requisite majority in the Legislative Assembly, and so was defeated. On
the 8th of July the Report of the committee to whom the petitions for a
revision were referred, was presented by M. DE TOCQUEVILLE. It is a
document of great length, drawn up with decided ability. After
discussing in detail the defects inherent in the constitution, which in
the opinion of a majority of the Committee were of sufficient moment to
render a revision desirable, the Report proceeds to examine the present
situation of the country and the perils which had been alleged to attend
the revision, should it now be attempted. These apprehended dangers
arose from the unsettled state of the franchise, and the contests of
parties, each of whom desires a revision as a means for the
accomplishment of its own ends. The majority of the Committee, while
admitting the danger attending a revision, are yet convinced that it is
exceedingly necessary. This conclusion rests mainly upon the
circumstance, adverted to in our last Record, that the functions of the
Legislative and of the Executive branches of the Government expire at
almost the same time. The intention of the Constitution in fixing the
term of the one at four and of the other at three years was to prevent
the occurrence of this, until after an interval of twelve years had
given stability to the Republic. But by the law of October, 1848, the
regular time of the election for President was anticipated, so that his
term expires a year sooner than it should have done. Besides this there
is the danger that a candidate whom the Constitution renders ineligible
may be the one upon whom the popular choice will fix. Such a violation
of the Constitution, facilitated by the method of election by direct
suffrage which it provides, would be productive of the most fatal
consequences. These dangers may be obviated by surrendering the power of
Government into the hands of a Constituent Assembly. The Report then
goes on to discuss the question of the kind and amount of revision to be
recommended. The Committee, however divided upon other points, were
unanimously of the opinion that the Legislative Assembly had no power
either to propose to the Constituent Assembly that the nation should
quit the Republic, or to impose upon it that form of Government. The
Constituent would supersede the Legislative Assembly, and must be
independent of it. The Committee were also unanimously of the opinion
that the revision, if made at all, must be made in the manner prescribed
by the Constitution. If the requisite majority of three-fourths of the
votes of the Assembly could not be secured in its favor, it must be
abandoned; and hence, "any attempt having for its object to urge the
people toward unconstitutional candidateship, from the moment that the
Constitution can not be legally revised, would not only be improper and
irregular, but culpable." The proposition which the Committee, by a vote
of 9 to 6, resolved to submit to the Assembly, and to which they asked
their consent, was: "Taking into consideration Article 111 of the
Constitution, the Assembly decides that the Constitution shall be
revised in totality." The reading of this Report was listened to with an
attention and decorum by no means characteristic of the French
Legislature. At the close, a large number of members inscribed their
names, as intending to take part in the discussion. This was done to
meet the requirements of the rule that a speaker upon one side succeeds
one upon the other. The debate upon this Report commenced on the 14th.
It was opened by an admonitory speech from the President of the
Assembly, M. DUPIN, recommending order and moderation in the discussion.
A brief sketch of the views advanced by the principal speakers will
serve better than any thing else to show the state of opinion and
feeling in France at the present moment. M. DE FALLOUX, formerly
Minister of Public Instruction, in an eloquent and impressive speech,
urged the re-establishment of the monarchical principle, as the only
means of saving the country, which was falling into decay. He said
Socialism was rapidly increasing, not merely among the very poor, but
also among the better paid class of workmen. M. CAVAIGNAC made a firm
and temperate speech against the revision, and in favor of building up a
strong republic. M. COQUEREL, the well-known Protestant pastor,
advocated a revision. He believed that Bonaparte would be elected,
whether constitutionally or not, and he preferred that it should be done
constitutionally. He defended the republican form of government, and
avowed his belief that it would ultimately become universal. M. MICHEL
(de Bourges), who has made himself known as the able counsel for the
prosecuted newspapers and proscribed Socialists, made a long and very
able speech on the democratic side of the question, and against the
revision. He spoke in terms of commendation of the "Girondists who
proclaimed the Republic, and of the Montagnards who saved it," and of
"the Convention which made the Constitution known to Europe by cannon
shots, and delivered the country from tyrants." This speech has been
printed by the party for gratuitous distribution, as an exponent of
their views. M. DE BERRYER followed in a brilliant speech in favor of
Legitimacy. He admitted the great services which the President had
rendered to the cause of order, but deprecated his re-election in spite
of the Constitution, by universal suffrage, as he would then be placed
in a position superior to the Constitution. This catastrophe was to be
averted, if at all by the action of a Constituent Assembly. He painted
in glowing colors all the excesses of which the Republic had been
guilty, and affirmed that France was not adapted for or in favor of a
republican form of government. VICTOR HUGO followed in a speech in
opposition to a revision and to monarchy, and in favor of the Republic.
He reflected in very severe terms upon the Government and upon the
majority in the Assembly. His speech was greeted with applause from the
Left and disapprobation from the Right. The debate, which had hitherto
been conducted with great decorum, now closed amid a scene of wild
disorder. On the following day, the 19th, the closing speech in the
discussion was made by ODILLON BARROT in favor of a revision, as the
only means of averting the dangers which impended. At the conclusion of
his speech, the question was demanded and carried. The whole number of
votes cast was 724; of these 446 were in favor of revision, and 278
against it. Three-fourths of the votes cast, the number required to
carry the proposition, is 543; so that it failed by 97 votes. By the
rules of the Assembly it can not be revived until after an interval of
three months. The absorbing interest of the occasion is shown by the
large vote cast. The Assembly, when full, consists of 750 members; there
are now 14 vacancies, so that only 12 members were absent. The vote
against the revision was made up of the extreme Republicans in a mass,
with a few of almost every shade of opinion; including Thiers and his
friends, Lamartine, and a considerable body of moderate Republicans, as
well as a few Legitimists.
On the 21st a charge was brought in the Assembly against M. Faucher, the
Minister of the Interior, of having unduly and unconstitutionally urged
on the petitions in favor of a revision. After a warm altercation
between the Minister and M. Baze, by whom the charge was brought, the
latter offered a resolution that "The National Assembly, while
regretting that in some localities the Government, contrary to its duty
had used its influence to excite the citizens to petition, orders the
legal petitions to be deposited in the Bureau des Reseignements." This
was carried by a majority of 13 in a very full House, the vote being 333
to 320. The Ministers regarding it as a vote of censure, tendered their
resignations, which the President refused to accept. After consultation,
they repeated the tender, but were finally persuaded to retain their
posts.
A debate on Free-trade took place in the Assembly, upon a motion by M.
DE BEAUVE for the reconstruction of the customs tariff in such a manner
as to abolish all prohibitions, and to limit the duties to be levied
within the same general bounds as those adopted in England. The author
of the proposition occupied the session of one entire day, and part of
another in developing the proposed measure. M. THIERS opposed the
proposition, in a speech of great length in which he maintained that the
principle of protection was essential to the prosperity of France. M.
FOULD, Minister of Finance, also opposed the proposition as inimical to
the security and independence of a great nation. It was rejected by a
vote of 422 to 199.
A grand fete has been given by the Municipality of Paris to the
Commissioners and others prominently concerned in the Great Exhibition.
GERMANY, ETC.
The only question of political or general interest respects the
annexation of the non-Germanic portions of the Austrian Empire to the
Germanic Confederation. Diplomatic notes protesting against the
admission were presented to the Diet from the English and French
Governments. That body replied, that the question was a purely German
one, which admitted of no foreign interference.
