POLYNESIA.
Some difficulty has arisen at the Sandwich Islands, between the commander of the French frigate Sérieuse and the Hawaiian Government. The French commander demanded the payment of $25,000 as a commutation for customs alleged to have been collected contrary to treaty obligations. The King refused to accede to this claim, and threw himself on the protection of Great Britain and the United States. Upon this the French commander landed his men at Honolulu, where he has prevented several Hawaiian vessels from proceeding to sea.
Several different parties of exploration are now endeavoring to penetrate into the interior of the African continent. Mr. Livingston, at the last accounts, was proceeding northward from Lake Ngami. Dr. Beke, in Abyssinia, and the Rev. Mr. Thompson, on the Gaboon River, have also made some very interesting discoveries in African geography and natural history.
Record of Scientific Discovery.
New Motors.—Sir John Scott Lillie, Companion of the Bath, of Paris, has just received an English patent for improvements in the application of motive powers. One of these improvements consists in directing currents of air, or other gaseous fluids, through inverted troughs or channels, for the propulsion of boats and barges in the conveyance of goods and passengers. The troughs are placed longitudinally, one on each side of the vessel; or one may be placed between two vessels having one deck. Their form may be either square or oblong; and they are left open so that the currents of air in their passage to, and escape at or near, the stern of the vessel, may act upon the water, until they pass off into the air. They are supplied by air through a shaft, passing vertically through the centre of the deck. Another of the improvements consists in suspending paddle-wheels at or near the stern of the vessel, which are set in motion by the action of the currents as they pass off into the air, thereby increasing the motive power; or such paddle-wheels may be moved without the intervention of the troughs or channels, by the motion of currents of air or other gaseous fluids, forced through tubes or cylinders. The patent was enrolled in the early part of March.
Water Gas.—The English patent for Paine's Light was enrolled on the 12th of December, in the name of Alfred Vincent Newton, of Chancery Lane, Middlesex. The London Patent Journal publishes the specifications and figures, remarking that the report has been ready for some time, but was not published at the particular request of the assignee of the patent in England. It states that the invention is for decomposing water by means of electricity, and producing therefrom a gas, which, after being made to pass through spirits of turpentine or other hydro-carbonous fluids, will, when ignited, burn with great brilliancy. The invention is known by the name of "Paine's Light"—this being, in fact, Mr. Paine's specification, in which he states, that although water has been spoken of as decomposed by the electric currents, he wishes it to be understood that this is merely to accord with the generally received chemical doctrines and phraseology, and that water, after all, may be a simple element; however that may be, the patentee wishes, at present, to lay it down as certain that by discharging electricity through water, large quantities of gases are evolved; and that one of such gases, at least, when passed through turpentine, in the manner described, will burn and give a highly illuminating light. Mr. Paine's affairs in England being thus adjusted, it is possible that more will be heard of it on this side. The benefits of the invention are hid under a bushel.
Improvements in the Steam-Engine.—An English patent has been granted to Mr. George Smith, of Manchester, engineer, for four improvements upon the steam-engine. The first is an improved arrangement of apparatus by which cold water is made to enter the exhaust passages of steam cylinders, as near the valves as possible; by condensing a portion of the exhausted steam it becomes hot and then passes off, while the uncondensed steam passes either into the condenser or the atmosphere. This improvement is applicable to marine, stationary, and locomotive engines. The second improvement consists in an improved apparatus applied to low-pressure boilers, by which the water in the boiler is maintained at a regular height, and by which the danger of explosions from deficiency of water is removed. The third, consists of hot and cold water pumps, and is also applicable to air-pumps and lifting-pumps. The fourth is in the construction of metallic packing of pistons for steam cylinders, air-pumps, and other similar pistons, by which greater strength and elasticity are obtained.
New Applications of Zinc and its Oxides.—Mr. William Edward Norton has obtained a patent in England for improvements in obtaining, preparing and applying zinc and other volatile metals, and their oxides, and in the application of zinc, to the preparation of certain metals, and alloys of metals. The improvements are six in number; consisting of an improved furnace for the preparation of zinc and its white oxide, with new forms of front and rear walls—a mode of dispensing with the common retorts for the reduction of the ores of zinc into oxides, and replacing them by one large retort, in which the ore is more advantageously treated—the application of zinc to the alloy of iron and steel, which are thereby rendered more malleable and less liable to oxidation—a saving of the products of distillation and oxidation of zinc and other volatile metals, by means of a cotton, woollen, flaxen, or other similar fabric, in connection with a suitable exhausting apparatus,—the application of zinc to the formation of pigments,—and, lastly, the application of the ore called Franklinite to the reduction of iron from its ores, and its subsequent purification, and in saving the volatile products by means of a suitable condensing or receiving apparatus. Franklinite, which has hitherto only been found in any quantity near the Franklin forge, Sussex county, in the State of New Jersey, consists of the following substances, according to Berthier and Thomson: Peroxide of iron, 66; oxide of zinc, 17; sesqui-oxide of manganese, 16; total, 99.
A new adaptation of Lithography to the process of printing in oil has lately been invented by M. Kronheim of Paternoster-row, London. Hitherto no strictly mechanical means have existed for successfully producing copies of paintings, combining the colors and brilliant effects as well as the outlines and shadings of the original. The ingenious invention of Mr. Kronheim, while it enables him to supply copies of the great masters wonderfully accurate in every respect, reduces the cost of such copies to one-half the price of steel-engravings, and is a far more expeditious process. The invention has reduced to a certainty the practice of a new process by which the appreciation of art may be more widely extended, and the works of great artists popularized.
The Annual of Scientific Discovery, (published in Boston by Gould and Lincoln), is an excellent abstract of all the chief movements and discoveries in the scientific world for the year 1850. We advise all our readers interested in any of the sciences to procure it, and its companion volume for the previous year. The work will be continued, and it will be invaluable as a library of facts and suggestions.
