CHAPTER IX.

In the cool of the evening Dr. Riccabocca walked home across the fields. Mr. and Mrs. Dale had accompanied him half way; and as they now turned back to the parsonage, they looked behind, to catch a glimpse of the tall, outlandish figure, winding slowly through the path amidst the waves of the green corn.

"Poor man!" said Mrs. Dale, feelingly; "and the button was off his wristband! What a pity he has nobody to take care of him! He seems very domestic. Don't you think, Charles, it would be a great blessing if we could get him a good wife?"

"Um," said the Parson; "I doubt if he values the married state as he ought."

"What do you mean, Charles? I never saw a man more polite to ladies in my life."

"Yes, but--"

"But what? You are always so mysterious, Charles dear."

"Mysterious! No, Carry; but if you could hear what the Doctor says of the ladies sometimes."

"Ay, when you men get together, my dear, I know what that means-pretty things you say of us. But you are all alike; you know you are, love!"

"I am sure," said the Parson, simply, "that I have good cause to speak well of the sex--when I think of you, and my poor mother."

Mrs. Dale, who, with all her "tempers," was an excellent woman, and loved her husband with the whole of her quick little heart, was touched. She pressed his hand, and did not call him _dear_ all the way home.

Meanwhile the Italian passed the fields, and came upon the high-road about two miles from Hazeldean. On one side stood an old-fashioned solitary inn, such as English inns used to be before they became railway hotels--square, solid, old-fashioned, looking so hospitable and comfortable, with their great signs swinging from some elm tree in front, and the long row of stables standing a little back, with a chaise or two in the yard, and the jolly landlord talking of the crops to some stout farmer, who has stopped his rough pony at the well-known door. Opposite this inn, on the other side the road, stood the habitation of Dr. Riccabocca.

A few years before the date of these annals, the stage coach, on its way to London from a seaport town, stopped at the inn, as was its wont, for a good hour, that its passengers might dine like Christian Englishmen--not gulp down a basin of scalding soup, like everlasting heathen Yankees, with that cursed railway whistle shrieking like a fiend in their ears! It was the best dining-place on the whole road, for the trout in the neighboring rill were famous, and so was the mutton which came from Hazeldean Park.

From the outside of the coach had descended two passengers who, alone insensible to the attractions of mutton and trout, refused to dine--two melancholy-looking foreigners, of whom one was Signor Riccabocca, much the same as we see him now, only that the black suit was less threadbare, the tall form less meager, and he did not then wear spectacles; and the other was his servant. "They would walk about while the coach stopped." Now the Italian's eye had been caught by a mouldering dismantled house on the other side of the road, which nevertheless was well situated; half-way up a green hill, with its aspect due south, a little cascade falling down artificial rock-work, and a terrace with a balustrade, and a few broken urns and statues before its Ionic portico; while on the roadside stood a board, with characters already half effaced, implying that the house was to be "Let unfurnished, with or without land."

The abode that looked so cheerless, and which had so evidently hung long on hand, was the property of Squire Hazeldean. It had been built by his grandfather on the female side--a country gentleman who had actually been in Italy (a journey rare enough to boast of in those days), and who, on his return home, had attempted a miniature imitation of an Italian villa. He left an only daughter and sole heiress, who married Squire Hazeldean's father: and since that time, the house, abandoned by its proprietors for the larger residence of the Hazeldeans, had been uninhabited and neglected. Several tenants, indeed, had offered themselves; but your squire is slow in admitting upon his own property a rival neighbor. Some wanted shooting. "That," said the Hazeldeans, who were great sportsmen and strict preservers, "was quite out of the question." Others were fine folks from London. "London servants," said the Hazeldeans, who were moral and prudent people, "would corrupt their own, and bring London prices." Others, again, were retired manufacturers, at whom the Hazeldeans turned up their agricultural noses. In short, some were too grand, and others too vulgar. Some were refused because they were known so well: "Friends are best at a distance," said the Hazeldeans. Others because they were not known at all: "No good comes of strangers," said the Hazeldeans. And finally, as the house fell more and more into decay, no one would take it unless it was put into thorough repair: "As if one was made of money!" said the Hazeldeans. In short, there stood the house unoccupied and ruinous; and there, on its terrace, stood the two forlorn Italians, surveying it with a smile at each other, as, for the first time since they set foot in England, they recognized, in dilapidated pilasters and broken statues, in a weed-grown terrace and the remains of an orangery, something that reminded them of the land they had left behind.

On returning to the inn, Dr. Riccabocca took the occasion of learning from the innkeeper (who was indeed a tenant of the Squire's) such particulars as he could collect; and a few days afterward Mr. Hazeldean received a letter from a solicitor of repute in London, stating that a very respectable foreign gentleman had commissioned him to treat for Clump Lodge, otherwise called the "Casino;" that the said gentleman did not shoot--lived in great seclusion--and, having no family, did not care about the repairs of the place, provided only it were made weather-proof--if the omission of more expensive reparations could render the rent suitable to his finances, which were very limited. The offer came at a fortunate moment--when the steward had just been representing to the Squire the necessity of doing something to keep the Casino from falling into positive ruin, and the Squire was cursing the fates which had put the Casino into an entail--so that he could not pull it down for the building materials. Mr. Hazeldean therefore, caught at the proposal even as a fair lady, who has refused the best offers in the kingdom, catches at last at some battered old Captain on half-pay, and replied that, as for rent, if the solicitors client was a quiet respectable man, he did not care for that. But that the gentleman might have it for the first year rent free, on condition of paying the taxes and putting the place a little in order. If they suited each other, they could then come to terms. Ten days subsequently to this gracious reply, Signer Riccabocca and his servant arrived; and, before the years end, the Squire was so contented with his tenant that he gave him a running lease of seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years, at a rent nearly nominal, on condition that Signer Riccabocca would put and maintain the place in repair, barring the roof and fences, which the Squire generously renewed at his own expense. It was astonishing, by little and little, what a pretty place the Italian had made of it, and what is more astonishing, how little it had cost him. He had indeed painted the walls of the hall, staircase, and the rooms appropriated to himself, with his own hands. His servant had done the greater part of the upholstery. The two between them had got the garden into order. The Italians seemed to have taken a joint love to the place, and to deck it as they would have done some favorite chapel to their Madonna.

It was long before the natives reconciled themselves to the odd ways of the foreign settlers. The first thing that offended them was the exceeding smallness of the household bills. Three days out of the seven, indeed, both man and master dined on nothing else but the vegetables in the garden, and the fishes in the neighboring rill; when no trout could be caught they fried the minnows, (and certainly, even in the best streams, minnows are more frequently caught than trouts.) The next thing which angered the natives quite as much, especially the female part of the neighborhood, was the very sparing employment the two he creatures gave to the sex usually deemed so indispensable in household matters. At first indeed, they had no woman servant at all. But this created such horror that Parson Dale ventured a hint upon the matter, which Riccabocca took in very good part, and an old woman was forthwith engaged, after some bargaining--at three shillings a week--to wash and scrub as much as she liked during the daytime. She always returned to her own cottage to sleep. The man servant, who was styled in the neighborhood "Jackeymo," did all else for his master--smoothed his room, dusted his papers, prepared his coffee, cooked his dinner, brushed his clothes, and cleaned his pipes, of which Riccabocca had a large collection. But however close a man's character, it generally creeps out in driblets; and on many little occasions the Italian had shown acts of kindness, and, on some more rare occasions, even of generosity, which had served to silence his calumniators, and by degrees he had established a very fair reputation--suspected, it is true, of being a little inclined to the Black Art, and of a strange inclination to starve Jackeymo and himself,--in other respects harmless enough.

