The Social Condition of the Negro. 473 thanks him, but it does not suit him' to take the job. Thinking this fellow mad, he offers the chance to another, who, after long consideration, says, he will do anything to oblige massa; he hopes the Lord will bless massa and all his family, and that massa will soon find a person to do what he wants;' but he himself is going to attend a funeral in the evening, and follow his "'parted broder to de grabe.' No wonder that the fretted traveller at once concludes that all negroes are idle, impracticable rascals; and he starts with a prejudice against them which is not easily overcome, unless he has the opportunity of really studying their mode of life in the interior of the island. As regards the condition of the negroes in their own settlements, there is abundant proof that, except in years of drought, they are generally happy and thriving. Take, for instance, the testimony of the Archdeacon of Surrey in Jamaica, given in the Jamaica Blue Books, Part I. He says: 'On Sunday and other holidays the labouring class invariably appear well-dressed-and I should say expensively. On a recent occasion I appealed to them on behalf of the "Jamaica Home and Foreign Missionary Society." There were between 600 and 700 labourers and artisans in and about the church, and they contributed liberally. Their very respectable appearance-and in very many instances expensive attire, viz., the women and girls of eighteen or nineteen with crinoline, chipped straw hats, trimmed with ribbons and artificial flowers; and the men with neat jackets, and many in the ordinary dress of a gentleman of the upper class attracted the notice of Europeans who happened to be present. Raggedness is seen in the towns only; it is attributable there, not to poverty, but to laziness, and to a determination not to seek work in the rural districts.' The Rev. David Panton, M.A., also writes : 'It cannot fail to be pleasing to the Government to know that the peasantry of the mountains of the parish of St. George are yearly becoming more wealthy. Each year more land is cleared for the cultivation of coffee, sugar, arrowroot, &c. The peasantry here are as thriving as it is possible for any peasantry to be.' The Archdeacon of Cornwall (Jamaica), writes that 'With the exception of the idle and wicked ones already spoken of, they are an industrious and contented people, and might, under proper and wholesome regulations, be made as good a peasantry as any in the world. I have had long experience among them, and my duties call upon me to make frequent journeys, and I consider myself competent to form a correct judgment on the subject.' We could multiply in abundance such testimonies were it necessary; while, on the other hand, as we have already shown, in many districts of Jamaica, there has been a considerable amount of distress, and the condition of the negro has been retrograding rather than advancing. Many causes have combined to produce this chequered result; but we fully share the opinion which has been expressed by those most intimately conversant with the island, that its greatest need has been that of a more patriotic and vigorous administration of its affairs. Deeply as we must deplore the insurrection, and the horrors by which its suppression was attended, it may be fairly hoped that ultimately much good may arise to the island from the crisis through which it has passed. The base and corrupt legislature has been got rid of. Governor Eyre, who, though not, we believe, a naturally cruel man, was weak and vain, and totally unfit for responsibility, has been removed. The selection of Sir John Peter Grant to succeed him is an augury full of hope for the future of Jamaica. Sir John's career in India has shown him to possess great ability, and he is not likely to follow Mr. Eyre's example by taking a violent partisan side in the miserable contests between the planters and the peasantry. His hand will be unfettered; he will be at liberty to inaugurate those improvements which are so grievously needed, and to cut down the innumerable abuses which have been allowed to spring up on all sides. A few years of strong administration by such a man may give a complete turn to the fortunes of the island. While many of the West Indian islands are examples of prosperity and progress, there can be no reason, in the nature of things, why Jamaica, of all islands the richest in resources and in the facilities for commercial intercourse, should lag behind. Let us trust that the terrible calamity of last autumn may prove to have been the blackness before the dawn' of a better and happier day. ART. V.-Les Apôtres. Par ERNEST RENAN, Membre de l'Institut. Paris Michel Lévy, Frères. 1866. Ir is with a feeling of no small relief that we now meet M. Renan on ground somewhat less sacred than that occupied by his first volume. The very ark of our faith was then assailed, and we felt that, while to defend it was a sacred duty, the task was one which might well give rise to a deep solemnity and even shrinking of spirit. The life and character of our Lord Jesus Christ are, in our estimation, so manifestly Divine, that it is almost presumptuous in any mere child of earth to Scope and Design of the Work. 475 seek to defend them. The Gospel-narratives appear to us to bear so clearly the impress of their heavenly origin, that, in the words of the Wanderer, with reference to the outward glories of creation, we felt it hard to believe that these matchless records 'Should exist Only to be examined, pondered, searched, as it was, of course, necessary to treat them, while we followed M. Renan through that new and startling representation of the life of Jesus which he had presented to the world. In this, the second instalment of his great undertaking, we have to deal, for the most part, with men of like passions with ourselves, and therefore we breathe more freely while we accompany our author through that critical dissection of their character and work, which they receive at his hands. The Name above every Name' does, indeed, again and again recur; and in two or three of the opening chapters it still forms the leading subject of remark. But, as its title indicates, the greater part of this volume is devoted to the apostles; and we are thus enabled more calmly to follow M. Renan in the theories he propounds, and the remarks which he makes, respecting these merely human founders of our faith. The period here treated of embraces only twelve years, extending from the death of Christ, A.D. 33, to the commencement of the first Missionary journey of the apostle Paul, which may be probably dated in the year 45. In the opening sentences of his Introduction, the author thus describes the scope and design of this volume of his work : 'It is now