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of internal communication; increased freedom and If the Hungarians and the Hungarian constitueducation of the peasantry; the repeal of laws pre-tion be crushed, what defenders of legality and venting the free purchase and sale of landed prop-rational civil self-government will be left in cenerty perfect equality of all religions, and the freedom of the press. For the greater part of these objects they are still struggling.-Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, vol. i., p. 162.

This was written ten years ago. Much had been effected, spite of government intrigues, subsequently to that period, and previously to the diet of 1847-48. In that diet, many of the most important internal reforms had passed, not merely the lower, but the upper house, before February, 1848. These reforms, together with others conceived in the same spirit, obtained the sanction of the then legitimate monarch of the country. Nor was the nature of these reforms more truly conservative than the manner in which they were effected. Where vested interests were found to be incompatible with the welfare of the state, the holders of such vested interests were indemnified for their surrender; and the electoral qualification of property and intelligence, which was substituted for that of birth, preserved a just mean between too wide and too narrow a suffrage. An income of £10 in towns, a property equivalent to £30 in the country, is very different from what such a qualification would be here; when we consider that in Hungary meat is three halfpence a pound, and wheat fifteen shillings a quarter.

In Hungary we do not find one faction struggling against another, democracy against aristocracy, poverty against wealth. The whole nation has arisen as one man in defence of its constitution against revolutionary despotism, in defence of its independence against foreign invasion. The newly enfranchised peasantry are not less ardent in the national cause than those who, before the reforms, were exclusively in possession of the full rights of citizenship. really independent and unembarrassed magnates, the peers of Hungary, are found aiding the same cause with their arm, their purse, or their counsel.

The

tral and eastern Europe? The tendencies of the military despotism which is at present predominant, are no less levelling than those of the most unbridled ochlocracy; no less opposed to all free action of individuals or of corporations. But how long can this military despotism last? It can only be supported by numerous armies of soldiers, and hardly less numerous armies of paid civil functionaries. In proportion as the number of unproductive consumers increases so do not merely the numbers but the energies of the producers diminish; as the burdens become heavier, the capacity of bearing them becomes less. This state of things leads to a national bankruptcy (a consummation from which Austria is not far distant for the third time within the last forty years;) to the most frightful social convulsions; to a war of Proletaires against those who still possess property; and to a scene of universal disorder, of which no man can tell the end. The people of most continental countries have lost the habits and traditions of self-government, together with their chartered liberties; the Hungarians have maintained these habits and their prescriptive rights through good and evil times. In their defence they have poured out their blood like water, not merely now but in bygone ages. One Hungarian generation has handed down to another the torch of constitutional liberty, for the benefit not merely of themselves, but of the world. Such a nation the real conservative must wish to see, not simply saved from annihilation, but taking a prominent part in the affairs of the continent; as a model of rational government, and a guarantee for the maintenance of order and security in the east of Europe.

JOHN WILSON.

THE sudden death of this popular vocalist, on the shores of the St. Lawrence-cut off by the fatal epidemic of the time, in the vigor of his age, (for he had not completed his forty-ninth year)—is felt by the public as the loss of a highly-gifted artist, and in society as the loss of a most excellent and amiable man. In his native country the regret occa

One Batthyany is expiating his attachment to his country in the dungeons of Laibach; another takes the department of foreign affairs in Kossuth's ministry. A Karolyi raises a regiment of hussars at his own expense; and a Teleki, of the noblest and wealthiest house in Transylvania, is actively employed in the diplo-sioned by the news is deep and general; scarcely a matic service of his country. But above all, the country gentlemen of ancient lineage are found where they ought to be found in such a crisis. We observe that Marzibanyi, the wealthiest untitled noble of Hungary, has just been sentenced by Haynau to a fine of £2,000 for his patriotism. It is from this class, indeed, that the men who so ably fill the various posts in the present govern-ercise an influence in strengthening the bonds that ment are principally taken-men well acquainted unite the countries. with the routine of administration, who are qualified for the stations they hold at present by the experience of years as magistrates in their respective courties, and as members of the National Diet.

