wise are they endangered by it, even to the risk hands. They have got an Assembly of their own of destruction. If Russia and Austria, England choosing. For the popular element which was at and France conniving, are conspiring to reinvade first sufficiently strong in it, was got rid of by a Europe with a gigantic political Manicheism, we most foolish conspiracy, which decreased and disdo not fear it. Good is inextinguishable; the na-credited the liberal ranks and cause. Louis Napotions will rise again, to do their work once more leon has no power to dissolve this assembly. He -and to do it better. has no power to govern, save through its majority. And although this majority was obtained from the country under the idea that society and property were in danger, and that the men to be returned should be men who would vote for them at all price, there is no appeal from the extravagant reaction of this majority. FRANCE. From the Daily News. Ir is difficult to imagine a country so totally devoid as is France of public feeling or of public pride. Any firm-handed despot might humble her We see what it has done in Rome-something before Europe, might use her resources to support that neither Louis Philippe nor Charles X. could any criminal, or superannuated, or imbecile cause; have dared. And what they have done in Rome might convert her army into mere police, and take they will strive to do in France-that is, restore the money of the industrious to pay them. Through- the ancient state of things, the monarchy of the out a land of thirty millions there seems no motive elder Bourbons, the court, the priesthood, the catfor public conduct acknowledged save fear, or ava-egories of proscription, the censorship of the press, rice, or the merest selfishness. There is no prin- the colleges in possession of the Jesuits. The ciple in public men; no force in public opinion. reaction at Paris arrives at a point quite as extreme There reigns in the political atmosphere that dead, as the reaction at Berlin or Vienna. All that is dark and solemn calm that accompanies or preludes wanting is the scaffold, and that may come. great convulsions, when there is not a light to guide one, nor a breath of wind to move a sail, were one to spread it. Upon such a world has poor Louis Napoleon been thrown-we say poor, for we profoundly pity him. He has been a twelvemonth at the head of a noble country, and he has not found one principle of government, one public aim, one true support, one genuine friend. The interests of each party that he advanced to power were hostile to him, yet he has shrunk from those which could best have coalesced with him. He was made to consider everything popular and everything liberal as a bugbear, and he consequently flung himself into the arms of parties whose chief hopes consisted in his betrayal. It certainly was a perplexing thing, for a prince or a president, placed at the head of a French government, to find out support for that government. The popular party was profoundly ulcerated, the middle class terribly frightened, the moneyed class outrageous with losses, of which they flung the entire blame on liberalism and republicanism, instead of attributing them to their own improvidence, selfishness and folly. Loyalty was a sentiment unknown. Even legitimists disown it; what they want is a prince, to stand capital of that column of which they, the aristocracy, form the shaft. The moneyed class, who were ruined by the republic, and the legitimists, who had been in ruin and disgrace during the last half century, coalesced; and they offered power to whoever would put down republicanism and do their work. They offered it to Lamartine, they offered it to Cavaignac. The one was too foolish, the other too honest, to accept such terms. Louis Napoleon grasped at them. He was elected by them-at least appeared to be so— and he became their tool. They hold him in their But although this is the aim of M. Falloux and M. Montalembert, and of the united majority of legitimists and Orleanists, we cannot believe that M. Thiers has put himself at the head of any such crusade. M. Thiers is too much and too indelibly a son of the revolution to commit himself to any such doctrines, or any such party. M. Thiers is essentially a foreign politician; his whole soul is in the interests and advancement of his country abroad. And in order that it may have a commanding position abroad, M. Thiers would perhaps desire to raise to power that party which is strongest in domestic politics. What Lord Aberdeen recommends in England, M. Thiers recommends in France. Lord Aberdeen says, Let us make friends with Austria and absolutism, and by that means appear to support and share in a reäction that we cannot resist. M. Thiers says, The tide of reaction and absolutism is strong; let us join it, and make the most of it. M. Thiers is, like Lord Aberdeen, biased in no small degree by motives of personal rivalry. The old feud between Thiers and Dufaure, Thiers and Passy, survives. And M. Thiers, who fought the battle of the right of ministers, and not kings, to govern, under Louis Philippe, is most unwilling to give up such a principle to a Louis Napoleon. For the