THE FIRST SHIP IN THE NIGER.
BY WILLIAM ALLAN RUSSELL.
'Tis tropic noon! and not a single sound
Breathes on the eternal stillness all around;
'Tis tropic noon! and yet the sultry time
Seems like the twilight of some fairy clime.
Spreading in lone luxuriance round is seen
The mangrove's tangled maze of sombre green;
Thro' mists that dwell those baneful fens upon
Large orbed and pale peers out the shrouded Sun,
And struggling sickly thro' the vaporous day,
Dull on the windless waters falls the pallid ray.
So slumb'ringly the glassy river goes,
The water-lily dips not as it flows;
The swallow, haunter of the charmed spot,
Skims through the silence, and awakes it not;
Perch'd as in sleep, the gray kingfisher broods,
A sentinel among the solitudes;
And faints the breeze beneath the heavy sky,
Nor bends the bulrush, as it loiters by
Thro' long green walls of forest trees, that throw
Unwavering shadows in the flood below;
And droops from topmost boughs (like garlands dight
By elfin hands) the gaudy parasite:
Crowning the wave with flow'rs; and high above,
The tall acacia moves, or seems to move
Its feathery foliage in the enamor'd air,
That seems, tho' all unheard, to linger there:
Might'st fancy all, the earth, the air, the stream,
Still unawaken'd from Creation's dream.
When, hark! there sounds along the lonely shore
A voice those wilds had never heard before;
The wild bird dipp'd—the diamond-eye'd gazelle
Started and paused,—then fled into the dell;
Stirr'd by no breeze, the tree-tops seem'd to sigh—
When, lo! again the still repeated cry;
Hark! 'tis the leadsman, chanting loud and clear
The changing fathoms, as a ship draws near,—
And all at once rings out the Briton's hearty cheer!
Historical Review of the Month.
THE UNITED STATES.
The Thirty-first American Congress, after a session of a little more than three months, closed on the 4th of March. The conclusion of the session was much more interesting and important than its commencement. Our record of the previous month closed with the passage by the Senate, on the 13th of February, of the joint resolution authorizing the President to confer the brevet rank of Lieutenant-General on General Scott. Mr. Benton, on the following day, attempted to revive his bill paying to Missouri two per cent. on her sales of public lands, but was unsuccessful. The River and Harbor Bill was taken up in the House on the 13th, and debated for several days; it finally passed on the 18th, by a vote of 114 to 75. During the debate an altercation took place between Mr. Inge of Alabama and Mr. Stanley of North Carolina, which resulted in a duel. The parties met in Maryland, beyond the jurisdiction of the District of Columbia, and after an ineffectual exchange of shots, agreed to a reconciliation.
Several exciting debates arose in the Senate, in relation to the Fugitive Slave Law, growing out of the following circumstances: On Saturday, February 21st, an alleged fugitive slave, named Shadrach, was arrested in Boston by the U.S. Marshal, and taken before the U.S. Commissioner for examination. The counsel for defence asked for a postponement of the case for two days, which was granted, Shadrach remaining in the U. S. Court Room, in custody of the U. S. Deputy Marshal, since, by a law of the state, the use of the jail is forbidden for the confinement of a fugitive slave. Soon after the adjournment of the Court the doors were suddenly burst open by a mob of negroes, the officers overpowered, and the prisoner carried off. After being hurried rapidly through the streets, he was secreted in a remote part of the city, and in the evening made his escape to Canada. The announcement of this case produced much excitement in Washington. A conference of the Cabinet was immediately called, and on the following Tuesday the President issued a proclamation calling on the commanders of the U. S. military and naval forces at Boston to aid the government officers with their troops, if need be, in the discharge of their duty. In reply to a resolution offered by Mr. Clay, and unanimously adopted by the Senate, the President addressed to that body a special message on the subject. He regards the rescue of the slave as an act of sudden violence, unexpected by the authorities, and not as proceeding from or sanctioned by the general feeling of the citizens of Boston. He quotes the laws of Congress, of 1789 and 1799, in relation to the safe-keeping of prisoners committed under the authority of the United States, and the Massachusetts state law of 1843, making it a penal offence for any officer of the commonwealth to aid in the arrest or detention of a fugitive slave: considering that, though such state legislation may create embarrassment, it cannot impair the constitutional provision for the delivery of fugitives bound to labor in another state. He recommends a modification of the general law, enabling the President to call upon the militia, and place them under the control of any civil officer of the government, without requiring any previous proclamation, in cases where the civil authority is menaced.
The California Duties Bill, giving the new state $300,000 out of the duties collected while she was a territory, to defray the expenses of the state government up to the time of her admission, passed the Senate February 25th. The Cheap Postage Bill, as amended, passed the following day, by a vote of 39 to 15. This bill provides a rate of three cents when pre-paid, five cents when not pre-paid, on letters less than half an ounce, and for any distance exceeding three thousand miles double these rates. Instead of a uniform rate of one cent on newspapers, it provides a tariff postage from five to twenty-five cents per quarter for weekly papers, according to distances; semi-weeklies to pay double, tri-weeklies triple, and dailies five times these rates. The House afterwards added an amendment providing for the coinage of three-cent pieces, which was concurred in by the Senate. The law will take effect on the 1st of July next.
On Saturday, February 22d, Mr. Rantoul, of Massachusetts, appeared and took his seat for the remaining ten days of his term. The bill abolishing constructive mileage on the part of the Senate passed both houses. The River and Harbor Bill, appropriating between two and three millions of dollars for the improvement of the harbors of the coast and the lakes, and the river navigation of the interior, was taken up in the Senate, on Saturday, March 1st, by a vote of 31 to 25. The debate continued until past midnight, when the Senate adjourned. The subject was resumed on Monday morning, the opponents of the bill, who were in the minority, exercising their ingenuity in order to prevent a vote. There being now but a few hours of the session remaining, the utmost activity and excitement prevailed in both houses. The indispensable Appropriation Bills were yet to be passed, the Postage Bill was waiting its final vote, and a number of important measures, disposed of by one house, were waiting the action of the other. The discussion in the Senate was continued through the whole of Monday night, until four o'clock on Tuesday morning, when the majority yielded to a motion postponing its consideration for four hours, in order to allow the necessary Appropriation Bills to be acted on.
In the House, on Monday, the Senate's Joint Resolution requesting the President to authorize one of our vessels in the Mediterranean to bring Kossuth and his companions to this country, was passed by a large majority. The resolution relieving Mr. Ritchie from the terms of his printing contract, and giving him one-half the proceeds fixed by the law of 1819, passed the House by a majority of five, and was taken up in the Senate about half an hour before the close of the session, but was lost for want of time. Among the last acts of the house were, the passage of the Senate bill paying $40,000 to the American Colonization Society for expenses incurred in supporting the Africans recaptured from the bark Pons; the defeat of the resolution creating the rank of Lieutenant-General; and the act founding a Military Asylum for the relief of disabled soldiers. The French Spoliation Bill, the bill making Land Warrants Assignable, the bill granting ten million acres of the public lands to the states for the relief of the indigent insane, and all the proposals for new steamship lines, as well as Mr. Collins's application for an additional appropriation to his Liverpool line, were lost for want of time. In the Senate, after the River and Harbor Bill was dropped, the Army and Navy and Civil and Diplomatic Appropriation Bills, the Post Route Bill, and the Light House Bill, were all passed. Both houses adjourned at noon, on Tuesday, March 4th.
After an interval of twenty minutes, the Senate was again called to order, a Special Session having been ordered by the President to consider Executive business. Messrs. Bright, Bayard, Cass, Jefferson Davis, Hamilton, Mason, Pratt, Rusk, and Dodge of Wisconsin, Senators elect, appeared and were qualified. Mr. Foote, of Vermont, appeared on the 8th and was sworn in. Mr. Yulee presented a communication, claiming to have been elected by the Legislature of Florida, he having received 29 votes when the remainder were blank. The Judiciary Committee reported against allowing the California Senators mileage by the Panama route, but the discussion of the subject was postponed till the next session.
On Friday, the 7th, the Senate ratified the treaties lately negotiated with Portugal, with Switzerland, and the treaty with Mexico respecting the Tehuantepec route from the Gulf to the Pacific. The treaty of extradition with Mexico was rejected. The treaty with Switzerland was amended in some particulars.
A message was received in reply to a resolution calling on the State Department to furnish copies of the correspondence with Turkey regarding Kossuth. In addition to the correspondence which has already appeared, Mr. Webster in February, addressed a letter to J. P. Brown, Dragoman of the Legation at Constantinople, concerning the probable intentions of Turkey; to which Mr. Brown replied that in May, 1851, the year for which the Sultan promised Austria to retain the Hungarians will expire. Mr. Webster thereupon addressed a letter to Mr. Marsh, U. S. minister to Constantinople, in relation to the approaching release of Kossuth and his companions, and the offer to be made to them and to the Sublime Porte, in accordance with the joint resolution of Congress. Mr. Webster requests our minister to state that though the United States has no intention to interfere in any manner with the international relations of other Governments, yet, in this case, it hopes that suggestions proceeding from no other motives than friendship and respect for the Porte, and sympathy for the unhappy exiles, may be received as a proof of national good-will. He alludes in terms of high commendation to the course of the Porte in refusing to deliver the exiles into the hands of their pursuers, and while acknowledging the force of the considerations through which they have been detained up to the present time, urges that their transportation to this country cannot longer be reasonably opposed. The tone of Mr. Webster's letter is humane, eloquent and dignified; it will be read with earnest satisfaction by the friends of Liberty throughout the Globe.
