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Society, were the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earls Granville, Harrowby, and Carlisle, the Bishop of Oxford, Dean Milman, Mr. Joseph Hume, and other Members of Parliament. The Marquis of Lansdowne opened the proceedings by stating the objects of the meeting; and resolutions were passed, of which the following were the principal:

"That the success of literary and scientific institutions, and mechanics' institutes, in the cultivation of literature, science and art, and in the diffusion of useful knowledge, might be powerfully promoted by the combination of many institutions in union with the Society of Arts, on the basis of perfect security to the continued independence of the institutions, and the freedom of their self-government.

"That the pecuniary conditions of union should be calculated to protect the society from loss, and to afford to the institutions the full value of the payments which they may make."

The report of the Royal Commissioners for inquiring into the state, discipline, studies, and resources of the University of Oxford, which was issued on the 19th, recommends the assimilation of colleges; an extension of the curriculum further beyond classics and mathematics than it reaches at present; the extinction of mischievous distinctions of wealth and rank; and the resuscitation, for legislative purposes, of "congregation;" which is to consist of heads of houses, proctors, the senior tutor of each college, professors, and public lecturers. By the side of such an institution, the commissioners think that the Hebdomadal Board and the Convocation might safely be permitted to exist in their present shape the former retaining its general superintendence and a joint initiative with Congregation on the measures to be submitted to Convocation; the latter retaining its veto on measures that have passed Congregation, and losing only its power of nominating to professorships.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE.

THE Rajah of Coorg, who has come to this country for the education of his daughter, was presented with his daughter to her Majesty at an audience on the 17th. The Rajah was also present at her Majesty's state ball on the 19th in his Oriental costume of great magnifience. Sir Stratford Canning, Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Ottoman Porte, has been raised to the Peerage, by the title of Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, in the county of Somerset. Lieutenant-General Lord Frederick Fitzclarence, G.C.H., has been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the East India Company's forces on the Bombay establishment, in succession to Sir Charles Grey, who comes home invalided through the infirmities of age.

Mr. Rickards has been elected Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, in the room of Mr Nassau, Senior, whose term had expired.

General Rosas, the ex-dictator of Buenos Ayres, has arrived at Plymouth, in the neighbourhood of which place he intends, it is said, permanently to reside.

Colonel Fordyce, who lately lost his life in the Caffre war, has by his last will bequeathed a pension to the widow of every soldier who should fall under his command, a shilling each per day to all disabled soldiers of his corps; and left the means of purchasing commissions for his five most deserving sergeants. The offices of Lord Justice-General and Lord President of the Court of Session are conferred on Lord Colonsay, one of the junior judges of the Court of Session, better known as Mr. Duncan M'Neill. The vacant judgeship has been conferred upon Mr. Adam Anderson, who is succeeded as Lord Advocate by Mr. John Inglis; and the office of Solicitor-General, thus vacated, has been conferred upon Mr. Charles Neaves, the Sheriff of Orkney.

Lord John Russell has taken a lease for several years of Gart House, near Callander, the mansion of Admiral Houston Stewart, M.P. for Greenwich, as an autumn residence for himself and family. Gart House is delightfully situated on the banks of the Teith.

The Hon. G. Smythe and Colonel Romilly had an "affair of honour" on the 20th, in consequence of some expressions in a speech made by Captain Smythe which Colonel Romilly regarded as exceeding the fair licence of a political contest. Mr. Osborne and Captain Vivian, the friends of the parties, being unable to effect an accommodation, a hostile meeting took place between Mr. Smythe and Colonel Romilly this morning, when, after an interchange of shots, Colonel Romilly having, through his second, the Hon. John Fortescue, M.P., declared himself satisfied, the parties left the ground.

Obituary of Notable Persons.

Mr. ALEXANDER MACKAY, the author of the "Western World," and lately the Commissioner in India of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, died on his passage home from India, on board the Company's steamer Aydalia, on the 15th ult., in his thirty-second year.

Mr. JOHN DALRYMPLE, the eminent surgeon, died at his house in Grosvenor Street, on the 2nd inst., in his forty-ninth year.

Mr. W. H. MURRAY, late of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, who only a short time since retired from professional life, died very suddenly on the 6th inst., in his sixty-third year. Sudely, died at Genoa, on the 4th of May.

