procession to the tomb, have no parallel in the annals of that capital. It was an almost universal tribute to the memory of a man whose name had never been sullied with intrigues for place, power, or wealth. As guardian to the royal children, during the regency of Espartero, he was entitled to above 14,000l. a year. Of this he would only accept the tenth part, and at his death just 22 dollars were found in his house, and old claims on the Government for 7,000 dollars. All that the Heraldo could find as matter of reproach against Arguelles was, that, being a bachelor, he was unfit to exercise a fatherly care over the royal orphans; and, further, that he had no merit in refusing nine-tenths of his salary, for he cleaned his own boots and had no wants.' Would that Spain had left a few more honest shoeblacks, to put to the blush the hordes of adventurers, political and military, who degrade her in the eyes of Europe! As the Queen-Mother was making her triumphal entry into the capital, a partisan rode up to her carriage with the joyful news-the happy coincidence-the hand of Providence displayed in the death of her enemy, Arguelles.' Hush!' said Maria Christina, do not let the children hear it, for they loved him!'— Gent's Mag. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. Great Britain. the surrounding scenery, are beautiful pieces of art, as worthy the praise of the amateur in painting as of the antiquary. The general view of Palinque is also a most artistical performance, and gives a perfect idea of the country. Los Monjas at Uxmal* is another superb panorama, but more architectural. But where every example is either so rich, characteristic, picturesque, or singular, it is vain to speak of them separately. It is by the eye only that the excellence and value of Mr. Catherwood's labors can be appreciated; and we shall only repeat, that they make us intimately acquainted with the antiquities, present appearance, scenery, and native habits and looks, in Central America.-Lit. Gaz. Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, to Sir Horace Mann, his Britannic Majesty's Resident at the Court of Florence, from 1760 to 1785. Now first published from the Original MSS. Volunes III and IV. Bentley. The letters in these concluding volumes of the series commence in 1776, when WALPOLE was about sixty, and beginning to talk of old age, and end in 1786, the year of Sir HORACE MANN'S death. The Bentleian edition of WALPOLE is rendered more complete by various addenda : some epistles to GEORGE SELWYN from the late publication of the Selwyn Correspondence; a few miscellaneous letters; a paper of suggestions to the Duke of GLOUCESTER, (who had offended GEORGE the Third by marrying WALPOLE'S niece,) pointing out the best course to be pursued in appealing to Parliament for an income and promemoir by WALPOLE touching his sinecures, written at a time when the financial distress of the American War induced a call for their abolition; an autobiography, to 1779, under the title of "Short Notes of my Life," confined to mere facts, and principally about his writings; together with WALPOLE'S own description of Strawberry Hill and its curiosities. Catherwood's Views in Central America, Chiapas, tection without further offence to the King; a and Yucatan. Large folio. THE frontispiece executed by Owen Jones in "chromolith," and the rest on stone by several efficient hands, these views of the ancient monuments in Central America remind us of the beauty and splendor of Lord Kingsborough's Mexico, or Vyse's Egypt. They are the fruits of Mr. Catherwood's two expeditions into the country, the majority of them belonging to his second The time of these letters embraces great politijourney, in 1841. Referring to Stephens, Pres- cal events: the full-blown corruption and miscott, and other authors, for general information government of India, on which WALPOLE falls relative to these extraordinary remains, the artist into the common cry; the middle and close of the gives a particular description of each plate. All American War; the first appearance of the youngbears out the fact of an early civilization, and a er PITT, both as orator and statesman; the coalisplendor which could only spring up amongst a tion of Fox and NORTH, with its downfall and the powerful people. We may take to the Literary destruction of the family Whig oligarchy. The Gazette the merit of having first brought this inte- leading incidents of these topics are touched upon resting subject into European notice, by publish- in the volumes before us, and at varying lengths; ing the correspondence of Colonel Galindo, de- but more in the character of observer than actor. scribing the ruins of Copan and Palinque in Chi-At an earlier period of life WALPOLE mingled in apas, many years ago; and we were glad to find the world of politics, and his accounts had the that Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood had taken narrative air which is derived from first-hand their cue from him, and opened their campaign knowledge. More confined to the house by gout on the field he pointed out. Their course of ex- and advancing years, and dependent upon the inploration further embraced Quirigua, Uxmal, and formation of others, his present notice of events other immense remains which are figured with has rather the character of a commentary, and of truly artistic skill and ability both in their broad-a commentator not uninfected by the "lauditor er features and their remarkable details. Pyra- temporis acti."