House of Commons; but it is not unlikely rary suspension of our monetary system. Unsoundness at home must have been, both here and in Hamburg, the chief element in extending the mischief beyond the immedi-recting the system which has led to such ate circle of the. houses in direct connexion fatal results. America, having been first to with the United States. However high the yield to panic, is showing now the earliest rate of discount might have been raised by symptoms of revival. With a prudence foreign demand, there would have been no creditable to themselves, though indirectly panic here had the busniess of our own injurious to us, the suspended banks in New banks and analogous institutions been con- York and other States never for a moment ducted with reasonable prudence. relaxed their endeavors to prepare for a reThe same may probably be said of the sumption of specie payments. Already they Hamburg crash. In fact, from beginning to have recovered their normal stock of gold; end, it has been in a high degree a banking and, to use the graceful language of the New affair. Loose banking in America began it. York Herald, "We have Wall-street alive Bill-broking rashness and Scotch banking again-stocks going up like rockets, and brought on the climax with us, and now the speculators making money like dirt." We banks and discounters of Hamburg are fall- must beware, indeed, of relying too much on ing one after another. The prevalence of this estimable print, for it appears now to speculative money dealings, in all three have become, by an intelligible transition, as countries, destroys the value of the compari- enthusiastic in encouraging confidence as it son that might otherwise have been drawn was a month or two ago energetic and sucbetween the systems of currency adopted in cessful in creating panic. There is every America, England, and Hamburg. Notes appearance, however, of a decided recovery upon a basis of securities, with little or no in America, which will help our own progress gold, constitute the Transatlantic currency. towards a natural condition of trade. HamIn Hamburg every note is a representative burg alone has shown no sign of improve of so much actual bullion in deposit. We ment; but it is to be hoped that the worst have an intermediate system. Yet none has been reached, and that the steady co-ophave escaped; and if we can learn nothing eration of her citizens in their attempts to else from what has happened, we may be meet the panic will not long remain fruitless. assured of this-that it is possible for the. The formation of a discount bank to meet mischievous energies of speculators to derange the affairs of a country, whether its currency be governed by the wisest or the weakest regulations. It is some satisfaction to know that the root of the evil among ourselves will not be allowed to escape observation. We do not imagine that repressive legislation can be founded on any inquiry into banking practices by a Committe of the men. the emergency is certainly a safer and more rational form of relief than the step by which we have laid the foundation for a regular series of similar misfortunes. When things shall have taken a favorable turn in Hamburg, the crisis will be everywhere over, and the trade of the world will begin a fresh career-we wish we could say with some new store of wisdom gathered from the experience of recent calamities. By far the most important animal in South | commences, and the animal pines away. The Africa is a little fly called the tsetse, which determines the fortunes and habits of thousands of It is not much larger than the common house-fly, and is nearly of the same brown color as the honey bee. Its bite is certain death to the ox, the horse, and the dog, but is entirely harmless to man, mules, asses, goats, swine, all wild animals, and even calves as long as they suck the cows. If a man is bitten, a slight irritation follows, but there are no further effects: nor are there any immediate effects when an ox is bitten, but a few days afterwards emaciation poison operates on the blood, and is injected through the probosis, and not by a sting. Fortunately, the tsetse is local, and although found in one valley may never come near the next. But as there is no remedy known, and as a very. few flies will destroy a whole herd of oxen, there are many tribes that abandon any attempt to keep oxen or horses, and between contiguous tribes the possession of the localities free from tsetse is a constant object of jealousy and dispute.