The action of the Executive Session of the Senate was chiefly upon nominations made by the President. These having been completed and some resolutions adopted, calling for information on various subjects, to be communicated to the next session, the Senate adjourned on the 13th of March. The following are the principal nominations: Hon. Robert F. Schenck, of Ohio, Minister to Brazil; John B. Kerr, of Maryland, Chargé to Nicaragua; John S. Pendleton, of Virginia, Chargé to the Argentine Republic; Mr. Markoe, of the State Department, Chargé to Denmark; Y. P. King, of Georgia, Chargé to New-Granada; Samuel G. Goodrich, of Massachusetts, Consul at Paris; John Howard Payne, Consul to Tunis; Mr. Easby, of Washington, Commissioner of Public Buildings; Grafton Baker, of Mississippi, Chief Justice of New-Mexico; Ogden Hoffman, Jr., of San Francisco, District Judge for California; George G. Baker, of Ohio, Consul to Genoa; Henry A. Homer, of Massachusetts, Dragoman to the Turkish Legation; H. Jones Brooke, of Penn., Consul at Belfast; and Charles Russell, Collector at Santa Barbara, California. Jacob B. Moore, of New-York, was confirmed as Post-Master, and T. Butler King, of Georgia, as Collector, at San Francisco.
M. Marcoleta, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Nicaragua, arrived in this country from Europe, and was officially presented to the President on Saturday, Feb. 22. The addresses on both sides were of the most cordial character. Commodore Jones, whose trial by Court Martial has been going on at Washington for some time past, has been found guilty of speculating in gold dust with the public funds, and is suspended from his command for five years, half of the time without pay.
The Superintendent of the Census has published a table, compiled from the returns of the Marshals, which are complete in all the principal States. From this it appears that the entire population of the United States will be about 23,200,000, of which 8,070,734 are slaves. The entire representative population will be 21,710,000, and the ratio of representation 93,170, the law of May, 22, 1850, determining the number of representatives at 233. The States which gain, in all, are as follows: Arkansas 1, Indiana 1, Illinois 2, Massachusetts 1, Mississippi 1, Michigan 1, Missouri 2, Pennsylvania 1—10. The following States lose, viz; Maine 1, New Hampshire 1, New-York 1, North Carolina 2, South Carolina 2, Vermont 1, Virginia 2. The free States gain six members and lose four; the slave States gain four and lose six.
No Senator has yet been elected in the State of Massachusetts. On the eighteenth ballot, Mr. Sumner lacked nine votes of an election, after which the matter was postponed to the 2d of April. In the New-York Legislature, a joint resolution providing for the election of a U. S. Senator finally passed at 2 a. m. on the 19th, and the Hon. Hamilton Fish, ex-Governor of the State, was then elected. In the Ohio Legislature, an election was finally reached on the 15th of March, Benjamin F. Wade, the Whig candidate, receiving a majority of three. The New Jersey Legislature has chosen Commodore Robert F. Stockton, on the 27th ballot, by a majority of one, three of the members being absent. Commodore Stockton resigned his place in the Navy last year.
The one hundred and nineteenth anniversary of Washington's birthday was celebrated throughout the United States with more than the usual honors. In New-York City, a large military and civic procession was arranged, under the direction of the Common Council, succeeded by a brilliant illumination in the evening. An oration was delivered at the celebration instituted by the Union Committee, by the Hon. Mr. Foote, of Mississippi. At the dinner which succeeded, the Hon. Edward Everett made an eloquent speech on the American Constitution.
Considerable excitement has arisen in different localities of the Free States, on account of the seizure of colored persons claimed as fugitive slaves. The Boston case has become exceedingly complicated, through a series of counter-arrests, on the parts of State and U. S. officers. Mr. Elizur Wright, editor of the Boston Commonwealth, and six other persons, mostly negroes, are held for trial on a charge of aiding in the escape of the slave Shadrach. On the other hand, the U. S. District Attorney, Commissioner and Deputy Marshal, were arrested and held to bail in the sum of $10,000 each, on charge of arresting the fugitive, the suits being brought on the ground that the Fugitive Slave law is unconstitutional, and that the officers acted without authority. Several arrests of fugitive slaves have been made in various parts of Pennsylvania, but there has been no violent resistance to the law. The Governor of Pennsylvania lately made a requisition on the Governor of Maryland, for the delivery of a man charged with kidnapping a free black child five years old, born in Pennsylvania of a fugitive slave, and reclaimed with her. The Governor of Maryland refused to surrender the accused, and replied in a long letter sustaining his course by the authority of the Attorney General.
Few measures of interest have been passed by the several State Legislatures, during the past month. The State of New Jersey has abolished the freehold qualification. In the Legislature of Wisconsin a land limitation bill, fixing the limit at 640 acres, passed the Senate, but was defeated in the House. The Maryland Convention for the revision of the State Constitution, has adopted a clause abolishing imprisonment for debt, by a vote of 60 to 5. The Indiana Convention has completed a revised Constitution for that State, which will be submitted to the votes of the people. The Legislature of Pennsylvania has passed a joint resolution of thanks to the Hon. Daniel Webster, for his letter to Hülsemann, the Austrian Chargé d'Affaires.
Several severe storms have been experienced in the Western States. The town of Fayetteville, Tenn., was nearly destroyed by a tornado, on the 24th of February. The place was enveloped in impenetrable darkness, and many lives were lost in the crash of the falling buildings. Forty-two houses were blown down. A terrific gale passed over Pittsburg, tearing the steamers from their moorings, and injuring a great number of buildings.
The family of Mr. William Cosden, in Kent Co., Md.,—including himself, his wife, sister, sister-in-law, and a black servant, were murdered on the 25th of February. A small boy made his escape and gave the alarm. The murderers have not yet been taken.
The trials of the Cuban invaders at New Orleans have at last been brought to an end. After three unsuccessful attempts to procure a verdict in the case of Gen. Henderson, the jury in each instance being unable to agree, the prosecution was withdrawn. The trial of Gen. Quitman and the other persons who had been arraigned, was also relinquished, and the matter will be suffered to drop.
Jenny Lind has reached St. Louis, on her tour of triumph in the West. The proceeds of her thirteen concerts in New Orleans amounted to $200,000. On the 13th of March, she gave a concert at Natchez which produced $6,600, $1,000 of which was devoted to charitable objects.—A great meeting in favor of railroads in the Mississippi Valley, was held in New Orleans on the 24th of February.—The cholera has appeared in a mild form on some of the Western rivers. In the town of Franklin, Tenn., there have been already fourteen deaths from it.
Henry Clay sailed from New-York for Havana, on the 11th of March. He intends remaining a few weeks in that city to rest from the fatigues of the late session. He was received in New-York with great enthusiasm; thousands of persons crowded the docks to witness his departure.
The steamer Oregon, while on her passage from Louisville to New Orleans, burst her boiler near Vicksburg, killing and wounding about seventy persons. The boat afterwards took fire and burned to the water's edge. The surviving passengers were taken off by the steamer Iroquois, which fortunately happened to be in the vicinity. A steam-ferry boat at St. Louis burst her boiler on the 23d of February, killing about twenty persons. Several other slight explosions and collisions have occurred on the Western rivers.
A notorious person, named Wm. H. Thompson, (better known as "One-Eyed Thompson,") who was supposed to have been a confederate of various gangs of counterfeiters and burglars, was arrested on the 1st of March, on a charge of counterfeiting, and committed suicide the next day in his cell. He left a letter addressed to the Coroner and another to his wife, written in a style which shows him to have been a man of more than ordinary intellect. He stated that, being of no farther use to his family, he felt it his duty to die. He had always cherished a disposition to commit suicide, as he had no means of solving the mystery of life, and desired death, either as an explanation or as an eternal sleep.
The latest accounts from Texas, represent that State as being in a most flourishing condition. Emigrants are continually arriving from all quarters, and especially from Germany. The subject of Popular Education is beginning to attract attention, and the agricultural interest is receiving the support of many gentlemen of wealth and intelligence. The Indians still continue their depredations in the neighborhood of Rio Grande City, and all along the Mexican frontier. Several engagements between them and the U. S. troops, have taken place in the vicinity of Laredo. Gen. Brooke is organizing an expedition against the Camanches, and as soon as the spring opens, a campaign will be made directly into their hunting grounds. A singular being, known as the Wild Woman of Navidad, who has baffled the search of the hunters for several years, has lately been caught by a party who were out after deer. It appears that she was a negress who fled to the wilderness after Fannin's defeat, fifteen years ago, since which time she has lived in the woods, subsisting on acorns and other wild fruits.
News from El Paso to the 31st of December, state that the Boundary Commissioners have fixed the initial point of their survey at the parallel of 32° 22' N., on the Rio Grande, a point conjectured to be about 20 miles north of El Paso. The line will run thence 3° westward, and then due north, to the Gila River. From two to three years will be required to complete the survey. The American Commission, numbering more than one hundred persons, is divided into three companies, and located at El Paso, Socorro, and the Mission of San Elizario.
The last mail from the Salt Lake, Utah Territory, reaches to the beginning of December. The settlement was then in a very prosperous condition, the weather being remarkably mild. Grain and vegetables of all kinds were very abundant, 200,000 bushels of wheat having been gathered the past season. Several saw and grist mills were in active operation, and a woollen factory and brewery were in course of erection. Large supplies of coal and iron have been discovered in the Valley of the Little Salt Lake, about 350 miles to the south-west of the Mormon settlement, and a colony has been sent there. The snows in the Timpanozu and Bear River Mountains have greatly retarded the mails between the Salt Lake and Missouri.
We have news from California to the 1st of February. The amount of gold dust shipped from San Francisco on that day and the 15th of January, was about $3,500,000. The Legislature of California convened on the 6th of January. Gov. Burnett's Message, which was transmitted on the following day, gives a general review of State affairs. A reduction of fees and salaries is recommended, and an increase of the tax on real and personal estate, in order to keep up the financial credit of the State, without recourse to foreign loans. The Governor also favors the passage of laws excluding negroes from the State, and extending the punishment of death to the crime of grand larceny. A few days subsequent to the meeting of the Legislature, Gov. Burnett tendered his resignation, and Lieut. Gov. McDougal was inaugurated as Governor the following day. A bill to remove to capital of the State from San José to Vallejo, has passed the Senate, and will probably pass the House. A bill appointing the 3d of February for the election of a U. S. Senator, has passed the House. The total debt of the State on the 15th of December last, was $485,460. If the proposed reductions in the expenses are made, the estimated balance in the Treasury at the end of June, will be $220,346, nearly half the total debt.
