Yeast: a Problem, is the Sartor-Resartorish title of a collection of papers reprinted from Fraser's Magazine, where they have excited no little attention. It purports to be a sample of what is fermenting in the minds of large classes of young men of the present day, and leavening the whole mass of society. Though published anonymously, it is known to be written by the author of "Alton Locke," and partakes largely of the merits and defects of that remarkable work. It is to be republished by the Harpers.
In Walter Savage Landor the material for an admirable newspaper writer has been thrown away. Witness the following double-handed hitting in a letter to Lord Duncan, who lately won a victory over the Ministers, "... A quarrel about hats, caps, and stockings, and the titles they confer, is too ridiculous. Is a hunchback to be treated with gravity, with severity, because an ignorant rabble calls him my lord. If I chose to call myself Lord Duncan, I should only be laughed at. People would stare; some would ask, 'Is this the great Lord Duncan who won the Battle of Camperdown?' Others would answer, 'No; nor is it he who won as great a one in Westminster the other day. He is an impostor: haul him out; but don't hurt him:' I have the honor to be, etc."
Dahomey and the Dahomans, by Frederick E. Forbes, gives an interesting account, drawn from personal observation, made during the last two years, of the manners and customs of this savage people. Among the most revolting is the Ek-que-noo-ah-toh-meh or "Throwing of Presents," in which the king occupies himself for many hours in throwing gifts from a raised platform, to the people below. The last of these gifts consists of a number of live prisoners, who have been exhibited bound upon the platform; they are flung down to be cut and torn in pieces by the savages. On the occasion when the author was present there were fourteen of these victims, of whom he succeeded in saving the lives of three. The object of the expedition was to induce the king to abandon the slave-trade, and was altogether unsuccessful.
The Dynamical Theory of the Formation of the Earth, two mighty octavo volumes, elicits the following complimentary remarks from the Athenæum. "This work is saved from being mischievous only by the circumstance of the excessive dullness diffused over these twelve hundred pages—which will in all probability prevent their being much read.... Of no one department of science does the author appear to have a correct conception. His views are all distorted. He is false alike in his Mechanics, in his Geology, in his Natural History, in his Chemistry, in his Electricity—in every other consideration of the physical agencies, and still more false in that which we suppose we must bring ourselves to call his Logic."
Memoirs of a Literary Veteran, by R. P. Gillies is a book almost worth reading, quite worth looking at. The author, nephew to the celebrated historian of Greece, born to a fair estate, and with a propensity to make verses, spent the one without turning the other to any special account. Amidst much idle matter, whose only purpose is to swell the bulk of the volumes, are some rather interesting anecdotes of literary celebrities. Some over-laudatory epistles from Sir Egerton Brydges, and a characteristic letter or two from Wordsworth, containing among other matters, a criticism upon Scott's Guy Mannering, in which considerable praise is awarded to the management of "this lady," as he solemnly denominates Meg Merrilies, are perhaps the best things in the book. It reminds one, but at a wide interval, of Leigh Hunt's Autobiography.
A Life of Hartley Coleridge prefixed to a volume of his poems, tells a sad story of powers neutralized and a life thrown away. He was the eldest son of the Coleridge, and with a portion of his father's genius combined a large share of his infirmity of purpose and feebleness of will. He gained a college fellowship, and forfeited it within a year, by intemperance; after which he maintained himself by his pen. The Life is by his brother, Derwent Coleridge. The Poems are of decided merit. They are to be followed by a collection of his prose writings.
OBITUARIES.
Isaac Hill, formerly Governor of New Hampshire, and Senator in Congress, died at Washington, March 22d, aged about 63. He was born at Charlestown, N. H., the son of a farmer, and at an early age learned the trade of a printer. He established the first Democratic paper at Concord. To his able conduct is in a great measure to be ascribed the ascendency which his party acquired in the State, about the year 1828. Though possessing few of the external qualifications for a popular leader, being feeble in person, and altogether destitute of oratorical power, his unrivaled tact and untiring industry gave him an uncontrolled influence in the State. He was chosen State Senator; and subsequently United States Senator, which office he held from 1831 to 1836, when he resigned, in consequence of having been elected Governor of New Hampshire. He filled the executive chair for two or three terms, and then retired to private life. In 1840 he was appointed Sub-Treasurer at Boston; but the repeal of the Sub-Treasury Act the following year vacated his office. He then returned to New Hampshire; but his star had waned. He disagreed with his party on the subject of corporations and other radical questions, lost his political influence, and fell into comparative insignificance, as a politician, though he always adhered to his party. For a number of years he edited an agricultural paper of considerable merit. He suffered much from impaired health during the last years of his life; and died in moderate pecuniary circumstances.
Mordecai Manasseh Noah, long known as an able editor and active politician, died in New York, March 28. He was born at Philadelphia, July 19, 1784, and has thus attained to within three years of three score and ten. He was apprenticed to a carver and gilder; but early abandoned that trade and devoted himself to literature and politics. He removed to Charleston, S. C., in the early part of the present century, where he took an active and influential part in public affairs. Having declined the offer of the consulship at Riga, he was appointed, in 1813, consul at Tunis, and was charged with a mission to Algiers. This latter he accomplished, after some adventures, and repaired to Tunis. At the expiration of ten months he was recalled, under charge, we believe, of some pecuniary defalcations. Upon his return to this country, he became connected with the political press. In 1822, he was elected Sheriff of the City and County of New York, which office he held but a single year. In 1829, he was appointed Commissioner of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Surveyor of the port of New York. In the mean while, he had formed the project of collecting his brethren the Jews, and rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. He issued a singular proclamation, appointing Grand Island, near Niagara Falls, as the place of rendezvous, and summoned the scattered tribes to transmit their contributions. We have no means of knowing how far he was in earnest in this scheme. At all events, it came to nothing. In 1840, he was elected Judge of the Court of General Sessions, which he held till the law constituting the court was changed. Mr. Noah was, however, more known as an editor than as a politician. Though without any very lofty aims, or high qualifications, he was an agreeable and sprightly paragraphist, possessed of an unfailing good-humor, and a large fund of general information. He was connected successively with a number of papers, and at the time of his death was editor of a Sunday paper, The Messenger and Times. He also published at different times a number of works of a miscellaneous character, chiefly essays and plays, some of which met with great success at the time of publication; but none of them possessed sufficient vitality to take a permanent place in the literature of the country. His death was the consequence of a paralytic stroke. He lived and died a believer in the faith of his fathers, the Hebrew religion; and was buried with the solemn ceremonies practiced by the ancient chosen people. He was of a most generous and genial nature, and enjoyed the warmest good-will of all with whom he was brought into personal relations.
George M. Brooke, Brevet Major-General in the United States army, died at San Antonio, Texas, on the 19th of March. He was a native of Virginia, and entered the army in 1808. He was brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1814, for "gallant conduct in the defense of Fort Erie." A month later he received the rank of Brevet Colonel, for "distinguished and meritorious services in the sortie from Fort Erie." In 1824, he was made Brevet Brigadier-General for "ten years' faithful service as Colonel." In 1848, he was brevetted as Major-General for "meritorious conduct, particularly in the performance of his duties in the prosecution of the war with Mexico."