vessels, has been set on foot again by a letter of Commodore WILKES, who
advises the dispatching of ships to Wellington Channel, and explorations
from there by sledges, especially in a westerly direction. Mr. HENRY
GRINNELL has also addressed a memorial to Congress, supported by the
petition of a large number of citizens of New-York, asking that the
Government will again fit out and man his two vessels, the Advance and
Rescue, which he offers for the purpose, and send them out, accompanied
by a store ship and a propeller. The Maryland Institute, and a large
number of the citizens of Baltimore, have also addressed a similar
petition to Congress. It is certain that, what with the efforts of our
own countrymen and those of the British government, the subject will not
be abandoned till something positive has been ascertained with regard to
the fate of Franklin and his companions.
Congress has continued in session, but has accomplished little or no
useful legislation within the month. The time has been mainly occupied
with debates on foreign intervention, on giving the job of printing the
census to the publishers of the _Union_ newspaper, and on the abolition
of the law giving the delegate from Oregon only $2500 mileage. The
census printing question occasioned a rencontre between Senator Borland,
of Arkansas, and Mr. Kennedy, the Superintendent of the Census, in which
Senator Borland got into a passion and knocked Mr. Kennedy down,
breaking his nose, at the same time that he vehemently expressed a
desire, to the bystanders who interfered to prevent further violence, to
get at Mr. Kennedy in order that he might "cut the d----d rascal's
throat." Mr. Stanly, of North Carolina, and Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, have
had a passage of personalities in the House, which has been quite
universally condemned by the press and public.
Kossuth has continued his career of triumph in the west, and besides the
ovations of the people, has received a large amount of the material aid,
which he especially seeks. Wherever he goes, he receives contributions
of money and offerings of arms. A good deal of attention has been
excited by a letter from Mr. Bartholomew Szemere, one of Kossuth's
former friends, and even a minister in the Hungarian revolutionary
cabinet, charging him with cowardice, weakness, and a fatally irresolute
and vacillating policy in the administration of affairs. Szemere also
denies that Kossuth has any just right to call himself the Governor of
Hungary, or even the leader of the Hungarian people. On the other hand,
Mr. Vukovitch, who was also a minister in the same cabinet, who is now
in Paris, has published a letter on Kossuth's side. To Szemere's letter
Mr. Pulszky has replied from Cincinnati, repelling the charge of
cowardice against Kossuth, and showing that Szemere himself had fled
from Hungary some months before the termination of the war, and when
there was still reason to hope that it might be brought to a favorable
issue; and Count Bethlen, another of Kossuth's suite, also states that
Szemere is a man of exceeding vanity, an intriguer against every body
that is above him, and that no man is more unpopular in Hungary than he.
Therefore, it is argued, his opinion is valueless, and he is utterly in
the wrong when he says that Kossuth is no longer beloved and accepted by
the Hungarians as their chosen leader.
The revolutionary disturbances in Northern Mexico have been renewed, the
government having unwisely returned to the old tariff of import duties,
which was the pretext for the first outbreak. Accordingly, Caravajal has
got his men together again and has resumed operations, of course with
considerable assistance from the Texan side of the line. Mexico is
generally in great trouble, not only from insurrections in this and
other parts of the republic, but from the fact that the entire political
organization is in a state of decay approaching dissolution. The revenue
is insufficient for the ordinary wants of the government, which is
unable to pay its civil officers or the army with the exception of the
troops in the field, to whom something has had to be paid, though not
all they have been entitled to. The deficit for the last year, exceeds a
million of dollars, exclusive of the interest on the debt. Congress met
on the first of January, when President Arista addressed the two Houses
in a speech, exposing the dangers of their situation, and calling on
them to come up to the sublime task of saving the country from the
destruction which menaces it.
From South America we have the details of the progress of the revolution
which begun in Chili in the last autumn, and is not yet finished. It
commenced with a revolt of the provinces of Coquimbo and Concepcion,
against Gen. Montt, the President, elected by a large majority in the
other ten provinces of the republic. The election took place in June
last, and the insurrection broke out on the 6th and 8th of September,
under the leading of Gen. Cruz. The government forces were commanded by
Gen. Bulnes, the retiring President, who put his antagonists to route in
a battle at Longomilla. The contest was a most furious and bloody one;
the armies on the two sides were nearly equal, eight thousand men being
engaged in all. Two thousand, or one quarter of the whole, were left
dead upon the field. After his defeat, Cruz signed an agreement
recognizing Montt as the legitimate President, and promising to disband
all his forces, and make no farther attempt to disturb the peace of the
country, on condition that his offence and that of his associates should
be pardoned. It was thought that this event would insure the
tranquillity of the country for many years; and Bulnes was received at
Valparaiso with great rejoicing on his return from the campaign. But
the agreement of the insurgents was not kept. On the 30th of December
they rose again, and got possession of the city of Copiapo, and prepared
from there to resume their march against the capital. Should Bulnes
again defeat them, as is probable, he will be sure to show them no
mercy.
From the Rio de la Plata we have intelligence which seems to leave no
doubt that Rosas, the tyrant of Buenos Ayres, is on the verge of
destruction. Urquiza, the general who has just freed the republic of
Uruguay from the presence of Rosas's satraps, and restored to the
important city of Montevideo the enjoyment of its liberty and the
advantages belonging to its commercial position, has now completed his
preparations, and is about to march against the dictator himself.
Besides the troops of Entre Rios, his own State, he has under his
command the forces of Corrientes, and is aided by the Brazilian fleet
and army, and some 2,000 men from Uruguay. The entire force about to
move against Rosas cannot be less than 30,000 troops, including some of
the best soldiers in South America, and a full complement of artillery.
Rosas, on his part, by extraordinary efforts, has got together some
20,000 men, many of whom are raw recruits, and none of whom retain that
faith in the invincibility of their leader which has been an important
element in his previous successes. The supple legislature of Buenos
Ayres has, in these circumstances, outdone itself, and has not only made
him absolute and irresponsible dictator during the war, but for three
years after the victory. That victory, however, we opine he will never
see. As Urquiza approaches, the army of the dictator will diminish.
Large bodies of his soldiers will go over to the enemy; and he will
either be shot or allowed to escape to England, to live there upon the
revenues of his enormous and ill-got fortune.
In England all the world has been agog for the approaching opening of
Parliament, which was to take place on the 3d of February. The highest
expectations of entertainment were cherished from the set-to then
expected to take place between Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston,
the dismissed Foreign Secretary. It will be piquant to see these former
allies converted into antagonists, and cutting and slashing at each
other with all the greater effect from the intimate knowledge of each as
to the concerns of the other. As a ready and efficient public debater
Lord Palmerston is the superior of the two.
All possibility of trouble between the United States and England on
account of the brig Express firing into the steamer Prometheus at San
Juan de Niacaragua, has been prevented by a manly apology made by the
new British Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lord Granville. The act is as
creditable to his lordship, as it is grateful to all who would not have
the friendly relations between the two countries disturbed.