California has again been excited with the rumored discovery of a gold placer, far surpassing any previous account. The steamer Chesapeake, it appears, sailed from San Francisco for the Klamath River with a company of adventurers, and after an absence of two weeks, returned with news of the discovery of a beach of golden sand, on the coast, twenty-seven miles north of the mouth of Trinity River. From the fact of this beach being bounded by a bluff from one to four hundred feet in height, the name of "Gold Bluff" was given to the locality. The beach extends for a distance of six miles and is from twenty to fifty yards in width. It is a mixture of gray and black sand, through which the gold is disseminated in particles so fine that it cannot be separated with ordinary washing. This sand is constantly shifting, under the action of the waves, and at times the ocean covers the entire beach, breaking against the bluffs. The amount of gold in the sand is variously represented, at from ten cents to ten dollars. A constant surf breaks along the shore, rendering the landing in the boats impracticable except in very calm weather, while it is almost equally difficult to reach the spot by land.
An Association called the "Pacific Mining Company" was immediately formed, with a stock of 12,000 shares at $100 each. One thousand shares were sold immediately, and several vessels were put up at once for the Gold Bluff, the miners flocking from all parts of the diggings, to join in the adventure. The original stockholders, however,—about thirty in number—lay claim to the best parts of the beach, and have erected log cabins and laid in a large store of provisions, preparatory to washing the sand on an extensive scale. The reports of the richness of this locality are doubtless very greatly exaggerated.
Business in San Francisco and the inland towns and trading communities of the mountains, was remarkably dull. Goods had been sold at very low rates, in some instances lower than the first cost. The winter has been so remarkably clear and fine, that the miners—who had removed to the dry diggings, in anticipation of rain—have been greatly embarrassed in their operations. They have occupied themselves in throwing up dirt, and only await a week's rain to wash out sufficient gold to restore the trade of the country. New discoveries of gold in quartz rock continue to be made, and some of the specimens, which have been assayed, are of almost incredible richness. The mining region in the north, on the Klamath, Shaste, and Umpqua Rivers, is yielding a rich return. The agricultural capacities of this region are also highly commended.
The difficulties between the miners and the Indians continue to increase, and a general war with all the tribes of the Sierra Nevada, is threatened. The principal depredations have been committed on the Mariposa and the American Fork. The Indians are supposed to be leagued together, and to have their head-quarters near the source of the Cattee river. In consequence of a murder on Fresno Creek, a company of seventy-five Americans, under the command of Capt. Barney, attacked one of their strongholds. It was a fortified village, built on the summit of a mountain, and accessible only at one point. The battle lasted three hours, the Indians being finally driven off with the loss of sixty men. It was reported in San José that the Indians had surprised a company of seventy-two men, on Rattlesnake Creek, and murdered them all. In consequence of these occurrences, the Governor dispatched Col. Johnson to the scene of disturbance, ordered out 200 men, and applied to Gen. Smith for the assistance of the United States troops.
A large business is now done in bringing droves of sheep from New Mexico and Sonora into California. The expedition dispatched for the purpose of exploring the Colorado River has reached a point thirty miles from its mouth. Several meetings have been held in favor of constructing a railroad between San Francisco and San José, and half the stock was subscribed at the last accounts.
We have dates from Oregon to Jan. 25th. The papers speak with enthusiasm of the climate and agricultural capacities of the country. On the coldest day of January, at Portland, Oregon, the thermometer only fell to 23°. A large steamer, named the "Lot Whitcomb," has been built at Milwaukie, and was launched on Christmas Day with great ceremony, Gov. Gaines giving her the christening. She is 160 feet in length, and is to run on the Willamette River.
EUROPE.
England presents a history of more than usual interest for the past month. Parliament was opened on the 3d of February. The Queen's speech contained no decided feature beyond recommending a reform in the administration of the Courts of Equity. An excited address arose on the Parliamentary address in reply to the speech. Lord John Russell took strong grounds against the acts of the Pope, and proposed that the most stringent measures, regulating the conduct of all Catholic functionaries, should be adopted. On the 17th of February, the Chancellor of the Exchequer laid before the Commons the budget for the current year. It appears that the surplus of last year was £2,500,000, half of which the Chancellor proposed to apply to the national debt. He also proposed to abolish the window-tax, but to introduce a house-tax in its stead. Several other modifications were made, but unfavorably received; and on the 20th, on the question of a bill giving the franchise to every householder paying £10 taxes, the Ministry was left in a minority of 48 votes. After this reverse, the Cabinet, which for some time previous had been rapidly losing ground, had no alternative but to resign. It entered upon office in July, 1846, and consequently ruled for nearly five years. The resignation took effect on Saturday, Feb. 22d. The Queen at once accepted it, and sent for Lord Stanley, who declined undertaking the construction of a new Government. Her Majesty then returned to Lord John Russell, who tried unsuccessfully to induce Sir James Graham to enter the Ministry. Lord Aberdeen was then summoned and Lord Stanley a second time, but no arrangement could be made. Finally, a meeting of the resigned Ministry was held on the 28th, and it was rumored that a new Cabinet would be formed from the old one, substituting Sir James Graham in the place of Lord John Russell. Another report is, that the Queen intends to advise with the Duke of Wellington, in relation to the crisis.
During this interregnum, very little has been done in Parliament. On a motion of D'Israeli, involving the principle of free trade, the Government only carried its point by a majority of 14 in a full House. The House of Lords has rejected the bill allowing marriage with a deceased wife's sister, its principal opponents being the Bishops, who resisted it on religious grounds. The anti-papal agitation is still kept up, but in a less violent form. The great Crystal Palace in Hyde Park is now completed, and the throng of visitors is very great. Contributions are continually arriving from all quarters of the world.
In France the President's influence appears to be on the decline. Having sent into the National Assembly his demand for a donation of $360,000 in addition to the salary provided for him in the Constitution, it was lost after a sharp debate, by a majority of 102. A national subscription to relieve the President from his pecuniary embarrassments, was proposed, but this he declined, preferring to reduce his private expenses. A sale of his horses, however, did not bring more than half their cost.
A number of Diplomatic changes have been made. Among the appointments are: Gen. Aupick, Ambassador to England; Lavalette, to Constantinople; M. de Sartiges, to the United States; M. Bourboulon, to China; M. de Saint-Georges, to Brazil, &c. The National Assembly has accomplished nothing of importance. The subjects of Labor and Agriculture have been discussed, but without reaching any conclusion. The third anniversary of the Republic was celebrated throughout all parts of France, with the greatest enthusiasm. The manifestations of republican sentiment were so sincere and so universal, that the Orleanists and Legitimists were struck dumb. At the latest dates, it was rumored that they were about forming a union, on the basis of the restoration of Henry V., acknowledging the Count de Paris as his successor. The Ex-Queen is said to have joined this movement, though the Duchess of Orleans will not consent to postpone the claims of her son.
Germany is still in a fog. The Dresden Conference has not yet been able to bring order out of the chaos. The reconstitution of the Central German Power was partly agreed on, each Government taking the Presidency by turns. Austria, however, claimed the Presidency without alternation. Prussia thereupon refused to sanction the installation of a Central Power until all the German Governments have stated their views concerning the revision of the Constitution of the Diet. A return to the old form of the Diet is recommended in many quarters, as the sole means of restoring harmony; but the prospect of a settlement which shall be generally acceptable, is as far off as ever. The Prussian Assembly was, at the last accounts, engaged in discussing a new law for the censorship of the Press.
Switzerland is menaced with a war on the part of the German Powers, for the purpose of recovering for Prussia the Canton of Neufchatel. It is stated that the Confederation will shortly march an army to the Swiss frontier: they have been restrained, up to the present time, by the fear of exposing themselves to revolution at home. England it is rumored will strongly oppose such a movement. The Federal Council of Switzerland has issued a decree, prohibiting French refugees from residing in the cantons on the French frontiers. The number of political refugees in the country amounts to about 500, large numbers having been sent to England and the United States, at the expense of the Federal Government.
Italy is in a state of great alarm, in relation to Mazzini and his revolutionary designs. It is stated that he has raised a loan of more than two millions of francs, and is maturing his plan for an outbreak which shall sweep the whole Italian peninsula. Garibaldi (who is at present on Staten Island, near New-York) is reported to be on the coast with a large naval force. These rumors are made the pretext of an increase of the Austrian force in Italy. The forces of Piedmont are being put upon a war footing, in order to be ready for any emergency. It was stated, in Turin, on the 24th of February, that the German Powers have demanded of the Piedmontese government, the suppression of the liberty of the press, and reconciliation of the Court of Rome.
The bands of robbers which infest the mountains, in the Papal States, have been dislodged from some of their strongholds, by the united Austrian and Roman forces. A party of thirty of these brigands took possession of the town of Forlini-Popoli, and plundered the inhabitants, who were at the time congregated in the theatre of the place. In the island of Corsica, a robber named Mazoni has, for 18 months past, held possession of a fortified town called Ile-Rousse, with a population of 1,000 inhabitants. He communicates with the agents of the Government, his dispatches being drawn up in regular style, and signed "Mazoni, Bandit." Archbishop Hughes is still preaching in Rome, and it is said that he either has been or shortly will be made Cardinal.
The Government of Naples has completed its work of persecution. From twenty to thirty men, some of noble rank, some formerly Ministers of State, have been condemned to the prison or the galley. Of 140 Deputies, eighty-five are in various ways victims: twenty-four have been shut up in prison, unheard of for two years; and sixty-one are refugees.
The thirteenth Storthing (National Congress) of Norway, was opened on the 11th of February by King Oscar in person. Among other things, he recommended the construction of a railroad from the City of Christiana to Lake Miösen.
From Turkey we learn that Gen. Dembinski has reached Constantinople. All the refugees have left Shumla, and 240 persons, chiefly Poles, had sailed from Constantinople on their way to America. Kossuth, with 300 Hungarians, still remains at Kutahya, where a very strict guard is maintained over all his movements. He is not allowed to communicate with his friends. A sale of Gen. Bem's effects was held at Aleppo on the 23d of January, and enormous prices were paid for trifles of all kinds, as relics. The troubles at Bagdad and Aleppo have been subdued. A difficulty arose between the Porte and Abbas Pacha, Viceroy of Egypt, in relation to a retrenchment of the expenditures of the latter. At one time a war was anticipated, but our latest dates announce that the difference has been adjusted.