Signor Riccabocca had become very intimate, as we have seen, at the Parsonage. But not so at the Hall. For though the Squire was inclined to be very friendly to all his neighbors--he was, like most country gentlemen, rather easily _huffed_. Riccabocca had, if with great politeness, still with great obstinacy, refused Mr. Hazeldean's earlier invitations to dinner; and when the Squire found that the Italian rarely declined to dine at the Parsonage, he was offended in one of his weak points--viz., his regard for the honor of the hospitality of Hazeldean Hall--and he ceased altogether invitations so churlishly rejected. Nevertheless, as it was impossible for the Squire, however huffed, to bear malice, he now and then reminded Riccabocca of his existence by presents of game, and would have called on him more often than he did, but that Riccabocca received him with such excessive politeness that the blunt country gentleman felt shy and put out, and used to say, that "to call on Riccabocca was as bad as going to court."

But I left Dr. Riccabocca on the high-road. By this time he has ascended a narrow path that winds by the side of the cascade, he has passed a trellis-work covered with vines, from the which Jacheymo has positively succeeded in making what he calls _wine_--a liquid, indeed, that, if the cholera had been popularly known in those days, would have soured the mildest member of the Board of Health; for Squire Hazeldean, though a robust man, who daily carried off his bottle of port with impunity, having once rashly tasted it, did not recover the effect till he had had a bill from the apothecary as long as his own arm. Passing this trellis, Dr. Riccabocca entered upon the terrace, with its stone pavement smoothed and trim as hands could make it. Here, on neat stands, all his favorite flowers were arranged. Here four orange-trees were in full blossom; here a kind of summer-house or Belvidere, built by Jackeymo and himself, made his chosen morning-room from May till October; and from this Belvidere there was as beautiful an expanse of prospect as if our English Nature had hospitably spread on her green board all that she had to offer as a banquet to the exile.

A man without his coat, which was thrown over the balustrade, was employed in watering the flowers: a man with movements so mechanical--with a face so rigidly grave in its tawny hues--that he seemed like an automaton made out of mahogany.

"Giacomo," said Dr. Riccabocca, softly.

The automaton stopped its hand, and turned its head.

"Put by the watering-pot, and come here," continued Riccabocca in Italian; and moving toward the balustrade, he leaned over it. Mr. Mitford, the historian, calls Jean Jacques _John James_. Following that illustrious example, Giacomo shall be Anglified into Jackeymo. Jackeymo came to the balustrade also, and stood a little behind his master.

"Friend," said Riccabocca, "enterprises have not always succeeded with us. Don't you think, after all, it is tempting our evil star to rent those fields from the landlord?" Jackeymo crossed himself, and made some strange movement with a little coral charm which he wore set in a ring on his finger.

"If the Madonna send us luck, and we could hire a lad cheap?" said Jackeymo, doubtfully.

"_Piu vale un presente che due futuri_," said Riccabocca--"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

"_Chi non fa quondo può, non può fare quondo vuole_"--("He who will not when he may, when he will it shall have nay")--answered Jackeymo, as sententiously as his master. "And the Padrone should think in time that he must lay by for the dower of the poor signorina"--(young lady.)

Riccabocca sighed, and made no reply.

"She must be _that_ high now!" said Jackeymo, putting his band on some imaginary line a little above the balustrade. Riccabocca's eyes, raised over the spectacles, followed the hand.

"If the Padrone could but see her here"--

"I thought I did!" muttered the Italian.

"He would never let her go from his side till she went to a husband's," continued Jackeymo.

"But this climate--she could never stand it," said Riccabocca, drawing his cloak round him, as a north wind took him in the rear.

"The orange-trees blossom even here with care," said Jackeymo, turning back to draw down an awning where the orange-trees faced the north. "See!" he added, as he returned with a sprig in fall bud.

Dr. Riccabocca bent over the blossom, and then placed it in his bosom.

"The _other_ one should be there too." said Jackeymo.

"To die--as this does already!" answered Riccabocca. "Say no more."

Jackeymo shrugged his shoulders; and then, glancing at his master, threw his hand over his eyes.

There was a pause. Jackeymo was the first to break it.

"But, whether here or there, beauty without money is the orange-tree without shelter. If a lad could be got cheap, I would hire the land, and trust for the crop to the Madonna."

"I think I know of such a lad," said Riccabocca, recovering himself, and with his sardonic smile once more lurking about the corner of his mouth--"a lad made for us!"

"Diavolo!"

"No, not the Diavolo! Friend, I have this day seen a boy who-refused sixpence!"

"_Cosa stupenda_!"--(Stupendous thing!) exclaimed Jackeymo, opening his eyes, and letting fall the watering-pot.

"It is true, my friend."

"Take him, Padrone, in Heaven's name, and the fields will grow gold."

"I will think of it, for it must require management to catch such a boy," said Riccabocca. "Meanwhile, light a candle in the parlor, and bring from my bedroom--that great folio of Machiavelli."

* * * * *

RECENT DEATHS.

LOUIS PHILIPPE, EX-KING OF THE FRENCH.

The vicissitudes of kings form an impressive chapter in the history of Europe; and one of the most striking episodes in the narrative is the checkered life of the last king of France--one week among the mightiest monarchs on the loftiest pinnacle of ambition, he was, the next, an exile in a foreign land--his past supremacy almost forgotten.

Louis Philippe died on the morning of the 26th of August, at Claremont, in the presence of the Queen and several members of his family. He had been made aware of his approaching dissolution early the previous day, and receiving with calmness the melancholy intimation, prepared for the final arrangements he wished to make. After a conversion with the Queen, he dictated, with remarkable clearness, the concluding portion of his Memoirs, and then, having caused to be assembled his chaplain, the Abbé Gaelle, and all his children and grandchildren who were at Claremont, he received, with resignation and firmness, the last rites of the Catholic Church. Toward seven in the evening the debility that had oppressed him appeared to pass off, and fever came on, which continued during the night with much violence, but without disturbing his composure of mind. At eight o'clock in the morning he expired, in the presence of his wife, and of the Duchess of Orleans, the Count of Paris, the Duke de Chartres, the Duke and Duchess de Nemours, the Prince and Princess de Joinville, the Duke and Duchess d'Aureale, and the Duchess Augusta of Saxe-Coburg. Thus ended the closing scene of the life of Louis Philippe of Orleans,--the wise and judicious sovereign of a great people, the soldier of one revolution, the conqueror of a second, and the victim of a third.

