A PLEASING CONTRAST. In some of the British colonies the encouragement which is now afforded to education might be usefully copied by the mother country. In the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, out of an estimated revenue for 1846 of 178,500l., the sum of 77007. is set apart for the purposes of education. If a similar proportion of the revenue of the United Kingdom were devoted to education, the sum would amount to 2,500,000%. The government at the Cape is active in supporting good schools on a plan which Sir John Herschel suggested during his residence at Cape Town a few years ago. There are twenty-one "first-class government schools," in five of which the salary of the master is 2007. a-year; in three the salary is 1507.; in nine, from 1007. to 1307; and in four the salary is under 1007. There are twenty-three "government schools" of the second class, and grants are made to thirty-three other schools, which are chiefly supported by various religious denominations. A normal school and an infant model school are established at Cape Town. The South African College, an institution for superior instruction, is aided by a grant of 4007. In order that the school system may be preserved in an efficient state, there is an inspector-general of schools, with a salary of 5007., and allowances for travelling expenses, &c. We have received private accounts from Cape Town, which state that the results of the improved system of education are already highly gratifying. The asperities which once existed between the colonists of Dutch and English origin are fast wearing out. The Dutch colonists of the old school would not have allowed the younger branches of their families to read English books, but this is no longer the case. The correspondent to whom we are indebted for this information writes for a supply of the 'Rules for the Formation of Book-Clubs,' which were circulated with the early numbers of 'Knight's Weekly Volume.' At Cape Town there are now nine printing-offices, seven booksellers shops, and there are seven newspapers regularly published. Let us contrast this with the state of things in the same colony rather more than twenty years ago. At the time of which we speak (February, 1823), the governor endeavoured to prevent the establishment of a newspaper by the late Mr. T. Pringle and Mr. Fairbairn, and it was not published until permission was obtained from the Colonial Office at home. Former attempts to establish a newspaper had been quashed without ceremony. Mr. Pringle and Mr. Fairbairn conducted their journal with scrupulous care. They avoided mere party politics, and shunned topics on which they felt strongly, but which were likely to excite violent controversy. They were aware that a free press was obnoxious to the governor; but four months elapsed before the slightest complaint could be openly urged against its conductors. The governor, however, having been compelled to prosecute a desperate adventurer for libel, became anxious to prevent the case being reported; and the fiscal, an official now happily extinct, was instructed to assume the censorship of the press. This was a species of tyranny to which neither Mr. Pringle, Mr. Fairbairn, nor Mr. Greig, the printer of the paper, could submit, and the newspaper was in consequence immediately discontinued. The governor next issued a warrant for sealing up Mr. Greig's press, and he was required by the same authority to leave the colony within a month. Mr. Pringle and Mr. Fairbairn were also the conductors of a monthly magazine as well as a newspaper; and the fiscal sent for the former of these gentlemen, and required from him a pledge" that nothing "obnoxious or offensive to government" should be inserted. He was pressed in vain to show by what law he assumed the right of restricting the legal privileges of the press; and as it was quite impossible even to conjecture what 66 might be deemed "obnoxious" by the government, and as the right of censorship could not be recognised by the conductors of the magazine, its publication was discontinued. This was not exactly the object of the authorities. They, or rather the governor, wished a press still to exist, but deprived of all freedom. Mr. Pringle was, therefore, sent for by the governor and soundly rated, in the hope of intimidating him; and as this process was not successful, coaxing was tried; but neither threats nor cajolery had the desired effect, and, as already stated, the magazine was discontinued. Next, a school which Mr. Pringle and Mr. Fairbairn conducted, and which had been very successful, was destroyed by the personal influence of the governor. The scholars were withdrawn one by one from fear of offending a man who was armed with almost despotic authority. The same gentlemen had also been active in promoting the formation of a literary and scientific society, and several of the most eminent of the government officials had co-operated with them. The conduct of existing governments, or the politics of the day, and the question of slavery, were to have been prohibited as topics of discussion. The society would have confined its attention to natural history, horticulture, agriculture, and other scientific subjects; but the establishment of a school or a literary and scientific institution were offences