JOHN CAPEL HANBURY TRACY, third son of the Hon. Lord

The Right Hon. Earl CORNWALLIS died at Linton Park, Kent, on the 21st, in his seventy-third year.

COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES.

By the Overland Mail from Bombay of the 17th of April, we learn that the troops for Burmah were all embarked by the 30th of March. The whole force was to unite before Rangoon on the 5th of April, and Rangoon was expected to be in our possession by the 10th of the same month. The forces would then advance as speedily as possible further up into the country before the rainy season, and would then await reinforcements and the return of more favourable weather. The expedition under Sir Colin Campbell returned to Peshawur on the 27th of March. Three days afterwards, however, new outbreaks upon the frontiers were reported, and it was expected the troops would again be sent off.

The overland mail brings News from Hong-kong to the 30th of March. Governor Sir George Bonham was returning home for a temporary absence, to recruit his health. Major-General Jervois would assume the government pro tempore; but it was expected that the next (January) mail would bring out a commission to Dr. Bowring as Plenipotentiary and Chief Superintendent of Trade.

A Hong-kong letter says-" The emigration to Califormia is still in progress. Upwards of fifty ships have sailed, taking, it is estimated, about 15,000 emigrants.

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The West India Mail has brought advices from the different colonies to the end of April. There is no political news of importance. Jamaica was quiet, but the state of agricultural affairs fearfully depressed. Very many of the largest and most productive sugar estates are being thrown out of cultivation. The commerce of the island is also much depressed, having lost nearly all its foreign trade. Cholera has entirely disappeared. Small-pox is prevalent in many parts of the island.

In Demerara a shock of earthquake was felt on the 14th of April. No damage was done. On the same day, the islands of St. Vincent and Grenada, several hundred miles distant, were visited with similar concussions. There had been another arrival of coolies from the East Indies to the number of 300. These people, who were brought by the Zenobia, have been allotted to the different estates in the county of Berbice. The weather during the fortnight had been propitious for vegetation; and the planters were looking forward with confidence to an improved crop. There had been, however, a good deal of sickness; the yellow fever, though materially abated, still pursuing its deadly career.

Labouring hands were very scarce at St. Thomas, owing to the number of persons who had gone to work

in the copper mines in Virgin Gorda, an island near Tortola. These mines have been discovered some time, but, owing to a want of capital, they have not been worked. The requisite capital has now been found, and the mines are working very successfully. The ore from them is very beautiful.

Advices have been received from the Cape of Good Hope to the 1st of April. The military operations against the Caffres were vigorously prosecuted. Sir H. Smith, placing himself personally at the head of his troops, had at last driven Macomo out of the WaterKloof, destroying his camp and capturing his chief wife; and was advancing on him and Sandilli united, in their last hold of the Amatolas. But our losses had been severe. The Honourable H. Wriottesley, of the 43rd, had lost his life; and Colonel Yarborough, Captain Bramley, and Ensign Hibbert, all of the 91st regiment, had been very severely wounded. Our loss in rank and file, killed and wounded, had been heavy; and there are credible statements that horrible tortures were inflicted by the Caffres on the English prisoners they took. Caffre-women, taken prisoners, have described these cruelties. Mr. Hartung, the bandmaster of the 74th Highlanders, was cut into pieces with assegais whilst living, being kept under torture for three days, the process of which was that of cutting off his fingers and toes inch by inch, at intervals, and when, at the close of the third day, the wretched man asked for food, a piece of his own flesh was cut from his body and given him. A few hours afterwards death terminated his sufferings. But this atrocity has been exceeded in the case of Sergeant Lange, who fell alive into the enemy's hands, and who was found at the end of three days from his capture, expiring under the horrors of crucifixion, being extended upon his back on the ground, to which he was fixed by stakes of wood driven through the palms of his hands, the ankles, and a fifth through his body. Humanity forbids a further recital of such barbarities.

