stuck to his price, and averred that to abate a poor and despised," says Voltaire, "that I am sou would be to do wrong to his children.- determined not to augment the number. In "You have children ?" exclaimed Voltaire. France every one must be hammer or anvil. "Yes, five; three boys and two girls, the I was born to be an anvil. I am determined youngest of whom is twelve years old." to become a hammer." In other words, Vol"Well, we must see if we can get situations taire made it part of his mission to rescue litefor the boys and husbands for the girls. Irature in his person from the degrading posihave friends at court and credit in public tion it had so long occupied. M. Nicolardot offices. So, my good man, let us finish this is hereupon indignant. Then, there was that bargain. There are your eighteen francs." shabby change of name, from Arouet to VolBut all this cajolery was not effectual, and the taire ! We admit it,-and confess that it hunting-knife was at length bought for a louis. strikes us as a bit of pardonable policy.

Marmontel relates the incident to illustrate the Others did-and still do the same in France. perseverance of Voltaire in trifling matters: M. Sartine was originally Sardine. Lekain's most readers accept it as a whimsical illustra-family still bears the name of Cain Georges. tion of a whimsical character; but M. Nicol- M. Leclerc did not become a man of genius ardot, less charitable, finds in it one great rea- until his father bought the estate of Buffon, son for putting the philosopher in the same near Montbard. The Abbé Raynal got on by niche with Harpagon. other means. He obtained an order to say a

On another occasion Voltaire, misunder- mass daily for a franc; but when he improved standing an expression of the President De his position, he passed it to the Abbé La Brosses, thought he had received a present of Porte, retaining eight sous for himself; and his fourteen loads of wood, whereas, he was really substitute soon afterwards underlet it again for expected to pay for them. The explanation four sous. These were things allowed in those was made rather disagreeably; and thereupon easy times; and Voltaire has only left himself a correspondence, not very creditable to either open to so many attacks because of his vast side, took place. The affair, which seems to activity and complete success. His books have been rather a question of self-love than brought him much; but speculation brought parsimony, was magnified at the time into a him more. He bought and sold all manner of mighty quarrel, and is repeated in all its details shares, and ventured money in the Barbary by M. Nicolardot. Voltaire, like other wits, corn trade. The result was that he built up sometimes preferred losing his credit to losing a princely fortune, and became a landed prohis joke. He refused to pay for some hay prietor; and if M. Nicolardot has succeeded which he had ordered of a peasant. "But," in showing that in the race after wealth he said the latter, "I have your word.” "Ha often ran through very dirty places, and in the you have my word? well, keep it and the hay use of it was undignified and parsimonious, likewise." The accuser registers this as a the conviction will scarcely repay the ordinary crime, and will not suffer us to laugh at the reader for the trouble of seeking it in this vast retort. It is dangerous to jest in dull com- mass of evidence. pany. "I have seen so many men of letters

This mineral is only obtained from a small district in Scotland; and, from the foregoing, some idea of its immense value, in a commercial point of view, may be obtained.

PARAFFINE.-The "Scientific American" has sold of that valuable oil £100,000 (nearly this in reference to the recent discovery of a new $500,000) worth yearly; and it is to be borne in valuable mineral: mind that the greater portion of this very large By the " Edinburgh Witness," Hugh Miller's yearly sum is clear profit. It was also added that paper, we learn that, at a law-suit lately prose- Mr. Young was the only one of many parties in cuted in London, one of the parties, James Europe who ordered and obtained this mineral Young, of Bathgate, on being sworn, deposed for making oil and producing gas. that "he manufactured and sold at the rate of 8,000 gallons a week" of the paraffine oil, which is procured from the Torbanehill new mineral. 8,000 gallons a week are 416,000 a year; and accordingly Mr. Young's counsel, Mr. Bramwell, We invite the attention of our geologists and stated that his client sold, in round numbers, mineralogists to search for minerals of the same 400,000 gallons of his oil yearly,"-Mr. Bram- character and quality in our own country. We' well adding, "at five shillings per gallon." That have no doubt but they exist in some of our exis, Mr. Young stated, while his counsel repeated tensive and rich coal basins, especially in the the statement, that from the chemical works neighborhood of the cannel coal-beds in Virginia, near Bathgate, which prepare the paraffine oil Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana, and Missouri. procured from the Torbanehill mineral, there are

From The Tribune.