Louis Philippe was born in Paris, 6th October, 1773, the eldest son of Philippe Joseph, Duke of Orleans (so well-known under the revolutionary _soubriquet_ of Egalité), by Marie Louise Adelaide de Bourbon his wife, daughter and heir of the wealthy Duke de Penthievre. At his birth he bore the title of Valois; but after the death of his grandfather, in 1785, was styled Duke of Chartres. The care of the young Prince's education was assigned to Madame de Genlis, who ably and admirably performed her important duties. From her guidance Louis Philippe passed at once to the arena of active life. In 1791, the Prince, then Duke of Chartres, having previously received the appointment of Colonel in the 14th Dragoons, assumed the command of that regiment, and shortly after, quitting the garrison of Vendôme, proceeded to Valenciennes, where he continued to pursue his military avocations. In the April of the following year, war being declared against Austria, the Duke made his first campaign, fighting with gallantry under Kellerman at Valmy, and with Dumouriez at Jemappes. But the horrors of the Revolution were progressing with giant strides; the unfortunate Louis XVI. was carried to the scaffold, and within a few months after, the Duke of Orleans was seized on a plea of conspiracy against the French nation, and after a mock trial, consigned to the executioner. A short time previously to the death of his father, the Duke de Chartres had effected his escape through Belgium into Switzerland, and there was joined by his sister Adelaide and Madame de Genlis. Our confined space precludes the possibility of our dwelling on the romantic events of this period of Louis Philippe's life, and permits us to glance only at his wanderings through Switzerland, Denmark, Lapland, Finland, America, and England. For one year he held the Appointment of Professor in the College of Reichenau, at a salary of fifty-eight pounds; and for that sum undertook to teach history, mathematics, and English. He bore the name of Chabaud-Latour, and none but the superiors of the institution were aware of his rank. The news of his father's execution reached him while quietly instructing the youth of Reichenau, and he instantly threw up his Professorship, and after a protracted journey through northern Europe, succeeded, by the kind instrumentality of Mr. Gouverneur Morris, the American Ambassador at Paris, in reaching the United States. He landed at Philadelphia on the 24th October, 1796, and was soon after joined by his brothers, Montpensier and Beaujolais. The three brothers passed the winter in that city, and afterward made a journey through the Western States, and visited General Washington at Mount Vernon. Their residence in this country was not however of very long duration. After an inhospitable reception by the Spanish authorities in Cuba, the royal exiles made their way to England, in February, 1800, and thence immediately proceeded to Barcelona, in the hope of meeting their mother. But this object failing, they returned to England, and took up their abode at Twickenham, on the banks of the Thames. In Great Britain they were treated with respect and consideration, and were furnished with ample opportunities for repose after their exciting adventures. Within a few years, however, the Duke of Montpensier and the Count Beaujolais both died--the former in England, the latter at Malta. Louis Philippe had accompanied his last surviving brother to that island, and after his interment sailed for Sicily, on the invitation of the King of Naples. There he gained the affections of the Princess Amelia, and their marriage took place in November, 1809. No event of material importance marks the subsequent life of the Duke, until the year 1814, when, on the abdication of Napoleon, he returned to Paris, and for a short period was in full enjoyment of his honors. In 1815, Napoleon's escape from Elba again called the Duke of Orleans into active employment, and he proceeded, in obedience to the desire of Louis XVIII., to take the command of the Army of the North. In this situation he remained until the 24th of March, hen he surrendered his command to the Duke de Treviso, and retired to Twickenham. After the Hundred Days, the Duke of Orleans obeyed the ordinance authorizing the Princes of the blood to take their seats in the Chamber of Peers; but subsequently incurring the jealousy and displeasure of the Court, he resought his old residence on the Thames, and dwelt there in seclusion until 1817, when he went back to France, and devoted himself to the education of his children, until the Revolution of 1830 broke out, resulting in his elevation to the throne. The subsequent events of his reign, and the memorable outbreak of 1848, that finally overthrew the dynasty that the monarch had strained every nerve to establish, are too fresh on the public mind to require recapitulation here.

* * * * *

JOHN INMAN.

John Inman, a son of William Inman, was born in Utica in 1805. He had two brothers, William, a commander in the Navy, and Henry, so well known as one of the finest artists of this country. John Inman was educated pretty much by chance; he had the usual country schooling; but whatever valuable cultivation he had was in after-life when he was alone in the world, seeking his fortune. In 1823 he went to North Carolina where he taught school for two years. In the spring of 1826, with the profits of his schoolmastership, he went to Europe, and traveled there a little more than a year. On his return, being admitted to the bar, he practiced law about two years, when, in 1829, he became one of the editors of _The Standard_ newspaper, which he left in 1830 to conduct the _Mirror_. In 1833 he was married to Miss Fisher, a sister of the popular and estimable actress, Clara Fisher, and about this time he devoted the leisure left from the duties of the Mirror office to a paper owned by his brother-in-law and himself, called _The Spirit of the Times_. In 1833 he accepted an offer from the late Colonel Stone to become one of the editors of the _Commercial Advertiser_, of which he became the editor in chief upon the death of that gentleman, in 1844. He continued in this post until his failing health last spring compelled him entirely to relinquish the use of the pen; and gradually declining, he died on the 30th of August.

Mr. Inman had edited several books, and for two or three years he conducted the _Columbian Magazine_. He was for a long time the critical reader of the great house of Harper & Brothers, who learned by a happy experience to confide unhesitatingly in his judgment of books. He wrote many tales and sketches for the annuals and other publications, and a few poems, of which "Byron, a Fragment," was the longest. Of the _Columbian Magazine_, he wrote with his own hand the _whole_ of one number, partly from an ambition to achieve what seemed an impossible feat, and partly from his habit of close and unremitting labor. He also wrote several literary papers for the _New York Review_. He was a gentleman of the most honorable nature, and of the finest taste and most refined habits. Perhaps there was not connected with the press in this city a writer of purer English, and very few of our literary men have had a more thorough knowledge of French and English literature.

* * * * *

ADONIRAM JUDSON, D.D.

The death of this widely-known and eminently devoted missionary is announced in an article of _The Tribune_, to have taken place on the 12th of April, on board of the French brig Ariotide, bound to the Isle of Bourbon, in which he had taken passage for the benefit of his health. His remains were committed to the deep on the evening of his death. For some time past the health of Dr. Judson, which had been seriously impaired for several years, has been known to be in an alarming state, and the news of his decease accordingly will not come as an unlooked-for blow upon his wide circle of friends. Dr. Judson was the son of Rev. Adoniram Judson, a Congregational clergyman in Plymouth county, Mass. He received his collegiate education at Brown University, with the original intention of pursuing the profession of the law, but experiencing a great change in his religious views soon after his graduation, he entered the Theological Seminary at Andover. During his residence at this institution, a profound interest in Foreign Missions was awakened among the students which resulted in his determination to devote his life to the missionary service. Leaving his native land, among the first missionaries sent forth by the American Board, in company with Samuel Nevill, Luther Rice, and Samuel Nott, he arrived in Calcutta, in 1812. In consequence of studies during the voyage, he was led to change his opinions on the subject of baptism, and a short time after his landing, received the rite of immersion from the hands of one of the English missionaries resident in Calcutta. His sermon on that occasion, which produced a deep impression on the religious world, is a masterpiece of logical argument, Scriptural research and grave eloquence. After connecting himself with the Baptist denomination, he selected the Burman empire as the seat of his future labors--at which post he has remained, with scarcely an interval of relaxation, for nearly forty years. His efforts and sufferings in the prosecution of his mission are well known. He was a man of high and resolute courage, of remarkable self-reliance, of more than common mental ability and of devotion to the performance of his duty, almost without a parallel in modern times. He had all the elements of a hero in his composition, and whoever would look for a rare specimen of a life consecrated to noble, ideal aims, inspired with an elevated and almost romantic self-devotion, and daily exercising a valiant energy more difficult of attainment than that which animates the soldier amid the smoke of battle, must contemplate the strange and beautiful history of the lion-hearted missionary of Burmah.

* * * * *

HENRY WHITE, D.D.

