Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 1. No 1, June 1850

That I can not yet relate,
Of this gallant expedition,
What has been the final fate.
Whether Athens was bombarded
For her Jew-coercing crimes,
Hath not been as yet reported
In the columns of the Times.
But the last accounts assure us of some valuable spoil:
Various coasting vessels, laden with tobacco, fruit, and oil.

xii

Ancient chiefs! that sailed with Jason
O'er the wild and stormy waves —
Let not sounds of later triumphs
Stir you in your quiet graves!
Other Argonauts have ventured
To your old Hellenic shore,
But they will not live in story
Like the valiant men of yore.
O! 'tis more than shame and sorrow thus to jest upon a theme
That for Britain's fame and glory, all would wish to be dream!

MONTHLY RECORD OF CURRENT EVENTS

THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE will present monthly a digest of all Foreign Events, Incidents, and Opinions, that may seem to have either interest or value for the great body of American readers. Domestic intelligence reaches every one so much sooner through the Daily and Weekly Newspapers, that its repetition in the pages of a Monthly would be dull and profitless. We shall confine our summary, therefore, to the events and movements of foreign lands.

The Affairs of France continue to excite general interest. The election of member of the Assembly in Paris has been the great European event of the month. The Socialists nominated Eugene Sue; their opponents, M. Leclerc. The first is known to all the world as a literary man of great talent, personally a profligate – wealthy, unprincipled, and unscrupulous. The latter was a tradesman, distinguished for nothing but having fought and lost a son at the barricades, and entirely unqualified for the post for which he had been put in nomination. The contest was thus not so much a struggle between the men, as the parties they represented; and those parties were not simply Socialists and Anti-Socialists. Each party included more than its name would imply. The Socialists in Paris are all Republicans: it suits the purposes of the Government to consider all Republicans as Socialists, inasmuch as it gives them an admirable opportunity to make war upon Republicanism, while they seem only to be resisting Socialism. In this adroit and dangerous manner Louis Napoleon was advancing with rapid strides toward that absolutism – that personal domination independent of the Constitution, which is the evident aim of all his efforts and all his hopes. He had gone on exercising the most high-handed despotism, and violating the most explicit and sacred guarantees of the Constitution. He had forbidden public meetings, suppressed public papers, and outraged private rights, with the most wanton disregard of those provisions of the Constitution by which they are expressly guaranteed. The nomination of Eugene Sue was a declaration of hostility to this unconstitutional dynasty. He was supported not only by the Socialists proper, but by all citizens who were in favor of maintaining the Republic with its constitutional guarantees. The issue was thus between a Republic and a Monarchy, between the Constitution and a Revolution. For days previous to the election this issue was broadly marked, and distinctly recognized by all the leading royalist journals, and the Republic was attacked with all the power of argument and ridicule. Repressive laws, and a stronger form of government, which should bridle the fierce democracy, were clamorously demanded. The very day before the polls were opened, the Napoleon journal, which derives its chief inspiration from the President, drew a colored parallel between the necessities of the 18th Brumaire, and those of the present crisis, and entered into a labored vindication of all the arbitrary measures which followed Bonaparte's dissolution of the Assembly, and his usurpation of the executive power. The most high-handed expedients were resorted to by the ministry to assure the success of the coalition. The sale of all the principal democratic journals in the streets was interdicted. The legal prosecutions of the Procureur General virtually reestablished the censorship of the Press. Placards in favor of the democratic candidate were excluded from the street walls, while those of his opponent were every where emblazoned. Electoral meetings were prohibited; democratic merchants and shop-keepers were threatened with a loss of patronage; and the whole republican party was officially denounced as a horde of imbeciles, and knaves, and fanatics. No means were left unemployed by the reactionists to secure a victory.

It was all in vain. On closing the polls the vote stood thus:

And, what is still more startling, four-fifths of all the votes given by the Army were cast for Sue. The result created a good deal of alarm in Paris. Stocks fell, and there seemed to be a general apprehension of an outbreak. If any such event occurs, however, it will be through the instigation of the Government. Finding himself outvoted, Louis Napoleon would undoubtedly be willing to try force. In any event, we do not believe it will be found possible to overthrow Republicanism in France.

