FRANCIS PULSZKY.
Francis Pulszky, de Lubocz and Cselfalva, was born in 1814, at Eperies, in the county of Sáros. He is of an ancient and distinguished Protestant family. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, all held the office of Inspector of the Protestant College at Eperies; an office to which Mr. Pulszky was himself appointed in 1840. His grandfather on the mother's side was Fejèrváry, the Hungarian archæologist, whose valuable collection has been incorporated with the National Library at Pesth. After completing his college education, Mr. Pulszky visited Italy. While in Rome he was made Fellow of the Archæological Institute of that city. In 1834 he returned to his country, and attended the sittings of the Diet, at Presburg, as Jurat. In 1835 he established, in conjunction with Vukovics and Lovassy, the Debating Club which afterwards became the object of the persecution of the Austrian Government. He formed, at this time, a friendship with Kolcsey, the poet, with Deák, the celebrated jurist, and with Kossuth.
In 1836, Mr. Pulszky once more quitted Hungary to travel through Germany, France and England, in order to enlarge his experience by observation of the manners and institutions of foreign countries, and thus qualify himself to render more effectual service to his own. On his return in 1837, he published an account of England, written in German, which gained him a wide reputation. Soon after his return he was elected a Fellow of the Hungarian Academy. During his absence from Hungary his friend Lovassy, a young man highly distinguished for his brilliant genius, and for the nobleness of his character, together with some other members of the Debating Club, were subjected by the Austrian Government to an imprisonment, under the rigors of which the intellect of Lovassy was completely shattered. His release found him in a state bordering on idiocy, in which he has ever since continued.
In 1839, Mr. Pulszky was sent as deputy to the Diet from his native county of Sáros. In this Diet, the framing of a commercial code was proposed. Mr. Pulszky was on the Committee appointed to consider this subject. He was likewise a member of the Committee appointed for the codification of the criminal law. After the close of the Diet, Mr. Pulszky repaired to Heidelberg, to study more fully the subject of the criminal law with the celebrated Mittermaier. The committee intrusted with the work of the codification of the criminal law of Hungary, closed its labors in 1843. Mr. Pulszky did not offer himself as a candidate for re-election to the Diet. In Hungary, the deputies to the Diet are obliged to vote in conformity with the instructions of their constituents. The county of Sáros, which Mr. Pulszky had represented, was a conservative county; and as his principles allied him with the liberal party, he thus often found himself placed in a false position. He therefore devoted himself to serving the cause of reform in Hungary, by his pen. He wrote constantly for the Pesti Hirlap, the journal edited by Kossuth. The character of this journal, and the objects of its editor, are thus described by Szilagyi, a political opponent, in a work published at Pesth in 1850; "In 1841 a strange thing happened. He [Kossuth] who had been imprisoned for editing a journal, came out on the 1st of January of that year as editor of the Pesti Hirlap. The first number of this paper betrayed that it was the organ of the Opposition, and in a short time it had obtained a reputation which could hardly have been expected. In reality Kossuth conducted the editorship with much ability. His leading articles, the stereotyped publications of the wishes of his heart, scourged the abuses which existed in the counties and in the cities. The aim of these articles was to raise the importance of the burgher class, to overthrow the privileges of the nobility—in a word, first, Reform, secondly Reform—a hundred times, Reform."
In 1848, after the Revolutions of Paris and Vienna, while the ministerial question yet remained to be settled in Hungary, Mr. Pulszky was sent to Pesth, together with Klauzal and Szemere, by the Archduke Stephen, the Palatine of Hungary, to take suitable measures for the maintenance of order. Some disturbances having broken out at Stuhlweissenburg, Mr. Pulszky went thither to quell them. He was recommended to take a military force with him, but he refused, confiding in the power of reason and eloquence. The result showed that he was not mistaken. He addressed the people with energy, and the disturbances were appeased without the necessity of a resort to force. In May, 1848, Mr. Pulszky was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Vienna. On the 5th of October of the same year, when the Austrian government no longer felt it necessary to observe any appearances in regard to Hungary; and when war had been virtually declared against that country by the Imperial proclamation of Oct. 3rd, which appointed Jellachich Royal Commissary in Hungary, with full powers civil and military, Mr. Pulszky was dismissed from his office.
Mr. Pulszky was with Kossuth at the battle of Schwechat, where he acted as aid to the Hungarian commander, General Moga. He returned with Kossuth to Pesth, where he was appointed a member of the Committee of Defence, and was made Minister of Commerce. In December, 1848, he was sent as accredited Envoy to England, to advocate the interests of Hungary in that country. Speaking of his appointment to this office, Schlesinger, the able and impartial historian of the Hungarian War, says: "Kossuth could not have found a more active, able, and competent man in Hungary for the post. All that a man could do Pulszky did. Pulszky possesses the acuteness of a civilian, a penetrating intellect, readiness of conception, inexhaustible powers of invention, and withal, indefatigable activity, great knowledge of business, and a healthy and sober spirit, which is not easily carried away by sanguine hopes." After a perilous journey through Gallicia, Mr. Pulszky reached France, spent a short time in Paris, and arrived in England early in March, 1849, where he has since remained until the time of his embarkation for the United States. During his residence in England, Mr. Pulszky has served the cause of his country with equal zeal and ability. His character and his talents have obtained for him a great influence there. He enjoys the personal friendship of many of the most eminent men of England; and it is in a great degree to be ascribed to his exertions, that the merits of the Hungarian cause are so well apprehended by a large portion of the British public.
Of the literary labors of Mr. Pulszky and of his wife, who accompanies him in this country, the Transcript gives the following account, which, though incomplete, is sufficiently accurate, so far as it goes: "Mr. Pulszky is distinguished not only as a statesman and a diplomatist, but as an author. Early in life he acquired a high reputation in his own country, and in Germany, by various political, archæological and philological writings. He wrote in German in a singularly pure and forcible style. For the last two or three years he has resided in London, where he has published several works in English, written in good style, and exhibiting a rare combination of practical intellect and creative imagination." He is a novelist as well as the historian and vindicator of his country. The most elaborate production of his pen, in English, is a novel in two volumes, 'The Jacobins in Hungary,' published last spring. The London Examiner concludes its notice of this work, by saying, "In a word, 'The Jacobins in Hungary' is a remarkably well told tale, which will please all readers by the skill and pathos of its narrative, and surprise many by its fairness and impartiality of tone to opinions as well as men. But the majority of intelligent Englishmen have not now to learn, that the closest parallel for a Hungarian rebel of the nineteenth century, would be an English rebel of the seventeenth; and they will not feel or express astonishment that what falls from Mr. Pulszky on any question of society or government, might with equal propriety for its sobriety and moderation of tone, have fallen from Lord Somers or Mr. Pym."
The English translation of Schlesinger's War in Hungary was edited by Mr. Pulszky, who prefaced it with a long and well-written historical introduction, and added to it a masterly sketch of the life and character of Görgey, who had been his school-fellow, and with whose whole career he was intimately acquainted. The estate of the Görgey family was in fact situated at no great distance from that of Mr. Pulszky, who was also an intimate friend of the traitor's brother.
To the "Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady" by Theresa Pulszky, his wife, Mr. Pulszky prefixed a most valuable Introduction, containing the best history of Hungary which we have yet seen in English. It is a clear and concise sketch of the annals of the nation, from the earliest period to the year 1848, occupying about 100 pages of the American edition of the Memoirs. Madame Pulszky, the heroine and author of these interesting memoirs, is, we believe, a native of Vienna, where, in 1845, she was married to Mr. Pulszky. She was residing on their estates in Hungary, about 60 miles from Pesth, when the war broke out; and the Memoirs are principally devoted to a narrative of her sufferings and adventures in that exciting and perilous time. They contain, besides, many graphic descriptions of life and manners in Hungary, and a good historical narrative of the Revolution and the war.
Besides the Memoirs, Madame Pulszky has published in English, a volume of Tales and Traditions of Hungary, which we have not seen, but of which highly favorable notices have appeared in the Examiner and other English journals. She is not only a brilliant and powerful writer, but a most lovely and accomplished lady, as we learn from very reliable sources in Europe. Her talents and acquirements are said to be quite extraordinary. In England her husband and herself enjoyed the highest consideration, both in point of character and ability.
It may be remarked, in addition to this, that the Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady (Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1850) give a full account of Mr. Pulszky's career during the war and the revolution, and in chapters II. and III. a minute and most interesting sketch of his estates and tenantry. His novel, the Jacobins in Hungary, is understood to be written with constant reference to the recent history of his country, though the events on which it is founded occurred sixty years ago.
Authors and Books.
Henry Heine's long-promised Romanzero has at last appeared in Germany, where the first edition has been greedily snapped up. It is a collection of poems of various name and nature, all after the true Heinian vein. The great curiosity of the book is the preface in which the "dying Aristophanes" discourses on his alleged conversion to religion, in a strain which settles the question, so much discussed for the past two or three years, whether such a conversion has actually taken place or not. He declares that he has "returned to God, like the profligate son, after having long kept swine among the Hegelians. Was it suffering that drove me back? Perhaps a less miserable reason. The celestial home-sickness came over me, and urged me forth through woods and ravines, over the dizziest mountain paths of dialectics. On my way I found the God of the Pantheists, but could not use him." Afterwards he says, that while in politics his views have not changed, in theology he has gone back to belief in a personal divinity. But he denies the report that he has joined any church. "No," he says, "my religions convictions and views remain free from all ecclesiasticism; no bell-ring has seduced me, no altar-candle blinded me. I have played with no symbols, nor altogether renounced my reason. I have sworn off from nothing, not even my old heathen gods, from whom I have indeed parted, but in all love and friendship. It was in May, 1848, the day when I last went out, that I took leave of the gracious idols I had worshipped in the days of my happiness. It was with difficulty that I dragged myself to the Louvre, and I almost fainted as I entered the lofty hall where the blessed goddess of beauty, our dear Lady of Milo, stands on her pedestal. I lay long at her feet, and wept so vehemently that a stone must have been filled with pity. The goddess, too, looked down piteously, as if to say, 'Seest thou not that I have no arms, and cannot help thee?'" It seems evident from this, that whatever change has happened in Heine's notions, there is no vital piety in his heart, but he is the same heathen as ever. The Romanzero is divided into three parts—Histories, Lamentations, and Hebrew Melodies. The former are like the ballads he has before published, except that many of them go farther in the way of indecency, while many others are charming conceits, which are sure of long popularity. The Lamentations are more expressive of the personal state of mind and experience of the author. The Hebrew Melodies are the best of all, and betray a profound affection for the Jewish race and history, which he vainly seeks to hide with sneering and scoffs, and which proclaims him a genuine son of Abraham as well as of the nineteenth century. For the rest, the reader of this book will be reminded of the sharp saying of Gutzkow about Heine: "He is a writer who tries to disguise spoiled meat with a sauce piquante." Heine has also published "Doctor Faust, a Dance Poem, with curious information about the Devil, Witches and Poetic Art." This is intended to serve as the ground-work of a ballet and presents the great problems of existence in the form of a jest and a paradox. It was written for Lumley, the London manager, but his ballet-master declared the performance of it impossible.
The Grenzboten contains a paper on German Romanticism, by Dr. Julian Schmidt, written for the purpose of defeating the last attempts which the romantic school of German writers is making to regain its former ascendency. Baron Eichendorff, almost the last of the old school, has lately brought out a pamphlet for that purpose. It has found a full contradiction in Dr. Schmidt's essay, one which will doubtless be satisfactory to all but the Baron himself.
We cannot too much commend a metrical German translation of the heroic Sagas (Heldensagen) of Firdusi, the chief of Persian poets. It is due to the learning and taste, we might even say the genius, of Herr von Schock, and has lately been published at Berlin. Those who recollect the delicious illustrations which our Emerson has dug out of this old mine of Persian poetry, to adorn some of his more recent lectures with, can need no additional inducement to seek the acquaintance of this book. It contains ten distinct sagas, with an introduction by the translator.