In Austria an imperial ordinance respecting the press has been
promulgated. If any periodical "takes a hostile direction to the throne,
the unity and integrity of the Empire, religion, morality, or the
maintenance of the public peace," the Stadtholder has the power of
suspending it for three months, after two public warnings. Suspension
for a longer period, or total prohibition can only be decreed by the
Council of Ministers. But foreign works of all kinds may be prohibited,
throughout the whole empire by the Minister of the Home Department.
In Hesse-Cassel a decree has been issued annulling the oath taken by the
officers of the army to the Constitution. An amnesty has been proclaimed
to the officers and soldiers who resisted the Government during the
_quasi_ revolution last year; but the amnesty is coupled with conditions
by which its efficacy is greatly impaired.
It is said that the Russians have lately suffered severe losses in
Circassia, though no reliable and authentic details are furnished.
SOUTHERN EUROPE.
_Italy_ presents the same aspect as herefore. The only signs of life are
reports of assassinations, petty violations of law, and still more
petty decrees on the part of the rulers. In consequence of an
assassination at Milan, which Marshal Radetzky considered to have been
committed from political motives, the whole Lombardo-Venetian kingdom
has been declared to be in a state of siege; the communes are made
responsible for similar acts, and are threatened with severe treatment
unless the assassins are delivered up. At Perugia the Austrian
commandant issued a notice that, notwithstanding the prohibition of
Government, some individuals of both sexes "are still seen wearing red
ribbons, cravats, and shoes. In order to put a stop to such practices,
it is hereby declared that three days after the promulgation of the
present notice, any person wearing any such ribbon, cravat, or shoes,
shall be brought before a court martial." Two letters by Mr. Gladstone,
the English statesman, to Lord Aberdeen, have been published--setting
forth the horrible state of the administration of justice in the Kingdom
of Naples. More than thirty thousand people are confined, he assures us,
in prison upon political charges, subject to the most brutal treatment.
Among these, are an absolute majority of the Deputies who, at the same
time with the monarch, swore to the Constitution, which he has found it
convenient to violate. The Russian Minister, Count Nesselrode, is
reported to have addressed a dispatch to the Russian envoys at Naples,
Florence, and Rome, directing them to inform those Governments that the
three Northern Powers have agreed to place at their disposal all the
forces they may be compelled to require in order to suppress
revolutionary movements.
In _Portugal_ affairs have assumed a somewhat unstable aspect; and
public confidence is greatly shaken as to the ability of the present
government to sustain itself. There have been military disturbances at
various points.
THE EAST.
In _China_ the insurrection, at the latest dates, continued in full
force.--The difficulties between the Sultan and the Pasha of _Egypt_ are
reported to be in process of adjustment.
In _India_ the new Governor-general, Lord Dalhousie, appears to be by no
means popular. He is acknowledged to be an able administrator, but is
charged with unduly favoring his countrymen and personal friends in the
distribution of official patronage. A series of hurricanes has swept
Ceylon and the eastern coasts, occasioning considerable loss of
shipping. Among the vessels lost was a new iron steamer, the Falkland,
belonging to the East India Company. The swell caused by the hurricane
strained the vessel to such a degree that her plates gradually opened
until at last she broke clean in two and sank.--A movement has been made
among the Hindoos, designed to counteract the efforts of the
missionaries. A meeting of learned pundits have decided, contrary to
immemorial usage, that a person who has lost caste by forsaking his
religion can be reinstated in his privileges by the performance of
certain penitential rites.
The _Grand Canary_ Island is undergoing a dreadful visitation of the
cholera. It broke out at the end of May. On the 10th of June, and
subsequent days, the deaths reached to 100 a day. At that date out of a
population of 16,000 all but 4000 had fled from the chief town. It
became almost impossible to bury the dead. It could be done only by the
soldiers seizing upon all they could find, and compelling them to
perform that office. By the 18th of June out of 4000 inhabitants who
remained in the city, 1000 had died. In the smaller towns and
country-houses throughout the island, the disease raged with equal
violence.
Literary Notices
_Episodes of Insect Life._ A second volume of this fascinating chronicle
of insect history is issued by J.S. Redfield, which will command the
public favor no less than the former volume, by its sparkling
delineations of rural life, and its beautiful illustrations of animal
economy. The author has a decided genius for delicate observation;
nothing escapes him, however minute, in his study of insect
idiosyncracy; and with a rich vein of poetic sentiment, and a luxuriant
bloom of all kindly, and natural household feelings, he throws a
delightful coloring of imagination around his descriptions, though
without impairing their evident fidelity to nature. The very titles of
his chapters have a delicious quaintness that leads every one who opens
the book to obtain a further taste of its quality. What charming fancies
lurk under such an inventory of topics as the following! "The Lady Bird
of our Childhood," "Things of a Day," "Insect Magicians," "A Love among
the Roses," "The Tribes of an Oak," "A Few Friends of our Summer
Gladness," "A Sylvan Morality, or a Word to Wives," "A Summer Day's
Dream," and the like, which are treated with a subtle development of
analogies, and exquisite propriety of expression. Whoever would enlarge
his preparation for a reverent communion with nature, and trace the
unfolding of the Divine Epos, in its sublime minuteness, should read
this volume under the shade of trees, and within the sound of running
waters.
_The Fate_, by G.P.R. JAMES (published by Harper and Brothers), is the
title of the latest offshoot of the luxuriant forest of romance, which
has recently been transplanted to this country without losing its
verdurous hues or its potent vitality. Mr. James evidently writes from
an inward necessity, as the trees grow, putting forth all sorts of
leaves, blossoms, and branches, in immeasurable profusion, and (may his
shadow never be less) he will always find a throng of weary wayfarers
who love to turn aside from the heated paths of life, and seek a
refreshing coolness in the grateful shade. The quaint moralities with
which he relieves the monotony of description are not without a certain
charm. They bring us nearer to the personality of the writer, than his
more elaborate dialogues. If the plots of his novels are constructed by
"horse-power," as has been maliciously said, no machinery could force
out the agreeable bits of ethical reflection, in which the novelist
speaks in his own name. And though not always free from common-place, as
we are bound to confess, they often present sharp touches of
good-natured satire, and a piercing insight into the convolutions of
vanity and weakness, showing the sagacity of a shrewd observer. These
"landing-places" are perhaps more frequent in this volume than in most
of the preceding ones, though there is no want of spirit or interest in
the movement of the plot. The scene of the novel is laid in England
during the civil wars succeeding the Restoration. It aims to present a
counterpart to Mr. Macaulay's picture of the condition of England in the
year 1685. The author enters his protest against that part of Macaulay's
"great and fanciful work," which refers to the English country gentlemen
and to the English country clergy of those times. His own sketches
present the state of society during that period in a more favorable
light. We are not sure but the historian has drawn more freely on the
imagination for his statements than the novelist. At all events, the
portraitures by Mr. James have a natural look, and seem to have been
taken from the life.