when the same parties, had also been instrumental in establishing a free press; and Mr. Pringle and his friends were summoned before the fiscal, and charged with holding "illegal meetings." A proclamation was read to them which had been issued in 1800, during the first occupation of the colony, and which was directed against Jacobin Clubs; and the projectors of the literary and scientific society were told that this proclamation would be put in force against them if they ventured to hold further meetings! Mr. Pringle describes the state of things which ensued as the Cape "Reign of Terror." "A frightful system of espionage pervaded every circle of society and rendered perilous even the confidence of the domestic hearth.. Mutual confidence was shaken; distrust, apprehension, and gloom everywhere prevailed; and men, according to their several characters and circumstances, were perturbed by angry excitement or prostrated by slavish fear." Now, which system was best calculated to ensure the well-being and happiness of the community? The one in which the right of men to express their opinions through a free press was arbitrarily destroyed, a useful school was broken up by official tyranny, and a liberal institution for extending knowledge and creating a taste for literature and science was suppressed, or the system which now exists, when exactly the opposite policy is pursued? It is unnecessary to reply to such a question. SHAKSPERIANA. 1596, was Mohammed, who put to death all his brothers; and it has been thought that Shakspere makes his Henry V. allude to this circumstance. A gentleman well acquainted with Turkish history and literature has pointed out to us that Amurath, in Greek Auvpas, is Emeer, the Greek v being pronounced as ee. In old books the Sultan is sometimes called "the Amyrath;" and the style of Mohammed II. in the Greek version of his treaty with the Genoese of Galata is, "I, the great Effendi and great Emeer (Auvpas), and son of Mourad Bey" (Movpar). We thus find Amurath in the same sentence as distinct from Murad. immense strength, that he was known far and wide as the strong Peter, so that the people kept a hundred yards away from him when he was angry; for when angry he was angry indeed, and could then, usually, do nothing in moderation. This bailiff of Dimmelshusen had a favourite by-word, which he often used, and which in his family and kindred was very old; for honest villagers are accustomed to adhere to certain words, sayings, and proverbs, as noblemen to their banners and shields, and to feel a pride in their age. This word was thorough, and after this word, because he had it so oft in his mouth, many people called him also Peter Thorough, which he used to take very pleasantly. There was also a superstition connected with the word, which for centuries had continued in the family of the Avenstakens. They believed, namely, that the one of their children which first uttered this word would be the ablest and most fortunate, and the parents therefore listened and attended to this very early. This word had its origin in an old adventure which had happened to the founder of their race, who had first settled near Minden. He was a journeyman shoemaker, named Klaus, born at Corbach in Waldeck. One day as he, on his travels, with one of his companions, was going through the great wood along the Weser to Minden, a raging wolf came upon him. His companion tarried not the onset, but ran and clambered into a tree; but Klaus remained firm with foot and eye, grasped his stick, and waited for the wolf; and as he came on, drove the stick into his open jaws so powerfully that it went right through the animal, and he was stretched out dead before him. His companion now rejoined him, but Klaus cudgelled him away as a cowardly and pitiful fellow, and proceeded with two colliers, who had also seen the adventure, on his way through the wood, and passed the night at the next village. He had flayed the wolf, and bore this splendid sign of victory upon his stick, in order to sell it to a furrier in the next town. When Klaus had arrived in the village inn, the colliers related his combat with the wolf, and all the peasants, and labourers, and maidens ran together in order to see the young shoemaker who had killed the wolf with his stick, as King David had slain Goliath with a little stone. And they wondered much, for the youth did not look so powerful, though he was very strong; and they would also see and feel the stick, though the girls touched it not without terror. It was, indeed, merely a common thornstick which a baker in Corbach had given to the young Klaus on his setting out on his travels, the point being somewhat burned, because the baker had occasionally used it to stir the coals in his oven. So much the more was he praised by the people, and they were also pleased with the bold answer which he gave to the bailiff who inquired how he managed to conquer the wolf-whether he had done it with the stick alone, or had not had the assistance of his shoemaker's awl? For Klaus answered him shortly :-"Mr. Bailiff, with a little courage one may manage well enough, and thus has this oven-stake gone thorough the wolf, and not even inquired whether there was a thoroughfare." The bailiff felt offended, and grumbled, but the others