most conspicuous in authorship is the now Right Honorable Benjamin
D'Israeli, "the wondrous boy who wrote _Alroy_, in rhyme and prose, only
to show how long ago victorious Judah's lion banner rose." Sir Emerson
Tennent, Sir Edward Sugden, Lord John Manners, Mr. Whiteside, the Earl
of Malmesbury, Lord de Roos, are all known as authors, as well as
politicians. The Duke of Northumberland also is favorably known as a
zealous promoter of arts and learning.
* * * * *
The author of _Life in Bombay and the Neighboring Stations_, pays the
following testimony to the abilities of the manoeuvring mammas of
Bombay: "The bachelor civilians are always the grand aim; for, however
young in the service they may be, their income is always vastly above
that of the military man, to say nothing of the noble provision made by
the fund for their widows and children. We remember being greatly
amused, soon after our arrival in the country, at overhearing a lady
say, in reference to her daughter's approaching marriage with a young
civilian: 'Certainly, I could have wished my son-in-law to be a little
more steady; but then it is L300 a-year for my girl, dead or alive!'"
* * * * *
A volume of brilliant French criticism will be published in a few days
by Charles Scribner, under the title of _Anglo-American Literature and
Manners_, by PHILARETE CHASLES, Professor in the College of France. Mr.
Chasles, in a book of five hundred pages, considers the literature and
manners of the people of the United States--their institutions, capacity
for self-government, actual condition and probable future--with all the
sprightly grace of a Frenchman, and with a great deal of cleverness
prosecutes his industrious researches from the landing of the Mayflower
to the present day. He finds in the United States neither an Utopia, nor
a land worthy merely of ridicule. He does not simply condemn, like some
travellers, nor give us universal and unreasonable praise, as our
egotism and contentment lead us to desire, but takes a fair view of the
country, its claims, position, and prospects. In the beginning of his
performance he considers that the most essential thing for the founding
of a new commonwealth, is moral force; this he finds in the Puritans,
who possessed "sincerity, belief, perseverance, courage;" they could
"wait, fight, suffer." Their energy, he thinks, comes from their
Teutonic or Saxon blood; their indomitable perseverance is a fruit of
Calvinism, added to which they are clannish, or mutual helpers one of
another. This is the key to the philosophical, political and prophetic
portion of his work. The literary part is honest criticism, freely
spoken, by the aid of such light as happened to be around him. He begins
with the landing of the Pilgrims, speaks of their literature, which,
like all other American literature down to the present day, he regards
as destitute of originality. Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and others, all
lack this quality. The author of the _American Cultivator_ has the most
of it; but Franklin is made up of Fenelon, Banyan, and Addison; Edwards
partakes of Hobbes, Priestley, and in his better moments of the close
reasoning Descartes. He gives us then a politician, a journalist, and a
gentleman, "the American Aristocrat" as he calls him, Gouverneur Morris,
our minister at Paris during the old revolution. Brockden Brown is
characterized as a copyist of Monk Lewis; and he comes then to
Washington Irving, but while all the charms of this delightful writer
are thoroughly appreciated and minutely described, it is denied that he
has originality. "In some square house in Boston, he sees in thought St.
James's Park: in reveries he is led through the umbrageous alleys of
Kensington--he talks with Sterne--he shakes hands with Goldsmith." "It
is a copy, somewhat timid, of Addison, of Steele, of Swift." You would
think of him as of "a young lady of good family, a slave to propriety,
never elevating her voice, never exaggerating the _ton_, never
committing the sin of eloquence;" "a refined continuation of the style
of Addison," &c. Nevertheless a dawn of freshness appears in his
writings when they treat of forest scenes. This dawn advances into day
in Cooper, upon whom we have an admirable critique. The author of _The
Spy_, M. Chasles thinks, has a native vigor unknown to Irving. Paulding
is dismissed with but very little consideration. Channing occupies the
critic longer, but is found to be an unsatisfactory and too general
reasoner. Audubon furnishes the most attractive chapter in the book,
which closes with what is called the First Literary Epoch of the United
States.
The next division is of the _Literature of the People, and the falsely
popular Literature of England and the States_. One thoughtful chapter is
given to the infancy and future of America; the age and despair of
Europe, of emigration, and colonization. Then, the popular movements in
France and England are treated of, and the education of the masses.
Crabbe, Burns, Elliott, Thomas Cooper and others serve as a text.
Popular literature is found to be less anarchical in America than in
Europe. We have a chapter on Herman Melville; and then the Americans are
viewed through the spectacles of Marryatt, Trolloppe, Dickens, and their
exaggerations are noted. The force of public opinion and of the press
conclude the section. Our poets have two chapters: I. Barlow, Dwight,
Colton, Payne, Sprague, Dana, Drake, Pierrepont; Female Poets; and
Street and Halleck. II, Bryant, Emerson, and Longfellow. _Tom
Stapleton_, by an Irish Sunday newspaper reporter, and _Puffer Hopkins_,
by Mr. Cornelius Matthews, one chapter; Stephens, Silliman, and others
represent the travellers; a chapter is dedicated to Arnold and Andre;
Haliburton's _Sam Slick_ concludes the criticism; and the book ends with
_The Future of Septentrional America and the United States_--what a
"Bee" is, how an American village is got up, the aggregative principles
of Americans, the Lowell Lectures, Democrats and Whigs--and then,
far-seeing prophetic talking, conclude what the author has to say about
us.
* * * * *
The well-known school book publishers of Philadelphia, THOMAS,
COWPERTHWAIT, & CO., have just published a large duodecimo of five
hundred and fifty-eight pages. _The Standard Speaker, containing
Exercises in Prose and Poetry, for Declamation in Schools, Academies,
Lyceums, and Colleges, newly Translated or Compiled from celebrated
Orators, Authors, and Popular Debaters, Ancient and Modern; a Treatise
on Oratory and Elocution; and Notes Explanatory and Biographical_--by
EPES SARGENT. This book bears abundant evidences of editorial research
and labor. The original translations would form a volume of respectable
size, and they are all strikingly adapted to the purpose of elocutionary
practice. Some passages of fervid eloquence from Mirabeau, Robespierre
and Victor Hugo are given. Ancient eloquence is also well represented in
new and spirited translations. The department of British Parliamentary
oratory, shows extracts from Pym, Chatham, Barre, Wilkes, Thurlow,
Grattan, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Curran, Canning, Brougham, O'Connell,
Sheil, Macaulay, Croker, Talfourd, Palmerston, Cobden, and many others,
and in nine instances out of ten the exercises are compiled originally
for this volume. The American department is quite rich, and while the
old masterpieces of Patrick Henry, Ames, Randolph, Clay, Calhoun,
Webster, Hayne, and others are retained, a large number of fresh and
striking pieces are introduced from the eloquence of Congress and the
American lecture room.
In its dramatic and poetical novelties the work is of course amply
supplied. Mr. Sargent's editorial experience here has enabled him to add
much that other compilers have entirely overlooked. In the adaptation of
the exercises, great discrimination has been shown. They are of the
right length, pithy, and calculated to engage the attention of the
young. A new and valuable feature of the work is the introduction of
notes, biographical and explanatory. In the instances of authors not
contemporary the dates of their birth and death are given. An
introductory treatise, comprising much practical information on the
subject of elocution, gives completeness to the volume. Such is the
Standard Speaker; and while it will be found to justify its title in the
retention of all the standard specimens of rhetoric suitable for its
purposes, it presents in its large proportion of new exercises of a high
character, fresh and enduring claims to popularity.