A work bearing a somewhat attractive title has recently been published for Fred Burau, by Brockhaus, of Leipzig, entitled The Secret History of Enigmatic Men, a Collection of Forgotten Notabilities. Among the "odd ones" cited, are the Countess of Rochlitz, Dankelmann and Wartenberg, natural children of the last Stuarts, and of Danish Kings, Count Lewenhaupt, Lord Peterborough, the Duke of Ormond, Frederic Augustus the First, John Lilburne, W. Ludwig Weckerlin, and various other characters, too numerous to mention. We noticed this work while it was in course of preparation last year.
A singular historical concert was given at Dresden, in November. It was made up of works of distinguished Electoral and Royal Saxon Capellmeisters, in chronological order. First appeared John Walther, the friend of Luther, and the original master of Protestant Church music. Next, Heinrich Schutz, the author of the first German opera. The Italians, Lotti and Porpora, and Hasse (who composed in Italian style), represented the golden period of the Electoral Court in the past half of the eighteenth century. Naumann marked the transition to modern German music, while the most recent schools were represented by Morlacchi, Reissiger, Weber, and Richard Wagner.
The Michaelmas Fair of this year at Leipzig, is, according to its catalogue, as rich as ever in literary wares. From the Spring Fair up to September 30, there appeared in Germany 3,860 new books, and 1,130 more are now in press. Of those published, 106 were on Protestant, and 62 on Catholic theology; 36 on philosophy; 205, history and biography; 102 on linguistic subjects; 194, natural sciences; 168, military sciences; 83, commerce and industry; 87, agriculture and the management of forests; 69, public instruction; 92, classical philology; 80, living languages; 64, theory of music and the arts of design; 168, fine arts in general; 48, books for the people; 28, scientific miscellanies; bibliography, 18.
A History of Music in Italy, Germany, and France, from the beginning of Christianity to the present day, has been published in Germany, from the pen of Philip Brendel. It is not to be commended. It is not a real history, such as indeed is greatly to be desired, but a collection of sentimentalities and fancies, For instance, in speaking of Beethoven, the author compares him with Schiller in respect to the substance of his works, but says that in respect to his artistic form, he far excels that poet, and even rises to the level of Jean Paul. This may do for transcendental young people, but it is nonsense to all who like common sense and real information.
About a year since, a society was formed in Germany for the publication of the works of Bach, the great composer for the organ. Three hundred and fifty subscribers were obtained, each paying five Prussian Thalers ($3.50), a-year, for which he receives a copy of the issues of the society. They are not sold to music dealers, and are not intended for the general market. Of the subscribers, six are in Paris, twenty-three in London, ten in Russia, thirteen in Austria, but we see none from the United States. The first publication was to appear in December. It will contain ten cantatas not before published.
On the death of the great philologist Lachmann Jacob Grimm, for many years his co-laborer and friend, was appointed to deliver an oration before the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, which was done on the 3d of July last. This speech, recently published, is said to be highly interesting, as giving the characteristics of both the eulogist and the deceased, each of them men whose names will henceforth be inseparably allied in the history of German learning.
A biography of Lachmann has been published at Berlin; it is by William Hertz, and will interest those who care to look at the quiet but most industrious life of a great scholar.
A Sketch of Jona. Edwards and his Works, has been published in German at Leipsig.
Dr. Andree, whose work on America we lately noticed, has commenced at Bremen a periodical called Das Westland, devoted exclusively to the diffusion of information respecting the new world. The idea is an excellent one, especially in view of the great numbers of Germans who are already established on this side the Atlantic, and the still greater numbers that desire to come here. No man in Europe is so well fitted as Dr. Andree to conduct such a work. The first number, which we have received, contains articles on the Lopez Expedition, the Southern States of the American Union in their relation to the North, Traditions of the North American Indians, the navigation of the La Plata system of Rivers, the Welland Canal, &c. Sold in New-York by Westerman Brothers, 240 Broadway.
The Gotha Almanac is an indispensable book for those who follow the history and look after the statistics of the royal families and governments of Europe. It contains perfect genealogical lists of the former, and tables of the diplomatic corps, the debt, the revenues, the expenses, the commercial system, the military and naval forces, the population, ecclesiastical organization, &c., of the latter. In no other manual is so much information of the sort condensed into so brief and convenient a form. The governments and statistics of the new world are also included. The portraits given for 1852, are Prince Adalbert of Prussia, Crown Prince Charles of Sweden, Count Leo Thun, Lord Palmerston, Prince Wolkonski, and Cardinal Schwarzenberg. This is the eighty-ninth year of the publication.
One of the best evidences of the value of Humboldt's Kosmos, is the vast number of popular treatises on various branches of science to which it has given rise in Germany, and which must exert a powerful influence in the formation of the growing age. A more solid and extensive undertaking is an Atlas intended to illustrate the entire original work. It is by Traugott Brouve, and will contain forty-two plates with explanatory text. The cost will be $4,50 in Germany. The first part has appeared at Stuttgardt, and is praised as worthy of the great work it illustrates.
Of Auerbach's Dorfgeschichten (Village Stories), 25,000 copies have been sold in Germany. He has just published a three-volume novel called Neues Leben (New Life).
A new religious and philosophical novel is Das Pfarrhaus zu Hallungen (The Parsonage at Hallungen), by Ludwig Storch. It is said to be full of exciting interest, but we confess that we have not read it, and do not mean to. Our taste is for novels of less elaborate purpose.
We give our tribute of commendation to the Haus-Chronik (House Chronicles), which Caspar Braun and Frederick Schneider are now publishing at Munich. These gentlemen are well known to all readers of that excellent comic paper, the Fliegende Blätter, and here appeal to all who can enjoy humor and have a taste for studies in the history of German life in the middle ages.
Mugge, whose romance on Toussaint L'Ouverture was translated by the Rev. Dr. Furness, of Philadelphia, has published at Leipzig the third volume of his annual Vielliebchen (My Darling). It contains two tales and several poems, and is illustrated with seven steel engravings. It is worthy of notice that this word Vielliebchen is the original of our mysterious Filopine.
M. Pulszky, who is now in this country in the suite of Kossuth, has just published a historical romance at Berlin called Die Jakobiner in Ungarn (The Jacobines in Hungary). It is in two volumes, and meets a favorable reception from the critics, and we doubt not, from the public also. It fared equally well when it was published in English at London some time since.
The Middle Kingdom, of our countryman, Mr. S. Wells Williams, is the subject of a most favorable notice in the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung. Of this careful and very comprehensive work—the most elaborate and reliable that has ever appeared in the English language respecting China and the Chinese—Mr. Wiley has just published a new edition.
The public are solemnly warned in a number of the Leipzig Central Blatt, against a lately published work, entitled Tabula Geographica Italiæ Antiquæ, as swarming with errors. Divers towns are cited therein, at different times under different names, and as standing in different places, while the names themselves are declared to be sadly corrupted.
Prof. Neumann, of Munich, will publish in the course of a year, a History of the British Empire in India, on which he has been long engaged. It will be as thorough and able as it is impartial, and in Germany is expected with great interest. The author proposes also to write the History of Russian domination in Asia.
In noticing the poems lately published by Goethe's nephew (mentioned in the last International), a German reviewer remarks, that the reverence which he (the reviewer), bears for the name of the uncle, "forbids any illusion to the book in question."
Adolf Stahr is publishing at Berlin a second edition of his History of the Russian Revolution; it is dedicated to Macauley.
The celebrated Countess Ida Hahn-Hahn who was formerly as thorough an infidel as any member of the Worcester Women's Rights Convention, and as indecently licentious in her novels as the author of Alban, is thus described in a late number of the Weser Zeitung:
"Daily, about noon, the loungers under the Linden at Berlin are startled by the extraordinary appearance of a tall, lanky woman, whose thin limbs are wrapped up in a long black robe of coarse cloth. An old crumpled bonnet covers her head, which continually moving turns restlessly in all directions. Her hollow cheeks are flushed with a morbid coppery glow; one of her eyes is immovable, for it is of glass, but her other eye shines with a feverish brilliancy, and a strange and almost awful smile hovers constantly about her thin lips. This woman moves with an unsteady quick step, and whenever her black mantilla is flung back by the violence of her movements, a small rope of hair with a crucifix at the end is plainly seen to bind her waist. This ungainly woman is the quondam authoress, Countess Ida Hahn-Hahn, who has turned a Catholic, and is now preparing for a pilgrimage to Rome to crave the Pope's absolution for her literary trespasses."
Prince Windischgratz has issued his long promised narrative of the Hungarian winter campaign in 1848-49. In the preface, he says he has been induced to depart from a resolution not to publish until a much later period, by numerous calumnies and misrepresentations which have been circulated. The book is dedicated to the army.
Menzel, whose work on German Literature had the honor of appearing in Ripley's excellent series of foreign books, published at Boston some ten years since, has just published a novel at Leipzig, with the title of Farore. It is the history of a monk and a nun during the thirty years war.
Frederika Bremer has in press a book upon the World's Fair. It is announced in Germany, but we presume will appear at the same time in England. Whether it will be historical, philosophical, sentimental, or mystical, we are not informed, but suppose it will have a touch of all these qualities.
Frederick the Great (so-called), is not yet exhausted as a topic for book-makers, if we may judge by the Anekdoten und Charakterzüge (Anecdotes and Traits of Character), drawn from his life, and just published at Berlin. The author is an adorer of the selfish old martinet.
Kohl, the indefatigable traveller, has just published, at Dresden, his Reise nach Istrien Dalmatien und Montenegro. A book of travels in those countries is a novelty, and no explorer could give his reader a more vivid picture of the peculiarities of a nation and its country than Kohl. The book is in two volumes.
The Shakspeare Society in London, at a recent sitting, received as a present a translation of Shakspeare, in twelve volumes, into Swedish verse. This laborious work has been accomplished by Professor Hagberg, of the University of Lund, and it was transmitted through the Swedish Minister to England.
A new history of German literature from the most ancient to the most recent times has just been published at Stuttgart by Dr. Eugen Hahn. It is particularly valuable in respect of biography and the history of mental culture in general.
A new work, called Bilder aus Spainen (Pictures from Spain), is among the recent productions of the German press. Its author, Herr A. Loning, has already published several works on the Peninsula, where he resided several years.
Liszt, the eminent pianist, has published in French a book on Richard Wagner's two operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. He praises them most enthusiastically; possibly he may succeed in having Wagner's pieces produced at Paris.
Dr. J. W. Haddock's work upon Somnolism and Psycheism, after having gone through a second edition in England, has just made its appearance at Leipzig in a German translation, made by Dr. C. L. Merkel.
A new edition of that excellent work, The History of the Poetic National Literature of the Germans, by Gerbinus, has just made its appearance at Leipzig.
Silvio Pellico is passing the present winter in Rome.
In Tuscany, a periodical similar to the International has been established under the title of Rivista Britannica. The main purpose is to select articles from English periodicals, and offer them in good Italian versions. French newspapers, novels, and magazines come in freely, too freely in Italy. The good ones will sometimes be seized at the frontier, or at the post-office, by the jealous police of Rome, Naples, and Tuscany: but against any thing that is corrupt and debauched no Italian despot, prince, or priest, was ever known to shut his door. French literature, such as it is under most circumstances, can have only a bad influence in that enslaved country, and scarcely an Italian is to be found able to read, who has any difficulty in understanding the French language. As an antidote to this poison, the editors of the Rivista Britannica have thought of ministering copious draughts of healthful English. We wish they might quote English and American journals with perfect independence of all censorship.
Gioberti, whose attack upon the Jesuits is fresh in the minds of all students of European literature, has lately published at Turin an elaborate work entitled Del Rinovamento Civile d' Italia (Of the Civil Regeneration of Italy). It is in two parts, the first treating of the errors and misfortunes that have marked the past, the second of the remedies practicable in the present, and the hopes existing for the future. So large is the circle of readers who look with interest for every one of Gioberti's productions, that two simultaneous editions have been issued; one in two volumes 8vo. each of eight hundred pages, and the other in two volumes, 16mo. each of six hundred.