BRITISH AMERICA.
Mr. Howe, the Commissioner dispatched to England from Nova Scotia, writes from London that his mission on behalf of the Portland and Halifax Railroad will prove successful. A serious disturbance has taken place on the Great Western Railroad, near Hamilton, Canada West, 900 laborers having made a strike for higher wages. As they menaced the peace of the neighborhood, the inhabitants called on the executive for the aid of the troops to assist the civil authorities.
A large anti-slavery meeting was held at Toronto, on the 28th of February. Its avowed object is to furnish sympathy and aid to the American fugitives. A large class of persons, however, including the Government officials, are opposed to the movement. The Free School system is becoming popular in Canada, and is already partially adopted in the District of Toronto.
MEXICO.
We have news from the Mexican capital to the 15th of February. The country was remarkably quiet, the revolts in Chiapas and Guanajuato having been completely quelled. Congress has done nothing of importance. Señor Lacunza has declined the post of Minister to England, which has been given to Señor Payno, who has resigned the office of Minister of Justice. Munguia, the refractory Bishop of Michoacan, has given in his submission to the Government. President Arista is engaged in arranging an active plan of operations with his Cabinet, and favorable predictions are made in regard to the effects of his administration.
On the 16th of February, the City of Chihuahua was thrown into great alarm by the rumor that thirty American adventurers, leagued with a large body of Indians, armed with two field-pieces, were encamped at a short distance. The troops were ordered out, but could not find such a force, though the existence of a company of robbers among the mountains, headed by an American, was well ascertained. Great depredations are committed in the City of Mexico. On the 3d of February, eight armed men appeared on the public promenade, and plundered a large number of persons. The affairs of Yucatan are in a desperate condition. The treasury is exhausted, and the army called out against the Indians is without money or means to carry on the war.
CENTRAL AMERICA.
A war between the Central Government of Guatemala on one side, and the allied States of Honduras and San Salvador, has broken out. This rupture was occasioned by the British blockade of the Pacific ports of the latter States, which they attribute to the instigation of Guatemala. A joint army of 6000 men was raised for the protection of the frontier. The inhabitants of the mountain provinces of Guatemala, who are nearly all in favor of the Federal Union of the Central American States, sympathized with this movement, and large bodies of deserters from Carrera's forces joined the allied army. A plot of Carrera to excite a revolt in San Salvador was completely defeated. At the last accounts, the two armies had met near Chiquimula. One statement announces the total defeat of the allied forces by Carrera, while another says the former obtained possession of Chiquimula; and that the only victory gained by Carrera was over a company of deserters from his own ranks, near the village of San Geronimo.
In the State of Nicaragua, the chain of communication from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is nearly completed. The engineers have nearly finished the survey of a road from Rio Lagæ, on the western shore of the Lake, to the port of San Juan del Sur on the Pacific, a distance of twelve miles. Small boats are now building to run on the San Juan River, and it is expected that the transit from sea to sea will be made in twenty-four hours, and the journey from New-York to San Francisco in twenty-four days.
THE WEST INDIES.
On the 3d of March, Havana was in the midst of the Carnival, and given up to gayety of all kinds. The Captain General, Concha, has made himself exceedingly popular by his liberal measures, and it was rumored that he intended visiting Spain for the purpose of procuring further reforms in the government of the Island. Miss Fredrika Bremer was on a visit to Matanzas. The cholera has broken out at Cardenas, and there have been many fatal cases among the crews in the harbor and the negroes on shore.
This scourge is still prevailing in many parts of Jamaica, having made its appearance in some districts a second time with increased malignity.
In Hayti, the threatened war on the Dominicans has not been undertaken. The United States Government is interfering actively in the alleged imprisonment, without cause, of Captain Mayo, of the American brig Leander. The evidence in the case has been transmitted to the Emperor.
The inhabitants of Georgetown, Grand Caymanas, are digging up the beach around a certain inlet of the island, in search of a treasure supposed to have been buried by the pirate Gibbs. Several flat stones, marked with cabalistic letters, have been discovered, but no gold.
SOUTH AMERICA.
The workmen on the Panama Railroad are now engaged in laying the rails from Navy Bay to Gatun, a distance of three and a half miles. The first locomotive was landed on the 22d of February. A new steamer has been placed on the Chagres River, to run between Chagres and Gorgona, and another is building at Navy Bay for the same purpose, to form a daily line. The attention of Americans on the Isthmus is at present attracted towards the auriferous region of New Grenada, in the provinces of Choco and Antioquia, lying between the Pacific and the Magdalena River. About three hundred and fifty persons, principally Frenchmen, are engaged in working the Buenaventura mines, which yield from two to three ounces per day to each man. A severe shock of an earthquake was felt at Carthagena on the 7th of February.
In Venezuela, the new President, Monagas, has been inaugurated; the country is quiet and prosperous.
The Presidential Election in Peru has terminated in favor of Echinique. Congress was to meet on the 20th of March.
One or two partial insurrections have occurred in Bolivia, and a decree has been issued for the banishment of all Buenos Ayreans, who were not married to Bolivian females. It is believed that the difficulty between Brazil and the Argentine Republic will be settled without war.
ASIA.
Late news from Canton announce the death of Commissioner Lin, who seized the English opium in 1839. Murders and piracy are on the increase in the Indian seas, notwithstanding the alleged severity of the Chinese authorities.
The British surveying ship Herald has arrived at Singapore, from the Arctic regions, bringing a rumor of news in relation to Sir John Franklin. Near the extreme station of the Russian Fur Company, the officers of the Herald learned from the natives that a party of white men had been encamped three or four hundred miles inland, that the Russians had made an attempt to supply them with provisions and necessaries, but had been prevented by the natives. No communication could be opened with the spot where they were said to be, as a hostile tribe intervened. The Esquimaux confirmed this rumor, with the addition that the whites had been murdered in a quarrel with the natives.
MISCELLANEOUS.
M. Xavier Raymond, a practised and accredited author, has begun a series of essays in the Paris Journal des Debats, on the British and American Steam Navigation Companies: historical details, statistics, modes of forming, organization—comparison. He agrees with our Secretary of the Navy, that it is better for government to subsidize companies, and partly or mainly rely upon them for war-steamers, than to build and maintain a steam-fleet for itself, at greater cost, and with no superiority of adaptation for belligerent service. He admits that this plan would not find grace with the European Ministers of Marine; but, for them, circumstances are different. The report of the Secretary has been received here as able and satisfactory. M. Raymond observes that, notwithstanding the amount of subsidies granted in England and America, to various Companies of Steam Navigation, he knows but one among those which operate on a line of more than five hundred leagues that is in a prosperous condition. This may be a mistake.
The Paris Moniteur contains a very curious and interesting biography, by an able hand, Dr. Parise, of Dr. Joseph Ignatius Guillotin, the inventor of the famous instrument of decapitation called after him. His character was benevolent, and his design humane. This is now realized. He proposed his machine (not altogether original, but improved laboriously) in 1789: a report was ordered on it, by the Legislative Assembly in 1792; and on the 21st August of that year, it was first used for a political execution. It gave occasion for numberless effusions of verse at his expense. No one experienced more horror at the abuse of it, than he uniformly testified. Seventy-six physicians and surgeons perished under its slider. He rescued as many intended victims as he possibly could. He was finally arrested himself, for execution; by some chance he escaped, and then withdrew, in despair, from the political theatre.
We noticed lately the death of the Italian Professor Sarti, whose anatomical museum was exhibited last year in Broadway. The library of the deceased professor was being sold at Rome, when the police came in and stopped the sale. Among his books were twenty-one volumes of manuscript correspondence between the governments of Rome and Venice, from the time of Pope Paul Caraffa downwards. Monsignor Molsa, a great friend of the late professor, knowing of these volumes, which were in cipher, with their interpretations, hastened to tell Cardinal Antonelli, who dispatched orders just in time to save the secrets of the state from further exposure. Sarti died in Liverpool.
The Fine Arts.
The present king of Prussia, great and glaring as are his faults as a politician, deserves the credit of doing a great deal for the advancement of art and the decoration of his capital and residence, Berlin. He is building there a new metropolitan church which is expected to be a splendid edifice, and will be such as far as the most lavish expenditure of money can make it. He has just completed a New Museum to contain the large and excellent collections of Egyptian antiquities (including those brought home by Prof. Lepsius), of the antiquities of the middle ages, of Slavonic and Germanic relics, of plaster casts from the antique, the collection known as the "Copper-Plate Cabinet," &c., &c., all of which have heretofore been most inconveniently arranged for inspection in the Old Museum and in various royal palaces, or else packed away somewhere out of sight. This edifice was designed by the architect Stüler; its foundations were laid in 1843, and its interior has just been completed with a luxury, variety, and extent of ornament, in the mosaic work of the floors, and the decorations of the walls and ceiling, which are not equalled by any other public building. Among the artists employed in these decorations are the sculptors Wredow, Gramzow, Stürmer, Schievelbein, and Berges; here, too, is to be seen Kaulbach's great series of frescoes, of which the Babel is already finished, and the Destruction of Jerusalem nearly so. The landscape painters Græb, Pape, Biermann, Schirmer, Max Schmidt, contribute a great number of frescoes of Egyptian and oriental subjects. A critic in the Grenzboten who eulogizes the beauties both of design and execution in the separate parts of the edifice, still says, and we think not without reason, that it does not form a united and organic whole. He says, too, that in it the old works are rather used as decorations for the architecture than the latter as a setting for them; "I cannot avoid the impression that here the old monuments of art are not the end, but the means to the execution of the great edifice of modern times in which it is sought to embody the entire encyclopædistic, historical experience in art belonging to the present epoch."