* * * * *
_The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli_, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON, WILLIAM
ELLERY CHANNING, and JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, published a few weeks ago by
Phillips, Sampson & Co., of Boston, are generally praised in the
critical journals, but in this country, where the subject was generally
known in literary circles, there is a common feeling of surprise at the
artistic and successful _exaggeration_ of her capacities and virtues.
The book, however, is in parts delightfully written, and the melancholy
fate of the heroine gives it a character of romance apart from its
merits as a biographical and critical composition. The _Athenaeum_ thus
refers to some additional _material_ for her memoirs, which, it strikes
us, should have been communicated to the custodians of her reputation at
an earlier day:
"We have received permission to state that poor Margaret
Fuller, on the eve of that visit to the Continent which was
to prove so eventful and disastrous, left in the hands of a
friend in London a sealed packet, containing, it is
understood, the journals which she kept during her stay in
England. Margaret Fuller--as they who saw her here all
know--contemplated at that time a return to England at no
very distant date;--and the deposit of these papers was
accompanied by an injunction that the packet should then be
restored with unbroken seal into her hands. No provision was
of course made for death:--and here we believe the lady in
possession feels herself in a difficulty, out of which she
does not clearly see her way. The papers are likely to be of
great interest, and were doubtless intended for publication;
but the writer had peremptorily reserved the right of
revision to herself, and forbidden the breaking of the
seals, on a supposition which fate has now made impossible.
It seems to us, that the equity of the case under such
circumstances demands only a reference to Margaret Fuller's
heir, whoever that may be; and with his or her concurrence,
the lady to whom these MSS. were intrusted--and who probably
knows something of the author's feeling as to their
contents--may very properly constitute herself literary
executor to her unfortunate friend."
* * * * *
Of BAYARD TAYLOR _The Tribune_ said a few days ago:
"By the Niagara's mail we have had the pleasure of receiving
letters from our friend and associate Bayard Taylor,--or as
he his known among the Arabs, Taylor Bey,--dated at
Khartoum, the chief city of Sennaar, situated at the
confluence of the White and the Blue Nile, about half way
between Cairo and the Equator. He arrived there on the 12th
of January in excellent health and spirits, after a journey
on camels across the Nubian Desert, during which he had
sundry fortunate adventures, and received every friendly
attention from the native chieftains. He was the first
American ever seen so far toward Central Africa, and like a
good patriot never slept without the stars and stripes
floating above his tent. Every where good luck had attended
him,--in truth he seems to have been born to it,--but at
Khartoum especially he was received with unexpected honors.
The governor of the city had presented him with a horse, and
had entertained him in a banquet of genuine Ethiopic
magnificence, while the commander of the troops had
stationed a nightly guard of honor around his tent. In
company with Dr. Knoblecher, the venerable Catholic
missionary bound for the equatorial regions whom he had
overtaken at Khartoum, and of Dr. Deitz, the Austrian
Counsel, Mr. Taylor had also attended a banquet at the
palace of the daughter of the late king of Sennaar, a very
stately and ebon princess, who entertained her guests
chiefly upon sheep roasted whole. Others of the first
families among the Ethiopian aristocracy had also welcomed
the strangers with distinguished civilities. Mr. Taylor
expected to reach Cairo on his return about the 1st of
April, though we should not be surprised to learn that he
had changed his mind, and, in company with the Jesuit
mission, plunged still farther into the mysterious country
about the equator and the sources of the Nile."
* * * * *
Several new works by our literary women are on the eve of publication.
Redfield has nearly ready _Lyra and other Poems_, by ALICE CAREY--a book
containing more illustrations of unquestionable genius than any other
written by a woman in America; and he will also publish soon, _Isa, a
Pilgrimage_, a romance by Miss Caroline CHEESEBRO', which is likely to
attract a great deal of attention. Putnam has in press, _The Shield, a
Story of the New World_, by Miss FENIMORE COOPER, whose _Rural Hours_,
last year, commanded every where so much well-merited praise, and a new
story by Miss WARNER, of whose _Wide, Wide World_ (edited in London by a
"Clergyman of the Church of England"), a recent number of the _Literary
Gazette_ says:
"This American tale has met with extraordinary success
across the Atlantic. Within a very short time several large
impressions were disposed of, and the sale still continues
to be rapid. Of the causes of this popularity, there is one
which will rather operate against a similar run of favor on
this side of the water. A large part of the book refers to
'the old country,' and American readers eagerly seek what
pertains to English life or history. But the book has many
merits, apart from the incidents of its scenery and
character. The authoress writes with liveliness and
elegance; her power of discriminating and presenting
character is great; in describing the feelings and ways of
young people, she is especially happy, and an air of
cheerful piety pervades the whole work. We shall not attempt
to give any idea of the story, or of its principal
personages, but content ourselves with commending it as a
book which will please and instruct others than the young,
for whom it is chiefly intended. The authoress seems herself
young, and if so, we may expect other works from a spirit so
lively and communicative. Who the editor is we have no
knowledge, but he has taken liberties with the original not
always warranted, and to an extent greater than can be
approved without previous consultation. On the whole,
however, he has done his part well, and in his prefatory
note justly characterizes the merits of the writer, of whom
we shall gladly hear more."
Miss Warner's new book is entitled _Queechy_--the name of its scene, we
suppose--and it is said to be very different in character from her first
production.
* * * * *
Dr. DUNGLISON'S _Medical Dictionary_, of which a new and much enlarged
edition has been published by Blanchard & Lea, is one of those
professional works which are almost indispensable in a gentleman's
library. Every person has sometimes occasion to consult a work of this
kind, and there is no other in English so masterly in treatment, or so
perspicuous in style. Dr. Dunglison keeps up with all the departments of
the literature of his science, and, through his quick, comprehensive,
and practical understanding, we have in this volume the best results of
the world's experiment and study in medicine down to the beginning of
the present half century.
* * * * *
A new and complete edition of the Poetical Works of GEORGE P. MORRIS
will be published in October, amply and most elaborately illustrated
with engravings after original designs by Robert W. Weir. The
distinction of Gen. Morris is, that he is a great song writer. The
naturalness, simplicity, unity, and pervading grace of his pieces, do
not so much constitute their characteristic, as the exquisite music of
their cadences, justifying the praise of Braham, that they sing
themselves. The new edition will surpass any other in completeness, and
in artistic execution will not be inferior to any volume ever published
in the United States.
* * * * *
Mr. C. L. BRACE, who has tasted in person the sweets of Austrian rule,
by his imprisonment in Hungary, has in press a book of Hungarian
travels, and observations upon the political situation and prospects of
that country. The personal history of an American in Hungary, who
enjoyed rare opportunities of intimate intercourse with the inhabitants,
will be a very valuable addition to our literature, and will make a most
readable and seasonable book. Of the quality of Mr. BRACE'S ability, and
of the faithfulness of his observation and record, his letters to the
New-York _Tribune_ are satisfactory evidence. (Scribner.)