president of a republic to write a letter, disowning all complicity with the unpopular but necessary policy in which his cabinet has embarked, is a trick in M. Thiers' estimation which no public man ought to allow. Such we believe to be the explanation of M. Thiers' conduct, and we are far from thinking it satisfactory. But it, at least, removes or contradicts the very deplorable supposition that such men as M. Thiers have given their assent, their talents, and their efforts, to a legitimist restoration. From the New York Tribune. Los Gringos; or, an Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia. By Lieut. WISE, U. S. N. New York: Baker and Scribner. LIFE IN RIO. humor, its life-like naturalness, its brilliant glimpses of character and manners, and its power of expressive word-painting, we have not seen the equal of for a long time, in our critical hunt for readable books. No one who runs his eye over the lively THE tone of gayety and good-humored per- table of contents, can satiate his curiosity without siflage, which has given such brilliant success to a perusal of the entire volume. We will dip into several English writers of travels, is almost a new it at random for one or two sketches, for which feature in modern literature. With the exception our readers will be sure to thank us. They are of Beckford's spicy description of his droll ex- by no means above the general average of the periences in Spain and Portugal, we have had lit-book. tle worth noticing in this kind, until within a comparatively recent period. The instant popularity which has followed the attempts alluded to, has waked up a host of travellers, who feel themselves called to clothe the history of their common-place adventures in the sparkling, gossamer, or, perhaps, gaseous, veil of sprightly romantic embellishment. The apparent ease with which those piquant descriptions are thrown off, has tempted many a conceited itinerant into more perils than those he boasts to have encountered in foreign climes. The book which is so delicious in the reading, has been concocted from the sweat and agony of the author's brain; but the unwary adventurer, who has been enticed into the magic circle, is soon found crushed under the weight of his own stupidity. In this species of composition, more than in almost any other, there is no hope of success except to the writer who combines a genial vivacity, a sensitive, mercurial temperament, a shrewd spirit of observation, with a kaleidoscopic variety and quaintness of expression that always ensures a brilliant triumph in conversation, but which can rarely be woven into the substantial texture of a book. And anything short of triumphant success is dead failure. The author of this agreeable volume is one of the fortunate persons who can venture on the style, in which he seems so entirely at home, without the shadow of risk. He has only to uncork the radiant champagne of his genius, of which he has specimens of every choice and delicate vintage, and you are regaled with an inexhaustible flow of the exhilarating juice. The voyage, of which we here have the logbook, worked up into a fascinating tissue of exquisite badinage, genuine humor, and pithy description, led the author into a great variety of scenes, to which his graphic pen has imparted the most felicitous effect. He left Boston at the close of the summer of 1846, in a United States vessel, proceeds to Rio Janeiro, doubles Cape Horn, touches at Valparaiso, cruises along the coasts of Mexico and California, visits the interior, goes to the Sandwich Islands, stops at Nukaheva, explores Polynesia, and returns to this country, after being borne by his noble ship over a space of fifty-five thousand miles. Such a voyage could not fail to open a rich vein of materials to the skilful hand that should be able to work them up with the charms of sparkling, picturesque description. Lieut. Wise has certainly made the best use of his opportunities, and given us a volume which, for its fresh, joyous The saloons are always spacious and lofty, with prettily papered walls, and floors of the beautiful, dark polished wood of the country. Nearly all these residences are surrounded by extensive gardens, blooming in bright and brilliant foliage, only matured beneath the burning rays of a vertical sun. There are no springs in Rio, and the grounds are tains in the rear; sufficiently large, however, to irrigated by miniature aqueducts, led from mounfloat in their narrow channels, serpents and many other cursed reptiles, enough to make one's hair stand erect. It is by no means an uncommon occurrence to find the giracca, a venomous snake, insinuating themselves within the sunny marble pavements of steps and porticos; and I was assured by feet cut off from his tail, ran away with head and a resident, that one monster, after having some four remaining half with a most cricket-like and surprising degree of celerity. Indeed, I was myself a witness to the intrusion of an individual of the scorpion breed, who walked uninvited into the saloon, and was on the point of stepping up a young lady's ankle, when, detecting his intention, with the assisthe might sting himself or the glass at pleasure. ance