that class. His portrait works are sometimes of a very high standard, and notably his figure of Lord Hardinge, which stands markedly at the head of British equestrian statues of any period.

It would be scant justice to our school, or to the non-academician artists whom it includes, if we failed to mention any from among them. We shall confine ourselves to naming one of whom great things may safely be expected, and who would do honour to any school

Mr. Woolner. This gentleman is at the present moment known chiefly by his portrait busts and medallions; but there are other capabilities in him of which he has already given very clear proofs, and which will doubtless some day appear in much more signal evidence. In portraiture, we are not acquainted with any works which, for consummate study and art, for life and power, can at all stand beside his. The labour which he expends upon his busts is out of all proportion to that of other men, but not out of proportion to the effect produced: it is labour of the brain as well as the hand; exquisite art as well as determined study and finish. His modelling of flesh in all its delicate niceties may well be termed perfect, and is indeed carried so far that nothing but the real intellect and fire of his work would suffice to sustain it. With less of these highest qualities in combination, it would be overfinish; these keep it in its place, and preserve it from transcending the bounds of true sculptural art. Given expression and character strong and fine enough to present a true reflex of what pertains to life itself a finish of modelling equally true stands rightly bestowed and harmonized, but on no other conditions. The marble busts of Rajah Brooke and Sir William Hooker, and of Mr. Tennyson and Professor Sedgwick, now in Trinity College, Cambridge, are eminent instances of these qualities,

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and rank certainly among the most remarkable works of modern sculpture; and to these we may add the bronze medallions of Carlyle, Tennyson, and Browning. heroic portraiture, Mr. Woolner has given us the Bacon of the Oxford Museum, and a design for a Wordsworth monument; the latter, a much earlier work, as dignified in sculptural arrangement as the

former is informed with intellect and meaning. The side-groups of the Wordsworth design are amply sufficient to indicate their sculptor's faculty of ideal invention; indeed, we could scarcely illustrate more aptly than from them the sense, or one of the senses, in which we understand the term. They are intended to exhibit the two dominant principles of the poet's mind: on one side, authority controlling impulse-a father subduing his refractory boy; on the other, reverence to God as the fruit of the contemplation of nature-a mother, in a gesture of awe and worship, directing upwards the thought of her daughter, who has brought her a flower. Among other works of Mr. Woolner already made public, we cannot forbear citing a statuette of 'Love'—a female figure of delightful grace and tenderness, classical in the right sense, without needing the aid of a mythological name; and the small figures in relief for the pulpit of Llandaff Cathedral— Moses, David, the Baptist, and St. Paul, each a distinctly original conception, not only of the personage himself, but of the form of art-embodiment.

Thinking of these works, of the varied range of power, always equal to the occasion, which they exhibit, and of the leadership which their author must naturally assume as time consolidates his mastery and his reputation, we close our summary review of British sculpture, not altogether unhopefully of the destinies which may await it even in our own generation.

W. M. ROSSETTI.

SINCE CE 1816, when Java, by the grace and favour of Great Britain, was restored to its traditionary masters the Dutch, we, notwithstanding our literary emissaries traverse every region of the globe, have had but little information respecting the doings and progress of the people who inhabit that tropical and fertile region. Reports, indeed, are annually presented by the Dutch Colonial Minister to the States-General, who, since the inauguration of the constitution of 1848, possess the right of inquiring into and regulating colonial matters; but as these reports are, as a matter of course, in the Dutch language, which is understood but by a very few persons out of Holland or the Dutch colonies, the information they afford does not obtain a very extensive circulation. They are, moreover, very dry reading, dealing mostly in statistics; and, being given grudgingly, merely to satisfy what official functionaries generally consider the meddling curiosity of the peoples' representatives, they reveal no attempt on the part of their compilers to enter into other details than those which are required by the express terms of the constitution. As far as they go, however, they are generally admitted to be honest and truthful, even though their compilers, in their attachment to a non-committal policy, adhere to only one of the conditions imposed on witnesses by British juries, to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But so long as we can get poetry out of a stone, we need not despair of getting interest out of statistics; and with this object in view, we purpose, in this and a subsequent article, giving to our

readers a résumé of the progress and present condition of Java, as detailed in recent official reports and non-official publications, as well as a coup d'ail of the colonial policy of our slow and steady neighbours, who, if they have ceased to be our rivals on the sea and our competitors in the marketplaces of the world, have of late years dragged their slow length along to competence and comfort, in that sure and easy way which generally escapes the attention of those go-ahead people who claim the English language for their birthright, and Saxon enterprise for their heirloom.