Oxygen from Atmospheric Air.—M. Boussingault has recently obtained some interesting results from his investigations in relation to oxygen. The problem upon which he has been engaged was the extraction of oxygen gas, in a state of purity and in a considerable quantity, from the azote in the atmosphere. For this purpose, a preference was given to baryte, owing to its property of remaining in oxygen of a moderate temperature, and abandoning it under the influence of a heat sufficiently intense. Ten kilogrammes of baryte, completely oxidized, were found able to take and afterward return 730 litres of gas. This is the number indicated by theory; for celerity of operation, more than 600 litres can be counted on. In that limit, and in operating on 100 kilos. of matter, 6,000 litres of oxygen gas might be disengaged at each disoxidization; four or five operations might be performed in 24 hours, which would thus furnish from 24,000 to 30,000 litres of gas.
The discovery of the virtues of a Whitened Camera for Photography, announced in our last issue, has excited a remarkable sensation in England. Mr. Kilburn, photographer to the Queen, who has experimented upon the new plan with great success, is sparring with M. Claudet. The point in dispute is the tendency of the improved method to weaken the image. If the statements of those who claim to have succeeded are reliable, it is evident that the ordinary form of camera may be abandoned, and any image be received directly from the lens upon plates or paper exposed to a diffused light.
M. Laborde states, in a paper on Photography read before the Paris Society for the Encouragement of Arts, that the nitrate of zinc may be substituted for acetic acid in the preparation of photographs on paper; that it increases the sensitiveness of the silver coating, and even allows an alkaline reaction to the iodide of potassium bath.
A paper was lately read by Professor Abich, before the Geographical Society of London, on the Climate of the Country between the Black and Caspian Seas. Professor Abich noticed the outlines of the extraordinary variety of climate in the lands between these bodies of water, and sketched the geological and orological structure of the country, which he has minutely examined for several years by order of the Russian Government. The whole tract is divided by three different lines of elevation—viz. that of S. E. to N. W.—that of W. to E., and that of S. W. to N. E. The isothermal line of 57° and 59°, after traversing the country between the Black and the Caspian Seas, inflects abruptly toward the South again, reaching the Caspian. The mean temperature along the shores of the two seas is for the year about equal; but the difference of the temperature of the seasons is very great. Lenkoran, in the same latitude as Palermo and Smyrna, with an annual temperature of 61° and 63°, has the summer of Montpellier 76°, and the winter of Maestricht and Turin, 35°. In Calchis, there is the winter of the British Isles, 41° and 42°, and the summer of Constantinople, 72° and 73°. Tiflis, with the winter of Padua, 37°, has the summer of Madrid and Naples, 74°. The extremes of Asiatic climate are found on the volcanic highlands of Armenia.
The Academy of Sciences at Paris has recently heard a report on certain explorations made in 1847-8-9 by M. Rochet d'Hericourt, a traveller in north-eastern Africa. This traveller has, by repeated observations, determined the latitude of Mt. Sinai to be 28° 33' 16", of Suez 29° 57' 58", of Devratabor 11° 51' 12", and of Gondar 12° 36' 1". Mt. Sinai is 1978 metres (about 6500 feet) high. Mt. Dieu 2174 metres (7200 feet), and the highest of the Horch Mountains 2477 metres (8100 feet). The Lake of Frana, south of Gondar, is 1750 metres (5700 feet) below the level of the sea, and its depth in one place is 197 metres (645 feet). Rar-Bonahite, the highest peak in Abyssinia, is 4330 metres (14,200 feet) high, but not high enough to have snow. The traveller describes a great variety of hot-springs, some of which contained living fish an inch long. The geology of Abyssinia he has thoroughly investigated. In the north, the principal rocks are granite and syenite. Among the plants he describes is a magnificent lobelia, almost large enough to be called a tree, which is found to the very summits of the mountains, and to a height which would not be supposed to admit of such a growth. He also finds the plant whose root has been found to be a specific against hydrophobia. Of this he brought back seeds, which have been planted in the Jardin des Plantes with success. A peculiar breed of sheep M. Rochet d'Hericourt thought worthy of being transferred to France, but of the pair he sent the female died on the route. This sheep has a very long and silky fleece. On the shores of Lake Frana he also found a very large sort of spiders, whose cocoons, he said, were converted into excellent silk. He thinks these spiders might be brought to Europe, and employed in producing silk, but in this he probably does not enough consider the difficulty, or rather the impossibility, of domesticating and feeding these insects.
Enormous fossil eggs were found a few weeks since subjects of curious discussion in Paris, and several notices were translated for the New-York papers. The eggs were discovered in Madagascar. M. Isodore Geoffrey St. Hilliare, in a recent report to the Academie des Sciences, furnished further details; and three eggs and some bones belonging to a gigantic bird, which have been presented to the Museum of Natural History in Paris, would seem to leave no room for doubt. Fairy tales are daily thrown into shade by the authentic records of science. This discovery appears to have been stumbled on curiously enough. The captain of a merchant vessel trading to Madagascar noticed one day a native who was using for domestic purposes a vase which much resembled an enormous egg, and on questioning him was informed that many such were to be found in the interior of the island. The largest of these eggs would hold two gallons. The volume equals that of 135 hen's eggs. Some doubts were at first entertained as to the nature of the animal to which the fossil bones belonged; but M. St Hilliare—a competent judge in such matters—has pronounced them to be those of a bird to which he has given the name of Epiornis.
The sum of £1000 has been placed by the British Government at the disposal of the Royal Institution, for scientific purposes.