* * * * *
Mr. TICKNOR'S admirable _History of Spanish Literature_ by no means
fails of the high consideration to which it is entitled from the best
critics of Europe. One of the best translations of it is in Spanish, by
Don PASCUAL DE GAYANGOS Y DON ENRIQUE DE VEDIA (_con adiciones y notas
criticas_), Mr. Ticknor having communicated some notes and corrections
to the two translators, who have added from their own store. A second
translation is coming out in Germany, also containing important
additions, in part from material and suggestions furnished by the
accomplished author.
* * * * *
ARVINE'S _Anecdotes of Literature and the Arts_ is an agreeable
miscellany; but the neglect of the editor to give credits in cases where
he adopts entire pages from well-known books, deserves rebuke. The
eighth number has been published by Gould & Lincoln of Boston, and it
completes the work.
* * * * *
The work of Mr. STILES, which we have noticed elsewhere in this number
of the _International_, we understand, will be published by the Harpers,
in two large octavo volumes, about the first of May. It contains a
complete history of the revolutionary proceedings in the Austrian empire
in 1848. Mr. Stiles witnessed much that he describes. Each section is
introduced by an historical survey of the country where the events
described occurred. Thus Venice, Prague, and Vienna are brought before
the reader in all their past glory and recent political vicissitudes.
The Hungarian war is amply chronicled. The work is moderate in tone,
authentic, fresh, and abounding in interesting facts. It will be
illustrated by engravings, executed in Germany, of the Emperor, Archduke
John, Kossuth, and other chief characters.
* * * * *
Dr. A. K. GARDINER, whose clever book about Paris, under the title of
_Old Wine in New Bottles_, is well known, has just published a
noticeable lecture, delivered before the College of Physicians and
Surgeons, on the _History of the Art of Midwifery_. It is most
conclusive upon the point of the unfitness of women for any of the more
delicate and important duties in obstetrics, and is a sufficient
argument for the immediate abolition of the so-called "Female Colleges."
We recommend it to the attention of readers who feel any interest in the
subject.--(Stringer & Townsend.)
* * * * *
Mrs. H. C. CONANT, wife of the learned Professor of Hebrew in the
Rochester University, has published (through Lewis Colby, Nassau-street)
another of NEANDER'S Commentaries, done into terse and vigorous
English--_The Epistle of James Practically Explained_. It is needless to
praise the great German, and it will readily be believed, by those who
are acquainted with the fine abilities and thorough scholarship of Mrs.
Conant, that this translation is in all respects admirable.
* * * * *
We are soon to have a new dramatic poem from Mr. GEORGE H. BOKER, whose
_Calaynos_, _Anne Bullen_, and _Ivory Carver and other Poems_, have
secured to him very high and well-deserved reputation as a literary
artist. We do not think any sonnets written in this country are to be
preferred to Mr. Boker's, and his _Ballad of Sir John Franklin_,
published a few months ago in this magazine, is full of imagination, and
is marked throughout with the nicest skill in execution.
* * * * *
The last work of the late Professor STUART, a _Commentary on the Book of
Proverbs_, has been published by M. W. DODD, in a large duodecimo
volume. It contains a full account of the principal commentaries written
on this book, and the translations and paraphrases made into different
languages, with a new version, and exegetical remarks. A memoir of
Professor Stuart is in preparation.
* * * * *
Mr. RICHARD B. KIMBALL, the accomplished author of _St. Leger_, leaves
New York in a few days for a tour through Europe. No one among our
younger authors has risen more rapidly in the public regard, or
established a good reputation in literature upon a surer basis.
Imagination, scholarship, and profound reflection, characterize nearly
all his performances. The admirable story written by him for the present
number of the _International_, we believe, is true in every essential
but the name of the heroine. It is a reminiscence of Mr. Kimball's
student life in Paris, where, for a time, he walked the hospitals with
his friend, the well-known Dr. O. H. Partridge, now one of the most
distinguished physicians of Philadelphia, who is one of the dramatis
personae of _Emilie de Coigny_.
* * * * *
Mr. JOHN P. KENNEDY pronounced, in Baltimore, on the anniversary of the
birth of Washington, a very eloquent and wise discourse, in which the
state of the nation with respect to possible entanglements in foreign
affairs, and implications by needless artificial ties in the
vicissitudes of European politics, were treated in a manner worthy of a
statesman of the school of the Great Chief. The occasion was also
improved in Philadelphia by the Rev. Dr. BOARDMAN, who, in a discourse
entitled _Washington or Kossuth_ (published by Lippincott, Grambo, &
Co.), discusses the same great subjects in a masterly argument for the
observance of the principles of the Farewell Address.
* * * * *
An elaborate attack on the Society of Friends appeared lately in Dublin,
and has been republished in Philadelphia, under the title of _Quakerism,
or the Story of My Life_. It was written by a Mrs. GREER, the daughter
of an eminently respectable Irish Quaker, who was herself connected with
the society for forty years, and so had abundant opportunities of
becoming familiar with the peculiarities of the system. But the book is
vulgar, malignant, and evidently altogether undeserving of credit in
regard to facts. The points obnoxious to ridicule are broadly
caricatured, and the most distinguished and blameless characters are
introduced in the most offensive manner, as if to gratify personal
spleen or a disposition to slander.
* * * * *
The Neander Library, recently purchased by the University of Rochester,
consists of 4,500 volumes, and the price paid was only $2,300. About 350
of the volumes are large folios, and many of the works in the collection
are of the choicest and rarest editions. We observe that an attempt to
show that there was even the slightest possible degree of unfairness on
the part of the Rochester faculty in obtaining this library, which was
much desired by a western college, has most signally failed.
* * * * *
We commend to our readers as the best literary journal in this country,
the _To Day_, recently established in Boston by CHARLES HALE, a
thoroughly educated and judicious editor.
_Recent Deaths_
WILLIAM WARE was born at Hingham, in Massachusetts, on the third of
August, 1797. He was a descendant in the fifth generation from Robert
Ware, one of the earliest settlers of the colony, who came from England
about the year 1644. His father was Henry Ware, D. D., many years
honorably distinguished by his connection with the Divinity School at
Cambridge, and the late Henry Ware, jr., D. D., was his elder brother.
His only living brother is Dr. John Ware, who also shares of the
literary tastes and talents of his family, and has written its history.
William Ware was graduated at Harvard University in 1816. After reading
theology the usual term he was on the 18th of December, 1821, settled
over the Unitarian society of Chambers street, New-York, where he
remained about sixteen years. He gave little to the press except a few
sermons, and four numbers of a religious miscellany called _The
Unitarian_, until near the close of this period, when he commenced the
publication in the Knickerbocker Magazine of those brilliant papers
which in the autumn of 1836 were given to the world under the title of
_Zenobia, or the Fall of Palmyra, an Historical Romance_. Before the
completion of this work he had resigned his pastoral office and removed
to Brookline, near Boston. The romance of Zenobia is in the form of
letters to Marcus Curtius, at Rome, from Lucius Manlius Piso, a senator,
who is supposed to have been led by circumstances of a private nature to
visit Palmyra toward the close of the third century, to have become
acquainted with the queen and her court, to have seen the City of the
Desert in its greatest magnificence, and to have witnessed its
destruction by the Emperor Aurelian. For the purposes of romantic
fiction the subject is perhaps the finest that had not been appropriated
in all ancient history; and the treatment of it, which is highly
picturesque and dramatic throughout, shows that the author had been a
successful student of the institutions, manners and social life of the
age he attempted to illustrate.