According to the Report for 1857, the total population of Java and Madura amounted to 11,594158 souls. This computation is independent of the inhabitants of the other Dutch possessions in the Indian Archipelago, which contain an aggregate population of something less than 6,000,000. We shall, however, in this article, confine our attention to Java and Madura, which, though divided by a narrow strait, may be considered as one territory, extending in their mean length to about 650, and in their mean breadth to about 100 English miles; so that its average population may be stated at about 180 to the square mile. In 1811, when the English took possession of Java in order to rescue that magnificent island from the hands of Napoleon, the census returns, which, however, were of a very imperfect character, gave a population of only 50 inhabitants to the square mile.

But if these returns were only an approximation to accuracy, the population of Java has become more than trebled in the course of the last half century.* The total increase of the population as com

pared with the returns of 1856, amounts to 303,708. Of the nearly 12,000,000 inhabitants of Java, the European settlers number only 20,331 (for the Dutch Government does not encourage the emigration of Europeans to its East Indian possessions); the Chinese, 138,356;* Arabians and other Orientals, 24,615; free natives 11,405,596 ; slaves, all of whom were manumitted by the Dutch Government in 1860, 5,260.

In 1815, according to the authority already quoted, there were upwards of 40,000 slaves in Java, a fact which proves that slavery could never have been a popular 'institution' in the island. For

many years, thanks in a great measure to the policy adopted by Sir Stamford Raffles, slave-dealing has been considered an unprofitable vocation, hence it has grown small by degrees and beautifully less,' and at last dwindled into nonentity. Abolitionists in Java were never indeed marked men-the intended victims of the revolver bullets or bowie knives of indignant slaveholders; nor were they ever frightened from their propriety by the threats of their non-abolitionist neighbours to rebel because they could not have everything exactly as they wished it. Slave-owners in Java have invariably manumitted their property' after a certain period of faithful servitude, or, by will, immediately after their death; and newspaper proprietors -for the fourth estate is creditably represented in Java, notwithstanding the vexatious burdens imposed upon it by the Home Government -have systematically refused to advertise slave auctions. We have

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read indeed some harrowing accounts of slave-dealing in Java, of infamous Chinese and Arabian Legrees; but such cases are so few and far between, that we are inclined to regard them as additional evidence to the abhorrence in which the very principle of slavery has always been held in Java. It is even said that the 5260 slaves last year emancipated by the Legislature of Holland, received the gift of freedom with a vague apprehension that what was intended for a boon might prove to be a calamity.

In the population estimates already given we have not included the Dutch army in India, which in 1857 amounted to 26,338 men, of whom 10,765 were Europeans, 437 Africans, and 15,036 Malays and Javanese. In consequence of recent disturbances in Java, influenced, there can be no doubt, by the happily suppressed revolts in British India,the army has since been considerably increased, especially in the European element. By the constitution of Holland, however, Dutch soldiers, at no time, we should say, judging from their appearance, very formidable defenders of their country's cause, cannot be sent otherwise than as volunteers to India; and their ambition for military distinction in that torrid region does not seem to be sufficient to induce the full complement of Dutch fighting men to enter the Indian service, from which it appears but a very few ever return. The Government has therefore been compelled to enlist mercenaries in its cause, and large numbers of needy vagabonds, of our own Crimean foreign-legion stamp, have entered its service;

ap

though from recent accounts it pears that they are more likely to encourage disaffection in the army than to suppress revolt.

The native chieftains or princes in Java, who are supported by the Dutch Government during good behaviour, and whose united salaries or subsidies amounted in 1857 to 1,834,070 guilders, number 106,105; they would therefore seem to be as plentiful as pretty girls in England, or smoke-dried barons in Germany. The Dutch Government, it may be inferred, is compelled, as a matter of expediency, to support these miserable and superstitious tyrants in the exercise of their little brief authority upon the subject race, and to connive at their cruelties, for which the gallows would be their fitting reward, in order not to provoke their hostility. In the same way certain heathens are said to prostrate themselves before the shrine of the devil, not for any love or reverence they bear him, but in order that he may become their friend and do them no harm.