The Israel of the Alps, a History of the Vaudois of Piedmont and of their Colonies, is the title of a work, by Alexis Muston, fulfilling a promise made by the author in 1834, in a volume on the same subject. It consists of an account of the martyrdoms of Calabria and Provence, and embraces a period from the origin of those colonies to the end of the sixteenth century. In the second part are described the extraordinary sufferings and deliverances of the Piedmontese—the massacre of 1658—the dispersion of the Vaudois into foreign lands—the return to their own, under the orders of Colonel Arnaud—and an entirely new exposition is given of the negotiations which led to the official re-establishment of the Vaudois in their native valleys. The author has filled up the gaps of the Vaudois historians, Gilles, Leger, and Arnaud, and, by the aid of numerous inedited documents, has established a succession of facts in relation to the history of the churches of the Piedmontese, and those of the colonies, to which Wirtemberg, Brandenburg, and Switzerland are indebted for their evangelical faith. M. Muston, contrary to the opinions of Gieseler, Neander, and Schmidt, agrees with that school of writers—from Perrin to Monastier—who suppose that the evangelical churches of Piedmont existed before the reformer Pierre Waldo, and trace their origin to the apostolic ages. This opinion has much to support it—in the authority of many centuries, in the unanimous convictions of the Vaudois historians, and in evidences given by the most ancient monuments of their language, particularly the poem entitled the Noble Lesson, which bears inscribed its own date (1100), and the literary perfection of which certainly suggests an anterior literature. J. Bonnett (Archives du Christianisme, for October 16) notices the work very favorably, but considers it imperfect in many particulars, and the author is charged especially with omissions in the catalogue of the defenders of the faith, whose blood was so profusely spilled in their beautiful valleys, and
"Whose bones
Lie bleaching on the Alpine mountains cold."
"Surely," says M. Bonnett, "the author ought to have given us some notice of the imposing characters who were early laboring for the defence of the Vaudois churches, from the episcopate of Maximus (that intrepid missionary of the Alps whose thundering voice against abuses recalls the eloquent accents of Luther) to the controversy of Vigilance and Jerome, and the iconoclastic propositions of Claude de Turin. There is something inspiring in the remembrance of that prelate, now an evangelist, and now a warrior, combating with one hand the enemies of truth, and with the other those of the empire. 'I make,' says he, in one of his letters, 'continual voyages to the court during the winter. In the spring, with my arms and my books, I go as a sentinel to watch the coasts of the sea, and to fight against the Saracen and the Moor. I use my sword during the night, and my pen by day, to accomplish the works which I have commenced in solitude.' The military and ecclesiastical character of Claude de Turin was deserving a remembrance, and in describing him M. Muston could not have fulfilled better the expectations of the public. There is another instance of omission—that of Pierre Waldo. Concerning him all opinions agree. It is just where he stands that all contradictory systems upon the origin of the Vaudois meet. Whether he was the father or the son of the churches of the Valleys his history ought not to be forgotten. With what interest would not the pen of Muston have clothed the recital! what attraction! what novelty! How the reformation, which originated in the cell of an obscure cloister, had already germinated in the mind of Waldo; how the rich merchant of Lyons, in search of the treasures of the age, was suddenly changed into a bumble disciple, voluntarily poor; and what were the principal traits of his ministry, his voyages, his relations, his life, his death! Concerning such men, we cannot regret too deeply the almost utter silence of this historian of the Vaudois."
The following interesting fragment is translated from the history of the Vaudois de Calabre: "One day two young men were at a tavern in Turin, when a Calabrian lord came in to lodge for the night. The companions, in talking over their affairs, happened to express a desire to establish themselves somewhere away from home; for the lands of their own country were becoming so sterile, that they would soon cease to yield a sufficient support for the population. The stranger said, 'My friends, if you come with me, I will give you fruitful plains in exchange for your rocky wastes.' They accepted the proposal with a condition that they should gain the consent of their families, and with the hope that they would be accompanied by others. The inhabitants of the Valleys did not wish to make any determination before knowing to what kind of country they were invited, and commissioners were therefore sent to Calabria, with the youths to whom the lands had been offered.
"In this country," says Gilles, "there are beautiful ranges of fertile soil, clothed with every kind of fruit trees, such as the olive and orange; in the plains, vines, and chestnut trees; along the shore, the hazel and the oak; upon the sides and summits of the mountains, the larch and the fir tree, as in the Alps—every where were signs both of a land promising rich rewards to the laborer, and but few inhabitants. The expatriation was decided on; the young, ready to depart, married; proprietors sold their farms; some member of every family prepared for the journey." The joys of the nuptial ceremony mingled with the sorrow of departure from home, and more than one marriage cortege took its place in the caravan of exile. But they could say, as the Hebrews going forth to the promised land, The tabernacle of the Lord is with us, for the travellers took with them an ancestral Bible, the source of all consolation and courage. At the foot of the mountains, father and son, and mother and daughter embraced, weeping and praying together, that the God of their fathers would bless them. And the blessing of heaven was not wanting to this colony. The industrious cities of Saint-Sixte, la Quardia, and Montolieu, arose as by magic amid this land of ignorance, and presented the spectacle of a praying and working Christian people, refusing homage to the superstitions of the age. The reformation in the West brought many fears, and the wrath of the Roman pontiffs was not stayed; the emissaries of the inquisition hunted these faithful people through their peaceful valleys; they were destined to perish; and the massacre of the Vaudois of Provence was a mournful pendant to the extermination of the Vaudois of Calabria. The historian weeps that he cannot cast a veil over this picture; yet the mind, agonized with scenes so atrocious, finds repose in the contemplation of such an admirable character as that of the martyr-pastor, Louis Pascal, exhaling all his soul in his last letter to his affianced Camilla Guarina: 'The love which I bear you is increased by that which I bear to God, and as much as I have been refined by the Christian religion, so much the more have I been enabled to love you. Adieu. Console yourself in Jesus, and may you be a pattern of his doctrines.' "There are few subjects," says the reviewer, "more worthy the ambition of a writer, or that are more inspiring, than the history of the martyred Vaudois, in the inaccessible solitudes of the Alps, for some time protected by their obscurity, but at last devoted for ages to the most cruel persecutions." The mystery of the origin of this people, the drama of their destiny, the melancholy interest which attaches itself to the different phases of their existence, command in their favor the attention of the world, and suffuse the pages of the historian with that sympathetic emotion so easily communicated to the reader, and which is the very soul of departed times.
As we learn from a recent number of the Journal des Missions Evangeliques, a new work appeared in China toward the end of 1849, under the title Of the Geography and History of Foreign Nations, by Seu-ke-ju, the viceroy of the important province of Foh-kien. It is in ten volumes, though the whole of them do not contain more matter than one of our common school text books, and is accompanied by a map of the world and several other maps. It has a preface by the Governor-General of the province, in which he declares that it is better than all previous geographical works in China, and recommends it to his countrymen as perfectly worthy of confidence. The two first volumes are occupied by a general introduction, in which Seu-ke-ju speaks of the sources from which he has derived information, and of the many difficulties he has had to contend with; he explains the use of maps, gives the simplest ideas concerning the spherical form of the earth, and expatiates on the difference of climates. Nothing can give a better idea of the profound ignorance of the Chinese upon these subjects, and nothing prove more decisively that they never can have possessed great mathematicians and astronomers than such passages as the following: "Formerly we were aware of the existence of an icy sea at the north only, but had never heard that there was another at the south. And when men from the west showed us maps on which such a sea was put down, we thought they had made a mistake from ignorance of the Chinese language, and had transferred to the south what ought to be in the north. But when we inquired about this subject of an American named Abeel (a missionary at Amoy), he said that the fact was certain, and now it indeed appears to us undeniable. The provinces of Kwang-tong and Foh-kien are mostly situated under the Kwang-tau (tropic) of the north, and when we compare them with the northern provinces in respect of heat, the temperature is found to be very different. At the time when we did not know that the sun passed over the middle of the globe, this fact caused us to believe that the farther one went to the south, the greater was the heat, and that at the south pole the stones ran in a melted state like a stream of gold. But this is not so; persons who go from Kwang-tong or Foh-kien, will find at the distance of five or six thousand li the island of Borneo, which lies exactly under the Shih-tau (equator), and where the winter is like our summer. Going thence to the south-west the voyager reaches the south of Africa, where hail and snow are known; still farther on is Patagonia or the southern point of South America, near to the Hih-tau (polar circle) of the south, where ice is continual. Thus these warm and cold regions are successive, and therefore the region of the south pole is spoken of as a sea of ice. And why should the Chinese doubt this, because their ships have never gone so far and the province of Kwang-tong lies at the frontier of their country? In truth, we must listen to and accept this explanation."
From this simple piece of instruction, the author of the new Geography proceeds to describe the regions to the west. We give a specimen from his account of Europe: "Europe lies at the north-west of Asia, from which it is separated by the Ural mountains, but is only one quarter as large. Before the dynasty Hia (2469 B.C.), the inhabitants lived by hunting, and were clothed in the skins of the animals they killed, as is the way of the Mongols. But toward the middle of that dynasty (2000 B.C.), civilization, agriculture and the arts began in the states of Greece, situated at the eastern end of the continent." This is followed by a very brief review of the rise and decay of the Roman Empire, of the rise of Moslemism and of the conquests of Tamerlane; next comes a description of the individual countries, with their resources, military and naval forces, "all things about which writers give very different reports, so that it is not possible to be exact, for errors must needs be many where proofs are wanting." How well Seu-ke-ju understands the machinery of European states is apparent from what he says about public debts: "Thus the interest of the borrowed money is paid yearly, while the debt continually increases, inasmuch as the income of the year suffices not for the wants of the Government. Then are new taxes laid upon the people which embitters and makes them rebellious, while the governments grow weaker and fall into decay. The half of Europe is now in this condition." To the mental superiority of the western nations, and especially to the talent and energy of the Americans, Seu-ke-ju renders full justice. On the whole this book is an indication of real progress among the Chinese, much as it militates against the old notion which ascribed to them a considerable degree of scientific knowledge. There can be no doubt that when the prejudice among them, according to which the Celestial Empire is the greatest country, and its inhabitants the most wonderful people of the world, is dissipated, their native thirst for knowledge will urge them forward with rapidity. The habit of visiting foreign lands which is springing up among them, will also do its part, in breaking up the monotony and stagnation into which they have grown. In addition to this book by Seu-ke-ju, a number of other geographical works, drawn from English, German, and French sources, have appeared in Chinese, at the instance mainly of high officers of state.
The Society of Horticulture, for Paris and Central France, is about to issue a large work, entitled Pomologie Française, ou Monographie Generale des Arbres Fruitiers. This will be one of the best works on fruit trees ever published, and our gardeners will do well to look after it.
The most elaborate and erudite modern work on international law is the Histoire du Droit des Gens et des Relations Internationales, by Prof. G. Laurent, of Ghent, of which three volumes were published, in 1850, in that city. The first volume treats of international law in Hindostan, Egypt, Judea, Assyria, Media and Persia, Phoenicia, and Carthage; the second is devoted to Greece, and the third to Rome. The mass of learning exhibited is astonishing. The idea of the author is that through the great course of history, humanity is ripening to a state of universal peace and fraternity. It is unnecessary to say that from this stand-point, international law becomes a subject of the grandest proportions and significance. Prof. Laurent treats it with as much ability as erudition.
Alexandre Dumas is the subject of a masterly criticism in the Grenzboten, in which justice is done him with that impartiality and moderation in respect to which a competent German is unequalled among critics. Among Dumas's dramas, the writer regards Caligula as the best in spite of its grossness. In all the excesses, indecencies, improbabilities, and lawlessness of his romances, there is the trace of splendid talent. It is doubtful whether this talent could have been developed by industry and an earnest love of art into a higher sphere of power. Finally, the writer concludes that Dumas is doing more to corrupt the taste of France and Germany than any other romancer, except, perhaps, Eugene Sue.
Among the French socialists there has recently been considerable discussion on the principles of Government—discussion which has resulted in angry separation of the republican party into opposite camps; Rittinghausen, Considerant, Ledru Rollin, and Girardin having been severally aiming at the destruction of representative government, and the erection of Direct Legislation—a scheme which Louis Blanc, in his Plus de Girondins and La Republique Une et Indivisible, has opposed with a degree of ability which promised to restore him to a respectable reputation. But Prudhon, in his last book, not only denounces Rollin, Girardin, Blanc, and all the rest, with a school-boy vehemence, which The Leader says is "pitiless," but he attacks without disguise all government, no matter what its form, as false in principle and vicious in effect. He believes neither in absolute monarchy, in constitutional monarchy, nor in democracy; he admits no divine right, no legal right, no right of majorities. He only believes in the right of justice in the empire of reason. The principle of authority he rejects in politics as in religion: he will admit only liberty—reason. Prudhon has won a name for talents, and has frequently written with real force—but such propositions are a disgrace to any man who has ever possessed a good reputation.
