THE LITERARY WORLD. VOL. VIII. BOSTON, DEC. 1, 1877. CONTENTS. The Whittier Tribute. are only a few examples; they are minor faults and easily corrected. Henry Holt & Co. deserve well of the pub lic, for sending forth such works as Wallace's Russia, Baker's Turkey and Creasy's History. CYRUS HAMLIN. much more rare, the author exhibits the equal abominations of their enemies. For two No. 7. hundred years it has been quite a common thing for the Russians to massacre men, women and children when a place has surrendered. Read pages 368, 407, 432–33 and 439. Deaths the most horrible were sometimes inflicted upon Turkish prisoners. The Mohammedans have had no preeminence in vio- HARVEY'S REMINISCENCES OF WEBlating the most sacred principles of humanSTER.* ity. THE THREE SILENCES. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. THE GOLDEN CALENDAR. Oliver Wendell Holmes. UNDERTONE. Wm. Lloyd Garrison. Lydia Maria Child. Rich'd H. Dana. Wm. C. Bryant. SENTIMENT. Geo. Bancroft. Charles W. Eliot. F. Parkman. H. B. Stowe. Bangor, Maine. Most readers will be surprised to find how THIS volume, which we had the pleasure often this empire has seemed to be vitality, when supposed to be "sick" unto of announcing in our September number, is now on the eve of publication. The author, himself very lately deceased, was for a long Mr. Webster, and his reminiscences of the period of years a most intimate friend of great lawyer and statesman, here collected, constitute a narrative of the most interesting description. The book is one to be set forth by samples rather than formally described; while as for criticism there is little or nothing for it to take hold upon. The stream of anecdote is swift and smooth, and flows unvexed by irrelevant matters. The outlines of Mr. Webster's career are familiar to all, and his history has been written; The history shows clearly the course of but here we have those flitting glimpses of Russia for the past two hundred years with personality, those homely incidents of everyregard to Turkey. What she is now doing day experience, those off-hand utterances of she has been doing or preparing to do for the man within the man, which give the Cool- two centuries. The Empress Catherine de-choicest flavor to biography, and make the clared she would have Constantinople if she portrait which it presents instinct with life. lost St. Petersburg. Her death saved Turkey in 1796, Pitt and Poland in 1807, the Allies in 1853-56, and the future is now un ON LEWES ON THE PHYSICAL beginning of the century. BASIS OF MIND. Andrew WITHIN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. W guage, a history of the Turkish Em of print; and all later attempts have been failures. The great works of Von Hammer and of D. Ohsson have never been translated into English. Professor Creasy has avowedly constructed his history out of Von Hammer, with references to many other writers; and he has achieved his work with great skill and ability. He has the rare gift of selecting the chief facts and topics, and of so treating them as to form a full flowing narrative, with no indications of any important omission. It will undoubtedly hold the unique position of the only good history of Turkey in the English language. It is characterized by great fairness and impartiality as well as good judgment. The good and bad deeds of the Ottoman sovereigns are given clearly and concisely. The atrocious cruelties and vices of which some certain. To Mr. Webster's minute and interested recollection of his career, to Mr. Harvey's alert and pains-taking record of his intercourse with Mr. Webster, and to Mr. Professor Creasy rescues the Turkish char- Towle's careful and judicious editing of the acter from much unmerited obloquy. Let manuscript deposited in his hands, do we those who love to display their rhetoric and owe this engaging volume. A richer, more their ignorance over "the unspeakable Turk nearly perfect, more instantly delectable, read Professor Creasy's estimate of his char- piece of anecdotical biography we do not acter on pages 107-109, 307. The tolerant remember; one which so quickly absorbs spirit of the Ottomans, the grand attempts at the attention and so irresistibly leads on the internal improvements, the able and wise eye from paragraph to paragraph and from statesmanship of some of their sovereigns page to page. The pudding is all plums, beand Grand Viziers, will be a surprise to most tween which is little choice for juiciness. readers. Stories of Mr. Webster's famous cases at law, accounts of his personal habits, bits of domestic scene, little touches of his humor and good nature, pictures of his intercourse servations upon and