All the accounts from Australia are engrossed with the subject of the golden harvest daily becoming more and more abundant. Among the many letters from the different settlements, the following, received by a respectable gentleman in the City, and published in the "Times," may be taken as showing the state of things in the Colony of Victoria. It is dated from the Mount Alexander Diggings, Jan. 18:

"The gold here is generally found in clay, clayey gravel, and in interstices of slate, &c., at depths varying from the surface to twenty-five feet. It is more generally diffused on this ground than it ever was known in any other part of the world; hence persevering and steady parties are sure to do well. It is found in patches, or 'pockets,' as it is termed, and sometimes a party of, say three or four, will obtain over fifty pound weight in a day. Having a splendid pair of scales, I am in the constant practice of weighing and subdividing gold for parties, and have had as much as twenty pound or thirty pound brought by one party at a time. Provisions, &c., are at a high rate here-flour 5d. per lb.; ham and butter, 2s. 6d. per lb.; oats, 18s. per bushel; slop boots, 24s. per pair; common pitchfork and shovel, 10s. each. The cattle-owners now want men to look after their sheep. The price of labour is most enormous, a man is worth 17. per day. The gold discovery is ruining the neighbouring colonies, Adelaide, Van Diemen's Land, &c., which are fast becoming depopulated. At night, the sight of the thousand fires around us is very pretty, and the incessant firing of guns and pistols rather astounding. Almost every man is armed, and I can assure you the state of society requires it, for crime in almost every shape and form is being perpetrated almost daily. You may suppose a gold-field a most original sight; at a distance it can only be compared to an immense army, encamped in myriads of tents of all shapes, sizes, and colours. From where I write are the main diggings in the country; they extend for about ten miles, and about three weeks since contained from 12,000 to 15,000 persons; besides, there are many other

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places close at hand, and gold is still being found at several new places throughout the colony. To give you an idea of the business I am carrying on, I may tell you I sent down twenty-six pound weight of gold, and about 2007. in necks, per last escort, the proceeds of one week."

PROGRESS OF EMIGRATION AND COLONISATION.

THE number of Emigrants despatched from Liverpool for the United States during the last month was 25,492, the largest number that ever sailed in one month. The greater proportion of the emigrants are German and Irish, chiefly agricultural labourers.

The Emigration from Ireland goes on at an undiminished rate. A Cork paper gives a list of emigrant ships from Limerick, Tralee, Wexford, Galway, and Waterford, which sailed for the United States in a single week, carrying passengers to the number of 2360. A series of papers relative to Emigration to the United States and to the North American Colonies have been printed by order of the House of Commons. It appears by the report of Mr. Buchanan, chief agent of emigration at Quebec, that emigration to the United States continues to flow in a steady and uninterrupted_stream, and that the numbers from the United Kingdom and the continent of Europe have exceeded, during the past season, those of any previous year. The arrivals at the port of New York up to the close of the year 1851 were 289,601, being an increase over 1850 of 76,805. Of the whole number, considerably more than half (163,256) were from Ireland, 30,742 from England and Wales, and 7502 from Scotland, making the total emigration from the United Kingdom 201,300, as having landed at that port alone during the year 1851. The whole emigration to the United States in 1851 is estimated at not less than 500,000 souls. The demand for labour of all sorts continues to increase, and farm servants, male and female, can find immediate employment. In the North American colonies, the tide of emigration has not set in so powerfully. In the year 1851, 41,076 emigrants landed. Of these, 22,381 were from Ireland, 9677 from England, 7042 from Scotland, 870 from the continent of Europe, and 1106 from lower ports, &c. The number of emigrant vessels which arrived was 375, and the actual number of souls embarked was 41,298. Of these, 40,657 were steerage, and only 621 cabin passengers. The emigrants were, generally, of a respectable class, and all emigrated voluntarily, with the exception of 872, who were sent out by landlords and parish-unions.

A numerous meeting of persons interested in the Canterbury Settlement in New Zealand was held on the 5th inst., at the rooms of the Association, Adelphi Terrace. Lord Lyttelton explained, that the project of a bishopric of Christ Church, to be carved out of Bishop Selwyn's episcopate, has made a new and practical advance; and the Reverend John Philip Gell was introduced as already approved of by the Archbishop of Canterbury for consecration, as soon as certain technical difficulties have been completely smoothed. Sir Thomas Tancred stated that a new township, to be named Gladstone, is to be formed.