In the Paris Academy of Sciences (first meeting in March), M. Leverrier submitted a communication from Mr. W. C. Bond, entitled Observations on the Comet of Faye, made at the Observatory of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Every thing is prized that comes from that quarter. M. Boussingault, the scientific agriculturist, read an extract from his memoir on the extraction of oxygen gas from atmospheric air. His undertaking was to extract, in a state of purity and in considerable quantity, the oxygen gas mixed with azote in atmospheric air, and he thinks that he has fully succeeded, by a process not attended with much difficulty. He details some unexpected results from his experiments. Cauchy made profound reports (from committees) respecting the Researches on Algebraic Functions by M. Puiseux, and the studies of Crystallography by M. Bravais. Papers on the speed of sound in iron, and on respiration in plants, and new schemes of atmospheric railroads were submitted. Attention was given to M. Burg's new observations concerning the advantageous use to be made of metallic bands in various nervous disorders in which the ordinary therapeutic expedients are found ineffectual. M. Peligot mentioned a memoir which he was soon to put forth as a sequel to the Researches on the nature and properties of the different Sugars, which he published in 1838. He has succeeded in extracting, by means of lime, the crystallizable sugar, in large quantity, contained in molasses. He got twenty-five per cent., by the agency of lime, carbonic acid, or sulphuric acid. Lime is cheap and harmless. Other circumstances recommend his series of experiments. A scientific reporter writes mysteriously of the discovery of a very simple and easy method of extracting sugar from the beet-root; with an apparatus which costs very little, any one may make his sugar with as much facility as he boils his pot.
Of the Expedition To Central Africa, we learn from the Athenæum that letters from Dr. Barth and Dr. Overweg have been received in London by Chevalier Bunsen, by which it appears that up to October last the travellers were still detained in the kingdom of Aïr. A previous communication gave an account of difficulties and dangers which they had met with on entering that country; the inhabitants of which had shown themselves hostile to them, so that their fate seemed entirely to depend on the protection of the Prince En-Nūr, sultan of the Kelvës. This hoped-for protection they have been fortunate enough to secure; though it appears not to have been sufficient to insure their safety beyond Tin-Tellus, the residence of the Prince, in consequence of which they have been obliged to forego the exploration of the country, and to remain with the Prince. They have however been enabled, while thus stationary, to collect a good deal of oral information,—especially respecting the tract of country to the west and southwest of Ghat: which, instead of being a monotonous desert, proves to be intersected by many fertile wadys with plenty of water. Among these novel features, not the least interesting is a lake, between Ghat and Tuat, infested with crocodiles. At the date of Dr. Barth's letter (2d of October) the travellers were on the point of setting out on an excursion to Aghades, the capital of Aïr; the new sultan having promised them his protection, and the valiant son-in-law of En-Nūr accompanying them on their journey. The latitude of Tin-Tellus has been found to be 18° 34' N.; the longitude has not been finally determined. The rainy season lasts till September, and thunder-storms occur daily in the afternoon between two and three o'clock, accompanied by a west wind, while at other times it blows from the east. It seems yet uncertain when the expedition will be able to start for lake Tchad.
Gen. Radowitz, the late Minister of Prussian Affairs in Prussia, and undeniably one of the most brilliant Germans now living, recently appeared with great success in the character of a philologist before the Academy of Useful Sciences at Erfurt. A much larger audience than usual present, drawn thither by the oratorical reputation of the General, who was announced to deliver an essay on the Development of the Celtic Race in England, and especially in Wales. Great was the astonishment, when, instead of the usual thick manuscript, the General drew forth a single sheet containing his notes, and proceeded to speak from it for above an hour. He dwelt with pride on the fact that a German (Dr. Meyer, the private secretary of Prince Albert) had cast a reconciling light on the long contest between English and Erse archæologists. He then said there had been two Celtic immigrations, an eastern and a western. The latter was the more ancient and important; its route was through Syria, Northern Africa, and Spain, to England, where it appeared in three phases, one under Alv, whence the name of the country Albion (ion, a circle, an isolated thing, an island); another under Edin, whence Edinburgh, in old documents Car Edin (Car Breton, Ker burgh, as in Carnaervon, Carmarthen, &c.); and the third under Pryd, whence Britain (ain—ion). Such etymologic analyses marked this brilliant discourse. Fingal he derived from fin fair, and gal a stranger, and proved the affinity between the Gauls and Gael, the later word meaning vassal, while Gaul comes from gal. In the second part of his essay he demonstrated that the Celts were the inventors of rhyme, and in the discussion which followed maintained this position against several distinguished philologists who were present.
Mr. Cagniard Latour has brought to the notice of the Paris Academy of Sciences a process for making artificial coal, by putting different woods in a closed tube, and slowly charring them over burning charcoal. The coal varies in character according to the age and hygrometric state of the woods employed. The wood of young trees is converted into a glutinous coal; the old wood, of dry fire, into a dry coal. But these last, if soaked in water before being placed in the tube, give a glutinous coal like the young wood, and sometimes a brown rosin, similar to asphaltum.
A scientific Congress has been sitting in Paris. Several men of high reputation, Mr. Walsh says, took part in its proceedings, which gave promise of unusual interest. Charles Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, was prominent as an orator. Recently, he could rally but two votes in the Academy of Sciences, as a candidate for a vacant seat. The man is not so much prized, we may believe, as the ornithologist.
M. Eoelmen, the director of the national porcelain manufactory of Sevres, has succeeded in producing crystalized minerals, resembling very closely those produced by nature—chiefly precious and rare stones employed by jewelers. To obtain this result, he has dissolved in boric acid, alum, zinc, magnesia, oxydes of iron, and chrome, and then subjecting the solution to evaporation during three days, has obtained crystals of a mineral substance, equaling in hardness and in beauty and clearness of color the natural stones. With chrome, M. Eoelmen has made most brilliant rubies, from two to three millimetres in length, and about as thick as a grain of corn. If rubies can be artificially made, secrets which were pursued by the alchemists of old cannot be very far off.
At a late meeting of the Liverpool Polytechnic Society, Captain Purnell read a paper in explanation of his plan for preventing vessels being water-logged at sea. Cisterns are to be provided on each side in the interior of the vessel, fitted with valves opening by pressure from within. The water would thus be kept below a certain level, and the ship be enabled to carry sail.
Prof. Hassenstein, of Gotha, recently illuminated the public square before the Council House in that city with his new electric sun. The effect was most brilliant, as if a bevy of full moons had risen together, and the applause of the beholders, the newspapers assure us, was unbounded.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science will this year meet at Cincinnati, on the approaching 5th of May.