judgments of his assowith distinguished men in public life, ob Von Hammer's work closes with 1774; the century that has elapsed since then has as yet no historian. In the brief sketch given the vast changes which have occurred in the by Professor Creasy, justice is not done to empire. ciates and contemporaries, etc., etc., follow Unfortunately Professor Creasy is not ac- each other in incessant course and an endquainted with the Turkish language, but still less variety. The recital is characterized by the confusion which he makes in the orthog- delightful simplicity and unexceptionable raphy of Turkish proper names and titles is taste, and is altogether one that must furnish inexcusable. For example, he writes Ma- a great amount of enjoyment to readers of homet, Mahometan, Amurath, Beg, Dervise, almost every class. Very different in subinstead of the true forms, Mohammed, Mo- stance and quality from the memoir of hammedan, Murad, Bey, Dervish, and so on. Charles Sumner or George Ticknor, it yet His excuse that he follows old forms is worth has, if we mistake not, an even more direct less. He calls a vizier Mohammed and his address to the popular taste, and will be sultan Mahomet, although they have precisetheir Empire to the Present Time. By Sir Edward Creasy, ly the same name. The Turkish name IsHarvey's Reminiscences of Webster. Edited by Geo. kender Bey is written Scanderbeg. These M. Towle. Little, Brown & Co. were guilty are not concealed. But what is *History of the Ottoman Turks from the Beginning of M. A. Henry Holt & Co. read with greater avidity. Beyond these general remarks we have nothing to say, but shall lay before our readers some generous extracts by way of illustration. The passages selected relate to several important phases of Mr. Webster's life: AT THE BAR. The following incident of the Sanborn suit may be related as an instance of Mr. Webster's keenness and power of repartee. Augustus Peabody, one of the opposing counsel, was very familiar with the "books," and no case could be cited which he could not find at once. He was a sort of walking dictionary of law. Mr. Webster was arguing to the jury, and cited some English case, when Mr. Peabody interrupted him and asked where the case was to be found reported. Mr. Webster went straight on, paying no attention to the interruption, and Mr. Hoar and Mr. Peabody hurriedly consulted together. Then Mr. Peabody rose and claimed the protection of the court. He said that Mr. Webster was citing authorities to sustain his argument, and they wished to know where they were to be found, so that they could judge for themselves as to the pertinency of the citation. Judge Shaw remarked that counsel had a right to know where the cases were to be found, and that the court itself would like to know. Mr. Webster leaned against the rail, resting on his elbow, and looking at the court said: Isaid to Mr. Webster: So they exchanged the documents; and the around him some animals to remind him of rural next morning, when they met, General Harrison life. He had a cow in his yard and some favorite fowls. He had a number of hens, which he "If I should read your inaugural instead of took peculiar pleasure in feeding and watching. mine, everybody would know that you wrote it, He used to come from the State Department to and that I did not. Now, this is the only official his parlor, and, finding Mrs. Webster's little paper which I propose to write, for I do not in- work-basket on the sideboard, he would go up tend to interfere with my secretaries; but this is softly and say, "I think I may venture to take a sort of acknowledgment on my part to the this little basket;" and he would empty it of its American people of the great honor they have contents, and go to the barn to get the hens' conferred upon me in elevating me to this high eggs. He would bring them in and talk about office; and although, of course, it is not so suit them with all the glee and joyousness of boyable as yours, still it is mine, and I propose to hood. This he did every day. let the people have it just as I have written it. I must deliver my own instead of yours." WITHIN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.