-Spectator. mids, idols, palaces, courts, fragments, ornaments, doorways, arches, mighty temples, wells, castles, &c. &c., all admirably displayed, fill the space of this splendid work; to which a clear useful map, marking out their sites, is a valuable addition and key. Turning the first leaves, the tinted pictures of the great idol at Copan, with * Plate XV. here is one of the most striking illustrations of the natives. They are delightfully grouped in this drawing: but still more so in Plates XVIII., XIX., and XX., the wonderful Well of Bolouchen.-Ed. L. G. North British Review, No. I A new Quarterly | SELECT LIST OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS. Review. Edinburgh, Kennedy; London, Hamilton, Adams, and Co. GREAT-BRITAIN. A History of the Church, in Seven Books, from 306 to 445. By Socrates, surnamed Scholasticus or the Advocate. Translated from the Greek, with some AcCount of the Life and Writings of the Author. of the Tenth to the end of the Eighteenth Historical Collections of the State of Ir may seem like a contradiction, but it is nevertheless a truth, that mere authorship, however excellent, will not suffice for a literary periodical. Its first purpose is to supply a want or create a desire; and this purpose does not seem to be attainable in practice by men of letters and nothing else. BYRON, BULWER, CAMPBELL, and MOORE, have failed egregiously, and others of lesser note in the present and former times have not succeeded particularly well. On the other hand, the most successful periodicals have been planned and produced by men whose first or only vocation was not letters. CAVE started the original Monthly, the Gentlemen's Magazine; GRIFFITH projected the Monthly Review, PHILLIPS the New Monthly Magazine; BLACKWOOD the work which bears his name; JEFFREY, BROUGHAM, and SYD-paign in Affghanistan, under General PolNEY SMITH, two lawyers and a divine, establish- lock; with Recollections of Seven Years' ed the Edinburgh; the Quarterly, though urged Service in India. By Lieut. Greenwood, by SCOTT out of soreness for JEFFREY's criti- H. M. 31st Regiment. cisms, was published as the organ of a party, to be supported by their ablest official men. Even The Progress of Queen Victoria and the Westminster, though inferior both in ability Prince Albert in France, Belgium, and and influence to the two great organs of Whigs England. Illustrated by 100 Engravings. and Tories, was intended as a channel for the circulation of certain views in politics and philosophy, and received its color from minds deeply imbued with the opinions it advocated, (though they might be assisted by mere literary men,) and whose main object was to give utterance to a full mind. Factories and the Factory System, from Parliamentary Documents and personal Examination. By W. Cooke Taylor, L.L. D. Black's General Atlas; comprehending Sixty-one Maps from the latest and most authentic sources. Engraved on steel, by Sidney Hall Hughes, &c. The Three Kingdoms: England, Scotland, and Ireland. By the Viscount D'Ar Trinity College, Cambridge. From this impulsive character arises much of the originality of influential and very successful periodicals. No matter whether it be an observing caterer for the public supplying avowed or latent longings, or men impressed with new prin-lincourt. ciples to which they are impelled to give utterance in either case vitality and novelty of spirit By the Rev. A. S. Thelwall, A. M., of The Idolatry of the Church of Rome. are the consequence; and they guide aud stimulate their more professional collaborateurs. In many cases this living and social character impresses novelty upon the style and form of their publications. The original Monthly Magazine, the original Monthly Review, and the original Quarterly Review, were all new in form as well in English. as substance: even their style of typography and getting-up was novel. Some of the Magazines and Reviews of the last century, as well as the Quarterly, were imitations of periodicals existing, so far as form was concerned; but they appeared for the most part as opponents in principles as well as rivals in trade. Hebrew-English Lexicon; containing all the Hebrew and Chaldee Words in the Old Testament Scriptures, with their Meanings GERMANY. Köllner, Dr. Ed. Symbolik aller christlichen Confessionen. 2 Th.: Symbolik der heil. apostolischen römischen Kirche. Ham Quellensammlung zur Geschichte des Something of this is visible in the North Brit-burg. ish Review. Having a theological object in opposing Puseyism, with a general design of infus- neutestamentlichen Canons bis auf Hieing a religious tone into literature and politics, it has so far a living principle; but the general form ronymus, herausg. und mit Anmerkungen is imitative or common. There is a good enough begl. v.. Joh. Kirchhofer. Zurich. selection of topics so far as variety is concerned; they are handled with good although not striking ability but they have no distinctive marks, except an occasional want of cultivated skill in some of them. Beyond this peculiarity, which is not an advantage, the papers might be placed in any periodical without attracting particular attention unless for an occasional religious strain.-Ibid. Kohl, J. G., Reisen in Schottland. Dresden. Beha-eddin's Essenz der Rechnenkunst. Arabisch und deutsch, herausg. Von G. H. F. Nesselmann. Berlin. Grimm J., Deutsche Mythologie. 