single Scotch newspaper of the last week failed to contribute some affectionate tribute to his memory. On this side of the Tweed his career had excited a peculiar interest; and the entertainments by which he made the national melody and song of the sister kingdom familiar in England will not only be long remembered with pleasure, but may be said to ex

Mr. Wilson, though his love of music showed itself at an early age, betook himself to its regular study later in life than is usual with professional artists. Born in Edinburgh, and bred in the printing-office of Mr. Ballantyne at the famous era of

does not meet here the mischievous-looking urchins that fill the streets of Paris; the boys of Germany are more quiet and sedate in their expression, and make up for want of vivacity by a greater refinement. You feel sure that the French lad will play you some saucy trick at the earliest opportunity, but you know that you will love his German rival the better the longer you know him. As to the fairer portion of creation, who has not admired the French women? Unfortunately, the sentiment rarely goes beyond admiration. The Normandy girls, with their black hair and beetlike cheeks—the girls of South France, with

Scott and the Waverley Novels, he remained there till he was turned of five-and-twenty; and it was probably owing to his education for the most intellectual of mechanical trades that he acquired the literary tastes and habits which were conspicuous in his after life. When he determined to embrace music as a profession, he commenced its study with characteristic energy, and with such success, that he is well known to have been one of the soundest and best general musicians of the day. When he appeared on the London musical stage, his success was immediate; and he stood for a number of years in the position of principal tenor at Covent Garden and Drury Lane-a position he was qualified to their flashing eyes, black hair, and pale faces, rehold by the singular beauty of his voice, his pure minding one of Spanish heroines in novels-and and unaffected style of singing, and his good sense the lively grisettes of Paris, have all been the as an actor. But English opera was falling into theme of travellers' praises. Admit that they decay; and, though he took a leading part in the captivate at the first glance-their reign is soon efforts made by some of the more eminent perform- over.-Candor will force the traveller in France ers to sustain it, the ill success of those endeavors induced him to withdraw entirely from the stage. This seeming misfortune turned out happily for himself, for it led him into the path suited above all others to his genius and disposition. He had previously given occasional lectures at public institu- few fine women, but an infinite number of tions on the vocal music of Scotland; and now resolved to expand these into a regular series of entertainments, which he carried on with unflagging activity, and with unabated interest on the part of the public, during the remainder of his life.

Wilson's entertainments are known to everybody. Not only in the British metropolis, but in every corner of the island, and in America, they have made all ranks familiar with Scottish melody, Scottish poetry, Scottish humor, and Scottish character and manners. He made the lyrics of Burns, hitherto almost a sealed book in England, intelligible to the most thorough cockney; he commanded with facility all the feelings of his audience, their tenderness and mirth, their tears and laughter; and no assemblage, however cold, could resist the sympathetic influence of his enthusiasm. Much of this effect was produced by his strong spirit of nationality. He was in heart and soul a Scotchman; it was his delight to inspire others with something of the love for Scotland which burned within his own breast; and there can be no doubt that he awakened kindly feelings towards "auld Scotland" in thousands to whom her music, her poetry, and her people, had hitherto been objects of indifference.-Spect.

to acknowledge that, although charmed at Havre by the rosy freshness of the damsels, he begins to find them coarse before he arrives at Paris. On finishing his tour, at Marseilles, he will find, on questioning his memory, that he has seen very

wrinkled, withered hags, and of girls who at twenty have the worn and jaded air of thirty years spent in privation.