DEATH OF LOCKHART.

nity, and a cynical contempt of every noble and generous sentiment. In a notice of the deceased, one of the leading London journals remarks:

THE London journals received by the Pacific "All the world was always aware of the sins announce the death of John Gibson Lockhart as of 'The Quarterly,' under Lockhart's managehaving taken place on the 25th of November. ment; and the best informed had cause to view His health had been failing for the last two or them the most severely. Everybody knows what three years; and in 1853, he made an ineffectual Croker's political articles were like. Everybody attempt for its improvement by travelling on the knows how the publisher was now and then continent. compelled to re-publish, as they had originally Lockhart was well known in the world of let-stood, articles which had been interpolated, by ters, by several fictitious productions of consid- Croker and Lockhart (whose names were always erable merit; but his claim to distinction mainly associated in regard to the review), with libels rests on his biography of Sir Walter Scott, and and malicious jokes. In their recklessness they his connection as editor-in-chief with "The drew upon themselves an amount of reprobation Quarterly Review." He was the son of a Glas- in literary circles which thin-skinned men could gow clergyman; and originally intended for the never have endured. Now, the young author of profession of law, commenced his academic edu- a father's biography was invited by the editor to cation at the University of that city, which he send him early proof-shects, for the benefit of a completed at Baliol College, Oxford. Admitted speedy review; and the review did what it could to the Scottish bar, he made no progress in the to damn the book before it was fairly in the hands legal career, his professional fees falling short of the public. And now, the vanity of some of £50 a year. His inclination led him to a lit-second or third rate author was flattered and erary vocation, and from the first he relied for drawn out, in private intercourse, to obtain matesupport on the productions of his pen. After the rial for a caricature in the next Quarterly.' As peace of 1815, he went to Germany for purposes an able man, a great admirer of the literary merof study, and became acquainted with several of its of The Review,' and no sufferer by it, obthe distinguished authors of that country. Here served :-The well-connected and vigorous and he laid the foundation for his knowledge of Ger- successful have nothing to apprehend from ' The man literature, in which he subsequently attained Quarterly;' but as sure as they are old, or uncommon proficiency. blind, or deaf, or absent on their travels, or su His first meeting with Scott was in 1818, after perannuated, or bankrupt, or dead,—' The Quarhis return from Germany. A few months after-terly' is upon them." ward, he published the work entitled "Peter's The cheerless gloom which shrouded the close Letters to his Kinsfolk," which soon became of his life, is alluded to by the same writer, showfamous for its gossipping sketches of the most ing a picture of desolation sufficiently sombre to popular celebrities then on the stage, and its gratify the most vindictive enemy: caustic satire of the writer's personal and political opponents. At a later period of life, Lockhart confessed that "it was a book which none but a very young and a very thoughtless person would have written."

In 1820, he published "Valerius, a Roman Story," which attained a certain degree of eminence, and is now regarded as an uncommonly successful specimen of the classical novel. This was followed by "Reginald Dalton," "Adam Blair," and "Gilbert Earle," which made a marked impression on the public mind, both by the vigor of their style, and their effective delineation of passion. His "Life of Burns" appeared in 1825, as a contribution to "Constable's Miscellany," and in the same year he took the place of Gifford as editor of "The Quarterly Review." Upon the decease of his illustrious father-in-law, Sir Walter Scott, he commenced the preparation of materials for his life, which in due season he embodied in the memoirs, that, in spite of numerous defects of temper and execution, form one of the most fascinating pieces of biography in the language.

·

"The good-will which he did not seek in his happy days, was won for him by the deep and manifold sorrows of his latter years. The extraordinary sweep made by death in his wife's family is a world-wide wonder and sorrow. Lady Scott went first; and the beloved child-Lockhart's intelligent boy, so well known under the name of Hugh Littlejohn-died when the grandfather's mind was dim and clouded. Soon after Scott's death, his younger daughter and worn-. out nurse followed him; and in four years more, Mrs. Lockhart. The young Sir Walter died childless, in India; and his brother Charles, unmarried, in Persia. Lockhart was left with a son and a daughter.

"As years and griefs began to press heavily upon him, new sorrow arose in his narrow domestic circle. His son was never any comfort to him, and died in early manhood. The only remaining descendant of Scott, Lockhart's daughter, was married, and became so fervent and obedient a Catholic, as to render all intimate intercourse between the forlorn father and his only child impossible. He was now opulent. An The personal character of Lockhart appears to estate had descended to him through an elder have been unamiable and repulsive. He was of brother; and he held an office-that of Auditor a sceptical disposition, a satirist, a scoffer, a of the Duchy of Cornwall-which yielded him truculent and vindictive enemy. His manage- £300 a year. He had given up the labor of ment of "The Quarterly Review" was marked editing The Quarterly; but what were opu by the absence of literary conscientiousness, a lence and leisure to him now? Those who saw fierceness of prejudice often tinged with malig-him in his daily walk in London, his handsome