Recent Deaths.
Samuel Farmer Jarvis, D.D., one of the most learned men in the Episcopal Church in the United States, died at Middletown, Connecticut, on the 26th of March. Dr. Jarvis was born in Middletown, where his father (afterward Bishop Jarvis) was then rector of Christ's Church, on the 20th of January, 1787. His childhood and early youth (we compile from the Hartford Calendar), were passed at Middletown till the Bishop removed with him to Cheshire, where, in the Academy established by Bishop Seabury, he completed his preparation for College. He entered at Yale, in 1802, commenced Bachelor of Arts in 1805, and proceeded Master in 1808. On the 18th of March, 1810, he was ordained Deacon by his father, in New Haven; and on the fifth of April, in the year following, in the same place, was admitted Priest. Immediately after, he became Rector of St. Michael's and St. James' Churches, on the island of New-York. In 1819, he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism, in the General Theological Seminary, with the understanding that he was to perform also, all the duties of instruction, except those relating to Ecclesiastical History. For various reasons, in 1820 he resigned this position, and removing to Boston, became the first Rector of St. Paul's Church in that city. In 1826, he sailed with his family for Europe, in different parts of which he remained nine years. Here he chiefly devoted himself to studies connected with Theology and the History of the Church. He by no means, however, omitted the proper duties of his office. His longest and most continuous service was in Siena; on leaving which place, the congregation presented to him a paten and chalice of exquisite workmanship, as a testimony of respect for his character, and of appreciation of his services.
During his residence abroad, he was appointed Professor of Oriental Languages and Literature in Trinity College, Hartford, and on returning to the United States in 1835, he established himself at the College; attending not only to various duties in connection with the College Classes, but also instructing the students in Theology. Those who were there under his instruction, will not soon forget the delightful evenings in his study, when the recitation being over, conversation took its place, and stores of the most useful and varied learning were opened to them, with a kindness and unreservedness, which never could have been surpassed. In 1837, he became Rector of Christ Church, Middletown, and in this position—having with him during the last year of its continuance only, an Assistant Minister—he remained till the spring of 1842. He then resigned the Rectorship, and devoted himself to the especial work to which the Church had called him. Still he evinced the same readiness as ever to perform at all times and in all places, the duties of his sacred office; and his missionary labors during this period, will ever attest his faithfulness to his vows as a priest of God.
In 1843 Dr. Jarvis went to England, with a view to certain arrangements in connection with the publication of his Chronological Introduction, and returned in time for the General Convention of 1844. From this period, he was steadily engaged in the prosecution of the first volume of his History: though his attention was frequently called off by other demands upon his time and knowledge, among which may be particularly mentioned the compilation of a Harmony of the Gospels, the preparation of a work on Egypt—neither of which have yet been published—and the drawing up a reply to Milner's End of Controversy. At the same time, he was serving the Church as a Trustee of Trinity College, and of the General Theological Seminary; as the Secretary of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Connecticut, and Secretary and Treasurer of the Christian Knowledge Society; and as a member of Diocesan and General Conventions. Besides all this, there was a large field of service and usefulness—the labor and worth of which can only be estimated by one who should see the correspondence which it entailed—which was opened to him, by the requests continually made from all quarters, for his opinions on matters of Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship. His life was one of constant labor, and labor and trial wrought their work upon him. Scarcely had his last work (the first volume of his History) been issued from the press, when aggravated disease came upon him; and after lingering for some time, with unmurmuring patience and resignation, he died on the 26th of March, 1851, at the age of sixty-four.
Thomas Burnside, one of the justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, died in Germantown on the twenty-fifth of March. He was born in the county of Tyrone, Ireland, July 28th, 1782, and came to this country, with his father's family, in 1792. In November, 1800, he commenced the study of the law, with Mr. Robert Porter, in Philadelphia, and in the early part of 1804 was admitted to the bar, and removed to Bellefonte. In 1811 he was elected to the state Senate, and was an active supporter of the administration of Governor Snyder in all its war measures. In 1815 he was elected to Congress, and served during the memorable session of 1816. In the summer of the same year he was appointed by Governor Snyder President Judge of the Luzerne district. He resigned this post in 1818, and resumed the practice of his profession at Bellefonte. In 1823 he was again elected to the State Senate, of which body he was made speaker. In 1826 he was appointed President Judge of the Seventh Judicial District, which office he held until 1841. He was then appointed President Judge of the Fourth Judicial District, comprising the counties of Bucks and Montgomery. On the first of January, 1845, he was commissioned one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, an office which he filled at the time of his death. Judge Burnside was a man of fine social qualities, and few persons have had more friends.
Isaac Hill, Governor of New Hampshire, United States senator, &c., was born at Cambridge, the part now called Somerville, Mass., April 6th, 1788. He was a descendant of Abraham Hill of Charlestown, who was admitted freeman 1640, and died at Malden, February 13, 1670, leaving two sons, Isaac and Abraham. From the latter of these, and fifth in descent, was Isaac, the father of Governor Hill. His mother was Hannah Russell, a descendant of the Cambridge family of that name, "ever distinguished in the annals of Massachusetts."[M] His ancestors were stanch patriots, on both sides, and served with credit in the old French and Indian wars, and his immediate predecessors were among the earliest and the most efficient of the "Sons of Liberty," well known for their undaunted spirit in encouraging resistance to the arbitrary and oppressive acts which occasioned the Revolution.
The circumstances in which the war and other calamities had placed his family were extremely unfavorable to the enjoyment of any educational privileges, and he was debarred from most opportunities of acquiring even the rudiments of that culture now common and free to all. But he struggled manfully with these difficulties, the sharp discipline of Necessity giving to him an early training well calculated to impress his character with the seal of manliness and self-reliance. His intellectual constitution was early accustomed to the keen atmosphere of wholesome severity; and it nerved and braced him for the warfare of his subsequent career. In it, too, we may find the origin of his peculiar traits as a writer and a politician. He wrote in a vigorous but not polished style, and all his productions were more forcible than elegant. But their very bareness and sinewy proportions opened their way to the hearts of the people whom he addressed. His prejudices were their prejudices, and in the most earnest expression of his own strongest feeling and passion he found the echo from the multitude of the democracy of his adopted state.