Another edifice which this prince intends as a monument of his reign, is the new Campo Santo, or burial-place for members of the royal family, which he is erecting at Berlin. This building, which will surround a court where are the tombs, is to be ornamented with frescoes by the eminent painter Cornelius. This artist has just completed the third great cartoon for these frescoes. Its subject is the Resurrection. Its place is on the right of the "Heavenly Jerusalem" and opposite to the "Four sides of the Apocalypse," which is on the left of the "Downfall of Babylon." Thus on one side of the hall is represented the destruction of Evil, on the other the triumph of the Good. The Resurrection, which has been changed somewhat from the original design, is described as follows: On a rock is seen an angel in a position of repose, with the book of life and death unopened on his lap, his right hand grasping the sword of justice. His face is thoughtful and sublimely earnest. On the left are figures full of terror and despair, on the right all is heavenly joy and satisfaction. In the centre is a re-united family animated by the delight of meeting again. At the side of this family are two girls and above them three youths, noble and beautiful persons. The faces of the maidens are turned upward, illuminated by the eternal light of heaven. On the same side of the family are three persons advanced in age, one woman and two men, waiting in pious hope and submission for the decision of the judge; on the other side, a little higher, three figures seek and find that salvation is theirs; a youth whose foot reaches back among the condemned is drawn mildly forth by an angel, and beside him is a tender maiden with her young brother in her arms, whom she holds lovingly, as she follows the celestial messenger. The group on which Justice sorrowfully fulfils its office, occupies about a quarter of the canvas; it consists of two youthful and two more aged figures. On a height a woman wrings her hands in the anguish of remorse, while another gazes in despair upon the ground. A youth lies backward leaning on his right hand, shading his eyes with his left as if not to see the approach of destruction. The older pair, a man and woman, have thrown themselves to the earth; the woman hides her face in her hands, the man, leaning on his elbows, tears his hair with his hands; his face expresses the consciousness of a sin which can find no forgiveness. The artist has aimed throughout to convey the idea that salvation and damnation are not inflicted or conferred upon the persons, but are the result of the inward state of each soul and conscience. The angel with the book of life and death can announce no sentence which has not already been pronounced by the very being to which it refers. The execution of the whole is spoken of as sublime and grandiose.
The well-known German painter, Hiltensperger, has received the commission to design and partly to execute for the new imperial palace at St. Petersburg (an edifice destined to serve as a museum of antique art) a series of paintings, representing the history of art among the Greeks and Romans. A part of the designs are already completed, and receive the warm praise of those to whom they have been exhibited. In order to avoid the monotony which seems inherent in the subject, he represents the peculiarities of each artist introduced by a symbolic picture; for instance, the inventor of battle pictures is designated by a picture of that sort; the discoverer of an effect of light, by a boy blowing a fire, &c. Historical epochs and their transitions are denoted by allegorical figures, like day and night.
An old picture has been discovered in the city of Hanover which seems to be proved a genuine Leonardo Da Vinci. It is known that Leonardo, as well as Zenale and the French artist Bourgogne, was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, on occasion of the birth of his twin sons, to paint a picture glorifying the mother (Beatrice D'Este) and the event. Zenale and Bourgogne resorted to the Christian narrative, and represented the Duchess as the Virgin, and her two sons as the Saviour and John the Baptist; Leonardo, on the other hand, took his frame-work from the Greek mythology, and painted Leda and the Dioscures. The picture was greatly admired at the time, though that the figure of the Duchess of Milan should be represented nude was thought rather bad even then. The picture soon disappeared, and Vasari says that in his time it was no longer in existence, or else was probably at Fontainebleau. Other writers say it is in other places, but plainly none of them know any thing about it. The present picture was bought about five years since at an auction by a gentleman of Hanover. The conception and treatment agree perfectly with the original descriptions of Leonardo's work, while the coloring, drawing, and expression are pronounced altogether his.
The Art-Union At Vienna opened its galleries to the public of that pleasure-loving city during December last, and more than two thousand persons visited them daily. The best pictures were by the Düsseldorf artists Tidemann and Achenbach. The Religious Service of the Haugians, by the first, is said by one critic to overwhelm the spectator by its spirit of earnest piety, before it allows him to admire the incomparable art of its execution. The members of the sect are represented as assembled in a simple room, which is lighted from above. The light is modified by the dust which is caused by the crowd. Simple grandeur, adds the writer, makes this picture one of the most remarkable productions of modern art. It was sold for 2400 florins, or about 1000 dollars. Achenbach's landscape Venner Lake in Sweden, was also greatly admired; its price was 1800 florins. Hübner's Emigrants and Hasenclever's Pastor's Family were also favorites. Among the Vienna artists Führichs carried off the palm in this exhibition. He is a historical painter.
The Gazette of Cremona states, that a very splendid picture by Raffaelle has been brought to light in that city by a learned connoisseur, who, of course, would part with the priceless gem for a fixed sum! The composition portrays the Virgin worshipping the Infant Saviour, with St. Joseph in the back-ground. The Art Journal altogether discredits the story we translated from the German for the last International respecting a picture by Michael Angelo, said to have been discovered in London.
Letters from Rome speak in high terms of an alto relievo monument just modelled there by the German sculptor Steinhauser for a family in Philadelphia. The monument was designed to commemorate two sisters and a brother, and to be erected in a chapel built specially for the purpose. The artist has represented the three persons as gently sleeping, in a partially sitting posture, at the foot of a cross. The elder sister leans against the cross, and clasps the younger sister with one arm and the brother with the other. This sister is made the personation of Love, the younger of Faith, with one hand on an open book, and the boy of Hope, bearing a pomegranate flower in his hand. Above them floats the angel of the resurrection. The figures are of the size of life, and are said happily to combine the classical antique in form with Christian sentiment in expression. The whole is to be executed in marble, and surrounded with a frame-work of Gothic architecture. The work was awarded to Steinhauser as the result of a public competition, in which Crawford was one of the participants.
Adolf Schrödter, one of the first painters of the Düsseldorf School, has just produced a series of nine colored sketches by way of illustrations to a poem of A. von Marens entitled "The Court of Wine." He represents King Wine as leading a triumphal march enthroned on a wine-press, wreathed with vine leaves and drawn with grape vines by jolly vintagers of every age and sex. Behind follow as chamberlains a band of coopers, a jester dancing on a cask, and a troop of gay youths full of all "quips and cranks and youthful wiles." Then come, represented by most happily conceived figures, the German rivers on whose shores are the world-famous vineyards whose names make epicures smack their lips; then the German impersonations of Saus and Braus, or Joviality and Good Living; after them a troop of cooks, and next a queer company of dancers. We see a poet crowned with vine leaves, a tipsy-happy Capuchin monk and a jester laughing at him. The series closes with a love-scene, broken in upon by a watchman armed with a big spit hung with herrings, beer-cans, sausages, and other furniture of a German restaurant. The whole are treated with that affluence of national humor for which Schrödter is unequalled.
Mr. Hill, a retired clergyman residing near the Cattskill mountains, where he has given his leisure to the study of photography, after numerous experiments, has succeeded in obtaining colored pictures of extraordinary beauty. Portraits and landscapes, by his process, are said to be as fresh and vivid in color as those produced by the best camera obscura. The subject is an interesting one, and will have an important bearing upon the arts. We have noticed it more fully under the head of Scientific Miscellany.
Mr. Hackett, or Baron Hackett, as we believe he is entitled to be called, is now in England. We have seen no announcements of his appearance in the theatres, but believe that like Macready, he had engagements, and was to make a "last appearance" in London during the present season. As the originator of the line of Yankee characters, he has, like the originators of almost every thing else, seen others step in and divide the palm with him. As an artist, he is more finished than his competitors, and as a general actor he is above all comparison with them. They confine themselves to one range of characters, he shows a versatility of talent, and goes through a variety which it requires some genius to conceive, as well as mere talent at imitation. His Falstaff—though we cannot concede it to be exactly the character drawn by Shakspeare—is the best delineation in its way given by any actor now on the stage, and his Monsieur Mallet is in all respects admirable.
The Statue of Giovanni Di Medici, by Baccio Bandinelli, has just been placed on its pedestal in the place before the church of San Lorenzo at Florence. It is three hundred years since this statue was made, and during all this time it has been kept in the great council hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, while its proper pedestal has been vacant. It represents Giovanni (the famous leader of the bande nere, or black bands, the Bayard of Italy, and the father of Cosmo I., the first Grand Duke of Florence) in a sitting posture, with the commander's baton in his hand. It is of little value as a work of art.
Lortzing, the eminent German composer of operas, who died lately, left behind him only four Prussian thalers, or $3, on which his family had to exist a week. This was his sole property aside from music-books and a little furniture. And yet during his life he was a great favorite of the German people, and could not justly be called a spendthrift.
A very interesting series of lectures, by Henry James, George W. Curtis, Parke Godwin, and Mr. Huntington, was delivered before the artists of New-York, at the hall of the Academy of Fine Arts, in January and February. The ability displayed in the lectures, and the interest they excited, will induce measures for another course of the same kind next year.
A suggestion for extending the Triennial Exhibition of the works of Belgian artists, which opens at Brussels in August of the present year, to the painters and sculptors of all nations, has been discussed in that city.
A colossal statue of Wallace has recently been finished by a Mr. Patrick Park, at Edinburgh. It was publicly uncovered in the presence of a large party, composed in part of a regiment of Highlanders.
Noticing Brady, Lester, and Davignon's Gallery of Illustrious Americans, the London Spectator observes:
"In no people do the chief men appear as more thoroughly incarnate of the national traits; each outwardly a several Americanism. Here we have the massive potency of Daniel Webster,—on whose ponderous brow and fixed abashing eyes is set the despotism of intellect; Silas Wright,—a well-grown and cultivated specimen of the ordinary statesman; Henry Clay and Col. Fremont,—two halves of the perfected go-ahead spirit; the first shrewd, not to be evaded, knowing; the second impassable to obstacles and alive only to the thing to be done. The heads are finely and studiously lithographed from daguerreotypes by Brady, and suffice to show how utterly fallacious is the notion that character is lost in this process."