Previous to the election there was a Mutiny in the 11th Infantry. On the march of the 2d battalion from Rennes to Toulon, on the 11th April, the popular cry was raised by the common soldiers, urged on by the democrats of the town, and they insulted their officers. At Angers the men were entertained at a fete; and in the evening the soldiers and subaltern officers, accompanied by their entertainers, paraded the streets, shouting again and again, "Vive la République démocratique et sociale!" The Minister of War, on receiving intelligence of this affair, ordered the battalion to be disbanded, and the subalterns and soldiers drafted into the regiments at Algiers.

Besides this disgrace, an involuntary and Appalling Calamity befell this regiment. When the 3d battalion was leaving Angers, on the 16th, at eleven o'clock in the morning they met a squadron of hussars coming from Nantes, which crossed over the suspension-bridge of the Basse Maine, without any accident. A fearful storm raged at the time. The last of the horses had scarcely crossed the bridge than the head of the column of the third battalion of the 11th appeared on the other side. Reiterated warnings were given to the troops to break into sections, as is usually done, but, the rain falling heavily, it was disregarded, and they advanced in close column. The head of the battalion had reached the opposite side – the pioneers, the drummers, and a part of the band were off the bridge, when a horrible crash was heard; the cast-iron columns of the right bank suddenly gave way, crushing beneath them the rear of the fourth company, which, with the flank company, had not stepped upon the bridge. To describe the frightful spectacle, and the cries of despair which were raised, is impossible. The whole town rushed to the spot to give assistance. In spite of the storm, all the boats that could be got at were launched to pick up the soldiers in the river, and a great number who were clinging to the parapets of the bridge, or who were afloat by their knapsacks, were immediately got out. The greater number were, however, found to be wounded by the bayonets, or by the fragments of the bridge falling on them. As the soldiers were got out, they were led into the houses adjoining, and every assistance given. A young lieutenant, M. Loup, rendered himself conspicuous for his heroic exertions; and a young workwoman, at the imminent danger of her life, jumped into the water, and saved the life of an officer who was just sinking. A journeyman hatter stripped and jumped into the river, and, by his strength and skill in swimming, saved a great many lives. One of the soldiers who had reached the shore unhurt, immediately stripped, and swam to the assistance of his comrades. The lieutenant-colonel, an old officer of the empire, was taken out of the river seriously wounded, but remained to watch over the rescue of his comrades. It appears that some people of the town were walking on the bridge at the time of the accident, for among the bodies found were those of a servant-maid and two children.

When the muster-roll was called, it was found that there were 219 soldiers missing, whose fate was unknown. There were, besides, 33 bodies lying in the hospital, and 30 wounded men; 70 more bodies were found during the morning, 4 of whom were officers.

M. Proudhon was arrested on the 18th, and sent to the fortress of Doullens, for having charged the ministry in his own paper, the "Voix du Peuple," with having occasioned the disaster of Angers by sending the 11th Regiment of Light Infantry to Africa. In a letter from prison he acquitted the government of design in producing the catastrophe, but in a tone which hinted the possibility of so diabolical a crime having been meditated.

A Notorious Murderer has been arrested in France, whose mysterious and criminal career would afford the materials for a romance. He was taken at Ivry; in virtue of a writ granted by the President, on the demand of the Sardinian government, having been condemned for a murder under extraordinary circumstances. He was arrested in 1830, at Chambery, his native town, for being concerned in a murder; but he escaped from the prison of Bonneville, where he was confined, and by means of a disguise succeeded in reaching the town of Chene Tonnex, where he went to an inn which was full of travelers. There being no vacant beds, the innkeeper allowed him to sleep in a room with a cattle-dealer, named Claude Duret. The unfortunate cattle-dealer was found dead in the morning, he having been smothered with the mattress on which he had slept. He had a large sum of money with him, which was stolen, and this, as well as his papers, had, no doubt, been taken by Louis Pellet, who had disappeared. Judicial inquiries ensued, and the result was that Louis Pellet, already known to have committed a murder, was condemned, par contumace, to ten years' imprisonment at the galleys by the senate of Chambery. In the mean time Louis Pellet, profiting by the papers of the unfortunate Claude Duret, contrived to reach Paris, when he opened a shop, where he organized a foreign legion for Algeria, enrolled himself under the name of his victim, and sailed for Oran in a government vessel. From this time up to 1834 all trace of him was lost. He came to Paris, took a house, amassed a large sum of money, and it turns out he was mixed up with a number of cases of murder, swindling, and forgery. These facts came to the knowledge of the police, owing to Pellet having been taken before the Correctional Police for a trifling offense, when he appealed against the punishment of confinement for five days. The French government immediately sent an account of the arrest of this great criminal to the consul of the government of Savoy resident at Paris.

