writes from London that his mission on behalf of the Portland and
Halifax Railroad will prove successful. A serious disturbance has taken
place on the Great Western Railroad, near Hamilton, Canada West, 900
laborers having made a strike for higher wages. As they menaced the
peace of the neighborhood, the inhabitants called on the executive for
the aid of the troops to assist the civil authorities.
A large anti-slavery meeting was held at Toronto, on the 28th of
February. Its avowed object is to furnish sympathy and aid to the
American fugitives. A large class of persons, however, including the
Government officials, are opposed to the movement. The Free School
system is becoming popular in Canada, and is already partially adopted
in the District of Toronto.
MEXICO.
We have news from the Mexican capital to the 15th of February. The
country was remarkably quiet, the revolts in Chiapas and Guanajuato
having been completely quelled. Congress has done nothing of importance.
Senor Lacunza has declined the post of Minister to England, which has
been given to Senor Payno, who has resigned the office of Minister of
Justice. Munguia, the refractory Bishop of Michoacan, has given in his
submission to the Government. President Arista is engaged in arranging
an active plan of operations with his Cabinet, and favorable predictions
are made in regard to the effects of his administration.
On the 16th of February, the City of Chihuahua was thrown into great
alarm by the rumor that thirty American adventurers, leagued with a
large body of Indians, armed with two field-pieces, were encamped at a
short distance. The troops were ordered out, but could not find such a
force, though the existence of a company of robbers among the mountains,
headed by an American, was well ascertained. Great depredations are
committed in the City of Mexico. On the 3d of February, eight armed men
appeared on the public promenade, and plundered a large number of
persons. The affairs of Yucatan are in a desperate condition. The
treasury is exhausted, and the army called out against the Indians is
without money or means to carry on the war.
CENTRAL AMERICA.
A war between the Central Government of Guatemala on one side, and the
allied States of Honduras and San Salvador, has broken out. This rupture
was occasioned by the British blockade of the Pacific ports of the
latter States, which they attribute to the instigation of Guatemala. A
joint army of 6000 men was raised for the protection of the frontier.
The inhabitants of the mountain provinces of Guatemala, who are nearly
all in favor of the Federal Union of the Central American States,
sympathized with this movement, and large bodies of deserters from
Carrera's forces joined the allied army. A plot of Carrera to excite a
revolt in San Salvador was completely defeated. At the last accounts,
the two armies had met near Chiquimula. One statement announces the
total defeat of the allied forces by Carrera, while another says the
former obtained possession of Chiquimula; and that the only victory
gained by Carrera was over a company of deserters from his own ranks,
near the village of San Geronimo.
In the State of Nicaragua, the chain of communication from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, is nearly completed. The engineers have nearly finished
the survey of a road from Rio Lagae, on the western shore of the Lake, to
the port of San Juan del Sur on the Pacific, a distance of twelve miles.
Small boats are now building to run on the San Juan River, and it is
expected that the transit from sea to sea will be made in twenty-four
hours, and the journey from New-York to San Francisco in twenty-four
days.
THE WEST INDIES.
On the 3d of March, Havana was in the midst of the Carnival, and given
up to gayety of all kinds. The Captain General, Concha, has made himself
exceedingly popular by his liberal measures, and it was rumored that he
intended visiting Spain for the purpose of procuring further reforms in
the government of the Island. Miss Fredrika Bremer was on a visit to
Matanzas. The cholera has broken out at Cardenas, and there have been
many fatal cases among the crews in the harbor and the negroes on shore.
This scourge is still prevailing in many parts of Jamaica, having made
its appearance in some districts a second time with increased malignity.
In Hayti, the threatened war on the Dominicans has not been undertaken.
The United States Government is interfering actively in the alleged
imprisonment, without cause, of Captain Mayo, of the American brig
Leander. The evidence in the case has been transmitted to the Emperor.
The inhabitants of Georgetown, Grand Caymanas, are digging up the beach
around a certain inlet of the island, in search of a treasure supposed
to have been buried by the pirate Gibbs. Several flat stones, marked
with cabalistic letters, have been discovered, but no gold.
SOUTH AMERICA.
The workmen on the Panama Railroad are now engaged in laying the rails
from Navy Bay to Gatun, a distance of three and a half miles. The first
locomotive was landed on the 22d of February. A new steamer has been
placed on the Chagres River, to run between Chagres and Gorgona, and
another is building at Navy Bay for the same purpose, to form a daily
line. The attention of Americans on the Isthmus is at present attracted
towards the auriferous region of New Grenada, in the provinces of Choco
and Antioquia, lying between the Pacific and the Magdalena River. About
three hundred and fifty persons, principally Frenchmen, are engaged in
working the Buenaventura mines, which yield from two to three ounces per
day to each man. A severe shock of an earthquake was felt at Carthagena
on the 7th of February.
In VENEZUELA, the new President, Monagas, has been inaugurated; the
country is quiet and prosperous.
The Presidential Election in PERU has terminated in favor of Echinique.
Congress was to meet on the 20th of March.
One or two partial insurrections have occurred in BOLIVIA, and a decree
has been issued for the banishment of all Buenos Ayreans, who were not
married to Bolivian females. It is believed that the difficulty between
Brazil and the Argentine Republic will be settled without war.
ASIA.
Late news from Canton announce the death of Commissioner Lin, who seized
the English opium in 1839. Murders and piracy are on the increase in the
Indian seas, notwithstanding the alleged severity of the Chinese
authorities.
The British surveying ship Herald has arrived at Singapore, from the
Arctic regions, bringing a rumor of news in relation to Sir John
Franklin. Near the extreme station of the Russian Fur Company, the
officers of the Herald learned from the natives that a party of white
men had been encamped three or four hundred miles inland, that the
Russians had made an attempt to supply them with provisions and
necessaries, but had been prevented by the natives. No communication
could be opened with the spot where they were said to be, as a hostile
tribe intervened. The Esquimaux confirmed this rumor, with the addition
that the whites had been murdered in a quarrel with the natives.
MISCELLANEOUS.
M. XAVIER RAYMOND, a practised and accredited author, has begun a series
of essays in the _Paris Journal des Debats_, on the British and American
Steam Navigation Companies: historical details, statistics, modes of
forming, organization--comparison. He agrees with our Secretary of the
Navy, that it is better for government to subsidize companies, and
partly or mainly rely upon them for war-steamers, than to build and
maintain a steam-fleet for itself, at greater cost, and with no
superiority of adaptation for belligerent service. He admits that this
plan would not find grace with the European Ministers of Marine; but,
for them, circumstances are different. The report of the Secretary has
been received here as able and satisfactory. M. Raymond observes that,
notwithstanding the amount of subsidies granted in England and America,
to various Companies of Steam Navigation, he knows but one among those
which operate on a line of more than five hundred leagues that is in a
prosperous condition. This may be a mistake.