His childhood and early youth thus formed, his next step was in the learning his trade, or acquiring his profession: for if any occupation in life combines more elements of professional knowledge than another, it is that of a printer-editor.
Though not an indented apprentice, he served his seven years' time with faithfulness, and acquired those habits of patient, persevering industry which characterized his whole subsequent career. The printing-office has been the college and university to many of the most distinguished of our citizens: and that which he founded at Concord has been the Alma Mater of a series of graduates, of whom old Dartmouth might justly be proud, could she enroll them among her Alumni. Although the paper published by Mr. Cushing, with whom young Hill learned his profession, was strongly federal, he retained the strong democratic prejudices of his father's house, which he afterwards so zealously advocated in more responsible positions.
He went to Concord, N. H, on the 5th April 1809, the day before he attained his majority. He bought an establishment of six months' standing, from which had been issued the American Patriot, a democratic paper, but not conducted with any great efficiency, and therefore not considered as yet "a useful auxiliary in the cause of republicanism." On the 18th of April, 1809, was issued the first number of the New Hampshire Patriot, a paper destined to exert an immense influence in that state from that time to the present. The press on which it was printed was the identical old Ramage press on which had been struck off the first numbers of the old Connecticut Courant, forty-five years before, that is, in 1764. The first number of the paper is before us. It bears for its motto the following sentiment of Madison, "Indulging no passions which trespass on the rights of others, it shall be our true glory to cultivate peace by observing justice." Among the selections is a portion of the famous speech of William B. Giles, in the Senate, February 13th, 1809, in support of the resolution for a repeal of the Embargo, and substituting non-intercourse with the aggressing belligerents, offered by him on the 8th of the same month. In the next number of the paper the editor expresses the opinion that "the man, who, after reading this lucid exposition of British aggressions, can blame his own government—can accuse the administration of a want of forbearance, and a wish to provoke a war with England without cause, must be wilfully blind or perversely foolish." This recalls at once the circumstances of the time, shortly after the beginning of Madison's administration, and during the Embargo. Democracy was odious in New England, where the prostration of her commercial interests, the ruin of many and serious injury of all her citizens, had rendered the administration exceedingly unpopular. The Patriot, however, steadily defended the administration and the war which followed. Probably there will always exist a difference of opinion with respect to the necessity or expediency of the war of 1812; but public opinion has given its sanction to what is now known as the "Second War of Independence." Since that time its advocates have been steadily supported by the country, and among them the subject of this sketch, who always referred with peculiar pride to that portion of his career—"the dark and portentous period which preceded the war."
Mr. Hill continued to edit the Patriot until 1829, a period of twenty years; during which time he was twice chosen clerk of the State Senate, once Representative from the town of Concord, and State Senator four times. In 1828, he was the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senator, but was not elected. In 1829, he received the appointment of Second Comptroller of the Treasury Department from General Jackson, and discharged the duties of that office until April, 1830, when his nomination was rejected by the Senate of the United States. The light in which his rejection was regarded in New Hampshire, may be inferred from the fact that its result was his triumphant election to represent that State in the body which had rejected him. He continued in the Senate until 1836, when he was elected Governor of the State of New Hampshire by a very large majority. He was twice reëlected, in 1837 and 1838.
In 1840, he was appointed Sub Treasurer at Boston, which he held until removed, in March, 1841, by the Harrison administration.
About this time the policy of the radical party in New Hampshire, to which Mr. Hill had always adhered, became tainted with an ultraism, which he could not approve. He opposed their hostility to railroad and other corporations, with the same vigor which had always characterized his career. He was subjected to the proscription of the party, and formally "read out" of the church of the New Hampshire Democracy. He established a new paper, "Hill's New Hampshire Patriot," in which he revived his old reputation as an editor and political writer. The importance of the great internal improvements which he advocated, to the prosperity of the State, brought back the party from their wanderings into abstractions, and with this return to the old ways, came also the acknowledgment of the political orthodoxy of Mr. Hill. The new paper was united with the old Patriot—and one of his sons associated in the establishment.
During the latter years of his life, he also published and edited the Farmer's Monthly Visiter, an agricultural paper. It was commenced January 15, 1839, and has been continued to the present time. It was devoted to the farming and producing interests, and its volumes contain much valuable matter; of which Gov. Hill's own personal sketches and reminiscences form no small portion.
During the latter years of his life he suffered much from the disease which finally conquered his vigorous constitution. He bore little active part in political affairs—but took a lively interest in the success of the compromise measures—to which he referred in his last hours, as, in his opinion, most important in their bearing on the safety of the Union. He made great efforts to promote their passage, and probably did some service in the cause of the Union, to which he was ardently devoted. He recognized the compromises of the Constitution, with unwavering fidelity to its spirit. We regret our inability to give in this place some extracts from a letter of Daniel Webster, addressed to one of Mr. Hill's sons, upon the occasion of his death, which reflects equal honor upon the writer and its subject, in its recognition of the services to which we have referred.
The present occasion affords no opportunity to review more particularly the events of Mr. Hill's political career of public service. It is to be hoped that some one may hereafter prepare the history of his life and times—which involves an important part of the political history of New Hampshire, and a corresponding connection with that of the whole country.