Political movements in England are not without interest and importance, although nothing startling has occurred. The birth of another Prince, christened Arthur, has furnished another occasion for evincing the attachment of the English people to their sovereign. The event, which, occurred on the 28th of April, was celebrated by the usual demonstrations of popular joy. Few years will elapse, however, before each of the princes and princesses, whose advent is now so warmly welcomed, will require a splendid and expensive establishment, which will add still more to the burdens of taxation which already press, with overwhelming weight, upon the great mass of the English people. Thus it is that every thing in that country, however fortunate and welcome it may appear, tends irresistibly to an increase of popular burdens which infallibly give birth to popular discontents.

The attention of Parliament has been attracted of late, in an unusual degree, to the intellectual wants of the humbler classes, and to the removal, by legislation, of some of the many restrictions which now deprive them of all access even to the most ordinary sources of information. Even newspapers, which in this country go into the hands of every man, woman, and child who can read, and which therefore enable every member of the community to keep himself informed concerning all matters of interest to him as a citizen, are virtually prohibited to the poorer classes in England by the various duties which are imposed upon them, and which raise the price so high as to be beyond their reach. Mr. Gibson, in the House of Commons, brought forward resolutions, on the 16th of April, to abolish what he justly styled these Taxes on Knowledge: they proposed 1st, to repeal the excise duty only on paper; 2d, to abolish the stamp, and 3d, the advertisement duty on newspapers; 4th, to do away with the customs duty on foreign books. In urging these measures Mr. Gibson said, that the sacrifice of the small excise duty on paper yearly, would lead to the employment of 40,000 people in London alone. The suppression of Chambers' Miscellany, and the prevented re-issue of Mr. Charles Knight's Penny Cyclopædia, from the pressure of the duty, were cited as gross instances of the check those duties impose on the diffusion of knowledge. Mr. Gibson did not propose to alter the postal part of the newspaper stamp duties; all the duty paid for postage – a very large proportion – would therefore still be paid. He dwelt on the unjust Excise caprices which permit this privilege to humorous and scientific weekly periodicals, but deny it to the avowed "news" columns of the daily press. He especially showed by extracts from a heap of unstamped newspapers, that great evil is committed on the poorest reading classes, by denying them that useful fact and true exposition which would be the best antidote to the pernicious principles now disseminated among them by the cheap, unstamped press. There is no reason but this duty, which only gives £350,000 per annum, why the poor man should not have his penny and even his halfpenny newspaper, to give him the leading facts and the important ideas of the passing time. The tax on advertisements checks information, fines poverty, mulcts charity, depresses literature, and impedes every species of mental activity, to realize £150,000 per annum. That mischievous tax on knowledge, the duty on foreign books, is imposed for the sake of no more than £8000 a year! Mr. Gibson concluded by expressing his firm conviction, that unless these taxes were removed, and the progress of knowledge by that and every other possible means facilitated, evils most terrible would arise in the future – a not unfit retribution for the gross impolicy of the legislature. He was supported by Mr. Roebuck, but the motion was negatived, 190 to 89. In his speech he instanced a curious specimen of the manner in which the act is sometimes evaded. A Greenock publisher himself informed him that, having given offense to the authorities by some political reflections in a weekly unstamped newspaper of his of the character of Chambers's Journal, he was prosecuted for violation of the Stamp Act, and fined for each of five numbers £25. Thereupon he diligently studied the Act; and finding that printing upon cloth was not within the prohibition, he set to work and printed his journal upon cloth – giving matter "savoring of intelligence" without the penny stamp – and calling his paper the Greenock Newscloth, sent it forth despite the Solicitor to the Stamp Office.

The Education Bill introduced by Mr. Fox came up on the 17th, and was discussed at some length. The general character of the measure proposed, is very forcibly set forth in an article from the Examiner, which will be found upon a preceding page of this Magazine. The bill was opposed mainly by Lord Arundel, a Catholic, on the ground that it made no provision for religious education, and secular education he denounced as essentially atheistic. Mr. Roebuck advocated the bill in an able and eloquent speech, urging the propriety of education as a means of preventing crime. He asked for the education of the people, and he asked it upon the lowest ground. As a mere matter of policy, the state ought to educate the people; and why did he say so? Lord Ashley had been useful in his generation in getting up Ragged Schools. It was a great imputation upon the kingdom that such schools were needed. Why were they needed? Because of the vice which was swarming in all our great cities. "We pass laws," said he, "send forth an army of judges and barristers to administer them, erect prisons and place aloft gibbets to enforce them; but religious bigotry prevents the chance of our controlling the evil at the source, by so teaching the people as to prevent the crimes we strive to punish." It was because he believed that prevention was better than cure; it was because he believed that the business of government was to prevent crime in every possible way rather than to punish it after its commission, that he asked the house to divest themselves of all that prejudice and bigotry which was at the bottom of the opposition to this measure. The bill was warmly opposed, however, and its further consideration was postponed until the 20th of May.