In one of the numerous episodes of this volume, the author, after the
example of American politicians, with whom he has now become familiar,
undertakes to "define his position" in regard to "the two solitary
horsemen," who, thus far, have usually not failed to make their
appearance, sooner or later, among the characters of his romances. We
are glad to have this knotty point cleared up so skillfully. These much
calumniated horsemen--one on a white horse--shall have the benefit of
their patron's ingenious defense of their "right to ride" in his own
words:
"As to repeating one's self, it is no very great crime, perhaps, for
I never heard that robbing Peter to pay Paul was punishable under any
law or statute, and the multitude of offenders in this sense, in all
ages, and in all circumstances, if not an excuse, is a palliation,
showing the frailty of human nature, and that we are as frail as
others--but no more. The cause of this self-repetition, probably, is
not a paucity of ideas, not an infertility of fancy, not a want of
imagination or invention, but that, like children sent daily to draw
water from a stream, we get into the habit of dropping our buckets
into that same immeasurable depth of thought exactly at the same
place; and though it be not exactly the same water as that which we
drew up the day before, it is very similar in quality and flavor, a
little clearer or a little more turbid, as the case may be. Now this
dissertation--which may be considered as an introduction or preface
to the second division of my history--has been brought about, has had
its rise, origin, source, in an anxious and careful endeavor to
avoid, if possible, introducing into this work the two solitary
horsemen--one upon a white horse--which, by one mode or another, have
found their way into probably one out of three of all the books I
have written; and I need hardly tell the reader that the name of
these books is legion. There are, perhaps, too many; but though I
must die, some of them will live--I know it, I feel it; and I must
continue to write while this spirit is in this body. To say truth, I
do not know why I should wish to get rid of my two horsemen,
especially the one on the white horse. Wouvermans always had a white
horse in all his pictures; and I do not see why I should not put my
signature, my emblem, my monogram, in my paper and ink pictures as
well as any painter of them all. I am not sure that other authors do
not do the same thing--that Lytton has not always, or very nearly, a
philosophizing libertine--Dickens, a very charming young girl, with
dear little pockets; and Lever, a bold dragoon. Nevertheless, upon my
life, if I can help it, we will not have in this work the two
horsemen and the white horse; albeit, in after times--when my name is
placed with Homer and Shakspeare, or in any other more likely
position--there may arise serious and acrimonious disputes as to the
real authorship of the book, from its wanting my own peculiar and
distinctive mark and characteristic.
"But here, while writing about plagiarism, I have been myself a
plagiary; and it shall not remain without acknowledgment, having
suffered somewhat in that sort myself. Hear my excellent friend,
Leigh Hunt, soul of mild goodness, honest truth, and gentle
brightness! I acknowledge that I stole from you the defensive image
of Wouvermans' white horse, which you incautiously put within my
reach, on one bright night of long, dreamy conversation, when our
ideas of many things, wide as the poles asunder, met suddenly without
clashing, or produced but a cool, quiet spark--as the white stones
which children rub together in dark corners emit a soft,
phosphorescent gleam, that serves but to light their little noses."
Phillips, Sampson, and Co. have published _The Inventor's Manual_, by
GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS, being an abridgement of the author's larger
Treatise on the Patent Law. It presents the general principles of the
law on this subject, in a condensed and intelligible form, and furnishes
directions for making applications to the Patent Office, divested of the
technical learning, which can only serve to embarrass the practical
inventor.
_Memoir of the Rev. Edward Bickersteth_, by the Rev. T.R. BIRKS. This
genuine piece of old-fashioned religious biography is republished from
the London edition, by Harper and Brothers, with an Introduction by the
Rev. Dr. TYNG, of this city. It is almost exclusively the record of
Christian experience. Mr. Bickersteth was not distinguished for any
remarkable powers of mind. His character was of an ordinary texture. The
even tenor of his life was not diversified by any unusual incidents. But
his biography shows the power of earnest devotion to a great object,
sustained by clear and constant intellectual convictions, to call forth
an effective energy of action, and to invest the character with a
certain charm, although it presents no brilliant aspects in the daily
routine of life. Mr. Bickersteth was born in a quiet English village in
Westmoreland. He commenced his active career as a subordinate clerk in
the London Post-office. At this early period of his life, he exhibited
the same strength of religious principle, and the same fastidiousness of
moral perception, which were at the foundation of his subsequent
character. Indeed, his minute, rigid, ascetic adherence to formal rules
of conduct might be deemed premature. We find little exercise of the
free, gladsome spirit of youth, but on the contrary, a subjection to the
strictest system of self-discipline, which would have done no discredit
to a devotee. The habits thus formed were no doubt highly favorable to
the rigorous severity of purpose, with which he afterward devoted
himself to the performance of grave duties. His self-inflicted training
led him to regard religion almost exclusively in the light of
obligation, and as the natural result, his conscience not only gained
the mastery over his character, but to a great extent interfered with
the due exercise of other sentiments. Becoming weary of his employments
in the post-office, he determined to engage in the study of law, and was
at length articled as an attorney's clerk. Just before taking this step,
however, his religious feelings received a still stronger impulse. The
tone of his mind experienced a great change, and he became so absorbed
in religious ideas, as to make it obvious that he would find little that
was congenial in the profession of law.
After a series of obstacles, that were overcome only by great effort and
perseverance, Mr. Bickersteth was enabled to realize a wish which he had
long fondly cherished, and received ordination as a clergyman of the
English Church. From that time, his labors in his favorite sphere of
action were devoted and abundant. The missionary cause had always called
forth his warmest sympathies, and it now became the most cherished
object of his life. Its prosperity in England was greatly owing to his
zealous exertions. As Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, he has
identified his name with its interests. Nor was he less active in the
discharge of duty in other branches of his profession. His earnestness
was perpetual. Nothing could check his unrelenting industry. The usual
relaxations of society could not divert him from his high purpose. He
made use of the pulpit and the pen, with equal energy for the
accomplishment of his plans. His publications were numerous, and though
destitute of literary merit, had considerable influence in their day. He
wrought more, however, by his character than by his writings. His
unmistakable sincerity, his childlike simplicity, his consistency and
purity of intention, gave a contagious virtue to his example, and
enabled him to act both on individuals and on large bodies of men with
an unerring moral magnetism, which is never granted except to genuine
elevation of purpose, and an enthusiasm for an ideal aim, which throws
self into the shade.
This biography is prepared by the eldest daughter of Mr. Bickersteth and
her husband, a clergyman of the Established Church, by whom it was
undertaken at the request of their deceased parent, made during his last
illness. It has been compiled with discrimination and care, free use
being made of the voluminous correspondence of Mr. Bickersteth, which he
sustained with characteristic assiduity. Although it presents the memoir
of a person, who was less distinguished by splendid or imposing natural
endowments, than by his peculiar and conspicuous position in the
religious world, it affords many curious and suggestive illustrations of
human nature, which can not fail to be perused with interest by the
student in that science. To the religious public, strictly so called, it
will be one of the most enticing works that has appeared for some time.
_The Stone-Mason of Saint Point_, by LAMARTINE (published by Harper and
Brothers), is a simple rural tale, descriptive of peasant life in
France, abounding in fine touches of nature, and with less of the
fantastic and exaggerated than is usual in the prose fictions of the
author. It is pervaded with a deep religious sentiment, illustrating the
power of faith in the Divine Providence, and of devotion to the good of
others, in sustaining the soul under the severest calamities. His
pictures of the country are drawn from the experience of the writer. He
paints the scenes of his childhood, which are reproduced in a softened
and pensive aspect. If the sentiment is often too luscious for a sturdy
Saxon taste, it is redeemed by its pathos and earnestness, and will be
tolerated as a curious expression of French naivete.
_The True Remedy for the Wrongs of Woman_, by CATHARINE E. BEECHER,
published by Phillips, Sampson, and Co. This is not a controversial
work. It is rather an eloquent plea for the education of woman. It
contains little that is original, and nothing radical. The enterprise of
the author for the promotion of education in the West, is its main
topic. Her narrative of the annoyances and perplexities to which she has
been subjected in the prosecution of her plan is lively and graphic, and
not without a tinge of bitterness. The volume displays throughout a
masculine intellect, and sufficient energy of character for a
field-marshal.