It is authoritatively stated that the new reform bill, which will be
brought forward shortly after the opening of Parliament, will not so
much extend the suffrage as vary the present apportionment of
representatives. The boroughs, which are notoriously small, are to be
enlarged by copious annexations, but there will be no new boroughs, nor
will the large towns, such as Manchester and Liverpool, get any more
representatives than they have now. If this be the nature of the bill,
it cannot give satisfaction to either the Radicals or the Tories, nor
extricate the Cabinet from its present difficulties. The cabinet has
been further weakened by the resignation of Lord de Broughton--better
known as Sir John Cam Hobhouse--as President of the Board of Control for
the affairs of India, and of Lord Normanby as Minister at Paris. It is
surmised that Lord Normanby retires to take his chance for coming into
power again as a member of a new cabinet, with his friend, Lord
Palmerston, at its head--not an improbable thing, by the way. He is
succeeded at Paris by Lord Cowley. The troubles at the Cape of Good Hope
still continue, with no advantage gained on the British side. The
Caffres seem even harder to beat than was our own Florida Indians. The
Government is loudly blamed for not acting more promptly in despatching
forces to that colony; and the opinion is expressed that the Duke of
Wellington, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, has, by great age, lost
the energy of his powers and character. In his younger days, it is said,
he would either have had the required reinforcements at once sent
forward, or would have resigned his office. The Government and its
agents have also been blamed for not more promptly despatching vessels
to search for the passengers who got off in boats from the steamer
Amazon, destroyed by fire off Scilly. It is possible that by timely
action many lives might have been saved.
The danger of a French invasion is much dwelt upon by the British press,
and there have been rumors of a great increase in the army with a view
to such a contingency. These rumors do not seem to be well founded, nor
can we believe the danger very imminent. Certain parties regard the
whole as rather a fetch of the Ministry, to strengthen them at the
opening of Parliament, by removing attention from home matters, and by
uniting the nation in a common burst of patriotism. If this be so, the
trick is a poor one, for if there was real danger of a war, the present
ministry would not be likely to be trusted with carrying it on.
Is France, the march of despotism continues, with rapidity, and apparent
safety. On the 15th of January Louis Napoleon published his new
"constitution," of which the chief provisions are, that the President
reserves to himself to designate, by a sealed will, the citizen to be
recommended to the nation as his successor in the event of his death. He
commands the land and sea forces; he alone can propose new laws; he can
at any time declare the state of siege. His Ministers responsible to
none but him, and each for his respective duties only; they may be "the
honored auxiliaries of his thought," but they are not allowed to be "a
daily obstacle to the special influence of the chief." The Council of
State, whose members the President is to nominate and dismiss at his
pleasure, is to put into shape the laws he intends to propose to the
mock Legislature. The Senate, nominated for life by the President, and
to any of whose members he may grant a salary of 30,000 francs, "may
propose modifications of the Constitution:" its deliberations are
secret. The Legislature is to consist of a deputy for every 35,000
electors, elected by universal suffrage, for six years. The President
convokes, adjourns, prorogues, and dissolves this body at his pleasure;
he nominates its President and Vice-President; the official minute of
its proceedings, drawn up by the Bureau, is all that is allowed to be
published; it cannot initiate any law; amendments on laws submitted to
it by the President cannot even be discussed until they have received
the sanction of the Council of State. All these bodies are mere
instruments of the despotic will and selfish egotism of M. Bonaparte.
The same week witnessed other measures of very important character also.
The principal of these are, the suppression and reorganization of the
National Guard, and the banishment of those public men who were either
considered likely to thwart the success of the President's schemes, or
on account of their Socialist and extreme democratic doctrines, were
regarded as dangerous to the well-being of the State. Of the expelled
representatives, M. Thiers has gone to England: General Changarnier and
Lamoriciere, it is thought, will fix their abode in Belgium; and Emile
de Girardin, in the United States.
The most important movement in administration, yet taken by the
President, is in a decree that the members of the Orleans family, their
husbands and consorts, and descendants, cannot possess any property
(movable or immovable), in France. They are bound to sell them within
the year, and in default they will be sold by the domain. Another decree
cancels the donation of his private property, made by Louis Philippe on
the 7th August to his children, and enacts that their properties, of
about two hundred millions of francs, shall be employed as follows: Ten
millions to societies of _secours mutuels_. Ten millions to the
improvement of the lodgings for the working classes. Ten millions to the
establishment of a fund for granting loans on mortgage in the
departments. Five millions to a benefit fund for the poorer clergy. All
the officers, sub-officers, and soldiers on active service will receive,
according to their rank in the Legion of Honor, as follows: The
Legionary, 250 francs; the Officers, 500 francs; Commanders, 1000
francs; Grand Officers, 2000 francs; Grand Crosses, 3000 francs. De
Morny, Fould, and others of the Ministers, having refused to concur in
this confiscation of the Orleans property, resigned, and the Ministry,
which had been re-modelled and re-organized (a new "Ministry of State"
and a "Ministry of Police" having been created), now consists of the
following members, viz.: MM. Abbatucci, Justice; de Persigny, Interior,
Agriculture, and Commerce; Bineau, Finances; de Saint Arnaud, War;
Ducos, Marine; Turgot, Foreign Affairs; Fortoul, Public Instruction and
Worship; De Maupas, Police; Casabianca, State; Lefebre Durufle, Public
Works. The confiscation decree called forth spirited protests from
Montalembert and Dupin, the eminent lawyer and President of the late
Legislative Assembly. The former, together with Merode, Mortemart,
Moustier, Giraud, Andre Mathieu, Baudet, Desrobert, and Hallez Chapared,
refused to countenance a Government which could be guilty of such a
measure, and accordingly tendered their resignations as members of the
Consultative Commission. Dupin, also, resigned his post of
Procureur-General of the Court of Cassation, which high office he has
filled for twenty-two years.
The enormous property of the House of Orleans was divided into two main
portions: the hereditary domains, consisting of the estates settled in
1692 by Louis XIV., upon his brother, the revenues arising from which
amounted latterly to nearly $500,000 a year; and what may be called the
acquired property, consisting of possessions gradually purchased in a
long course of years out of the accumulated savings of a wealthy, and,
on the whole, prudent, succession of princes. It is this last species of
property alone which has been made the subject of absolute confiscation.
The decree reduces the Orleans princes to absolute poverty. The Comte de
Paris and the Duke de Chartres are at the present moment utterly
destitute of resources. The only property now remaining to the family,
is that derived from Madame Adelaide, the only sister of Louis Philippe.
This, not having belonged to Louis Philippe in 1830, does not fall
within the operation of the decree of confiscation which affects the
rest, and it is now all that remains to the family in France.
Louis Napoleon, it is intimated, will shortly make another step towards
monarchy, by forming a matrimonial alliance with a Swedish princess, and
by restoring titles in France. At present, there seems to be no check to
his advancement--a large majority of the people are evidently on his
side--the army is with him--Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain, and nearly
all the other monarchies have resolved to support him--and it is
probable that he will shortly assume the title and state of Emperor, as
well as the Imperial authority.
In Austria, the constitution of 1848 has at last been formally and
finally rescinded by an Imperial rescript. The reign of secret tribunals
is restored; the proceedings of the law courts are no longer to be
public. Along with the constitution of the revolutionary epoch, some few
privileges and securities previously enjoyed by the subjects of the
house of Hapsburg have also been swept away. The powers of the
municipalities have, wherever they existed, been curtailed, and in some
instances abolished entirely. It is not the _status quo ante_ that has
been restored in the Austrian dominions; the condition of the people has
been rendered _more_ servile.
