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paced up and down, without guide or direc-ing than crochet and scandal at the round
tion, a furious gale of wind raging round, and table at the Tuileries!

drifting rain, snow, and sleet in their faces;
for, as the storm was from the north-east, M. Guizot gets throughout these volumes
On one other point we may say a word.
and the Boulogne Gate precisely in that

direction, it was only by proceeding reso-every species of incidental abuse, and in one.
lutely in the eye of the wind that they could place becomes the hero of a very formal piece
hope to reach that exit from the town. The of literary impeachment. The insinuations
lower shutters of all the houses were so uni-
versally closed against the raging of the ele-
ments and the equally threatening outbreak of
human passions, that it was impossible to
demand their way. Once a brilliant light

against his honor are paltry, and sometimes ridiculous. The historian of Civilization is treated as if he were a mere court instrument, M. Guizot is printing his own Memoirs, and corrupt himself and ready to corrupt others.

from some windows attracted their attention,
but it was soon carefully avoided when found in a few weeks they will be in everybody's
to proceed from a crowded cabaret where hands. In the meanwhile, we may assure
they were singing La Marseillaise. Missing him in his retreat that he need not trouble
the main gate, and expecting to escape himself about this gust of wind from the
through a sort of side postern, they were, Apennines. His policy may be explained
instead, bogged in a sort of quagmire, the and his motives cleared up by a narrative
first steps in which deprived the delicate feet

assured, needs no vindication. In England we do not always measure virtue by success; and despite Lord Normanby's hot and splenetic accusations, our more calm and philo

of the poor Duchess of both shoes; wander- such as no man knows better than himself
ing about in search of them, she sank above how to write; but his character, he may rest
her ankle at every moment, till providentially
found by an unknown friend of M. Estance-
lin, who had been sent in search of them
by him she was conducted to a shed on the
Route Royale, where they awaited the arrival
of the carriage and proceeded on their jour-sophical countrymen will continue to see in M.
ney."

M. de Lamartine, it may be remembered, gives in his own history of these events some curious sayings of the young Princess,-protesting, Spaniard-like, that she adored these adventures and thought them far more amus

Guizot a man of genius who, even if he has failed in that field of ambition which would

have yielded him a glory at best incidental and transient, has succeeded in that far nobler field of human endeavor which is at once fruitful and immortal.

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PROPOSAL FOR A TEMPORARY OBSERVA- | burgh permanently, or at all; but merely to TORY.-Professor Piazzi Smyth has included in the Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, recently printed, a proposal of a novel kind. He considers that, without taking account of clouds or other impediments, the smaller undulations of the atmosphere alone, even when all is clear and tranquil to the naked eye, are sufficient of themselves almost to neutralize the utility of the reflecting telescope, and that the obstruction is still greater in a large than in a small apparatus. Newton recommended that to avoid these undulations, the telescope should be raised above the grosser parts of the atmosphere, by being placed on a high mountain; but so far from this being attended to, we find observatories, as if by some fatality, situated in the depths of valleys, and frequently buried in the smoke of towns. What the Scottish Astronomer Royal proposes it, not to remove the Observatory from Edin

establish a temporary observing station for the summer months, in some lofty locality. Durfrom his duties at the university; and they are ing these summer months, he enjoys a vacation precisely the season when, in Scotland, clouds and prolonged twilight render observations, especially with the equatorial, almost useless. With this instrument alone, on a high southern mountain, "he would, in fact, be able to make more observations, and each of them of surpassing excellence, than in a whole year in Edinburgh." The mountain he proposes is the Peak of Teneriffe, which he has already visited, 12,200 feet high, and only a week's voyage from England due south. "A sufficiently large plateau exists at the height of 11,000 feet, and is stated to be clear of cloud during the summer; while if one observation of Humboldt's can be depended on, the air is then more transparent than at the same height on either the Alps or the Andes."' -Chambers' Journal.

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From The Saturday Review.
THE RATCATCHER'S GOSPEL.