countenance-always with a lowering and sar-gent's Park, with the gentle Sophia presiding. donic expression-now darkened with sadness, Comparing these scenes with the actual forand the thin lips compressed more than ever, as lornness of his last years, there was no heart by pain of mind, forgave, in respectful compas- that could not pity and forgive, and carefully sion for one so visited, all causes of quarrel, award him his due, as a writer who has given however just, and threw themselves, as it were, much pleasure in his day, and left a precious into his mind; seeing again the early pranks bequest to posterity in his life of the great with Christopher North, the dinings by the brook novelist, purged, as we hope it will be, of what at Chiefswood, the glories of the Abbotsford ever is untrue and unkind, and rendered as safe sporting parties, the travels with Scott (so like as it is beautiful." an ovation!) in Ireland, and the home in Re

From Household Words. HENRY THE NINTH OF ENGLAND ! A CORRESPONDENT, writing about a King who does not appear in the history of England, announces that he possesses a medal, bearing the representation in bold relief of a head, apparently that of an ecclesiastic, the circumscription being: HEN. IX. MAG. BRIT. FR. ET. HIB. REX. FID. DEF. CARD." On the reverse is a large cross supported by the Virgin; a lion sorrowfully crouches at her feet, with eyes directed as it seems to the crown of Britain, lying on the ground.

Behind, to the right, is a bridge, backed by hills and a cathedral, probably St. Peter's at Rome. On this side, the inscription is: "NON DESIDERIIS. HOMINUM. SED. VOLVNTATE. DEI. AN. MDCCLXXXVIII."

for the purpose of heading fifteen thousand French infantry, which assembled at Dunkirk to invade England, and to re-establish the Stuarts on the throne. But, after the battle of Culloden, the contemplated invasion of England was abandoned. Henry retraced his steps to Rome, and took orders, and seemed to have laid aside all worldly views. His advancement in the Church was rapid; for, in 1747, he was made cardinal by Pope Benedict the Fourteenth.

He lived in tranquillity, at Rome, for nearly fifty years; but, in 1798, when French bayonets drove Pope Pius the Sixth from the pontifical chair, Henry Stuart fled from his splendid residences at Rome and Frascati. His days were now days of want; his only means of subsistence being the produce of a few articles of silver plate, which he had snatched from the ruin of his propThe manner in which this medal came into erty. Infirm in health, a houseless, almost penthe possession of an Englishman, was somewhat niless wanderer (Napoleon having robbed him singular. At the time when an English army was of his estates), he endeavored, at the age of sevserving in the Calabrias, and assisting Ferdinand enty-three, to seck refuge in forgotten obscurity. the Fourth of Spain against Bonaparte, a British George the Third was informed of the Cardiofficer happened to get separated from his regi-nal Duke's poverty and pitiable situation by the ment, and, while wandering near Canne in Basili- kindly interference of Sir John Cox Hippisley. cata, in dread of immediate capture (since he was It is said that the King was much moved by the in the rear of Massena's lines), he sought protec-distressing recital; and, in 1800, Lord Minto was tion at a handsome villa by the roadside. He was ordered to make a remittance of two thousand hospitably received by a venerable man, who pounds, with an intimation that the Cardinal proved to be a Cardinal. The curiosity of the might draw for two thousand more in the followrefugee being excited by the interest which the ing July. It was also made known that an anItalian dignitary appeared to take in the welfare nuity of four thousand pounds was at his service, of the British, he ventured to demand whom he so long as his circumstances required it. He was might have the pleasure of addressing; the reply spared seven years to enjoy this munificent penwas simply: "Your King!" sion, and died at Rome in 1807, in the eightyWhen the officer had recovered from his sur-third year of his age. He was buried between prise, the Cardinal presented him with the medal; his father and brother at Frascati. His tomb, and, from him, it came to the writer. It was onc sculptured by Canova, bears as inscription, the of those struck upon the death of Prince Charles, name of Henry the Ninth. to commemorate the imaginary succession to the crown of England of Henry Stuart, the Cardinal Duke of York, in whom the direct line of the Stuart race terminated; and who now sheltered the fugitive soldier.