Mr. Ware's second romance, _Probus, or Rome in the Third Century_, was
published in the summer of 1838. It is a sort of sequel to the Zenobia,
and is composed of letters purporting to be written by Piso from Rome to
Fausta, the daughter of Gracchus, one of the old Palmyrene ministers. In
the first work Piso meets with Probus, a Christian teacher, and is
partially convinced of the truth of his doctrine; he is now a disciple,
and a sharer of the persecutions which marked the last days of the reign
of Aurelian. The characters in Probus are skilfully drawn and
contrasted, and with a deeper moral interest, from the frequent
discussions of doctrine which it contains, the romance has the classical
style and spirit which characterized its predecessor.
Mr. Ware's third work is entitled _Julian, or Scenes in Judea_, and was
published in 1841. The hero is a Roman, of Hebrew descent, who visits
the land of his ancestors, to gratify a liberal curiosity, during the
last days of the Saviour. Every thing connected with Palestine at this
period is so familiar that the ground might seem to be sacred to History
and Religion; but it has often been invaded by the romancer, and perhaps
never with more success than in the present instance. Although Julian
has less freshness than Zenobia, it has an air of truth and sincerity
that renders it scarcely less interesting.
About the time of the publication of Julian, Mr. Ware was attacked with
Epilepsy, while in his pulpit, at Lexington, near Boston, and he
suffered all the residue of his life from disease and apprehension; but
his illness did not affect his intelligence or its activity, and he
continued to devote himself to congenial studies, for several years,
chiefly as editor of _The Christian Examiner_. For a short period he was
pastor of the Unitarian society at West Cambridge, but the condition of
his health did not permit a regular discharge of his functions, for
which, indeed, he was scarcely fitted in any thing but a spirit of
humility and piety. His tastes and capacities would have secured for him
greater triumphs in any department of pictorial or plastic art, to which
he was always insensibly drawn by instinct and congenial studies.
In 1848 Mr. Ware passed several months abroad, and after his return he
delivered in _Lectures on European Capitals_ the best fruits of his
travel. These Lectures have recently been published in a very attractive
volume, which has been favorably received in this country and in
England. Among his unprinted writings is a series of Lectures on the
_Life, Works, and Genius of Washington Allston_. He died on the 19th of
February.
The romances of Mr. Ware betray a familiarity with the civilization of
the ancients, and are written in a graceful, pure and brilliant style.
In our literature they are peculiar, and they will bear a favorable
comparison with the most celebrated historical romances relating to the
same scenes and periods which have been written abroad. They have passed
through many editions in Great Britain, and have been translated into
German and other languages of the continent.
* * * * *
JOHN FRAZEE, the sculptor, died at the age of sixty, on the--th of
March, at the house of his daughter, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The
_Evening Post_ remarks that "he was a man of decided talent for
sculpture, but the necessity of employing himself in other occupations,
prevented his attaining that skill which, under more auspicious
circumstances, would have been within his reach." Mr. Frazee was born in
Brunswick, N.J., and in early life was a farmer and stone-cutter. One of
his first attempts at sculpture which attracted notice, was a clever
female bust, a likeness of one of his own family, exhibited in the
gallery of the Academy of Design. He afterwards, at the request of the
bar of New-York, was employed in the mural tablet and bust of John
Welles, which fills a conspicuous place in St Paul's Church. This
production, with others subsequently executed, attracted the attention
of the Trustees of the Boston Athenaeum, and at their request, in 1834,
he proceeded to Boston, and modelled a series of busts of eminent men in
that city--Webster, Bowditch, Prescott, Story, J. Lowell, and T. H.
Perkins. Afterwards he went to Richmond, where he produced the likeness
of John Marshall, copies of which adorn the Court rooms of New York,
New-Orleans, and the Capitol of Virginia. On his return he visited
President Jackson, at whose house he executed an inimitable head of that
extraordinary man. Among his other productions were heads of General
Lafayette, in 1824, De Witt Clinton, John Jay, Bishop Hobart, Dr.
Milnor, Dr. Stearns, Nathaniel Prime, George Griswold, Eli Hart, &c. The
monument, however, which is destined to perpetuate his fame, is the New
York Custom-House. This edifice was commenced in 1834 by another
gentleman, who, when he had finished the base, abandoned the work and
withdrew his plans. Mr. Frazee was obliged to commence _de novo_, and in
1843 had completed the work. During the erection of the Custom-House,
from the dampness of its material and concomitant causes, he contracted
a disorder which caused paralysis, from which he never recovered. For
several years he held a subordinate post under the Collector. His last
effort with the chisel was in giving the finishing touch to the bust of
General Jackson, which had remained in his studio seventeen years,
without an order for completion. This was in November last, and while
assiduously at work, his mallet fell from his hand, and his worn-out
body followed it to the floor."
* * * * *
JOHN PARK, M. D., died in Worcester, Massachusetts, on the 2d of March,
aged seventy-eight. He was an active member of the old Federal party in
Massachusetts, during the administration of Jefferson and Madison, and
exerted a wide and important influence by his well-known journal, _The
Boston Repertory_. At a subsequent period, he established a private
school for young women, which acquired a celebrity second to that of no
similar educational institution in the old Commonwealth. He was
distinguished for his cultivated literary tastes, his uncommon purity of
character, his fine social qualities, and his cordial and attractive
manners. Dr. Park was the father of Mrs. L. G. Hall, wife of the Rev.
Dr. Hall, of Providence, the authoress of _Miriam_, and other successful
productions, and of Mr. John C. Park, an eminent lawyer in Boston. Mrs.
Osgood and several other distinguished literary women were among his
pupils.
* * * * *
WILLIAM THOMPSON, of Belfast, the naturalist of Ireland, died in London
on the 17th February. Mr. Thompson was born in 1805, and from earliest
youth was attached to scientific and literary studies. For the last
fifteen years his name has been before the world of science in
connection with arduous researches on the natural history of Ireland.
The numerous memoirs published by him, chiefly in scientific
periodicals, and latterly in the _Annals of Natural History_, of which
he was a warm supporter, extend in their subjects over all departments
of zoology, and several are devoted to botanical investigations. He was
constantly on the watch for new facts bearing on the natural history of
his native island, which could boast of no more truly patriotic son. At
the meeting of the British Association, at Cork, he read an elaborate
report on the _Fauna of Ireland_, since published _in extenso_ in the
Association _Transactions_; and it was his intention to communicate a
continuation of that report at the Belfast meeting. He did not confine
his inquiries to Irish subjects, but added considerably to the natural
history of several parts of England and Scotland; and when Professor
Forbes proceeded to the AEgean at the invitation of Captain Graves, Mr.