_The Literature and Literary Men of Great Britain and Ireland_, by
ABRAHAM MILLS, is the title of a work just issued by Harper and Brothers
in two large octavo volumes, containing a full and comprehensive survey
of the progress of English literature, from its earliest development to
the present time. It has evidently been prepared with great industry,
and at the same time, shows a mature and cultivated taste, a sound
literary judgment, and an uncommon familiarity with the most eminent
English authors. The extracts from their writings, which compose the
staple of the work, are introduced with elaborate critical and
biographical notices, which betray a ripe scholarship, and no small
degree of sagacity. We believe these volumes will prove an admirable
contribution to a branch of education which has been too much neglected
in our higher seminaries of learning. A thorough grounding in the
elements of English literature is rare. At the same time, it is as
valuable an acquisition as the scholar can possess. It is folly to give
a secondary place to the treasures of our mother tongue, while so much
time is devoted to studies which are often wholly inapplicable to the
pursuits of after life. A thorough initiation into the beauties of the
English classics by a competent teacher, would be worth more, as a means
of aesthetic culture, than the whole circle of attainments with which one
often completes his college course. The present volumes will be found an
excellent guide to the knowledge of English literature, and we cordially
commend them to the attention of professors as well as of private
students.
_Arthur Conway_ is a spirited novel, with great variety of action and
incident, and a plot of the most exciting interest, forming the last
number of Harpers' "Select Library of Novels."
The _Odd-Fellows' Offering_ for 1852 (published by Edward Walker), is
the first annual that we have seen for the coming season. It is issued
in a style of substantial elegance, with a number of well-executed
engravings, and a highly finished illuminated presentation plate. Among
the most valuable contributions are the articles entitled "Napoleon's
First Love," by James Nack, "Blanaid," by Mary E. Hewitt, "The Destiny,"
by Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, "The Talkative and Taciturn," by Frederic
Saunders, "Peace," by Benson J. Lossing, and "The Second Ship," by Fanny
Green. Several of the shorter pieces are worthy of commendation, and the
volume as a whole is superior to the average of the ephemeral class of
literature to which it belongs.
_Elements of Algebra_, by Prof. LOOMIS (published by Harper and
Brothers), is a new elementary treatise on that science, intended for
the use of students who have just completed the study of arithmetic. The
author has aimed to present the subject with so much clearness and
simplicity, that any person who has acquired a tolerably familiar
knowledge of the principles of numbers may proceed to this volume with
advantage. In point of brevity and terseness of statement, it will be
found to have no superior. It abounds with practical examples, happily
adapted to illustrate the processes of algebra to the young beginner.
The development of the more difficult principles of the science, is so
gradual--the ascent from one step to another is made so facile--that the
student is enabled to master the elements of the subject without the
sense of weariness and discouragement, which often attends the use of a
text-book, in which the needs of the beginner are too much lost sight of
by the author.
_The Christian Retrospect and Register_, by ROBERT BAIRD, published by
M.W. Dodd. A summary of the scientific, moral, and religious progress of
the first half of the nineteenth century. The plan of this work is
excellent, but it is not carried out with good success. It is full of
omissions, and crude and superficial statements. Hurried through the
press without time for thorough preparation or revision, it is a
skeleton rather than a treatise, and is equally unworthy of the author
and of the subject.
_Roman Antiquities_, by CHARLES ANTHON, LL.D., is designed to furnish a
consecutive description of the manners and customs of the ancient
Romans, in a form adapted to popular reading. In the preparation of this
work, recourse has been had to the most recent and trustworthy
authorities; it includes the results of modern research; on obscure and
doubtful questions it is critical and discriminating; and its style,
for the most part, is remarkable for its copiousness and ease. Without
being encumbered with learned disquisitions, it presents a complete
statement of the points essential to the elucidation of Roman history.
Its excellent arrangement and attractive style render it a work which
may not only be occasionally consulted, but thoroughly read, with
interest and advantage. For popular use, it is not surpassed by any of
the previous contributions of the author to the cause of classical
literature. (Published by Harper and Brothers.)
_The History of the United States_, by RICHARD HILDRETH, Vol. V. (Harper
and Brothers). Mr. Hildreth is making rapid progress with his great
national work. We have now the fifth volume of the whole series, and the
second of the history since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. It
is devoted to the administrations of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,
bringing down the narrative to the difficulties with England on account
of the affair of the Chesapeake in 1807. This period is fruitful in
topics of great historical interest. Among those which Mr. Hildreth has
investigated with the most exemplary diligence, and presented in his
usual plain and forcible style, are the state of parties subsequent to
the election of Adams, the struggle between Adams and his Federal
opponents, the downfall of the Federal party on the accession of
Jefferson, the purchase of Louisiana, the characters of Hamilton and
Burr, and the growth of the commercial troubles with Great Britain.
These are described with the same Doric severity of expression which
characterizes the previous volumes, with scarcely a flower of rhetoric
to entice the toiling reader. As an authentic and vigorous chronicle of
events, we still deem this work an important element in the study of
American history. If he does not rival the philosophical splendor of
Bancroft or the sweet amenities of Prescott, Mr. Hildreth has earned a
highly honorable niche among our native historians.
_Travels and Adventures in Mexico_, by WILLIAM W. CARPENTER (published
by Harper and Brothers), is a record of military service and wanderings
on foot, by a soldier in the late Mexican War, describing the manners
and customs of the people of Mexico, and the agricultural and mineral
resources of that country. The narrative is drawn up from notes taken on
the spot, and although the author bespeaks the indulgence of his readers
for his want of skill in composition, it is marked by such a high degree
of frankness and simplicity, that it can scarcely fail to prove
attractive to the majority of readers. He enjoyed unusual opportunities
for the observation of the Mexican character. Placed in circumstances
which made him familiar with all classes of society, he studied the
strange habits and striking features that came under his notice with
unsleeping vigilance, and has recorded his impressions, with apparent
accuracy and good faith. The course of his journeys led him through
various towns, which are off of the routes most frequented by travelers,
such as Salamanca, Guanahuato, Guadalajara, Ahuacatlan, and Tepic,
concerning which he presents a variety of valuable and interesting
information. Exposed to the casualties of military life, and for a long
time held a prisoner by the Mexicans, he has been able to gather up an
abundant store of incident and adventure, which he relates almost with
the freedom of a conversational style, but commanding the attention of
the reader to the close of the volume.
Editors Drawer.
It was an idea of the gifted author of "Ship and Shore," the late WALTER
COLTON, chaplain in the United States' Navy, who had witnessed many
burials at sea in his various voyages, that a body thus buried remained
suspended in a medium so dense that it was alike beyond the reach of
decay, or destruction by the "innumerable creeping things, both small
and great beasts," which inhabit the mighty deep. This theory gives an
added interest to the following beautiful passage from a discourse by
the Rev. Mr. Giles: "The SEA is the largest of all cemeteries, and its
slumberers sleep without a monument. All other grave-yards, in all other
lands, show some symbol of distinction between the great and the small,
the rich and the poor: but in that ocean-cemetery the king and the
clown, the prince and the peasant, are alike undistinguished. The same
waves roll over all; the same requiem by the minstrelsy of the ocean is
sung to their honor. Over their remains the same storm beats and the
same sun shines; and there, unmarbled, the weak and the powerful, the
plumed and the unhonored, will sleep on until awakened by the same trump
when the sea shall 'give up its dead!'"