* THE Mr. Webster told me that he was a good deal annoyed, because the message was, according to his judgment and taste, so inappropriate. It en- 'HE contents of this large and profusely tered largely into Roman history, and had a great illustrated volume, taken in the order of deal to say about the States of antiquity and the Roman proconsuls, and various matters of that importance, are (1) the narrative of the exkind. Indeed, the word "proconsul" was re-pedition of the "Tegetthoff" into the Arcpeated in it a great many times. tic seas lying to the north of Nova Zembla, or, as the name is here given Novaya Zemlya; with the resulting discovery of a hitherto unknown land; (2) the briefer account of the reconnaissance made by the "Isbjörn," under the same officers, in the same direction; and (3) a general treatise, in six chapters, upon the Arctic regions, their exploration, the character of the problems which they offer, the probabilities attending the question of their solution, and the approved methods of travel and investigation. This third section, which is first in order of place, When he found that the President was bent upon using his own inaugural, Mr. Webster said that his desire was to modify it, and to get in some things that were not there, and get out some things that were there; for, as it then stood, he said, it had no more to do with the affairs of the American government and people than a chapter in the Koran. Mr. Webster suggested to General Harrison that he should like to put in some things, and General Harrison rather reluctantly consented to let him take it. "It is not very good manners to interrupt me Mr. Webster spent a portion of the next day in in the midst of a sentence addressed to the jury. modifying the message. Mrs. Seaton remarked It is a practice in which I never indulge. I always to him, when he came home rather late that day, let counsel have their say, and if I can answer that he looked fatigued and worried; but he rethem, I do, as well as I can. This interrupting Iplied that he was sorry that she had waited dindon't like it is rather a habit of my learned ner for him. friend on the other side, and is quite annoying. "That is of no consequence at all, Mr. Web-is an exceedingly instructive summary, putHe has appealed to me to know where the case ster," said she; "but I am sorry to see you lookthat I have cited can be found reported, some-ing so worried and tired. I hope nothing has gone what as if I had quoted a case that was fictitious. What I wish to say in answer to that is, that the case to which I referred was so and so [giving the names &c.], and that it occurred in the third year of Lord Eldon in Chancery. In what particular volume of reports by Lord Eldon, on what particular page, and how many lines from the top of the page, I don't know. I never trouble myself with these little matters. Peabody has nothing else to do, and he can hunt it up at his leisure!" PUBLIC SERVICE. wrong. I really hope nothing has happened." PRIVATE LIFE. Mr. Webster, in a speech at Rochester, said: I "Why, gentlemen, I live on the sandy seashore them with ears of corn from an unhusked pile ting the reader in possession of just those facts which he needs to know in order to understand the narratives which follow. The pioneer voyage of the "Isbjörn," not without many elements of exciting interest in itself, was a trivial undertaking in comparison with that of the "Tegetthoff," for which it prepared the way, and the journal of which forms the bulk of the volume. The "Tegetthoff" was an Austrian threemasted screw vessel of 220 tons. She was Mr. Webster became Secretary of State under General Harrison, in 1841. They had no inter- One day he invited Fletcher and myself to go fitted out for two years and a half, and carried view before he was appointed. It was done by with him, and see the animals settle among them- twenty-three men. The joint commanders of correspondence; by an offer of the place on the selves their own rank and precedence, as they part of General Harrison by letter, and accept were brought in to be tied up for the night. the expedition were Lieutenants Weyprecht ance by letter on that of Mr. Webster. They Farmers very well know that cattle are as par- and Payer, respectively of the Austrian navy did not meet until eight or ten days previous to ticular about their position in society and their and army. The latter had served in the secthe inauguration. General Harrison arrived at accredited stanchions as diplomatists at a royal Washington, from Cincinnati, about the time Mr. court. After each animal was secured in his ond German North Polar Expedition, under Webster arrived from Massachusetts. Mr. Web-place, Mr. Webster amused himself by feeding Koldewey and Hegemann in 1869-1870. The ster was invited by Mr. Seaton, one of the editors "Tegetthoff" sailed from Bremerhaven, at of the National Intelligencer, and a very warm personal friend of his, to come to his house, as the mouth of the Weser, June 13, 1872, and he would be more quiet there, and less exposed to intrusion than at a hotel; and to stay until he sighted the North Cape of Lapland on the 16th of July. Ten days later, off