A very important movement has been going on in Germany. We refer to the
attempt of Austria to combine her dominions with the Prussian
Zollverein, by means of a treaty of commercial reciprocity for five
years, with complete union afterward. A conference of delegates from all
the important states, except Prussia, was sitting at Vienna during the
month of January, but the results have not definitely transpired. Such a
union would be beneficial to the people of the states involved, by
favoring industry and giving new activity to trade, as well as by
dispensing with a large proportion of the armies they are now obliged to
support.
The railway between St. Petersburg and Moscow is now in regular use. The
first train, on the 13th of last month, took from Moscow to the capital
792 passengers. The line was eight years in constructing. The line from
St. Petersburgh to Warsaw has been commenced, under the direction of
General Gersfeldt, who assisted General Klenmichel in the former line.
Through the representations of Lord Palmerston to the Turkish
Government, all difficulties have been removed with regard to the
Egyptian railway, the works of which are to proceed without delay. Mr.
Stephenson has surveyed the line. The two branches of the Nile are to be
crossed by a pontoon bridge. The Pasha has given orders for 18,000
laborers to be put upon the works.
The Fine Arts
KAULBACH has just finished the cartoon of his Homer. This is the second
in the series of great frescoes with which he is to adorn the new Museum
at Berlin. The first, the Dispersion, at Babel, and the third, the
Destruction of Jerusalem, are completed upon the walls, and have already
been described in these pages. The Homer possesses the same richness of
artistic combinations, and the same daring sweep of thought and
imagination, which undeniably place Kaulbach at the head of the artists
of this age. He represents in Homer the culture and the religion of
Greece; the idea he depicts is, that Homer gave Greece her gods, and the
peculiar tendency of her intellectual development. The poet is, of
course, the central figure in the picture. The Ionic bard sits upon the
prow of a ship that is just approaching the Grecian shore. His right arm
is raised in the excitement of poetic inspiration; a lyre rests upon his
left. Behind him, partly veiled, lost in profound revery, sits a female
form, in whose lofty, intellectual features we recognise the
impersonation of the traditional source of all early poetry; it is the
impersonation of the Saga or Myth. She recalls those sybils who came
from Asia to Greece to proclaim the oracles of the gods. In her hand the
helm is still resting, in token that her guidance has brought Homer to
Greece. A group of unclad nymphs, mingled with swans, swim around the
vessel; one of them rises wholly from the water to listen to the strains
of the singer. This is Thetis; she knows that he is chanting the praise
of her son Achilles, and has left her crystal abode with the Nereids to
follow him. At the left of the picture, on the land, stand groups of
grave, manly forms, the representatives of Greece, assembled to receive
the poet and his teachings. There are three of these groups, connected
by subordinate figures. In front is a lofty figure, crowned with laurel,
a beaker in his hand, and a charming cup-bearer at his side; this is the
poet Alcaeus. Behind him stands Mnesicles, the architect of the Propylae,
with a plan of that work in his hand; next him is Solon, the lawgiver.
On the other side stand Herodotus, Pindar, Sophocles, AEschylus, and
Pythagoras, their features all marked with attention and interest; while
a priest of a more ancient faith looks on in gloomy displeasure at the
new singer and the impression he produces; and Bakis, the old
soothsayer, hides his Golden Proverbs beneath the rocks. A second group,
more toward the centre of the picture, is composed of country people,
shepherds, huntsmen, and cultivators, with here and there a warrior,
hearkening eagerly to the bard; among them a faun, with pointed ears and
mocking mein, listens to the unaccustomed tones. On an elevation at the
left, this division of the picture is completed by a group which
represents the atelier of a sculptor--the master, with two youths and a
maiden about him, is at work on a statue of Achilles--but the songs of
Homer call his attention to other and grander subjects of his art. These
are the Olympian gods themselves, who sit, some of them aloft in the
clouds, over a sacrificial altar, around which warriors are dancing a
martial dance, while others are moving along a rainbow to enter temples
just dedicated to them--Eros leading with the Graces, and Apollo, with
the Muses, following. A temple, in process of erection, and distant
mountains, occupy the background. It will be noticed that the artist has
omitted many very important elements of Greek history and culture from
this composition. It contains no hint of Thermopylae or Marathon, nor any
allusion to Plato or Pericles. No doubt the learned artist has
designedly avoided making his work too exact and didactic, but it
certainly would seem that these were too prominent in themselves not to
be wholly overlooked. It will also be observed that there is no action
and no dramatic effect in the whole; but those who have seen the cartoon
lack words to describe the noble beauty of the figures. Nearly all are
men, but such majesty and harmony of form and feature, of outline and
movement, well befit an age and people that produced the very ideal of
manly beauty. The nymphs in the foreground are also said to be
unspeakably lovely, and endowed with the most intimate charm of maidenly
innocence. Of course it is impossible to appreciate the full effect of
the picture, until it is executed in colors; but in that respect
Kaulbach is certain of a perfection in nowise behind the other
departments of his work.
* * * * *
A picture by the Belgian artist, Gallait, has produced a great
excitement at Vienna, where it formed the most prominent feature in the
January exhibition of the Art Union. The subject is the Last Moments of
Egmont. The Count is represented in prison, standing upon a bench to
look out of the grated window upon the place where his own execution is
about to happen. On the bench beside him sits a priest, who seeks to
recall him from earthly contemplations.
* * * * *
The Emperor of Austria has ordered a monument of Metastasio to be
erected in Vienna,--where the poet passed the greatest part of his life,
and composed all his works. Metastasio, it will be remembered, was
attached to the court of Austria in quality of Imperial poet. The
monument is to be executed by Lucciardi, a young German.
* * * * *
The _Bulletin of the New-England Art Union_ contains an etching of
Allston's _Witch of Endor_, in anticipation of the large engraving of
it, which is to be distributed among the subscribers. This is expected
to be of a much higher order than any thing that has yet appeared from
any Art Union in the world.
The American Art Union is to have its drawing at the end of the present
month, having received a sufficient number of subscriptions, at length,
to make this step seem advisable in the opinion of its directors.
The Philadelphia Art Union is taking vigorous steps to retrieve its
recent losses by fire.
Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies.
Our countryman, Mr. E. E. SQUIER, is now in London, where he has just
brought out an edition of his work on Nicaragua, and he recently
addressed the _Royal Society of Literature_ on the Mexican
Hieroglyphics, as exhibited in the publication of Lord Kingsborough. The
MSS. engraved in this splendid work are chiefly rituals--a few only
being historical. Of the events referred to, some occurred 600 years B.
C., and one reference appears to be to an eclipse that happened 900
years B. C. The dualistic principle runs through the Mexican Pantheon;
it consists, _i. e._, of male and female divinities, representing the
active and passive principles in nature. We find also in this mythology
a trinity, corresponding to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva--the productive,
preserving, and destroying powers--in the Indian. Inferior deities
represent attributes; each name denoting an attribute; hence, the gods
of the Mexicans were far from being so numerous as they appear to be.
The supreme divinity had about fifty names: several of which agree in
signification with those applied in the Old Testament to Jehovah. He is
represented wearing a mask, to intimate that he cannot be looked upon.