Thompson, himself an intimate friend of that distinguished officer,
accompanied him, and devoted the short time he was in the Archipelago to
zoological observations, since published, chiefly on the migration of
birds. His love of ornithology was intense, and the results of his
labors in that department are narrated with charming details in the
volumes that have been published of his great work on _The Natural
History of Ireland_. His name is associated with many discoveries, and
numerous species of new creatures have been named after him. His
reputation stood equally high on the Continent and in America, and he
had been elected an honorary member of several foreign societies. He
numbered among his intimate friends and correspondents all the eminent
naturalists of the day. His love of the fine arts was second only to his
love of science, and for many years he was one of the most active
promoters of tasteful pursuits, especially of painting, in Ireland. He
was a gentleman of independent means, and of no profession.
* * * * *
ROBERT REINICK, deservedly the most popular of recent song writers in
Germany, died at Dresden early in February. He was born at Dantzic, in
1805, and was educated an artist, but he never painted more than one
picture which attained any considerable reputation. His sketches were,
however, remarkable for great delicacy of feeling, and of touch, a
genial humor and an endless variety of fancy. But it was his songs that
first and most widely made him known to the public. Without any
surprising features of genius, they were so natural, so replete with
true and happy sentiment, and flowed so sweetly and melodiously in a
spontaneous beauty of language, that they were every where taken up, and
still remain the intimate favorites of the people, but especially of
artists, to whose peculiar life and customs many of them are devoted.
One of the most pleasing books ever published in Germany, was his _Songs
of a Painter_, which was illustrated with designs from all the prominent
artists of Duesseldorf. Its appearance made an epoch in the book trade,
and introduced the many splendid illustrated works that have succeeded
it. It is some years since we read these songs, but their naivete,
tenderness, and frolic humor are still fresh in our memory. Reinick also
had a great skill in the writing of story books for children, and
illustrating them with his own drawings. One of these, the _Black Aunt_,
has been translated into English, and was published in this city some
three or four years since. The poet died quite suddenly, and was
snatched from a life full of happiness, amid constant artistic activity,
and the love of his family, and a boundless circle of friends. All
Dresden sorrowed at his death, and his funeral procession seemed to
embrace the entire city.
* * * * *
WILLIAM HENRY OXBERRY, comedian, was the son of the once eminent actor
Oxberry, and was born in Brownlow-street, Bloomsbury, on the 21st of
April, 1808. He was educated at Merchant Tailors' school; and
subsequently studied with an artist and in a lawyer's office. At length
he was apprenticed to a surgeon: and was asked by Sir Astley Cooper,
during an examination, whether, "when he saw his father convulse the
audience with laughter, he felt no ambition to tread in his shoes?" No
doubt he did, for he soon after made his essay at the Rawstone-street
private theatre, in the character of _Abel Day_, which he performed to
the _Captain Careless_ of Mr. F. Matthews. His public commencement was
deferred till the 17th March, 1825, for the Olympic, in the part of _Sam
Swipes_, in "The High Road to Marriage." He remained not long there, but
took a situation under Mr. Leigh Hunt, on the _Examiner_. Shortly
afterwards he returned to the stage, and went on a provincial tour, and
finally appeared in 1832 at the Strand Theatre, as _Fathom_, in "The
Hunchback." Since that period he was seen with credit in turn at every
theatre in the metropolis. On the 11th December, 1831, he married Ellen
Malcombe Lancaster. He also became manager of the English Opera-House,
but was not successful. The loss of his wife was a misfortune, and his
subsequent career was not prosperous. He died on the 28th of February.
* * * * *
The REV. CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON, died at Edinburgh, on the 7th of
February, aged seventy. He was best known as the author of _Annals of
the English Bible and The History of Irish Literature_. He was educated
at Bristol, at the college of which Dr. Ryland was president. He
intended in early life to accompany Drs. Carey, Marshman, and Ward, to
India, when the Baptist Societies' Mission was established in the east;
but being prevented by the state of his health he settled in Edinburgh,
where he has for nearly half a century been the respected pastor of a
Baptist church. In missionary work, both at home and abroad, he always
took deep and active interest. He travelled much through Ireland, and
knew well the state of the people. His historical narration of the
various attempts to educate the Irish in their own tongue is referred to
by all who are engaged in Irish education and missions. He visited
Copenhagen many years ago in order to obtain the protection of the
Danish Government for the Serampore mission. The king granted him an
interview, received him cordially, and granted a charter of
incorporation. It is from the Serampore press that the Scriptures first
began to be issued in the languages of the east, and the names of Carey
and the other superintendents of the Serampore mission are memorable in
the records of literature as well as of the church. He published in 1845
the _Annals of the English Bible_, an historical account of the
different English translations and editions of the Bible, a work of
learning and research, lately reprinted in New-York by the Carters.
* * * * *
The mother of M. Thiers has expired at Batignolles, where she has long
resided on a pension allowed her by her son. M. Thiers was the only
child of this woman, although his father had other children by a former
marriage, one of whom keeps a restaurant in Paris.
* * * * *
The some time expected death of THOMAS MOORE occurred on the 26th of
February, at Sloperton Cottage, near Devizes. Like Southey and Scott,
the British Anacreon had for several years before his decease, quite
lost his intelligence, and he lingered in seclusion, and in half
slumbering unconsciousness, personally well nigh forgotten by the world.
His history is little more than a history of his writings. He was
deservedly popular in society, for his amiable qualities, and
fascinating manners; he shared the intimacy of the greatest men and
greatest writers of his age, more prolific of eminent characters than
any other since that of Shakspeare, Raleigh, and Sidney; and dividing
his time between the quiet charms of domestic ease, and the smiles of
the most elevated classes, he may be said to have been a fortunate and
happy man. As a song writer, he was doubtless unrivalled. His
versification is exquisitely finished, harmonious, and musically toned.
The sense is never obviously sacrificed to the sound; on the contrary,
he delighted in that species of antithetical and epigramatic turn, which
is generally held to excuse some roughness, and to be scarcely
compatible with perfect melody of rhythm. In grace, both of thought and
diction, in easy, fluent wit, in melody, in brilliancy of fancy, in
warmth (but scarcely depth) of sentiment, and even in purity and
simplicity, when he chose to be pure and simple, no one has been
superior to Moore; but in grandeur of conception, power of thought, and
above all, unity of purpose, and a high aim, he was singularly
deficient, and these are necessary to the character, not of a sweet
minstrel, but of a great poet.
The London _Morning Chronicle_ furnishes a biography of Moore, which we
slightly abridge. With him, says the _Chronicle_, is snapped the last
tie, save perhaps one, represented by the veteran Rogers, which connects
the present generation with the outburst of "all the talents" which
signalized the opening of the century. That great kindling of
genius--embracing almost all sides of imaginative literature, of
criticism and philosophy--is becoming more a thing of history than of
fact. Year by year, the lights are going out. Wordsworth was the last
extinguished before Moore; and now, to all intents and purposes, the
great galaxy which poured such a flood of light on the literature of
fifty years ago--which extinguished Rosa Matilda fiction and Delia
Cruscan poetry--substituted true criticism for technical carping upon
philological points, and established new styles in every branch of the
_belles-lettres_--this great constellation may now be said to have
disappeared. One of the brightest, if not of the largest stars, has long
been obscured, and is now quite put out. The fame of Moore is fairly a
matter of discussion. It cannot, we believe, be denied that much of his
serious and more ambitious verse, founded on promptings of a more
luscious and florid fancy than the present tastes incline to admit, and
no inconsiderable portion even of his lyric pieces,--refined to
attenuation--are less read and admired than they were a score or thirty
years ago. A severer and sterner school of poetry has succeeded--one of
deeper feeling and more sober thought; and the representatives of those
who revelled in _Lalla Rookh_, and delighted in the strains of Mr.