the western coast of Novaya Zemlya, she struck the frozen ocean, and the stage of adventure proper began. A month later, in 76° 22′ N. Latitude, 630 3' E. Longitude, the "Tegetthoff" was finally beset in the ice from which she was never to be extricated. The pack which had closed around the vessel drifted slowly northward, and the expedition entered should get a house and move his family into it. He was constantly occupied with General Harrison on matters connected with the formation of the Cabinet, from early morning until the dinner hour, which was six o'clock. It seems that he had prepared an inaugural message for General Harrison. One day, among other arrangements, suggested to the new President, in as delicate as he could, the fact that he had sketched an inaugural, knowing that General Harrison would be overwhelmed with calls and business after his election, and he himself having leisure The General at once replied that it was not necessary, that he had prepared his own inaugural. h a way to write. “Oh yes," said he, "I have got that all ready." "Will you allow me to take it home and read it to-night?" asked Mr. Webster. "Certainly," the President replied; "and please let me take yours." "You do not seem, my son, to take much in- To his guns he gave names after the fashion "In the morning of that day [October 13th], as we sat at breakfast, our floe burst across immedi New Lands Within the Arctic Circle. Discoveries of the Austrian ship "Tegetthoff" in 1872-1874. By Julius When he lived in Washington, he always kept Payer. D. Appleton & Co. drifted on and on with the winds and currents extreme, and sometimes almost impossible. Here were the "new lands within the Arctic circle" whose discovery was to be the distinguishing achievement of the expedition. ately under the ship. Rushing on deck we dis- sound, and at last rose into a furious howl as of For one hundred and thirty days experi. ences similar to this were encountered in greater or less degree, "almost always in sunless darkness." How much that circumstance must have added to the horror of the situation let the reader, if he can, imagine. Even the brief daylight was so feeble that the lamps were kept constantly lighted, with the exception of two or three hours in the forenoon. By November a deep twilight environed the scene, and the dreary waste had become one of magical beauty: "The rigging, white with frost, stood out, specter-like, against the grey-blue of the heavens ; the ice, broken into a thousand forms and overspread with a covering of snow, had now assumed the cold pure aspect of alabaster shaded with the tender hues of arragonite." In the present instance three sledges were ised, ranging from six to eleven feet long, one foot high, and capable of carrying from seven to twenty cwt. each. The appearance of one when laden with its proportion of stores, cooking apparatus, "sleeping bags," arms and ammunition, scientific instruments, medical supplies, etc., is shown herewith: "Dreadful as the weather was, we could not venture to put up the tent; march we must, in order to escape before the wind destroyed the icebridges on the way back. We trudged along unsnow. Sounding all round, we escaped the der enormous glacier walls, enveloped in whirling abysses with difficulty. We could scarcely even clothes were covered with snow, our faces were breathe and make head against the wind. Our crusted with ice, eyes and mouth were firmly closed, and the dark sea beneath us was hidden from our view. We ceased to hear even its roar, the might of the storm drowning everything else. Haller, a few paces ahead, continually sounded, so as to keep us clear of fissures. We could scarcely follow him or recognize his form. We saw nothing even of the enormous glacier walls under which we toiled along, except that at times we caught a glimpse of them towering aloft. At every hundred paces we halted for a few minutes to remove the ice which formed itself on our eyes, and round our mouths. We stilled our hunger with the hope that we should find and dig out the body of the bear which we had shot a month ago. But we dared not rest, nor await the abatement felt the firm ground, free from ice, beneath our of the storm, until we had crossed the glacier and feet. This we compassed after a march of seven hours. Utterly exhausted, we then put up the tent on a stony slope, got beneath it, white with snow, wet through, and stiffened with ice; notwithstanding our hunger, we lay down to sleep without eating. Not a morsel of bread could we venture to serve out from the small stock of provisions that remained." Under conditions like these three different sledge journeys were made to