* * * * *
Few things were more characteristic of the colored servants living with
the old families of the North many years ago, than their high-flown
language, and the deference which they endeavored to exact from those of
their race whom they thought below themselves in a dependent position,
and even of the whites whose social scale was beneath that of their own
especial masters. A friend mentioned to us recently an amusing
illustration of this: Some years ago, "EBEN," as he was called, a
colored servant of Mr. A----, an old and opulent citizen of a
flourishing and beautiful city in Connecticut, obtained leave to use his
master's sleigh and horses, to take his sable inamorata "a-sleighing" to
a neighboring road-side inn, a popular resort, at certain seasons, even
for the elite of the town whence it derived its principal support. About
nine o'clock "EBEN" drove up, and throwing the reins to the stable-boy,
in the most stately manner, he helped out "Miss Dinah" with an air that
would have befitted a colored Count D'Orsay, and the pair made their way
to the principal sitting-room, where a bright and cheerful fire was
blazing up the wide-backed chimney. Here, having seated his "lady" in
state, he rang a little hand-bell on the table. The landlord entered.
"Is _dis_ you' best room, landlord?" "Yes," replied the landlord,
"yes--doesn't it suit you?" "W'y, yes, sa, it suit if dere ain't no
_better_, sa. We want some fresh'ents--best you got; sumfin nice--quick:
an' look a' hea: gib my hosses couple tub o' oats, two ton o' hay, and
two bushel o' water! An', we don't want no odder company, sa, in our
'partment: don't let in no colored pussons, sa." The landlord, who had
known the old servant before he had gone to live with Mr. A---- (a fact
which _he_ did not know, or had forgotten), said, "EBEN, where do you
live now?" "Mr. A---- lib wid me, down on de Plain," said "EBEN,"
speaking very quickly; "but I t'ank you, sa, w'en you speak to me, to
call me by _both_ my names: I got _two_ names, sa." "Ah?--well, EBEN,
what is your _other_ name?" "My middle name is 'NEZER, sa, and I'd t'ank
you to recollect 'im!" "Poor, faithful, simple-hearted 'Eben!'" said the
friend who mentioned this incident to us, he has followed 'Uncle Ned,'
and 'gone where the good niggers go;' but he will long be remembered by
all who ever knew him. He it was who, on one occasion, when about to
take a letter to a certain quarter of the city, and when asked if he
knew where the house was, replied, "I wish I had as many dollars as I
know where dat house is!" The sum was not computable by any rule known
to arithmetic, mathematics, or any cognate "science of numbers." On
another occasion he was describing an execution of a colored man, which
he had been to see. "When he went upon the platform," said he, "he was
extremely overcome, and I thought, at one time, dat he _wouldn't
survive_!" The probability is, that he _didn't_ long!
* * * * *
One of "Nature's true Nobility," an educated, independent farmer in the
country, after walking over his rich paternal acres, amidst his "fields
ripe for the harvest," and his noble flocks and herds, sits down and
writes the following passage in a letter to a gentleman of this city:
"The scene has changed on the farm since I wrote you last. Blades and
blossoms have turned to ears and fruit; spring to summer; seed-time to
harvest. The birds have changed their notes, and seem to sing as if from
a sense of duty only. The trees, instead of being fresh and green, are
only shady. Brooks seem to be growing tired, and gardens no longer
conceal their faded flowers. The noon of the year is at hand. Even now
we feel its sultry heat; we are dazzled by its golden light. Reapers
will soon go out to gather the ripened grain. Store-houses and barns
will soon be filled again with the bounties of GOD. Is it not a pleasant
season, a profitable halting-time; a point of prospect, from which we
may look backward and forward? Has it no analogy to the Present of our
own lives--yours, and mine, and ----'s? Does it not bid us look to _our_
harvests, that we may gather in season, and be furnished for the long
winter which approacheth? Gather, I mean, in those great moral fields
which GOD has opened around us, and filled with incorruptible fruits:
knowing that _they_, too, have their appropriate seasons, and that as to
_them_, also the harvest will soon pass, the summer will soon end? Let
us keep in mind, then, dear ----, the great truth, that,
"Loitering slow the Future creepeth,
Arrow-swift the Present sweepeth,
And motionless forever stands the Past!"
* * * * *
"'I had been out a-fishing in the 'Old South Bay,'" said a Long Island
subscriber the other day, "with one of those crafty fishermen to whom
_no_ days, on which the water may be tempted, are considered days for
'bad luck;' '_dies infaustus_' being a term unknown in his calendar. He
was one of those 'long-necked clam'-eaters, whose stomach rose and fell
with the tides which made them plentiful or left them scarce. As we were
coming in in our boat, after a successful foray upon bass and
sheepshead, we 'fell to meditate' upon various matters which were
neither piscatory nor akin to it. As Boswell would say of the colloquies
of the Great Leviathan: 'We spoke of Ghosts.' 'You say ghosts have been
_seen_ on Long Island, but _you_ never seen 'em, and don't believe in
'em!' 'Wal, yes, I can't say I do believe in 'em, but I guess I _should_
believe in 'em, ef I had such luck in gettin' a sight on 'em as a man
did down to Jerusalem-South a good many years ago. The way of it was
this: You see, it was a dreadful cold winter's night, about nine o'clock
(how the Old South Bay roared that night)! when there was a sleigh with
three fellows into it, druv up under the hoss-shed at the tavern. Two
on 'em got out; and as they got out, they said to 't'other one, 'Jim,
jist you sit there and mind the hosses while we go in and git somethin'
warmin': we'll be right out agin.' They went into the tavern, but they
_didn't_ 'come right out again' by a jug-full, though when they _did_
come out they had more than a jug-full apiece into 'em--both on 'em
had--ha! ha! 'Fore they come out, though, BILL the 'ostler said to the
man sittin' in the sleigh, 'Ef I was you I wouldn't sit there in the
cold as long as you're a-sittin', blamed if I would: why don't _you_ go
in and get somethin' too?" The man never said nothin', though, in
answer, but sot up as straight as an Indian. Bill, who was lookin' after
some other hosses under the same shed, a'ter a while said somethin' more
to him, but he was as still as a 'yster. Pooty soon Bill said to
hisself, 'Goy-blamed ef I don't think he's friz to death, or else he'd
say _somethin'_!' So he went up to him and shook him; and sure enough,
he found him fruz as stiff as a stake; and when he come to hold up his
lantern to look, he found him propped up on each side on the seat; the
lines was wound round his hands; he was muffled up with comforters about
his face--and he was stone-dead!