2 stark verm. u. verb. Ausg. Abth. I. Göttingen. Agassiz, L., Recherches sur les poissons fossiles. Soleure. THE ECLECTIC MAGAZINE OF FOREIGN LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. AUGUST, 1 8 4 4. TRIAL OF QUEEN KATHERINE, From Shakspeare's Henry VIII. ACT II. SCENE IV. A HALL IN BLACKFRIARS. -King Henry, Queen Katherine, the two cardinals Wolsey and Campeius, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Ely, Rochester, and St. Asaph, Lords, Priests, Officers of the Court, &.c. Cam. His Grace Hath spoken well and justly; therefore, madam, And that, without delay, their arguments Q. Kath. Lord Cardinal, To you I speak. Wol. Your pleasure, madam? Q. Kath. Sir, I am about to weep; but, thinking that We are a queen (or long have dream'd so,) certain, Wol. Be patient yet. Q. Kath. I will when you are humble; before, humble-mouth'd; You are meek and You sign your place and calling, in full seeming, Where powers are your retainers, and your words nay, To bring my whole cause 'fore his holiness, Or God will punish me. I do believe, POPULAR POETRY OF THE BRETONS. From the Foreign Quarterly Review. Cam. The Queen is obstinate, King H. Call her again. our readers for the subject upon which we now propose to enter. In that article we depicted the social and moral characteristics of the Bretons; their ' way of life,' primitive, antique, and uniform, presenting in the midst of the refinements and transi Barzas-Breiz. Chants Populaires de la Bretagne, recueillis et publiés, avec une Traduction Française, des Eclaircissements, des Notes, et les Mélodies origi-tions of modern civilization, a sort of petrinales. (Popular Songs of Brittany, &c.) Par M. de la Villemarqué. 2 tom. Paris. 1839. In a recent article on the habits and superstitions of the Bretons, we prepared * * The Sept. No. 1843, of Ec. M. AUGUST, 1844. fied specimen of the middle ages; their religious enthusiasm, their aboriginal hospitality, and their superstition. An inquiry into the Popular Poetry of the Bretons will form a proper pendant to that picture. The poetry that exists familiarly amongst a people, giving a voice to their domestic af- unfamiliar costumes and ever-shifting fashfections and national usages, is generally ions, through the very core of their territhe safest, as it is always the most confi-tory. This influence has not been without dential, exponent of their history and char- its visible effect upon the people in the immediate neighborhood of the great highways; acter. It would carry us out of the line which, while in the remote interior very little exfor the sake of clearness, we have prescrib-ternal modification of the primitive maned to ourselves in this paper, were we toners can be detected, notwithstanding that venture at large into the general subject of some movement of decay or progress must Breton poetry. It will be as much as we have set in every where over the country. can now accomplish to lay before the read- But whatever changes may take place, er a complete view of the ballad poetry of or may possibly be fermenting in a nation, Brittany; which, however, like ballad po- its poetry is always the last to forsake the etry in general, amongst races who continue soil. It even lingers long after the sources to preserve their early simplicity, embraces of its inspiration have perished, long after in its various forms nearly every aspect of its allusions have ceased to be understood, their poetical genius. By this strict limit- or its peculiar forms preserved; and when ation of our design, we escape the half-his- it is no longer a living principle, it contintorical problems which lie on the borders tinues to haunt the old place in the shape of the old Breton romances, and reserve of a tradition. Thus it was, and is, with for future and separate consideration the the poetry of Brittany. The higher classes longer, but intrinsically less interesting poems of a still earlier age, and which, in fact exercise very little present influence over the tastes or feelings of the people. It is more true of the Bretons, perhaps, than of any other distinct race in Europe, that their ballad poetry-comprising the songs of every class, serious and humorous, reli-ness had they with a Muse who could only gious, festive, and mournful-presents a perfect epitome of their whole literature. Indeed the Bretons possess no other living literature. All the rest is ancient and traditional, while this alone goes on receiving occasional accessions, but without undergoing the slightest modification in style or spirit. had abandoned their nationality, sold it, bartered it for places or for honors, for they are always the first to be reached or corrupted by foreign influences: the poor cherished their nationality still. With their old national rights and usages the rich gave up also their old poetry. What busi remind them of the associations they had relinquished, of the reverend customs and traditional faith they had renounced? Turned out of doors at the chateaux, like an acquaintance of former days who had all of a sudden gone out of fashion, or out at elbows, and of whom people of rank and station had grown ashamed, this discarded Muse knocked at the doors of the cabins, and was received with joy and enthusiasm. There she has lingered ever since, lovingly protected in the hearts of the peasantry, the companion of their solitary thoughts, and the intimate participator in their woes and pleasures. Before we touch upon the collection of ballads, to which in the volumes of M. Villemarqué, we shall presently refer in detail, it will be desirable to say a few words about the popular poetry of the Bretons generally, by way of introduction to the examples we shall adopt from his pages. When Brittany was united to France, Surviving thus, however, in the domestic she lost much of her peculiar physiognomy affections of the people, it still became by the change. With her independence necessary to change something of her went something of her individuality as a habits or style. She was still the same separate people; and, although, to this Muse as ever, faithful to her nationality, hour, Brittany is so essentially different but