FranzJoseph Land, and a final safe return effected to the excuse the play upon words. She had become a fixture in the ice. It was determined to abandon her, and return home over the frozen sea by means of small boats and sledges. This formidable undertaking was out the extremest toil and pain. By the middle of August the ice fields had been traversed, the open water was reached, and the boats were joyfully launched for the yet adventurous voyage to Novaya Zemlya. Here Russian fishing vessels were found, and a safe return was assured. In the exploration of Franz-Joseph Land, "Tegetthoff." The spring of 1874 had come. as this new territory was loyally christened, The ship it was found impossible to get off — Preparations for wintering were now com- the winter months of 1874 were consumed. pleted. A snow wall was raised around the The country was found to be divided into ship, and attention was turned to reducing in- two masses, together almost as large as Spitzconveniences and discomforts to the lowest bergen. Mountains of volcanic origin, enorterms. The monotony of the tedious days mous glaciers, precipitous coasts, scanty vegwas relieved by occasional short sledge-jour-etation, perpetual and almost universal snows, successfully accomplished, though not with neys over the ice, enlivened now and then by and a total desolation, were its chief features. an interview with a polar bear. To give the Two maps accompanying the narrative, based crew employment a school was instituted. on actual surveys, show respectively the toThe cold maintained itself with great intensi-pography of the Land itself, and its geographty, the mean monthly temperature being ical relations to Novaya Zemlya and Spitz-310 F.; and incessant ice-pressures kept the bergen. The scientific acquisition of this entire company in a state of lively alarm and terra incognita was purchased at a heavy cost anxious readiness to desert the ship at a mo- of peril and suffering, the story of which is We have left ourselves no space to speak ment's notice, if worst came to worst. Toward perhaps the most thrilling portion of the vol- more in detail of the scientific results of this the last of February the sun once more ap- ume. Intense cold, prevailing darkness, deep remarkable expedition. They confirm the peared, and with March the spring, in name snows, frequent storms, ferocious bears, in- now prevailing opinion that there is no "open at least, began. The birds returned. The sufficient and unsuitable provisions, conse- Polar Sea." And they must further serve to cutting out of the ship was attempted, but the quent illness, aggravating exposures, were guide Arctic explorations in the future more thickness of the ice, twenty-seven feet and only ordinary incidents of the party's experi- towards the observation of natural phenommore, rendered this impossible. The summer ence. The piled-up masses of ice and snow, ena, and less in the direction of mere geowore away. Meanwhile the floe which held crevasses, and other features of the region graphical discovery. The prompt creation the "Tegetthoff" in its mighty grasp had made progress slow, often dangerous in the in this behalf of a German Commission of Arctic Exploration is one of the first fruits of As a "painter of landscape and of human the expedition of the "Tegetthoff." We have only to say of this work in conclusion that it is written with great power, simplicity and beauty; and that its illustrations, upwards of one hundred in number, and mostly of Arctic scenery, add vastly to its attractiveness and value. CONTEMPORARY ART IN EUROPE.* THE eagerness with which the reading public welcome everything relating to art will doubtless render Mr. Benjamin's volume among the most popular of the season The three papers of which it is composed have appeared during the past year in Harper's Magazine, together with the illustrations, which are exceedingly valuable, consisting as they do of portraits of many of the leading ar tists of France, England, and Germany, and more than forty engravings from their paintings. Mr. Benjamin, in considering the art of these countries, gives a sketch of academies, schools for instruction and exhibitions; passes the artists in review before us with their especial characteristics and principal works; and discusses the technical excellences and defects, as well as the motif and sentiment, of each separately. nature" the palm is given to Jules A. Breton, To the art of Germany our writer gives the In each paper a few words arę given to the other arts, architecture and sculpture; also to pottery and household art, although with a timely word of warning, lest under the present mania, the ceramic art should be elevated above its true position. HA PIERCE'S MEMOIR OF SUMNER.