kept him silent; for Klaus had won all their good opinions by his free, manly bearing, and particularly those of the handsome young women, who vied with each other in bringing him apples, nuts, and cakes, and later in the evening, when the dancing began in the village beer-house, would themselves. have invited him to dance; and had they not been ashamed to do so before all the people, some would have had much pleasure in caressing and kissing him. This, however, did not happen, and Klaus himself was very shy, for this was his first journey, and, indeed, the first time that he had been away from home. The following morning, as soon as the sun rose, Klaus took his stick and his wolf-skin, and came to Minden, and found work with a master, and remained there. Yet it was fortunate for him that he had called at the village inn with the colliers, for a young and handsome farmer's daughter had become so enamoured of him, that day and night she saw and dreamt of nothing but the young journeyman shoemaker Klaus, so that through love she began to pine away, and could not live without him. Her parents sought to dissuade her from this; but love, when it is honest and real, is, as is said, the most incurable of all diseases. They were forced, therefore, if they would preserve their daughter, to accede to her wishes, and went themselves to Minden to search for Klaus of Corbach, whom every one already knew from his adventure with the wolf; and they brought the brave young man to their daughter, who was their only child, that he might take her for his wife, and save her from death. Klaus needed but little entreaty, for the young and handsome girl had charmed him; and he removed to the village, laid aside awl and hammer, took to the plough and spade, and lived like an honest farmer, and after some years became bailiff in the place of him who had murmured at his reply. From his stick all the world called him Klaus Avenstaken.* He himself still used the word that others adopted from him, thorough; for they used to say of him, "Thorough, says Klaus Avenstaken;" and his grandchildren and greatgrandchildren continued it after him, considering it as a good word that indicated courage and prosperity. To Peter of Dimmelshusen his wife, Margaret Tibbeke, had already borne many sons and daughters; and she had often proposed to her husband that he should have one of his sons baptized with the name of the great man of the family— Klaus; but he had always refused, and given other names to the boys. Now it happened that another son was born, and this one Peter violently insisted on having called Klaus. Margaret contended against this, for she and the rest of the family desired its name to be John, because it had come into the world on St. John's eve. She also said, while she looked at the infant in the cradle, "See, husband, how mild and quiet the little one looks; that will never in this world become a Klaus, to fight with a wolf." But Peter answered, "Kickle-cackle, even for that reason shall he be called Klaus; the pious have been ever the truest heroes, and those who look like iron-eaters can often * Avenstaken is a provincialism for ovenstick-ofen-stock. not bite a straw in two." In short, neither begging nor praying, nor howling nor scolding, was of any use to Margaret. Peter was this time immoveable, and said," "Even because he has been born on St. John's eve, on so great a festival, he shall be called Klaus, and I will bet that he will become an able man.' With these words he took his cap from the wall, and set it somewhat on one side on his head, as was his custom when angry, and went out, without heeding the cries of his wife and the aunts and the godmothers behind him. And the priest must baptize the child Klaus. And the little Klaus did credit to his name: he took the breast undauntedly, and seemed to relish it highly; cut his first tooth in the second month, and in the fourth month had already six teeth, and enjoyed with them all sorts of victuals and drink; before the ninth month could stand on his feet, and looked boldly to heaven. Then Peter, his father, took him by the arms, smiled with inward pleasure, and holding him towards his wife, said, See, Margaret, what a Klaus!" Margaret, however, half wickedly and half good-naturedly, replied, Your Klaus is not yet over all his dangers: I still wish he had been called John.” Peter set the child down again upon the floor, looked vexed, and went silently and crabbedly out of the house. Such little quarrels about the boy often happened between the pair, who otherwise lovedeach other sincerely. These quarrels however had no ill effect on little Klaus, who grew rapidly, was broad across the shoulders and the chest, and could throw in wrestling every boy of his age, or even those a year older. Thus in eating and drinking, sleeping and playing, he became five years old. His father now placed him in spring and summer to herd the geese, and in the winter sent him to school, to learn to pray, and his A B C. In his seventh year he advanced him to be swineherd; and in his ninth year he had to look after the oxen and horses. All these offices he filled steadily and cleverly, so that his father was much pleased. The only cause of complaint arose from the bruises which he administered to the neighbours' chil |