The Paris _Moniteur_ contains a very curious and interesting biography,
by an able hand, Dr. Parise, of Dr. Joseph Ignatius _Guillotin_, the
inventor of the famous instrument of decapitation called after him. His
character was benevolent, and his design humane. This is now realized.
He proposed his machine (not altogether original, but improved
laboriously) in 1789: a report was ordered on it, by the Legislative
Assembly in 1792; and on the 21st August of that year, it was first used
for a political execution. It gave occasion for numberless effusions of
verse at his expense. No one experienced more horror at the abuse of it,
than he uniformly testified. Seventy-six physicians and surgeons
perished under its slider. He rescued as many intended victims as he
possibly could. He was finally arrested himself, for execution; by some
chance he escaped, and then withdrew, in despair, from the political
theatre.
We noticed lately the death of the Italian Professor SARTI, whose
anatomical museum was exhibited last year in Broadway. The library of
the deceased professor was being sold at Rome, when the police came in
and stopped the sale. Among his books were twenty-one volumes of
manuscript correspondence between the governments of Rome and Venice,
from the time of Pope Paul Caraffa downwards. Monsignor Molsa, a great
friend of the late professor, knowing of these volumes, which were in
cipher, with their interpretations, hastened to tell Cardinal Antonelli,
who dispatched orders just in time to save the secrets of the state from
further exposure. Sarti died in Liverpool.
_The Fine Arts._
The present king of Prussia, great and glaring as are his faults as a
politician, deserves the credit of doing a great deal for the
advancement of art and the decoration of his capital and residence,
Berlin. He is building there a new metropolitan church which is expected
to be a splendid edifice, and will be such as far as the most lavish
expenditure of money can make it. He has just completed a New Museum to
contain the large and excellent collections of Egyptian antiquities
(including those brought home by Prof. Lepsius), of the antiquities of
the middle ages, of Slavonic and Germanic relics, of plaster casts from
the antique, the collection known as the "Copper-Plate Cabinet," &c.,
&c., all of which have heretofore been most inconveniently arranged for
inspection in the Old Museum and in various royal palaces, or else
packed away somewhere out of sight. This edifice was designed by the
architect Stueler; its foundations were laid in 1843, and its interior
has just been completed with a luxury, variety, and extent of ornament,
in the mosaic work of the floors, and the decorations of the walls and
ceiling, which are not equalled by any other public building. Among the
artists employed in these decorations are the sculptors Wredow, Gramzow,
Stuermer, Schievelbein, and Berges; here, too, is to be seen Kaulbach's
great series of frescoes, of which the Babel is already finished, and
the Destruction of Jerusalem nearly so. The landscape painters Graeb,
Pape, Biermann, Schirmer, Max Schmidt, contribute a great number of
frescoes of Egyptian and oriental subjects. A critic in the _Grenzboten_
who eulogizes the beauties both of design and execution in the separate
parts of the edifice, still says, and we think not without reason, that
it does not form a united and organic whole. He says, too, that in it
the old works are rather used as decorations for the architecture than
the latter as a setting for them; "I cannot avoid the impression that
here the old monuments of art are not the end, but the means to the
execution of the great edifice of modern times in which it is sought to
embody the entire encyclopaedistic, historical experience in art
belonging to the present epoch."
Another edifice which this prince intends as a monument of his reign, is
the new Campo Santo, or burial-place for members of the royal family,
which he is erecting at Berlin. This building, which will surround a
court where are the tombs, is to be ornamented with frescoes by the
eminent painter Cornelius. This artist has just completed the third
great cartoon for these frescoes. Its subject is the Resurrection. Its
place is on the right of the "Heavenly Jerusalem" and opposite to the
"Four sides of the Apocalypse," which is on the left of the "Downfall of
Babylon." Thus on one side of the hall is represented the destruction of
Evil, on the other the triumph of the Good. The Resurrection, which has
been changed somewhat from the original design, is described as follows:
On a rock is seen an angel in a position of repose, with the book of
life and death unopened on his lap, his right hand grasping the sword of
justice. His face is thoughtful and sublimely earnest. On the left are
figures full of terror and despair, on the right all is heavenly joy and
satisfaction. In the centre is a re-united family animated by the
delight of meeting again. At the side of this family are two girls and
above them three youths, noble and beautiful persons. The faces of the
maidens are turned upward, illuminated by the eternal light of heaven.
On the same side of the family are three persons advanced in age, one
woman and two men, waiting in pious hope and submission for the decision
of the judge; on the other side, a little higher, three figures seek and
find that salvation is theirs; a youth whose foot reaches back among the
condemned is drawn mildly forth by an angel, and beside him is a tender
maiden with her young brother in her arms, whom she holds lovingly, as
she follows the celestial messenger. The group on which Justice
sorrowfully fulfils its office, occupies about a quarter of the canvas;
it consists of two youthful and two more aged figures. On a height a
woman wrings her hands in the anguish of remorse, while another gazes in
despair upon the ground. A youth lies backward leaning on his right
hand, shading his eyes with his left as if not to see the approach of
destruction. The older pair, a man and woman, have thrown themselves to
the earth; the woman hides her face in her hands, the man, leaning on
his elbows, tears his hair with his hands; his face expresses the
consciousness of a sin which can find no forgiveness. The artist has
aimed throughout to convey the idea that salvation and damnation are not
_inflicted_ or _conferred_ upon the persons, but are the result of the
inward state of each soul and conscience. The angel with the book of
life and death can announce no sentence which has not already been
pronounced by the very being to which it refers. The execution of the
whole is spoken of as sublime and grandiose.
* * * * *
The well-known German painter, Hiltensperger, has received the
commission to design and partly to execute for the new imperial palace
at St. Petersburg (an edifice destined to serve as a museum of antique
art) a series of paintings, representing the history of art among the
Greeks and Romans. A part of the designs are already completed, and
receive the warm praise of those to whom they have been exhibited. In
order to avoid the monotony which seems inherent in the subject, he
represents the peculiarities of each artist introduced by a symbolic
picture; for instance, the inventor of battle pictures is designated by
a picture of that sort; the discoverer of an effect of light, by a boy
blowing a fire, &c. Historical epochs and their transitions are denoted
by allegorical figures, like day and night.