The Earl of Derby received at his official residence in Downing-street, on the 20th, a Deputation from the Manufacturers of the West Riding of Yorkshire, on the urgent necessity of immediately sending out an adequate supply of labour to Australia. The Premier was informed, that if the assistance required were not sent out in June, it would be too late for the next wool-clipping, and the colonists would be obliged to boil down their sheep. Lord Derby replied, that the question was very embarrassing; for the gold-field was daily becoming more extensive and more productive, and it was to be dreaded that the same temptations which withdrew labour from colonial sheep-farming, would even more attract that of new comers into the colonies. The government would send emigrants out at a rate which would land about 4800 in time for the next clipping; but it would be impossible to get shipping for such numbers as had been mentioned; "and then it would not do to allow the sexes to go unmatched." The matter, he said, engages the serious attention of the government.

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NARRATIVE OF FOREIGN EVENTS.

When the distribution was completed, the President delivered this address—

"The Roman eagle, adopted by the emperor Napoleon at the commencement of this century, was the most striking signification of the regeneration and of the grandeur of France. It disappeared in our misfortunes; it ought to return when France, recovered from her defeats and mistress of herself, seems not any longer to repudiate her own glory. "Soldiers! resume then these eagles, not as a menace against foreign powers, but as the symbol of our independence, as the souvenir of an heroic epoch, and as a sign of the nobleness of each regiment. Take again these eagles which have so often led our fathers to victory; and swear to die, if necessary, in

their defence."

The standard-bearers then marched to the chapel and altar to have their insignia blessed. Arrived there, the commencement of the religious ceremony was signalled by the boom of artillery. The archbishop commenced the mass. At the moment of the elevation, another salute was fired; the drums beat to arms; the trumpets sounded the advance; sixty thousand men presented arms, the whole of the infantry kneeling, and the officers not in command bent on one knee to the earth, with head uncovered. The multitude on the mounds took off their hats. When mass was over, the archbishop, surrounded by the officiating clergy, proceeded to where the eagles were arrayed round the altar. He raised his voice to chant the prayer, "Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini," and the clergy responded "Amen!" After the "Oremus, Omnipotens sempiternus Deus,' the prelate sprinkled the flags with holy water, and blessed them; and then took his seat on a throne, and assumed the mitre. The standard-bearers advanced separately; knelt on the ground, each with the eagle in his hand; and the archbishop spoke the following prayer

THE ceremony of distributing the eagles and standards | dent. to the French army took place on the 10th, with most imposing splendour, in the Champ de Mars. In front of "Soldiers! the history of nations is, in a great measure, the the Ecole Militaire tribunes were erected for the Pre- history of armies: on their success or reverse depends the fate sident, his family and court, the great bodies of the state, of civilisation and of the country. If conquered, the result is and their families, the diplomatic corps, and persons of invasion or anarchy: if victorious, it is glory and order. Thus mark having no public function. The President's tri-nations, like armies, entertain a religious veneration for those bune was a magnificent pavilion, whose floor, on a level emblems of military honour which sum up in themselves a past with the first story of the Ecole, formed an arched history of struggles and of trials. portico, fifty feet in height, and the same number of feet wide. In the tribunes a great many English gazers were mingled. Among the foreigners, were several Russian and Austrian princes, Prussian noblemen, Polish and Hungarian exiles of note, and some American officers and civilians. Between the Bridge of Jena and the Ecole Militaire, and about one-third of the distance from the Ecole, was erected a chapel, seventy-five feet from base to summit; and on a platform, twenty-three feet high, was raised an altar. From the summit of every dome, roof, and mound, floated tricolor flags; and, parallel with the rising ground on both sides, and within it, extended a long array of lofty poles, seventy or eighty feet in height, with gilded tops, and dressed with streamers. Every place fronting the river was alive with human beings; who, however, all moved about without confusion or the slightest disorder. The Seine itself, in the direction of the Invalides and Bridge of Jena, was covered with boats conveying passengers, male and female, to the south bank; while countless booths established in every alley of the Champs Elysées afforded refreshments for the weary. The troops began to arrive at half-past ten. They were formed in two lines down the length of the Champ de Mars; the infantry on the right entering by the Pont de Jena, and the cavalry on the left; the first of these lines being composed of bodies of infantry drawn up in close battalion, and the other of bodies of cavalry in dense squadrons. The number of troops present are variously stated at from 60,000 to 80,000. There were forty-eight battalions of the line, fifty-six squadrons of cavalry and sixty guns. This mass, however, does not include the Gendarmerie, mounted or on foot, the Republican Guard, the Chasseurs de Vincennes, the deputations from the general army, the Invalides, &c. The whole mass of people is computed to have been probably not far short of half a million. The ecclesiastics advanced to the chapel and altar, with the Archishop of Paris in their midst. A long line of white surplices led the way, accompanied at intervals by soldiers, constabulary, a guard of honour; next came the higher clergy, the vicars, canons, &c.; and lastly, to close the long ecclesiastical cortége, appeared the black soutanes of the pupils of the religious ceremonies. The whole was preceded by drums and military music, as if to intimate that even in the religious part of the proceedings the ceremony of the day was strictly military. President Bonaparte reached the Pont de Jena punctually at noon. His entrance into the Champ de Mars was announced by a salute of twenty-one guns, and by acclamations hich were drowned in the peal of the artillery. First, he galloped down between the lines; acknowledgng, by repeatedly taking off his cocked hat, the chorus of acclamations uttered by the troops. On passing the altar the President and his suite uncovered. When he reached the front of the Ecole Militaire, he wheeled to the left, and galloped back along the front of the cavalry regiments. He then crossed before the artillery, and passed a second time down the front of the infantry. When he reached the foot of the staircase leading up to his tribune, he dismounted, and ascending saluted, by taking off his cocked hat, the ministers and high dignitaries, who came forward to meet him down to the first landing-place. He then took his seat in the arm-chair set for him. On his right stood the ex-King Jerome, in the uniform of Marshal of France. On either side and behind were ranged the ministers, the marshals, and admirals, the French ambassadors present in Paris, and the military household of the prince. The standard-bearers advanced, each in his turn, and received a standard from the Presi