The REV. HENRY WHITE, D.D., Professor of Theology in the Union Theological Seminary, died in this city on Sunday, August 25th, in the fifty-first year of his age. We obtain the following biographical facts from _The Independent:_ "Professor White was born in Durham, Greene county, in this state. He had nearly reached the age of manhood before commencing a liberal course of education; was graduated at Union College in 1824; studied theology at Princeton, N.J., and after being licensed to preach the Gospel, was employed as an agent of the American Bible Society in Georgia and the Carolinas. In this service he remained during parts of the years 1826 and 1827. In 1827-28 he was engaged as an agent of the same society in New York and the vicinity; and during that period he supplied for some time the pulpit of the second Presbyterian church in Newark, N.J. In March, 1829, he became pastor of the Allen-street Presbyterian church in this city, in which office he remained until after his appointment to the Professorship of Theology in the Union Theological Seminary, then newly formed in this city. He was dismissed from his pastoral charge in March, 1837. The labors of his professorship were begun and carried on for some years in discouragement. The pecuniary basis on which the Seminary rested was inadequate, and there were arrearages in the salaries. In 1843 Professor W. was invited to Auburn, and great anxiety was felt lest he should accept the invitation. But his own attachment to the Seminary and the entreaties of his friends, and an effort which was made to endow his Professorship with a sufficient permanent fund, induced him to remain, and he held the office as long as he lived."

* * * * *

SIR MARTIN ARCHER SHEE, P.R.A.

SIR MARTIN ARCHER SHEE, long known in art and letters, and for some years the oldest member as well as the President of the Royal Society, died at Brighton, on the 13th of August, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was descended lineally from one of the Kings of Munster, in the third century, and his family in more recent times has been honorably distinguished. He was born in Dublin, on the 23d of December, 1770. He evinced extraordinary precocity in his art, and when but twelve years old obtained of the Irish Academy medals for figures, landscapes and flowers. The author of "Wine and Walnuts," as quoted in the London _Athenaeum_, gives the following account of his first appearance in the Great Metropolis:

"I well remember this gentleman on his first arrival from Ireland to the British metropolis; he was introduced to the notice of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and to some other distinguished persons by his illustrious Friend and countryman Mr. Edmund Burke. I was at that time making a drawing in the Plaster Academy in Somerset House, and perfectly recollect the first evening Mr. Shee joining the students there. He selected the figure of the Discobolus for his probationary exercises to procure a permanent student's ticket. I need not say that he obtained it,--for it was acknowledged to be one of the best copies that had yet been seen of that fine figure. I further remarked that Mr. Wilton, the then keeper of the Royal Academy, was so pleased with the performance that he expressed a wish to retain it, after Mr. Shee had received his ticket; and Mr. Shee, with that politeness which marked his early career, presented it to the worthy old gentleman."

Mr. Shee became an exhibitor at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1789. He abstained from exhibiting in the following year, wisely husbanding his strength--worked hard at his art--gave his nights and days to Sir Joshua; and in 1791 took handsome apartments, and sent four portraits to the Exhibition. In 1792 he removed to yet better rooms, and sent in all seven works to the Exhibition. In the same year he walked as one of the students of the Royal Academy at the funeral of Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1793 he reached what is now the full Academical number of eight portraits. The Exhibition of the following year contained his as yet most ambitious efforts:--a portrait of a young lady as Miranda in "The Tempest," and "Jephtha's Daughter" from the Book of Judges. In 1795 he exhibited a portrait of himself,--and a portrait of Mr. Addington, afterward Lord Sidmouth. In 1797 he exhibited in all ten works; including portraits of Pope and Fawcett the actors. He continued equally industrious for many successive years; and was in such favor with his fellow artists that he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1798, immediately after the election of Flaxman into the same honorary rank. The same year, on Romney's withdrawal from London, he removed to the house which that artist had built for himself in Cavendish Square; and in this he continued as Romney's successor to reside until age and growing infirmities compelled him to withdraw to Brighton, and abandon his pencil. In 1800, he was elected a full Royal Academician:--and of his thirty-nine brethren by whom he was chosen he was the last survivor.

Mr. Shee continued to produce for years with amazing readiness of hand and fertility in posture. People of all ranks in life went to Cavendish Square, and for a time Shee was in greater request than either Beechey or Hoppner, though not so much so as Lawrence, or even as Owen or Phillips somewhat later. Lord Spencer was the first nobleman who sat to him; and his example was followed by the Duke of Clarence, the Duke of Leinster, the Marquis of Exeter, and others. The ladies flocked less readily around him; for Lawrence had then, as he continued to have, the entire artist monopoly of the beauty of Great Britain.

Much to the surprise of his friends, and to the infinite wonder of some of his brethren in the Academy, Mr. Shee made his appearance as a poet by the publication, in 1805, of his "Rhymes on Art, or the Remonstrance of a Painter; in two parts, with Notes and a Preface, including Strictures on the State of the Arts, Criticism, Patronage, and Public Taste": and the wonder had not ceased with Nollekins and Northcote, when, in 1809, he published a second poem, in six cantos, entitled "Elements of Art." It is to these poems that Byron alludes in his "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers":

"And here let Shee and Genius find a place, Whose pen and pencil yield an equal grace; To guide whose hand the sister-arts combine, And trace the poet's or painter's line; Whose magic touch can bid the canvas glow, Or pour the easy rhyme's harmonious flow; While honors, doubly merited, attend The poet's rival, but the painter's friend."

The _Quarterly_ was complimentary, but less kind to the painter than the noble lord.

Mr. Shee appears to have always evinced taste for the theater; and when his gravity of years and his position as a popular portrait-painter forbade his any longer entertaining a wish to appear there, he began to woo the dramatic Muse, and commenced a tragedy called "Alasco," of which the scene was laid in Poland. The play was accepted at Covent Garden, but excluded, it was said, from the stage by Colman, who was then licenser. This is not strictly true. Colman objected to about eighty-five lines, which Shee refused to alter. Colman was equally obstinate; and Shee in 1824 printed his play, and appealed to the public against the licenser in a lengthy and angry preface. "Alasco," notwithstanding, is still on the list of the unacted drama.

On the death of Lawrence in 1830, Shee was elected President of the Royal Academy, and immediately knighted. His election was by a large majority, though Wilkie was a candidate; the members being governed in their votes rather, it is said, by the necessities of their annual dinner than by their sense of the merits of Shee as a painter. He excelled in short, well-timed and well-delivered speeches. He was seldom at a loss; and so highly was his eloquence appreciated within the walls of the Academy, that it had been common with more than one Royal Academician to remark whenever a great speaker was mentioned--"Did you ever hear the President--you should hear the President,"--as if Canning and Stanley had been united in Sir Martin Archer Shee.

He has but little claim to be remembered as a poet. His verse wants vigor, and his examples are deficient in novelty of illustration. The notes to both his poems are, however, valuable, and his poetry is perhaps more frequently read for its prose illustrations than for the beauty of its versification or the value of the truths which it seeks to inculcate. As a portrait-painter he was eclipsed by several or his contemporaries,--by Lawrence and by Hoppner,--by Phillips, Jackson, and Raeburn. He had a fine eye for color; while his leading want was, proportion, more especially in his heads. Compare his head of Chantrey with the portraits of Chantrey by Jackson and Raeburn, and the defect is at once obvious; or compare his head of Mr. Hallam with the head of Mr. Hallam by Phillips, or with the living head--since happily Mr. Hallam is still among us. How, then, it will be asked, is Sir Martin to be remembered: by his poems or by his portraits?--by his speeches or by his annual addresses to the students? The question is not difficult of solution. His pictures in the Vernon Gallery will not preserve his name, nor will his portraits viewed as works of Art. His name will scend in the History of Painting as a clever artist with greater accomplishments than have commonly fallen to the class to which he belongs,--and as the painter who has preserved to us the faces and figures of Sir Thomas Munro, Sir Thomas Picton, Sir Eyre Coote, Sir James Scarlett, and Sir Henry Halford. There was merit, we may add, in his portrait of the poet Moore. Principally, however, he will be remembered as one of the Presidents of the Royal Academy.