NOTHING can be more curious than to
watch the progressive development of the
commonplaces by which one age is distin-
guished from another. Sometimes they run
in the direction of Church and State, our
Young Queen and our Old Institutions.
Sometimes they set towards the doctrine of
progress and the March of Intellect. At
one time we babble of green leaves, and are
all for love and mercy-at another we gird
on the sword of the Lord and of Gideon,
and are for smiting our enemies from Dan to
Beersheba. There have been of late years
a succession of fuglemen who have given the
tone to the cries of the various classes of
society. What Cobbett did for politics with
one class, and O'Connell with another, writers
like Mr. Carlyle do for educated men who
interest themselves in what are known at the
present day as social subjects. We have
amongst us a considerable number of per-
sons who are 'continually blowing the trum-
pet upon a variety of moral and theological
questions, and whose notes all go to curi-
ously similar tunes. It is instructive to ob-
serve that these gentlemen belong for the
most part to what used at any rate to be con-
sidered the most peaceable professions, whilst
they almost always write in the most stirring
and warlike strain. The pens are clerical
pens, but the words are the words of soldiers.
The prevalence and the popularity of this
mode of thought appear to us deserving of
more specific notice than they have as yet re-
ceived. When we sit under this sort of ser-
monizing in church, as most of us are occa-
sionally obliged to do, our mouths are shut;
but when our pastors and masters descend
into the arena of the daily press, they restore
us to that right of reply which the pulpit for
the time being suspends.

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its intolerance of every form of evil. He is
66 one of those who hold that two-thirds of
the real good which is ever done in this world
originates in the hearts, and is started by
the words and deeds, of good men lacking
discretion."" He thinks that the statesman
who looks about him in this country "be-
holds all manner of Christian men, in all
manner of ways, contending with vice, igno-
rance, infidelity; he sees men elbowing each
other, shinning' each other-not caring
even to overturn each other-so that each in
his own way, after his own fashion and creed,
can do some good. Vice is being worried
more or less here, there, and everywhere;'
and then follows a long string of compari-
sons between evil and vermin on the one
hand, and saints and ratcatchers on the other.
« We don't hunt rats with staghounds, or -
pitch deer-nets to catch black beetles." "No
invention has ever yet rid us of rats or of the
turnip-fly." "Where nuts grow weevil are
found." "What farmer is fool enough to
throw away his traps, destroy his ferrets, and
burn his arsenical confection ?" He may not
extirpate his enemy, but does he not "try,
by the shrieks from his traps, the warnings
of his poisons, the ever-to-be-dreaded pres-
ence of his intruding ferrets, to be well un-
derstood as one who still hates, will still war
on vermin "-as one of the saints who rule
the earth? Does he not delight himself in
abundance of fighting, with the praises of
God in his right hand and the patent vermin
killer in his left? A more singular concep-
tion of the whole duty of man we have sel-
dom met with, since the author of the Big
low papers described the eloquence of the
apostle of the Mexican war.

How dreadful slick he reeled it off, like Blitz
at our Lyceum,

A drawing ribbands from his mouth, so quick you'd scarcely see 'em.

About our patriotic pa's, and our star-spangled banner,

Our country's bird a sitting by, and singing out hosannah."

The most remarkable display of this style of thought that we have lately seen, occurred in a letter from S. G. O. to the Times, to which we adverted last week, in connexion The moral of this style of writing is, that with the state of feeling in England towards we are on all occasions, to keep our minds in India. Besides the expressions of opinion to a hostile, pugnacious attitude-that we are which we then referred, the letter contains always to have at hand an inkstand to throw several passages which illustrate in the most at the devil-that we are to be constantly curious way our present subject. S. G. O." worrying evil," and always making as founds his views about India on his views of much fuss about it as possible-and that, in England and English society. The distinc- this pursuit, zeal is far more important than tive feature of the present day is, he thinks, either knowledge, temper, or discretion. We