A portrait of the author of Don Quixotte, after a painting by Velasquez, has been discovered in Paris, and has created some sensation, as none of the portraits of the great Spanish poet hitherto existing were considered very authentic. The renown of Cervantes being not fairly established till after his death, little pains were taken to preserve his features during lifetime. His portrait had been painted by Pacheco; but there existed but a poor copy of this, and it was from this copy that all engravings have been taken. The hope, therefore, of possessing a portrait of the poet by such a man as Velasquez, is cheering; and there are some facts which go far enough to prove the thorough authenticity of that now discovered.
The Exhibition of the British Institution was opened to private view, in London, on the 8th of February, and to the public on the Monday following. The number of works in painting and sculpture amounts to 548, and, as a whole, the Exhibition is considered as scarcely up to the average.
Of French Taste we have a new illustration in the fact that M. de Triqueti, the sculptor, has completed a statue of Our Saviour, six and a half feet high, for one of the decorations of the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.
The late railway works, undertaken near Prague, in Bohemia, have brought to light a great number of objects which may constitute a new species of European art, we mean that if the Czecho-Slaves before the introduction of Christianity. Some of the ancient sculptures found relate to the Slavian goddess Ziwa, most undoubtedly analogous to the Indian Siwa.
Mr. S. S. Osgood has recently completed several very admirable portraits, one of which is of himself, and painted with remarkable ability. Another is of Mary E. Hewitt, one of our most respected literary women, whose fine face is reflected with equal fidelity and felicity from Mr. Osgood's canvas.
Record of Scientific Discovery.
Photography.—Two alleged improvements in Photography have laid claim to public attention: one the product of France, the other of the United States. The French discovery was recently communicated to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, by M. Blanquart-Evrard, and consists in a mode of whitening the sides of the camera, and also the interior of the tube, to which opticians have hitherto been accustomed to give a coating of black. By the new improvement, it is claimed, a saving of one-half is effected in the time required to produce a picture, beside the additional advantages of increased uniformity of action, and less necessity for a powerful light, together with less resistance from red, yellow and green rays. The plan has been experimented upon with success both in France and England. The second and latest invention is the Hillotype; so-called, in the absence of a better name, from Mr. L. L. Hill, of Greene Co., N. Y., who claims the discovery of a process, whereby photographic impressions can be produced with the complete colors of nature. It is stated that a number of successful experiments have established the practicability of the new plan, and that landscapes, sunset-scenes, portraits, &c., have been produced with marvellous fidelity. We shall presently know more of these asseverations. As yet, the entire process is concealed, and, as in certain other instances, may never come to light.
The London Society of Arts.—In a paper by Mr. Murchison, read before the London Society of Arts, we find an interesting account of the origin and early history of that distinguished body. Efforts having been perseveringly made for the establishment of an institution for the promotion of the arts, sciences, and manufactures of the kingdom, the Society of Arts was finally organized in London, in the year 1754, under the auspices of Lord Rodney and other prominent persons. The success of this organization was encouraging and signal. Subscriptions poured in upon it, and a large number of members were soon enrolled. Premiums were then established; the first being one of £30 for the discovery of pure cobalt, and another of the same amount for the cultivation of madder. The progress of the Society from that period to the present has been uniformly encouraging, and it now ranks among the foremost scientific institutions of the day.
An anecdote of the artist Barry, some of whose best works adorn the walls of the Society's Rooms, is related in connection with this accompt. Barry being in distress, the sum of £1200 was subscribed by the members for his relief, and with this amount it was determined to procure for him a life annuity. The funds were so applied; the payment of the annuity to Barry being confided to the father of the late Sir Robert Peel. After the receipt of the first quarter of the first year, however, the artist died. The balance of the purchase money was absorbed in the coffers of Sir Robert.
Gold.—M. Fremy, successor to Gay-Lussac in the chair of chemistry at the Garden of Plants, Paris, has submitted to the French Academy the results of his Chemical Researches on Gold. It was considered important to these researches to study the combinations of the oxides of gold with the alkalis so extensively employed in gilding. The aurates were easily produced, but it was impossible to obtain the combination of alkalis and the protoxide of gold. Auric acid was produced by boiling the perchlaide of gold with excess of potash, precipitating the auric acid by sulphuric acid, and purifying the former by solution in concentrated nitric acid; afterward precipitating by means of water and washing the auric acid until the liquor contained no trace of nitric acid. The auric acid combines immediately with potash and soda. Mr. Fremy promises an examination of the question whether gold is able, in combining with oxygen, to form a salifiable base, as has been asserted. The present experiment was undertaken mainly in reference to its use in electro-gilding.
Light and Heat.—Prof. Moigno lately presented to the French Academy a memoir on the experiments of Neeft, in Frankfort, on the development of Light and Heat in the galvanic circuit. M. Moigno witnessed these experiments in person, and considers it proved, first, that light always appears at the negative pole, and that this primitive light is independent of combustion; second, that the source of the heat is properly the positive poles, and that this heat is originally dark heat; thirdly, that light and heat do not unite at the instant of evolution, but only after the intensity of each has reached a certain point; from this union ensue the phenomena of flame and combustion.
Chinese Coal.—A late number of the Chinese Repository contains some notices of Coal in China, by Dr. D. J. Macgowan, in which occur a number of curious and interesting facts. Coal deposits are found to exist throughout the mountain ranges which girt the great plain of China; but unskilful mining and the difficulty of transportation enhance its cost and limit the consumption, so that it is little used except for culinary and manufacturing purposes. The best comes from Pingting-chau in Shánsí; the quality most in demand in central China is called the Kwang coal, and is brought from various districts in Húnán. Numerous varieties are produced in the province of Kiangsú—slaty, cannel, bituminous and anthracite. This portion of the mineral wealth of China is computed at nearly six millions of dollars. The scarcity of the supply is owing not to the poverty of the mines, but chiefly to the want of facilities for mining, which can alone be supplied by the steam-engine.
Water of the Ocean.—The results of observations on the different Chemical Conditions of Water, at the Surface of the Ocean and at the Bottom, on Soundings, have been communicated by Mr. A. A. Hayes, State Assayer of Massachusetts; who states, that while pursuing the subject of copper corrosion at the surface of the ocean, he was some years since led to examine samples of copper, which had remained some time at the bottom of the ocean. He found that copper and bronze, and even a brass compound, from the bottom, were thickly incrusted with a sulphuret of copper, frequently found in crystallized layers, having a constant chemical composition, entirely free from chlorine or oxygen, the corroding agents of the surface. Specimens of copper and bronze from mud and clay at different depths, and in one instance from clean sand below a powerful rapid, gave thick layers of sulphuret of copper, or copper and tin. Instances of the corrosion of silver are also adduced. Mr. Hayes concludes that the waters from the land, which are never destitute of organic matter in a changing state, exert a very important influence in causing the differences of chemical condition in the ocean. Organic matter, he argues, dissolved from the surface of the earth, or from rocks percolating the strata, assumes a state in which it powerfully attracts oxygen; and waters holding this matter in solution readily decompose sulphates of lime and soda even when partially exposed to atmospheric air.
The Asteroids.—A letter from Prof. Lewis R. Gibbs, of the Charleston Observatory, given in the Charleston Evening News, enumerates thirteen Kuam Asteroids; three having been discovered during the past year. The following Table gives their names in order of discovery, date of discovery, name and residence of discoverer, and the mean distances of the Asteroids from the sun, that of the earth being called 1:
| Name. | Date. | Discov'r. | Place. | M. Dist. | |
| 1. | Ceres | 1801, Jan. 1 | Piazzi, | Palermo | 2,766 |
| 2. | Pallas | 1802, Mar. 28 | Olbers, | Bremen | 2,772 |
| 3. | Juno | 1804, Sept. 1 | Harding, | Lilienthal | 2,671 |
| 4. | Vesta | 1807, Mar. 29 | Olbers, | Bremen | 2,361 |
| 5. | Astræa | 1845, Dec. 8 | Hencke, | Driessen | 2,420 |
| 6. | Hebe | 1847, July 1 | Hencke, | Driessen | 2,420 |
| 7. | Iris | 1847, Aug. 13 | Hind, | London | 2,385 |
| 8. | Flora | 1847, Oct. 18 | Hind, | London | 2,202 |
| 9. | Metis | 1848, April 25 | Graham, | Markree | 2,386 |
| 10. | Hygeia | 1849, April 12 | Gasparis, | Naples | 3,122 |
| 11. | Parthenope | 1850, May 11 | Gasparis, | Naples | 2,440 |
| 12. | Clio | 1850, Sept. 13 | Hind, | London | 2,330 |
| 13. | Not named | 1850, Nov. 2 | Gasparis, | Naples | Unk'wn |
It appears that of these thirteen Asteroids, three have been discovered by Hind of London, three by Gasparis of Naples, two by Hencke of Driessen, two by Olbers of Bremen, while Piazzi of Palermo, Harding of Lilienthal, and Graham of Markree, have each discovered one. Eight out of the twelve orbits ascertained have an inclination of less than ten degrees. The London Athenæum states that the Lalande Medal of the Paris Academy of Sciences has been awarded to M. de Gasparis for his discovery of the planet Hygeia. The prize for 1850 was shared between Gasparis for his two discoveries in November, and Mr. Hind for his discovery of Clio on the 13th of September.
Geology of Spain.—A late number of the Journal of the British Geological Society contains an interesting and valuable paper by Don Joaquin Ezquerra Del Bayo, on the Geology of Spain. The Geological constitution of the country is stated to consist of three principal divisions—the Crystalline, Transition, and Secondary formations. The gneiss rocks of the first division occupy about a fifth of the surface of the soil, extending longitudinally from north to south. The plutonic rocks which penetrate them are generally granite of various degrees of firmness. The most important of the granitic ramifications to the east passes by the Sierra de Gridos, Sierra d'Avila, and the Guadarrama, to Soma Sierra, in a north-east direction. The great granitic outburst of Truxillo and of the mountains of Toledo does not extend so far to the east. A third, which has probably given its present form to the Sierra Morena, terminates at Linares, in the province of Jaen. The rocks are not rich in useful metals compared with their great development, but lead and copper are found in great quantities in the district of Linares, and rich argentiferous veins have been lately discovered at Hiendeleucina. Other veins have become exhausted. The successive formations of the country present some curious features. "Our soil," says Don Joaquin, "has never been at rest, nor is it so even at present. Earthquakes are still often felt at Granada, and along the coast of the province of Alicante, where their effects have been disastrous." Among the numerous fossils found upon the coast of Spain are some species of mollusca of an extraordinary size, and in the vicinity of Cuevas de Vera the remains of elephants have been found, isolated and distributed in different directions, proving the existence of a more tropical climate in former times than now prevails in those districts.