For each character or attribute there was a different mask, frequently
representing animals; particular animals being dedicated to particular
deities. The different deities were likewise symbolized by different
colors--the water-god by blue--the god of fire by red--the inferior
divinities by a dark tint, &c. Peculiar symbols likewise appear as
crests, or head ornaments. The lecturer stated that the Mexican records
unquestionably refer to an Eastern origin of the nation.
* * * * *
Respecting experiments in _Photography_, the London _Literary Gazette_
says "the preparation of albumenized glass plates promised much, and in
some hands, as in those of Ross and Thomson of Edinburgh, and
Langhenheim of Philadelphia,--the best results have been obtained.
Essentially, their processes consist respectively of separating the
fluid portion of the white of egg, and adding thereto a weak solution of
the iodide of potassium. This is floated over a clean glass plate, so as
to cover it with a very thin film, and carefully dried. When this is
completed, the prepared surface is dipped into a solution of nitrate of
silver, and thus an iodide of silver is formed on the surface. This
iodide of silver being washed, as in the calotype process, with
gallo-nitrate of silver, is very sensitive to the solar radiations, and
being placed in the camera-obscura, is speedily impressed with a dormant
image, which is developed by the deoxidizing action of gallic acid." A
good steam gauge has long been a desideratum. All kinds of portable
gauges are, either not to be depended upon, or subject to frequent
repairs; so much so, that by law every steam-engine used in France is
provided with a gauge on the barometer principle, that is 10 feet, 15
feet, 20 feet high for a steam pressure of 60 pounds, 90 pounds or 120
pounds to the square inch. Mr. Bourdon, chief engineer at the Creusot
works, where the engines of the frigate Mogador, were built, has devised
a gauge, which has obtained for him a medal at the London Fair, and is
highly spoken of. It is based upon the fact, that a thin metal tube,
coiled up and subjected to internal pressure, will tend to uncoil itself
in proportion to the amount of the pressure. The tube used is first
flattened preparatory to the coiling up, so as to render this operation
more easy. One of the extremities communicates with the boiler, the
other is pointed and turned up so as to serve as an index on a circular
scale. The apparatus is fixed in a case, in the shape of a hair
medallion, and closed with a glass. Experiment must show if the effects
of temperature be insignificant compared with those of pressure, and if
the internal working of metallic atoms will not in time make this gauge
give wrong indications.--If the instrument can bear the test of
practical use, it will soon supersede every other already known. The
inventor has already been rewarded by a council medal at the London
Exhibition, and the cross of the Legion of Honor in France. In the last
named country, the Government has made provision to try it on all the
railways.
* * * * *
Experiments have been made on the Paris and Lyons Railway for the
application of electromagnetism to locomotives. The report goes on to
say that the apparatus prepared for the purpose was applied to an
exceedingly large locomotive, and succeeded perfectly, first on a level,
and then on an ascent of thirteen milliemes, the steepest in fact of the
line. It was feared that difficulties would arise from the smoothness of
the wheels on the rails,--but no inconvenience was perceptible from that
circumstance.
* * * * *
LORD BROUGHAM has been passing a few weeks in Paris, and the papers
dwell upon the marvellous preservation of his powers, which seem to
baffle the attacks of time. _Galignani_ says he "read at the _Academy of
Sciences_, before a most crowded auditory, a paper on the optical and
mathematical inquiries which have occupied his time during his late
residence at Cannes. His lordship accompanied the reading of this memoir
with numerous demonstrations on the board, and for upwards of an hour
captivated the attention of his hearers. MM. Arago, Biot, Tenard, and
other eminent scientific men were present, and appeared deeply
interested in the explanations of their learned _confrere_. His lordship
spoke the whole time with great animation, and his numerous friends
present were delighted to perceive that he was in such excellent
health."
* * * * *
Mr. ISAAC LEA, of Philadelphia, since his retirement from the house of
Lea & Blanchard, is devoting himself more assiduously than before, to
those scientific pursuits in which he has attained to such well-deserved
eminence. The London _Athenaeum_ has the following notice of his most
recent publication:--
"_Observations on the Genus Unio, &c._ Vol. IV: by ISAAC LEA.
It is pleasant, amidst all the material activity of the United
States, to find ourselves ever and anon called on to bear
testimony to the love of nature, truth, and beauty which there
developes itself. In Mr. Lea's book we have descriptions and
drawings of shells, originally published in the 'Transactions
of the American Philosophical Society,' which would have done
honor to any of the scientific societies of Europe. Such works
can be of interest only to the professed conchologist; but in
his hands they become treasuries of facts by which he works out
the great laws of morphology regulating the animal forms that
he more particularly studies. The shells described in this
volume are for the most part American, and from fresh water;
and indicate how large a field for natural history inquiry the
vast continent of America still presents."
* * * * *
Mr. GEORGE CATLIN, the well-known American traveller, has brought
forward in London a plan for a _Museum of Mankind_, "to contain and
perpetuate the familiar looks, the manufactures, history, and records of
all the vanishing races of man." A report on the subject was read by him
at one of the scientific societies; and on the 9th of January he
delivered an address on the subject at his American-Indian Collection.
He opened by a general review of his past labors in the study of the
native tribes of America, illustrated by a reference to some of the
numerous records he has collected, and by the appearance of various
natives themselves in full costume. He then proceeded to enforce the
comprehensive scheme which now occupies him. After pointing out the
urgent necessity of at once engaging in the formation of a museum of the
kind proposed by him, if it is to be gathered together at all--for the
in-roads of civilization are rapidly extirpating the native races of the
world--he went on to develope his plan in its practical details. He
proposes, as the first step, the purchase and fitting-up of a steamer
"as a floating museum," in which the seaport towns of all countries
should be visited; considering that this mode of exhibition would
possess great advantages through "the facility of its visiting the chief
cities of the world, stopping no longer in any than a lucrative
excitement could be kept up;" and in the great immediate saving of time,
as well as in other respects. Mr. Catlin's present collection would form
the basis of such a museum. Mr. Catlin defines the word "mankind," for
his purpose, as meaning no more than the expiring members of the great
human family--the Red Indian, the native Australian, the Greenlander,
the Peruvian,--and so forth. Measures, no doubt, might be taken for
obtaining and preserving such memorials as exist of these and similar
races; and it is a reflection on the governments of England and of the
United States that they have hitherto remained so indifferent in the
matter,--that being severally custodians of certain interesting and
rapidly obliterating pages of the book of human history, they should
suffer the final extinction of the record to take place before their
eyes without any attempt to preserve its lessons for futurity.
MAJENDIE, LOUIS and LONDE--appointed by the _French Academy of Medicine_
to examine a work by Dr. James Gillkrest, entitled, _Is Yellow Fever
contagious or not?_ have made a report in which they speak highly of the
industry and skill displayed by Dr. Gillkrest, and adopt the conclusion
at which he arrives with regard to the non-contagiousness of this
disease. "The author," say they, establishes by numerous well-selected
and incontrovertible proofs that yellow fever is not contagious under
any circumstances,--not even in the case of crowding in this disease,
whether of the dead or of the living; that the removal of the
individuals from the influence of the local causes which produce this
affection is the fittest means of preventing its extension; and, lastly,
that the cordons called "sanitary and quarantine measures, far from
arresting yellow fever, on the contrary favor its extension by combining
the population within the influence of the local causes which give it
birth." It may be hoped that with valuable testimony like this before
them, governments will lose no time in abandoning oppressive quarantine
regulations, at least as far as yellow fever is concerned.