-Saturday Review. I T ON THE CULTIVATION OF TRUF- Up till a very recent date, it was universally 66 Sometimes several drops of the milky fluid come in contact with each other, and unite to form those large, irregularly-shaped truffles so frequently seen their shape and size varying according to the number of drops so united. The incipient truffle being fully formed, the roots from which it sprang die; and the truffle left to itself increases and expands, in virtue of the nourishment it receives, both from the earth and the air. It is considered an additional argument in favor of M. Ravel's theory, that naturalists have never been able to discover in it any germ or radicle which a true vegetable is always expected to possess. The following account of the truffle and its mode of reproduction is given in Cuthbert Johnson's « Farmer's Encyclopædia: "— The truffle (Tuber cibarium) is a round fungus growing under ground, destitute of roots and leafy M. Ravel thinks that the truffle is pro-appendages. It aborbs nutriment at every duced quite accidentally in the vegetation of point of its surface. The truffle is composed a peculiar kind of oak, by the puncture made of globular vesicles, destined for the reproby a fly. The tree he distinguishes as the duction of the vegetable, and short barren truffle-oak, and the fly as the truffigene. It filaments called tigellules; and the reproducis assuredly no new fact in natural history, tive bodies, trufinelles. Each globular vesicle that certain flies do puncture certain plants, is fitted to give origin to a multitude of rein order to produce excrescences in which to productive bodies, but only a few of them deposit their eggs; and that these excresperfect the young vegetable. The parent cences vary in their character according to dies: the trufinelles are nourished by its the nature of the plant and the insect. The dissolving substance, and the cavity it origingall-nut, or nut-gall, is a familiar example, ally filled becomes the abode of a multitude being produced by the prick of the gall-fly, of young truffles: but many of them die, the which causes the formation of gallic acid. M. stronger starving the weaker. Ravel assures us that the truffle is produced in a precisely similar manner by the truffigene in the fibrous roots of the tree. He thinks Neither the mode of propagating here described, nor any other, appears to have been very successful, and the dealers have had to that the truffle may be considered as a species depend for their supplies chiefly on the sponof gall: differing from it in being produced taneous productions of the soil; which were by a different insect, and in containing differ-scented out by dogs trained for the purpose, ent chemical elements; but resembling it in being produced by an insect in its effort to provide a nest for its eggs, and food for its larva. The manner in which the truffigene proceeds is minutely described by M. Ravel. It may be seen in great numbers in winter time flying about the truffle grounds, and especially in the vicinity of the oaks which bear the truffles: it penetrates the ground, and makes its way to the fibrous extremities of the roots of the tree, and puncturing them, deposits its eggs in e orifice. A drop of milky fluid immediately oozes out, which slowly enlarges by the addition of nitrogen, obtained from the roots of the tree on the one hand, and from the air on the other. and afterwards scratched up by them, or dug up by their masters. In conformity with M. Ravel's theory, a new mode of propagating is now proposed, and he has issued a circular announcing that he is prepared to supply the acorns of the truffle oak to those who may feel inclined to carry his method into practice. The only kinds of soil suitable for the cultivation of this plant are those of a calcareous or sandy nature; into which the acorns should be sown in the manner described by M. Ravel in his circular. He considers that at the end of five years the oaks will be ready for the larvae of the truffigene fly, which he will be then prepared to supply to those who have purchased acorns.- -Titan. LITTLE BELL. He prayeth well who loveth well Both man, and bird, and beast. The Ancient Mariner. Little Bell sat down beneath the rocksTossed aside her gleaming, golden locks"Bonny bird! quoth she "Sing me your best song before I go." And the Blackbird piped-you never heard Full of quips and wiles. Now so round and rich, now so soft and slow: All for love of that sweet face below, Dimpled o'er with smiles. And the while that bonny bird did pour In the little childish heart below From the bright blue eyes. Down the dell she tripped, and through the glade Peeped the Squirrel from the hazel shade, Swung and leaped, and frolicked, void of fear- hear Little Bell looked up and down the gladeSquirrel, Squirrel, from the nut tree shade, Bonny Blackbird, if you're not afraid, Come and share with me!" Down came Squirrel, cager for his fareDown came bonny Blackbird, I declare; Little Bell gave each his honest shareAh! the merry three! And while the frolic playmates twain In the little childish heart below, From her blue, bright eyes. By her snow-white cot, at close of day, Rose the praying voice to where, unseen "What good child is this," the angel said, " That with happy heart, beside her bed, Prays so lovingly?" Low and soft, oh! very low and soft, Crooned the Blackbird in orchard croft, "Bell, dear Bell!" crooned he. "Whom God's creatures love," the angel fair Murmured, "God doth bless with angel's care. Child, thy bed shall be Folded safe from hom-love, deep and kind, Shall watch around and leave, good gifts behind, Little Bell, for thee." -Atheneum. PALESTINE. I TREAD where the twelve in their wayfaring trod; I stand where they stood with the chosen of God Where his blessings were heard and his lessons