Little, now generally address themselves to more staid and philosophic
musings. The _Irish Melodies_, too--exquisite as is their
word-music--fanciful as is their conception--delightful as is their
playfulness, and touching as is their pathos--even the _Irish Melodies_,
we believe are declining in popular estimation. The reasons are obvious.
In the first place, the _Irish Melodies_ are not particularly Irish;
they have grace, sparkling fancy, delicious feeling; but they are too
fine-spun to do the work-a-day duty of popular songs. As literary
performances, nine-tenths of Burns's are inferior to Moore's; and all
Dibdin's are immeasurably beneath them. Yet the probability is that
_When Willie Brewed_, and _Poor Tom Bowling_, will be in the full tide
of popularity, where _Rich and Rare_, and _Oh Breathe not His Name_,
will be unsung and forgotten. In a certain circle, and among people of a
certain reading and appreciation, Moore will live as long as the
language; but his genius was delicate and acute rather than catholic and
strong. He had a rich play of fancy, but none of the soaring imagination
of Shelley or Byron. His mind, in fact, was a first-class second-rate.
It had no pretensions to stand in the line of the giants of his time.
Brightly fanciful, rather than continuously imaginative--teeming with
poetic imagery--loving to sparkle along the floweriest paths, and
beneath the balmiest skies--revelling always in fays and flowers--in
love, and mingled intellectual and sensual pleasures--playful in the
extreme, and always ready to stop to make mirth as joyous and as
delightful as the passion--his muse, in his great romantic poems, is the
incarnation of a charming Epicureanism; and the mirth and jolity could
go a long step further. He had wit, which sparkled as brightly as it
could cut deeply; and humor, and sense of the ludicrous, which could be
as well, if not more effectually applied to living persons and actual
things than to the creations of his own fancy; and accordingly we find
him loving to turn from the etherealized voluptuousness of _Loves of the
Angels_, or the mystic imaginings of the _Epicurean_, to the sharp and
brilliant hittings of political and social squibs--the restless satire
with which, in the _Fudge Family_ and hundreds of ephemeral but not the
less clever lays, he quizzed his political and literary opponents,
abolished the Earl of Mountcashell, or shot stinging shafts through the
heart of the Benthamites. It is, indeed, far from probable that Moore's
political and satiric poetry, little perhaps as he thought of it at the
time, will live after his more ambitious works have sunk into that
chronic state of classicism, in which books are labelled with an
excellent character, and shelved--turned into the category of works
without which no gentleman's library is complete, and doomed, not to
actual obscurity, but to honorable retirement. The last of his political
squibs and short poems were given to the world in the columns of the
_Morning Chronicle_; and referred principally to the earlier struggles
of the Anti-Corn Law League--the verses having in most cases been
suggested by pasting political events.
Thomas Moore died at the ripe age of seventy-two. He was born on the
28th of May, 1780, in Angier-street, Dublin, where his father, a strict
Roman Catholic, carried on a grocery and spirit business. As a child, he
is said to have been remarkable for personal beauty; but his appearance
in after life hardly carried out the promise of infancy. He was short,
with a heavy, expressive, but not handsome face, which, however,
lightened up wonderfully when conversing or singing his own ballads. He
was educated at Dublin, and one of big first noted peculiarities was a
fondness and a talent for private theatricals. Taking advantage of the
boon, as it was then considered, the young Roman Catholic was entered at
Trinity College. He could not, of course, obtain a degree; but some
English verses tendered at an examination, in lieu of the usual Latin
composition, procured a copy of the _Travels of Anacharsis_, as a
reward. The wild times of the Irish rebellion were approaching, and the
poet was naturally to be found in the ranks led by the Emmetts and
Arthur O'Connor; but his treasonable lucubrations, though, as his own
sister remarked, "rather strong," were passed over without any measures
against the enthusiastic young champion of liberty. Politics, however,
were by no means the only subject of his muse. At the age of fourteen he
published poetry in a Dublin magazine, and afterwards composed many
semi-burlesque pieces for private representation.
In his twentieth year, giving up republicanism for ever, Moore came to
London to study at the Middle Temple, and publish his translations, or
rather paraphrases, of _Anacreon_. As may be imagined, he attended much
more to the Greek than to Coke upon Lyttleton, and permission, obtained
through the friendship of Lord Moira, to dedicate the work to the Prince
Regent, was the means of his introduction to those elevated circles in
which he was afterwards to move and shine. His _Anacreon_ was highly
successful, and was succeeded, in 1801, by _Poems and Songs, by Thomas
Little_. Whatever objections may be raised by the present generation to
either of these works, there can be no doubt of their vivid play of
fancy, their singular grace, even when verging on improprieties, and
their exquisite melody of versification. His translations of the _Old
Greek Lover_, and of _Women and Wine_, are probably the finest and
richest versions of these often rendered songs in the English
language--always excepting the rough but thoroughly racy version of the
last, by quaint old Mr. Donne.
In the days of the regency, poets came in for patronage, and Mr. Moore,
made registrar to the Court of Admiralty at Bermuda--as singularly
appropriate an appointment as some we have seen in our own day--went out
to the islands, appointed a deputy, took a glance at the United States,
and came home again. He then published _Sketches of Travel and Society
beyond the Atlantic_--a satiric work in heroic verse, vigorously
written, but politically evincing a miserable short-sightedness. Soon
afterwards, a savage review in the _Edinburgh_, of a republication of
_Juvenile Songs, &c._, led to the celebrated rencontre between Moore and
Jeffrey, at Hampstead, when the great critic, as Byron asserted, stood
valiantly up:
"When Little's leadless pistol met his eye
And Bow-street myrmidons stood laughing by."
The affair was ultimately arranged, mainly through the intervention of
Mr. Rogers, and at his house Moore shortly afterwards made his first
acquaintance with Byron and Campbell. The long and affectionate intimacy
between Moore and the author of _Childe Harold_, we need here only
allude to. Moore had about this time married. His wife was a Miss Dyke,
a woman, of strong sense and character, as well as great beauty and
amiability. Their children are all dead.
A couple of political satires of no great merit--one setting forth a
sober and earnest panegyric upon ignorance--were followed by the famous
_Two-penny Post Bag_, a bundle of rollicking satire and humor. It made a
great hit. Not so its author's next venture, a farce called the _Blue
Stocking_, damned at the Lyceum. Moore's intimacy with Byron and Hunt
was broken off by the outspoken tone of the _Liberal_, and especially by
the _Vision of Judgment_. Moore thought his friends had gone too far.
What would Carlton House say! For if, as Byron said, "Little Tommy
dearly loved a lord," with how much more affection did he worship a
prince of the blood royal?
The _Melodies_ were his next, and perhaps most popular compositions.
Charming as they are, and exquisitely finished as is their lyrical
workmanship, we doubt whether they have the stamina and heart-rooted
earnestness, which are requisite to make songs immortal. Only the
strongest heart and the manliest brain produce offspring to suit all
tastes and to last all time.