In the Paris Academy of Sciences an extended Report was read at a recent meeting from a committee on M. Rochet d'Hericourt's third journey in Abyssinia, in the northern part. He started in 1847, and returned in 1849. In Geography he determined directly, by observation of the meridian heights of the sun, the latitude of a large number of geographical points in Egypt, in Arabia Petræa, along the coasts of the Red Sea, and in the north of Abyssinia. His meteorological observations were constant, and are pronounced especially exact. So, those of the magnetic inclination. The results are furnished in the Report. He attended closely and successfully to the geology of the regions which he traversed. The geological constitution of Abyssinia is now made known over the greater part of its surface. The herbary which the traveller brought to the Museum of Natural History, consists of 150 species, the most of them, however, of plants already known. Three new ones are described. He succeeded in getting home a sheep of Abyssinia, remarkable for the long hairs of its fleece. Some of his specimens of fish are new. Much attention is given to his new species of Epeira, or silk-spider. At the sight of the silk which forms the web of the insect, he conceived the hope that it might be turned to account for the silk-manufacture. It is very fine and soft, long and firm enough, and of a beautiful yellow color. This spider inhabits the large trees, shrubbery, and hedges, and extends its webs to the neighboring habitations; and the webs are nearly all more than a yard in diameter. The quantity is prodigious. "M. d'Hericourt," says the Report, "like every person who has attempted tissues with spiders' webs or cocoons, has not sufficiently regarded the difficulty of domesticating them, as is done with the silk-worm, in order to multiply them adequately, and provide them with such insects of prey, or sufficient nourishment." The Committee proposed the formal thanks of the Academy to the traveller, for the scientific harvest of his new journey, and an expression of the interest felt in the speedy publication of his narrative.
Shooting-Stars.—M. Quetelet states, in relation to the Shooting-Stars of August, 1850, that the number per hour on the evening of the 9th of August was about 60 for Brussels; on the evening of the 10th, 111 for Brussels, 180 for Markree, Ireland, and 58 for Rome. The direction was the same in each place.
Recent Deaths.
Death of an Officer of Louis XV.'s Mousquetaires.—The Journal de Francfort states that Viscount Frederic Adolphe de Gardinville, of Athies, mousquetaire gris in the service of Louis XV., and knight of the order of St. Louis, has just died, aged 113, at his country house, near Homburg. This officer was born on the twenty-eighth of January, 1738, and had retired to Homburg after the dissolution of the army of the Condé.
The Rev. John Ogilby, D.D., of New-York, died in Paris on the second of February. He was rector of St. Mark's church, in the Bowery, and had been for nine years professor of Ecclesiastical History in the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His health had been impaired for several years, and he had visited Europe in the hope that change of climate and associations would improve it.
The venerable and accomplished George Thomson, the correspondent of Burns, died recently in Leith Links, at the advanced age of ninety-two. Mr. Thomson's early connection with the poet Burns is universally known, and his collection of Scottish Songs, for which many of Burns's finest pieces were originally written, has been before the public for more than half a century. His letters to the poet are incorporated with all the large editions of Burns, and the greater portion of them will be included in the new life by Chambers.
The Emir Bechir, who, during fifty years, played so important a part in Syria, died lately at Kaoi-keni, a village on the Bosphorus. His eldest son, Halib, and younger son, Emir, who had both embraced Islamism, died a few days before him. Izzet Pasha is appointed Governor of Damascus.
Dr. Leuret, the physician of Bicêtre, who is well-known to the scientific world by his profound works on mental derangement and the anatomy of the brain, died on the sixth of January, at Nancy, his birthplace, after a long illness.
The Dutch papers report the death, at Amsterdam, aged seventy-two, of a marine painter of eminence, M. Kockkoek, father of the distinguished landscape painter of the same name.
Joanna Baillie, whose literary life reached back into the last century, and whose early recollections were of the days of Burke, Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the great men who figured before the French Revolution, died at Hampsted, near London, on the evening of Sunday, the twenty-third of February, at the great age of nearly ninety years. During the principal part of her life she lived with a maiden sister, Agnes—also a poetess—to whom she addressed her beautiful Birthday poem. They were of a family in which talent and genius were hereditary. Their father was a Scottish clergyman, and their mother a sister of the celebrated Dr. William Hunter. They were born at Bothwell, within a short distance of the rippling of the broad waters of the Clyde. Joanna's child-life and associations are beautifully mirrored in the poem to which we have alluded. Early in life the sisters removed to London, where their brother, the late Sir Matthew Baillie—the favorite medical adviser of George III.—was settled as a physician, and there her earliest poetical works appeared, anonymously. When she began to write, she tells us in one of her prefaces, not one of the eminent authors of modern times was known, and Mr. Hayley and Miss Seward were the poets spoken of in society. The brightest stars in the poetical firmament, with very few exceptions, have risen and set since then; the greatest revolutions in empire and in opinion have taken place; but she lived on as if no echo of the upturnings and overthrows which filled the world reached the quiet of her home; the freshness of her inspirations untarnished; writing from the fulness of a true heart of themes belonging equally to all the ages. Personally she was scarcely known in literary society; but from her first appearance as an author, no woman commanded more respect and admiration by her works; and the most celebrated of her contemporaries vied with each other in doing her honor. Scott calls her the Shakspeare of her sex:
——"The wild harp silent hung
By silver Avon's holy shore,
Till twice a hundred years roll'd o'er,
When she, the bold enchantress, came
With fearless hand and heart on flame,—
From the pale willow snatched the treasure,
And swept it with a kindred measure,
Till Avon's swans, while rung the grove
With Montfort's hate and Basil's love,
Awakening at the inspiring strain
Deem'd their own Shakspeare lived again!"
Her first volume was published in 1798, under the title, A Series of Plays, in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger Passions of the Mind, each Passion being the subject of a Tragedy and a Comedy. A second volume was published in 1802, and a third in 1812. During the interval, she gave the world a volume of miscellaneous dramas, including the Family Legend, a tragedy founded upon a story of one of the Macleans of Appin, which, principally through the good offices of Sir Walter Scott, was brought out at the Edinburgh Theatre. She visited Scott, in Edinburgh, in 1808, and in the following year the Family Legend was played in that city fourteen nights in succession. Scott wrote for it a prologue, and Mackenzie, the author of The Man of Feeling, contributed an epilogue. The same piece was performed in London in 1814. The only "Play of the Passions" ever represented on a stage was De Montfort, first brought out by John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, and played eleven nights. In 1821 it was revived by Edmund Kean, but fruitlessly. Miss O'Neil then played the heroine. Kean subsequently brought out De Montfort in Philadelphia and New-York. No actors of inferior genius have ventured to attempt it, and probably it will not again be represented.
The "Plays of the Passions" are Miss Baillie's most remarkable works. In this series each passion is made the subject of a tragedy and a comedy. In the comedies she failed completely; they are pointless tales in dialogue. Her tragedies, however, have great merit, though possessing a singular quality for works of such an aim, in being without the earnestness and abruptness of actual and powerful feeling. By refinement and elaboration she makes the passions sentiments. She fears to distract attention by multiplying incidents; her catastrophes are approached by the most gentle gradations; her dramas are therefore slow in action and deficient in interest. Her characters possess little individuality; they are mere generalizations of intellectual attributes, theories personified. The very system of her plays has been the subject of critical censure. The chief object of every dramatic work is to please and interest, and this object may be arrived at as well by situation as by character. Character distinguishes one person from another, while by passion nearly all men are alike. A controlling passion perverts character, rather than develops it; and it is therefore in vain to attempt the delineation of a character by unfolding the progress of a passion. It has been well observed too, that unity of passion is impossible since to give a just relief and energy to any particular passion, it should be presented in opposition to one of a different sort so as to produce a powerful conflict in the heart.
J Baillie
In dignity and purity of style, Miss Baillie has not been surpassed by any of the poets of her sex. Her dialogue is formed on the Shakespearian model and she has succeeded perhaps better than any other dramatist in imitating the manner of the greatest poet of the world.
In 1823 Miss Baillie published a collection of Poetic Miscellanies, in 1836 three more volumes of Plays, in 1842 Fugitive Verses, and she was the author also of A View of the General Tenor of the New Testament Regarding the Nature and Dignity of Jesus Christ.
A short time before her death—not more than six weeks—a complete edition of her Poetical Works was published in London, in a very large and compact volume of 850 pages, by the Longmans—"with many corrections and a few additions by herself." The volume opens with the Plays on the Passions. We have then the miscellaneous plays; and the last division includes her delightful songs and all her poetical compositions not dramatic nor connected with the plays; and here appears a poem of some length, recently printed for private circulation, as well as some short poems not before published. A pleasing and characteristic portrait accompanies the volume, and we have had it copied for the International.
Though Miss Baillie's fame always tended to draw her into society, her life was passed in seclusion, and illustrated by an integrity, kindness, and active benevolence, which showed that poetical genius of a high order may be found in a mind well regulated, able and willing to execute the ordinary duties of life in an exemplary manner. Gentle and unassuming to all, with an unchangeable simplicity of character, she counted many of the most celebrated persons of the last age among her intimate friends, and her quiet home was frequently resorted to by people of other nations, as well as by her own countrymen, for the purpose of paying homage to a woman so illustrious for genius and virtue.
