Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
After these extracts we hardly need to commend the volume to our readers as worthy of the genius of Tennyson. It will not only give sober delight on its first perusal, but it contains treasures of thought and fancy which a frequent recurrence to its pages will alone reveal.
Chronicles and Characters of the Stock Exchange. By John Francis. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 1 vol. 8vo.
This volume, invaluable to merchants and brokers, should be in the hands of all who have reason to be interested in the secrets of stock-jobbing, or who have a natural curiosity to understand the philosophy of the whole system as now practiced in all civilized countries. It gives a complete history of the National Debt of England, from the reign of William the Third to the present day, with sketches of the most eminent financiers of the Stock Exchange, and large details of the political corruption attending the making of loans. To these are added stock tables from 1732 to 1846; dividends of the Bank of England stock from 1694 to 1847; and descriptions of the various panics in the English money market, with their causes and effects. The sketch of Rothschild is a gem of biography, and while his avarice and cunning are deservedly condemned, more than usual justice is done to the remarkable blending of amplitude with acuteness in his powerful understanding. It is said that on one loan he made £150,000. Though profane, knavish and ferocious, with bad manners, and a face and person which defied the ability of caricature to misrepresent, his all-powerful wealth and talents made him courted and caressed, not only by statesmen and monarchs, but by clergymen and fastidious aristocrats. It was his delight to outwit others, but he himself was very rarely outwitted; and the few cases given by Mr. Francis, of his being overreached by the cunning of other brokers, are probably the only ones that the London Stock Exchange can furnish. Though he lived in the most splendid style, gave expensive entertainments, and occasionally subscribed to ostentatious charities, he was essentially a miser; and his mind never was so busy in calculations, in which millions of pounds were concerned, as to lose the power of estimating within a sixpence, the salary which would enable a clerk to exist.