* * * * *
An old picture has been discovered in the city of Hanover which seems to
be proved a genuine LEONARDO DA VINCI. It is known that Leonardo, as
well as Zenale and the French artist Bourgogne, was commissioned by
Ludovico Sforza, on occasion of the birth of his twin sons, to paint a
picture glorifying the mother (Beatrice D'Este) and the event. Zenale
and Bourgogne resorted to the Christian narrative, and represented the
Duchess as the Virgin, and her two sons as the Saviour and John the
Baptist; Leonardo, on the other hand, took his frame-work from the Greek
mythology, and painted Leda and the Dioscures. The picture was greatly
admired at the time, though that the figure of the Duchess of Milan
should be represented nude was thought rather bad even then. The picture
soon disappeared, and Vasari says that in his time it was no longer in
existence, or else was probably at Fontainebleau. Other writers say it
is in other places, but plainly none of them know any thing about it.
The present picture was bought about five years since at an auction by a
gentleman of Hanover. The conception and treatment agree perfectly with
the original descriptions of Leonardo's work, while the coloring,
drawing, and expression are pronounced altogether his.
* * * * *
The ART-UNION AT VIENNA opened its galleries to the public of that
pleasure-loving city during December last, and more than two thousand
persons visited them daily. The best pictures were by the Duesseldorf
artists Tidemann and Achenbach. The _Religious Service of the Haugians_,
by the first, is said by one critic to overwhelm the spectator by its
spirit of earnest piety, before it allows him to admire the incomparable
art of its execution. The members of the sect are represented as
assembled in a simple room, which is lighted from above. The light is
modified by the dust which is caused by the crowd. Simple grandeur, adds
the writer, makes this picture one of the most remarkable productions of
modern art. It was sold for 2400 florins, or about 1000 dollars.
Achenbach's landscape _Venner Lake in Sweden_, was also greatly admired;
its price was 1800 florins. Huebner's _Emigrants_ and Hasenclever's
_Pastor's Family_ were also favorites. Among the Vienna artists Fuehrichs
carried off the palm in this exhibition. He is a historical painter.
* * * * *
The Gazette of Cremona states, that a very splendid picture by Raffaelle
has been brought to light in that city by a learned connoisseur, who, of
course, would part with the priceless gem for a fixed sum! The
composition portrays the Virgin worshipping the Infant Saviour, with St.
Joseph in the back-ground. The _Art Journal_ altogether discredits the
story we translated from the German for the last _International_
respecting a picture by Michael Angelo, said to have been discovered in
London.
* * * * *
Letters from Rome speak in high terms of an alto relievo monument just
modelled there by the German sculptor STEINHAUSER for a family in
Philadelphia. The monument was designed to commemorate two sisters and a
brother, and to be erected in a chapel built specially for the purpose.
The artist has represented the three persons as gently sleeping, in a
partially sitting posture, at the foot of a cross. The elder sister
leans against the cross, and clasps the younger sister with one arm and
the brother with the other. This sister is made the personation of Love,
the younger of Faith, with one hand on an open book, and the boy of
Hope, bearing a pomegranate flower in his hand. Above them floats the
angel of the resurrection. The figures are of the size of life, and are
said happily to combine the classical antique in form with Christian
sentiment in expression. The whole is to be executed in marble, and
surrounded with a frame-work of Gothic architecture. The work was
awarded to Steinhauser as the result of a public competition, in which
Crawford was one of the participants.
* * * * *
ADOLF SCHROeDTER, one of the first painters of the Duesseldorf School, has
just produced a series of nine colored sketches by way of illustrations
to a poem of A. von Marens entitled "The Court of Wine." He represents
King Wine as leading a triumphal march enthroned on a wine-press,
wreathed with vine leaves and drawn with grape vines by jolly vintagers
of every age and sex. Behind follow as chamberlains a band of coopers, a
jester dancing on a cask, and a troop of gay youths full of all "quips
and cranks and youthful wiles." Then come, represented by most happily
conceived figures, the German rivers on whose shores are the
world-famous vineyards whose names make epicures smack their lips; then
the German impersonations of _Saus_ and _Braus_, or Joviality and Good
Living; after them a troop of cooks, and next a queer company of
dancers. We see a poet crowned with vine leaves, a tipsy-happy Capuchin
monk and a jester laughing at him. The series closes with a love-scene,
broken in upon by a watchman armed with a big spit hung with herrings,
beer-cans, sausages, and other furniture of a German restaurant. The
whole are treated with that affluence of national humor for which
Schroedter is unequalled.
* * * * *
MR. HILL, a retired clergyman residing near the Cattskill mountains,
where he has given his leisure to the study of photography, after
numerous experiments, has succeeded in obtaining colored pictures of
extraordinary beauty. Portraits and landscapes, by his process, are said
to be as fresh and vivid in color as those produced by the best _camera
obscura_. The subject is an interesting one, and will have an important
bearing upon the arts. We have noticed it more fully under the head of
_Scientific Miscellany_.
* * * * *
MR. HACKETT, or _Baron_ Hackett, as we believe he is entitled to be
called, is now in England. We have seen no announcements of his
appearance in the theatres, but believe that like Macready, he had
engagements, and was to make a "last appearance" in London during the
present season. As the originator of the line of Yankee characters, he
has, like the originators of almost every thing else, seen others step
in and divide the palm with him. As an artist, he is more finished than
his competitors, and as a general actor he is above all comparison with
them. They confine themselves to one range of characters, he shows a
versatility of talent, and goes through a variety which it requires some
genius to conceive, as well as mere talent at imitation. His
Falstaff--though we cannot concede it to be exactly the character drawn
by Shakspeare--is the best delineation in its way given by any actor now
on the stage, and his Monsieur Mallet is in all respects admirable.
* * * * *
The STATUE OF GIOVANNI DI MEDICI, by Baccio Bandinelli, has just been
placed on its pedestal in the place before the church of San Lorenzo at
Florence. It is three hundred years since this statue was made, and
during all this time it has been kept in the great council hall of the
Palazzo Vecchio, while its proper pedestal has been vacant. It
represents Giovanni (the famous leader of the _bande nere_, or black
bands, the Bayard of Italy, and the father of Cosmo I., the first Grand
Duke of Florence) in a sitting posture, with the commander's baton in
his hand. It is of little value as a work of art.
* * * * *
LORTZING, the eminent German composer of operas, who died lately, left
behind him only four Prussian thalers, or $3, on which his family had to
exist a week. This was his sole property aside from music-books and a
little furniture. And yet during his life he was a great favorite of the
German people, and could not justly be called a spendthrift.
* * * * *
A very interesting series of lectures, by Henry James, George W. Curtis,
Parke Godwin, and Mr. Huntington, was delivered before the artists of
New-York, at the hall of the Academy of Fine Arts, in January and
February. The ability displayed in the lectures, and the interest they
excited, will induce measures for another course of the same kind next
year.
* * * * *
A suggestion for extending the Triennial Exhibition of the works of
Belgian artists, which opens at Brussels in August of the present year,
to the painters and sculptors of all nations, has been discussed in that
city.