were taught, Where the blind were restored and the healing was wrought. O, here with his flock the sad wanderer cameThese hills he toiled over in grief are the sameThe founts which he drank by the wayside still flow, And the same airs are blowing which breathed on his brow. And throned on her hills sits Jerusalem yet, But with dust on her forehead and chains on her feet; For the crown of her pride to the mocker hath gone, And the holy Shekinah-it's dark where it shone, But wherefore this dream of the earthly abode, Of humanity clothed in the brightness of God! Where my spirit but turned from the outward and dim, It would gaze even now on the presence of him! Not in clouds and in terrors, but gentle as when In love and in meekness he moved among men; And the voice which breathed peace to the waves of the sea, In the hush of my spirit would whisper to me. And what if my feet may not tread where he stood, Nor my ears hear the dashing of Galilee's flood, Nor my eyes see the cross which he bowed him to bear, Nor my knees press Gethsemane's garden in prayer! Yet, Loved of the Father, thy Spirit is near power The Spirit surviveth the things of an hour; THE CHAPEL-BELL. THE wintry winds blow wild and shrill, Or shake with gusty hands the door :- Within the Belfry's ghastly gloom, But through the haunted house it sounds, To pine, or pray, or struggle more!- What then I did-I'd do again!— I loved him-loved ?-I would have died To save him from a single care !— I feel there's blood upon my soul ! The bridal train did wait and smile; As slowly, stately, three by three, They swept in beauty down the aisle: I crept behind the pillar'd baso, The Bride's white garments fann'd my cheek; The blood rush'd madly to my face, I dared not breathe I could not speak! No other wretch whose life's a tear ! I stepp'd between him and his bride;- Could pour so warm, so red a tide ?— Is there no sinful soul but mine, Thou endless fiend, that thou must make I had not stabb'd him-but I saw I flung the shrieking bride apart, I sprang before him in his guiltThe steel went quivering to his heart:Would God my own blood had been spilt! Laugh out, dark fiend; beside me then A wilder sound than thine was spread; A cry I ne'er shall hear again Till every grave gives up its dead! Twelve months-dark months-I groan'd in pain, A curse lay heavy on my head; No midnight tolling haunts the air;- 71 POETRY.-Funeral of Crawford, 280. Geo. Levison, 288. Sewing Machine, 290. Enigma, 290. Little Bell, 318. Palestine, 318. The Chapel Bell, 319. To George W. Curtis, 319. SHORT ARTICLES.-Moss-Side, 287. Life in Israel, 293. A Woman with Wrongs, 293. Chambers' Youth's Companion, 299. Siberia, Oriental and Western, 301. The Eye, as an Illustration, 301. Tsetse, 316. LITTELL'S LIVING AGE. WASHINGTON, 27 Dec., 1845. Or all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe, and in this country, this has appeared to me 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, in the utmost expansion of the present age. J. Q. ADAMS. This work is made up of the elaborate and stately essays of the Edinburgh, Quarterly, Westminster, North Brit ish, British Quarterly, New Quarterly, London Quarterly, Christian Remembrancer, and other Reviews; and Black wood's noble criticisms on Poetry, his keen political Commentaries, highly wrought Tales, and vivid descriptions of rural and mountain Scenery; and contributions to Literature, History and Common Life, by the sagacious Spectator, the sparkling Examiner, the judicious Athenaeum, the busy and industrious Literary Gazette, the learned and sedate Saturday Review, the studious and practical Economist, the keen tory Press, the sober and respectable Christian Observer; these are intermixed with the Military and Naval reminiscences of the United Service, and with the best articles of the Dublin University, New Monthly, Fraser's, Tait's, Ainsworth's, Hood's and Sporting Maga zines, and of Chambers' admirable Journal, and Dickens' Household Words. We do not consider it beneath our dignity to borrow wit and wisdom from Punch; and, when we think it good enough, make use of the thunder of The Times. We shall increase our variety by importations from the continent of Europe, and from the new growth of the British colonies. Published every Saturday, by LITTELL, SON & COMPANY, Boston. Price 12 cents a number, or six dollars a.year. Remittances for any period will be thankfully received and promptly attended to. We will send the Living Age, postage free, to all subscribers within the United States, who remit in advance, directly to the office of publication, the sum of six dollars; thus placing our distant subscribers on the same footing as those nearer to us, and making the whole country our neighborhood. Complete sets, handsomely bound, packed in neat boxes, and delivered in all the principal cities, free of expense of freight, are for sale at two dollars a volume. ANY VOLUME may be had separately, at two dollars, bound, or a dollar and a half in numbers. ANT NUMBER may be had for 12 cents; and it may be worth while for subscribers or purchasers to complete any broken volumes they may have, and thus greatly enhance their value. |