* * * * *
From Holland, we hear that the dissolution of the _Royal Institute of
the Netherlands_, which was ordered by royal decree to take place on the
1st of this month, has caused great dissatisfaction in the literary and
scientific circles, and has called forth a rather indignant remonstrance
from the Dutch Literary Association. The Institute held its last meeting
on the 15th December; and it drew up a series of resolutions,
expressing, in dignified terms, its sense of the injustice done it, and
declaring that its dissolution will be "a heavy blow and a great
discouragement" to Dutch science. The want of funds is the pretext put
forth by the government for breaking up the learned body.
* * * * *
The _Society of Antiquaries_ of Copenhagen is about to publish an
_Archaeological Atlas of the North_, accompanied by explanatory matter in
French and Danish. It will be a valuable addition to the memoirs,
papers, and documents, already published by the Society. This scientific
association is one of the most important in Northern Europe, and its
members include many of the most distinguished _savans_ of Germany,
Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. It possesses an excellent library, which
contains, amongst other things of great value, about 2000 Icelandic
manuscripts, very ancient, and written in the old Scandinavian tongue.
Recent Deaths.
AUGUSTUS SIDNEY DOANE was born, of a highly respectable family, in
Boston, on the second day of April, 1808. He was educated at Harvard
College, from which he received the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor
of Medicine, in 1828, a few months before attaining his majority. He
soon after went to Europe, where he passed two years in travel, and in
attendance upon medical and surgical lectures, in Paris; and returning,
in 1830, was married to Miss Gordon, the daughter of an eminent merchant
of Boston, and settled in the city of New-York, where he continued to
reside until his death, at Staten Island, on the morning of the 27th of
January. Although at all times an earnest student and successful
practitioner in his profession, Dr. Doane, for several years after his
settlement in New-York, devoted considerable attention to political,
historical and general, literature, and from the first, he was an
industrious writer on medicine and surgery. When the cholera first broke
out in this country, in 1832, he was the earliest to address the
profession in a scientific and practical discussion of its character,
and the ability, untiring industry, bravery and benevolence which he
exhibited during that melancholy season, established his popularity with
the people, and secured for him a degree of respect from his class which
they have seldom bestowed on one so young. Among his earliest
contributions to medical literature, was his edition of Dr. GOOD'S
_Study of Medicine_, in which he embodied, not only very important
discussions and notes of fact by himself, but the best views of the
medical writers of the United States on the various subjects treated in
that celebrated performance. He inscribed his edition of the _Study of
Medicine_ to the common friend of the author and himself, the learned
and excellent Dr. JOHN W. FRANCIS. He also translated MAYGRIER'S great
work on _Midwifery_, and several standard authorities on Anatomy and
Surgery; among which are DUPUYTREN'S _Surgery_, LUGOL'S _Researches on
Scrofulous Diseases_, BAYLE'S _Descriptive Anatomy_, BLANDIN'S
_Topographical Anatomy_, MECKEL'S _Anatomy_, SCOUTETTEN on _Cholera_,
RICORD on _Syphilis_, and CHAUSSIER _on the Arteries_. His editorial
contributions to _Surgery Illustrated_, and many occasional papers in
the medical journals also increased his fame and usefulness. It was,
perhaps, his chief distinction as an author, that, being familiar with
the languages of France, Germany and Italy, and personally acquainted
with the living lights of medical science in those countries, and with
the practice which obtained in the chief foreign hospitals, he was among
the first, as he was the most diligent and successful, in translating
the chief works of the European physicians into our language, and
adapting them to our habits and necessities. In 1839, he was appointed
Professor of Physiology in the University of New-York, but he soon
resigned, with his colleagues. In 1840, he received from Governor
Seward, the place of Health Officer and Physician in Chief to the Marine
Hospital, and, with Dr. TURNER, Health Commissioner, and Dr. MCNEVIN,
Resident Physician, constituted the Board of Commissioners of Health,
which then exercised all the functions of the present Commissioners of
Emigration. Fearless and energetic in the discharge of his official
duties, (which he always attended to in person, and not, as the custom
of some is, by deputies), he protected the city from unnecessary fear,
as well as from disease, and presented bills of mortality scarcely
paralleled in the hospitals of the country--averaging but seven per
cent. The Commissioners in general superintendence of the Quarantine, in
reports to the Legislature, awarded to him the highest praise for his
administration, and when, in consequence of a change in the political
character of the government, he was superseded, in 1843, both the Irish
and German Emigrant Societies tendered him expressions of gratitude for
his unwearying zeal and humanity in behalf of the class most dependent
upon his services. In 1848, he was appointed one of the consulting
physicians of the Bellevue Hospital, but declined the office, in
consequence of holding the agreeable and profitable post of physician to
the Astor House. During the prevalence of the cholera in New-York in
1849, he was one of the ward cholera physicians, and devoted himself
with his customary earnestness, to practise among the poor of his
district. In 1850, he was again appointed Health Officer by Governor
Fish, and he discharged his duties until he followed Drs. Treat,
Ledyard, Baily, De Witt, and others, in the sacrifice of his life to
them. He was seized with the ship-fever on the 14th of January, while
inspecting the packet Great Western, which arrived from Liverpool early
on the morning of that day, with nearly seven hundred immigrants, of
whom a large proportion were sick. He spent several hours in examination
and the supervision of removals to the hospital, during which several
deaths occurred, and was soon after, with Mr. Lewis B. Butler, the
humane and efficient steward, who had been honorably associated with him
in both terms of his administration as Health Officer, attacked with the
fever in its most malignant form. Dr. Doane died on the 27th of January,
and Mr. Butler on the 6th of February. These deaths were public as well
as private calamities. Dr. Doane must be ranked among the most generous,
wise, and active citizens--the most warm-hearted and respectable men--as
well as among the most eminent physicians, of our time, in New-York. On
the 15th of February, an eloquent discourse upon his life and character
was delivered by his friend, the Rev. E. H. Chapin, in his church in
Murray-street, of which Dr. Doane was a member.
Since the above notice of Dr. Doane was written, we have received from
one of the most eminent physicians of the United States the following
estimate of his character and abilities:
"The character of Dr. Doane commends itself to our
consideration for many striking traits. His whole life, from
his boyhood, was marked by a devotion to the acquisition of
knowledge. His attainments enabled him to enter Harvard
University at an early age, and he was recognized in that
admirable school as a young man of splendid abilities and
thorough scholarship. His medical theses there were exhibitions
of knowledge such as is but rarely possessed by the students,
whose aim is chiefly for the doctorate. He received the
highest medical honors of his Alma Mater, with the warmest
approbation of the professors. By that rigid economy of time
which through life distinguished him in all his pursuits, he
found leisure, amidst multiplied cares and responsibilities, to
become an excellent satirist and Grecian, and to this he added
a knowledge of the French, German, and Italian languages. From
his literary labors we might infer that his chief excellence
was in the promptitude and ability which he evinced in the
preparation of so many works of writers abroad, in translations
for the American public. But this view of the case would hardly
do justice to the stature of his mind, and his talents for
original observation. Struggling with many difficulties and
urged by the necessities of a family, it became his imperative
duty to give his best efforts to those occasions which might
prove most available for his wants; and hence we find him more
busily employed in the promulgation of the doctrines and
opinions of others, than in recording the results of his
immediate practical wisdom. His most labored effort is
unquestionably his translation from the German of the large
work by Professor Meckel, on _Human Anatomy_. In his admirable
edition of Good's _Study of Medicine_, we notice more of the
immediate observer, and the man of extensive medical and
physiological reading. This great treatise by the learned Good
found in Dr. Doane a worthy editor. His edition is enlarged by
numerous notes by the cis-atlantic scholar, and as they embrace
the theoretical and practical views of the physicians and
writers of the United States, it has always held a conspicuous
place among books referred to for the doctrines, in theory and
in practice, of a large number of the best original observers
our country has occasion to boast of. This contribution to the
science of healing has met with an extensive sale with the
profession, and like other efforts of Dr. Doane in the
departments of physical science, been productive of great
benefit to the noble calling of which he was so conspicuous a
member."