of a servant, he was enticed into a bottle, that Being somewhat unaccustomed to these little predatory incursions, I was particularly cautious, during the remainder of my stay, to examine every article, from a tooth-pick to the couch, before touching the same. Another approximation to the same genus and I was told that it is not unusual for a million or is the white ant, possessing rather a literary turn, two to devour a gentleman's library-covers and all, in a single night. I have never yet been able to conquer disgust for even docile, harmless, speckled-back lizards; and, indeed, all the hosts of slimy, crawling reptiles, I heartily fear and abhor. We found the town in a furor of enthusiasm in admiration of the song and the beauty of a French for the dollars, in sweet music of Auber and Donoperatique corps. I went thrice, and was well repaid izetti. There were two primas-for serious and comique-both, too, primas in prettiness. The Academy of Paris Music had never, perhaps, seen or heard of Mesdames and her partner, but La Sala Januairo had been captivated with both, and beauty for what care we, if the notes touch the soul, covers multitudes of faults, particularly with men ; whether a crystal shade higher or lower than Grisi, or Persiani, so long as they flow from rosy lips, that might defy those last-named donnas to rival, even with the brightest carmine of their toilets. The theatre itself is a very respectable little place, having three tiers and parquette. The royal box faces the stage, hung with damask. The whole interior of the building was quite Italian; every box railed off with gilded fret-work, and lighted with candles swinging in glass shades. The Brazilians are fond of music, and all the world attended each representation, including the emperor, em- became a trifle elevated with their potations, they were wont to indulge in a variety of capricious feats on horseback-leaping and wheeling-throwing the lasso over each other; or if by chance a bullock appeared, they took delight, while at full speed in the carrara, in catching the beasts by a dexterous twist in the tail; and the performance was never satisfactorily concluded until the bullock was thrown a complete somerset over his horns. These paisanos of California, like the guachos of Buenos Ayres, and guaso of Chili, pass most of their existence on horseback; there the natural vigor of manhood seems all at once called into play, and horse and backer appear of the same piece. The lasso is their plaything either for service or pastime; with it, the unruly wild horse or bullock is brought within reach of the knife. Ferocious Bruin himself gets his throat twisted and choked, and, with heavy paws spread wide apart, is dragged for miles, perhaps to the bear-bait, notwithstanding his glittering jaws, and giant efforts to escape. Without the horse and lasso these gentry are helpless as infants: their horses are admirably trained and sometimes perform under a skilful hand pranks that always cause surprise to strangers. I once saw a band of horses at General Rosa's quinta, near Buenos Ayres, trained to run like hares, with fore and hind legs lashed together by thongs of The curtain rose as the imperial party took their seats, and there were neither vivas, nor groaning manifestations, to express pleasure or disgust, from the audience. All passed quietly and orderly, like sensible persons, who came to hear sweet sounds, and not to be overawed by great people. I made the tour of the donnas through a capital lorgnette; and, although like Mickey Free, fond of tobacco and ladies, I must pledge my solemn assurances, that with the exception of something pretty attached to the French company, there was not a lovable woman to be seen. I doubt not but there are rare jewels to be found in out-of-the-way spots, secluded from public gaze, but it was terra incognita to me, and we saw none other than the light molasses-hued dam-hide; it was undertaken to preserve the animals sels, who are fully matured at thirteen, and decidedly from being thrown by the Indian bolas, and the passée at three-and-twenty. In the present age, it riders as a consequence lanced to death. But I is a questionable inference if saponaceous compounds was far more amused one afternoon while passing might not be judiciously used in removing some few a fandango near Monterey, to see a drunken vaquero stains that nature is entirely innocent of painting; cattle driver-mounted on a restive, plunging albeit, a lovely Anglo-Saxon of my acquaintance beast, hold at arms' length a tray of glasses brimwas vastly horrified at thoughts of a friend espous-ming with aguadiente, which he politely offered to ing one of these cream-colored beauties, valued at a conto of rais, and shipload of coffee; and assured the deluded swain, with tears in her eyes, that it would require more than half his fortune to keep his wife in soap-supposing she should acquire the weakness or ambition to become enamored of fresh water. SAN FRANCISCO TWO YEARS AGO. everybody within reach of his curvetings, without ever once spilling a drop. I thought this better than Camille Leroux in the Polka, or a guacho picking up a cigarritto with his