The Universal Gazette of Prussia, publishes a letter from St. Petersburgh of the 17th November, which states:

"The cholera makes fresh progress in the two directions, which it is following in Russia. It has just broken out in the governments of Simbrisk, Kazan, Nijni, Novogorod, Riasan, Poltawa, and Tamboff. Thus far, it does not appear disposed to spread on the side of Podolia and Gallicia, and it even appears to have very little intensity in that neighborhood. In that direction it has only shown itself on one point, at Ickaterinoslaf, where it traversed the Dnieper. Without counting Georgia, Caucasus, and the country of the Cossacks of the Black Sea, it already reigns in sixteen governments. On the 30th ult. it broke out at Moscow."

The latest intelligence from the latter place states the number of cholera patients there on the 16th November, at 105; on the evening of the 17th October, the number was 135. |

Spain still continues the victim of intrigue. The French party is in the ascendant, and notwithstanding the constant changes in the ministry, Narvaez appears to be the director of affairs, aided by the queen mother, Christina. An apparent reconciliation has been effected between Queen Isabella and her husband, but a strong opinion is maintained in Madrid that their feelings are as much estranged as ever, and that their present union is only a matter of state necessity. The Carlist and Montemolinist parties are endeavoring to excite civil war in Catalonia and other provinces, but meet with litle encouragement from the peasantry, and are generally routed when met by the queen's troops. Espartero, the exiled general, has been offered the embassy to London; which he has refused, it is said, on account of want of sufficient fortune to sustain the dignity of the station.

The civil war in Portugal having been terminated through the combined intervention of the allies of the queen's government, the parties opposed are busy at the work of intrigue, and are making great exertions to gain the supremacy at the coming elections.

In Italy, Pius IX. still continues to persevere in his judicious reforms. His views all appear to tend towards practical results, and are, for that reason, likely to prove more lasting and effective. A commercial treaty and customs league has lately been concluded between the Pope, the King of Sardinia, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany and Duke of Lucca, which

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litical union of the Italian States. The terms of this treaty will not be made public until it is known whether the King of Naples and the Duke of Modena will join the league, propositions having been made to them to do so. Paris paper announces that the Sultan has sent Chebel Effendi on a mission to Rome, to express his desire that the protection of the Christians of the Libanus should take place in a direct manner by the intervention of a representative of the Holy See; and the Pope has, in consequence, re-established the office of Patriarch of Jerusalem, and raised to that dignity a simple missionary priest.

The civil war in Switzerland has commenced. The troops of the Federal Government were investing Fribourg, and the bombardment of that place was said to have commenced on the 12th inst.; but the latter fact appears doubtful, as reports of a later date state that the Grand Council of Fribourg had assembled, and demanded a suspension of hostilities, which had been granted by the commander of the Federal forces. Great excitement exists in the Tyrol, in consequence of the events taking place in Switzerland, and which is increased by the movements of the Austrian troops. It is understood that overtures have been made, by the representatives of some of the continental powers, to the British Cabinet, for an amicable mediation to terminate the differences now existing in the Helvetic republic.

Mr. Gutzlaff, the missionary to China, has just completed a voluminous history of that empire, and sent the manuscript to Mr. Cotta, the publisher at Stutgardt. He has published at Hong Kong a universal geography, in Chinese, with sixty large maps; and has begun to compose a dictionary of that language. He has founded a Chinese society, which already numbers 600 members, and includes mandarins and native savans of the first rank; and the society has already published a large number of popular works. This establishment was instituted from a conviction that Christianity, and its civilizing results, can only be successfully propagated in China, by the Chinese themselves.

Dr. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the great musical composer, died suddenly, of inflammation of the brain, at Leipsic, on the 4th of November last, aged 30. He was born at Berlin, on the 3d of February, 1808; and was son of the celebrated Archæologist James Solomon Bartholdy, and grandson of the philosopher Mendelssohn. At 8 years of age, he had composed some remarkable pieces, and performed on the piano, at Paris and London, with great success. Six songs for a soprano voice, three motets for mixed chorusses, (already in the press,) a large portion of his new Ortario of Christ, and some other works, were found in his writing desk, after his decease.

Old Wine in New Bottles; or, Spare Hours of a Student in Paris. By AUGUSTUS KINSLEY GARDNER, M. D. New-York: C. S. Francis & Co., 252 Broadway. Boston: J. H. Francis, 128 Washington street. 1848.

THIS volume is a republication of a series of letters, written by the author when he was a medical student in Paris, to the Newark Daily Advertiser. They are exceedingly entertaining and full of interesting description, good humor and good sense. The author has an observant eye, and while his correspondence lets us into the heart of life in the gay capital, its thousand excitements evidently did not disturb the serenity of his understanding. He appears the same quiet observer in all the various scenes through which he takes us-the theatres, the opera, the hospitals, the bal masque. One who wishes to ramble around the city, which seems the physical and social centre of the world, as London does its intellectual and moral, could not choose a more agreeable companion. He is always cheerful and amusing; not narrow in his views of French life, but at the same time thoroughly and indisputably American in his observations and reflections. Many of his opinions are deeply colored with the mode of thinking peculiar to physicians; but that of course does not diminish the gratification of the reader. It is curious to observe how differently the same incident will be regarded by different minds. The following, for example, would hardly have come from a young lawyer, after witnessing an execution by the guillotine :

"An individual, it is agreed, by all people of sense, may take life in necessary self-defence. What may be thus done by one may be done by another, and so society becomes invested with the same high prerogative, as a dernier resort. I do not acknowledge myself under any obligation to incur the trouble, expense and risk of chaining a wild beast of a man, to keep him from preying on his fellow-men. The virtuous portion of the community is not bound, and sometimes is not able, to waste the fruits of its hard and honest labor in building penitentiaries, in which the worthless, aye, and still dangerous existence of a demon may be carefully prolonged, and his body clothed and fed-often much better than the poor who are taxed to pay for it-till the culprit shall be pardoned by an impotent or corrupt executive, to vex the country again with his murders and conflagrations; or till a natural death shall do for the people

what they had not the firmness to do for themselves rid them of an enormous and perilous burden, not imposed by any dictate of natural law.".