We quote the following concluding paragraph of the notice in the New Hampshire Patriot of the 27th March, written by the present editor, Mr. Butterfield:
"We have thus hastily and imperfectly noticed the prominent events in Governor Hill's life. Few men in this country have exerted so great an influence over the people of their States as he has over those of New Hampshire. He possessed great native talent, indomitable energy, industry and perseverance. As a political editor he had few equals, and his reputation in that field extended throughout the country. As a son, a husband, a brother, and a father, he has left a reputation honorable to himself, and which will cause his memory to be cherished. Although afflicted for many years with a painful disease, exerting at times an unfavorable influence upon his equanimity, yet we believe the "sober second thought" of those who reflect upon his past history and services and trials, will accord with what we have said of his estimable private character, and his naturally kind and amiable disposition. And now that his spirit has gone to another, and, we trust, a better world, the unkindness engendered by political and personal differences will be forgotten, the faults and errors of the dead will be forgiven, and our thoughts will rest only upon his many private virtues and eminent public services."
The last illness of Mr. Hill was of about five weeks duration. He died of catarrhal consumption, in the city of Washington, Saturday, the 22d of March, 1851, at four o'clock, P. M. His remains were removed to Concord, New Hampshire, where his funeral took place on the 27th of March.
[We have made free use in the preceding notice of C. P. Bradley's sketch (1835), and various articles in newspapers of the day.]
David Daggett, LL. D., son of Thomas Daggett, of Attleborough, Massachusetts, was born in that town on the last day of the year 1764. He entered Yale College at fourteen, and graduated there with distinction in 1783. Pursuing his legal studies in New Haven, while he held the rectorship of the Hopkins Grammar School, he was admitted to the bar in 1785. For sixty-five years his life was identified with the history and prosperity of New Haven and of Connecticut. Besides the municipal offices which he held, including that of Mayor of New Haven, he was long a Professor of Yale College, in the Law School of which he was especially eminent. His last public station was that of Chief Justice of the State, from the duties of which he retired at the age of seventy, through the jealous wisdom of the constitution of Connecticut. His connection with the law school, however, continued till within a very few years, when his health became gradually impaired through the advance of age, though for the last year he enjoyed an unusual exemption from his infirmities. About the end of March his family became apprehensive of a change for the worse, and on Saturday, April 12th, he died, at the advanced age of eighty-six years.
Major James Rees, born in Philadelphia in 1766, died at Geneva, New-York, on the 24th of March. He was in his youth a confidential cleric to Robert Morris, the financier; during the Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania, he was a Deputy Quarter-Master General under Washington, and he held the same office under Wilkinson and under Izard, in the war of 1812.
Mordecai M. Noah, who for nearly half a century had been eminent as a politician and a journalist, and who was one of the most distinguished Jews of the present age, died in New-York on the 2nd of March. He was born in Philadelphia on the 19th of July, 1785, and at an early age was apprenticed to a carver and gilder in that city; but a love of literature and affairs induced the abandonment of that vocation for the more congenial one to which he devoted the chief part of his life. His editorial career commenced in Charleston, S. C., and some interesting passages of his history there are given in the first volume of Thomas's Reminiscences. In 1811 Mr. Madison appointed him consul at Riga, but he declined the place. In 1813 he was appointed by Mr. Monroe consul to Tunis, with a mission to Algiers. On the voyage his vessel was captured by a British frigate and taken to Plymouth. His diplomatic position exempted him from imprisonment, but he was detained several weeks, and did not reach his destination until February, 1814. Having accomplished the object of his mission, he crossed the Pyrenees, and visited Paris. After a brief residence in that city, he proceeded to Tunis, where he remained until recalled, in 1816. In 1819 he published a book of Travels, containing the result of his observations in Europe and Northern Africa, during a three years' residence in those countries. He now became one of the editors and proprietors of the National Advocate, in which he published the Essays on Domestic Economy, signed "Howard," which were subsequently printed in a volume. The next paper with which he was connected was the Enquirer, afterwards Courier & Enquirer, in the management of which he was associated with Colonel Webb. The several papers of which he was at various times editor or proprietor, or both, were the National Advocate, Enquirer, Courier & Enquirer, Evening Star, Sun, Morning Star, and Weekly Messenger. His most successful journal was the Evening Star, but he was eminently popular at all times as an editorial writer, and was very fortunate when he had, as in the Evening Star, or the Sunday Times, judicious business partners. Soon after his return from Africa occurred his celebrated attempt to assemble all the Jews of the world on this continent, and build a new Jerusalem at Grand Island, in the Niagara River.
In 1821 he was elected sheriff of the city and county of New-York. During his term of office the yellow fever broke out, and he opened the doors of the prisons and let go all who were confined for debt—an act of generous humanity which cost him several thousand dollars. He was admitted to the bar of this city in 1823, and to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1829. In 1829 he was also appointed, by President dent Jackson, Surveyor of the Port of New-York, which office he shortly afterward resigned. In the political contest of 1840, he took part against Mr. Van Buren, whom he had long regarded with distrust, and voted for General Harrison. In 1841 he was appointed by Governor Seward, Judge of the Court of Sessions. He was probably the only Hebrew who occupied a judicial station in Christendom. During the same year he was made Supreme Court Commissioner. When a change in the organization of the Court of Sessions took place he resigned his seat on the bench, and soon returned to his old profession. In 1843 he became one of the editors and proprietors of the Sunday Times, with which he was connected when he died.
Major Noah was a very rapid and an industrious writer. Besides his Travels in England, France, Spain, and the Barbary States, in the Years 1813, 1814, and 1815, and the Howard Papers on Domestic Economy, he published several orations and addresses on political, religious and antiquarian subjects; edited The Book of Jasher, and wrote numerous successful plays, of which an account may be found in Dunlap's History of the Stage. The most prominent of them were, She would be a Soldier, or the Plains of Chippewa; Ali Pacha, or the Signet Ring; Marion, or the Hero of Lake George; Nathalie, or the Frontier Maid; Yusef Caramali, or the Siege of Tripoli; The Castle of Sorrento, The Siege of Daramatta, The Grecian Captive, and Ambition. He for a long time contemplated writing Memoirs of his Times, and he published in the Evening Star many interesting reminiscences intended to form part of such work.