necessary to take up matters at the point where we left them, that is to say, at Saturday, April 4th, in the year 33. This will still be for some time a kind of continuation of the life of Jesus. Next to those months of joyous intoxication, during which the Great Founder laid the basis of a new order for humanity, these years were the most decisive in the history of the world. It is still Jesus, who, through means of the sacred fire of which He has deposited the spark in the heart of some friends, created institutions of the highest originality, influenced and transformed souls, while He impressed on all His own Divine seal. We have to show how, under this influence, always active and victorious over death, faith in the resurrection, in the influence of the Holy Spirit, in the gift of tongues, and in the power of the church, was established. We shall exhibit the organization of the church at Jerusalem, its first trials, its first conquests, along with the earliest missions which went forth from its bosom. We shall follow Christianity in its rapid progress through Syria onwards to Antioch, where it formed a second capital, more important, in one sense, than Jerusalem, and destined ultimately to supplant it. In this new centre, where the converted heathen form a majority, we shall behold Christianity definitely separate itself from Judaism, and receive a name of its own; above all, we shall see the birth of the grand idea of foreign missions which are destined to carry the name of Jesus into the world of the Gentiles. We shall stop at the solemn moment when Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark, go forth for the accomplishment of this great design. We shall suspend our narrative for a time, to cast a glance at the world which these bold missionaries essay to convert. We shall endeavour to make ourselves acquainted with the intellectual, political, moral, religious, and social condition of the Roman empire, about the year 45, the probable date of the departure of St. Paul on his first mission.'—pp. i. ii. After an Introduction of sixty-four pages, in which the sources of information are criticised, our author devotes nineteen chapters to the fulfilment of the above design. Of these, the first three are employed in explaining the 'legend' of the resurrection. The next four give an account of the establishment and constitution of the church at Jerusalem. The eighth and ninth relate the first breaking forth of persecution, and the immediate results to which it led. The tenth comprises M. Renan's theory of the conversion of the apostle Paul. The remaining nine chapters are of a miscellaneous character, embracing sketches of the internal condition of the church in Judea, its extension to Antioch, the character and influence of Barnabas, the parallel movements to Christianity which arose, the state of the world at the period referred to, with many other points of various interest and importance. The volume ends with the following words: 'But it is time to return to the three missionaries-Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark, whom we have left at the moment when they are setting forth from Antioch by the gate which leads to Seleucia. In my third book, I shall endeavour to follow the traces of these messengers of good news, over land and sea, through calm and tempest, in days of prosperity and in days of adversity. I am in haste to relate this unrivalled epic, to depict these endless journeyings in Asia and Europe, throughout the whole of which they sowed the seed of the Gospel, as well as those many voyages which they accomplished in circumstances so various. The great Christian Odyssey is now to coramence. Already the apostolic bark has spread its sails; the wind gently blows, and its sole aspiration is to bear on its wings the words of Jesus.' Before proceeding to the discussion of what we deem some of the fatal errors of this work, it is a pleasure to acknowledge those excellencies which it presents. The charm of its style is. as potent as was that of the previous volume. It seems to lead us through gardens of delight, in which the singing of birds and the trickling of streams are heard on every side. Powerful indeed is that enchantment which M. Renan exerts in virtue of the almost incomparable grace and beauty with which he writes. His diction is rich, yet pure; highly artificial, and yet possessing all the attractiveness of seeming easy and natural. There is a tenderness about it, which shows the author to be gifted with a deeply sensitive nature, and which excites very strongly the sympathies of his readers. Rarely, if ever, has criticism assumed a garb so pleasing; and one of the best wishes that could be expressed for orthodox church historians (often, unfortunately, so noted for their dulness) is, that they might acquire some of the sparkling vivacity, and the rich, yet not meretricious, ornament, which are so strikingly characteristic of the work which is now to engage our consideration. But this volume has still greater merits. It abounds with instruction which, if not always to be depended upon, is of the most varied character, and often, in the highest degree, valuable. As is well known, M. Renan is an Oriental scholar of the very first rank, and appears quite at home in some fields of literature with which few even of the learned are familiar. It is vain to deny or sneer at his learning, as several of his reviewers have recently done. No candid reader of his works can fail to be struck with the very uncommon stores of erudition which they exhibit. He moves at ease alike amid the classical and Talmudical writers. It has indeed been made a subject of reproach to him that he has not plunged more deeply into the later Jewish writings, and sought to educe from these, some account of the views and feelings prevailing among the inhabitants of Palestine in the days of Christ. But, in our judgment, such a complaint rests upon a total mistake. If anything, M. Renan errs rather in attaching too much importance to statements contained in the Rabbinical writers. Far more light, we believe, is to be obtained as to the real state of the Jewish people in regard to both principles and practice at the commencement of our era, from the Greek literature contained in the apocryphal books of the Old Testament, and the works of Philo and Josephus, than from the later Hebrew writings of the Targums and the Talmuds. The former naturally gather round the New Testament, and serve in many ways to explain it; the latter are separated by a tremendous national convulsion, as well as by a considerable period of time, from the age of Christ and His apostles, and will, in many ways, prove most misleading, if trusted to for information as to the nature of that NO. LXXXVIII. K K |