teeth, at a hand gallop! It is remarkable, too, how very long a Californian can urge a horse, and how lightly he rides, even when the beast appears thoroughly exhausted, tottering at every pace under a strange rider, yet the native will lift him to renewed struggles, and hold him up for leagues further. Nor is it by the aid of his enormous spurs, for the punishment is by no means so severe as the sharp rowels with us; but accustomed to the horse from infancy he appears to divine his powers, and thus a mutual and instinctive bond is established between them. The saddles here as well as those along the southern coasts partake in build of the old Spanish high peak and croupe, and are really intended for ease and comfort to the rider. In Chili the pillion is used, a soft material of rugs, smooth and thick, thrown over the saddle frame; but it distends the thighs too greatly. The Californian is both hard and heavy, and murderous to the horse. The Mexican is best, less cumbersome, more elegant in construction, and a great support to the rider. The stirrups of all are similar, weighty wooden structures, and the feet rest naturally in them. Our anchorage was near the little village of Yerbabuena, five miles from the ocean, and within a short distance from the Franciscan Mission and Presidio of the old royalists. The site seems badly chosen, for although it reposes in partial shelter, beneath the high bluffs of the coast, yet a great portion of the year it is enveloped in chilling fogs; and invariably, during the afternoon, strong sea breezes are drawn through the straits like a funnel, and playing with fitful violence around the hills, the sand is swept in blinding clouds over the town and the adjacent shores of the bay. Yet with all these drawbacks the place was rapidly thriving under the indomitable energy of our countrymen. Tenements, large and small, were running up like card-built houses in all directions. The population was composed of Mormons, backwoodsmen, and a few very respectable traders from the eastern cities of the United States. Very rare it was to see a There is nothing either pleasing or inviting in the native; our brethren had played the porcupine so landscape in the vicinity of Yerbabuena. All looks sharply as to oblige them to seek their homes bare and sterile from a distance, and on closer inamong more congenial kindred. On Sunday, how-spection the deep sandy soil is covered with imperever, it was not uncommon to encounter gay caval-vious thickets of low, thorny undergrowth, with cades of young paisanos, jingling in silver chains none of the rich green herbage, forests, or timber, and finery, dashing into town, half-a-dozen abreast; as in Monterey. The roads were so heavy that having left their sweethearts at the Mission, or the horses could hardly strain nearly knee deep some neighboring rancho, for the evening fandango. through the sand, and consequently our rides were Toward afternoon, when these frolicsome caballeros restricted to a league's pasear to the mission, or across the narrow strip of the peninsula to the old After bathing, we reclined on the thwarts of an Presidio; but in the town we passed the hours immense war canoe that was hauled upon the beach, pleasantly, became conversant with the Mormon capable of holding at least fifty paddles, and amused bible and doctrine, rolled ten-pins and amused our-ourselves watching a score of young girls swimselves nightly at the monte in the casa de bebida de ming in the bay; they swam like fishes, but as there Brown; still there was a great stir and bustle go- was no surf or rocks, I had no means of determining on. A number of large merchant ships had ing what novel or extraordinary feats they were arrived, bringing the regiment of New York vol- able to perform; they were quite skilful little fisherunteers, and the beach was strown with heavy women, and procured for us a cocoanut-shell full guns, carriages, piles of shot, ordnance stores, of delicious oysters-no bigger than shilling pieces wagons, tents, and camp equipage, whilst the which served to pass the time until we adjourned. streets were filled with troops, who belonged to to the king's house. the true democracy, called one another Mister, It was rather a modern structure, of roughly-laid snubbed their officers, and did generally as they stones and boards, built by the French, though pleased, which was literally nothing. However, falling to decay. There was but a single apartin due time, they were brought into the traces and ment of tolerable size; floor and walls were strewn properly buckled to their duty, when their services with mats, stools, a couple of bedsteads, spy-glasses, were exerted in planting a battery of long 24-pound-fowling-pieces covered with rust, spears, nets, caliers, to command the straits, and their excitable bashes, rolls of tappa, war conches, whales' teeth, spirits kept under control at their quarters in the circular crowns of cocks' feathers, beside an infinite Presidio. variety of serviceable and useless trumpery, scattered indiscriminately around. This was Yerbabuena as we found it on our first coming-rapidly springing into importance, and bidding fair at some future