"'Bill wasn't nobody's fool, ef he _did_ attend to hosses. He smelt the
whole thing out to-once. Two or three graves had been robbed about there
only a little while before, and the two chaps in the tavern was two
body-gatherers that had been paid by doctors to get bodies for 'em, for
to cut up, and they'd been and robbed a new grave that night; and here
was the corpse, wrapped up and propped up in that sleigh, so that folks
wouldn't suspicion nothing about it! Now what d'you 'spose Bill does? He
goes and takes, Bill does, that body out of the sleigh (for he wasn't
afraid of the very devil), strips off the clothes, and puts it into the
oat-bin inside, and fastens the door: then he puts on the dead man's
clothes hisself, and _he_ goes and gets into the sleigh with 'em onto
him, puts the lines round his hands, props hisself up, and waits for the
body-snatchers to come out from the bar-room. Pooty soon, out they come,
got in on the wide seat along side of him, and druv off. There Bill
sits, as stiff as a rail; but 'twasn't long 'fore one o' the chaps says
to t'other, feelin o' Bill's leg a little, 'Why, the body's gettin'
warm! Feel o' that leg!' T'other one put down his hand and felt o'
Bill's legs; and then _he_ started back and said: 'It's a fact, by
Thunder! it _is_ warm, and _no_ mistake!' 'Twas Bill's time, now: so he
turned his head round, stiff-like and straight, without moving his body,
and says he, '_Warm?_--wal, I guess you'd be WARM ef you'd been took out
o' h-ll only a little while ago, as _I_ was!'
"'Bill says it wan't half a second 'fore both o' them chaps had pitched
head-first out o' that sleigh, and n'ither on 'em stopped runnin' till
they was clean out o' sight. Then he turned right square round and druv
back to the tavern. There he told the whole story; and he made a good
spec. out o' the thing too, in the end; for you see, the friends of the
man that was dug up guv him fifty dollars for savin' of the body, and as
nobody ever come back a'ter the sleigh and hosses, he sold 'em to
Captain B----, down on H---- Plains, for nigh upon three hundred
dollars! 'Twas a fust-rate team--so they said. That's the most
profitable and about the only ghost that ever _I_ heerd tell on! Good
many folks _talks_ about seein' 'em, but I expect they never _did_--not
_r'ally_.'"
* * * * *
It was not an uncommon thing in England, before the abuse was corrected
by an especial act of Parliament, for interested parties to secure the
incarceration, in private asylums for lunatics, of those who, from
pecuniary or other considerations, they were desirous of "_getting_ out
of the way, and _keeping_ out of the way:" but in this country the
difficulty attending such transactions rendered them infrequent of
execution. Yet as late as in October, 1847, a learned clergyman of the
Church of England, of unique mind, and in his manners not a copyist of
others, was imprisoned in a lunatic asylum not three hundred miles from
New York, on the alleged ground that he was "crazy." The truth was soon
discovered, however, and he was liberated; but the result arose from a
mere accident. The victim had asked permission, on a Sunday, to attend
church. The request was refused. A second demand to the same effect was
met with: "If you ask to go to church again, we shall confine you to the
'second floor'"--a hall with cells and grated windows, and seldom
entered by visitors. Whereupon the incarcerated clergyman, who had not
been prohibited from having writing materials, sent to the overseer of
the institution the following lines:
"Go on, go on! your prison den
No terrors has for me:
GOD is my shield! why fear I then
A moment's tyranny?
"Vain man may bind his fellow clay,
Incarcerate the wise,
Dungeons shut out the cheerful day,
And darkness shroud my eyes:
"Go on, go on! free FANCY smiles,
And soars on golden wings,
The Spirit spurns your petty wiles--
The MUSE, unfettered, sings!
"Bring on, bring here your threats and chains,
IMAGINATION bind!
Bring grates, bring all your iron panes--
Cage in the steadfast mind!
"Your power is faint, your threatenings naught,
What empire have ye now?
This poor, frail body--not one thought--
Shall to your thralldom bow.
"Sure is that day not distant far,
When TRUTH shall claim her son,
Offended Justice wake the war,
And speak in thunder-tone:
"How did ye dare, on MERCY'S plea,
Abuse her sacred name,
Till violated Liberty
Bring in her sternest claim.
"Now Justice reign, bereft of sight,
For mortal woes and fears;
In Freedom's cause uphold the Right!
Back, back, ye struggling tears!"
These lines seemed to create an impression, in the minds of those who
saw them, that there was at least some "method" in the writer's
"madness," and the requisite inquisition soon put an end to his
incarceration. He is now, as he was then, a learned and accomplished
divine, and is at present preaching to a large and flourishing
congregation in a sister city.
* * * * *
We have heard much of the sagacity of the elephant; of those qualities
which DUGALD STEWART places far above mere instinct (namely, memory and
forecaste), which he possesses; but we never knew until lately, that an
elephant had an "ear for music!" But it appears that there was at
Mayence, in 1811, an elephant who was a great lover of sweet sounds. The
musicians of the city treated him with a concert of instrumental music,
which had a very powerful effect upon him. He expressed his delight by
frequently flapping his great leather-apron ears, and rolling from side
to side. A solo upon a horn almost transported him. He "put himself in
motion," beat time with his trunk, and expressed his approval of the
performance by the distinct but subdued emission of vocal applause.
Think of an elephant applauding at the opera, or one of JENNY LIND'S
concerts!
* * * * *
It will have been observed, by those who have read the recent speeches
of a celebrated American orator and statesman, with what beautiful
simplicity and force brief passages or phrases from the BIBLE come in
aid of his eloquence. And well would it be if these qualities were
studied more by our public speakers from that good "BOOK of books." Sir
WILLIAM JONES expressed his opinion that the BIBLE contained "more true
sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more pure morality, more important
history, and finer strains of eloquence and poetry, than could be
collected from all other books, in whatever language or age they might
have been written." FISHER AMES and PATRICK HENRY, pre-eminent American
orators, did not hesitate to go further, and declare, that "no man ever
did or ever could become truly eloquent, without being a constant reader
of the Bible, and an admirer of the purity and sublimity of its
language."
* * * * *
If the following amusing circumstance had been narrated in the pages of
the veracious historian, DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER, it would have been set
down to the credit of a fertile fancy on the part of that illustrious
historian, rather than believed as a fact. But the occurrence here
detailed is a veritable one, and happened many years ago in the county
of York, Pennsylvania. It is a forcible illustration of that undoubted
and undoubting Dutch honesty which made New Amsterdam so famous in the
olden time.
It seems, from the record, that there were two early German settlers, in
the western part of the county, whose names were PETER ---- and JOHN ----.
Peter had increased the size of his farm, by annexing to it a small
tract of land adjoining, and he lacked about a hundred dollars of the
sum which it was necessary to pay for his new acquisition. He called
upon his neighbor John, to borrow the amount. John consented at once,
and going into another room, he brought out an old bread-basket, and
counted down the desired number of dollars; and then the two sat down to
two large earthen mugs of cider and as many pipes of tobacco. After
smoking over the matter for a while, it occurred to Peter that in
similar transactions he had seen or heard something like a _note_
passing between the borrower and lender, and he suggested as much to
John. The lender assented to the propriety of such a course; paper, pen,
and ink, were produced; and between the two a document was concocted,
stating that John had loaned Peter one hundred dollars, which Peter
would repay to John in "tree mont's." This Peter signed; and thus far
the two financiers made the thing "all regular, and ship-shape."
But at this point a difficulty presented itself. They both knew that
notes were made in the operation of borrowing and lending, which they
had witnessed; but neither of them had observed what disposition was
made of the document: neither could tell whether it was for the borrower
or the lender to take charge of the paper. Here was a dilemma! At last a
bright idea struck John: "You haves de money to pay, Peter, so you must
take dis paper, so as you can _see_ as you haf to pay it." This was
conclusive: the common sense of the thing was unanswerable; and Peter
pocketed the money and his own note, so "as he could _see_ as he haf to
pay it!"
Three months passed over; and punctually to the day appeared Peter, and
paid over the promised sum to John. This being done, the mugs and pipes
were again brought out. After puffing awhile, Peter produced the note,
and handed it to John, with the remark: "_Now_, John, _you_ must take de
note, so as you can see the money haf been paid!"