The Republique, a new book just published By Paris, by M. Lefranc, a member of the Assembly, treats of the events which have filled up the time since the revolution of 1848. M. Lefranc is an ardent republican, and his exhibition of this momentous period is not favorable to the party which hitherto, at least, has managed to gain the victory, if not to assure itself the possession of its traits. His style is singularly animated and impassioned, and it is not without justice that a prominent Parisian critic (Eugene Pelletan) calls him the most direct inheritor of that light-armed yet potent style of polemical writing, of which the famous Camille Desmoulins was so great a master.
The popularity of Scott, in France, is shown by the appearance of the twentieth edition of Defauconpret's translation of his novels; and the announcement of an entirely new translation of them by another hand. If Defauconpret had been the only translator, twenty editions would have been an immense success; but there are besides, at the very least, twenty different translations of the complete works (many of which have had two, three, or four editions), and innumerable translations of particular novels, especially of Quentin Durward.
M. Blanquart Evrard, has commenced at Paris what he calls D'Album Photographique de l'Artiste et de l'Amateur. It is a pictorial work, containing reproductions by photography on paper of well-known works of art by ancient and modern masters. We have not seen it, but hear it spoken of as successful.
M. Guizot has now published under the title of Méditations et Etudes Morales, a collection of essays that had previously appeared on the immortality of the soul, and kindred topics. To them he has added a new preface, in which he discusses the question of liberty and authority in religion.
On the night of the 13th of November, Francois Arago, the great astronomer, was brought from his sick bed to the French Assembly, and walked up the chamber, supported by the arms of two of his colleagues, to give his vote in favor of Universal Suffrage.
M. Ott has just published at Paris a Traité d'Economie Sociale, which has the merit of giving a careful statement of the doctrines of the various schools of Economists and Socialists. It makes a good-sized octavo volume.
Louis Fasqeulle, professor of modern languages in the University of Michigan, has published (Mark H. Newman) a New Method of Learning the French Language, embracing the analytic and synthetic modes of instruction, on the plan of Woodbury's method with the German.
M. Louis Reybaud has published at Paris a new work under the title of Athanase Robichon Candidat Perpetuel à la Présidence de la Republique. M. Reybaud is one of the keenest of political satirists.
The French papers state that Lord Brougham, in his retreat at Cannes, is preparing a work to be entitled France and England before Europe in 1851.
Don Juan Hartzenbusch has commenced, in Madrid, a reprint of the works of her most distinguished authors of Spain. From the earliest ages to the present time. It is entitled Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles, and it is a more difficult undertaking than things of the kind in western and northern Europe. Since many works of the principal authors never having been printed at all, the compiler has to hunt after them in libraries, in convents, and in out of the way places—whilst others, having been negligently printed, have to be revised line by line. Hartzenbusch has brought to light fourteen comedies of Calderon de la Barca, which previous editors were unable to discover. The total number of Calderon's pieces the world now possesses is therefore 122; and there is reason to believe that they are all he wrote, with the exception of two or three, which there is no hope of recovering.
The first and second volumes of the Grenville Papers—being the correspondence of Richard, Earl Temple, and George Grenville, their friends and contemporaries, including Mr. Grenville's Political Diary—were published in London on the 18th of December. We have before alluded to this work, as one likely to illustrate some points in American history, and possibly to furnish new means for determining the vexed question of the authorship of Junius. Among the contents will be found letters from George the Third, the Dukes of Cumberland, Newcastle, Devonshire, Grafton, and Bedford; Marquess Granby; Earls Bute, Temple, Sandwich, Egremont, Halifax, Hardwicke, Chatham, Mansfield, Northington, Suffolk, Hillsborough, and Hertford; Lords Lyttleton, Camden, Holland, Olive, and George Sackville; Marshal Conway, Horace Walpole, Edmund Burke, George Grenville, John Wilkes, William Gerard Hamilton, Augustus Hervey, Mr. Jenkinson (first Earl of Liverpool), Mr. Wedderburn, Charles Yorke, Charles Townsend, Mr. Charles Lloyd, and the author of the Letters of Junius.
The fifth and sixth volumes of Lord Mahon's History of England, embracing the first years of the American war, 1763-80, were also nearly ready. We regret that the earlier volumes of this important history, edited by Professor Reed, of Philadelphia, and published by the Appletons, have not been so well received as to warrant an expectation that the continuation will be reprinted.
Sir James Stephen's Lectures on the History of France, is an exceedingly interesting work, of which we hope to see an American edition. The author is well known in this country, by the largely circulated volume of his Miscellanies, published in Philadelphia, a few years ago. The present work consists of discourses delivered by him as professor of History in the University of Cambridge, and though not of the highest rank among systematic histories, it is inferior to very few in occasional grouping and character painting.
The third volume of Mr. Merrivale's History of the Romans under the Empire; the ninth and tenth volumes of Mr. Grote's History of Greece; and a seventh edition of Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, are among the most interesting English announcements in historical literature.
The Life of Dr. Chalmers, by Dr. Hanna, will extend to four volumes; the third, just re-published by the Harpers, is the most interesting yet issued. We observe that a volume of Reminiscences of Chalmers has been published in London, by Mr. John Anderson.
Alice Carey's Clovernook, or Recollections of our Neighborhood in the West, has just been published by Mr. Redfield, in one volume, illustrated by Darley. To those who have read one of the introductory chapters of this work which we copied into the International for November, it seems quite unnecessary to say any thing in illustration or commendation of the author's genius; they will be likely to purchase Clovernook as soon as they are advised of its appearance. We have nothing in our literature, descriptive of country life, to be compared with it, for effective painting or for truthfulness. The scene is laid in Ohio—near Cincinnati—while a suburban village is gradually growing up from the simple cottage in the wilderness till it becomes a favorite resort of patrician families; and few novelists have been more happy in describing the "progress of society," or exhibited, in such performances, more humor, tenderness, or pathos.
We have from Ticknor & Co., of Boston, a second series of Greenwood Leaves, by the public's old favorite, Grace Greenwood. The tales which it embraces are in the author's happiest vein, and the letters are dashing and piquant, but liable to some objections which we might make in a longer notice. The same publishers have issued a capital book for children, entitled Recollections of My Childhood, by the same author.
Caroline Cheesebro is another young magazinist, whose productions have been very popular. Her Dreamland by Daylight (published by Redfield), a collection of tales and sketches, contains much fine sentiment and displays a ready fancy and a just appreciation of social life, but she has a little less individuality than Miss Carey or Grace Greenwood.
It will gratify every reader of American history to learn that we are soon to have three phases of the character of Washington, presented by men so eminent as Daniel Webster, Mr. Irving, and Mr. Bancroft. Mr. Webster, we have reason to believe, has nearly completed his Memoir of the Political Life of the great Chief; Mr. Irving's work, which has been some time announced, will make us familiar with his personal qualities, and Mr. Bancroft's History of the Revolution will display his military career as it has never before been exhibited, as it can be presented by none but our greatest historian. The first volume of Mr. Bancroft's work on the Revolution is passing rapidly through the press, and it will doubtless be published early in the spring. It has been kept back by the author's failure to obtain, until within a few weeks past, certain important documents necessary to its completion.
Mr. Hart of Philadelphia, has just published A Method of Horsemanship, founded on new Principles, and including the Breaking and Training of Horses, with Instructions for obtaining a good Seat; illustrated with Engravings: by F. Baucher. It is translated from the ninth Paris edition, and makes a handsome duodecimo. Among the many systems of horsemanship which have appeared none has fallen under our notice so valuable as this. The chief defect of previous publications has been that they were mere collections of rules, applicable to particular cases only, based on no established principles, and therefore as impracticable for general purposes as crude and unphilosophical in design. Ignorance was at the root of this. The authors did not understand the nature of the animal about which they professed to teach so much, and their rules were quite as applicable to the bear or the hyena. The agent employed by the old masters was force—severe bitting, hard whipping, and deep spurring. Some went so far as to recommend the use of fire, in extreme cases—thus establishing a kind of equine martyrdom, in which the poor brute suffered indeed, but without any advantage to the faith of his more brutal persecutors. These various punishments were prescribed with the utmost coolness, often with jocularity, as if the horse under the worst tortures were only getting his deserts, and as if the amount and importance of his laborious services by no means entitled him to any forbearance. Human ingenuity is capable of absolute development in the direction of cruelty; it seems to be the most visible and satisfying side of our capabilities; no man who commits a slow murder, whether on one animal or another, can doubt that he has done something—the proof stares him in the face. Then again, murder is adapted to the lowest capacities; there is not a groom in the land less capable of taking life than the finest gentleman. The issue of all this has been—if the horse were not killed at once—to shorten his days, to lessen his intelligence, to injure his form, and to degrade and dwindle his race, from generation to generation.
Who, after following the old course of training, has a right to complain of the degeneracy which he sees in the broken-hearted drudges around him, or, having any feeling, will hesitate in adopting a more humane course, if one be offered? Such a course is submitted to English readers for the first time in this translation of M. Baucher. The harsh bit is entirely cast aside, and the whip and spur are used very sparingly—as means of persuasion only, never as instruments of punishment. Baucher's system is intended to develope the better instincts of the animal, not to punish the vices which we have taught him, in vain efforts to subdue a strength incalculably greater than ours—which by resolute cruelty we have forced him to employ in resisting our unjust demands. Baucher lays it down as an axiom that no horse is naturally vicious, but that his vices are acquired through bad management. One may possess a higher temper than another, to be sure, but spirited horses are those which turn out best under his method of training. The more intelligent the animal, the more capable of instruction—the more frolicksome but the more tractable is his disposition. We all remember "Mayfly," a trick horse at Welch's circus, that could perform anything possible to a horse: he was a pupil of Baucher. But before falling into his skilful hands, this animal was so vicious, that on the race course it was thought necessary to start him from a box, in order to prevent his injuring himself and the other horses. Here there is an instance in which confirmed ill habits were completely eradicated by proper discipline; and how much easier must it be to establish good ones, where we have nothing but pliant ignorance with which to contend. It is not within our limits to enter fully into the different merits of Baucher's treatise. It is sufficient to say that it has been tested, approved and adopted by the most skilful riders of Europe—the late Duc d'Orleans, a more than graceful horseman, having been Baucher's patron until the day of his unfortunate death. The most vigorous and searching inquiries of the government failed to overthrow the system in a single particular; and wherever Baucher was led into argument with his opponents, the mere force of his philosophical reasonings was sufficient to put them down. His book has gone through nine editions in France, and as many in Russia, Germany, Belgium and Holland. The present translation is well executed, in clear comprehensible English; its only defect, if that can be considered one, is, that it is somewhat too idiomatically precise. So little does it smell of the usual vulgarity of the stable, that we are led to believe Baucher has fallen into the hands of a translator of taste and refinement, who not only admires the system for its practical uses, but also for its logical exactness and genial humanity. The work is copiously illustrated with explanatory engravings, and is well printed on good thick paper, as a manual should be. Nothing is wanting, but the extensive circulation which it deserves, to make it useful to equestrians, and beneficial to that much abused animal to which it is devoted.
The Heroes and Martyrs of the Modern Missionary Enterprise, with some Sketches of the Earlier Missionaries, edited by L. E. Smith, with an introduction by Rev. Dr. Sprague, will soon be published by P. Brockett & Co., of Hartford. It will be an octavo of about six hundred pages, with portraits.
The Fine Arts.