* APPY the man, who, if permitted to look back upon the world he has left, finds that he whom he has chosen to tell the story of his life fully justifies the wisdom of his selection. This proposition has felicitous According to the author's account, land- illustration in the present noble work. Mr. scape art-the expression of that intense Pierce has all the essential qualifications for love of nature peculiar to the Briton, and his arduous task, evincing these in the arwhich has found a voice in every poet from rangement of his subjects, his just discrimiChaucer to Tennyson-is for the present nation in the choice of materials, and in his overshadowed by genre, for he says "the best draught upon so many sources of informamodern art in that country is in the treatment tion. By this last device he has succeeded of this class of subjects." Portraiture, grow-in giving to the work a most agreeable variety. ing as it does out of the domestic and social The early pages of the first volume afford instincts peculiar to England, still maintains a genealogical summary view of the Sumner its high position, and commands princely prices. Millais gets £2,000 for one of his works, and Ouless, a young man, £800 or £1,000. A pleasant sketch of the Romantic School is given, and also of E. Burne Jones, one of its principal artists, "whose paintings hold the same relation to art that Rosetti's religious poems hold to literature." family. The founder of the American branch was the namesake of our statesman-Charles Sumner, who, in 1635, came with his wife, Mary, and three sons, William, Roger and George, to Dorchester, Mass. His descendants, living in Milton and Dorchester during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were generally farmers, with large farms and "No people probably ever had the art in- large families. Charles Sumner's grandstinct more generally diffused than the father, Job, was born in Milton, in 1754. In French, although not to so high a degree, 1774 he entered Harvard College, one of his perhaps, as the Greeks or the Italians," says classmates being Nathan Dane. In May, the writer. And we agree with him. In wit, 1775, he joined Washington's army, at Camsprightliness, ingenuity, subtlety and acute-bridge, as ensign. In April, 1779, Congress ness of intellect, and in the love of the beau- gave him a commission of captain in the tiful, the French are the modern representa- army. At one time Major André was in his tives of the Greeks, but with a vein of bru- custody. In 1781, he was appointed by tality and sensualism which seems to have descended in direct line, untamed, from their Latin ancestors. This, together with their want of religious faith, has prevented their achieving anything really great in art, although they have nearly attained perfection in all that constitutes technical excellence. Contemporary Art in Europe. By S. G. W. Benjamin. Harper & Brothers. Charles Pinckney Sumner, father of Charles, was born in Milton, and spent his youth in hard work on a farm. He entered Phillips Academy, Andover, and in 1792 entered Harvard College, graduating in 1796, being the classmate of Rev. Leonard Woods, of Andover Theological Seminary, and father of Rev. Dr. Leonard Woods, lately President of Bowdoin College. After graduation he taught for a time at Hingham, spent a year in the West Indies, and began the study of law, becoming the partner of Josiah Quincy. His tastes were decidedly literary; he wrote both verse and prose; in 1800, when twentyfour years of age, he delivered, Feb. 22, at Milton, a eulogy on Washington, just departed. He was active in politics, and was clerk of the House of Representatives several years, his friend Joseph Story being Speaker. In 1810 he married Relief Jacob. In 1819 he left the bar to become a deputy sheriff, and in 1825, was made sheriff. His increased income enabled him to give his son Charles a college education. He was a noble citizen, of spotless integrity, fond of learning, and a severe but just father. His wife was a model American woman. Inheriting the manly virtues of his grandfather and father, Charles Sumner entered life under propitious circumstances. He was one of nine children. Albert, born in 1812, was drowned, with his only daughter, at sea, in 1856. Henry, born 1814, and George, 1817, received mercantile training. The latter was a very accomplished man. Jane, born in 1820, died at seventeen. She was a very lovely girl. In the words of the biographer," goodness was her chief characteristic." Mary soon followed her, dying of consumption. Horace, born in 1824, perished with Margaret Fuller