she was now placed in a new state of from the rest of France, that the moment society, and surrounded by new forms and the traveller crosses the bridge of Pontor-new classes of men. She had no longer to son, which separates Brittany from Nor- speak to chevaliers about the historical mandy, he becomes as conscious of a new race as if he had passed into a new atmosphere, yet the Bretons themselves are sensible of the influence of altered institutions, increased intercourse outwards, and the rush of a strange moving population, with glories of their houses, the prowess of their ancestors, their loves, their feats of arms,or to fine ladies about their vows or their beauty-but to the common people, in a common language they could universally understand. Instead of being the muse of princesses and knights in arms, this poor impulse, with a remarkably melodious infallen Muse of Brittany was compelled stinct, but, at the same time, an entire into be satisfied with being simply the Muse dependence of all rules. The singer is, in of men and women; she was obliged to most cases, the composer; generally a lay aside her fine spangled court suit, and young candidate for the priesthood, under to go work in a blouse with real nature. the influence of a love-melancholy,—a vilIt is needless to say how much she gain- lage schoolmaster, taking advantage of his ed by her fall, by the loss of all that fic- superior attainments to astonish the natives titious splendor in which she was wont-some forlorn, dreamy country youth, into bask, how much more natural and spired by the wild and desolate scenery truthful she became, how much healthier and sounder, how much more vigorous and elastic. Hence all the Breton poems that have descended from that period, are distinguished by their freedom from artifice, their naked truth, and bold simplicity. Here and there a few traces of the old lais may be detected-just as a broken light may seem to linger on the summits of hills long after the sun is actually set-but their traces are nothing more than reminiscences of the antique spirit breathed unconsciously into the comparatively modern verse. amidst which he is bred up-or, as very frequently happens, a poor sailor, who superadds to his land-crosses the hazy superstitions of the sea. It is a remarkable feature in these songs, that the last stanza usually announces the name and profession of the singer or composer, with such family particulars as he may consider desirable for general circulation. The simplicity of all this is abundantly apparent. jured up in the imagination out of Ossian. The best way to judge of these quaint old ballads, is to listen to one of them on a still summer evening, as they are sung The ballads which grew up under those with responses from rock to rock, in the circumstances, and which, consequently, presence of old Druidical ruins, and feudal do not date farther back than the close of monuments massed into deep shadow, and the fifteenth century, still survive amongst recalling to mind, by their dark and broken the people in all their early purity, and in outlines, their cumbrous forms and dissuch numbers, that it would be difficult, if mal grandeur, the modes of the antique life not impossible, to form any thing like an to which they refer. It is like a dream, conestimate of their extent. They exhibit great propriety of diction, perfect regularity in the stanza, and a metrical elegance that could scarcely have been expected from such sources. Those which are written in the Celtic language (and which, of course, refer to a very ancient period) are almost invariably found in association with some well-known national air; the music in such cases forming so completely an integral part, or original element, so to speak, of the composition, that it is never to be traced in a separate state of existence from the words, nor could the words be recovered by the singer except by the help of the music. These pieces are always sung throughout, from the commencement to the end, which frequently involves a very laborious operation, as they are sometimes of a most extravagant length. Souvestre confidently asserts that, in some cases, a man could not finish one of these songs in a day. The only circumstance which can possibly entitle such productions as these to thename and functions of song is the shape,musical and metrical, in which they are written. Of the more modern ballads, the great majority are composed without much system, and sung, as birds sing, out of a kind of Metre and rhyme form the basis of Breton prosody. The songs are written generally in distiches or quatrains of equal measure: indeed, the uniformity of the measure is very striking. The most popular form is that of couplets, consisting of seven-syllabled lines; but sometimes the lines consist of six, and sometimes of eight or nine syllables; occasionally extending even to twelve, thirteen, and fifteen. The cesura is observed with as much distinctness in these Breton lyrics as in legitimate French verse, with which they are in some instances identical in this particular. In lines of twelve syllables, the cesura falls on the sixth-in those of fifteen, on the eighth. There is another peculiarity worth noticing in these poems-that every stanza, line, and even hemistich, is perfect in itself, so far as the sense is concerned, very rarely trespassing, for the completion of its meaning, upon the stanza, line, or hemistich, which follows. The object of this scrupulous exactitude in the structure of this species of poetry, seems to be the attainment of such an accurate balance of sound and sense, as may be most easily seized upon by the ear and committed to memory. Every incident |