A French peasant girl is a burlesque on humanity. Imagine, if you can, a female brought up in a dirty hut, without nutricious food, without the slightest education, and compelled to work day after day in the fields and at the roughest labors of men! The writer has seen hundreds of these creatures, on fete days, dancing on the village greens of the South of France. Perhaps others more prone to look on the sunny side of things would have been delighted with the simplicity and hearty happiness of these poor people. Many English writers lament the gradual disappearance of the rustic sports and pastimes of old England. These were probably very much like those which now exist in the country districts of France. If so, the sooner they entirely disappear, the better. They can exist only where the people are in a state of degradation, and are willing to enjoy themselves in much the same manner as Carolina slaves at a dance after corn-husking. Indeed, after having seen the fetes of the French peasantry and the frolics of Southern slaves, the writer is at a loss which to think prove the higher state of civilization. But to continue the comparison between the French and German women, so far as I have observed the latter, they are undoubtedly more handsome. Never have I seen so many I WROTE you last week from Paris, but you smooth and beautiful complexions in so short a see from the date of this that, in the interval, I time as since crossing the Rhine. The spiritual have added one to the population of the capital of and dreamy expression which is so characteristic Prussia. If there were nothing else to convince of the American women, and which is entirely unme of my change of locality, the pleasant chorus known in France, is frequently found here. Some that rises from some school in the neighborhood painter has said that if he wished to paint an would be a sufficient proof.-Children don't sing angel he would choose his model among the in French schools. And then what a difference American women. He might find in Germany in the personal appearance of the people! One the same expression of sweetness and purity,

FRENCH WOMEN AND GERMAN WOMEN.
CORRESPONDENCE COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.
Berlin, July 10, 1849.

TO PIUS IX.

blended with intelligence. But I must stop for fear of exposing myself to the charge of enthusiI will end asm in favor of the Dutch damsels. the comparison between the French and Germans by saying that, either because of the difference in race, or in climate, or in social and political institutions, or from all these causes together, the physical development of the latter is much more perfect.

From the National Era.

TO PIUS IX.*

THE cannon's brazen lips are cold,
No red shell blazes down the air,
And street and tower and temple old
Are silent as despair.

The Lombard stands no more at bay;
Rome's fresh young life has bled in vain;
Dead in the ghastly trench are they,
Or, wounded, writhe in pain.

Now, while the fratricides of France

Are treading on the neck of Rome,
Hider at Gaeta! seize thy chance!
Coward and cruel, come!

Creep now from Naples' bloody skirt ;
Thy mummer's part was acted well,
While Rome, with steel and fire begirt,
Before thy crusade fell.

Her death-groans answered to thy prayer;
Thy chant, the drum and bugle-call;
Thy lights, the burning villa's glare;
Thy beads, the shell and ball!

Let Austria clear thy way with hands
Foul from Ancona's cruel sack,
And Naples, with his dastard bands
Of murderers, lead thee back.

*The writer of these lines is no enemy of Catholics. He has on more than one occasion exposed himself to the censures of his Protestant brethren by his strenuous endeavors to procure indemnification for the owners of the convent destroyed near Boston. He defended the cause of the Irish patriots long before it had become popular in this country; and he was one of the first to urge the most liberal aid to the suffering and starving population of the Catholic island. The severity of his language finds its ample apology in the reluctant confession of one of the most eminent Romish priests, the eloquent and devoted Father Ventura, who thus writes from Rome in the midst of the bombardment:

"Not a word has been said of peace, reconciliation, or pardon; not a promise is made to maintain public liberties; and yet this ought to have been done by the Pope. The last allocution of the pontiff has been read. How imprudent to have made the Pope praise Austria and the King of Naples, who have ever been the sworn foes of Italian independence! How much more imprudent still to make him say that, of his own accord, he had appealed to the powers to reestablish him on the throne which he had himself abandoned! It was confessing that he wished to do to his people what he had declared himself unwilling last year to do against the Croats and Austrian oppressors of Italy. Even the women feel this reasoning; and now that they see the effects of this brutal war of four great powers against a small state, their husbands and children killed and wounded, you cannot form an idea of the rage of these women, of the energetic sentiments that they utter, and the fury that animates them against the Pope, the cardinals, and the mass of the priesthood. Rome will probable fall, and the Pope may again enter the Eternal City, but he will never reign over the hearts of the Ro

maus."

527

Rome's lips are dumb; the orphan's wail,
The mother's shriek, thou may'st not hear,
Above the faithless Frenchman's hail,
The unsexed shaveling's cheer!