Major Noah was a man of remarkable generosity of character, and in all periods of his life was liberal of his means, to Christians as well as to Jews: holding the place of President in the Hebrew Benevolent Society, and being frequently selected as adviser in other temporary or permanent associations for the relief of distress. As a politician he was perhaps not the most scrupulous in the world, but there was rarely if ever any bitterness in his controversies. In religion he was sincere and earnest, and the Hebrews in America we believe uniformly held his character in respect
John S. Skinner, who was for a long time editor of the Turf Register at Baltimore, and who more recently conducted the very able magazine The Plow, the Loom, and the Anvil, died from an accident, in Baltimore, on the 28th of March, aged about sixty years. He had held the appointment of Post-Master at Baltimore for a period of twenty years, though removed from it fifteen years ago, and he was afterward Assistant Post-Master General. Intending to hurry out from the Baltimore Post-Office—which he had entered for some business with his successor—into the street, he inadvertently opened a door leading to the basement of the building, and before he could recover himself, plunged head foremost down the flight of steps. His skull was fractured, and he survived in a state of insensibility for a few hours only.
Brevet-Major-General George M. Brooke, of the United States Army, died at San Antonio, Texas, on the ninth of March. General Brooke entered the army, from Virginia, on the third of May, 1808, as First Lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry. He had received four brevets during his military life, and at the time of his death he was in command of the Eighth Military Department, (Texas,) and engaged in planning an expedition against the Indians.
Ferdinand Gotthelf Hand, Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Jena, died on the 14th March, at the age of sixty-five. He is best known for his work on the Æsthetik der Foukunst. He had filled his professorship since 1817.
M. Jacobi died on the nineteenth of February at Berlin. He was well known to the scientific world by his electro-chemical researches.
Hans Christian Oersted, the great Danish naturalist, died at Copenhagen on the seventeenth of March, aged seventy-four. He was the son of an apothecary of Rudkjobing, in the province of Larzeland. Fourteen days before his death he gave a scientific lecture at the University of Copenhagen, where he was Professor of Natural Science. He was nearly of the same age with Thorwaldsen and Oehlenschlager. His last work, Der Geist in der Natur, was not long since the subject of remark in these pages. His fame as the discoverer of electro-magnetism, (which discovery he made, after laborious researches, on the fifth of June 1821,) and as a profound and genial thinker, will be immortal.
At Rudkjobing he received his early education with his brother Anders Sandöe Oersted, a distinguished senator of Denmark, and for some years one of the ministers of state. Christian Oersted was sent to Copenhagen to study medicine. After completing his course of pharmacy, he directed his powers to the study of natural philosophy, and greatly distinguished himself in that science, of which he subsequently became University Professor. His grand discovery of electro-magnetism led to the subsequent development of the electric telegraph. In 1807 he wrote his work reviving the hypothesis of the identity of magnetism and electricity, in which he arrived at the conclusion—that "in galvanism the force is more latent than in electricity, and still more so in magnetism than in galvanism; it is necessary, therefore, to try whether electricity, in its latent state, will not affect the magnetic needle." No experiment appears, however, to have been made to determine the question until 1820, when Oersted placed a magnetic needle within the influence of a wire connecting the extremities with a voltaic battery. The voltaic current was now, for the first time, observed to produce a deviation of the magnetic needle in different directions, and in different degrees, according to the relative situation of the wire and needle. By subsequent experiment Oersted proved that the wire became, during the time the battery was in action, magnetic, and that it affected a magnetic needle through glass, and every other non-conducting body, but that it had no action on a needle similarly suspended, that was not magnetic. To Professor Oersted is also due the important discovery, that electro-magnetic effects do not depend upon the intensity of the electricity, but solely on its quantity. By these discoveries an entirely new branch of science was established, and all the great advances which have been made in our knowledge of the laws which regulate the magnetic forces in their action upon matter, are to be referred to the discovery by Oersted, that by an electric current magnetism could be induced. He promulgated a theory of light, in which he referred luminous phenomena to electricity in motion; it has not, however, been favorably received.
One of the most important observations first made by him, and since then confirmed by others, was, that a body falling from a height not only fell a little to the east of the true perpendicular—which is, no doubt, due to the earth's motion—but that it fell to the south of that line; the cause of this is at present unexplained. It is, no doubt, connected with some great phenomena of gravitation which yet remain to be discovered. At the meeting of the British Association at Southampton, Professor Oersted communicated to the Chemical Section some curious examples of the influence of time in determining chemical change, as shown in the action of mercury upon glass in hermetically sealed vessels. The character of Professor Oersted's mind was essentially searching and minute; thus he observed results which escaped detection in the hands of those who took more general and enlarged views of natural phenomena. To this was due the discovery of electro-magnetism, which will for ever connect his name with the history of inductive science. As Director of the Polytechnic Institution of Copenhagen, of which he was the founder, and of the Society for the Diffusion of Natural Sciences, and as Perpetual Secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences since 1815, his labors were unceasing and of great benefit to his country. He was for many years attached to the Military College of Cadets of Copenhagen, and only resigned when he could be succeeded by one of his own pupils. His manners and demeanor were extremely modest and unobtrusive. The British Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal for his discovery in electro-magnetism, and the Academy of Sciences of Paris presented him with their Gold Medal. Both Societies elected him a Foreign Member.