* * * * *

GERARD TROOST, M.D.

Dr. GERARD TROOST, for a long period one of the most eminent naturalists of the United States, died on the 14th of August at Nashville, where he had been for twenty years Professor of Chemistry and Natural History in the University of Tennessee. A native of Holland, and educated in one of her universities, he devoted himself to the natural sciences. For the sake of improvement he visited Paris, and for several years was a pupil of the celebrated Hauy. He removed to the United States about forty years ago, and in due time became an American citizen. In 1824 and 1825 he was with Robert Owen at New Harmony, and he appears always to have been distinguished for eccentricities of opinion and conduct, but to have commanded in every situation respect and affection. His entire life was consecrated to geology and the kindred sciences, with what ability and success, his published writings and his well-earned reputation at home and abroad may eloquently testify. Among the subjects upon which he wrote are, amber of Cape Sable, Maryland; the minerals of Missouri; five reports on the geology of Tennessee; meteoric iron from Tennessee and Alabama; a shower of red matter in Tennessee; meteorites, &c., &c.

* * * * *

PERCEVAL W. BANKS.

This gentleman--better known as _Morgan Rattler_ of "Fraser's Magazine"--died in London on the 13th of August. Mr. Banks, though only in his forty-fifth year, was the last of the race of writers, who, with Dr. Maginn, Mr. Churchill, and others, gave a sting and pungency (of a vicious and unwholesome kind however), to the early numbers of that journal. He seldom did justice to his own talents, for he wrote too often in haste, always at the last moment, and too rarely with good taste. He was by profession a barrister. The world at large, who admired the sportive fancy, classical eloquence, and kind yet firm criticism of poor _Morgan Rattler_, in his later years, will regret the early decease of one so gifted.

* * * * *

ROBERT HUNT.

Mr. ROBERT HUNT, the eldest brother of Mr. Leigh Hunt, often mentioned in the "Autobiography," is dead. He was lately nominated by the Queen to the brotherhood of the Charter house, but has not lived very long to enjoy the royal bounty. He was seventy-six years old when he died.

* * * * *

JOHN COMLY.

JOHN COMLY, an eminent minister of the Society of Friends, died on the 17th of August at Byberry in Pennsylvania, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. "Comly's Spelling-Book," and "Comly's Grammar," have to thousands now living made his name "familiar as household words."

* * * * *

BISHOP BASCOMB.

THE REV. DR. BASCOMB, long eminent for various abilities, and most of all for a brilliant and effective elocution, died at Louisville, Ky., on the 9th of August. He was editor of the Southern Methodist Quarterly Review, and one of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

* * * * *

COUNT PIRE.

GENERAL COUNT PIRE, one of the most distinguished officers of the French Empire, died recently. He fought as a private soldier of the National Guard of Paris, on the barricades, against the insurgents of June, 1848.

* * * * *

GLEANINGS FROM THE JOURNALS.

The _Athenæum_ is incredulous upon the subject of the falling of Table Rock, at Niagara, and in reprinting the account of the event, thought it necessary to offer a few remarks upon the credibility of American intelligence:--"Our readers," says the _Athenæum_, "know that we have great fears of the American penny-a-liner, and are carefully on our guard against his feats. Our own specimens of the class are commonplace artists compared with their American brethren. The season is at hand when we are looking out for the performances at the former,--but we expect little from beyond the old routine. In their sluggish imaginations, the annual pike is doubtless already growing up to his great dimensions, which, on failure of the accustomed springs of intelligence, we are soon to find floating in the newspaper shallows,--and the preposterous cucumber is probably having an inch added to its stature, which will shortly shoot rankly up where the parliamentary harvest has been cut down. The most daring thing that we can expect from these geniuses is, a trick or two perhaps with the Nelson Column. But the American penny-a-liner, our readers know, does the thing on the vast scale of his country. He takes down Niagara at his pleasure,--and puts it up again in its place, or anywhere else that he will. He transports the great Falls about the soil of his country at halt a crown an adventure,--and for five shillings would probably set them playing in the moon."

* * * *

A "MASONIC SWORD" FOR THE EMPEROR OF HAYTI.--A magnificent sword, intended to be presented to the Emperor Soulouque on his installation to the mysteries of the "Grand Masonic Order of Hayti," has been made at Birmingham, thirty-two inches in length. The blade is richly ornamented along its whole length with devices in blue and gold, bearing the inscription in French on the one side, "To the illustrious F. Faustin Soulouque, Emperor of Hayti," and on the other, "Homage of the Grand Order of Hayti." The hilt is surmounted by an imperial crown, and adorned with various masonic emblems. On the shield are richly chased the arms of Hayti, with the motto, "God! my Country, and my Sword," "Liberty and Independence." We perceive, also, from the French papers, that a celebrated goldsmith at Paris, has forwarded to Hayti a crown, a scepter, a wand of justice, and a sword of state, manufactured expressly for his sable Majesty, at a cost of £20,000 sterling. The latter has moreover, commanded, for his coronation, a sky-blue velvet mantle, embroidered with bees and richly bound with gold lace, and a Court dress of scarlet velvet, lined with white satin, and trimmed with the most expensive point lace, "with most valuable ornaments to match."

* * * * *

TIME WORKS WONDERS.--A correspondent Of the _Melbourne Daily News_ remarks that in June, 1847, he met Prince Louis Napoleon and his cousin Jerome Napoleon at Lady Blessington's. "The president was then living in a very modest house in King-street, St. James's-square, and his very unaffected demeanor led me to form an intimate acquaintance with him. He appeared to me a person more fond of the ordinary amusements of the metropolis, frequenting the theaters, casinos, and other similar places, than an ambitious adventurer. On the following May as I was entering the chambers of my solicitor, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, an old gentleman with an umbrella under his arm passed me as I opened the swing doors, and politely removed his hat as I made way for him. It was Louis Philippe. It is scarce three weeks ago I was ordering a waistcoat of my tailor, when two gentlemen entered the shop, and one of them in broken English gave an order for a paletot; I looked up, It was Ledru Rollin and Etienne Arago; when they had gone, the worthy tradesman, knowing I had lived much in Paris, asked me if I knew his customer (M. Arago,) and if he could safely _give him credit!_"

* * * *

AMERICAN MUMMIES.--A letter from Ratisbon states, that the Museum of the Zoological and Mineralogical Society of that town has made a curious acquisition,--that of two mummies found in the sands of the desert of Atacama in Upper Peru, by Dr. Ried, a Bavarian physician resident at Valparaiso. These mummies, male and female, both of American race, are natural mummies,--that is to say, dried without embalming or any other species of preparation. The man is in a stooping posture, his head sustained on his hands, and his elbows renting on his knees. The face has an expression of pain which seems to indicate a, violent death. The woman is stretched at length, with arms crossed on her breast. Both heads are covered with long hair, dark and silky, and divided into an infinity of small plaits. When Dr. Reid discovered these mummies both had their teeth complete; but during their transport to Europe many of these have fallen out, and were found at the bottom of the cases containing these curious relics of American antiquity.