* * * * *
A colossal statue of Wallace has recently been finished by a Mr. Patrick
Park, at Edinburgh. It was publicly uncovered in the presence of a large
party, composed in part of a regiment of Highlanders.
* * * * *
Noticing Brady, Lester, and Davignon's _Gallery of Illustrious
Americans_, the London _Spectator_ observes:
"In no people do the chief men appear as more thoroughly
incarnate of the national traits; each outwardly a several
Americanism. Here we have the massive potency of Daniel
Webster,--on whose ponderous brow and fixed abashing eyes is
set the despotism of intellect; Silas Wright,--a well-grown and
cultivated specimen of the ordinary statesman; Henry Clay and
Col. Fremont,--two halves of the perfected go-ahead spirit; the
first shrewd, not to be evaded, knowing; the second impassable
to obstacles and alive only to the thing to be done. The heads
are finely and studiously lithographed from daguerreotypes by
Brady, and suffice to show how utterly fallacious is the notion
that _character_ is lost in this process."
* * * * *
A portrait of the author of _Don Quixotte_, after a painting by
Velasquez, has been discovered in Paris, and has created some sensation,
as none of the portraits of the great Spanish poet hitherto existing
were considered very authentic. The renown of Cervantes being not fairly
established till after his death, little pains were taken to preserve
his features during lifetime. His portrait had been painted by Pacheco;
but there existed but a poor copy of this, and it was from this copy
that all engravings have been taken. The hope, therefore, of possessing
a portrait of the poet by such a man as Velasquez, is cheering; and
there are some facts which go far enough to prove the thorough
authenticity of that now discovered.
* * * * *
The Exhibition of the British Institution was opened to private view, in
London, on the 8th of February, and to the public on the Monday
following. The number of works in painting and sculpture amounts to 548,
and, as a whole, the Exhibition is considered as scarcely up to the
average.
* * * * *
Of French Taste we have a new illustration in the fact that M. de
Triqueti, the sculptor, has completed a statue of Our Saviour, six and a
half feet high, for one of the decorations of the tomb of Napoleon
Bonaparte.
* * * * *
The late railway works, undertaken near Prague, in Bohemia, have brought
to light a great number of objects which may constitute a new species of
European art, we mean that if the Czecho-Slaves before the introduction
of Christianity. Some of the ancient sculptures found relate to the
Slavian goddess Ziwa, most undoubtedly analogous to the Indian Siwa.
* * * * *
Mr. S. S. OSGOOD has recently completed several very admirable
portraits, one of which is of himself, and painted with remarkable
ability. Another is of Mary E. Hewitt, one of our most respected
literary women, whose fine face is reflected with equal fidelity and
felicity from Mr. Osgood's canvas.
_Record of Scientific Discovery._
PHOTOGRAPHY.--Two alleged improvements in Photography have laid claim to
public attention: one the product of France, the other of the United
States. The French discovery was recently communicated to the Academy of
Sciences in Paris, by M. Blanquart-Evrard, and consists in a mode of
whitening the sides of the camera, and also the interior of the tube, to
which opticians have hitherto been accustomed to give a coating of
black. By the new improvement, it is claimed, a saving of one-half is
effected in the time required to produce a picture, beside the
additional advantages of increased uniformity of action, and less
necessity for a powerful light, together with less resistance from red,
yellow and green rays. The plan has been experimented upon with success
both in France and England. The second and latest invention is the
Hillotype; so-called, in the absence of a better name, from Mr. L. L.
Hill, of Greene Co., N. Y., who claims the discovery of a process,
whereby photographic impressions can be produced with the complete
colors of nature. It is stated that a number of successful experiments
have established the practicability of the new plan, and that
landscapes, sunset-scenes, portraits, &c., have been produced with
marvellous fidelity. We shall presently know more of these
asseverations. As yet, the entire process is concealed, and, as in
certain other instances, may never come to light.
* * * * *
THE LONDON SOCIETY OF ARTS.--In a paper by Mr. MURCHISON, read before
the London Society of Arts, we find an interesting account of the origin
and early history of that distinguished body. Efforts having been
perseveringly made for the establishment of an institution for the
promotion of the arts, sciences, and manufactures of the kingdom, the
Society of Arts was finally organized in London, in the year 1754, under
the auspices of Lord Rodney and other prominent persons. The success of
this organization was encouraging and signal. Subscriptions poured in
upon it, and a large number of members were soon enrolled. Premiums were
then established; the first being one of L30 for the discovery of pure
cobalt, and another of the same amount for the cultivation of madder.
The progress of the Society from that period to the present has been
uniformly encouraging, and it now ranks among the foremost scientific
institutions of the day.
* * * * *
An anecdote of the artist BARRY, some of whose best works adorn the
walls of the Society's Rooms, is related in connection with this
accompt. Barry being in distress, the sum of L1200 was subscribed by the
members for his relief, and with this amount it was determined to
procure for him a life annuity. The funds were so applied; the payment
of the annuity to Barry being confided to the father of the late Sir
Robert Peel. After the receipt of the first quarter of the first year,
however, the artist died. The balance of the purchase money was absorbed
in the coffers of Sir Robert.
* * * * *
GOLD.--M. FREMY, successor to Gay-Lussac in the chair of chemistry at
the Garden of Plants, Paris, has submitted to the French Academy the
results of his _Chemical Researches on Gold_. It was considered important
to these researches to study the combinations of the oxides of gold with
the alkalis so extensively employed in gilding. The aurates were easily
produced, but it was impossible to obtain the combination of alkalis and
the protoxide of gold. Auric acid was produced by boiling the perchlaide
of gold with excess of potash, precipitating the auric acid by sulphuric
acid, and purifying the former by solution in concentrated nitric acid;
afterward precipitating by means of water and washing the auric acid
until the liquor contained no trace of nitric acid. The auric acid
combines immediately with potash and soda. Mr. Fremy promises an
examination of the question whether gold is able, in combining with
oxygen, to form a salifiable base, as has been asserted. The present
experiment was undertaken mainly in reference to its use in
electro-gilding.
* * * * *
LIGHT AND HEAT.--Prof. Moigno lately presented to the French Academy a
memoir on the experiments of Neeft, in Frankfort, on the development of
_Light and Heat in the galvanic circuit_. M. Moigno witnessed these
experiments in person, and considers it proved, first, that light always
appears at the negative pole, and that this primitive light is
independent of combustion; second, that the source of the heat is
properly the positive poles, and that this heat is originally dark heat;
thirdly, that light and heat do not unite at the instant of evolution,
but only after the intensity of each has reached a certain point; from
this union ensue the phenomena of flame and combustion.