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another question. The house in which we live is so well built, and has stood so long without being burnt, that the children can hardly do much harm in playing at lighting straws; but there is a limit to the extent to which this harmless taste ought to be indulged. They may not, to be sure, endanger the walls and the roof, but they may possi bly burn holes in the furniture, or spoil the books. We are in no danger of seeing intolerant legislation, but we are in great danger of seeing all manner of bigotry introduced into the private and semi-public relations of life. We shall certainly not see

must confess that the illustrations in which lutely certain that their impracticability is the author revels are admirably adapted to the one essential condition of their exist the moral which he inculcates. "Shrieks ence. If those who cry out for them so from traps," " arsenical confection," and loudly saw the most remote possibility of the "ever-to-be-dreaded ferrets," are metaphors realization of what they profess to wish for, which certainly put very clearly before the they would be the first to recoil. They are mind's eye the sort of spiritual Skye terrier only playing at a game. There is such a -always smelling, scratching, and delighting long distance between any real authoritative to bark and bite-which seems to be S. G."worrying of evil," and the hypothetical O.'s ideal of a just man made perfect. Seri- laudation of the process, that the latter is an ously speaking, is it either wise or right to amusement which, in appearance at least, is preach up this kind of petty fanaticism? Is perfectly safe. Whether it is so in reality, is there the least need for it? Cannot any moderately careful observer see around him superabundant proof of the fact that the age in which we live is specially distinguished by - the quantity of futile intolerance which it produces? It is not that we really want to persecute, but we like to talk about it. All the old commonplaces about civil and religious liberty have become so distasteful to a generation which glories in its earnestness, that a certain number of more or less fashionable and influential persons have begun to invent new ones, founded upon an effeminate admiration of the stern grandeur of conquerors and inquisitors. To our minds, there people imprisoned for their opinions; but we is something exceedingly petty and essentially weak in this muliebris impotentia. We are very sceptical indeed as to the amount of biting implied by such incessant barking. A man who really is engaged in doing good, in following up with the full power of his faculties some one or other of the great pursuits of life, will not condescend to abuse his ene However good its objects might be, the mies. When the Chinese go out to fight, prevalence of the state of mind which S. G. they are in the habit, as Mr. Meadows tells O. praises so highly, would be a most serius, of pouring the most vehement reproaches ous evil. Let every one try to imagine the on their antagonists; and, if we remember consequences of a general adoption of the rightly, there is in Chinese armies a sort of belief that, provided you are "worrying Special Correspondent, whose business it is somebody whom you choose to call bad, it to make cutting remarks about the various does not much matter whether you are right devils-red, black, and yellow-of whom the or wrong. You are at worst a "good man barbarian armies are supposed to consist. lacking discretion," and that class of persons We do not want to see the practice adopted does two-thirds of all the good that is done at home. The whole gospel of fighting is a in the world. This, we confess, is to us not sham-a shaking of the fists and grinding of only a hard but a most pernicious saying. the teeth, which the former is apt to consider St. Paul, when he stood by and saw Stephen as a receipt in full of all demands. Of all stoned, was a good man lacking discretion. the nonsense which infests modern society, When the Jews compassed sea, and land to we think that this noisy pugnacity, and its make one proselyte, and having found him, near allies-the desire for strong govern-made him ten times more the child of the devil ment and a vigorous persecuting policy-are than he was Lefore, they were in much the about the worst. It is impossible to observe same predicament. A man who combines zeal their manifestations without feeling abso- for high objects with an incapacity for under

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have seen, and we may very possibly again see, men bent upon "worrying evil" by running down the holder of unpopular views, by socially ostracizing the advocate of what are supposed to be heretical opinions, or by sanctioning impertinent intrusions into private affairs.