Kaulbach's picture of the Destruction of Jerusalem is at last finished, in fresco, upon the walls of the New Museum in Berlin. It is worth a journey thither to see it. Nor is it alone. The other parts of the series of pictures which adorn the great stairway of that edifice, are rapidly advancing to completion. The five broad pilasters, which separate the main pictures, are nearly done, many of the chief figures being finished in color, while others are drawn in their places. They will exhaust the history of the early religious and intellectual development of humanity. The Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Greek, Hebrew, and Roman religions, are all illustrated with that masterly genius, comprehensiveness and fertility of imagination, for which Kaulbach is without a peer among the artists of the age. Each religion is depicted in the persons of its divinities and early teachers and heroes. Thoroughly to understand the whole scope of these pictures, requires as much learning in the theology and mythology of these antique races as the artist has employed in painting them, not to speak of skill in deciphering allegories; but to be impressed with their wonderful richness, grandeur, and beauty, requires no learning, beyond a true eye and a mind capable of feeling. Besides, these mythological pictures, the symbolical men of history are introduced, such as Moses and Solon. The Grecian mythological part is not yet completed, the artist having reserved that to be done next summer; in it he intends to lay himself out as on a favorite and congenial subject.
The works of Ingres, the eminent French painter, have been published in splendid style by the great house of Didot at Paris.
Noctes Amicæ.
There are being born into this great city a vast number of young people—enough babies indeed, every day, to make a great noise in the world sometime, if every one should turn out to be a Demosthenes or Cicero, an Alexander, a Cæsar, or a Napoleon. But though every dame may think her own the prettiest child alive, it seems to us not altogether agreeable to good taste for her to anticipate the judgment of the future in naming it after that celebrity that he or she is destined to rival or eclipse. In seriousness, the habit which prevails so generally of bestowing illustrious names in baptism, is ridiculous and disgraceful, and is continually productive of misfortunes to the victims, if they happen to be possessed of parts to elevate them from a vulgar condition. In the south they manage these things better; the Cæsars, Hannibals, Napoleons, Le Grands, Rexes, &c., are all to be found in the negro yards; but almost every public occasion in the north, affords an instance by which a "man of the people," hearing his name called in an assembly, or seeing it printed in a journal, is compelled to feel shame for the weakness of his parents, by which he is burthened with a name that belittles the greatest actions of which he is capable.
In illustration of the passport system, a good story is told of the recent arrest of a Turk on the frontier of the Herzegowina. For some time past, the Turkish Government has allowed its authorities to wring something out of the people by means of passports and the devices thereunto belonging, but it chances that a great many persons in power can neither read nor write, and therefore a shrewd fellow may palm any species of official-looking paper he thinks proper as his regular pass on the officials; thus it was that a Turk who had travelled some time in peace with a document of imposing appearance, which he had picked up in the streets at Constantinople, at last found one who could read it, and it was discovered to be one of Jean Maria Farina's Eau de Cologne labels!
A Mayor of the department of the Haute-Saône, France, has had the following decision placarded on the church door:—
"Whereas, at all times, there have been disorders, and always will be; and whereas, at all times, there have been laws to repress them, and always will be; and whereas magistrates are appointed to have them properly executed, I ask, ought we, or ought we not, to do our duty? If we do our duty, we are calumniated. Well, then, taking these things into consideration, I declare that if that horde of good-for-nothings who are in the habit of frequenting the churchyard during Divine service, shall continue to do so, they will have to come into collision with me."
M. Michaud, of the French Academy, is pleased to express literary malice against those whom he loves and esteems the most. A political man came one day to confide a secret to him, and recommended to him the strictest discretion. "Do not be uneasy," replied M. Michaud, "your secret shall be well kept; I will hide it in the complete works of my friend Lacretelle." We think we know of an American author whose "various writings" would serve the same purpose.
In the last International we mentioned the death of the well-known ballad composer Alexander Lee. Some painfully interesting circumstances of his last days have since appeared in the journals:
"About a week before his death, he called on a friend and brother pianist, Thirlwall, stated his extreme destitution, and asked that a concert might be got up for his relief. This was done, generously and promptly. The concert was advertised, Lee and Thirlwall to preside at the piano. The other performances were to be by Mr. Thirlwall's four daughters, and by half a dozen other friends and pupils of Lee, who had offered their gratuitous services. On the day of the proposed concert, he for whose benefit it was to be given, died. It was thought best to perform the concert, however, and to devote the proceeds to paying the proper honors to his memory. They did so, but most of those who tried their voices were too much affected to sing, and the performance was at last brought to an abrupt termination by one of his pupils, who burst into a passion of tears while endeavoring to sing The Spirit of Good, an air by the departed master."
Stories of the sagacity of elephants are endless; here are two which imply complicated processes of thought:
"Another elephant that was exhibited in London was made to go through a variety of tricks, and among them that of picking up a sixpence with its trunk; but on one occasion the coin rolled near a wall beyond its reach. As the animal was still ordered to get it, it paused for a moment as if for consideration, and then, stretching forth its trunk to its greatest extent, blew with such force on the money that it was driven against the wall, and was brought within reach by the recoil. An officer in the Bengal army had a very fine and favorite elephant, which was supplied daily in his presence with a certain allowance of food, but being compelled to absent himself on a journey, the keeper of the beast diminished the ration of food, and the animal became daily thinner and weaker. When its master returned, the elephant exhibited the greatest signs of pleasure; the feeding time came, and the keeper laid before it the former full allowance of food, which it divided into two parts, consuming one immediately, and leaving the other untouched. The officer, knowing the sagacity of his favorite, saw immediately the fraud that had been practised, and made the man confess his crime."
A delegation of those disgusting creatures of the feminine or neuter gender, who hold conventions for the discussion of "Women's Rights," obtruded into the presence of the wife of Kossuth, just before the Hungarian left England, with an address, which, in addition to expressions of sympathy, contained an intimation that a statement of opinions was desired respecting their efforts to achieve the "freedom of their sex." The lady replied that she thanked them for their attentions, and that, with respect to her views on the emancipation of woman, she had in earlier years confined herself to the circle of her domestic duties, and had never been tempted to look beyond it; that latterly the overwhelming course of events had left her, as might be well supposed, still less leisure for any speculations of this kind; it would, moreover (such was the conclusion of her little speech), be forgiven in her, the wife of Kossuth—a man whom the general voice, not more than her own heart, pronounced distinguished—if she submitted herself entirely to his guidance, and never thought of emancipation! Probably this admirable answer has saved her the annoyance of receiving any such visitors in this country.
We find the following in the Gazette des Tribunaux:
"In 1814, Lord W—— was colonel of an English regiment, and joined the allied army which invaded France. Shortly before his departure from Dover, where he was in garrison, the Colonel married a rich heiress, but he left her with her family whilst he went to encounter the risk of combats. The campaign of France being terminated, nothing further was heard of the colonel; it was known, however, that his regiment had been almost entirely destroyed in a combat with the French in the south of France, but his death not having been regularly proved, some law proceedings took place between the different members of his family respecting property to a very large amount. These proceedings, which are not yet terminated, will, no doubt, receive a solution from the following singular circumstances:—Some time ago an old soldier, M. R——, residing in the environs of Marseilles, came to Paris on family affairs, and took up his residence in a hotel in the quarter of the Chaussée d' Antin. Having run short of money, he begged the hotel-keeper, M. D——, to advance him 100f., and as a guarantee he left him provisionally a superb gold watch, ornamented with diamonds, and on the back of which was the miniature of a lady, with the initials 'E. W——.' M. R—— told the hotel-keeper that in a combat in 1814, in the south of France, he had wounded and taken prisoner an English colonel; that the colonel dying almost immediately after of his wounds, his watch had remained in his hands. He recommended M. D——to take particular care of the watch, and he went away, some days ago, announcing that he would soon send by the messageries the sum lent, and demand restitution of the watch. Two days back there was such a numerous gathering of travellers in the hotel of M. D——, that he was obliged to give up his own room to an Englishman. On seeing the watch hanging over the chimney the Englishman uttered a cry of surprise, and examined it closely. From the miniature on the back, and the replies of the hotel keeper to his questions, he recognized it as the property of his brother, Colonel W——. With an obstinacy peculiarly English, the Englishman would not give up the watch, and offered to pay 100,000f. for it if required; for it was, with the testimony of R——, the proof of the decease of his brother, and the termination of the law proceedings, which had been pending thirty years; but in the absence of the proprietor of the watch, the hotel-keeper could not dispose of it. To satisfy, however, the obstinacy of the Englishman he called in the commissary of police, who consented to take it as a deposit. The same day the Englishman set out for Marseilles to seek for Mr. R——."
The London Spectator has the following just observations on a scandalous exhibition in the theatres:
"There is a certain degree of elevation, especially in the course of human events, which foretells a speedy downfall. Tyrannies, before their decline, become more and more abominable; and probably the last tyrant is the one who deems his position most secure and his impunity best established. We are forced to this reflection by a burlesque on Auber's Enfant Prodigue, brought out this week at the Olympic. Here we have the most affecting story of sin and repentance, derived moreover from the lips of One whom almost every inhabitant of this island esteems as sacred, made the peg whereon to hang the ordinary jokes which we hear usque ad nauseam, every Christmas and Easter. There must be an overweening confidence in the safety of burlesque to make such an experiment possible. We are by no means anxious to assume the Puritanical tone, or to lay down the doctrine that certain subjects are to be excluded from any department of art. The most sacred themes are worked into oratorio-books, and the most straitlaced portion of the community applauds their combination with music. But when a subject is in itself solemn, let it be solemnly treated. Opinions may be divided as to whether the story of the Prodigal Son can with propriety be represented in the form of serious opera or spectacle, but that it is an improper theme for burlesque there cannot be the shadow of a doubt. Our dramatic authors have too long been in the habit of trying to raise a laugh about every thing, and we have too long been inundated with a species of drama in which the chief wit is anachronism and the chief wisdom a Cockney familiarity with the disreputable works of the Metropolis. We trust that the début of the Prodigal Son at Vauxhall and the Casinos is that crisis of a disease which precedes a return to health, and that henceforth we shall hear less about Haroun Alraschid's views of the polka, and Julius Cæesar's estimate of cider cellars and cigars. As for the Olympic burlesque itself, it is by no means void of humor; nor is it unsuccessful. We only stigmatize it as the perfection of a bad genus."
Some time ago when a comic opera founded on the history of Joseph was produced in England the people refused to hear it.
Historical Review of the Month.
In Great Britain through November, and in all the last month in the United States, Louis Kossuth has been the object of principal interest to every class of persons. Arriving in New-York on the 5th of December, he has delivered a series of brilliant orations, probably unexampled in all history by any one man, in so short a period, for displays of various knowledge, effective method, and popular eloquence; and, whatever his subject or occasion, the central point of every one was the deliverance of Hungary. The most important result thus far is the organization of a Finance Committee, consisting of a number of the most eminent citizens of New-York, to collect voluntary contributions of money, for the purpose of carrying on a projected resistance to Austria and Russia by the Hungarians. Of the Government of this country, it is understood, Kossuth asks no active intervention, but that England and America shall unite in affirming the policy, that "every nation shall have the right to make and alter its political institutions to suit its own condition and convenience," and that the two nations (England and America) shall not only respect but cause to be respected this doctrine, so as to prevent Russia from again marching her armies into Hungary. By a large majority of both Houses of Congress, Governor Kossuth has been invited to Washington, and it is probable that he will soon disclose in a speech before the representatives of the nation, more fully than he has yet done, his plans, his hopes, and his expectations.
The first session of the thirty-second Congress assembled in Washington on the 1st of December. In both houses there is a strong majority for the Democratic party. Of the Senators, twenty-four are Whigs, two (Hale and Sumner) distinctive Free Soilers, thirty-four Democrats including Mr. Chase of Ohio, an avowed Abolitionist, and Messrs. Rhett and Butler of South Carolina, Secessionists. There are now three vacancies in the Senate, the last occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Clay, on account of ill-health and his great age. This illustrious orator and statesman may now be regarded as having closed his public career. The present House consists of 233 Members, besides four Delegates from Territories, who can speak but not vote. Of the Members, the Tribune reckons, eighty-six Whigs, five distinctive Free Soilers (besides several attached to one or the other of the great parties); the remaining one hundred and forty-two are of the Democratic party, including all the Southern Rights men and such Union men as were not previously Whigs. The House was organized on the first day of the session by the election of Linn Boyd, of Kentucky, as Speaker, by a considerable majority.