It strikes us that this incident is only second to the "balancing of the
books" by weighing, passing receipts, and mulcting the constable in the
amount of costs, as recorded by the sage historian of Manahatta.
* * * * *
We believe it is a German poet who, walking "silent and thoughtful by
the solemn shore of the vast ocean we must sail so soon," thus speaks
"_The Ship of Death_:"
"By the shore of Time, now lying
On the inky flood beneath,
Patiently, thou SOUL undying!
Waits for thee the Ship of Death!
"He who on that vessel starteth,
Sailing from the sons of men,
To the friends from whom he parteth
Never more returns again!
"From her mast no flag is flying,
To denote from whence she came;
She is known unto the dying--
AZAEL is her captain's name.
"Not a word was ever spoken,
On that dark, unfathom'd sea;
Silence there is so unbroken,
She herself seems not to be!
"Silent thus, in darkness lonely,
Doth the SOUL put forth alone,
While the wings of angels only
Waft her to a LAND UNKNOWN."
How many are departing daily in that "Ship of Death!" "Good Heaven!"
exclaims one, "how often are we to die before we go off this stage! In
every friend we lose, we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.
GOD keep those we have left!"
* * * * *
The following ludicrous occurrence finds its way into the "Drawer," on a
blank-leaf of a business-letter, from a flourishing town in Illinois: "A
manufacturer of tombstones, in our place, lately received a call from a
countryman, who wanted a stone to place over the grave of his mother.
After looking around for some time, and making sundry remarks about the
taste of his deceased mother, he finally pitched upon one which the
stone-cutter had prepared for another person. 'I like _this_ one,' said
he. 'But,' said the manufacturer, 'that belongs to another man, and has
Mrs. PERRY'S name cut on it: it wouldn't do for your mother.' 'O, yes,
it would,' said the countryman, 'she couldn't _read_! And besides,' he
continued, as he observed the wonderment of the stone-cutter, 'PERRY was
always a favorite name of hers, any how!'" This anecdote reminds us of a
kindred occurrence, which actually took place in this good city of
Gotham. A parvenu, who had set up his carriage in great state, went to a
harness-maker to have "a silver letter" put on the blinders of his
horses. "What letter shall I put on?" asked the harness-maker. "Well, I
don't _know_, exactly," answered the pompous "patron;" but, after
hesitating a moment, he said, "Well; I guess W is about as handsome a
letter as you can put on--isn't it?"
* * * * *
In the "marriage of language to music and feeling," as the great German,
GOETHE, expresses it, ALFRED TENNYSON has but few equals, and probably
no superior at the present day. A modern English critic, in a review of
his _Princess_, observes: Mr. TENNYSON is not, we believe, a connoisseur
in music, as MOORE was; yet look at the songs in 'The Princess.' Take
the 'Bugle Song,' for example, unequaled in our language, except by
SHAKSPEARE:
'The splendor falls on castle walls,
And snowy summits old in story:
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory:
Blow, bugle, blow--set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer echoes, dying, dying, dying!
'O hark! O hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow! let us hear the purple glens replying
Blow, bugle! answer echoes, dying, dying, dying!
'O love, they die in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill, on field, on river:
_Our_ echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow forever and forever:
Blow, bugle! blow; set the wild echoes flying,
And answer echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying!'
"True," says the reviewer, "this is an imitation, in words, of the
actual sounds of bugle-music; but it had been little to let us hear, in
the wonderful combination of liquid, ringing consonants, and resounding
vowels, the 'horns of Elfland faintly blowing,' had not the poet told us
in the same key of sound, how
'The splendor falls on castle walls,
And snowy summits old in story:'
investing with one uniting halo, first the scenery, then the music
itself, and lastly the human thoughts and feelings which remind him that
'_Our_ echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow forever and forever:'
embodying, in the oneness of the sensuous framework, the spiritual
harmony of the whole inward and outward impression, the luscious
languor, the stately splendor, the thoughts which follow into infinity
the dying echoes of the air." This is true criticism, and is
confirmatory of an impression which we have long entertained, that it
requires something more than laborious pains-taking, something
different, and better, than a mere careful selection of melodious or
sounding words, and a felicitous collocation of them, to give a man a
poetical reputation that is worth possessing.
* * * * *
The western lawyers, who "hire out their words and anger," are somewhat
amenable to the charge brought against them by transatlantic writers, of
looseness and bombast in their arguments and oratory. In a recent case
of capital crime, before a far-western jury, the lawyer addressed to
them, among other similar arguments, the following: "The BIBLE says,
'Thou shalt not kill!' Now do you know, gentlemen, that if you go to
hang my client, the prisoner at the bar, that you commit murder? You
_do_, and 'no mistake;' for murder is _murder_, whether it is committed
by twelve men in what is called a box--and a 'bad box' you'll find it if
you don't give a righteous verdict--or a humble individual, like my
client. S'posing my client _had_ killed a man; I say, _s'posing_ he had;
is that any reason why _you_ should kill a man?--twelve of you on one!
No, gentlemen of the jury, you may bring the prisoner at the bar, my
client, in guilty; the hangman may do his duty, but will that exonerate
_you_? No such thing! You will all, individually and collectively, you
will _all_ of you be murderers!" This profound argument had its effect.
The verdict of the jury was: "_Not guilty if he'll quit the State!_"
* * * * *
Our neighbors across the water indulge themselves in occasional comments
upon the personal ostentation and desire for external display, which
they regard as the besetting folly of our people. There is an old adage
of "Look at home," which it seems to us it would not be amiss for
"honest JOHN" to bear in mind. One of his own writers recently said, "An
Englishman will forego a horse and cabriolet that will serve to convey
him comfortably to his friends, and give him air, pleasure, and variety,
if he can not do it in an expensive style and manner, mounting a lackey
behind, bedaubed with gold lace. Pride, purse-pride, is the besetting
sin of England; and like most other sins, brings its own punishment, by
converting existence into a struggle, and environing it with gloom and
despondency." This is a criticism, be it understood, of an Englishman
upon Englishmen, in the present state of English society. Now to show
how it was aforetime, and that what BULL charges _us_ with, is a
besetting sin and folly of his own, hear the quaint THOMAS NASHE, who
wrote in 1593:
"ENGLAUND, the players' stage of gorgeous attyre, the ape of all
nations' superfluities, the continuall masquer in outlandish
habilements, great plenty-scanting calamities art thou to await, for
wanton disguising thyself against kind, and digressing from the
plainnesse of thine Auncesters; scandalous and shamefull is it, that
not anie in thee (Fishermen and husbandmen set aside) but lyve above
their ability and birth; that the outward habite (which in other
countries is the only distinction of honour), shoulde yeelde in thee
no difference of persons: that all thy auncient Nobilitie, (almost,)
with this gorgeous prodigalitie, should be devoured and eaten uppe,
and up-starts inhabite their stately Pallaces, who from farre have
fetcht in this vanitie of pride to entrappe and to spoyle them. Those
of thy people that in all other things are miserable, on their
apparaile will be prodigal. No Lande can so unfallibly experience
this proverbe, _The hoode makes not the Moncke_ as thou: for Tailers,
serving-men, Make-shifts, and Gentlemen in thee are confounded. For
the compassment of bravery we hear theye will robbe, steale, cozen,
cheate, betray their owne Fathers, sweare and forsweare, or doe any
thing. Take away braverie, you kill the hart of lust and
incontinencie. Wherefore doe men make themselves brave, but to riot
and to revell? Looke after what state theyr apparaile is, that state
they take to them and carry, and after a little accustoming to that
carriage, persuade themselves they are such indeede."