* * * * *
R. A. DAVENPORT, an English writer, whose histories of America and
India, and some of whose poems, were formerly well known, died in
Camberwell, on the 21st of January, at the age of seventy-five. The
attention of a police officer was attracted by moans issuing from
Brunswick-cottage, Park-street, the residence of the deceased. He broke
into the front parlor, and found Mr. Davenport lying in the passage,
nearly dead, with a bottle that had contained laudanum in his hand. A
surgeon was sent for, but a few minutes after his arrival, he expired.
Several bottles containing laudanum were found in his bedroom, of which
he was in the habit of taking large quantities while writing. The house
presented an extraordinary appearance; the rooms were literally crammed
with books, manuscripts, pictures, ancient coins, and antiques of
various descriptions. Mr. Davenport has resided in it more than eleven
years, during which time it had never been cleansed, and the books,
beds, and furniture were rapidly decaying, every thing being covered
with dust. The windows were all broken, the whole place presenting a
most dilapidated appearance. Verdict was "That the deceased died from
inadvertently taking an overdose of opium."
* * * * *
The eminent Italian poet, GIOVANNI BERCHET, died near the first of
January. Born, says the _Athenaeum_, at Milan, in 1788, he imbibed at an
early age that hatred of the rule of Austria which a few years
afterwards inspired his muse. It was when the well-known political
events of 1821 forced him to leave his country, that his active mind,
fervently devoted to the principles of rational liberty, burst forth in
those powerful and touching strains which are to this day deeply graven
on the heart of every Italian patriot, and which, during the sanguinary
contest of 1848, beguiled the weary march of the troops, and animated
the combatants in the conflict. He was the first who had the courage to
forsake the old beaten track of insipid sonnet-making. His poems stand
alone, unrivalled in the novelty of their language and conception, and
in the noble spirit which pervades every line. Few Italians can repeat
his _Clarina_, his _Matilde_, or the _Hermit of Mont Cenis_, without
feeling strong emotion. But by far the best of his productions, which
unfortunately are not numerous, are the _Fantasie_. The language and
versification are beautiful and varied, and we strongly recommend all
Italian students to leave, with all due respect, Tasso and Petrarch for
a while, and read a page of Giovanni Berchet. This distinguished
patriot-poet was for some time member of the Sardinian parliament, and
his loss is deeply mourned in all Italy.
* * * * *
The death of the younger of the celebrated Misses BERRY, is mentioned in
the London _Times_. She died, after a short illness, at the advanced age
of nearly eighty-eight, in the unimpaired vigor of all her faculties.
Her varied talents and incomparable amiability threw light and life
around the graver and loftier powers of her sister, and their union,
unbroken for an hour through the greatest portion of a century, made
them the charm of the most brilliant circles in Europe. Her sister, in
her eighty-ninth year, equally unfaded in her great intellectual gifts,
still lingers for a while on the scene.
* * * * *
The Paris papers report the death, in that city, in his eighty-fifth
year, of M. LOUIS BERTIN PARANT, a painter on ivory and porcelain of
great eminence. As early as the days of the First Consulship he was
distinguished by Napoleon; and his works on ivory executed by sovereign
order during the Empire found their way as Imperial gifts into the
collections of various princes of Europe. The _Journal des Debats_
refers particularly to his Table representing the great generals of
antiquity, as having been presented by Louis the Eighteenth to the
Prince Regent of England, and as being now in the possession of Queen
Victoria.
* * * * *
The Paris _Journal des Debats_ reports the death, in his fifty-fifth
year, of M. BENJAMIN LAROCHE, a translator into French of some of the
works of Shakspeare and of Byron, and an original poet of some
traditional reputation--having been popularly known in early life for
attempts which gave false promise of greatness.
* * * * *
EUGENE LEVESQUE, author of two volumes on the United States, and of a
large work on the State of Russia died in Paris, Jan. 4, aged 81.
* * * * *
MR. THOMAS WILLIAMS, a well-known and much respected man of letters, for
several years the consul of the government of Venezuela, for New-York,
died suddenly, of disease of the heart, in this city, on the night of
the second of February. We had known Mr. Williams a great many years,
and shared in the general regard inspired by his amiability, and the
quiet bravery of his life, of which many illustrations are known to his
more intimate acquaintances. He was an Englishman, of good family, born
in London in 1790, and educated we believe at one of the great
universities. We have heard him say, that in early life he was as thin
almost as Calvin Edson, but for the last fifteen or twenty years he was
the most obese and plethoric-looking person in New-York--a sort of
Lewis, or Lambert, of astonishing breadth and rotundity. We must not
enter into details respecting his domestic life, but it may be mentioned
that he was a party to a clandestine marriage, that his wife was an
invalid for very many years, and that he toiled with his pen incessantly
to promote her happiness. He was best known as a translator, and gave to
the press a vast number of the novels of Dumas and other Frenchmen. He
slept little, and it was his habit to sit by his table, in his chamber,
from eight o'clock in the evening until nearly morning, plying his pen
with neatness and rapidity, and with an unusual command of good English,
though his style was sometimes defective in finish, and he never
acquired much skill in punctuation. His original compositions, chiefly
in magazines and newspapers, were very numerous, and on a vast variety
of subjects, indicating a rarely equalled mastery of curious
intelligence.