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standing them, is one of the very most dan- Fanaticism is no doubt capable of being pic gerous members of society, and there is probably no class in all the world which stands in need of such severe, constant, and painful discipline. There is no more dangerous fallacy than the indistinct feverish dreams which seems to have seized on a certain number of minds, that it is an unamiable weakness to have a good understanding; and that this should be preached up as a pre-eminently Christian doctrine, is a surprising proof of the forgetfulness which able men constantly show of the principles of their own science. Two of the most weighty and important books of the Old testament-the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are almost exclusively devoted to the praises of wisdom. "With all thy getting, get wisdom." "Wisdom exceedeth folly as light exceedeth darkness," is the burden of the whole of Solomon's teaching. S. G. O. seems determined to show us that the warning is not as yet superfluous.

turesquely represented. It looks very striking indeed in Scott's novels; but it is not only a hateful, but a poor thing in real life. When douce Davie Deans will not let a sublapsarian advocate defend his daughter, we feel a liking for the quaint humor of the conception, but in real life we should think such a man an obstinate old fool. To dally with picturesque and racy folly is one of the most characteristic faults of an ingenious, sensitive, allow originality and humor to atone for al accomplished, and energetic generation. We most everything; and as Mr. Borrow half admires the ruffianly assassin, Thurtell, because he was a brave man and a good bruiser, and because his name is probably derived from the Norse, so we are ready to forgive almost any atrocity which Mr. Carlyle can turn upside down for our edification, and to hound on any movement which writers like S. G. O. can back with thrilling appeals to our Christian feelings, and scornful denunciations of those who stop to criticize its character.

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making should have had a greater immediate success as an author than any other writer now living, except Lord Macaulay-Saturday Rev.

CHROMOLITHOGRAPHY:

THE account given by Dr. Livingstone of the lion is worth noticing, because it is characteristic, and shows his determination to abide by strict truth, and not to yield to the illusions of conventional enthusiasm. "When a lion," he TURNER'S ULYS says, "is met in the daytime, if preconceived SES.-It is an ambitious and daring thing to es notions do not lead travellers to expect some- say the rendering in chromolithography of one of thing very noble or majestic, they will see merely those works in which Turner is most himself, an animal somewhat larger than the biggest dog and most inimitable. Ulysses defies Polyphe they ever saw, and partaking very strongly of mus in the wonderful Turner picture in Marl the canine features. The face is not much like borough House; and Messrs. Rowney defy the usual drawings of a lion, the nose being pro- Turner in a chromolithograph which they have longed like a dog's, not exactly such as our just produced of the picture, as a sequel to the painters make it, though they might learn better Old Téméraire. No one would have dreamed at the Zoological Gardens, their idea of majesty five or six years ago that this then nascent probeing usually shown by making their lions' faces cess of rendering colored works in fac-simile like old women in nightcaps.' We must refer could be applied, with any degree of success, to our readers to the book itself for the anecdotes a picture of such intricacy, variety, and pitch by which he illustrates the habits of the lion.- of color, as the Ulysses; yet here we have it They will also find in this volume very interest- reproduced with extreme skill, vast labor, and ing notices of a new antelope, called the leche, as much success as will suffice to enchant the of the ostrich, the elephant, the little honey-guide general eye, and make people protest that, save and of the black and white ants. We can only for difference of size, the copy could not be sadd, in conclusion, an expression of our admi- known from the original. If this kind of work ration, and we may venture to say our astonish- is to be viewed as a tour-de-force, we may say ment, at the excellence of the writing observable throughout the book. In his opening chapter, Dr. Livingstone expresses his strong sense of the slightness of his aptitude for authorship. "I think," he tells us, "I would rather cross the African continent again than undertake to write another book. It is far easier to travel than to I write about it." Dr. Livingstone greatly underrates his power of composition. Few practised writers have so wide a command of language and so vigorous & style; and it is curious that a man who has so strong an aversion to book

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that the executants have done more than any one would have been justified in demanding or expecting: but the fact is, that such art as that of Turner's consummate power cannot be imitated by any mechanical process with a result valuable to art. It can only be coarsened and cheapened, and the edge of public taste dulled by the illusive approach to the more obvious qualities of that whose nobler essence and refinements remain forever out of reach. The re producers have done a difficult thing cleverly, but not a good thing well.-Spectator.

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"The late Lieutenant Kirkes, R.N.,

From The Spectator.

