly the Abyssinian question, but they are writ- simplicity which cannot fail to carry conten by persons who either had a very im-viction to the mind of any impartial person; perfect acquaintance with the whole subject, and it will remove any doubts that may still or who had strong motives for taking a par- exist as to the origin of his mission, the tial or one-sided view of it. The most wisdom of the selection of its chief, and the reliable, as the writers were personally manner in which a task of extraordinary difconnected with the events they describe, ficulty, delicacy, and danger was performed. are Dr. Blanc's Narrative of Captivity in It is the highest testimony to the judgment Abyssinia,' and the Rev. H. Stern's Cap- and ability shown by Mr. Rassam that two tive Missionary.' Dr. Blanc,s narrative has successive Governments should have exfor the most part appeared in the public pressed their entire approval of his conduct. journals, in the form of letters written dur-Lord Stanley proved, as on other occasions ing his imprisonment at Magdala, and pub- he has done, that he is above party considlished in India and in this country through|erations when dealing with the character the indiscretion of friends, who, by giving and services of a public officer who has been them publicity, might have involved all the unjustly attacked and condemned; and in a European prisoners in the most serious risk. letter to Mr. Rassam, laid before ParliaIt is written in a lively strain, but with a ment, he expressed the high sense entersomewhat too anxious desire for effect, and tained by Her Majesty's Government of his there is a querulous and captious tone occa- conduct during the difficult and arduous pesionally apparent in the volume, and a jeal-riod of his employment under the Foreign ousy of Mr. Rassam, which do not convey Office,' and declared that he had acted a favourable impression of the judgment, throughout for the best,' and that his prudiscretion, or temper of the author. We dence, discretion and good management may especially refer to the description at seem to have tended greatly to preserve the page 358 of the personal influence which lives, and thus to secure the release, of the Dr. Blanc admits that Mr. Rassam had ob- captives.' tained over the king, but which he accounts This ample recognition of his services, for and explains by very ungenerous and coming from so high and impartial a quarunjust insinuations. Several passages of ter, ought to afford ample compensation to this nature disfigure the volume and tend Mr. Rassam for the injustice and cruelty to shake our confidence in the statements of we might almost say malignity of the atthe writer. The tone of Mr. Stern's work | tacks made upon his personal character and is too pretentious and sensational, and gives his public conduct, both in Parliament and to it the character of a made-up book. A the press, when he was in captivity and unsimple and straightforward narrative of his able to reply or to defend himself. sufferings, and they were no doubt very severe, would have interested his readers far more than the turgid and highly-wrought phrases in which he describes the events of his captivity. Moreover there are frequently unchristian and ill-natured allusions to the other Europeans, captives like himself, and especially to his brother missionaries, which are but little in harmony with his calling, and which might with great advantage have been omitted, however well justified his suspicions and accusations may be. Mr. Rassam's narrative, which is an amplification of his official Report laid before Parliament, bears upon its face the impress of a true and faithful account of the events A The relations between England and Abyssinia have always been of a very anomalous and unsatisfactory character. Considering the anomalous and unsatisfactory nature of the country itself and of its inhabitants, this could scarcely have been otherwise. piece of Asia somehow dropped into Africa, races neither black nor white, Christians isolated amongst Pagans and Mohammedans, a strange mixture of civilization and barbarism, literature and traditions of sufficient value and interest to excite the curiosity of the learned, a geographical position important enough to breed jealousy and rivalry amongst European Powers with Eastern dependencies, a country just rich and disor them, he came to England. Earnestly impressed with the advantage of establishing political relations between England and Abyssinia, and backed up by some Parliamentary and mercantile support, acquired by his glowing descriptions of the opening which he had created in that little-known region for the extension of British interests and trade, he and his friends prevailed upon Lord Palmerston to appoint him Consul at Massowah. This port is on the Turco-Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, and has never formed any part of Abyssinia, but Mr. Plowden was specially authorized to visit that country and to negotiate a treaty with Ras Ali. ganized enough to offer the usual bait to source of commercial wealth to England, political intriguers and to those mischievous and in its rulers the means of establishing adventurers who, under the pretence of ex- English influence in a part of Africa in his tending their country's influence, are work-view of great importance to our Indian Eming for personal ambition or private gain- pire. Having obtained the friendship of such has been, such is, and such probably Ras Ali, the most powerful of the petty will be for generations to come-Abyssin-kings who then divided the country amongst ia. Whether England has ever had any direct or imperial interest in that country sufficiently important to render it necessary to open relations with its rulers, it is very difficult to say. Those who have endeavoured to mix us up with its affairs insist upon the danger of allowing it to fall under the influence of France or any other European Power on account of its position near the outlet of the Red Sea and the highway to India. According to the old school of Indian politicians, every country and district on the other side of the Bosphorus and to the South of the Mediterranean- from Scutari to the Cape of Good Hope- is more or less bound up with the existence of our Indian Empire. And there is scarcely When he returned to Abyssinia, one of a corner in that vast area in which the those successful warriors who frequently money of the toiling natives of India has appear upon the scene in such countries, not been spent for their benefit. We are was overthrowing king after king, and conbeginning to get a little wiser in that mat-solidating in his own hands the supreme ter now, and to doubt whether it is of such power. This was Kasai, afterwards so well vital importance to the maintenance of our power in India that there should be expensive missions to Shoa, subsidies to ferocious pirates in the Persian Gulf, and costly presents to barbarous chiefs on the African coast, all paid for out of the breeches pockets, supposing them to have any, of the natives of Hindostan. known as the Emperor Theodore. Plowden at once perceived the remarkable qualities of the man, his courage, his energy, his power of acquiring knowledge, and his abilities. He attached himself to the cause of the young chief, who soon became, by the overthrow of his rivals, sole ruler and Emperor of Abyssinia. It is curious now However, such notions and convictions to turn to Plowden's description of Theowere still in full force when one of those dore's character, which was then still undeadventurers who have exercised so much veloped. The English Consul pointed out, influence in Eastern politics and affairs, in a Report addressed to the Foreign Office and who have effected so much, both for bad and for good, turned up in Abyssinia. Mr. Plowden had been led to connect himself, in the mere spirit of enterprise, with the affairs of that country. That he was a man of ability, perseverance, and intrepidity, may be gathered from his reports, addressed to the British Government, which have been laid before Parliament. His ardent imagination and sanguine temperament -we are willing to believe that he had no personal or interested motives - led him to see in the highlands of Abyssinia a new in June, 1855, the good qualities of the King: his untiring energy, his personal and moral daring, and his polite and engaging manners when pleased. But he had detected Theodore's growing faults: his wrath, which when aroused was so terrible as to make all men tremble, his unyielding pride and his jealousy of his sovereign rights. He was then anxious to introduce real reforms into his country: he had himself set an example of respect for the marriage tie, and had insisted that it should be followed by his subjects; he had abolished many of |