* * * * *
CHINESE COAL.--A late number of the Chinese Repository contains some
_notices of Coal in China_, by Dr. D. J. Macgowan, in which occur a
number of curious and interesting facts. Coal deposits are found to
exist throughout the mountain ranges which girt the great plain of
China; but unskilful mining and the difficulty of transportation enhance
its cost and limit the consumption, so that it is little used except for
culinary and manufacturing purposes. The best comes from Pingting-chau
in Shansi; the quality most in demand in central China is called the
Kwang coal, and is brought from various districts in Hunan. Numerous
varieties are produced in the province of Kiangsu--slaty, cannel,
bituminous and anthracite. This portion of the mineral wealth of China
is computed at nearly six millions of dollars. The scarcity of the
supply is owing not to the poverty of the mines, but chiefly to the want
of facilities for mining, which can alone be supplied by the
steam-engine.
* * * * *
WATER OF THE OCEAN.--The results of observations on the different
_Chemical Conditions of Water_, at the Surface of the Ocean and at the
Bottom, on Soundings, have been communicated by Mr. A. A. Hayes, State
Assayer of Massachusetts; who states, that while pursuing the subject of
copper corrosion at the surface of the ocean, he was some years since
led to examine samples of copper, which had remained some time at the
bottom of the ocean. He found that copper and bronze, and even a brass
compound, from the bottom, were thickly incrusted with a sulphuret of
copper, frequently found in crystallized layers, having a constant
chemical composition, entirely free from chlorine or oxygen, the
corroding agents of the surface. Specimens of copper and bronze from mud
and clay at different depths, and in one instance from clean sand below
a powerful rapid, gave thick layers of sulphuret of copper, or copper
and tin. Instances of the corrosion of silver are also adduced. Mr.
Hayes concludes that the waters from the land, which are never destitute
of organic matter in a changing state, exert a very important influence
in causing the differences of chemical condition in the ocean. Organic
matter, he argues, dissolved from the surface of the earth, or from
rocks percolating the strata, assumes a state in which it powerfully
attracts oxygen; and waters holding this matter in solution readily
decompose sulphates of lime and soda even when partially exposed to
atmospheric air.
* * * * *
THE ASTEROIDS.--A letter from Prof. LEWIS R. GIBBS, of the Charleston
Observatory, given in the _Charleston Evening News_, enumerates thirteen
Kuam _Asteroids_; three having been discovered during the past year. The
following Table gives their names in order of discovery, date of
discovery, name and residence of discoverer, and the mean distances of
the Asteroids from the sun, that of the earth being called 1:
Name. Date. Discov'r. Place. M. Dist.
1. Ceres 1801, Jan. 1 Piazzi, Palermo 2,766
2. Pallas 1802, Mar. 28 Olbers, Bremen 2,772
3. Juno 1804, Sept. 1 Harding, Lilienthal 2,671
4. Vesta 1807, Mar. 29 Olbers, Bremen 2,361
5. Astraea 1845, Dec. 8 Hencke, Driessen 2,420
6. Hebe 1847, July 1 Hencke, Driessen 2,420
7. Iris 1847, Aug. 13 Hind, London 2,385
8. Flora 1847, Oct. 18 Hind, London 2,202
9. Metis 1848, April 25 Graham, Markree 2,386
10. Hygeia 1849, April 12 Gasparis, Naples 3,122
11. Parthenope 1850, May 11 Gasparis, Naples 2,440
12. Clio 1850, Sept. 13 Hind, London 2,330
13. Not named 1850, Nov. 2 Gasparis, Naples Unk'wn
It appears that of these thirteen Asteroids, three have been discovered
by Hind of London, three by Gasparis of Naples, two by Hencke of
Driessen, two by Olbers of Bremen, while Piazzi of Palermo, Harding of
Lilienthal, and Graham of Markree, have each discovered one. Eight out
of the twelve orbits ascertained have an inclination of less than ten
degrees. The _London Athenaeum_ states that the Lalande Medal of the
Paris Academy of Sciences has been awarded to M. de Gasparis for his
discovery of the planet Hygeia. The prize for 1850 was shared between
Gasparis for his two discoveries in November, and Mr. Hind for his
discovery of Clio on the 13th of September.
* * * * *
GEOLOGY OF SPAIN.--A late number of the Journal of the British
Geological Society contains an interesting and valuable paper by Don
JOAQUIN EZQUERRA DEL BAYO, on the Geology of Spain. The Geological
constitution of the country is stated to consist of three principal
divisions--the Crystalline, Transition, and Secondary formations. The
gneiss rocks of the first division occupy about a fifth of the surface
of the soil, extending longitudinally from north to south. The plutonic
rocks which penetrate them are generally granite of various degrees of
firmness. The most important of the granitic ramifications to the east
passes by the Sierra de Gridos, Sierra d'Avila, and the Guadarrama, to
Soma Sierra, in a north-east direction. The great granitic outburst of
Truxillo and of the mountains of Toledo does not extend so far to the
east. A third, which has probably given its present form to the Sierra
Morena, terminates at Linares, in the province of Jaen. The rocks are
not rich in useful metals compared with their great development, but
lead and copper are found in great quantities in the district of
Linares, and rich argentiferous veins have been lately discovered at
Hiendeleucina. Other veins have become exhausted. The successive
formations of the country present some curious features. "Our soil,"
says Don Joaquin, "has never been at rest, nor is it so even at present.
Earthquakes are still often felt at Granada, and along the coast of the
province of Alicante, where their effects have been disastrous." Among
the numerous fossils found upon the coast of Spain are some species of
mollusca of an extraordinary size, and in the vicinity of Cuevas de Vera
the remains of elephants have been found, isolated and distributed in
different directions, proving the existence of a more tropical climate
in former times than now prevails in those districts.
* * * * *
In the Paris ACADEMY OF SCIENCES an extended Report was read at a recent
meeting from a committee on M. ROCHET D'HERICOURT'S third journey in
Abyssinia, in the northern part. He started in 1847, and returned in
1849. In Geography he determined directly, by observation of the
meridian heights of the sun, the latitude of a large number of
geographical points in Egypt, in Arabia Petraea, along the coasts of the
Red Sea, and in the north of Abyssinia. His meteorological observations
were constant, and are pronounced especially exact. So, those of the
magnetic inclination. The results are furnished in the Report. He
attended closely and successfully to the geology of the regions which he
traversed. The geological constitution of Abyssinia is now made known
over the greater part of its surface. The herbary which the traveller
brought to the Museum of Natural History, consists of 150 species, the
most of them, however, of plants already known. Three new ones are
described. He succeeded in getting home a sheep of Abyssinia, remarkable
for the long hairs of its fleece. Some of his specimens of fish are new.
Much attention is given to his new species of _Epeira_, or silk-spider.