The ministry during the month has been defeated upon several measures, though upon none of very great importance. In the first week of the meeting of parliament after the Easter holidays, the cabinet had to endure, in the House of Commons, three defeats – two positive, and one comparative; and, shortly after, a fourth. On a motion, having for its object improvement in the status and accommodation of assistant-surgeons on board Her Majesty's ships, ministers were placed in a minority equal to eight votes. On the measure for extending the jurisdiction of county courts, to which they were not disposed to agree, they voted with a minority, which numbered 67 against 144 votes. These were the positive defeats; the comparative one arose out of a motion to abolish the window-tax. Against this the cabinet made come effort, but its supporters only mustered in sufficient strength to afford a majority of three. Their last disaster was in a committee on the New Stamp Duties Bill. The ministry seem disposed to gratify the public by economy so far as possible. Lord John Russell having introduced and carried a motion for a select committee on the subject.

Great preparations are making for the Industrial Exhibition of 1851. It has been decided that it is to take place in Hyde Park in a building made of iron to guard against fire. The Literary Gazette has the following paragraph in regard to it:

"We are informed that an overture has been received by the Royal Commissioners from the government of the United States of America, offering to remove the exhibition, after its close in London, to be reproduced at New York, and paying a consideration for the same which would go toward the increase of the English fund. With regard to this fund, while we again express our regret at its languishing so much, and at the continuance of the jobbing which inflicted the serious wound on its commencement, and is still allowed to paralyze the proceedings in chief, we adhere to the opinion that it will be sufficient for the Occasion. The Occasion, not as bombastically puffed, but as nationally worthy; and that the large sum which may be calculated upon for admissions (not to mention this new American element), will carry it through in as satisfactory a manner as could be expected."

The Expeditions to the Arctic Seas in search of Sir John Franklin attract a good deal of attention. It is stated that Captain Penny was to sail April 30th from Scotland, in command of the two ships the Lady Franklin and the Sophia. He will proceed without delay to Jones's Sound; which he purposes thoroughly to explore. The proposed expedition under the direction of Sir John Ross will also be carried into execution. He will sail from Ayr about the middle of May; and will probably be accompanied by Commander Philips, who was with Sir James Ross in his Antarctic Expedition. Another expedition, in connection with that of Sir John Ross, is under consideration. It has for its object the search of Prince Regent's Inlet by ship as far south as Brentford Bay; from whence walking and boating parties might be dispatched in various directions. This plan – which could be carried into effect by dispatching a small vessel with Sir John Ross, efficiently equipped for the service – is deemed highly desirable by several eminent authorities; as it is supposed – and not without considerable reason – that Sir John Franklin may be to the south of Cape Walker; and that he would, in such case, presuming him to be under the necessity of forsaking his ships this spring, prefer making for the wreck of the Fury stores in Prince Regent's Inlet, the existence of which he is aware of, to attempting to gain the barren shore of North America, which would involve great hazard and fatigue. As a matter of course this second expedition would be of a private nature, and wholly independent of those dispatched by the Admiralty. These various expeditions, in addition to that organized by Mr. Henry Grinell of New York, will do all that can be done toward rescuing Captain Franklin, or, at least, obtaining some knowledge of his fate.

The death of Wordsworth, the Patriarch of English Poetry, and that of Bowles, distinguished also in the same high sphere, have called forth biographical notices from the English press. A sketch of each of these distinguished men will be found in these pages. The propriety of discontinuing the laureateship is forcibly urged. About £2000 has been contributed toward the erection of a monument to Lord Jeffrey.

The London Scientific Societies present nothing of extraordinary interest for the month. At the meeting of the Geological Society, March 28, Sir Roderick Murchison read a paper of some importance on the Relations of the Hot Water and Vapor sources of Tuscany to the Volcanic Eruptions of Italy. On the 10th of April, a paper was read from Prof. Lepsius on the height of the Nile valley in Nubia, which was formerly much greater than it is now.