Go, bind on Rome her cast-off weight,
The double curse of crook and crown,
Though woman's scorn and manhood's hate
From wall and roof flash down.

Nor heed those blood-stains on the wall
Not Tiber's flood can wash away,
Where in thy stately quirinal
Thy mangled victims lay.

Let the world murmur; let its cry
Of horror and disgust be heard;
Truth stands alone; thy coward lie
Is backed by lance and sword.
The cannon of St. Angelo,

And chanting priest and clanging bell,
And beat of drum and bugle blow,
Shall greet thy coming well.

Let lips of iron and tongues of slaves
Fit welcome give thee: for her part,
Rome, frowning o'er her new-made graves,
Shall curse thee from her heart!

No wreaths of gay Campagna's flowers
Shall childhood in thy pathway fling,
No garlands from their ravaged bowers
Shall Terni's maidens bring.

But hateful as that tyrant old,

The mocking witness of his crime, In thee shall loathing eyes behold The Nero of our time.

Stand where Rome's blood was freest shed, Mock Heaven with impious thanks, and call Its curses on the patriot dead,

Its blessings on the Gaul!

Or sit upon thy throne of lies,

A poor, mean idol blood-besmeared,
Whom even its worshippers despise,
Unhonored, unrevered.

Yet, Scandal of the World! from thee
One needful truth mankind shall learn,
That kings and priests to liberty

And God are false in turn.

Earth wearies of them, and the long

Meek sufferance of the heavens doth fail : Woe for weak tyrants, when the strong

Wake, struggle, and prevail !

Not vainly Roman hearts have bled

To feed the crosier and the crown,
If, roused thereby, the world shall tread
The twin-born vampires down!

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J. G. W.

"A LITTLE child being at a sermon, and observing the minister very vehement in his words and bodily gesture, cried out, Mother, why don't the people let the man out of the box? Then I entreat thee behave thyself well, in preaching, lest men say, truly, this is Jack in a box."-Simple Cobbler's Boy, P. 27.

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3. The Wedding Garment,

4. Temper: from an Old Maid's Album, 5. Story of a Family,-Chap. 17,

6. Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell, (5th Article,)

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522

7. EUROPE: Foreign Policy; Prospects for Hungary, Examiner, POETRY.-To Pius IX., 527.

SHORT ARTICLES.

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Universal Liturgy; Borrowed Sermon, 494.-Western Eloquence Religious Levites, 500.- Omai, the Sandwich Islander, 511.- French Protection of Scot land, 516. Scott of Amwell; Anson's Voyage; Poetical Magazine; Ancient Welsh Handel, 521.- John Wilson, 525.- French Women and German Women, 526.

PROSPECTUS. This work is conducted in the spirit of | Littell's Museum of Foreign Literature, (which was favorably received by the public for twenty years,) but as it is twice as large, and appears so often, we not only give spirit and freshness to it by many things which were excluded by a month's delay, but while thus extending our scope and gathering a greater and more attractive variety, are able so to increase the solid and substantial part of our literary, historical, and political harvest, as fully to satisfy the wants of the American reader.

now becomes every intelligent American to be informed of the condition and changes of foreign countries. And this not only because of their nearer connection with ourselves, but because the nations seem to be hastening, through a rapid process of change, to some new state of things, which the merely political prophet cannot compute or foresee.

Geographical Discoveries, the progress of Colonization, (which is extending over the whole world,) and Voyages and Travels, will be favorite matter for our selections; and, in general, we shall systematically and very foy acquaint our readers with the great department of Foreign affairs, without entirely neglecting our own.