day, even without the advantages to be derived from the mines, which were then unknown, to become the greatest commercial port on the Pacific. MANNERS OF NUKEHEVA. We took a long stroll around the beaches and valleys at the head of the harbor, made a number of visits, then bathed in a shallow, discolored stream of mineral water. The district is not populous, and during our sojourn the king and many of the natives had gone to a high heathenish festival in an adjacent valley, on the opposite side of the island. Since the occupation by the French, perfect amity had existed between the different clans of Nukeheva, where each petty chief and people are independent sovereigns in their romantic and secluded valleys; not so much for mutual friendship existing between them as in hatred to their white visitors. The French seldom wandered to any great distance from their quarters, fearing, possibly, the "Anthropopagian tastes of their cannibalistic brethren." Coiled up on a low, beastly collection of mats and tappa, was a repulsive object, half dead with some loathsome disease, and drunk with arra—he was the chief's brother, and was expected to die shortly, or be killed on the return of his sovereign -a custom strictly observed with invalids and old decrepid persons. Within a stone's throw of this habitation was another nearly completed, in native design. The foundation was raised two feet by a platform of large, round, smooth stones. The building itself was in shape of an irregular inverted acute angle, or trapezoid, at the ends, with the legs slightly inclined outwardly, and resting on the foundation. Large upright shafts of polished red wood supported roof and sides, which were nicely formed of frames of white poles, lashed securely and neatly together by braids of party-colored sennit, and thatched evenly and tastefully over by the spear-shaped leaves of the pandannus, leaving the front of the dwelling open for light and air. It presented a deal of ingenuity and nice mechanism in the design and construction. The French allow the king sixty dollars a month, The women were tall and well-shaped, with very and I should say, from the careless appearance of much brighter complexions than the Hawaiians, his household, that he made a bad use of it; besides, and, with exceptions of young girls, were all more he was addicted to arva, which my friend assured or less disfigured by the indigo hues of tattoo; the me was a shade worse for the stomach than Prussie faces escaping with a few delicate blue lines or dots acid. I returned to the frigate in the evening, with on lips or cheeks. They all seemed complimented, a party planned to visit the Happar Valley, whose and gave us every assistance in deciphering differ-beauties we had heard much extolled, on the folent signs engraved upon their persons, and one lowing day. buxom dame, who had a large painting similar to the tail of a peacock spread upon her shoulders, insisted upon doffing her drapery and preceding us, that we might study its beauties with every facility possible! Many were decorated with bracelets and necklaces of leaves or flowers, and some with anklets of human hair, toe-nails, and other valuable relics. All were perfumed with cocoanut oil, and smeared with another equally odoriferous ointment, which dyed arms and faces a deep saffron. Neither cosmetic was I able to acquire a taste for, after repeated trials; and, indeed, I may admit that I have never conquered a disgust, perhaps engendered by too nice a sense of perfume. From a number of unmistakeable signs and ex pressions, I presumed the Frances were not entirely beloved, even by the women, although the men deigned ludicrous attempts in mode of beard, moustache, shrug of shoulders, and other little grimace, to copy French dress and manner. The title of the book-Los Gringos-is rather cabalistic at first sight, but we see its appropriateness when we are informed that it is the epithet -and rather a reproachful one-used in California and Mexico to designate the descendants of the Anglo-Saxon race with a signification somewhat similar to Greenhorns in modern parlance, or Mohawks in the days of the Spectator. Ought it not, therefore, to be very pleasant, when rive their support. The Swede cares He we had reason to expect a group of new acquaint-not to adorn the outside of his house: his garden, auces, to meet with none but old friends whom we if he has one, is not filled with blooming flowers, have known for years? This agreeable surprise good reasons, no great confidence in the sun, and as in the lands of the south. He has, perhaps, for Miss Bremer has prepared for us in perfection. in the friendliness of the powers of nature. The good, clever, stout-hearted matron-the ra- objects, too, decidedly to all unnecessary trouble; tional, cheerful, nay, jolly old maid-the fair and and he has a contempt, which only goes a little too somewhat moonshiny young one-the gloomy, far, for many of the conveniences and luxuries of mysterious stranger who turns out to be a long life. The inside of the house is truly his homeabsent son of the house, who has been lost, or at and this is more evident in the small towns than least mislaid, for