The native priests, who seem to be about as learned as are the fiveguinea philological doctors of the University of Giessen, who swarm now in such prolific numbers in our English educational' establishments, number 56,993. The official report merely records their numbers; for their doings we have had to refer to other authorities, and shall deal further with them in our second article. From the evidence before us, we may observe in passing, they appear to be an ignorant and grossly superstitious class of dull-headed, dirty, lying, lazy scoundrels, more fit to hang from the gallows than to serve at the altar, but whom, nevertheless, the Dutch Government finds it expedient to propitiate, by forbidding any interference with them on the part of Christian missionaries in

the exercise of their revolting rites and degrading ceremonies.*

The commercial statistics of this magnificent colony are very encouraging, and prove that the Dutch have found in Java that desired stone for which philosophers have for ages sought in vain-that which turns all that it touches into gold. In 1857 the imports represented a total value of 63,624,569 guilders, and the exports of 105,923,884 guilders. In 1848 the imports and exports amounted only to about half these totals. As the country is inhabited by mixed races from all parts of the world, so its commercial transactions extend to almost every portion of the habitable globe. Its most important customers, however, are Holland, England, China and Japan, whose imports were respectively 12,526,800 guilders, 8,121,808 guilders, 1,851,049 guilders, and 1,951,461 guilders. In the export statistics Holland is down for 75,954,705 guilders; England for 831,451 guilders; China for 4,975,672, and Japan for 908,859 guilders. According to a supplementary estimate in 1858, Holland imported from Java produce to the amount of 75,183,800 guilders, and in 1859 to the amount of 80,046,800 guilders; whilst for the same years the importations into England from Java are estimated respectively at 756,400 guilders, and 3,003,900 guilders.

It must be borne in mind that a very large proportion of the trade with Java is in the hands of the Dutch Government, represented in its commercial transactions by the Dutch Trading Company, whose history we shall record in a subsequent portion of this article. In order to give our readers an idea of the importance of this portion of the trade with Java, we submit to their attention the following tabular statement of the total value of

1855

1856 1857

40,292,694 44,280,603 63,775,347 47,981,860

For Private Account.

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this statement we have retained the Dutch currency, but our readers can obtain the value of the present equivalent in English currency by dividing by twelve and adding two per cent. to the total :

EXPORTS.

Total Value.

Guilders. 53,064,476 61, 196,697

59,106,866

For Private Account. Guilders. 18,605,322

Guilders.

20,691,754

1848

23,704, 184

24,030,856

73,789,056 25,828,055

58,846,897 71,692,956 74,385,420 84, 112,397

105,726,122

57,305,826 36,671,907 63,624,569 38,638,028

We may here add, that the trade between the United States of America and Java has of late years increased to a very considerable extent.

The principal item in the list of articles imported into Java is cotton goods from Europe and America, representing a value of 12,602,000 guilders. Before the separation of Belgium from Holland, Java, whose trade was then but in its infancy, proved an excellent market for Belgian manufactures, which of course are now subject to the same duties that are imposed on the superior and cheaper articles of British manufacture. The cotton and other manufacturers of Belgium indeed now deeply regret the obstinacy of 1830-as South Carolina and her sisters in revolt may hereafter regret the obstinacy of 1861-and 'cast a longing, lingering look behind' on the profits which that obstinacy has diverted from

1856 1857

23,687,623 28,083,514 32,648,581

34, 261, 41,369,978

1,962

105,923,884 48,529, 311

their own exchequer to flow into that of English and Dutch manufacturers. For though the Dutch are generally known only as a maritime and commercial people, who have plodded their way to wealth and comfort through, it must be admitted, a not very sweet-savoured slough, yet be it known that a manufacturing interest has of late years been developed in Holland, and that Dutch manufacturers are 'rapidly multiplying in wealth and numbers. The Dutch Government has found it expedient to fix the import duties in Java at what we think a very high scale; but only 50 per cent. of these duties are levied on goods imported with a certificate of Dutch origin. course, so long as Belgium constituted an integral portion of the kingdom of the Netherlands, her manufactures were admitted into Java on payment of the duties levied on goods accompanied with

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