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"Accipite vexilla cœlesti benedictione sanctificata, sintque inimicis populi Christiani terribilia; et det vobis Dominus gratiam, ut, ad ipsius nomen et honorem, cum illo hostium cuneos potenter penetretis incolumes et securi."

The archbishop pronounced a short address to the standard-bearers, justifying the ceremony of blessing the insignia of war. He gave for the whole army the kiss of peace, with the words "Pax tibi." The foremost standard-bearer, rising from the ground, pressed to his lips the Pontifical ring, and then all resumed their places. The musical mass followed, performed by a body of more than 1500 musicians. After the mass, the archbishop stood erect, arrayed in mitre and cope, and holding the crosier, raised his hand aloft, and gave a universal blessing to the army and the people. A salute of a hundred guns from the cannon of the Bridge of Jena then announced that the religious ceremony was complete. The colonels, to whom the standards were delivered by the archbishop, descended, and defiled round the chapel. They then proceeded to their respective regiments, delivered the eagles to the ensigns, and had them recognised by the corps in the usual manner. At this moment cries of "Vive l'Empéreur!" and "Vive Napoléon!" were uttered; the former with much enthusiasm by the cavalry. At two o'clock, the President descended from his pavilion, mounted his horse, and took up his position in front. The filingoff commenced, and cries of "Vive l'Empéreur !" "Vive Napoléon! were again heard.

The military deputations, when leaving the Champ de Mars after the défilé, returned to the Ecole Militaire through the cavalry gate. They deposited their respective colours in a hall prepared for that purpose; whence they are immediately to be despatched to their regiments. A salute of twenty-one guns was fired as Louis Napoleon quitted the Champ de Mars. The clergy, who were, including the ecclesiastical seminaries, upwards of eight hundred in number, remained on the ground to the last. A guard of honour of the Gendar

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merie Mobile was assigned to them; and they were conducted in procession to the Church of the GrosCaillou; the archbishop delivering his blessing to the multitude through whom he passed, and who received it with uncovered heads and with indications of deep respect.

The venerable astronomer, Arago, has refused to take the oath of allegiance. He signified his resolution by the following remarkable letter addressed to the Minister of Public Instruction:

Were it to be attacked, I would solicit with ardour the honour
of fighting in its defence.
"The only French journal which I here see has just informed
oath-which is to be demanded of all military authorities. A
me of the decree which determines the mode of taking the
paragraph, evidently drawn up in order to be applied to the
proscribed generals, gives them a delay of four months. I have
no need of deliberating so long upon a question of duty and
honour. This oath, exacted by the perjured man who has failed
to corrupt me-this oath I refuse.'