Ossoli, in the wreck of the ship "Elizabeth," in July, 1850. Julia was born in 1827; married, in 1854, Dr. John Hastings, of San Francisco. Having briefly traced his family antecedCharles Sumner's life. Having learned the ents, we now begin the record of the great rudiments of knowledge in a private school, he attended the West Writing (afterwards known as the Mayhew) School. He was most of the other scholars." His father de"amiable and quick, and more mature than cided that he should not learn the classics; but Charles had his own way, and with his little savings bought a Latin Grammar and a "Liber Primus." One morning he surprised his father by reading from these. Congress a commissioner to settle accounts • Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner. By Edward L. Pierce. 2 vols. Roberts Brothers. for a translation from Ovid, and a second for one from Sallust; two years later, second prizes for a Latin hexameter poem, and an English theme. For these he received an English edition of Gibbon's History, in tion, but also the substantial value of infor. Though thinking deeply on this new subject twelve volumes. mation. His account of his visit to Lord of agitation, he took an active interest in Dr. Brougham is a marvel of concise and vivid Howe's project for helping the blind, and portraiture, to say nothing of his keen analy- prosecuted his legal business with energy. sis of the great man's character. Compared All this time he kept au courant with literawith these letters, those of the late Mr. Tick-ture, which in this country had begun to exnor, so full of egotism, sink into insignifi-pand and improve. He was very intimate cance. At Holkham, the grand estate of the with Longfellow, Holmes, Ticknor, and other Earl of Leicester, he found pure enjoyment. writers. In 1843 he wrote an able letter on Here it was that Chantrey, the sculptor, killed slavery and citizenship to Hon. Robert C. two woodcocks at one shot, and here that art- Winthrop, in Washington. Throughout the ist raised a marble monument illustrative of work Mr. Sumner goes out of his way to behis feat. W. G. Cooksley, a master at Eton, laud Mr. Prescott, two of whose histories had wrote this epitaph on the birds : just been published, almost forcing topics "We fled from Norway o'er the German wave, upon his English friends. He praises PresAnd pilgrims here, we found an early grave; Hard fate was ours, for here, at Holkham farm, cott's style-praises which we cannot apWe deemed the stranger had been safe from harm. prove, remembering the many grammatical But Heav'n consoled us with our victor's name, And he that slew us gave us endless fame." defects in "Charles V." The record ends in Volume I, in Dec. 1837. It may Passing over Mr. Sumner's law studies, his assistance to Judge Story and Simon Greenleaf, in the Dane Law School, we may say that he entered on a partnership with Geo. S. Hillard, and became editor of the Jurist, and won two or three cases in court; we accompany him on his voyage to Europe, to which he had long looked forward eagerly. be said here that he took no honors on graduation, but some years later was favored by an election to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He made several journeys to Western New York, and Washington, where he made a quite long stay, meeting and knowing men like Webster, Calhoun and other celebrities. With Miss Fanny Kemble, then in tender youth, the staid young Sumner fell in love; but the passion proved ephemeral. His nature was shaped for graver cares. The first two hundred pages of the first volume are mainly filled with his correspondence with his classmates, Judge Story, Greenleaf, Dr. Lieber, Prof. Mittermaier of Heidelberg, and many others. These letters are deeply interesting, and clearly reveal the qualities of heart and mind which in later years he made so illustrious. He left New York, Dec. 8, 1837, in the sailing ship "Albany," arriving in Havre, Dec. 28. Thence he went at once to Paris, where he spent some weeks in listening to lectures, scientific and philosophic. His ignorance of the French tongue proved a serious obstacle to his success; but he manfully set to work, under two teachers, to master it, and finally was able to sustain himself in conversation. He made some friends in Paris, and, on the whole, enjoyed his visit. Vol. II comprises the period between that date and July 4, 1845. Six chapters of Vol. II treat of his travels in France, Italy and Germany. His adventures, observations and experiences in those lands are reported in a series of letters to his Boston friends, graphic, entertaining, but often repetitious, and too full of fulsome eulogy of his friends. It was