The elaborate and stately Essays of the Edinburgh, Quarterly, and other Reviews; and Blackwood's noble criticisms on Poetry, his keen political Commentaries, highly wrought Tales, and vivid descriptions of rural and While we aspire to make the Living Age desirable to mountain Scenery; and the contributions to Literature, all who wish to keep themselves informed of the rand History, and Cominon Life, by the sagacious Spectator, progress of the movement-to Statesinen, Divines, Los the sparkling Examiner, the judicious Athenæum, the yers, and Physicians-to men of business and men of busy and industrious Literary Gazette, the sensible and leisure-it is still a stronger object to make it attractive comprehensive Britannia, the sober and respectable Chris- and useful to their Wives and Children. We believe tat tian Observer; these are intermixed with the Military we can thus do some good in our day and generation; and and Naval reminiscences of the United Service, and with hope to make the work indispensable in every well-in the best articles of the Dublin University, New Monthly, formed family. We say indispensable, because in this Fraser's, Tait's, Ainsworth's, Hood's, and Sporting Mag-day of cheap literature it is not possible to guard aga 14 azines, and of Chambers' admirable Journal. We do not the influx of what is bad in taste and vicious in moras, consider it beneath our dignity to borrow wit and wisdom in any other way than by furnishing a sufficient sup y from Punch; and, when we think it good enough, make of a healthy character. The mental and moral appetiů ase of the thunder of The Times. We shall increase our must be gratified. variety by importations from the continent of Europe, and from the new growth of the British colonies.

The steamship has brought Europe, Asia and Africa, into our neighborhood; and will greatly multiply our connections, as Merchants, Traveliers, and Politicians, with all parts of the world; so that much more than ever it

We hope that, by "winnowing the wheat from the chaff," by providing abundantly for the imagination and by a large collection of Biography, Voyages and Trave s History, and more solid matter, we may produce a work which shall be popular, while at the same time it wa aspire to raise the standard of public taste.

TERMS.-The LIVING AGE is published every Satur- Agencies. We are desirous of making arrangements, day, by E. LITTELL & Co., corner of Tremont and Brom-in all parts of North America, for increasing the crea field sis., Boston; Price 123 cents a number, or six dollars tion of this work- and for doing this a liberal commissio a year in advance. Remittances for any period will be will be allowed to gentlemen who will interest themselves thankfully received and promptly attended to. To in the business. And we will gladly correspond on this insure regularity in mailing the work, orders should be subject with any agent who will send us undoubted referaddressed to the office of publication, as above.

Clubs, paying a year in advance, will be supplied as follows:

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ences.

Postage. When sent with the cover on, the Ling Age consists of three sheets, and is rated as a pamphi at 44 cents. But when sent without the cover, it comes within the definition of a newspaper given in the law, and cannot legally be charged with more than newspaper postage, (1 cts.) We add the definition alluded to

A newspaper is "any printed publication, issued ta numbers, consisting of not more than two sheets, and published at short, stated intervals of not more than onl month, conveying intelligence of passing events."

Monthly parts.-For such as prefer it in that form, the Living Age put up in monthly parts, containing four et five weekly numbers. In this shape it shows to great advantage in comparison with other works, containing is each part double the matter of any of the quarteries. But we recommend the weekly numbers, as fresher and fuller of life. Postage on the monthly parts is about 14 cents. The volumes are published quarterly, each volume containing as much matter as a quarterly review gives a eighteen months.

WASHINGTON, 27 DEC., 1945.

Or all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe and in this country, this has appeared to me to be the most useful. It contains indeed the exposition only of the current literature of the English language, but this by its immense extent and comprehension includes a portraiture of the human mind i the utmost expansion of the present age. J. Q. ADAMS

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 279.-22 SEPTEMBER, 1849.

From the North British Review.

