1824.) 
‘i 
NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN SEPTEMBER: 
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Authors or Publishers, desirous of seeing an early Notice of their Works, are 
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——— 
Journal of a Residence in Ashantee. By 
JoserH Duruis, Esq. 4to. 
G REAT Britain seems to be particu- 
Bt larly unfortunate in its warlike transac- 
tions with uncivilized nations. In India, the 
matter is at best doubtful; at Algiers, we 
gained a victory that was marvellously like 
a defeat; and, at Ashantee, we have been 
fairly beaten out of the field, owing life and 
liberty to the mercy of a black conqueror. 
Our merchants, too, are Just as unsuccess- 
ful as our military: they lie and shuffle, and 
cringe and bluster; but neither brown nor 
black are any longer to be cajoled by them. 
The thing is incomprehensible ; but so it 
is;—and while a handful of Spaniards 
could subdue the powerful kingdoms of 
Peru and Mexico, the British forces are 
‘cut to pieces by a few thousand negroes, 
that can hardly comprehend the mechanism 
of a musket. 
But this work of Mr. Dupuis, who was 
sent by our government on a mission to 
Ashantee, in some measure explains’ the 
mystery ; for, if it does not shew us wherein 
the blacks were strong, it at least shews us 
wherein the whites were feeble. Such a 
scene of fraud, and yacillation, and pusilla- 
nimity, of eagerness to offend and slow- 
ness to resist, of appetite to gain power 
and inability to use it when gained, is 
scarcely to be matched éyen in our Indian 
annals ; and we well know what we hazard 
in the assertion. Without going all the 
Jengths with Mr. Dupuis, or supposing 
that the governor was actuated by any mo- 
tives of private interest, we can yet see 
more than it would be proper to set down 
with the present law of libel before our 
eyes. Every thing seems to have been con- 
ducted with the meanness, but not with the 
honesty, of the counting-house ; and the 
obstinacy, which provoked the contest, 
seemed to desert the British council at the 
only moment when obstinacy could be 
deemed a virtue. 
The single suspicious point in Mr. Du- 
puis’ narrative is when he turns from Eu- 
ropean vice to African virtue. We give 
him full credit for his picture of mercantile 
treachery ; but can hardly believe in the 
gentleness and magnanimity of his black 
monarch, who seems more like the hero of 
a novel than the ruler of a set of curly- 
headed savages. Bating his religious pro- 
ensity to sacrifice his subjects, and bating 
is ambition—a very orthodox virtue in a 
king—he seems to have been the~most 
amiable creature breathing —full of meek- 
ness and forbearance,—enough to have 
furnished out ten reasonable Christians. 
Monruty Mac. No. 40). 
Surely this picture must be somewhat oyer- 
charged. Savage or semicivilized life has, in- 
deed, its virtues; but meekness is not one 
of them. 
The second portion of the work is de- 
voted to the elucidation of the geography 
of Western Africa, and adds something, but 
not much, to our stock of knowledge on the 
subject. It is chiefly made up from the 
information of the Moslems, settled at 
Coomassie, whom Mr. Dupuis considers to be 
the best authority ; and, perhaps, they may 
be: but the best, then, is inadequate to the 
subject. In regard to the long-disputed 
course of the Niger, for instance, we are 
told, that “‘ the great flow of water is east- 
erly to the Egyptian Nile;” but of what 
value is this assertion, when he is after- 
wards obliged to add, that “none of his 
instructors had ever tracked its course be- 
yond the western limits of Bournou?” 
The fact is, these Moslems know as little 
of the interior of Africa, as a Londoner 
might be supposed to know of the High- 
lands in the time of Queen Elizabeth: if, 
indeed, they know so much, it would be 
surprizing. Knowledge of any kind must 
lie directly in a Moslem’s road; for he 
would not step an inch out of his way to 
pick it up, though it were the wisdom of 
Solomon. Founded on such authority, 
this part of the book must be used with 
great discretion, and no more believed 
than is actually proved: yet even then it 
will remain a work of great interest, and 
some substantial information. 
Topography of all the known Vineyards. — 
This is an exceedingly clever little volume, 
an abridged translation from the French, 
and one that cannot fail to interest at least 
three classes of readers: those who sel} 
wine, those who buy wine, and those who 
think that information is always worth 
something only as information. It con- 
tains a minute account of every sort of 
grape, where grown, how used, and of 
what qualities, not enly in France, but in 
every country throughout the four quarters 
of the globe, though the bulk of the work 
is certainly dedicated to French wines. It 
should seem that, until the appearance of 
this work, our neighbours knew little more 
about their own vineyards than we now do 
in England ; and a lower measure of know- 
ledge could not easily be found. We speak 
it in all the truth and fervour of unaffected 
epicurism—scarcely a wine comes up’ to 
our tables under its real name. A fine 
title will often satisfy the most experienced 
in such matters, 
21h 
We 