* * * *

THE COMMON SLANDERS AGAINST DANIEL WEBSTER are noted in the English Journals in connection with his acceptance of the Secretaryship of State. "These scandals," observes the _Spectator,_ "cannot, however, hide from us the fact, that of all public men in America, _perhaps_ with one exception, Mr. Webster is he who has evinced the greatest knowledge of public affairs, the greatest acumen in administration, and the greatest common sense in emergency. High intelligence is probably the best of all substitutes for high honor--if, indeed, it does not necessarily include that nobler quality."

* * * * *

COFFINS OF BAKED CLAY OF THE CHALDEANS.--Mr. Kennet Loftus, the first European who has visited the ancient ruins of Warka in Mesopotamia, and who is attached to the surveying staff of Colonel Williams, appointed to settle the question of the boundary line between Turkey and Persia, writes thus:--"Warka is no doubt the Erech of Scripture, the second city of Nimrod, and it is the Orchoe of the Chaldees. The mounds within the walls afford subjects of high interest to the historian and antiquarian; they are filled, nay, I may say, they are literally composed of coffins, piled upon each other to the height of forty-five feet. It has, evidently, been the great burial-place of generations of Chaldeans, as Meshad Ali and Kerbella at the present day are of the Persians. The coffins are very strange affairs; they are in general form like a slipper-bath, but more depressed and symmetrical, with a large oval aperture to admit the body, which is closed with a lid of earthenware. The coffins themselves are also of baked clay, covered with green glaze, and embossed with figures of warriors, with strange and enormous coiffures, dressed in a short tunic and long under garments, a sword by the side, the arms resting on the hips, the legs apart. Great quantities of pottery and also clay figures, some most delicately modeled, are found around them; and ornaments of gold, silver, iron, copper, glass, &c., within."--_Art-Journal_.

* * * * *

ANCIENT PRICE OF LABOR.--In the year 1352, 25th Edward III., wages paid to haymakers were 1d. a day. A mower of meadows, 3d. a day, or 5d an acre. Reapers of corn in the first week of August, 2d.; in the second, 3d. a day, and so on till the end of August, without meat, drink, or other allowance, finding their own tools. For threshing a quarter of wheat or rye, 21/2d.; a quarter of barley, beans, peas, and oats 11/2d. A master carpenter, 3d. a day, other carpenters, 2d. A master mason, 4d. a day, other masons, 3d., and their servants, 11/2d. Tilers, 3d., and their "knaves," 11/2d. Thatchers, 3d a day, and their knaves, 11/2. Plasterers, and other workers of mud walls, and their knaves, in like manner, without meat or drink; and this from Easter to Michaelmas; and from that time less, according to the direction of the justices.

* * * * *

THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" suggests that "If an additional postage of one penny per letter were to be charged to every person who prefers making the postman, or rather the public, wait until his servant shall think proper to open the door to receive a handful of prepaid letters, which could rapidly be dropped, exactly as they were posted, through a receiving slit into a tortuous receptacle, from which it would be impossible for any but the right person to extract them, the delivery of the correspondence of the country would be perfect."

* * * * * SOME LIBERALS in France have been carrying on a kind of duel by libel, the libel being enforced apparently by its strict truth. Some of M. Thiers's political antagonists, seeking to annoy him, volunteered to circulate in the form of a card the following advertisement for a lady who appears to be related to M. Thiers, and also to carry on an honest avocation:--

"MADAME L. RIPERT, Sister of M. A. THIERS, _Ex-President of the Council of Ministers, &c. &c._ keeps an excellent _table méridionale_ at 3fr. a-head, wine included. Breakfast at all hours, at 3fr. 25c. 44, Rue Basse-du-Rempart, Paris."

The retaliation was a counter-card:--

"Mdlle. ----, _brèvetée de la police_, et M. ----, liberated convict, the sister and cousin-germain of M. ---- a thorough-bred Montagnard, continue to carry on their business, Rue de la Lune. _On va en ville._"

These attacks are very mean, and paltry, but it is clear that their castigation is beyond the effective handling of the law. Yet society exercises no effective jurisdiction in the matter; it shields offenders against decency and generosity so long as the offense is committed in subserviency to party.

* * * * *

LANGUAGES OF AFRICA.--At a religious meeting in London, the Rev. John Clark, formerly missionary in Jamaica, and afterward in Fernando Po, in Africa, said that at Fernandina there were persons belonging to fifty Different tribes, who understood English so well as to be of help to a translator of the Bible into their respective languages. He thought the Word of God would have to be translated into two hundred languages before all the tribes of Africa will be able to read it in their own tongue. The Mohammedans, who are spread through the length of the continent, have many who can read the Koran in the Arabic characters. If, therefore, the Word of God were translated into their tongues and printed in that character, many, not only of the Hovas and the Arabs of the desert, but also of the Foolahs, Mandingoes, and Housah, who professed Mahommedanism, would be able to read concerning Jesus Christ.

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM MR. RICHARDSON, the African explorer, have been received in London, dated at Mourzouk, June 22d. Mr. R. and his companions were detained six weeks waiting for the promised escort of the Touarick chiefs for Soudan by the way of Ghat. They expect to meet the many caravans coming down from the interior to Ghat. The actual arrival of the chiefs was greatly to the astonishment of the Moors and Turks of Mourzouk, who could never believe that the hardy bandits of the Sahara would obey the summons of a Christian, and escort English travelers through the unexplored regions of Central Africa. The Turks had on previous occasions repeatedly invited the Touaricks to visit the town of Mourzouk, but they never would do so.

* * * * *

THE PEACE CONGRESS of Frankfort closed its session on the 22d of August. However commendable its apparent object, it cannot be concealed that this and the preceding congress of the same kind have been little more than processes for the elevation of insignificant people into a transient notoriety. This year the usual philanthropic resolutions were passed. Victor Hugo, of France, excused himself from attendance on the score of ill-health; but the country was represented by Emile de Girardin. The congress is to meet next year simultaneously with the great World's Exposition at London. The most piquant incidents of the session were the speech of George Copway, a veritable American Indian Chief, and the presence, in one of the visitors' tribunes, of the famous General Haynau, whose victories and cruelties last year, in prosecuting the Hungarian war, were the theme in the congress of much fine eloquence and indignation.

* * * * *

A PROJECT is on foot for opening a spacious Zoological and Botanical Garden in the north part of the island of New York, immediately on the Hudson. A plan of an association for the purpose has been drawn up by Mr. Audubon, a son of the eminent ornithologist--the same who lately made an overland journey to California. His courage and perseverance in that expedition have given the public a sufficient pledge of the energy and constancy of his character, and his scientific knowledge, educated as he has been from his early childhood to be a naturalist, qualifies him as few are qualified, for the superintendence of such an establishment. The spot chosen for the garden is the property of the Audubon family, adjoining the Trinity Cemetery, and contains about twenty acres, which is about a third larger than the London Zoological Gardens.

* * * * *

The _London Standard_ having asserted that "Mr. D'Israeli is not nor ever was a Jew," a correspondent of the _Morning Chronicle_ testifies that the Member from Buckinghamshire was at one time a Jew; at least that "he became a Jew _outwardly_, according to the customary and prescriptive rites of that ancient persuasion; for a most respectable gentleman (connected with literature) now deceased, has been heard to boast a hundred times that he was present at the entertainment given in honor of the ceremony."

* * * * *

Dr. GROSS, who has lately been appointed to the professorship of surgery in the medical department of the New York University, is a gentleman of very eminent abilities, who has long been conspicuous as a teacher and practitioner at Louisville. He is a native of Berks county in Pennsylvania, is descended from one of the old Dutch families there, and was twelve or fourteen years of age before he knew a word of English. In his _specialite_ he is of the first rank in America.