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WOODCOCKS.*

IF not one of the curiosities, this volume may be ranked as one of the amenities or pleasantries of literature. The subject was a lucky hit"; the treatment of that subject could only succeed by some happy inspiration almost as lucky; the introductory anecdotes brought together by the editor and part-author, Mr. Muirhead, are singular in their way; the book itself is worthy of its

WINGED WORDS ON CHANTREY'S brought down at one shot six snipes out of a wisp of seven. His son, Captain Kirkes, by a still more wonderful chance, killed (in 1856) with one barrel a grouse on the wing and two hares sitting; the hares having been 'formed' together, on a rising ground towards which the grouse was flying when the shot was fired. * * During the frost and snow of December 1856, a man of the name of Croft is said to have killed on the banks of the river Wyre, near the Shard, Hambleton, no fewer than one hundred and eighteen gray plovers at one shot; and at using, however, a sort of large swivel-gun, another shot, on the same day, sixteen ducks; fixed in a boat, and loaded with a quarter of a pound of powder and one pound of shot."

It was a peculiarity, perhaps a weakness of Chantrey, to pique himself upon being a crack angler and shot; though one of his biographers, Mr. Holland, has his misgivings on both points. However, on a visit to Holkham, in 1829, he killed two woodcocks with one shot. The exploit was rare, especially in the neatness with which it seemed to be done; for the second bird rose in a line with the first, (which 'Chantrey admits he alone saw,) and fell through coming into fire. The industry of Mr. Muirhead has shown, that however strange the lucky hit, it is by no means unexampled in modern times. Thus, in 1853, Colonel Shands performed the same feat, and with circumstances more surprising; for, unless we take the sportman's own explanation, the deed seems to emanate from that Irish gun which could shoot round a corner.

All these destructive men could tell their friends of their exploits by the living voice; but Chantrey could speak in marble, and he did so. He sculptured the birds, even as they fell, on a marble tablet, and presented it to his host.

This shot, or more truly its record in marble and its position at Holkham, became a subject for many pens. The majority of the verses naturally took the form of the original epigram-an inscription with a pointed conclusion; a few were of a more narrative character, and one or two by Mr. Muirhead almost became ballads. Some of the authors are of names distinguished in letters, -as Dean Milman, the Bishop of Oxford, Archdeacon Wrangham, Jeffrey. Others men celebrated in other walks of life, as Lord Wellesley, Lord Tenterden, and Baron Alderson. The volume consists of a collection of these jeux d'esprit, with some that seem to have been written by the editor expressly for publication. The total number of pieces, including translations from the original Greek and Latin, amount to one hundred and sixty-nine, with prologue and epilogue.

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are

"I was walking," writes the Colonel, "towards a large clump of hollies, with the keeper about twenty yards on my right, when two cocks got up together, one flying to the left of the clump, and the other to the right. I fired at the left bird, and brought him down; calling out to the keeper to mark the other; when he replied, 'I saw only one bird which you killed.' This surprised me, as I had picked up my bird considerably to the left of the clump, and quite out of sight of the keeper. But while we were discussing The literary men, we think, show the best. the matter, and trying to account for the They have greater terseness and force, if not extraordinary disappearance of the second more felicity. The theme is mostly the obvicock, my old bitch Belle was observed at a ous one- -death and deathlessness from the dead point, about forty yards beyond the same hand: and Milman is the foremost in clump of hollies; and there we found the point of brevity. missing bird under her nose. The only way

"" LXII.

in which I can account for the circumstance" Uno ictu morimur simul uno vivimus ictu." is, that the right-hand bird must have The Bishop is not amiss; neat and courtly, crossed the line of sight just as I fired at as becomes a bishop, though the compliment. the bird on the left; which, by the way, fell within twenty yards of the gun." is not quite true as regards the shot.

Winged Words on Chantrey's Woodcocks. Edited by James Patrick Muirhead, M.A. Published by Murray.

XIII.

"Life in Death, a mystic lot,

Dealt thou to the winged band;

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