At the Royal Society, April 12, the Rev. Professor O'Brien, in a paper "on a Popular View of certain Points in the Undulatory Theory of Light," restricted his illustration to a single topic, namely, the analogy of the mixture of colors to the mixture of sounds, having first explained generally what the undulatory theory of light is, and the composition of colors and sounds. At the meeting on the 19th, Mr. Stenhouse, in concluding a paper on the artificial production of organic bases, said he did not despair of producing artificially the natural alkaloids, and the more especially as, thirty years ago, we could not produce any alkaloids. Before the chair was vacated, Mr. Faraday submitted a powerful magnet which had been sent to him by a foreign philosopher; indeed, it was the strongest ever made. A good magnet, Mr. Faraday said, weighing 8 lbs., would support a weight of about 40 lbs. The magnet he exhibited had surprised him; it weighed only 1 lb., and it supported 26-1/2 lbs. This magnet, so beautifully made, was, we believe, constructed by M. Lozeman, on a new method, the result of the researches of M. Elias, both of Haarlem.

At another meeting of the same society, Dr. Mantell submitted a paper upon the Pelorosaurus, an undescribed, gigantic terrestrial reptile, of which an enormous arm-bone, or humerus, has recently been discovered in Sussex. It was found imbedded in sandstone, by Mr. Peter Fuller, of Lewes, at about twenty feet below the surface; it presents the usual mineralized condition of the fossil bones from the arneaceous strata of the Wealden. It is four and a half feet in length, and the circumference of its distal extremity is 32 inches! It has a medullary cavity 3 inches in diameter, which at once separates it from the Cetiosaurus and other supposed marine Saurians, while its form and proportions distinguish it from the humerus of the Iguanodon, Hylæosaurus, and Megalosaurus. It approaches most nearly to the Crocodilians, but possesses characters distinct from any known fossil genus. Its size is stupendous, far surpassing that of the corresponding bone even of the gigantic Iguanodon; and the name of Pelorosaurus (from [Greek: pelor], pelõr, monster) is, therefore, proposed for the genus, with the specific term Conybeari, in honor of the palæontological labors of the Dean of Llandaff. No bones have been found in such contiguity with this humerus as to render it certain that they belonged to the same gigantic reptile; but several very large caudal vertebræ of peculiar characters, collected from the same quarry, are probably referable to the Pelorosaurus; these, together with some distal caudals which belong to the same type, are figured and described by the author. Certain femora and other bones from the oolite of Oxfordshire, in the collection of the dean of Westminster, at Oxford, are mentioned as possessing characters more allied to those of the Pelorosaurus, or to some unknown terrestrial Saurian, than to the Cetiosaurus, with which they have been confounded. As to the magnitude of the animal to which the humerus belonged, Dr. Mantell, while disclaiming the idea of arriving at any certain conclusions from a single bone, stated that in a Gavial 18 feet long, the humerus is one foot in length, i. e., one-eighteenth part of the length of the animal, from the end, of the muzzle to the tip of the tail. According to these admeasurements the Pelorosaurus would be 81 feet long, and its body 20 feet in circumference. But if we assume the length and number of the vertebræ as the scale, we should have a reptile of relatively abbreviated proportions; even in this case, however, the original creature would far surpass in magnitude the most colossal of reptilian forms. A writer in the Athenæum, in speaking of the expense of marble and bronze statues, which limits the possession of works of high art to the wealthy, calls attention to the fact that lead possesses every requisite for the casting of statues which bronze possesses, while it excels that costly material in two very important particulars – cheapness, and fusibility at a low temperature. As evidence that it may be used for that purpose, he cites the fact that the finest piece of statuary in Edinburgh is composed of lead. This is the equestrian statue of Charles the Second, erected in the Parliament Square by the magistrates of Edinburgh in honor of the restoration of that monarch. This statue is such a fine work of art that it has deceived almost every one who has mentioned its composition. Thus, a late writer in giving an account of the statuary in Edinburgh describes it as consisting of "hollow bronze;" and in "Black's Guide through Edinburgh" it is spoken of as "the best specimen of bronze statuary which Edinburgh possesses." It is, however, composed of lead, and has already, without sensible deterioration, stood the test of 165 years' exposure to the weather, and it still seems as fresh as if erected but yesterday. Lead, therefore, appears from this instance to be sufficiently durable to induce artists to make trial of it in metallic castings, instead of bronze.