* * * * *
COLONEL WOLFGANG BARON KEMENYI belonged to the ancient family of Johan
of Kemenyi, in former times sovereign of Transylvania. He was born in
1789, in Torda (Transylvania), and received his first education at the
University of Nagy-Enyor. At seventeen he entered the Austrian army. He
commenced his military career in the times of Napoleon, and took an
active part in the French campaign from 1813 to 1815. After the
termination of the war, he still continued, during a few years, in the
same regiment, when, tired of the idle life in garrison, he left the
army in 1824 as captain. From that moment he retired to his estates at
Torda, where soon after he married the daughter of an Austrian general,
and led, in this retirement until 1834, the quiet life of an
agriculturist. The complexion of the times did not permit him to spend
his whole time in solitude, and being a patriot, he soon entered the
political field, became a zealous visitor of congress and the diets, and
one of the most decided adversaries of Austria. He next became a member
of the Transylvanian Diet, and through his participation in the
discussions and struggles of that time, the storms of 1848 did not find
him unprepared to brave them. He was one of those, who the first
declared openly in favor of the unions question; at Torda, surrounded by
Wallachian fanatics, he unfolded the banner of union. When it became
Kemenyi's conviction that the crisis could not be removed in a peaceable
way, he drew again his sword, and his heroic exploits during the
memorable winter campaign under Bem, in Transylvania, contributed highly
to the glory of the Hungarian arms. Having been appointed, by the
Archduke Stephen, of Austria, Major of the Transylvanian National Guard,
he distinguished himself eminently in the victorious battles at
Szibo, Besstritz, and others; and afterwards he was nominated
Lieutenant-Colonel in the Active Army, and at the same time charged by
Bem with the command of a portion of his division. His most heroic deed
was the battle of Ploki. Bem, at the head of a very small but audacious
band, arrived victorious before Herrmannstadt, capital of the province;
but there, surrounded and pressed by an overpowering number of enemies,
he commissioned Kemenyi to march to the frontier, and take up a
reinforcement. He immediately undertook that march, pierced the lines of
the enemy, drew on the reinforcements, and a few days after, delivered
that memorable battle in which, with 2,000 men and seven guns, he beat
the whole Austrian force, consisting of 15,000 men and thirty cannons,
out of the field. By this victory he not only averted the destruction of
Transylvania, which a day before still appeared inevitable, but he also
gave to Bem opportunity to establish that grand line of offensive
operations which, in less than a month, swept Transylvania clear of the
enemy. For the valor displayed in this decisive action, he was made
Colonel, and received the order of valor, second class, having been
decorated some time before with the same order of the third class. He
took also a glorious part in all the important battles of the summer
campaign. He was one of those superior officers of the Transylvanian
army to whom Bem was mostly attached, and, possessing his entire
confidence, were steadfast till the last moment. On the termination of
the war, although proscribed, he lived for some time at his native
place; but, searched for every where, he at last was obliged to fly to
England. After Kossuth's arrival in London he became president of the
administration of the Hungarian emigration. When he took the management,
it was already in bad circumstances, but on the departure of Kossuth he
had to overcome greater difficulties, because his solicitude extended
itself not only to the emigrants residing in England, but to those who
languished in France and Belgium. Notwithstanding the loss of his
estates by sequestration, he still possessed some pecuniary means, and
assisted, as far as he could, his distressed countrymen; and during the
short time of his administration, he was always acting, with paternal
care, for the good of his unhappy companions. Baron Kemenyi died
suddenly in London, on Monday, the 5th of January, while listening to
the reading of a letter respecting the management of his committee,
addressed to the _Daily News_, by Mr. Toulmin Smith. He was sixty-three
years of age.
* * * * *
HEBERT RODWELL, for many years known in musical and literary circles as
a composer and author died in London early in January. He possessed
considerable taste and feeling, and produced ballads and concerted
pieces of much sweetness. As a dramatic author, his efforts were
principally confined to performances of a light and humorous cast,
including burlesques and the openings of pantomimes. He produced two
serial works of fiction, each of which had a fair success--_Old London
Bridge_ and _The Memoirs of an Umbrella_, Some scenes from the latter
were dramatized, and had a run at the Adelphi.
* * * * *
GENERAL SIR FREDERICK PHILIPSE ROBINSON, G.C.B., Colonel of the
thirty-ninth Regiment, died at Brighton on the 1st instant, in his
eighty-eighth year. He was the oldest soldier in the British army,
having been within a month of seventy-five years in the service. He was
a native of New-York, and a son of the well known royalist, Colonel
Beverly Robinson, whose name is associated with that of Andre in the
treason of Benedict Arnold, by a daughter of Frederick Philipse. He
entered the British army as an ensign, in February, 1777, and for five
years he was in the first American war, and was present in the principal
battles fought during that period. Subsequently, in 1794, he went to the
West Indies, and shared in the capture of Martinique, St. Lucia, and
Guadaloupe; he was also at the storming of Fleur d'Epee and the Heights
of Palmiste. In 1812 Philipse Robinson joined the army in the Peninsula.
At the battle of Vittoria he commanded the brigade which carried the
village of Gamazza Mayo, without firing one shot. He also was present at
the first and second assaults on San Sebastian, and was severely wounded
at the second attack. He took part in the passage of the Bidassoa, the
grand reconnaissance before Bayonne, the battle of the Nive (being there
again severely wounded), in the blockade of Bayonne, and in the repulse
of the sortie from that place, when he succeeded to the command of the
fifth division of the army. In June, 1814, Major-General Robinson went
to North America in command of a brigade, and he led the forces intended
for the attack on Plattsburg, but received orders to retire, after
having forced the passage of the Saranac. After the end of hostilities,
he came from Canada to this city to embark for England, and on his way
stopped at the old family mansion where he was born--two or three miles
above West Point--and as he walked through the house (now owned by Mr.
Richard D. Arden), he is said to have "wept like a child." Soon after
the conclusion of the war he was appointed commander-in-chief and
provisional governor of the Upper Provinces, which appointment he held
until June, 1816. He had received the gold medal with two clasps for
Vittoria, San Sebastian, and the Nive.
* * * * *
The Rev. JOHN TAYLOR JONES, D.D., of the Baptist Mission in Siam, died
in Bangkok, on the 13th of September, 1851, after an illness of about
one week. He was one of the best scholars and most uniformly successful
translators in the missionary service of the American churches. He had
been in Siam nearly twenty years, and, with the exception of the book of
Genesis, had rendered the entire Bible into the Siamese language. He was
well known and much respected by the best classes of the people of that
country, and the king of Siam (who fluently speaks and writes English)
marked his sense of the public bereavement by a letter of condolence to
his widow.
* * * * *
The English West Indian steam-ship _Amazon_, left Southampton for a
first voyage on Friday the 2d of January, and at a quarter before one
o'clock on Sunday morning was discovered to be on fire; the flames had
soon complete mastery of the vessel, and so swift was its destruction
that many perished in their berths by suffocation, and many of those
who, half naked, made their way to the deck, were burnt in ascending the
ladders, and several passengers are described as having rushed up with
their clothes in flames. In twenty minutes all was over but the last
cruel agony. So rapid was the ravage, that it seems to have been more
like an explosion than the ordinary progress of fire. The alarm and
despair were almost simultaneous. The number of persons destroyed in
this most pitiable and frightful catastrophe was 115, and among them was
the accomplished author, Mr. ELIOT WARBURTON. His career in literature
had been unusually brief. It is only a few years since _The Crescent and
the Cross_ attracted general applause; _Hochelaga, or, The Conquest of
Canada_, followed soon after; and last year gave us his _Memoirs of
Horace Walpole_, and the story of _Darien, or, The Merchant Prince_. Mr.
Warburton had been deputed by the Atlantic and Pacific Junction Company,
to come to a friendly understanding with the tribes of Indians who
inhabit the Isthmus of Darien. It was also the intention of Mr.
Warburton to make himself perfectly acquainted with every part of these
districts, and with whatever referred to their topography, climate, and
resources, and he undoubtedly would have given the results of his visit
in an interesting and valuable work on the subject, if he had lived.
* * * * *
FREDERIC RICCI, the composer, lately died in the prime of life and
talent. He was stricken by apoplexy in the post-carriage between Warsaw
and St. Petersburg. Ricci was the author of many operas, more successful
in Italy than elsewhere, but whose names are well known to the musical
public every where. The _Prigioni d'Edimburgo_ is the most famous of his
operas, among which _Rolla_, _Estella_, and _Griselda_ are not unknown.