Here is no sympathy with crime, no inquiry into palliative circumstances. The man who was guillotined had attempted several times to murder his wife, and at last nearly beat her brains out with a hammer. The doctor was evidently glad to see his head cut off. As the reader glides over the description he feels so likewise, though it is only medical and military men, whose nerves are educated out of the sympathetic influence of pain, that can witness such things with a becoming indifference. Perhaps it is owing more to this sympathetic influence, which the subtle fancy can any moment image to the mind, that we have such discordance of opinion respecting capital punishment. The easy confidence with which physicians throw out opinions on social questions is often not only entertaining, but really instructive; we are led to see the matter in a new light. A lawyer is troubled with the uncertainties of jury trials, and the thousand other hindrances to justice; doctors consider all that as an accurately working part of the social machine, and look only to the abstract question. A man who kills his wife ought to be hung, they think; most people have an instinctive feeling to the same effect, because the fact appeals directly to the sense of natural justice. But the doctors go a step further not only do they have the natural feeling, but, being accustomed to surgical operations, they have also a feeling that they should be perfectly willing to officiate in the matter, if no one else were at hand, and that by the mode least painful to the subject. They are terrible slashers. But perhaps their cool mode of thinking contributes, on the whole, to the health of the body politic, no less than their science does to that of the body individual. At all events, however much any one may differ with Dr. Gardner on this and other points, there will be no difference as to the fact of his having written a very readable volume.

The American in Paris. By JOHN SANDERSON. In two volumes. Third edition. Philadelphia: Carey & Hart. 1847.

Since these letters were originally published in 1835, they have had many imitators, some of them displaying much ability; yet, and also after a lapse of more than ten years, which is

a long immortality for such sketches, they have lost none of their original excellence. If it be lawful to use two words utterly outworn, we may express in them a sufficiently comprehensive criticism for a brief notice, and call these volumes "graphic" and " racy." They are picturesque, brilliant, sparkling-everything that is animated. To read them is like seeing fireworks. And yet they fatigue and cloy us. The intense ebullience of the fancy, which is their most remarkable characteristic, affects us, we know not why, sadly and even painfully. We seem to be brought in contact with a burning soul, that is consuming its over sensitive and excitable tenement. The vis animi is wearing out the body. After reading a few pages one feels heated and feverish. In this respect these letters are in marked contrast with those of Dr. Gardner, just noticed: they are more brilliant, but not so cheerful. It may be, however, that in this respect our perceptions are too delicate. For those who can bear such writing there is drollery enough, as well as suggestiveness, in these two volumes, to stimulate them for a month. Here, on the Boulevard Poissonniere, or near it, resides Mr. — , of New Jersey; he has been sent over (hapless errand!) to convert these French people to Christianity. He is a very clever man, and we will ask if he is yet alive: the journals of this morning say three or four missionaries have been eaten up by the Sumatras." This and a thousand other bon-bons are in the very spirit of a Parisian feuilletonist. One cannot avoid a momentary smile at the absurdity of the idea, though Mr. may have done a great deal of good in Paris, notwithstanding.

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It makes one almost sad to see how much better boys are cared for now than they used to be, especially during the annual holidays that are just past. This little volume is another evidence of the increased attention that is paid them. It is very neatly printed, and the wood cuts are well executed. Mr. Miller evidently loves children, and has also excellent taste in matters of literature, anecdote, &c. Our only fault with him is that he writes down too far, and is a little childish and goodyish at times, which boys do not like half so well as strong manly writing, that says what it has to say in plain words, and leaves their own active fancies to supply the coloring. Nothing offends their pride more than to be played baby with; they always feel that they are not appreciated, and that their teacher, who approaches them in that way, must be weak in perception. But so it is through life; the pride of the old stands opposed to that of the young:

The Pictorial History of England. Harper & Brothers.

The republication of this great work is draw" ing to a conclusion, it having reached the thirty" third number, the whole being to be completed in about forty. It is fairly printed in ample two-column pages, and the engravings very respectable. The usefulness and interest of the work are too obvious to need a comment. It is a compilation from all sorts of histories, and presents a view not only of the progress of the government but also of the people, their religion, manners and customs, national industry, general condition, and gradual advancement in literature, science, and the fine arts. gratification and mental improvement, and not For those who read history only for their own to supply themselves with arms to be used in

political or professional employments, such a work must supply a long-felt desideratum. For, in respect of the most picturesque parts of English history, we have hitherto relied more upon the old dramatists and the modern novelists than upon Hume and his successors: Shakspeare and Sir Walter Scott have in this sense been our best historians.

We have not had time to examine the tone and merit of the compilation, but it is fair

to

presume that it is of similar excellence with the many works tending to popularize learning and spread the love of knowledge which have issued from the same press in London; and if so, it is a work which cannot fail in this country of doing good service among the people. It is attractive and will be read, and many who are drawn into reading it will find how many of the noisiest social fancies of the present day which claim to be great discoveries are only new developments of the one Adam, and are in fact as old as the hills. It will lead to reflection, and that is a habit