Intelligence from Mosul to the 4th ult. states that Mr. Layard and his party are still carrying on their excavations at Nimrood and Nineveh. A large number of copper vessels beautifully engraved have been found in the former; and from the latter a large assortment of fine slabs illustrative of the rule, conquests, domestic life, and arts of the ancient Assyrians, are daily coming to light, and are committed to paper by the artist, Mr. Cooper, one of the expedition. Mr Layard intends to make a trip to the Chaboor, the Chaboras of the Romans, and to visit Reish Aina, the Resen of Scripture, where he hopes to find a treasure of Assyrian remains.

The Literary Intelligence of the month is not of special interest. The first part of a new work by William Mure, entitled a "Critical History of the Language and Literature of Ancient Greece," has just been published in London, and elicits warm commendation from the critical journals. The three volumes thus far published are devoted mainly to a discussion of Homer. Mr. Charles Merivale has also completed and published two volumes of his "History of the Romans under the Empire," which extend to the death of Julius Caesar.

Mrs. Sara Coleridge, widow of Henry Nelson, and daughter of S.T. Coleridge, has collected such of her father's supposed writings in the Watchman, Morning Post, and Courier, ranging between the years 1795 and 1817, as could with any certainty be identified for his, and, with such as he avowed by his signature, has published them in three duodecimo volumes, as Essays on his own Times, or a second series of The Friend. They are dedicated to Archdeacon Hare, and embody not a little of that system of thought, or method of regarding public affairs from the point of view of a liberal and enlarged Christianity, which is now ordinarily associated with what is called the German party in the English Church. The volumes are not only a valuable contribution to the history of a very remarkable man's mind, but also to the history of the most powerful influence now existing in the world – the Newspaper Press.

A more complete and elaborate work upon this subject, however, has appeared in the shape of two post octavo volumes by Mr. F. Knight Hunt, entitled The Fourth Estate. Mr. Hunt describes his book very fairly as contributions toward a history of newspapers, and of the liberty of the press, rather than as a complete historical view of either; but he has had a proper feeling for the literature of his subject, and has varied his entertaining anecdotes of the present race of newspaper men, with extremely curious and valuable notices of the past.

Of books on mixed social and political questions the most prominent has been a new volume of Mr. Laing's Observations on the Social and Political State of the European People, devoted to the last two years, from the momentous incidents of which Mr. Laing derives sundry warnings as to the instability of the future, the necessity of changes in education and political arrangements, and the certain ultimate predominance of material over imaginative influences in the progress of civilization, which his readers will very variously estimate, according to their habits of thinking; and Mr. Kay's collections of evidence as to the present Social Condition and Education of the People in England and Europe, the object of which is to show that the results of the primary schools, and of the system of dividing landed property, existing on the Continent, has been to produce a certain amount of mental cultivation and social comfort among the lower classes of the people abroad, to which the same classes in England can advance no claim whatever. The book contains a great deal of curious evidence in support of this opinion.

Of works strictly relating to modern history, the first volume of General Klapka's memoirs of the War in Hungary, and a military treatise by Colonel Cathcart on the Russian and German Campaigns of 1812 and 1813, may be mentioned as having authority. Klapka was a distinguished actor in the war he now illustrates by his narrative, and Colonel Cathcart saw eight general actions lost and won in which Napoleon commanded in person.

In the department of biography, the principal publications have been a greatly improved edition of Mr. Charles Knight's illustrations of the Life of Shakspeare, with the erasure of many fanciful, and the addition of many authentic details; a narrative of the Life of the Duke of Kent, by Mr. Erskine Neale, in which the somewhat troubled career of that very amiable prince is described with an evident desire to do justice to his character and virtues; and a Life of Dr. Andrew Combe, of Edinburgh, an active and benevolent physician, who led the way in that application of the truths and teachings of physiology to health and education, which has of late occupied so largely the attention of the best thinkers of the time, and whose career is described with affectionate enthusiasm by his brother Mr. George Combe. Not as a regular biography, but as a delightful assistance, not only to our better knowledge of the wittiest and one of the wisest of modern men, but to our temperate and just judgments of all men, we may mention the publication of the posthumous fragments of Sydney Smith's Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy.