His _Corrado d'Altamura_ failed in Paris in 1844. He had recently
produced at Venice _I due Ritratti_, an opera of which he composed both
words and music, and last May was summoned to Russia, under the especial
patronage of Field Marshal Paskewitch, and saw before him the promise of
that brilliant career which the great wealth and cultivation of the
Russian aristocracy secure to a few fortunate artists of every kind. On
the 2d December he wrote to the distinguished tenor, Moriani, that, for
the first time, fortune smiled upon him. He quotes from his own opera of
_Rolla_, of which the tenor part was written for Moriani--"_A nameless
stone shall cover my grave_"--smiles at the thought; says that it will
be his own fault if it is so, and within a few weeks reaches the scene
of his anticipated triumphs, a corpse.
* * * * *
BARON D'OHSON, a distinguished oriental scholar of Sweden, died at
Stockholm early in January, at the age of seventy-two. He was of
Armenian origin, and was born at Constantinople, November 26, 1779. His
father, Ignace Muradgi, the author of a work on Turkish history, was
first dragoman of the Swedish embassy in that city. He was educated at
Paris, and among the manuscripts of the National Library, gathered the
material for two works published in French, which gained him an enviable
reputation. One was _The Peoples of the Caucasus_, by Abdul-Cassim, the
traveller; the other _The History of Mongolia, from Dschingis Khan to
Timour_; the second appeared at the Hague in 1835. M. D'Ohson served his
country as ambassador for considerable periods at Vienna, Berlin, Paris,
and London.
* * * * *
MRS. HARLOWE, at the advanced age of eighty-seven, expired at her
lodgings at Gravesend, near London, on New-Year's-day. She was a very
popular actress in her time, principally attached to Drury-Lane Theatre.
Many years since she retired from the stage, and had since received a
pension from the Drury-Lane Fund, to which she was one of the original
subscribers. Her annuity for the first ten years amounted to L140 per
annum, but since was reduced to L112, the claimants on the fund having
considerably increased. Mrs. Harlowe was the last of the old school of
actresses.
* * * * *
Mr. ACHESON MAXWELL died in London, near the beginning of January, at
the advanced age of ninety-one. He was a very early friend of the late
Earl of Macartney, under whom he held various confidential employments
at Madras, in the memorable embassy to China, and at the Cape of Good
Hope. He also accompanied him in 1795, on a confidential mission to
Louis XVIII., then residing at Verona. He afterward held for several
years a place in the office of the auditor of public accounts, but in
his last days he was in the enjoyment of a pension.
[Illustration]
Ladies' Fashions for March.
There are apt to be few novelties in this part of the season. The modes
for the winter, with no important variations, generally prevail until
the beginning of the spring. Whatever changes occur are likely to be
found in details, or in articles of comparatively slight importance. In
our next we shall probably be able to present the designs adopted by the
fashionable worlds of Paris and London for the approaching warmer
months.
In the above group we have a white double-breasted waistcoat, high
_chemisette_ of lace, and collar of English embroidery; cap of silk
stuff, forming a _calotte_, trimmed with lace of Alencon point; and
ribbon for the wrist. At the top of the first trimming is fastened a
slight silk fringe under several bunches of silk or velvet ribbon. For
indoors, and for dress parties, the lace lappets are replaced by ribbon
like the bunches. A little ribbon ornament is used round the gloves,
fastened by a gold chain; and the ribbon is confined to the wrist by a
small elastic cord.
In _head-dresses_, feathers form the most elegant and fashionable
coiffure for full evening dress. They should be mounted on a spring or
wire, which passes over the upper part of the head, leaving the feathers
to droop on each side. White ostrich feathers mounted in this style are
frequently tipped with gold or silver. An elegant fancy head-dress, is
composed of feathers, blonde, and gold. On one side, a small tuft of
white marabouts, intermingled with bunches of grapes in gold; on the
other, instead of feathers, puffs of gold blonde, intermingled with
grapes--the back part of the coiffure of a small point or half
handkerchief of gold blonde, edged with gold fringe or passementerie.
Time was, when a milliner would have made three separate head-dresses of
materials composing the one here described; the feathers, the grapes,
and the gold blonde would each have been separately employed, and it
would have been deemed impossible to venture on their combination. But
such is the change in taste, that this head-dress is admitted to be one
of the most becoming productions of the season. A wreath, in the style
called the _guirlande pompadour_, is composed of roses of several shades
of pink, fastened on one side by a bow of azure-blue ribbon, lame with
silver--a bouquet of the same ribbon to fasten up the jupe of the dress,
of white moire antique, trimmed with blonde. A head-dress, in the style
called the coiffure Italleone, is of bows of cerulean blue velvet
mingled with strings of pearls: on each side, ends of blue velvet edged
with aiguillettes of pearls. Pearls and beads of other kinds, especially
those of gold, silver, or coral, are very generally employed in
ornamenting head-dresses. They are twisted with bows of ribbon or
velvet, and are arranged in loops at each side. Loops of coral beads or
of artificial Christmas berries, combined with bouquets of scarlet
geranium, have a pretty effect. Flowers are, as they always have been,
and are likely to continue to be, the favorite coiffures for ball
costume. For young ladies, no other ornaments are admissible.
[Illustration]
In the first of the above figures we have an _Opera Dress_ of white
organdi; the skirt extremely long and full, and with five flounces, each
edged with two rows of narrow lace set on a little full; _Sortie de Bal_
of white cashmere wadded throughout, and lined with satin, couleur de
rose, the form loose, with extremely wide sleeves, and trimmed with
velvet the same color as the lining. When the hood is not drawn over the
head, the tasselled ends hang over it very gracefully, as in the costume
given, tying, and preserving the throat from cold in passing to or from
the carriage. In the other figure is presented a walking dress of silver
gray silk with a darker large plaid--skirt very full, and five flounces.
Among _Ball Dresses_ the Paris _Modes_ describes a robe of white tulle,
with three flounces, over a slip of white glace--the flounces each edged
with a row of blonde of about a nail in width, and attached to the skirt
on one side by white roses, forming a sort of wreath at the upper part,
one end of which is attached to the waist, and descends to the first or
uppermost flounce, the roses being of graduated sizes, enlarging from
the waist downward. A bouquet of white roses is attached to the second
flounce. The corsage has a shawl berthe opening in a point in front of
the bosom. The berthe is formed of three falls of tulle, each edged with
a row of narrow blonde. The opening formed by the berthe in front of the
corsage is filled up by horizontal rows of blonde. The sleeves, which
are extremely short, are covered by falls of tulle, edged with rows of
blonde. The wreath on the head corresponds with the bouquets. It is very
light, with a bouquet on one side, where it is fixed, and is then
twisted round the plait, so as almost entirely to cover the back part of
the head-dress. On the arms, bracelets of gold and hair. Hand-bouquet of
white and red roses.
_Jewelry_ appears to be more in vogue than in recent years. Pins are
extremely fashionable, and are made in the Italian style, with large
heads, and pendent ornaments attached by small gold chains. Jewels,
mounted for bandeaux or necklaces, are made to detach into separate
portions, which may be worn as bracelets, pins for the hair, &c. In
Paris a book has appeared on the laws of taste applicable in the wearing
of jewelry--a sort of Ethics of Taste in Stones, or Institutes of
Ornament. It should by all means be translated.