At the sight of the silk which forms the web of the insect, he conceived
the hope that it might be turned to account for the silk-manufacture. It
is very fine and soft, long and firm enough, and of a beautiful yellow
color. This spider inhabits the large trees, shrubbery, and hedges, and
extends its webs to the neighboring habitations; and the webs are nearly
all more than a yard in diameter. The quantity is prodigious. "M.
d'Hericourt," says the Report, "like every person who has attempted
tissues with spiders' webs or cocoons, has not sufficiently regarded the
difficulty of domesticating them, as is done with the silk-worm, in
order to multiply them adequately, and provide them with such insects of
prey, or sufficient nourishment." The Committee proposed the formal
thanks of the Academy to the traveller, for the scientific harvest of
his new journey, and an expression of the interest felt in the speedy
publication of his narrative.
* * * * *
SHOOTING-STARS.--M. QUETELET states, in relation to the _Shooting-Stars
of August, 1850_, that the number per hour on the evening of the 9th of
August was about 60 for Brussels; on the evening of the 10th, 111 for
Brussels, 180 for Markree, Ireland, and 58 for Rome. The direction was
the same in each place.
_Recent Deaths._
DEATH OF AN OFFICER OF LOUIS XV.'S MOUSQUETAIRES.--The _Journal de
Francfort_ states that Viscount Frederic Adolphe de Gardinville, of
Athies, mousquetaire gris in the service of Louis XV., and knight of the
order of St. Louis, has just died, aged 113, at his country house, near
Homburg. This officer was born on the twenty-eighth of January, 1738,
and had retired to Homburg after the dissolution of the army of the
Conde.
* * * * *
THE REV. JOHN OGILBY, D.D., of New-York, died in Paris on the second of
February. He was rector of St. Mark's church, in the Bowery, and had
been for nine years professor of Ecclesiastical History in the General
Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His health had
been impaired for several years, and he had visited Europe in the hope
that change of climate and associations would improve it.
* * * * *
The venerable and accomplished GEORGE THOMSON, the correspondent of
Burns, died recently in Leith Links, at the advanced age of ninety-two.
Mr. Thomson's early connection with the poet Burns is universally known,
and his collection of Scottish Songs, for which many of Burns's finest
pieces were originally written, has been before the public for more than
half a century. His letters to the poet are incorporated with all the
large editions of Burns, and the greater portion of them will be
included in the new life by Chambers.
* * * * *
THE EMIR BECHIR, who, during fifty years, played so important a part in
Syria, died lately at Kaoi-keni, a village on the Bosphorus. His eldest
son, Halib, and younger son, Emir, who had both embraced Islamism, died
a few days before him. Izzet Pasha is appointed Governor of Damascus.
* * * * *
DR. LEURET, the physician of Bicetre, who is well-known to the
scientific world by his profound works on mental derangement and the
anatomy of the brain, died on the sixth of January, at Nancy, his
birthplace, after a long illness.
* * * * *
The Dutch papers report the death, at Amsterdam, aged seventy-two, of a
marine painter of eminence, M. KOCKKOEK, father of the distinguished
landscape painter of the same name.
* * * * *
JOANNA BAILLIE, whose literary life reached back into the last century,
and whose early recollections were of the days of Burke, Dr. Johnson,
Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the great men who figured before the
French Revolution, died at Hampsted, near London, on the evening of
Sunday, the twenty-third of February, at the great age of nearly ninety
years. During the principal part of her life she lived with a maiden
sister, Agnes--also a poetess--to whom she addressed her beautiful
_Birthday_ poem. They were of a family in which talent and genius were
hereditary. Their father was a Scottish clergyman, and their mother a
sister of the celebrated Dr. William Hunter. They were born at Bothwell,
within a short distance of the rippling of the broad waters of the
Clyde. Joanna's child-life and associations are beautifully mirrored in
the poem to which we have alluded. Early in life the sisters removed to
London, where their brother, the late Sir Matthew Baillie--the favorite
medical adviser of George III.--was settled as a physician, and there
her earliest poetical works appeared, anonymously. When she began to
write, she tells us in one of her prefaces, not one of the eminent
authors of modern times was known, and Mr. Hayley and Miss Seward were
the poets spoken of in society. The brightest stars in the poetical
firmament, with very few exceptions, have risen and set since then; the
greatest revolutions in empire and in opinion have taken place; but she
lived on as if no echo of the upturnings and overthrows which filled the
world reached the quiet of her home; the freshness of her inspirations
untarnished; writing from the fulness of a true heart of themes
belonging equally to all the ages. Personally she was scarcely known in
literary society; but from her first appearance as an author, no woman
commanded more respect and admiration by her works; and the most
celebrated of her contemporaries vied with each other in doing her
honor. Scott calls her the Shakspeare of her sex:
----"The wild harp silent hung
By silver Avon's holy shore,
Till twice a hundred years roll'd o'er,
When SHE, the bold enchantress, came
With fearless hand and heart on flame,--
From the pale willow snatched the treasure,
And swept it with a kindred measure,
Till Avon's swans, while rung the grove
With Montfort's hate and Basil's love,
Awakening at the inspiring strain
Deem'd their own SHAKSPEARE lived again!"
Her first volume was published in 1798, under the title, _A Series of
Plays, in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger Passions of
the Mind, each Passion being the subject of a Tragedy and a Comedy_. A
second volume was published in 1802, and a third in 1812. During the
interval, she gave the world a volume of miscellaneous dramas, including
the _Family Legend_, a tragedy founded upon a story of one of the
Macleans of Appin, which, principally through the good offices of Sir
Walter Scott, was brought out at the Edinburgh Theatre. She visited
Scott, in Edinburgh, in 1808, and in the following year the _Family
Legend_ was played in that city fourteen nights in succession. Scott
wrote for it a prologue, and Mackenzie, the author of _The Man of
Feeling_, contributed an epilogue. The same piece was performed in
London in 1814. The only "Play of the Passions" ever represented on a
stage was _De Montfort_, first brought out by John Kemble and Mrs.
Siddons, and played eleven nights. In 1821 it was revived by Edmund
Kean, but fruitlessly. Miss O'Neil then played the heroine. Kean
subsequently brought out _De Montfort_ in Philadelphia and New-York. No
actors of inferior genius have ventured to attempt it, and probably it
will not again be represented.
The "Plays of the Passions" are Miss Baillie's most remarkable works. In
this series each passion is made the subject of a tragedy and a comedy.