The Cardinal Duke, down to the very day of his death, although in the receipt of a munificent pension from England, was in communication with several noblemen, who still indulged the hope of placing him upon the throne of Great It is well known that this prelate was, until the Britain. Among the Cardinal's papers were disday of his death, the secret idol of many in whom covered letters from active partisans both in Irethe last hopes for the restoration of the kingdom land and Scotland; but the English governof Great Britain to the family of the Stuarts were ment wisely took no notice of these awkward centred. He was the second son of the Pre- revelations. Had they done so, many men of high tender, and was born at Rome, on the 26th of rank and great influence would have been brought March, 1725. When twenty years of age, in the to a severe account. much celebrated "forty-five," he went to France

From The New York Times.

THE LESSON OF BARNUM'S LIFE.

his only effort is to make the public appear to have been an accomplice in his plans, instead of their victim.

In this country, more perhaps than in any Mr. Barnum's profession has been that of a other, success is regarded as the test of worth: showman-a business that may be honestly -and Barnum is the embodiment and imper- pursued. But he takes special pains to prosonation of success. From being poor and claim the fact, that he pursued it dishonestly. obscure, he has rapidly made himself very He never recognized the slightest obligations, rich and very famous. As a natural conse- in the prosecution of it, to tell the truth, or quence he is watched, admired, and envied, offer his exhibitions to the public upon their by hundreds of thousands who are as poor as merits. He said that Tom Thumb was eleven he was, and who are anxious to be rich as he years old, when he knew he was only five.is. Young men, especially-that vast army He represented Joice Heth as having been of our American youth just entering upon ac- the nurse of Washington, when he knew she tive life, and embracing more of intellect, of had not. He proclaimed that the Fejee merintelligence, of active energy, and enterprise, maid was the remains of an actual animal, than can be found, perhaps, elsewhere in the when he knew that it was a base fabrication. world-look to Barnum, with eager wonder He asserted that the Woolly Horse was capand emulation. How has his splendid suc- tured by Col. Fremont, in the Rocky Mouncess been achieved? To what qualities of tains, when he knew that there was not one character to what business faculties, is it syllable of truth in the assertion. In all these due? Mr. Barnum has written his life in or- schemes, as well as in all the others in which der to satisfy these interrogations. He has he has been engaged, Mr. Barnum coined narrated, step by step, the history of his ca- and promulgated the most distinct and delibreer- -pointing out, for the amusement of the erate falsehoods, and solicited and received curious, and the instruction of the ambitious, money from millions of individuals on the the path by which he has risen from poverty strength of them. This was the way in which to wealth, and from obscurity to conspicuous his fortune has been acquired. Other men influence. Of course the book will be eager- do the same thing on a small scale. They ly and widely read. It will produce a very sell sand for sugar-chicory for coffee-counmarked effect upon the sentiments and the terfeit bills for good ones; they seldom get conduct of the great body of the youth of rich, and more frequently get into the State America. It will do much towards guiding Prison. But this is not the fault of the princitheir ambition-shaping their plans and di-ple of their action; but only of the mode in recting their career. What is the lesson it is which it is carried out. They do not act upon likely to teach? a shrewd knowledge of human nature. They

The great fact which Mr. Barnum sets do not enlist the weaknesses of their victims on forth in this biography of himself, is that his their side. They neither pique their curiosisuccess has been achieved-his wealth acquir- ty, nor tempt their credulity, nor give them ed-his reputation and consideration estab- any chance to laugh at the cheat, as a good lished, by the systematic, adroit, and perse- joke. They are mere prosaic, common-place, vering plan of obtaining money under false and therefore unsuccessful, swindlers. Let pretences from the public at large. This is the them study Barnum's life; master the whole beginning and the end of his enterprise, and art and mystery of their business-learn the the great secret of his success. He seems, oc- advantage of doing things on a grand scale, casionally, conscious of the fact, and seeks to and with a flourish of trumpets-steer clear cloak it under phrases and forms of speech. He of the embarrassments which jealous laws calls it humbug-and, under the seeming can- have thrown in the way of such pursuits-and dor of confession, palliates it by a variety of take courage from Barnum's success, as well apologies and explanations. We must take as lessons from his experience. Then if they men as we find them:-human nature is full of fail, the fault must be their own. weaknesses, of which it is our right to take Nothing in this book is more remarkable advantage; men like to be deceived, if it is than the obvious insensibility of Mr. Barnum so cleverly done as to seem amusing-no wrong to the real character of its disclosures. He is done, if they get what they consider an takes an evident pride in the boldness and equivalent for their money. These are some enormity of the impositions by which he has of the moral maxims and reflections which are amassed his fortune. He does not confess brought forward to palliate and excuse the them, he boasts of them. He has written his leading fact, that his wealth has been acquir- life for the sake of convincing the world-not ed by a complicated system of falsehood and that he is a moral or an upright man, not that fraud. Mr. Barnum does not deny that the he is capable of generous acts and of manly representations which have made his schemes conduct-but that he is just the shrewdest and successful, have been false and fraudulent-sharpest Yankee that this hemisphere has yet

place character of an enterprising, honest and successful man; so he has written this book to prevent the possibility of such a catastrophe. He has chosen his means with his usual sagacity; he will be quite as successful in this design, as in any of the others by which his life has been distinguished.