It was in 1812 that Moore determined to write an Indian poem. Mr. Perry,
of the _Morning Chronicle_, accompanied the poet to the Messrs. Longman,
and through his intervention the great sum of 3,000 guineas was settled
on as the price of a piece of which not one word was yet written. Moore
then retired to Mayfield Cottage, a desolate place in Derbyshire, and
after a long and hard struggle with a coquettish muse--after a three
years' retirement--he sent forth _Lalla Rookh_. Its success was immense;
the poem ran rapidly through several editions, and Moore's fame stood
upon a higher and surer pedestal than ever. The tales were the triumph
of poetic lusciousness; but not a few old judges stigmatized their taste
by preferring Fadladeen and his criticisms, even to the Fireworshippers,
or the tribulations of the Peri. We need hardly say that the judgment of
these tough critics has now a far greater number of adherents than it
once commanded.
After a continental tour, Moore wrote the clever and popular _Fudge
Family_. In the following year he met Byron in Italy, and then the
latter intrusted to him his memoirs for publication. These memoirs Moore
sold to Murray for two thousand guineas; but, as is well known and a
good deal regretted, the purchase money was refunded, and the papers
regained, and destroyed. Pecuniary difficulties connected with the
misconduct of his Bermuda deputy, about this time, compelled Moore to
seek a temporary refuge in Paris, and there he led a pleasant social
life, such as he loved, and composed the _Loves of the Angels_, which is
not much more than an elaborate and carefully wrought repetition of all
his previous love-and-flower poetry. The whole thing is dreamy, lulling,
and beautiful, but vague and misty. The words tinkle like falling
fountains, and the essence of the closing fancy floats about one like
perfume; but this enervating species of composition is far from high or
true poetry, and accordingly the work is now far oftener alluded to than
it is read. In Paris he occupied the same hotel for a long time with his
intimate friend Washington Irving.
In 1825 Moore paid a visit to Scott, who pronounced the Irish melodist
the "prettiest warbler" he had ever heard. One evening Scott and his
guest visited the theatre at Edinburgh. Soon after their unmarked
entrance, the attention of the audience, which had been engrossed by the
Duchess of St. Albans, was directed towards the new comers; and,
according to a newspaper report, copied and published by Mr. Moore in
one of his last prefaces, considerable excitement ensued. "Eh!"
exclaimed a man in the pit, "eh, yon's Sir Walter, wi' Lockhart and his
wife; and wha's the wee body wi' the pawkie een? Wow, but it's Tarn
Moore, just." "Scott, Scott! Moore, Moore!" immediately resounded
through the house. Scott would not rise; Moore did, and bowed several
times, with his hand on his heart. Scott afterwards acknowledged the
plaudits of his countrymen; and the orchestra, during the rest of the
evening, played alternately Scotch and Irish airs.
Soon after this period, Moore was established, by the kind offices of
his old and stanch friend the Marquis of Lansdowne, in Sloperton
Cottage, where he passed the remainder of his days, and where he ended
them. It was here that he commenced his career as a biographer, and
produced successively the memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Lord Byron,
and Sheridan. The two latter are well known and highly appreciated. It
was in the previous year that the poet first came out as a prose writer
in the _Memoirs of Captain Rock_, a bitter and unfair account of--or
rather commentary on--the English government of Ireland, and a curious
instance of warped and twisted views in a man of the world like Moore,
almost unavoidable in an Irishman writing of his country. His next
serious work--he continued his squibs and sparkles of occasional
verse--was the _Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a
Religion_--in which he attempted to show that the doctrines and
practises of the Roman Catholic Church date from the apostolic period.
The last of his prose works, and that which has attained a greater sale,
we believe, than any of them, was the romance of _The Epicurean_. Here
Moore's style, always too florid, is occasionally redeemed by passages
of eloquence and natural feeling. There is much out-of-the-way learning
in the book, but a pompous and cumbrous ornament overlays every thing.
The book had great success, but of what Mr. Carlyle calls the "wind-bag"
nature. The wind inside was very highly perfumed, and sighed with very
pleasing murmurs, but it was only wind, and, as such, will ooze out
presently, and the Epicurean bag will be little regarded.
From this time political and social squibs were the only literary
occupations to which Mr. Moore devoted himself until, gradually and
fitfully mental darkness came down on him. Of critical estimates of
Moore, we have seen none to which we more perfectly agree, than one
(sometimes attributed to Richard H. Dana, but) written by Professor
Edward T. Channing, for the _North American Review_ soon after that
Review was established.
The best edition of Moore's works ever published in this country, is the
very beautiful one in octavo, from the press of the Appletons, embracing
all the revisions, introductions, notes, &c., of the author's recent ten
volume edition, printed in London.
* * * * *
The well-known artist, SAMUEL PROUT, died in London on the 10th of
February. The _Athenaeum_ remarks that he was long and popularly known by
a style of Art which he may be said to have originated,--and to the
influence of his example may be ascribed the distinctive character and
the successes of the English school of painters of architectural
subjects. Born at Plymouth about the year 1784, like his townsmen
distinguished in art, he owed little to the patronage of his native
town, unless their share in the praises which he ultimately commanded
may be counted to them as encouragement. In the metropolis his first
patron, was Mr. Palser, the printseller, who used to take all his water
color drawings at low prices, and had a ready sale for them. When Mr.
Prout had arrived at distinction, he never omitted grateful mention of
the advantages he had derived from the acquaintance and transactions.
Mr. Prout early gained the notice of the late Mr. Ackermann; and the
many drawing-books for learners, and other prints which he undertook for
that gentleman, soon gave currency to his name. His transcripts of
Gothic architecture at home it is superfluous to commend; and when the
allied armies had made it safe to venture to the Continent, he was among
the earliest of the English to travel there. His love of the picturesque
was gratified amid the new and remarkable combinations of form which met
his eye at Nuernberg and in many of the adjacent cities. He was among the
first English artists to add to what had been already made known of
Venice by Canaletto. Nor must it be forgotten that he was among the
first when Senefelder's newly discovered process was imported to try his
hand at it. The powers of the art of Lithography, though its processes
may have been improved and amplified since,--were never better exhibited
than in Mr. Prout's broad and vigorous touch. The _Landscape Annual_ is
another record of his powers. Other books of the class testify to his
unwearied industry and graphic skill. For many years suffering from
ill-health, Mr. Prout, in convalescent intervals, labored cheerfully at
the vocation which he had so illustrated in better times.
* * * * *
The venerable Dr. MURRAY, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, died at
his residence in that city on the 25th of February. The death of this
excellent prelate, whose life has been a model of Christian forbearance
in a country where such an example is invaluable, the journals say is
deeply regretted by moderate men of all the religious denominations of
the country.
* * * * *
Dr. M'NICHOLAS, titular Bishop of Achonry, died about the middle of
February. He was regarded as one of the ripest scholars among the Roman
Catholic hierarchy of Ireland, and belonged to the advanced school of
"educationists."
* * * * *
The London papers announce the death of Mr. HOLCROFT, son of the more
famous Thomas Holcroft, the dramatist,--who was for many years connected
with the press, and, perhaps, in that capacity most prominently known as
the musical and dramatic critic of one of the leading daily papers.