many years, but whom we know anywhere else. The streets are empty, and on the the moment he steps across the threshold, though passengers but four-footed ones, and the grass is market-place, before the town-house, there are few his nearest relations don't-the large circle of growing on the uneven pavement; but out of the brothers and sisters whose names (not having little windows of the little houses, from between studied the noble science of phreno-typics) we can white curtains, and from behind blooming geraniby no possibility remember-here they are all ums and balsams, handsome inquisitive faces-men, again assembled for a family festival, as we have women, children, cats, and dogs, look eagerly at so often met them before in Miss Bremer's pro- the candles are lit, through the windows veiled by the passing traveller. In the evening, too, when ductions; we need not be at the trouble of intro- no envious rolling blinds, there may be seen a comducing one of them. plete gallery of pretty little domestic pictures. Life is very quiet in these small towns. Coffee-drinking parties and clubs make little disturbance, and only when there is a ball in the town, may one or two carriages be seen driving about to pick up the ladies. One decided advantage these insignificant towns have over both London and Paris-they have no beggars. The Swedish towns are poor, but they know no mendicancy. But, if in the so-called novel part of the "Sommer Reise" we find little novelty, we have, at all events, in the introduction, something surprising. What shall we say to this fantastic rhapsodical prelude to an entertainment so simple-not to say insipid? Is it that She on honey-dew hath fed, Smaland is a land with a rich variety of hills, and valleys, and small lakes; rather gloomy to Or if not, under what influence has it been com- wards the north, but southward, towards Blekinger, posed? It commences in this fashion. What I love what since my youth up I have loved more than all created things-has a beautiful countenance. Not beautiful after the Greek model. No! His features are nothing less than regular. Not smilingly beautiful. No! Although the most beautiful smile beams across them, yet their expression is serious. It casts dark glances, and has unlovely scars and wrinkles. But I love even these. Why? I know not. Love is of a sunny nature; it kisses unlovely scars, and adorns defects with the blossoms of tenderness. Tall is the form of my beloved-great are the contrasts that exhibit themselves in him; from his feet which the waves of the Baltic bathe, and flowery meads caress-to his brow crowned by jagged icy rocks over which flame the Northern lights. At his feet will I sit and listen to his words, like a child at the feet of its mother. And sublime are thy lessons, Svea-my mother land, my father land! The sea is not so deep the sunbeams are not so warm-the roses are not so sweet, &c. &c. Dear reader, can you guess what all this means? Or do you "give it up?" The introduction commencing thus auspiciously is no less than thirty-seven pages long; but, fortunately, in the intervals of such flights as these, the authoress does occasionally set foot on the ground, and then she favors us with agreeable lightly-touched sketches of Swedish scenes, dashed off, we may suppose, as the steamer passes up the gulf of Bothnia. From these we select a few passages. Along the coast of Sweden lies a series of little towns-daughters of the sea from which they de more pleasant, and inhabited by a lively, witty. contented population, so active and ingenious, that it is said-Set a Smalander upon the roof of your house, and he will manage to get his living." This character is most strongly marked in the distant wooded districts; the forest is the workshop, and, at the same time, the storehouse of the countryman. The juniper-tree and the bilberry yield him their fruit; he brews drink from them, and makes jam; he mixes their juice with his salt dry food, and remains healthy and cheerful over the work that seems a mere pleasure to him. He sings to wile away the time, while his lonely charcoal-kiln glows and burns in the recesses of the wood, and when he tars the valley, as it is called, it is a grand festival. The process of tarring the valley consists, we are told, in dragging into it a number of roots and stumps of trees to be kindled in order to obtain the tar. This is a grand occasion of rejoicing burning valley to eat and drink and keep up the among the country people, who assemble in the fire. The people of Smaland are said to have a tinge of romance and enthusiasm in their character corresponding with the wildness of their scenery; and this district has been tolerably fertile in distinguished men, amongst whom we may mention "Linnæus, the King of Flowers, who, when the sceptre fell from the hands of Charles the Twelfth, arose to give new splendor to the name of Sweden, and to extend his flowery sceptre over the earth ;" and one or two others less known beyond the limits of their country than they deserve to be. Here the peasant Horberg, in the intervals of tilling his fields and driving home his hay, painted altar-pieces which are still highly valued; and here |