In the comedies she failed completely; they are pointless tales in
dialogue. Her tragedies, however, have great merit, though possessing a
singular quality for works of such an aim, in being without the
earnestness and abruptness of actual and powerful feeling. By refinement
and elaboration she makes the passions sentiments. She fears to distract
attention by multiplying incidents; her catastrophes are approached by
the most gentle gradations; her dramas are therefore slow in action and
deficient in interest. Her characters possess little individuality; they
are mere generalizations of intellectual attributes, theories
personified. The very system of her plays has been the subject of
critical censure. The chief object of every dramatic work is to please
and interest, and this object may be arrived at as well by situation as
by character. Character distinguishes one person from another, while by
passion nearly all men are alike. A controlling passion perverts
character, rather than develops it; and it is therefore in vain to
attempt the delineation of a character by unfolding the progress of a
passion. It has been well observed too, that unity of passion is
impossible since to give a just relief and energy to any particular
passion, it should be presented in opposition to one of a different sort
so as to produce a powerful conflict in the heart.
[Illustration: J Baillie]
In dignity and purity of style, Miss Baillie has not been surpassed by
any of the poets of her sex. Her dialogue is formed on the Shakespearian
model and she has succeeded perhaps better than any other dramatist in
imitating the manner of the greatest poet of the world.
In 1823 Miss Baillie published a collection of _Poetic Miscellanies_, in
1836 three more volumes of Plays, in 1842 _Fugitive Verses_, and she was
the author also of _A View of the General Tenor of the New Testament
Regarding the Nature and Dignity of Jesus Christ_.
A short time before her death--not more than six weeks--a complete
edition of her Poetical Works was published in London, in a very large
and compact volume of 850 pages, by the Longmans--"with many corrections
and a few additions by herself." The volume opens with the Plays on the
Passions. We have then the miscellaneous plays; and the last division
includes her delightful songs and all her poetical compositions not
dramatic nor connected with the plays; and here appears a poem of some
length, recently printed for private circulation, as well as some short
poems not before published. A pleasing and characteristic portrait
accompanies the volume, and we have had it copied for the
_International_.
Though Miss Baillie's fame always tended to draw her into society, her
life was passed in seclusion, and illustrated by an integrity, kindness,
and active benevolence, which showed that poetical genius of a high
order may be found in a mind well regulated, able and willing to execute
the ordinary duties of life in an exemplary manner. Gentle and
unassuming to all, with an unchangeable simplicity of character, she
counted many of the most celebrated persons of the last age among her
intimate friends, and her quiet home was frequently resorted to by
people of other nations, as well as by her own countrymen, for the
purpose of paying homage to a woman so illustrious for genius and
virtue.
* * * * *
SPONTINI, the celebrated composer, author of _La Vestale_ and _Fernand
Cortez_, died on the 24th ult., at Majolati, near Ancona, where he had
gone to pass the winter, in the hope of re-establishing his health.
Being desirous of attending divine service, in spite of the severity of
the season, he took cold on leaving the church, which in a short time
led to a fatal result. He expired in the arms of his wife, the sister of
M. Erard, the celebrated pianist. He was in the seventy-second year of
his age. The life of this unfortunate _Maestro_, says the _Athenaeum_,
would be a curious rather than a pleasing story, were it thoroughly
written. He was educated at the _Conservatorio de la Pieta_ of Naples,
and began his career when seventeen years of age, as the composer of an
opera, _I Puntigli delle Donne_. To this succeeded some sixteen operas,
produced within six years, for the theatres of Italy and Sicily, not a
note of which has survived. In 1803, Spontini went to Paris, in which
capital again he produced some half-a-dozen operas and an oratorio,--all
of which have perished. It would seem, however, as if there must have
been something of grace in either _Maestro_ or music, since Spontini was
appointed music-director to the Empress Josephine; and it was owing to
court interest that his _La Vestale_--on a _libretto_ rejected by both
Mehal and Cherubini--was put into rehearsal at the _Grand Opera_. The
rehearsals went on for a twelvemonth. Spontini rewrote and re-touched
the work while it was in preparation to such an excess, that the expense
of copying the alterations is said to have amounted to _ten thousand
francs_ ($2,000)! _La Vestale_, however, was at last produced, in 1809,
with brilliant and decisive success, so far as France and Germany were
concerned. In 1809 he produced his _Fernand Cortez_ at the _Grand
Opera_. That work, too, was favorably received, and still keeps the
stage in Germany. In no subsequent essay was the composer so fortunate.
_Olympie_, the third grand work written by him for France, proved a
failure. During the latter part of his residence in Paris, he directed
the Italian Opera, until it fell to Madame Catalani. It was in 1820 that
the magnificent appointments offered to the _Maestro_ by the Court of
Prussia tempted him to leave Paris for Berlin; in which capital his last
three grand operas were produced with great splendor. These were,
_Nourmahal_ (founded on 'Lalla Rookh), _Alcidor_, and _Agnes von
Hohenstauffen_. None of them, however, could be called successful. In
Berlin, Spontini continued to reside as first Chapel-master till the
death of the late King,--and there his professional career may be said
to have ended. A life in some respects more outwardly prosperous cannot
be conceived. Spontini was rich,--girt with ribbons and hung with
orders;--but it may be doubted whether ever official grew old in the
midst of such an atmosphere of dislike as surrounded the composer of _La
Vestale_ at Berlin. He was mercilessly attacked in print,--in private
spoken of by rival musicians with an active hatred amounting to
malignity. There was hardly a baseness of intrigue with which report did
not credit him. His music, even, was avoided in his own theatre; and it
was an article in the contract of more than one _prima donna_, that she
would not sing in Spontini's operas. Of later years, he rarely was seen
in the orchestra save to direct his own works. In this capacity he
showed a vivacity, a precision, and an energy almost incomparable. As a
man, he had the courtliest of courtly manners; the air, too, of one well
satisfied with his own personal appearance. He conversed chiefly
concerning himself and his works, apparently taking little or no
interest in other transactions of art. This might account for his ill
odor in a capital where misconstructions and jealous evil-speaking have
too often been the lot of the simplest, the most learned, and the least
self-asserting of artists. The limited nature of his sympathies may be
felt in Spontini's music. With all its spirit, this is generally
dry--awkward without the excuse of learned pedantry--sometimes grand,
very seldom tender--the rhythm more decided than the melody, which is
often frivolous, often flat, rarely vocal. He has been accused of
shallowness in the orchestral treatment of his operas,--in which noise
is often accumulated to conceal want of resource. But allowing all these
objections to be generally true to the utmost, the _finale_ to the
second act of _La Vestale_ still remains--and will remain--a
master-piece of declamation, spirit, and stage climax. The rest of _La
Vestale_ is carefully wrought,--but in power, and brightness, and
passion, by many a degree inferior to that temple-scene. For its sake,
the name of Spontini will not be forgotten, unsatisfactory as was his
career in Art, and small as was his personal popularity.