Mr. Edward Murray, a British subject, has been sentenced to death, at Rome, with eight other persons, for being connected with the supposed assassins of a Papal officer three years since. Mr. Freeborn, the English consul at Rome, has taken immediate steps with the Papal government to procure a mitigation of the penalty. In furtherance of this object a petition has been drawn up and signed by the British visitors and residents at present in Rome.

Accounts from Berlin state that the Emperor of Russia arrived at Potsdam on the 16th, accompanied by Count Nesselrode. The king and queen of Hanover, and several of the minor princes of the Germanic Confederation, were expected. The emperor's previous visit to Vienna manifests the increased intimacy of the northern alliance, for on quitting the young Emperor of Austria, whom he tenderly embraced at parting, Nicholas is reported to have exclaimed, "You know there is now a bond for life and death between us."

The Berlin Klatteradatsch, the Prussian "Punch," was seized on the 17th, for publishing a caricature of Louis Napoleon. The event is said to have made an immense sensation.

A ministerial crisis has taken in Piedmont. The

"Paris, May 9. Monsieur le Ministre, The government has itself admitted that the oath prescribed by Art. 14 of the Constitution ought not to be required from members of a purely scientific and literary body like the Institute. I cannot say why the Bureau des Longitudes, an astronomical academy, in which, when a vacancy occurs, an election ensues to fill it up, is placed in another category. The simple circumstance would perhaps have sufficed to induce me to refuse the oath; but considerations of another nature, I confess, have exercised a decisive influence on my mind. Circumstances rendered me, in 1848, as member of the provisional government, one of the founders of the republic. As such, and I glory in it at present, I contributed to the abolition of all political oaths. At a later period I was named by the constituent assembly president of the executive committee; my acts in that last-named situation are too well known to the public for me to have need to mention them here. You can comprehend, Monsieur le Ministre, that in presence of these reminiscences my conscience has imposed on me a resolution which perhaps the director of the Observatory would have hesitated to come to. I had always thought that by the terms of the law an astronomer at the Bureau of Longitude was appointed for life, but your decision has undeceived me. I have, therefore, M. le Ministre, to request you to appoint a day on which I shall have to quit an establishment which I have been inhabiting now for nearly half a century. That establishment-thanks to the protection given to it by the governments which have succeeded each other in France for the last forty years-thanks, above all, may I be allowed to say, to the kindness of the legislative assemblies, in regard to me-has risen from its ruins and its insignificance, and can now be offered to strangers as a Chamber of Deputies, on the 11th instant, elected model. It is not without a profound sentiment of grief that I shall separate from so many fine instruments, to the con- M. Ratazzi, "leader of the left centre," to be its struction of which I have more or less contributed; it is not President, in place of the deceased M. Pinelli. The without lively apprehension that I shall behold the means of re-election was carried against the d'Azeglio government search created by me passing into malevolent or even inimical by the union of the right, or church party, with the hands: but my conscience has spoken, and I am bound to obey liberal opposition. On the 15th instant M. d'Azeglio its dictates. I am anxious that in this circumstance everything and the ministers of the interior and justice resigned; shall pass in the most open manner; and in consequence I hasten to inform you, Monsieur le Ministre, that I shall address and Count Cavour, Minister of Finance, was asked to to all the great academies of Europe and America-for I have form a cabinet. But a telegraphic message from Turin long had the honour of belonging to them-a circular which of the 17th states that Count Cavour and his colleagues will explain my removal from an establishment with which my had retired, and that the Marquis d'Azeglio had been name had been in some sort identified, and which was for me a intrusted with the task of forming a new cabinet. second country. I desire it to be known everywhere that the motives which have dictated my determination have nothing for which my children can ever blush. I owe these explanations, above all, to the most eminent savans who honour me with their friendship, such as Humboldt, Faraday, Brewster, Melloni, &c. I am anxious, also, that these illustrious personages may not be uneasy concerning the great change which this determination of mine will produce in my existence. My health has, without doubt, been much impaired in the service of my country. A man cannot have passed a part of his life in going from mountain peak to mountain peak, in the wildest districts of Spain, for the purpose of determining the precise figure of the earth; in the inhospitable regions of Africa, comprised between Bougia and the capital of the Regency: in Algerian corsairs; in the prisons of the Majorca, of Rosas, and of Palamos, without profound traces being left behind. But I may remind my friend that a hand without vigour can still hold a pen, and that the half-blind old man will always find near him persons anxious to note down his words. Receive, Monsieur le Ministre, the assurance of my respect.