* * * * *
M. BENCHOT, the editor of Voltaire's works, lately died at Paris. He
devoted thirty years to studies preparatory to the execution of his
undertaking, which he finally completed in 1834. He also published in
1811 a laborious work on French bibliography, which is still a standard
manual.
* * * * *
JOHANN KOLLAR, Professor of Slavonian antitiquities at the University of
Vienna, died on January 24th, last, in his sixtieth year. He was born at
Mursotz, in Hungary, and was educated as a Protestant clergyman; he was
appointed Professor in 1849. He contributed greatly to the intellectual
movement of recent years among the Austrian and Prussian Slavonians. His
literary reputation was first established by _Slavy dcera_ (The Daughter
of Fame) a lyrical epic poem, published in 1824. His ideal end was the
creation of an independent Slavonic literature, which should preserve
his race from the ever increasing influence of German culture, by which
he foresaw that it must be absorbed, unless it could be aroused to a
development strictly its own. During the Hungarian war he remained an
adherent of the Austrian side. He leaves two nearly finished works; the
one is _Slavonic Italy in Early Times_; the other is upon Slavonic
Mythology, and is entitled _The Gods of Retra_. They are written in the
Bohemian or Tschechic language.
* * * * *
The widow of VON KOTZEBUE, the author of _The Stranger_ and _Pizarro_
(the former of which still keeps possession of the German provincial
stage), who was assassinated at Mannheim by the student Sand, died at
Heidelberg, on the 4th of February, at the age of 73. She was Kotzebue's
third wife, and had lived for many years in strict retirement.
* * * * *
BARON KRUDENER, Russian Minister in Stockholm since 1844, died early in
February.
* * * * *
M. LUCAS DE MONTIGNY, the adopted son of Mirabeau, died in Paris, early
in February. On his death-bed Mirabeau took him in his arms, and called
on his friends to protect him. He left him all his papers and
correspondence, and some years ago M. Lucas compiled from them eight
volumes of _Memoires Biographiques_ of _le grand homme_. He naturally
entertained a profound veneration for the memory of his benefactor; and,
it is said, spent not less than 100,000 francs ($20,000), of his private
fortune, in buying up letters and documents calculated to cast dishonor
upon it. These papers he of course destroyed, and it does not appear
that he left behind him any calculated to throw new light on the
character or career of the tribune.
* * * * *
Belgian journals announce the death of a M. SMITS, a great compiler of
statistics, and a poet: two vocations rather dissimilar. He wrote three
tragedies, called _Marie de Bourgogne_, _Jeanne de Flandre_, _Elfrida,
ou la Vengeance_, which were applauded by his countrymen; also several
poems on different subjects, and especially on the rising of the
Spaniards and Greeks for liberty.
* * * * *
DR. EYLERT, first Bishop of Prussia, died a short time since at Potsdam,
aged eighty-two. He was the author of several works on theology, and on
the sciences. For a long time he was a member of the Ministry of Public
Worship and Instruction.
* * * * *
VICTOR FALCK, a distinguished French ornithologist, has just died at
Stockholm.
_Ladies Fashions for April._
[Illustration: LA VIVANDIERE]
The spring has brought to the several departments of fashion the usual
amount of changes, but at our last advices there were many points of
some consequence undecided, as for example, the length of dresses, which
some authorities make greater than ever in recent years, and others
less, by a few inches. Among the chief novelties we notice _La
Vivandiere_, which, with various styles of the _gilet_, or waist, has
been introduced into New-York by Bulpin of Broadway. The waistcoat will
remain in vogue. The Parisiennes, who had begun to turn it into
ridicule, still patronize it; and the provinciales need not fear to
adopt it. But some conditions are necessary in order to render it
becoming and stylish. The figure of the wearer should be thin, tall, and
sylph-like; all others should avoid the style. Rounded, white shoulders
appear to much more advantage in toilette Pompadour than in toilet Louis
XIII. The corsage Louis XIII., and the waistcoat accord so well together
that they are scarcely ever separated. However, some bodies a basquines
are made to be worn without the waistcoat. They are then trimmed with
velvet or ribbon bands, which cross the chest and fasten with buttons;
the chemisette being composed of frills of English point or
Valenciennes, separated by embroidered insertion.
[Illustration: INFANT'S STRAW BEDFORD HAT.]
[Illustration: THE BATEMAN CAP.]
[Illustration: THE CLEMENTINE RIDING HAT.]
[Illustration: THE ST. NICHOLAS CAP.]
[Illustration: BOY'S STRAW BRUSSELS HAT.]
[Illustration: MISSES LEGHORN HATS.]
The recent fine bright weather has brought out many very elegant spring
bonnets. The most fashionable are of Leghorn, which, during the
approaching season, is likely to recover the favor it enjoyed some years
ago. The shape of new Leghorn bonnets is elegant and becoming--the brim
is wide and circular, and the crown gently sloping backwards. The
_bavolet_ at the back is made of the Leghorn itself, instead of being
composed of silk or ribbon, as in bonnets of straw or other materials.
The favorite style of trimming Leghorns is with fancy straw, tastefully
intermingled with velvet or ribbon, of some dark rick color. On one side
may be placed a small ostrich feather, of the color of the Leghorn, or
shaded in the hues of the bird of Paradise. As the season advances,
flowers will be employed for trimming these bonnets. Genin has
introduced a great variety of new and fanciful styles from the recent
Paris modes, for children, and for ladies' riding dresses. They are of
Leghorn, felt, and beaver, all of which will be in vogue through April,
and they are generally very tasteful and elegant.
[Illustration]
In the above figure we have a _Promenade or Carriage Costume_, of rich
figured silk; the sleeves open at the ends, with under sleeves of white
muslin; with a Leghorn bonnet, trimmed with fancy straw and
violet-colored ribbon, tastefully intermingled; on one side a Leghorn
colored feather, waving spirally. Under-trimming, loops of narrow ribbon
in various shades of violet; and gloves of pale yellow kid. The
_taffetas d'Athenes_ is appropriate for ball dresses, and obtains
generally; the ground is white, blue, or pale pink, brochees in silk of
all colors in wreaths, or bouquets, forming undulating festoons round
the bottoms of the triple skirts. The upper skirt is flowered over in
small designs to the waist, as is also the body and sleeves. The
_taffetas flore_ has a white ground, covered with small bouquets of wild
field flowers. The _taffetas rose_ has wreaths of large roses, brochees
in white silk round each skirt, and rose-buds over the top skirt and
body. This toilet should be accompanied with a coiffure, of a wreath of
white roses, fixed behind by a bow and long floating ends of satin
ribbon, forming an elegant evening toilette for a bride. The manteaux,
with hoods, continue in fashion; they are generally made of cloth. The
mantelet-echarpe has been cited for its elegance and taste. It is more
dressy than the manteaux, marking the waist, and descending in front in
square ends. Sorties de bal, are very fanciful. Some of white cachemire,
trimmed with beads, silk, and jet, with magnificent lace or deep fringe.
Others of white or pink satin, edged with ruches of guipure lace, or
rouleaux of marabouts. They have hoods and large Venetian sleeves.