* * * * *
There is that in the following brief social homily which renders it
worthy of a better preservation than an inscription upon an
unappropriated slip of paper in the "Drawer:" "There is no better
evidence of ill-breeding than the practice of interrupting another in
conversation while speaking, or commencing a remark before another has
fully closed. No well-bred person ever does it, nor continues
conversation long with a person who _does_ do it. The latter often finds
an interesting conversation abruptly waived, closed, or declined by the
former, without even suspecting the cause. A well-bred person will not
even interrupt one who is in all respects greatly his inferior. If you
wish to judge the good-breeding of a person with whom you are but little
acquainted, observe him, or her, strictly in this respect, and you will
not be deceived. However intelligent, fluent, or easy one may appear,
this practice proves the absence of true politeness. It is often amusing
to see persons, priding themselves on the gentility of their manners,
and putting forth all their efforts to appear to advantage in many other
respects, so readily betray all in this particular."
Fashions for September
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--PROMENADE AND HOME COSTUME.]
The warm weather, which generally continues until the middle of this
month, makes a change in the materials for dresses quite unnecessary,
and we report some slight novelties in mode rather than change in
fabrics.
The figure on the left, in the above illustration, exhibits an elegant
style of WALKING TOILETTE.--Silk drawn bonnet. The poke is made on a
whalebone skeleton. Crown reclining, trimmed with a silk _fanchon_,
edged with two _ruches_, one blue, the other same color as the silk. A
similar double _ruche_ runs along the edge of the poke and curtain. This
last is very full. On one side are small bunches of forget-me-nots, with
a little foliage. The ribbons or edges are worked in festoons. Dress and
mantelet of plain silk with band _a disposition_ trimmed with fringed
ribbon. The scarf-mantelet is low on the neck; it is cut with a point,
and the part of the top which folds like a shawl falls over the other,
from the front, and behind is continued in a point following the shape
of the lower part. The band is clouded with blue and green on nut-color,
and is detached from the ground by a narrow white fillet; below there is
a plain part which forms a hem, under which are sewed fringed ribbons of
the same color as the stuff, the threads being alternately an inch of
blue and an inch of green. The fringe of the shawl part is from 6 to 7
inches deep at top, that at bottom from 9 to 10 inches. The body is
open, and there is a _chine_, or clouded band, about an inch from the
edge. The skirt has two tucks along each of which runs a clouded band
with a hem of about an inch, and a deep fringe. The upper one reaches to
within 1-1/2 inch of the band at bottom. Therefore, if the skirt is 44
inches deep, there are 10 of fringe, 8 of interval, 10 more of fringe,
and the rest forms the band and the top of the skirt. The collar is
composed of three rows of lace turned down, and the front of the
habit-shirt is formed of three rows of beautiful lace, having the
appearance of a very full triple shirt frill.
The other figure, on the right, shows a beautiful style of HOME
TOILETTE.--The hair is arranged in waved bands, short and puffed. A
cambric chemisette with small plaits, a raised collar of two frills very
finely plaited, and edged with a very narrow _valenciennes_. Sleeves
half-large, of cambric, plaited small; and ending in a stitched
wrist-band with two plaited trimmings, and narrow _valenciennes_, like
the collar. Waistcoat body of white quilting, open in front; the collar,
which turns down, is narrow, rounded at the corner, and is continued in
a little lapel like a man's waistcoat. The lappets are not sewed on at
the waist; they are formed by the hollowing of the seams; the front
lappet opens and rounds off on the hip. Behind, it is continued square,
with an opening at each seam. The sleeves have an elbow, and a cuff
turned up, with the corners rounded off. There is a small pocket on each
of the front lappets. The buttons are coral. All the edges of this
garment have a double row of stitches. The skirt is made of Scotch
poplin.
[Illustration: FIGS. 2 AND 3.--BONNET AND HEAD-DRESS.]
There is a greater variety in the style of bonnets than in dresses.
Among the most elegant are a drawn bonnet of white lace, hair, and
straw, mounted on a net foundation, with a small poke formed by
bouillons of white _gros de Naples_, placed cross-wise, and separated
from each other, by an extremely narrow straw ornament. These bouillons
spread between two spaces of straw lace, half an inch wide, one of which
forms the edge of the poke, and the other comes at the bottom of the
crown. The curtain is very deep, of the same lace, surmounted by a band
of silk. Inside are two small bunches of field-flowers, mixed with
blades of grass. Another bonnet is composed of cross-pieces of lisse
crape, laid flat in contrary directions, and trimmed with three deep
blonds, placed according to fancy. The edge is open-work blond. At the
bottom of each cross-piece is a roll of shot silk, intended to give
relief. Trimmed on the side with a cabbage rose, or marabouts; the
curtain, crape and blond. A novel style of drawn bonnet for mourning,
is composed of half ornaments of black and white hair, and half narrow
flounces of rose-leaf, small-striped ribbons. Each of them is zebraed
with three small pink stripes of equal width; but the ribbons are so
matched, that these stripes gradually increase in width, and form a very
pleasing diversity. Figure 2 represents a very pretty style. The poke of
the bonnet of rice-straw, having at the edge in front one row of about
an inch wide, and continued, without being cut, along the bottom of the
curtain, which is very large and wholly of rice-straw. The crown forms
three divisions. Those of the two sides, arranged in the shape of a
ram's horns, are composed of three bouillonnes, separated by narrow rows
about a quarter of an inch. These bouillonnes, beginning at top, form on
each side a kind of semi-circle. The top of the crown between these two
parts is formed of nineteen or twenty flat plaits of silk, separated
from each other by a narrow row of rice-straw. On the side of the bonnet
is a branch of a rose-tree with buds and leaves, which begins wide at
bottom and gets narrower up the poke. Inside, ribbons and flowers.
Figure 3 represents a pretty style of head-dress for a home toilette.
The hair is disposed in bandeaux, and tied low behind. The head-dress is
composed of tufts of silk ribbons, and bunches of velvet bows. These
ribbons are mounted on elastic springs, which hold them well on the
head.
[Illustration: FIG 4--CHEMISETTE]
Chemisettes and habit-shirts form a part of almost every costume, and
when arranged with taste, are very elegant. They are of almost every
variety of pattern, and some of them, trimmed with fine lace, are very
costly. Our engraving represents a very neat pattern, and quite simple.
It is made of the usual material, and trimmed with two rows of festooned
bands with insertions to match.
Scarfs are beginning to be quite fashionable. Owing to long disuse, they
possess the charm of novelty. The mantelets have, for some time, been
approaching in form the scarf of former days, and this graceful portion
of a full dress, will doubtless soon be in general vogue.
Waistcoats, too, are gaining favor, and their style very nearly
resembles those worn by gentlemen. In fact, the ladies seem determined
to reduce the volume of their dresses. This is manifested abroad by the
prevailing taste for close fitting jackets, and at home by the general
favor in which the "Bloomers" are held. There are signs of radical
changes in costume, which neither sneers, caricatures, or serious
opposition, can prevent. Health and good taste demand a reform, and
common sense will doubtless second the demand with powerful effect.
End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's New Monthly Magazine, by Various