* * * * *

ANOTHER FESTIVAL IN GERMANY.--Near the close of August, musical and Dramatic ceremonies in inauguration of the statue of Herder took place at Weimar. On the 24th was represented at the theater the "Prometheus Unbound," with overture and choruses by M. Liszt. On the 25th, after the inauguration of the statue, Handel's "Messiah" was performed in the Cathedral, where Herder used to preach, and where he lies buried. On the 28th, was given at the theater the first representation of "Lohengrin," anew opera, by Herr Wagner, with a prologue written for the occasion by Herr Dingelstedt.

* * * * *

THE WORDSWORTH MONUMENT.--In a former number of this journal we noticed the organization of a very influential committee, for raising subscriptions, in order that suitable monuments might be erected to the memory of the late poet, both in Westminster Abbey and in the locality which was his chosen residence, and so often his chosen theme. We perceive, with more regret than surprise, that the amounts advertised are mean in the extreme. We fear that ten times the sums would have been more readily collected, to do honor to a dancer or a singer.

* * * * *

REVOLUTIONARY STAMPS.--The Secretary of the New Jersey Historical Society, W. A. Whitehead, Esq., has received through the Hon. W. B. Kinney, Chargé d'Affaires to Sardinia, several of the identical stamps that were made for use in the Colonies, and which were the immediate cause of the American Revolution. A box of them was recently found in the Colonial Office in London, where our Minister procured them.

* * * * *

There are no lineal descendants of Warren Hastings in existence. The estates of Mr. Hastings passed into the sister's family, and are held at present by Sir C. Imhoff, who resides at Daglesford House, near Stow-on-the-Wold. The house has much interest attached to it. The whole furniture of one room is composed of solid ivory.

* * * * *

IN THE LATE MEETING OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, of Paris, it was announced that the Academy had received from Mr. Pennington of Baltimore, United States of America, a manuscript and a printed prospectus Concerning a project of a steam balloon, upon which he wished the Academy to decide.

* * * * *

The holder of the appointment of Examiner of Plays, in England, enjoys a salary of $2000 per annum, beside a tax upon every play, interlude, farce, or song, licensed for representation upon the stage. This appointment is in the gift of the Lord Chamberlain.

* * * * *

GEORGE CATLIN, the Indian traveler, is soon to sail to Texas from Liverpool, with a large body of emigrants; they will settle on the lands of the Emigration Colonization Society.

* * * * *

AGES OF PUBLIC MEN.--The Duke of Wellington is aged 81: Lord Lyndhurst, 78; Lord Dunfermline, 74; Mr. Joseph Hume, 73; Lord Brougham, 72; Lord Heytesbury, 71; Lord Denman, 71; Lord Campbell, 71; Lord Gough, 71; Earl of Haddington, 70; Marquis of Landsdowne, 70; Lord Cottenham, 69; Earl of Ripon, 68; Earl of Minto, 68; Earl of Aberdeen, 66; Viscount Palmerston, 66; Right Hon. H. Goulburn, 66; Viscount Hardinge, 65; Sir Robert Inglis, 64; Sir John Cam Hobhouse, 64; Duke of Sutherland, 64; Sir George Clerk, 63; Duke of Richmond, 59; Mr. Andrew Rutherford, 59; Sir James Graham, 58; Lord John Russell, 58; Right Hon. C. Lefevre, Speaker of the House of Commons, 56; Right Hon. Richard L. Shiel, 56; Sir Frederick Thesiger, 56; Sir Francis Baring, First Lord of the Admiralty, 54; Sir Fitzroy Kelly, 54; Marquis of Normanby, 53; Right Hon. H. Labouchere, 52; Lord Stanley, 51; Sir George Grey, 51; Right Hon. T.B. Macaulay, 51; Earl of Clarendon, 50; Sir Charles Wood, 50; Mr. Fox Maule, 49; Lord Ashley, 49; Mr. J.A. Roebuck, 49; Earl of Carlisle, 48; Marquis of Clanricarde, 48; Earl Grey, 48; Sir John Jervis, 48; Mr. Cobden, 47; Mr. Benjamin D'Israeli, 45; Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 41; Right Hon. Sydney Herbert, 40; Earl of Lincoln, 39; Mr. John Bright, 39; Hon. George A. Smythe, 32; Lord John Manners, 32.

* * * * *

ANCIENT DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA.--In the popular and unique work, "Notes And Queries," we find the following paragraph, from a correspondent who probably gleaned it from the last years Proceedings of the New-York Historical Society. "In the _Voyage Round the World_, by Captain George Shelvocke, begun February 1719, he says of California, (_Harris's Collection_, vol. i., p. 233:)--'The soil about Puerto, Seguro, and very likely in most of the valleys, is a rich black mould, which, as you turn it up fresh to the sun, appears as if intermingled with gold dust, some of which we endeavored to purify and wash from the dirt. But, though we were a little prejudiced against the thoughts that it could be possible that this metal should be so promiscuously and universally mingled with common earth, yet we endeavored to cleanse and wash the earth from some of it; and the more we did the more it appeared like gold. In order to be further satisfied, I brought away some of it, which we lost in our confusion in China.'" How an accident prevented the discovery, more than a century back, of the golden harvest now gathering in California!

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT OF PERU has issued a decree, appointing the Minister of the Home Department, Don Lucas Fonceas, Don Nicolas Pierola, and Don Nicolas Rodrigo, a commission to select and take charge of articles intended to be sent to England for exhibition next year.

* * * * *

MR. GLIDDON'S MUMMY.--We find in the _Boston Transcript_ a long letter from Mr. Gliddon, telling the whole story, which the latest and complete examinations of papyrus, straps, bandages, &c. have unfolded about his mummy early this summer in Boston. It seems the said mummy was all right, in the right coffin duly embalmed; the body being that of a priest who died about B. C. 900. The Theban undertakers, in this particular _case_, were honest; and all suspicion of fraud on their part is unnecessary and unfair. Mr. Gliddon made a slight mistake, before the opening of the coffin, in reading the fragments of the inscription; and so got the notion that the contents were a female body. The frank, manly, good-natured, and generous manner in which Mr. G. explains the whole affair and owns his error, should now stop the laugh, and satisfy everybody.

* * * * *

RACHEL is making a lucrative professional tour in Germany. The last accounts leave her in Berlin. She has lately had built in Paris, not far in the rear of the Madelaine, a hotel for her private residence. It is not large, but is a perfect gem of taste, (as the French understand it) and luxury. She receives there a choice circle of gentlemen of all professions. The ladies who frequent her _salons_ are rarer, if not more select. Of course none but ladies of the same profession, or of equivocal reputation, would enjoy the elegant hospitality of the illustrious _tragédienne_.

* * * * *

INDIA RUBBER is now so cheap and common, that the following reference to it in the "New Monthly Review" for February, 1772, sent to "_Notes and Queries_" by a correspondent, may cause a smile: "I have seen," says Dr. Priestly, "a substance, excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from paper the marks of a black lead pencil. It must, therefore, be of singular use to those who practice drawing. It is sold by Mr. Nairne, mathematical instrument-maker, opposite the Royal Exchange. He sells a cubical piece, of about _half an inch_, for _three shillings_; and, he says, it will last several years."

* * * * *

CONVENIENT UMBRELLA.-A gentleman residing at Taunton has constructed an umbrella on a novel principle, the main feature of which is that it can be carried in the pocket with ease. He intends sending it to the great Exhibition of next year.