The annual Message of the President was delivered on the 2nd. It is a long document, of much value as a survey of the progress of the nation in the past year, and of considerable importance for its intimations of the policy of the administration. The President strongly condemns the recent invasion of Cuba, and in connection with a history of that affair states, that after the execution of fifty of the associates of Lopez, Commodore Parker was sent to Havana to inquire respecting them. They all acknowledged themselves guilty of the offence charged against them. At the time of their execution, the main body of invaders was still in the field, making war upon Spain. Though the invaders had forfeited the protection of their country, no proper effort has been spared to obtain the release of those now in confinement in Spanish prisons. The President advocates adherence to our neutrality and non-intervention policy. "Our true mission," he says, "is not to propagate our opinions, or impose upon other countries our form of government, by artifice or force; but to teach by example and show by our success, moderation, and justice, the blessings of self-government, and the advantages of free institutions." The correspondence with England and France respecting the invasion of Cuba, maintains the principle, on the part of the United States, that "in every regularly-documented merchant-vessel, the crew who navigate it and those on board of it will find their protection in the flag that is over them." The right of Consuls to security in the country where they reside, is maintained, and mortification is expressed at the attack on the Spanish Consul at New Orleans, and the insult to the Spanish flag. The aggregate receipts for the last fiscal year were $52,312,979.87, with the balance on hand at the commencement, making the means of the treasury for the year $58,917,524.36, against $48,005,878.66. The imports of the year ending June 30, 1851, were $215,725 995, of which $4,967,901 were in specie. The exports were $217,517,130, of which $178,546,555 were domestic, and $9,738,695 foreign products. Specie exported, $29,231,880. Since December 1850, the payments of principal of the debt were $7,501,456.56, which is inclusive of $3,242,400 paid under the 12th article of the treaty with Mexico, and $2,591,213.45 awards under the late treaty with Mexico. The public debt, exclusive of stock, authorized to be issued to Texas, was $62,560,395.26. The receipts for the next fiscal year, are estimated at $51,800,000, making, with the balance on hand, the available means of the year $63,258,743.09. The expenditures are estimated at $42,892,299.19, of which $33,343,198 are for ordinary purposes of government, and $9,549,101.11 for purposes consequent upon the acquisition of territory from Mexico. It is estimated that there will be an unappropriated balance of $20,366,443.90 in the Treasury on the 30th of June, 1853, to meet $6,237,931.35 of public debt due on the 1st of July following. The value of the domestic exports for the year ending June 30, 1851, show an increase of $43,646,322, which is owing to the high price of cotton during the first half of the year, and the price of which has since declined one-half. The value of the exports of breadstuffs is only $21,948,653 against $26,051,373 in 1850, and $68,701,921 in 1847—our largest year of export in that department of trade. In rice the decrease this as compared with last year in the export, is $460,917, which with the decrease in the value of tobacco exported, makes an aggregate decrease in the two articles of $1,156,751. From these premises the President draws the conclusion, that the favorable results anticipated by the advocates of free trade from the adoption of that policy have not been realized.
The case of Mr. Thrasher, alluded to in our last, is the subject of a letter from the Secretary of State to our Minister in Madrid, under date of December 13. Mr. Webster directs efforts to secure Mr. Thrasher's release from imprisonment Mr. Thrasher was sent to Spain on the 24th November.
An important violation of the stipulations of our last treaty with Great Britain occurred in the harbor of San Juan on the —— of November. The steamship Prometheus, an American merchant vessel, plying between New York and San Juan de Nicaragua in the California trade, was levied on by the municipal authorities of San Juan or Greytown, for certain port charges established by direction of British agents, as under the government of the Indian or negro king of Mosquito. These charges the Captain of the Prometheus refused to pay. A British vessel of war, however fired on her twice, and after, under the peremptory orders of the Captain of the brig, the Prometheus had returned to her anchorage, he compelled her, under threats, to extinguish her fires, and place herself at his mercy. The pretended dues were at length paid under protest, and the facts in the case were communicated to Congress in a Message from the President on the 17th. Commodore Parker has been ordered to repair at once to the harbor of San Juan, with directions to protect all merchant vessels from such surveilance in future, of which he is to notify the British officers on his arrival.
The trial of the persons arrested for taking part in the outrages at Christiana, in Pennsylvania, was commenced in Philadelphia on the 24th of November, before Judges Grier and Kane, in the United States Circuit Court, and on the 12th of December it was brought to a close by the acquittal of the prisoners.
Information has been received at the State Department of the loss of the whale ships Arabella and America, of New Bedford; the Henry Thompson and Armada, of New London; the Mary Mitchell, of San Francisco, and the Sol Sollares, of Fall River.
From California we have news of continued prosperity in mining, and in agriculture and general interests. The project for dividing the State into North and South California appears to have been urged with determination and hopes of success in the recent convention held to consider the subject. It is stated also that a large company of emigrants recently left San Francisco for the Sandwich Islands, to establish a Republican State there. To this end a Constitution had been formed in San Francisco prior to their departure. There are many circumstances which render this statement probable.
A Governor, Lieut. Governor, Attorney General, and members of the Legislature were elected in Virginia on the 8th of December, under the new constitution. The democrats elected their ticket by a large majority. The Legislature of Indiana convened at Indianapolis on the 1st December. Lieutenant Governor James H. Lane took the chair of the Senate, and John D. Dunn was chosen Secretary. In the House, John W. Davis (formerly Speaker at Washington, and since Commissioner to China) was chosen Speaker by a unanimous vote. The Senate of South Carolina has refused an application from the Federal Government for the sale of the lighthouse at Bell's Bay. The House of Representatives has again refused to allow the people to choose Electors of President and Vice President. The vote was 66 to 48. The Legislature have passed a bill to provide for the holding of a Secession Convention. The Texas Legislature assembled at Austin on the 3d. Advices from Galveston state that Colonel Rogers has succeeded in effecting a treaty with the Camanche Indians, and recovered twenty-seven white captives from the Camanches, who had been in bondage among them.
Of accidents and disasters, there have not been so many as in some previous months. On the morning of November 27, about two o'clock, a frightful collision took place between the steamers Die Vernon and Archer, resulting in the loss of the latter vessel, with serious loss of life. The accident occurred at Enterprise Island, about five miles above the mouth of Illinois River. The whole number of lives lost by this catastrophe was thirty-four, of whom ten were deck hands or firemen engaged on the boat. On Sunday, December 7, the city of Portland was visited by one of the most destructive conflagrations that ever occurred in that place. The extent of the conflagration was owing mainly to the want of water, the tide being down. There were twenty-seven stores burnt, nine vessels damaged, and over one hundred thousand dollars worth of merchandise destroyed.
Public Thanksgiving was held this year on the same day in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas.
From British America there is not much intelligence of importance. The recent elections have resulted favorably for the liberal party. A few days ago the first vessel passed through the new channel of Lake St. Peter, which has been constructed at a cost of $320,000. The dredging is to be continued next season; and it is expected that by July the channel will be 150 feet wide, and of adequate depth. By a new regulation of the Post Office Department, all newspapers pass free between Canada and the adjoining lower Provinces. The seat of Government has been changed four times in 11 years. In 1840 it was at Toronto; next year the union of the Provinces having been effected, it was at Kingston. From 1843 to 1849 it was at Montreal. Toronto then became the capital; and now it has moved to Quebec, under a pledge to come back at the expiration of four years. Respecting the final result of the late movements of Carvajal in Mexico it is not easy to form a conclusion, as the accounts are very contradictory. Notwithstanding his recent discomfiture, it seems to be believed that in the present distracted and impoverished condition of Mexico, he may succeed. General Aragua had arrived at Matamoras with 80 men, with several pieces of artillery and one mortar, to reinforce General Avalos. General Carvajal had not more than five or six hundred men. The Mexican troops in Matamoras number 2,000.
From Nicaragua we learn, that on the 19th of November General Munoz, his officers, and twenty-seven Americans, were captured by General Chamorro, and committed to prison. If this intelligence is true, there is an end of the war in that quarter.
From South America intelligence is as usual confused and unsatisfactory. By way of England we have dates from Montevideo to the 12th Oct. The war in the Banda Oriental was terminated. Oribe had retreated to his country house at Rinton. The Argentine forces were reported to have joined Urquiza. The Orientals had joined Gen. Garzon. A Provisional Government was talked of. The chief results had been effected without bloodshed.
In Chili, the rebel army of 13,000 men, commanded by Carrera and Arteaga, was met by 850 Government troops at Petorca, about forty leagues from Santiago, on the 14th of October. They fought three hours, and the result was the total defeat of the former, with a loss of 70 killed, 200 wounded, and 400 prisoners, including 36 officers. Carrera and Arteaga have not been taken. The Government army, under Colonel Vidaure, lost 15 killed and 15 wounded. 400 of the Government troops had gone by sea to join Bulnes's army; the remainder had sailed for Coquimbo, so that the affair in the North may be considered quelled. In the South, General Cruz had an army of 400 regulars, and 2,500 militia, the latter badly armed and clothed. He had not left the Province of Conception. Bulnes was expected on the frontier of that province with 1,000 troops of the line and 300 militiamen, all well armed, clothed, and paid. He appeared determined to run no risks, and it was generally supposed he would soon restore order and quietness. In Ecuador, the Presidency of General Urbina has been acceptable, and it is probable that peace will be maintained for some time. Peru is in perfect tranquillity, and this peaceable state is greatly contributing to its advancement. Bolivia is also in peace, although the Congress has not fulfilled the promises with which it began its meetings. At first, some of the members dared to claim reforms in the Government, but they were silenced, and that body will close its session without having done any thing except abolishing Quina Bank, a measure which Government had resolved.
Throughout all parts of Europe there seems to be a well grounded apprehension of an extraordinary effort to put down every species of despotism during the coming year. An impression prevails that the occasion of the presidential election in France will be seized on for a general rising, not only in that country, but in Italy, Germany, and Hungary, and the Revolutionary Congress, in London, of which the presiding genius is Mazzini, will predetermine affairs for all the States, so that each shall have the greatest possible advantage. Governor Kossuth will be back in time to assume the general leadership in northern and eastern Europe.
From England we have intelligence of no important movement since the departure of Kossuth. No subject attracts more attention than that of the extensive and systematic emigration which is taking place to America and Australia. We learn from the report of the Registrar-General, for the three months ended 30th September last, that during those months 85,603 emigrants sailed from the several ports at which government emigration agents are stationed. This is at the rate of nearly 1,000 persons a day. It is probable that one-half of the total number were Irish. Of the 85,603, 68,960 sailed for the Atlantic ports of the Union; and the remaining 16,643 were distributed in the proportions of 9,268 to British North America, 6,097 to the Australian colonies, and 1,278 to other places. So far, the total emigration of 1851 exceeded that of the corresponding period of 1850, and the emigration of 1850 exceeded that of any former year. The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill remains a dead letter. The Roman Catholic prelates assume and are called by the prohibited titles, and no steps are taken to enforce the law. The attendance of Roman Catholics on the "Godless Colleges" does not appear to have abated, and the Roman Catholic journals complain of the extent of proselytism from their Church. The Submarine telegraph between England and France has been completed, and messages between Paris and London have been transmitted in half an hour. The event was celebrated by the firing of cannon alternately at Calais and Dover, the fire for each explosion being communicated by the electric current from the side of the channel opposite the gun. An announcement is made by the Times of the intended creation of a fourth Presidency in India, and a proposal to remove the seat of government from Calcutta to Lahore. The new province is to be constituted by the spacious province of the Punjab, to which, on the east, it will annex the broad districts of Agra and Bengal, up to the banks of the Sone, embracing the populous and important cities of Allahabad and Benares, To the southwest it will include our anomalous appendage of Scinde, and will thus extend itself from the Hindoo Kosh to the mouths of the Indus, and from the mountains of Beloochistan to the plains of the Ganges.
On the 24th November, about seventy of the principal merchants and gentlemen in Liverpool, and the members of the American Chamber of Commerce, entertained R. J. Walker, late Secretary to the Treasury of the United States, at dinner at the Adelphi Hotel.