The Closing Years of Dean Swift's Life; with an
Appendix containing several of his Poems hitherto
unpublished, and some Remarks on Stella. By
W. R. WILDE, M. R. I. A., &c. 1849.
THIS book contains a good deal that is new to the
public. It corrects some mistakes as to Swift; it
adds something to our means of judging of him,
and is, on the whole, creditable to the diligence and
the intelligence of its distinguished author. Mr.
Wilde is the editor of the Dublin Medical Journal,
and this volume is an enlargement of a professional
essay, published in that useful periodical, in reply
to some inquiries addressed to him by Dr. M'Ken-
zie of Glasgow, as to the character of the disease
which clouded so many years of Dean Swift's life,
and which exhibited its true character in the extinc-
tion of all mental power long before the period of
his actual death.

on the principle of combining into one narrative all that had been told of Swift by witnesses, many of whom were far from being quite faithworthy. It is really a curious thing to observe how accidentally mistakes arise. How the ambiguous language of one biographer being misunderstood by the next, the whole color of the narrative becomes insensibly changed. In Swift's case, there is really little that can be depended on in the statements of any of his biographers which is not directly affirmed in his own letters.

Of his early life, nothing whatever is known, except what he has himself told. Every addition to his record is demonstrably false; and every statement of his own, susceptible of confirmation from external evidence, has been abundantly confirmed. Swift's stern and uncompromising veracity has been tested in every conceivable way. The vanity of his own relatives, anxious to be supposed capable of It was impossible for Mr. Wilde to examine the adding something to what the public already knew case of Swift as a mere medical question, without of a great man, has been rebuked by accidental cirhis being id to look into forgotten pamphlets and cumstances, disproving all that they stated about old repositories of the thousand trifles which the the dean. Mr. Deane Swift's* book is for the most interest about a great man led fanciful people to part worthless. Lord Orrery's Biography of Swift, preserve. From these sources he has revived some a book not without some interesting matter, is chiefly old recollections of Stella, and others connected with valuable as showing the sort of calumnies that preSwift, and has been fortunate enough to recover vailed during the latter years of Swift's life, and what we are inclined to think a genuine portrait of which were all reproduced in this weak and misthat lady, which is engraved for his volume. He chievous work. The book has all the appearance has been also fortunate enough to find an old alma- of having been dictated by malevolent feeling; and nac with verses in Swift's hand-writing bound up as its author had for a while a doubtful intimacy within the same cover, and has, in this way, added with Swift, it is probable that resentment for real a few poems of no great merit, and of doubtful or imaginary slights was not unconnected with the authenticity, to the mass of Swift's works, already tone of depreciation manifested throughout. Lord too large for each successive editor has increased Orrery was anxious to come before the public in the bulk of what he was bringing before the public, the character of an author. Without any original by every trifle, which, whether written by Swift or powers, his only course was translation or criticism. by any of his acquaintances, could by any pretence He translated Pliny's epistles, but Melmoth disbe connected with his name. The book, however, tanced him there. He then remembered that there is of great value. An obscure disease which clouded was no life of Swift, and he set about supplying with mystery much of Swift's life, which, while the want. His acquaintance with Swift, which men forbore to call it insanity, perplexed every one was the chief excuse for selecting this subject, had, of his friends with strange misgivings, and suggested however, been formed at a time when Swift was to himself, with painful distinctness, its inevitable scarce himself—when his temper was soured with termination, is here traced with great distinctness, disappointment and utter hopelessness, and when chiefly from such records as Swift's own letters his bodily and mental health was already greatly afford. The inferences from the statements made impaired. In fact, Lord Orrery had nothing to tell by him, from time to time, through a period of full of Swift from his own knowledge; and to make a fifty years, are compared with those which an ex-book, there was no way open to him except to heap amination of his mortal remains, strangely exposed together whatever he could collect of hearsay among to observation a century after his death, suggested the few who then remembered "the dean." The to competent observers. The chief value of Mr. peculiar relation of Swift to the late ministry of Wilde's book is as a medical tract, but it incident- Queen Anne, and the part he had afterwards taken ally illustrates some of the topics of Swift's domes- | in Irish politics, had made him the object of hatred tic life which have been the subject of dispute; and this is of the more moment, as Scott's Life of Swift, an exceedingly entertaining volume, is framed

CCLXXIX.

LIVING AGE. VOL. XXII. 34

* Deane Swift was a cousin of Jonathan's. He was a son of his uncle Godwin's, one of whose four wives was co-heiress of Admiral Deane, the regicide.

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