Spontini, the celebrated composer, author of La Vestale and Fernand Cortez, died on the 24th ult., at Majolati, near Ancona, where he had gone to pass the winter, in the hope of re-establishing his health. Being desirous of attending divine service, in spite of the severity of the season, he took cold on leaving the church, which in a short time led to a fatal result. He expired in the arms of his wife, the sister of M. Erard, the celebrated pianist. He was in the seventy-second year of his age. The life of this unfortunate Maestro, says the Athenæum, would be a curious rather than a pleasing story, were it thoroughly written. He was educated at the Conservatorio de la Pietà of Naples, and began his career when seventeen years of age, as the composer of an opera, I Puntigli delle Donne. To this succeeded some sixteen operas, produced within six years, for the theatres of Italy and Sicily, not a note of which has survived. In 1803, Spontini went to Paris, in which capital again he produced some half-a-dozen operas and an oratorio,—all of which have perished. It would seem, however, as if there must have been something of grace in either Maestro or music, since Spontini was appointed music-director to the Empress Josephine; and it was owing to court interest that his La Vestale—on a libretto rejected by both Mehal and Cherubini—was put into rehearsal at the Grand Opéra. The rehearsals went on for a twelvemonth. Spontini rewrote and re-touched the work while it was in preparation to such an excess, that the expense of copying the alterations is said to have amounted to ten thousand francs ($2,000)! La Vestale, however, was at last produced, in 1809, with brilliant and decisive success, so far as France and Germany were concerned. In 1809 he produced his Fernand Cortez at the Grand Opéra. That work, too, was favorably received, and still keeps the stage in Germany. In no subsequent essay was the composer so fortunate. Olympie, the third grand work written by him for France, proved a failure. During the latter part of his residence in Paris, he directed the Italian Opera, until it fell to Madame Catalani. It was in 1820 that the magnificent appointments offered to the Maestro by the Court of Prussia tempted him to leave Paris for Berlin; in which capital his last three grand operas were produced with great splendor. These were, Nourmahal (founded on 'Lalla Rookh), Alcidor, and Agnes von Hohenstauffen. None of them, however, could be called successful. In Berlin, Spontini continued to reside as first Chapel-master till the death of the late King,—and there his professional career may be said to have ended. A life in some respects more outwardly prosperous cannot be conceived. Spontini was rich,—girt with ribbons and hung with orders;—but it may be doubted whether ever official grew old in the midst of such an atmosphere of dislike as surrounded the composer of La Vestale at Berlin. He was mercilessly attacked in print,—in private spoken of by rival musicians with an active hatred amounting to malignity. There was hardly a baseness of intrigue with which report did not credit him. His music, even, was avoided in his own theatre; and it was an article in the contract of more than one prima donna, that she would not sing in Spontini's operas. Of later years, he rarely was seen in the orchestra save to direct his own works. In this capacity he showed a vivacity, a precision, and an energy almost incomparable. As a man, he had the courtliest of courtly manners; the air, too, of one well satisfied with his own personal appearance. He conversed chiefly concerning himself and his works, apparently taking little or no interest in other transactions of art. This might account for his ill odor in a capital where misconstructions and jealous evil-speaking have too often been the lot of the simplest, the most learned, and the least self-asserting of artists. The limited nature of his sympathies may be felt in Spontini's music. With all its spirit, this is generally dry—awkward without the excuse of learned pedantry—sometimes grand, very seldom tender—the rhythm more decided than the melody, which is often frivolous, often flat, rarely vocal. He has been accused of shallowness in the orchestral treatment of his operas,—in which noise is often accumulated to conceal want of resource. But allowing all these objections to be generally true to the utmost, the finale to the second act of La Vestale still remains—and will remain—a master-piece of declamation, spirit, and stage climax. The rest of La Vestale is carefully wrought,—but in power, and brightness, and passion, by many a degree inferior to that temple-scene. For its sake, the name of Spontini will not be forgotten, unsatisfactory as was his career in Art, and small as was his personal popularity.
Charles Coquerell, a brother of the eminent Protestant minister, and himself well known and esteemed in the scientific circles of Paris, died in that city, early in February. He long reported the proceedings of the Academy of Sciences for the Courrier Français; and is the author, besides, of various works in general literature. He wrote a History of English Literature—Caritéas, an Essay on a complete Spiritualist Philosophy—and The History of the Churches of the Desert, or of the Protestant Churches of France from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the Reign of Louis the XVI. In this last performance he introduces the substance of a mass of private and official correspondence from Louis XIV.'s time down to the revolution, relative to Protestantism in France, and the numberless and atrocious persecutions to which it was subjected. Many of the papers he obtained are of great literary and historical value, and he has taken measures for their preservation.
Colonel George Williams, M. P. for Ashton, died on the nineteenth of December. He was born in St. John's Newfoundland, and is said to have joined the army of Burgoyne at the age of twelve years, and to have been present at the battle of Stillwater. He afterwards accompanied Lady Harriet Acland on her memorable expedition to join her husband in captivity. He afterwards saw much active service, and died aged eighty-seven, supposed to have been the last survivor of the army of Saratoga.
Herr Charles Matthew Sander, described as one of the most celebrated surgeons of Germany, and author of many works not only in illustration of his more immediate profession and of medicine, but also on Greek phiology and archæology, died suddenly, at Brunswick, in his seventy-second year, while seated at his desk in the act of writing a treatise on anatomy.
Nicholas Vansittart, Lord Bexley, was the second son of Henry Vansittart, Governor of Bengal, and was born on the twenty-ninth of April, 1776. Four years after, his father perished in the Aurora frigate, when that vessel foundered at sea, on her outward passage to India. In 1791 he was called to the bar, but, finding little prospect of forensic advancement, he deserted Westminster Hall for the more ambitious arena of the House of Commons, being elected member for Hastings in 1796. In 1801 he proceeded on a special mission to the Court of Copenhagen; but the Danish Government, overawed by France and Russia, refused to receive an English ambassador. Soon after his return he became joint secretary of the treasury, which office he held until 1804, when the Addington ministry resigned. In 1805, he was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland; in 1806, he resumed his former duties at the treasury; and, in 1812, on the formation of the Liverpool administration, he obtained the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, for which he was peculiarly fitted by the bent and information of his mind. So far back as 1796, he had addressed a series of pamphlets to Mr. Pitt, on the conduct of the bank directors; and in 1796 he had published an inquiry into the state of the finances, in answer to a very popular production, by a Mr. Morgan, on the national debt. The death of Lord Londonderry, in 1822, led to a reconstruction of the ministry; and Mr. Vansittart was offered a peerage and the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the cabinet, on condition that he quitted the Exchequer. This arrangement was carried out in the month of January following. At length, in 1828, he retired from public life, and since that period resided in comparative retirement, at Footscray, near Bexley, in Kent. Lord Bexley was F.R.S., D.C.L., and F.S.A.
John Pye Smith, D.D., F.R.S., one of the most eminent scholars and theological writers of the time, died at Guilford, near Leeds, in England, on the fifth of February, at the advanced age of seventy-six—having been born at Sheffield in 1775. His father was a bookseller, and it was intended to bring him up to the same business, but his early displays of talent, and his love of learning induced his father to send him to Rotherham College, where he greatly distinguished himself, and upon the completion of his terms of study became a classical tutor. In 1801—at the early age of twenty-five—he became theological tutor and principal of Homerton College, the oldest of the institutions for training ministers among the Independents. The duties of that responsible post he filled with untiring devotedness and the highest efficiency for the long space of fifty years. A theological professorship is naturally combined with ministerial duties; and in two or three years after his settlement at Homerton he received a call from the church at the Gravel Pits chapel, and continued the pastor of that church for about forty-seven years. The chief labor of Dr. Pye Smith's life, and his most enduring monument, was the work entitled The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah: an inquiry with a view to a satisfactory determination of the doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures concerning the person of Christ. This work is admitted by the greatest scholars to be the first of its kind. It is marked by profound and accurate learning, candid criticism, and by that reverential and Christian spirit which ought to govern every theological inquiry. He published several less important compositions, including one of decided value upon the relations of geology and revelation, which led to his election into the Royal Society; and he left a voluminous System of Christian Doctrine, in MS.
Ladies' Fashions for the Spring.
The advance of the spring appears to have brought increase of gayety in London and in Paris, in which cities fashionable society has received new impulses from circumstances connected with affairs. Heavy velvets have generally given place to silks and satins, and there is a prevailing airiness in the manner in which they are made up. The first of the above full-lengths represents a dress composed of a pale sea-green satin; the sides of the front decorated with bouffants or fullings of white tulle, formed in rows of three; at the top of each third fulling is a narrow border of green cord, forming a kind of gymp; these fullings reach up to each side of the point of the waist; low pointed corsage, the centre of which is trimmed to match the jupe; a small round cape encircles the top part of the corsage, descending halfway down each side of the front, trimmed with fullings of white tulle and narrow green cord; the lower part of the short sleeve is trimmed to match. The hair is arranged in ringlets, and adorned on the right side with a cluster of variegated red roses.
In the second, is a dress of rich dark silk, made plain and very full, with three-quarter-high body, fitting close to the figure; bonnet of deep lilac.
Ball dresses are worn richly ornamented with ribbons, flowers, lace, and puffs, in great profusion.
Velvet necklaces, and bracelets, are much in vogue; the shades preferred are coral red, garnet, china rose, and, above all, black velvet, which sets off the whiteness of the skin. These bracelets and necklaces are fastened by a brooch or pin of brilliants or marcasite.
Dresses of heavy stuffs are rare in private drawing-rooms, and much more frequently seen at subscription balls, at the Opera, or exhibitions of art. Antique watered silk, figured pompadour, drugget, and lampus, attract by their wreaths of flowers; light net dresses, or mousselins, are rare.
Net dresses, with two skirts, are worn over a taffeta petticoat—the under and the upper skirts decked with small flowers, each trimmed with a dark ribbon. Wide lace also is worn in profusion, and the body as well as the sleeves is almost covered with it—the skirts having two or three flounces of English lace (application) or Alençon point; and these two kinds of lace are generally used for the heavy silk stuffs.
We have little to say about walking dresses. The choicest materials for morning dresses are dark damask satinated Pekin taffeta, and drugget.