The French Legislative Assembly was opened on the 4th of November with a long message from President Bonaparte. A disorderly and excited discussion took place on the 18th, on the proposition of the Questors of the Assembly to put the army in Paris directly under the orders of that body, thereby removing it from the control of the Minister of War and the President. The final vote was 300 for the proposition to 408 against it. The mass of the Republicans opposed it, though General Cavaignac and some of his immediate friends voted in the affirmative. The principal topic of discussion in the Assembly has been the Communal Electoral law. After long discussion, a clause has been adopted, making the time of residence necessary to qualify a citizen to vote in the communal or township elections, only two years instead of three as in the general electoral law. This is regarded as a departure from the rigor of that law and a step toward universal suffrage. It is thus a triumph for the President, who seems, on the whole, decidedly to have gained ground lately. Yet no real progress appears to have been yet made to a settlement of French difficulties, except in so far as every month added to the existence of a new government, the result of a revolution, consolidates it, and enlists in its favor the conservative sentiment.
The prizes of the lottery of L'Ingots d'Or were drawn in the Champs Elysées on the 16th. An immense crowd attended. A journeyman hair-dresser obtained the prize of 200,000 francs, and an engine-driver on a railway the first prize of 400,000 francs.
General Narvaez has returned to Spain, and is again in favor with the queen.
The new King of Hanover, George the Fifth, has published a proclamation, in which he pledges his royal word for "the inviolable maintenance of the constitution of the country." Yet he has abandoned the policy of the late king by appointing a reactionist ministry.
The Austrian currency appears to be in a worse condition than even our own "continental" at the close of the Revolution. The proprietors of houses have again raised their rents 20 and 25 per cent, and the seniors begin to talk of the Bancozettel period, when 100 florins in silver sold for 700 florins in paper, and a pair of boots cost 75 paper florins. Government itself has indirectly countenanced the depreciation of the currency: the Finance Minister by the conditions of the loan, and the Director of the Imperial theatre by raising the price of admittance from 1fl. 24k. to 1fl. 48k., although the salaries of the actors are less than formerly, as they have to pay the income tax.
The Russians have discovered four important veins of silver ore in the Caucasus—one in the defile of Sadon, another in that of Ordona, a third in that of Degorsk, and the fourth near Paltchick. The veins are rich in the yield of silver. The working of them has already been commenced.
The Emperor of Russia has just ordered 6000 carriages to be built for the different railways in his empire, in order to facilitate the conveyance of troops.
Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies
Ten pages of the last Compte Rendu of the Paris Academy of Sciences, Mr. Walsh says, in a letter to the Journal of Commerce, are allotted to an elaborate report from an able committee, on Mr. Gratiolet's Memoir concerning the cerebral protuberances and furrows of man and the Primates, the first order of animals in the class Mammalia, which include the Ape. The inequalities on the brain of man and most of the mammifers were denominated by the celebrated Willis, gyri,—convolutiones,—plicæ; the French use the phrase—plis cerebraux. The theories of Willis gave birth to the whole system of Dr. Gall: the plicæ are found in the class of mammifers alone; they are rarer and less marked in the lower than in the higher species of the great family of monkeys and baboons. They have been regarded as indicia or exponents of more or less perfection in the organ of intelligence, by their number, their projection, and their measure of separation by the furrows. The Report puts these two questions—among the numerous differences of the cerebral plicæ, in number, disposition and proportion. Is it possible to discriminate, in man, and among the mammifers that have them, constant characters of particular types, of families, genera, and even of species? 2d. Do some of those types exclusively distinguish such or such a family, and are they more or less marked or impaired, but still recognizable, according to the genera? The Report adds—These questions are solved in the affirmative by the results of Mr. Gratiolet's researches relatively to the great family of Apes. The importance of these results for the zoologist and the phrenologist is then signalized, and the insertion of the Memoir in the volume of Transactions emphatically recommended. According to the author, it is with the brain of the Orang-Outang that the brain of man has the most points of resemblance. The distinguishing points in regard to all the Apes of the superior class are designated, and they correspond to the physical indications which denote a higher intellectual power.
Respecting the African Exploring Expeditions, Miss Overweg (daughter of one of the travellers) and the Chevalier Bunson, have received in London interesting letters, stating the continued success of the adventurous scholars. Previous to the 6th of August Dr. Overweg had safely joined his companion, Dr. Barth, at Kuka. The latter started on a highly interesting excursion to the kingdom of Adamowa, while the former was exploring Lake Tsad. The boat, which had been taken to pieces in Tripoli, and during a journey of twelve months had with immense trouble been carried on camels across the burning sands of the Sahrá, had been put together and launched on the lake; and the English colors were hoisted in the presence, and to the great delight, of numerous natives. Dr. Overweg, in exploring the islands of Lake Tsad, had been every where received with kindness by their Pagan inhabitants.
The Courrier de la Gironde states that a civil engineer of Bordeaux, named De Vignernon, has discovered the perpetual motion. His theory is said to be to find in a mass of water, at rest, and contained within a certain space, a continual force able to replace all other moving powers. The above journal declares that this has been effected, and that the machine invented by M. de Vignernon works admirably. A model of the machine was to be exposed at Bordeaux for three days, before the inventor's departure with it for London.
The British Government has granted 1500l. to Colonel Rawlinson, to assist him in his researches among the Assyrian antiquities; and 1200l. for the publication of the zoology and botany collected during the Australian expedition of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, commanded by the late Captain Stanley, son of the late Bishop of Norwich.
The Museum of Berlin says that a Prussian has discovered in the ruins of Nineveh, a basso-relievo, representing a fleet of balloons—another proof that "there is nothing new under the sun."
An invention by Captain Groetaers of the Belgian engineers has been lately tested at Woolwich. It is a simple means of ascertaining the distance of any object against which operations may have to be directed, and is composed of a staff about an inch square and three feet in length, with a brass scale on the upper side, and a slide, to which is attached a plate of tin six inches long and three wide, painted red, with a white stripe across its centre. A similar plate is held by an assistant, and is connected with the instrument by a fine wire. When an observation is to be taken, the observer looks at the distant object through a glass fixed on the left of the scale, and adjusts the striped plate by means of the slide; the assistant also looks through his glass, standing a few feet in advance of his principal at the end of the wire, and as soon as the two adjustments are effected and declared, the distance is read off on the scale. In the three trials made at Woolwich, the distance in one case, although more than 1000 yards, was determined within two inches; and in two other attempts, within a foot. It is obvious that such an instrument, if to be depended on, will admit of being applied to other than military surveys and operations, and may be made useful in the civil service.
Signor Gorini, of the University of Lodi, has recently made some important discoveries which have been much discussed in the scientific journals. His experiments to illustrate the origin of mountains are most interesting. He melts some substances, known only to himself, in a vessel, and allows the liquid to cool. At first it presents an even surface, but a portion continues to ooze up from beneath, and gradually elevations are formed, until at length ranges and chains of hills are formed, exactly corresponding in shape with those which are found on the earth. Even to the stratification the resemblance is complete, and M. Gorini can produce on a small scale the phenomena of volcanoes and earthquakes. He contends, therefore, "that the inequalities on the face of the globe are the result of certain materials, first reduced by the application of heat to a liquid state and then allowed gradually to consolidate." The professor, has also, it is said, succeeded, to a surprising extent, in preserving animal matter from decay without resorting to any known process for that purpose. Specimens are shown by him of portions of the human body which, without any alteration in their natural appearance, have been exposed to the action of the atmosphere for six and seven years; and he states that, at a trifling cost, he can keep meat for any length of time in such a way that it can be eaten quite fresh.
Count Castelnau, a French Savant who is well known in the United States, has lately communicated to the Geographical Society of Paris the result of some personal inquiries at Bahia, in South America, respecting a race of human beings with tails. We suppose there is not a particle of truth in the information he received, but he is so respectable a person that his report deserves some notice. "I found myself in Bahia," he says, "in the midst of a host of negro slaves, and thought it possible to obtain from them information of the unknown parts of the African continent. I soon discovered that the Mohammedan natives of Soudan were much farther advanced in mind, than the idolatrous inhabitants of the coast.—Several blacks of Haoussa and Adamawah related to me that they had taken part in expeditions against a nation called Niam Niams, who had tails. They traced their route, on which they encountered tigers, giraffes, elephants, and wild camels. Nine days were consumed in traversing an immense forest. They reached at length a numerous people of the same complexion and frame as themselves, but with tails from twelve to fifteen inches long, &c., &c."
The Paris journals announce that M. Vallée, one of the officials of the Jardin des Plantes, has succeeded in hatching a turtle by artificial means. On the 14th of July last, he found some turtles' eggs on the sand in the inclosure reserved for the turtles, and placed three of them under his apparatus in the reptile department. On the 14th of this month he examined the eggs, and found a turtle, about as big as a walnut, in full life. He hopes to be able to rear it. This is the first case on record of one of these creatures having been produced artificially.
Recent Deaths.
The Brussels Herald announces that the aged naturalist, Savigny, has lately died in Paris. Little has been heard of him for some time in the scientific world. He was for thirty years a member of the Academy of Sciences, and was among the savants who accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt.
We noticed in the last International, the decease of Professor Pattison and Dr. Kearney Rodgers, two of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of New-York. Their deaths were succeeded in a few days by those of Dr. J. E. De Kay (a brother of the late Commodore De Kay), and Dr. Manley. Dr. De Kay was eminent as a naturalist and as an author. He wrote a brace of volumes about Turkey, many years ago, which were published by the Harpers, and two of the quarto volumes of the Natural History of the State of New-York, published by the Government. He was intimate with Cooper, Irving, Halleck, Paulding, Dr. Francis, and all the old set of litterateurs in the city. Dr. Manley (father of the distinguished authoress, Mrs. Emma C. Embury), was known at the beginning of this century, for certain political relations, for his connection with Thomas Paine in the last days of that famous infidel, and ever since as a conspicuous physician and high-toned gentleman—foremost especially in all proceedings which had the special stamp of New-York upon them, but not at all inclined to second any movement originating in New England. He had lately accompanied his accomplished and distinguished daughter to Paris, for the benefit of her health, which has suffered for three or four years.
Ernest, King of Hanover, died at his palace at Herrenhausen, on the 11th of November. The deceased prince—the fifth and last surviving son of George the Third, was born at Kew, on the 5th of June, 1771. In 1786, he accompanied his brothers, the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge, to the University of Gottingen. In 1790, he entered the army, and served in the 9th Hanoverian Light Dragoons from that period until 1793, when he obtained the command of the Regiment. During the following year he took an active part in the war which raged on the continent, and in a rencontre near Toumay lost an eye, and was wounded in the arm. In 1799, he was created Duke of Cumberland, Earl of Armagh, and Duke of Teviotdale, with a Parliamentary grant of £12,000 per annum. In the latter part of 1807, he joined the Prussian army, engaged in the struggle against the encroaching power of Napoleon. On the defeat of the French by the allied forces, he proceeded to Hanover, and took possession of that kingdom on behalf of the English crown. In 1810, when the Regency question formed the subject of much public excitement, he entered into its discussion, and vehemently opposed the government on every point, as he opposed the claims of the Roman Catholics, the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and the Reform Bill. He uniformly supported in Parliament the opinions which guided the Pitt, Perceval, and Liverpool Administrations; while he was a warm patron of the Brunswick Clubs, and also held the office of Grand Master of the Orangemen of Ireland. In reference to his transactions with this body, many reports were circulated, imputing to him political designs and objects of personal ambition connected with the succession to the crown. On the night of the 31st of May, 1810, an extraordinary attempt was made on his life. While asleep, he was attacked by a man armed with a sabre, who inflicted several wounds on his head. He sprang out of bed to give an alarm, but was followed in the dark by his assailant, and cut across the thighs. On assistance arriving, Sellis, an Italian valet, who—it is alleged—had thus attacked the Duke, was found locked in his own room with his throat cut; and spots of blood were found on the floor of the passage leading to the apartment which Sellis occupied. The next day a coroner's inquest was held, and returned a verdict of felo de se. The Duke of Cumberland soon recovered from his wounds, but this event gave rise to much suspicion. In May, 1815, he was married to the third daughter of the late reigning Duke of Mecklenburgh-Strelitz, a lady who had been married twice previously, first to Prince Frederick Louis Charles of Prussia; and secondly, to Prince Frederick William of Solms-Braunfels The issue of this union was a prince, born at Berlin (where the Duke resided from 1818 to 1828), May 27, 1817—the present King of Hanover, known in England as Prince George of Cumberland. The Duke continued to reside in England from 1828 until the death of William IV., by which the Salique Law alienated the Crown of Hanover from that of Great Britain—bestowing it on the Duke at the same time. At the time of the suicide of Sellis, a statement was circulated to the effect that the Duke had murdered his valet; that, in order to conceal this crime, he had invented the story of a suicide, preceded by an attempt at assassination, and that the wounds which the Duke received were inflicted by himself. These accusations were negatived by evidence produced at the inquest; still the force of that evidence, and even the lapse of three-and-twenty years, did not prevent a revival of the imputation, and the Duke in 1833 thought it necessary to institute a prosecution in the Court of King's Bench, where the defendants were found guilty. On that occasion he himself was examined as a witness, and exhibited to the whole court, the marks of the wounds which he had received in the head, from the inspection of which it was inferred that they could never have been inflicted by his own hand. His titles were: Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, and Teviotdale in Great Britain, and Earl of Armagh in Ireland, and King of Hanover. He was a Knight of the Garter, a Knight of St. Patrick, G.C.B.; and G.C.H. He was also a Knight of the Prussian orders of the Black and Red Eagle, a Field-Marshal in the British army, Chancellor and Visitor of the University of Dublin, a Commissioner of the Royal Military College and Asylum, a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Arts.