Henri Delatouche, who died early in March at Aulnay, France, was born February 3d, 1785. His first work was Fragoletta, a book treating in an original way the revolution of Naples in 1799; it was the fruit of a long sojourn in Italy, a genuine production of genius, in which the chapters devoted to antique art are especially remarkable. During the Hundred Days he was the secretary of Marshal Brune, and was made sub-prefect of Toulon. The downfall of Napoleon deprived him of office, and restored him to literature and general politics. During the Restoration he gained great applause by his eloquent and successful defence of his father, who was tried before a political court, and but for his son would have been one of the victims of that bloody period. He was prominent in the agitation of public questions through that time, and through the ten first years of Louis Philippe. He was intimate with B. Constant Chateaubriand, Madame Recamier, Gros, Gerard, Armand Carrel, Godfrey Cavaignac, Beranger, and George Sand. He was one of the editors of the National, and the chief writer of the brilliant and effective Figaro. His books were Fragoletta, Aymar, France et Marie, Lettres de Clement XIV. et de Carlo Bertinazzi, Les Adieux. Though he adopted the form of romance, the purpose of his writings was historical and didactic. In the latter part of his life he made preparations to write a Histoire des Conjurations pour la Liberté, but did not accomplish it. He was a man of noble character and remarkable genius. His conversation was brilliant and fascinating. Since Diderot, it is said that France has produced no talker to be compared with him. George Sand frequently compares him to Rousseau. Like that philosopher, toward the close of his life he manifested a passionate love of nature and solitude. He spent his time laboring in his garden, and living in the most frugal manner. The aged and manly poet was beloved of the neighboring peasants, as well as by the friends he had left behind him in the great world; and though he had often criticised his contemporaries with extreme severity, sometimes even with injustice, he left no enemies.
Among the persons lately deceased who are worthy of mention is Madame de Sermetzy, who died at her country seat, near the French city of Lyons, at the age of eighty-one years. Had circumstances favored the development of her genius, she would have acquired a name among the sculptors of the time. She left behind her a number of works in terra cotta. A Psyche of life-size is said to be full of expression and grace; a Plato is remarkable for anatomical correctness and manly force. Both are in the Academy at St. Pierre. She also modelled a Sappho, a Lesbia, and some dozen busts. Of smaller works, statuettes and groups, she has left some two hundred in terra cotta, among them a St Augustine, said to be admirable for expression and nobleness. The churches constantly received from her gifts of beautiful angels and madonnas. A few years before her death she modelled a madonna of the size of life, which is one of her best works. Want of means alone prevented her from executing her productions in marble. She was also familiar with the literature, not only of her own nation, but of the Latin, Spanish, Italian, and English languages, which she spoke with fluency and correctness, a rare accomplishment for a French woman. During the Empire and the Restoration she was intimate with Madame Recamier and Madame de Staël, and for penetration and readiness of mind and charm of manners was not unworthy to be named with these remarkable women.
Marshal Dode de la Bruniere, one of the soldiers of Napoleon, who raised him to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and employed him in many important services, died at Paris on the 28th February, aged seventy-seven. He served in the campaign of Egypt as a lieutenant of engineers. After the siege of Saragossa he was made a colonel. He participated in all the great battles of the empire, and was finally made a peer of France and a marshal by Louis Philippe, after having directed the construction of the gigantic fortifications around Paris. He was a frank, affable, and kind-hearted man.
M. Maillau, one of the most productive of Paris dramatists, died in that city March, twelfth, aged forty-five. He was born in Guadaloupe, and began life in France as a lawyer, but soon abandoned that profession to write for the stage. He wrote a large number of dramas, some of which were very successful. The last one, called La Révolution Française, has run a hundred and fifty nights, and is still performing. He was an excellent fellow, and nobody's enemy but his own.
Dr. Henry de Breslau, senior of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Munich, died lately. He was second medical officer on the staff of Napoleon, under Larrey, and followed the French army in the Russian campaign. He was made prisoner on the field of Waterloo. France, Bavaria, Saxony, Greece, and Portugal, had recognized his scientific eminence by severally enrolling his name among their orders of chivalry.
Commissioner Lin, whose seizure and destruction of the opium in 1839 led to the war with China, died suddenly on the eighteenth of November last, while on his way to the insurrectionary district of Quan-si.
John Louis Yanoski was born at Lons-le-Saulnier, France, March 9, 1813, and died at Paris early in February last. Though not known much out of his own country, few literary men have possessed more admirable and substantial qualities. He was feeble in bodily powers, but endowed with indefatigable ardor in the pursuit of intellectual objects, and a mind at once penetrating and judicious. He was educated in the College of Versailles. In 1836 he became a tutor in history at the University at Paris. Subsequently he was selected by Thierry to assist in the preparation of his history of the Tiers-Etat, and spent four years in working upon it. At the same time he labored assiduously in other directions. In 1839 he gained two prizes from the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, one for a memoir on the organization of the national forces from the twelfth century to the reign of Charles VII; the other for an essay on the abolition of slavery in antiquity. In 1841 the Academy selected him to prepare, under the direction of M. Mignet, a view of the progress of the moral and political sciences, a work which was not completed when he died. In 1840 he was made professor of history in Stanislas College; in 1842 Michelet chose him for his substitute at the College of France, but in that capacity he gave but a single lecture, being seized while speaking with hemorrhage of the lungs, from which he did not recover for several months. Notwithstanding the labors required by all these occupations he found time to write for Didot's Univers Pittoresque a history of Carthage from the second Punic war to the Vandal invasion, a history of the Vandal rule and the Byzantine restoration, another of the African Church, and one of the Church of Ancient Syria. He also furnished many important articles to the Encyclopedic Dictionary, wrote often for the National newspaper, and for two years was chief editor of the Nouvelle Revue Encyclopédique. He was a republican in sentiment, and a character of exceeding nobleness and energy.
Colonel Count d'Hozier, a distinguished French officer, who was compromised in the affair of Georges Cadoudal, died early in March, in Paris, aged seventy-seven. On the occasion of the conspiracy referred to, he was sentenced to death, but obtained his pardon through the interference of the Empress Josephine, and as a commutation of his punishment was imprisoned until the year 1814 in the prison of the Chateau d'If—the scene of the confinement of Dumas' hero, the Comte de Montechristo.
M. George Brentano, the oldest banker at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, died a few weeks ago, aged eighty-eight. He was brother of two persons well known in the world of letters, M. Clement Brentano and the Countess Bettina d'Arnim, the correspondent of Goëthe.
Frederic Xavier Fernbach, the inventor of that mode of encaustic painting which is called by his name, died at Munich on the 27th February. A history of his experiments and inventions was published many years ago.
M. Jules Martien, author of a volume on Christianity in America, died in Paris on the twenty-first of March.