* * * * *

THE CORRESPONDENT OF THE DAILY NEWS at Constantinople; writing on the 25th ult., says: "Yesterday, the 15th of Ramazan, witnessed a famous ceremony, which consists in adoring the _shirt_ of the prophet, preserved in an apartment of the old Seraglio at Topkapon (Cannon-gate). The Sultan, ministers, and high dignitaries, were admitted to kiss this sacred relic, which will remain exposed during some days for the veneration of the faithful."

* * * * *

THE CONTINUED EMIGRATION OF THE IRISH is one of the most remarkable points of contemporary history. Subsequent to, or in consequence of, the great failure of the potato crop in 1846--that calamity which revolutionized Ireland--not less than a million of people must have left its shores to try their fortunes this side the Atlantic. Between emigration and the ravages of famine and pestilence, we may calculate that the population of Ireland has diminished by at least a million and a half or two millions since the autumn of 1846. How long the emigration will continue, it is, of course, impossible to predict, as every new settler in America who prospers, is the agent by which a fresh demand is made upon the old country. It is one of the best features in the Irish character, that, in the new land to which they flock, they do not forget the friends or relatives that they have left behind them, and that every packet carries money from America for the relief of people in Ireland, or to pay their passage out to the forests or prairies of a world where there is elbow-room for all, and where a willing heart and a stout pair of hands are the surest passports to independence and a competency.

* * * * *

DWARKANTH TAGORE was a marvelously intelligent man, greatly in advance of his countrymen--a man who could discern the value of European civilization, and who devoted his energies and his means to the duty of grafting them on Hindu society. His riches were, like all merchants', in supposition. He had argosies, and lands, and merchandise; but what with land rats and water rats, and mortgages, glutted markets, and competitions of all kinds, that which had an untellable value to-day, was at a discount to-morrow. His influence in the southern provinces of India maintained the credit of his house while he lived; he died bequeathing no atom of his commanding spirit and exquisite tact, and the house which he had created, together with the Bank he had sustained, fell in the general commercial wreck which afflicted all Calcutta three years ago. Thus much of admirable Dwarkanth Tagore.

* * * * *

MADAME BOULANGER--the Mrs. Glover of the Paris _Opéra Comique_, has a Conspicuous place in the recent foreign obituaries. The French, in their musical comedies, cherish _dramatis personæ_ of a maturity not known on any other musical stage, save among the background figures. "So often as we think of the good lady in question, with hardly a note of voice left, but overflowing with quaint humor, and willingly turning her years and ill looks to the utmost account, with a readiness to be absurd, if the part needed, which even a Lablache could not outdo,--so often as we recollect her _Madame Barnek_, in 'L'Ambassadrice,' and her _La Bocchetta_ in 'Polichinelle, some of our most comic operatic impressions will be revived. Madame Boulanger was buried in the church of Notre Dame."

* * * * *

TRAVELING, in France, like everything else there, has been reduced to science, or rather to art. Companies are now formed at Paris which convey passengers to London and back at an expense of only thirty francs--about six dollars. They will pay all your expenses for this sum, and give you four days in London to see all the lions. It took more time and more money a few years ago to journey from Paris to Rouen, which is only a few miles off. These pleasure trains, as they are called, quit Paris on Saturday, cross the channel in a good steamer on Sunday, reaching London in the afternoon, give the voyagers Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the city, leaving in time to get back to Paris by Friday night.

* * * * *

FOUR courses of lectures will be delivered the coming season before the Lowell Institute, Boston. One is to be on Political Economy, by Prof. Bowen, of Cambridge; another course on Natural Religion, by Rev. Dr. Blagden, of Boston; another by Prof. Agassiz, subject not known; and the fourth, on the Comparative Physical Geography of the United States, and the race that will shortly inhabit these States, by Prof. Guyot.

* * * * *

The _Gazette des Tribunaux_ announces that M. Libri has ceased to be a member of the Legion of Honor, in virtue of the sentence of the Assize Court of Paris, pronounced on the demand of the Grand Chancellor of the order. Since his flight to England, some two years and a half since, he has married there. Madame Libri is now in Paris, attempting to recover possession of the furniture, and other personal effects, which M. Libri was compelled to leave behind him in his flight.

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The _Opinion Publique_ has the following:--"Is it known who at this moment inhabits the small house at Brompton, occupied some few months since by M. Guizof? It is M. Ledru-Rollin. Thus, M. Ledru-Rollin, an exile, succeeds at Brompton in his house of exile, M. Guizot, whom he succeeded at Paris in the Government."

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The Committee of the Associate Institution for Improving and Enforcing the Laws for the Protection of Women, intends to offer a prize of 100 guineas for the best Essay on the Laws for the Protection of Women.

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DR. T. SOUTHWOOD SMITH, who was the medical member of the General Board of Health during the period of the Orders in Council, has been appointed the second member of the Board provided by the English Metropolitan Interment Act.

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The _Gazette_ of Rome, of the 9th, contains the nomination of the Abbé Talbot, son of Lord Talbot of Malahide, and lately priest of St. George's, Westminster-bridge-road, to the office of _camereire secreto._

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The arrival of JENNY LIND is the most memorable event thus far in our musical history. The note of preparation had been sounding for half a year; her name, through all the country, had become a household word; and every incident in her life, and every judgment of her capacities, had been made familiar, by the admirable tactician who had hazarded so much of his fortune in her engagement. The general interest was increased by the accounts in the chief foreign journals of her triumphal progress through England, and when at length she reached New-York, her reception resembled the ovations that are offered to heroes. Her first concert was given at the Castle Amphitheater, on the 11th September, to the largest audience ever assembled for any such occasion in America. There was an apprehension among the more judicious that the performances would fall below the common expectations; but the most sanguine were surprised by the completeness of her triumph. She surpassed all that they had ever heard, or dreamed, or imagined. It was, as the _Christian Inquirer_ happily observes, as if all the birds of Eden had melted their voices into one, to rise in gushing song upon the streaming light to salute the sun. Her later concerts have increased rather than diminished the enthusiasm produced by her first appearance. Mlle. Lind is accompanied by M. Benedict, the well known composer, and by Signer Belletti, whose voice is the finest _baritone_ probably ever heard in New York, and whose style is described by the _Albion_ as "near perfection." The orchestral arrangements for her concerts have never been surpassed here. Many were deterred from being present at her first appearance by a fear of crowds and tumults, but so perfect were Mr. Barnum's appointments that all the vast assemblies at the Castle have been as orderly as the most quiet evening parties in private houses.

The personal interest in Mlle. Lind is almost as great as the interest in the singer. Her charities in New York have already reached more than $15,000. and it is understood that all the profits of her engagement in America, not thus dispensed here, are appropriated by her for the establishment of free schools in Sweden.

Mlle. Lind has given to the Fire Department Fund, $3,000; Musical Fund Society, $2,000; Home for the Friendless, Society for the Relief of Indigent Females, Dramatic Fund Association, Home for Colored and Aged Persons, Colored and Orphan Association, Lying-in Asylum for Destitute Females, New York Orphan Asylum, Protestant Half-Orphan Asylum, Roman Catholic Half-Orphan Asylum, and Old Ladies Asylum, each $500. Total, $10,000. The lives of Mr. Barnum, Jenny Lind, M. Benedict, and Signor Belletti, with all the details of the concerts, have been issued in a pamphlet displaying the usual tyographical richness and elegance of Van Norden & Leslie, Fulton-street.