George Frederick, his only son, and only surviving child, succeeds to the throne of Hanover, but his blindness has suggested the precaution of swearing in twelve councillors, who, to attend in rotation, two at a time, will witness and verify all state documents to be signed by the king. "The new king," says the Morning Post, "entirely lacks the Parliamentary experience by which his father so largely profited; and we greatly fear that his education in the strictest school of English High Churchmanship is more calculated to insure his blameless life in a private station, than to fit him for the arduous career of a king in the nineteenth century."
The Times sketches the character of the deceased in dark colors, declaring that he "never concerned himself to disguise his sentiments, to restrain his passions, or to conciliate the affections of those who might possibly have been one day his subjects. Relying on the victory which had been apparently declared for absolutism, inflexible in his persuasions, and unbending in his demeanor, the Duke treated popular opinion with a ferocity of contempt which could scarcely be surpassed at St. Petersburgh or Warsaw. In his pleasures he asserted the license of an Orleans or a Stuart, and although in this respect he wanted not for patterns, yet rumor persisted in attaching to his excesses a certain criminal blackness below the standard dye of aristocratic debauchery. It is but reasonable to presume, that a man so universally obnoxious should have suffered, to some extent, from that calumny which the best find it difficult to repel, and practical evidence was furnished in certain public suits, that the probabilities against him fell short of legal proof. The impartial historian, however, will be likely to decide, that there was little in the known character of Prince Ernest to exempt him from sure suspicions touching what remained concealed."
The Chevalier Lavy, Member of the Council of Mines in Sardinia and of the Academy of Sciences in Turin, and described as being one of the most learned of Italian numismatists, died early in November. He had created at great cost a Museum of Medals, which he presented to his country, and which bears his name.
The Hon. Augusta Mary Byron, better known as the Hon. Augusta Leigh, died near the end of October, at her apartments in St. James's Palace, in the sixty-eighth year of her age. She was the half-sister of the author of Childe Harold. Her mother was Amelia Darcy, Baroness Conyers, the divorced Duchess of Leeds, whose future happiness was thought to be foretold in some homely rhymes which Dr. Johnson loved to repeat:
"When the Duke of Leeds shall married be
To a fine young lady of high quality,
How happy will that gentlewoman be
In his Grace of Leeds' good company.
She shall have all that's fine and fair,
And the best of silk and satin shall wear;
And ride in a coach to take the air,
And have a horse in St. James's-square."
The poet was not, in this instance, a prophet; for the young lady proved any thing but happy in his Grace of Leeds's good company. She was divorced in 1779, and married immediately to Captain John Byron, by whom she had one child, the subject of the present notice. She survived the birth a year, dying 26th January, 1784. Her son by her former marriage became the sixth Duke of Leeds. On the 17th August, 1807, the Hon. Augusta Byron was married at St. George's, Hanover-square, to her cousin, Lieut.-Colonel George Leigh, of the 10th, or Prince of Wales's Light Dragoons, son of General Charles Leigh, by Frances, daughter of Admiral Lord Byron and aunt of Augusta. By this marriage Augusta had several children, some of whom survive her. She had been a widow for some time. Lord Byron is known to have entertained for his sister a higher and sincerer affection than for any other person. His best friends in his worst moments fell under the vindictive stroke of his pen, or the bitter denunciation of his tongue. His sister escaped at all times. "No one," he writes, "except Augusta, cares for me. Augusta wants me to make it up to Carlisle: I have refused every body else, but can't deny her any thing." One of the first presentation copies of Childe Harold was sent to his sister with this inscription:—"To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved me much better than I deserved, this volume is presented by her father's son, and her most affectionate brother." This attachment he has himself chosen to account for, but wholly without reason. "My sister is in town," he writes, "which is a great comfort; for, never having been much together, we are naturally more attached to each other." One of the last evenings of Byron's English life was spent with his sister, and to her his heart turned when, in the midst of his domestic afflictions, it sought for refuge in song. Those tender, beautiful verses, "Though the day of my destiny's over," were his parting tribute to her, and were followed by a poem in the Spenserian stanza, of equal beauty, beginning—
"My sister, my sweet sister! If a name
Dearer and purer were, it should be thine."
His will evinces in another way his affection for his sister. Nor was Augusta forgetful of her brother. She remembered him with that tender warmth of affection which women only feel, and publicly evinced her regard for him, by the monument which she erected over his remains in the little church of Hucknall. She bore, it may be added, no personal resemblance to her illustrious kinsman.
Lieutenant-General Count Jean Gabriel Marchant, grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, Chevalier of St. Louis, &c., &c., was born at Solbene, in the department of the Isere, in 1764, and in 1789 became an advocate at Grenoble. In 1791, he entered the army as commander of a company in the fourth battalion of his district, and in the long and illustrious period of the wars of the empire he served with eminent distinction. He was made a colonel on the 14th June, 1797, general of brigade in 1804, and general of division on the 31st December, 1805, after a series of brilliant services under Marshal Ney. He was in the battles of Jena, Magdeburg, Friedland, &c., and after the latter received the title of Count, and a dotation of 80,000f. He won new honors in Russia and Spain, but after the overthrow of his master, so commended himself to Louis XVIII., as to be confirmed by him in the command of the 7th military division. After abandoning Grenoble to Napoleon, he was tried by a council of war for unfaithfulness to the royal authority, but acquitted, and from 1816 he lived principally in retirement at his chateau of St. Ismier, near Grenoble, where he died the 12th of November, in the 86th year of his age.
Matthias Attwood, long well known in Parliament, died at his house, in Dulwich-park, on the 11th of November. He was in his seventy-second year, and had for some time been in feeble health, which induced him to retire from Parliament at the last general election, but he still occasionally attended to business in London till within a short period of his decease. Mr. Attwood entered Parliament in 1819, and from that time till 1847, continued to have a seat in the House of Commons. Mr. Attwood was one of the bankers of London, of the firm of Spooners and Atwood, and the founder of several successful joint-stock companies.
Cardinal d'Astrs, Archbishop of Toulouse, died near the end of September, at an advanced age. He was, it is said, the person who caused the bull of excommunication, pronounced by Pius VII. against Napoleon, in 1809, to be posted up on the walls of Paris. The bull was issued in consequence of the seizure by Napoleon of the States of the Pope, and their annexation to the French empire. The act of excommunication was followed by the arrest of Pius VII. through the instrumentality of General Radet.
The Seraskier Emir Pasha, commanding the Turkish army in Syria, has just died, and his death has caused a great sensation at Constantinople. He was highly esteemed for his prudence, energy, and incorruptibility. The rapidity with which he succeeded, in October, 1850, in suppressing the revolution created by the Emir of Balbek, the care and skill with which he introduced the Tanzimaut and the Conscription into the Syrian provinces, had procured him great credit with the government. No successor has been appointed.
The French papers report the death, at Moscow, of M. Alexis de Saint Priest, a member of the French Academy, formerly a Peer of France, and the author of several historical works,—of which the most celebrated are his History of the Fall of the Jesuits, first published in 1844, and Histoire de la Royauté, 1846.
Ladies fashions for January.
I.
From the journals of fashion in London and Paris it appears that furs are very much worn abroad this winter, but hitherto we have not marked their very general adoption in New-York. The sable, ermine, and chinchilla are, as in previous years, most fashionable. Sable harmonizes well with every color of silk or velvet, and it is especially beautiful when worn with the latter material. Cloaks, when trimmed with fur, should not be either so large or so full as when ornamented with other kinds of trimming. Many are of the paletot form, and have sleeves. They are edged with a narrow fur border, the collar being entirely of fur. For trimming mantles Canada sable is much employed. This fur is neither so beautifully soft and glossy, nor so rich in color as the Russian sable; but the difference in price is very considerable. In tone of color minx comes next to Canada sable. Squirrel will not be among the favorite furs this winter; it will be chiefly used for lining cloaks and mantles. Muffs are of the medium size adopted during previous winters. We may add that fur is not excluded from mourning costume.
Bonnets, although fanciful in their appearance, have a warm effect, being composed of plush, velvet, and terry velvet. Felt and beaver bonnets are also much in vogue, trimmed simply, but richly, generally with colors to match, and with drooping feathers. Genin has reproduced the latest London and continental modes. Bonnets of violet velvet are also trimmed with a black lace, upon which are sprinkled, here and there, jet beads; this lace is passed over the bonnet and fixed upon one of the sides by a n[oe]ud of ribbon velvet of different widths; two wide ends, which droop over the shoulder, serve to attach a quantity of coques or ends, also of different widths. The interior is decorated with hearts-ease of velvet and yellow hearts, and is fixed by several ends of velours opinglé ribbon, the same shade and color as the centre of the hearts-ease.
Mantelets of all sorts of shapes are worn: the most striking are very full, and have a hood. It requires great dexterity in cutting out the mantelet to give a graceful appearance to this innovation. The shape adopted is that called capuchin bonne femme (or old woman's hood); it is very comfortable, and the least apt to spoil the flowers or feathers of the head-dress. There are also mantelets like the above, made of lace, lined with colored silk, which sets off the pattern; and this is most in favor. Every thing in preparation for this winter is far from plain, being trimmed with embroidery, &c., or jet, lace, ribbons, velvet, blond, braid, half-twisted silk, gold beads, colored embroidery, in short, all the array of rich ornaments possible will be the order of the ensuing season.
I. The Waistcoat Fashion, of which we have heretofore given an illustration, is said to increase, and as it is graceful and convenient it would be more popular but for the ridicule cast on all innovations by the vulgar or profligate women who expose their natural shamelessness and ambition of notoriety by appearing in what is called the Bloomer costume—a costume which, it is scarcely necessary to say, has never yet been assumed by a really respectable woman.
II.
II. Girls Dress.—White satin capote black velvet dress with berthe; and sleeves trimmed with slight silk fringe. Trousers of English embroidered work. The Genin hat, of felt or beaver.
III. IV.
III. Walking Dress.—Bonnet of purple velvet with black feather; full mantelet of black velvet, trimmed with lace and buttons; dress of dark valencias, very full, and plain. Another walking dress consists of pelisse and paletot of Nankin cachmere, the former beautifully embroidered.
IV. Evening Costume.—Dress of Brussels net, worn over a jupon of white satin; the body is made en stomacher: the waist and point not very long; two small capes, one of delicately worked net, the other of plain net, meet, in a point in front en demi-c[oe]ur; the short sleeve is formed by four frills, two of worked net, and two of plain net, placed alternately; the skirt is long, and extremely full; it has eight flounces, reaching nearly to the waist, and graduating in width towards the top; they are placed alternately, of worked and plain net.