The latest advices from the United States are not of much importance. In Congress no particular business had been transacted. The currency bill, the passage of which was considered expedient by the administraSix towns in Erie tion, was about to be taken up. county had elected eighteen Fillmore delegates to the convention; and at Rome the whigs, assisted by a portion of the democrats, had carried the charter election there by a majority of fifty over the regular democrats. At Richmond, Virginia, nearly all the democratic candidates were in favour of Buchanan for the Presidency. The health of Mr. Henry Clay, one of the most able statesmen in America, which has for some time been precarious, has been pronounced hopeless. Kossuth still continued to excite great enthusiasm among the New England people, who freely attended his meetings, the price of admission in some cases being from one to two dollars each person, for which a bond payable on the achievement of the independence of Hungary was given, in addition to the oratorical entertainment. At Charleston, on the 4th, there was a numerous assembly, and on the 4th he visited Cambridge and dined at the house of Professor Longfellow.

The legislature of California has appointed a committee to report upou the state of the country in general, and upon the disposal of public lands in special, in regard to the best means of advancing the improvement of the state on a safe basis of agriculture. This committee, impressed with the desire to see the transient population of gold-diggers substituted by a stationary one of agriculturists, made their report on the 22nd February, and it has been published by authoThe report proposes a donation rity of the legislature. of 160 acres to each male adult that will become an

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agricultural settler as an American citizen, and to instruct the representatives of the state at Washington to obtain the right of so disposing of the public lands. In regard to the mines, the report proposes that the right of mining should be limited to American citizens. The amount of gold exported in 1851 is given by the custom-house clearances at 56,000,000 dols., and compounded at 12,000,000 dols., taken out of the country by individuals returning to other countries. But a falling off is anticipated for the present year, owing to a change of system of mining, changing from placers to quartz veins, the former beginning to

be exhausted, and the latter in the act of being established. In the gold regions along the San Joaquin, Trinity, and Tresno rivers, a country 600 miles long and 30 wide, there are now about a hundred quartz mines opened, at the cost of 10,000 dols. each on an average, with mills for crushing the ore. It is doubtful, says the report, that these establishments will pay at first, till better experience has been made in the working of them; but after a few years California will have a steady supply of gold, though it may not be so productive to single individuals as the placers have been.

NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART.

THE principal contributions to the literature of the month have been in the department of Voyages and Travels, and Observations on Foreign countries. The late governor of Hong-Kong, Sir John Francis Davis, has published two volumes on China during the War, and since the Peace, the first of which is mainly composed of extracts from Chinese official papers written during the opium war, and presenting a very amusing history of the conflict seen from the Chinese point of view. The idea of the Chinese character presented in these grave documents is, in its extremes of ingenuity and ignorance, such as one might rather have expected to derive from the exuberant whim and fancy of Swift or Rabelais than from serious official papers. Sir John Davis's second volume gives us the result of his own four years' administration of our new dependency in China. A book on a congenial subject, Japan and the Japanese, is the reprint of an interesting narrative of a Russian officer's captivity among that inhospitable people some forty years ago, suggested by the interest at present felt in the result of the American expedition to Japan. The case of Captain Golownin is exactly similar to those for which the United States government is now bent on obtaining redress. Sixteen Months in the Danish Isles, by Andrew Hamilton, contains a fuller account of existing life in Denmark at the present day, of the condition of the country, and the social habits of various classes of the people, than any English traveller had before given us. Mr Laing's volume on the same subject, Observations on the Social and Political State of Denmark and the Duchies of Slesioic and Holstein in 1851, is more in the nature of a political treatise illustrating the late armed dispute of the Germans and the Danes; but it contains also much valuable and acute observation on the society and civilisation of Denmark in the nineteenth century. Our Antipodes describes a recent residence in the Australasian colonies, by Lieutenant-Colonel Mundy, who divides his attention pretty equally between Botany Bay and Sidney, New Zealand and Van Diemen's Land, describing the varieties of emigrant and convict life, entering with great relish into all the field sports of the antipodes, and taking his readers for a fortnight's excursion to the gold diggings. Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal, by Lieutenant Osborne, affords us another spirited testimony of the zeal which has animated the search for Franklin and his companions, of the cheerful endurance with which the hardships of he various exploring expeditions have been undergone, d the apparently indestructible hope which still sustains l engaged in them. The book possesses also an indeendent interest, as the first account we have had of a byage by steam in the polar regions. Mr. F. A. Neale's Narrative of a Residence in Siam, contains some lively ketches of a people very imperfectly known; and Captain Smith's narrative of a Five Years' Residence en Nepaul, contains much clever writing and descriptive adventure in connection with one of the least familiar and most interesting parts of the great empire of India. Mr. Laurance Oliphant's Journey to Nepaul has a more stricted character, being chiefly occupied with a scription of the Nepaulese capital, Katmandu, and of e camp of Jung Bahadoor, the chief who so lately was credited to England. Mr. Oliphant shows us that celeated Nepaulese ambassador at home, and gives a very