kind of him to show so deep an interest in Crawford, the sculptor; but it seems to us in bad taste to importune his friends so incessantly in the artist's behalf. Of Story and Greenough he has much to say. In his stay in England, after his visits to the countries above named-of which he admired Italy, and was indifferent to Germany, he renewed his English friendships, and wearies the reader with the echoes of their praises. It is creditable to him that he animadverted severely on the books on England of Cooper and Willis. In March, 1840, he returned home, meeting At last he went to England, landing at the heartiest welcome from his many friends. London under powerful emotion. From this Rejoining Mr. Hillard as partner, he resumed point through the first volume, the story is the practice of law quite actively. While in told in his own well-chosen and well-ordered Europe he had written an important paper on words, in letters to friends at home. He was the Northeastern boundary question, which received with marked attention by the most was finally settled by the Ashburton Treaty, eminent Englishmen the legal and judicial negotiated by the Lord of that name and element being largely represented. He met Daniel Webster. After his return he prewith chancellors, judges, barons, sergeants-pared a paper on the famous U. S. brig Parke, Lord Denmore, Baron Alderson, "Somers" mutiny, for participation in which Vaughan, and other justices. Follett, the three culprits were hanged by order of the great advocate, Lushington, Talfourd, Grote, Jeffrey, Rogers, the banker-poet, Milman, Monkton Milnes (now Lord Houghton), Brougham, Hume, and an hundred others hardly less famous. Invited to dinner, sometimes to a dozen places at once, he lacked time for his correspondence. The attentions paid him were not mere courtesies, but general honors to his nationality, to his talents and grace. The letters in which he narrates About 1842 he became an assiduous stuhis journeys through England, Scotland and dent of slavery. He had long been a reader Ireland, his views of ancient monuments, of Garrison's paper, the Liberator; but he cathedrals, old mansions, and natural scenery, did not fully accept its very radical opinions. all these are most fascinating, possessing not Especially he denounced the demand of these only the charm of an elegant epistolary dic-reformers for a dissolution of the Union. commander. Their leader, Philip Spencer, "In our The Fourth of July, 1845, was one of the most memorable days in the life of Charles Sumner. On that day he pronounced an oration on "The True Grandeur of Nations." The main thesis of this oration was: age, there can be no peace that is not honorable; there can be no war that is not dishonorable." Hon. P. W. Chandler, who heard him, thus portrays his aspect : "He was then the impersonation of manly beauty and power, of commanding stature; his well developed; his features finely cut, his dark figure no longer slender, as in student days, but hair hanging in masses over his left brow, his face lighting with the smile which always won his gilt buttons-a fancy of lawyers at that periodand white waistcoat and trousers. were unstudied, and followed no rules; the most frequent one was the swinging of the arm above the head. His voice was clear and strong, resounding through the hall, but at times falling in been seen on the platform a more attractive prescadences mellow and pathetic. Seldom has there ence than his, as now, at the age of thirty-four, he stood, for the first time, before the people as friends at one sight. He wore a dress coat, with His gestures sembled to hear him." He said that "war is utterly and irreconcilably inconsistent with true greatness." The oration pleased the few, but angered the many; and Major John Clark, a military man, stood up and condemned the orator in sturdy English. Dr. J. G. Palfrey (since the learned historian of New England) rose and protested against the doctrine of the orator as to war and true national greatness. Hon. Robert C. Winthrop also opposed; and in the end, the eloquent speaker made but little capital by his speech. The only retort that troubled Mr. Sumner was that of Horace Mann, his dear friend, who argued that war is often made in the interest of justice. Mr. Sumner in this oration, as in all his political acts, was far in advance of his time, and he reaped the legitimate consequence of his temerity. The people admired, but feared, and many hated him. But the intelligent masses cherish fondly his memory, as that of a great man who loved and sacrificed himself to his country. The chief blemish in this work is the intense and pervading egotism of Mr. Sumner, |