* * * * *
CHARLES COQUERELL, a brother of the eminent Protestant minister, and
himself well known and esteemed in the scientific circles of Paris, died
in that city, early in February. He long reported the proceedings of the
Academy of Sciences for the _Courrier Francais_; and is the author,
besides, of various works in general literature. He wrote a _History of
English Literature--Cariteas, an Essay on a complete Spiritualist
Philosophy_--and _The History of the Churches of the Desert, or of the
Protestant Churches of France from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
to the Reign of Louis the XVI._ In this last performance he introduces
the substance of a mass of private and official correspondence from
Louis XIV.'s time down to the revolution, relative to Protestantism in
France, and the numberless and atrocious persecutions to which it was
subjected. Many of the papers he obtained are of great literary and
historical value, and he has taken measures for their preservation.
* * * * *
COLONEL GEORGE WILLIAMS, M. P. for Ashton, died on the nineteenth of
December. He was born in St. John's Newfoundland, and is said to have
joined the army of Burgoyne at the age of twelve years, and to have been
present at the battle of Stillwater. He afterwards accompanied Lady
Harriet Acland on her memorable expedition to join her husband in
captivity. He afterwards saw much active service, and died aged
eighty-seven, supposed to have been the last survivor of the army of
Saratoga.
* * * * *
HERR CHARLES MATTHEW SANDER, described as one of the most celebrated
surgeons of Germany, and author of many works not only in illustration
of his more immediate profession and of medicine, but also on Greek
phiology and archaeology, died suddenly, at Brunswick, in his
seventy-second year, while seated at his desk in the act of writing a
treatise on anatomy.
* * * * *
NICHOLAS VANSITTART, Lord Bexley, was the second son of Henry
Vansittart, Governor of Bengal, and was born on the twenty-ninth of
April, 1776. Four years after, his father perished in the Aurora
frigate, when that vessel foundered at sea, on her outward passage to
India. In 1791 he was called to the bar, but, finding little prospect of
forensic advancement, he deserted Westminster Hall for the more
ambitious arena of the House of Commons, being elected member for
Hastings in 1796. In 1801 he proceeded on a special mission to the Court
of Copenhagen; but the Danish Government, overawed by France and Russia,
refused to receive an English ambassador. Soon after his return he
became joint secretary of the treasury, which office he held until 1804,
when the Addington ministry resigned. In 1805, he was appointed Chief
Secretary for Ireland; in 1806, he resumed his former duties at the
treasury; and, in 1812, on the formation of the Liverpool
administration, he obtained the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer,
for which he was peculiarly fitted by the bent and information of his
mind. So far back as 1796, he had addressed a series of pamphlets to Mr.
Pitt, on the conduct of the bank directors; and in 1796 he had published
an inquiry into the state of the finances, in answer to a very popular
production, by a Mr. Morgan, on the national debt. The death of Lord
Londonderry, in 1822, led to a reconstruction of the ministry; and Mr.
Vansittart was offered a peerage and the Chancellorship of the Duchy of
Lancaster, with a seat in the cabinet, on condition that he quitted the
Exchequer. This arrangement was carried out in the month of January
following. At length, in 1828, he retired from public life, and since
that period resided in comparative retirement, at Footscray, near
Bexley, in Kent. Lord Bexley was F.R.S., D.C.L., and F.S.A.
* * * * *
JOHN PYE SMITH, D.D., F.R.S., one of the most eminent scholars and
theological writers of the time, died at Guilford, near Leeds, in
England, on the fifth of February, at the advanced age of
seventy-six--having been born at Sheffield in 1775. His father was a
bookseller, and it was intended to bring him up to the same business,
but his early displays of talent, and his love of learning induced his
father to send him to Rotherham College, where he greatly distinguished
himself, and upon the completion of his terms of study became a
classical tutor. In 1801--at the early age of twenty-five--he became
theological tutor and principal of Homerton College, the oldest of the
institutions for training ministers among the Independents. The duties
of that responsible post he filled with untiring devotedness and the
highest efficiency for the long space of fifty years. A theological
professorship is naturally combined with ministerial duties; and in two
or three years after his settlement at Homerton he received a call from
the church at the Gravel Pits chapel, and continued the pastor of that
church for about forty-seven years. The chief labor of Dr. Pye Smith's
life, and his most enduring monument, was the work entitled _The
Scripture Testimony to the Messiah: an inquiry with a view to a
satisfactory determination of the doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures
concerning the person of Christ_. This work is admitted by the greatest
scholars to be the first of its kind. It is marked by profound and
accurate learning, candid criticism, and by that reverential and
Christian spirit which ought to govern every theological inquiry. He
published several less important compositions, including one of decided
value upon the relations of geology and revelation, which led to his
election into the Royal Society; and he left a voluminous System of
Christian Doctrine, in MS.
[Illustration]
_Ladies' Fashions for the Spring._
The advance of the spring appears to have brought increase of gayety in
London and in Paris, in which cities fashionable society has received
new impulses from circumstances connected with affairs. Heavy velvets
have generally given place to silks and satins, and there is a
prevailing airiness in the manner in which they are made up. The first
of the above full-lengths represents a dress composed of a pale
sea-green satin; the sides of the front decorated with _bouffants_ or
fullings of white _tulle_, formed in rows of three; at the top of each
third fulling is a narrow border of green cord, forming a kind of gymp;
these fullings reach up to each side of the point of the waist; low
pointed corsage, the centre of which is trimmed to match the _jupe_; a
small round cape encircles the top part of the corsage, descending
halfway down each side of the front, trimmed with fullings of white
_tulle_ and narrow green cord; the lower part of the short sleeve is
trimmed to match. The hair is arranged in ringlets, and adorned on the
right side with a cluster of variegated red roses.
[Illustration]
In the second, is a dress of rich dark silk, made plain and very full,
with three-quarter-high body, fitting close to the figure; bonnet of
deep lilac.
Ball dresses are worn richly ornamented with ribbons, flowers, lace, and
puffs, in great profusion.
Velvet necklaces, and bracelets, are much in vogue; the shades preferred
are coral red, garnet, china rose, and, above all, black velvet, which
sets off the whiteness of the skin. These bracelets and necklaces are
fastened by a brooch or pin of brilliants or marcasite.
Dresses of heavy stuffs are rare in private drawing-rooms, and much more
frequently seen at subscription balls, at the Opera, or exhibitions of
art. Antique watered silk, figured pompadour, drugget, and lampus,
attract by their wreaths of flowers; light net dresses, or mousselins,
are rare.
Net dresses, with two skirts, are worn over a taffeta petticoat--the
under and the upper skirts decked with small flowers, each trimmed with
a dark ribbon. Wide lace also is worn in profusion, and the body as well
as the sleeves is almost covered with it--the skirts having two or three
flounces of English lace (application) or Alencon point; and these two
kinds of lace are generally used for the heavy silk stuffs.
We have little to say about walking dresses. The choicest materials for
morning dresses are dark damask satinated Pekin taffeta, and drugget.