To the department of poetry, Mr. Browning's Christmas Eve and Easter Day has been the most prominent addition. But we have also to mention a second and final volume of More Verse and Prose by the late Corn-law Rhymer; a new poetical translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, by Mr. Patrick Bannerman; and a dramatic poem, called the Roman, by a writer who adopts the fictitious name of Sydney Yendys, on the recent revolutionary movements in Italy. In prose fiction, the leading productions have been a novel entitled the Initials, depicting German social life, by a new writer; and an historical romance, called Reginald Hastings, of which the subject is taken from the English civil wars, by Mr. Eliot Warburton.

The Deaths of Distinguished Persons, during the month, have not been very numerous, though they comprise names of considerable celebrity in various departments.

Of Wordsworth and Bowles, both poets, and both friends of Coleridge, Lamb, Southey, and Crabbe, more detailed mention is made in preceding pages.

Lieut. – General Sir James Bathurst, K.C.B., died at Kibworth Rectory, Leicestershire, on the 13th, in his 68th year. When he entered the army in 1794, if his age be correctly stated, he could have been only twelve years of age. He served at Gibraltar and in the West Indies, the capture of Surinam, the campaign in Egypt in 1801, in the expedition to Hanover, and in the actions fought for the relief of Dantzic, as well as in those of Lomitten, Deppen, Gutstadt, Heilsberg, and Friedland. Subsequently he served at Rugen, and at the siege of Copenhagen. In 1808 and 1809, he served with the army in Portugal and Spain as assistant quartermaster-general, and as military secretary to the Duke of Wellington.

Madame Dulcken died on the 13th, in Harley-street, aged 38. She was the sister of the celebrated violinist, David, and had been for many years resident in England, where she held a conspicuous position among the most eminent professors of the piano-forte.

Sir Archibald Galloway, Chairman of the Hon. East India Company, died on the 6th, in London, aged 74, after a few hours' illness. He transacted business at the India House, on the 4th, and presided at the banquet recently given by the directors of the East India Company to Lord Gough.

Rear-Admiral Hills died on the 8th, aged 73. He became a lieutenant in 1798, and a post-captain in 1814. The deceased was a midshipman of the Eclair at the occupation of Toulon, and was lieutenant of the Amethyst at the capture of various prizes during the late war.

Dr. Prout, F.R.S., expired in Piccadilly, on the 9th, at an advanced age. He was till lately in extensive practice as a physician, besides being a successful author.

Captain Smith, R.N., the Admiralty superintendent of packets at Southampton, died on the 8th, unexpectedly. He was distinguished as the inventor of paddle-box boats for steamers, and of the movable target for practicing naval gunnery. He entered the navy in 1808, and saw a good deal of service till the close of the war.

Madame Tussaud, the well-known exhibitor of wax figures, died on the 10th, in her 90th year. She was a native of Berne, but left Switzerland when but six years old for Paris, where she became a pupil of her uncle, M. Curtius, "artiste to Louis XVI.," by whom she was instructed in the fine arts, of which he was an eminent professor. Madame Tussaud prided herself upon the fact of having instructed Madame Elizabeth to draw and model, and she continued to be employed by that princess until October, 1789. She passed unharmed through the horrors of the Revolution, perhaps by reason of her peculiar ability as a modeler; for she was employed to take heads of most of the Revolutionary leaders. She came to England in 1802, and has from that time been occupied in gathering the popular exhibition now exhibiting in London.

Affairs in Italy seem very unpromising. The Pope returned to Rome on the 12th: and in this number of this Magazine will be found a detailed and very graphic account of his approach, entry, and reception. From subsequent accounts there is reason to fear that the Pope has fallen entirely under the influence of the Absolutist party, which now sways the councils of the Vatican; and the same arbitrary proceedings appear to be carried on in his immediate presence as were the order of the day when he resided at Portici. The secret press of the Republican party is kept at work, and its productions, somehow or other, find their way into the hands of Pio Nono himself, filling him with indignation. It is said that the Pontiff is very much dissatisfied with his present position, which he feels to be that of a prisoner or hostage. No one is allowed to approach him without permission, and all papers are opened beforehand by the authority of Cardinal Antonelli. It is generally feared that his Holiness is a tool in the hands of the Absolutists – a very pretty consummation to have been brought about by the republican bayonets of France! Italy, for which so many hopes have been entertained, and of whose successful progress in political regeneration so many delightful anticipations have been indulged, seems to be overshadowed, from the Alps to the Abruzzi, with one great failure.