an

interesting sketch of his earlier career. His little
volume is the last of Mr. Murray's Railway Series
and the latest addition to the similar Series published
by Messrs. Longman contains a translation of very vivid
and striking African Wanderings, by an enterprising
German traveller, Ferdinand Werne. Thirty-five
Years in the East is an eccentric_omnium-gatherum of
Eastern experience, comprising adventures, discoveries,
experiments, and historical sketches, gathered in the
Punjab and Cashmere by a German practitioner, Mr.
John Martin Hönigberger, late physician to the court
of Lahore. Medicine, botany, and pharmacy, figure
largely in this volume; in which is also set forth"
original Materia Medica," and a "Medical Vocabulary
in four European and five Eastern languages."
The additions to the literature of the month, which
rank next in importance to these, have been made in
the department of Biography. The Rev. Dr. Hanna has
concluded the Life of Chalmers in a fourth volume,
which comprises the last thirteen years of the great
Presbyterian minister's life, and includes the memorable
free-church disruption in which Chalmers bore so dis-
tinguished a part. Mrs. Romer has commenced, and a
Roman Catholic clergyman completed, under the some-
what affected title of Filia Dolorosa, a life of the ill-
starred daughter of Louis XVI., the last of the French
dauphines, the Duchess of Angoulême. Miss Pardoe,
selecting a heroine of very opposite character and
fortunes, has devoted three large volumes to a Life
of Mary de Medicis, the too celebrated Regent of
France under the thirteenth Louis. Mr. Thomas
Wright has translated and edited a new Life of King
Alfred by a celebrated German scholar, Dr. Reinhold
Pauli. Mr. William Pollard Urquhart has published a
somewhat elaborate narrative of the Life and Times of
Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, introduced by a pre-
liminary sketch of the history of Italy. Dr. Knox has
indulged a somewhat eccentric taste for biographical
comparison by publishing a treatise called Great Artists
and Great Anatomists, in which such names and such
careers as those of Raffaelle and Cuvier are made to run
side by side. Dr. W. Smith has compressed some selec-
tions from his celebrated Classical Dictionaries into a
compact and precious volume for the use of schools, with
the title of a Smaller Classical Dictionary of Biography,
Mythology, and Geography. To Mr. John Burnet and
Mr. Peter Cunningham we are indebted for an interest-
ing volume entitled Turner and his Works, comprising
a memoir of the great artist's life, specimens of his works
strikingly engraved in mezzotint, and critical remarks
upon his principles of painting. Miss Strickland has
completed, in an eighth volume, the enlarged edition of
her Lives of the Queens of England; and a re-publica-
tion has been undertaken, in four volumes, of Hazlitt's
Life of Napoleon Buonaparte.

In Political Science we have to mention, as welcome information to all thoughtful readers, the appearance of Mr. George Cornewall Lewis's Treatise on the Methods of Observation and Reasoning in Politics. Mr. Thomas Doubleday has published a volume on Mundane Moral Government, in which he seeks to demonstrate its analogy with systems of material government. Mr. Joseph Moseley has written a treatise on Political Elements; or, the Progress of Modern Legislation. Mr. Jellinger Symons has, in a small volume, stated his

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