produced. This is with him, the highest point We confess our surprise, that Mr. Barnum of ideal greatness. Whenever he chronicles should have published this Autobiography, for an apparently noble and generous deed-such we had given him credit for better judgment as his voluntary offer to make a more advan- and more discretion. He had amassed a fortageous contract with Jenny Lind than the tune, by means generally suspected to have one she had accepted he takes special pains not been scrupulously honorable, but which to add, that he did it on calculation, and from were very likely to be overlooked or forgota selfish motive, and not from generosity, or ten in the more creditable and legitimate entera sense of justice. He seems to fear that he prises of his more recent life. His engageshall be suspected of having sometimes acted ment of Jenny Lind was universally regarded without an eye to the main chance, and inter-as a public benefit, and evinced a bold sagapolates disclaimers into his narrative when- city which won him very great credit. He ever they may seem to he required. There is was establishing a reputation as a business an occasional intimation, that this is done man of marked ability, and was fast outliving from an excess of candor, and to prevent the the questionable reputation which public sussuspicion that he is claiming more credit than picion, rather than any known facts, had givbelongs to him; but this is intended only to en him. He seems to have felt himself in make the impression more effective. Mr. some danger of subsiding into the commonBarnum is proud of his sagacity-of his tact in playing upon the weaknesses of others, and of his skill in profiting by the public credulity. He feels that his strength lies in this faculty, rather than in strict adherence to lofty morals, and a nice sense of the rule of right. He accordingly sacrifices all other considerations to the desire of standing before the The book will be very widely read, and world as the most remarkable product of will do infinite mischief. It will encourge the American genius in the art of making money. tendency, always too strong in the young men The whole book is written for this purpose, of this country, to seek fortune by other and all its incidents are skilfully adapted to means than industry in the worthy pursuit of produce the desired effect. He has shown the honorable business on which the welfare very great invention in the variety of stories of society depends. It will stimulate an eagerof his childhood and youth, his early experi- ness for dashing experiments on public creence, and the various steps by which he ripen- dulity, and multiply the numbers, already too ed from very small beginnings, into the stu- large, of those who live by their wits, and pendous and magnificent master of the art of seek fortune by pandering to the vices or the deception, which he has since become. Judg-weaknesses of the public at large. We do ing from his book, he seems to have been a not suppose it was Mr. Barnum's intention to humbug from his cradle. He would have it exert such an influence when he wrote his understood, that he was born to the greatness life-for its prevalent tone shows clearly his he has since achieved. He cheated in long entire unconsciousness, that there is anything clothes, and had become an adept at practical in his career, which the noblest minded and jokes, before he reached the dignity of a the worthiest might not admire and emulate. roundabout. In all this, there is a good deal But the book will have that effect, so far as it that is amusing, though, of course, no one is has any beyond the indulgence of that vapid required, and probably not expected, to be- curiosity which it has been the business of, lieve it. It is all part and parcel of the sys-Mr. Barnum's life to stimulate and gratify. tem which the book is written to reveal.

FREE TRADE REACHING EGYPT.-SAID PASHA, as the natives, who are keenly alive to their own we are told by a letter from Alexandria of Nov. interests, only require to be left alone to extend 7th, in the "Times," "has been availing himself and improve the cultivation of the land." This is of the high prices of grain to sell off his stocks, and a most important step towards extending cultivahis Highness has declared his intention of not hav- tion in Egypt. If Said Pasha has the wisdom to ing in future any Government produce. He is not follow it up it will, ere many years have elapsed, to interfere at all with the cultivation of the land, make Egypt again a great corn-growing country, which henceforth is to be quite free, and he will and enable it to supply the manufacturing counallow the growers to sell directly to the merchants, tries of Europe. A better time for such a measure as best suits them, and he will levy the taxes and than the present-when corn, after a great harvest, tithes in cash. The extensive lands cultivated di- is dear throughout Europe-could not be selected. rectly by the Government will be leased to the na- The certain success which must now attend it will, tives, and there will no longer be any Minister of we trust, secure the continuance of this policy.Commerce. This measure, if fully and perma- Economist nently carried out, will vastly benefit the country,