Book 2 — LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, PERSONAL MOVEMENTS, ETC.

UNITED STATES.

The past month has been more fruitful of events of interest in the world of Art than its predecessor. This was to be expected; for the opening of what is called "The season," and the approach of the Christmas holidays rarely pass without the production of novelties in most of the various walks of Art. Booksellers, Print-publishers, Jewelers, and Managers of places of Public Amusement, all, in fact, who minister to taste and luxury, reserve for December their finest and most elaborate productions; and an examination of their advertisements, even, will afford the means of judging the point of refinement attained by the public mind, whose demands they at once create and supply.

A decided improvement, year by year, is to be noticed in the style of books and other articles intended for Christmas and New-year gifts. The Annuals which, some five or six years ago, began to droop, are now dead, utterly extinct. Their exaggerated romantic Prose, their diluted Della Cruscan Poetry, their great-eyed, smooth-cheeked, straight-nosed, little-mouthed, small-waisted beauties, have passed from their former world into the happy and congenial state of the Ladies' Magazines, where they will again have their day, and again disappear before advancing taste and superior education. The place of the Annuals is occupied, we will not say supplied, by editions of the great poets and writers of prose fiction, illustrated in the highest style of the steel and wood engraver. Some of the first artists of the day are now employed by publishers to furnish designs for such publications, and the eagerness with which they are bought, and the discriminating admiration which they, on the whole, receive, when regarded in connection with the generous support given to Art Journals, Art Unions, and Public Galleries, show in the public mind an increasing healthiness and soundness of taste, as well as a greater interest in matters of Art.

Prominent among events of moment in this department, is the opening to the public, at the Düsseldorf Gallery, of Lessing's Great Picture, The Martyrdom of Huss. The Düsseldorf Gallery had contained some of the finest modern paintings in the country, and had done much to keep alive the aroused interest of the public in the Arts of Design before the arrival of this, the greatest work of the acknowledged head of the Düsseldorf School; but now it is without doubt the centre of attraction to all lovers of Art on this side the water, for the great picture, whether regarded as to its intrinsic interest or its academic merits, has no rival here, and some enlightened enthusiasts say, none among modern paintings in the world. The picture appeals at once to popular sympathy, by the interest of its subject, the simplicity of its treatment, and by the striking reality and strong individual character of its figures. We gave, in the December number of this Magazine, a notice of this great picture, from a German paper, which renders any further description of it here unnecessary.

A very interesting series of etchings from the pencil of Mr. J. W. Ehninger, a young New York artist, has just appeared. They illustrate Irving's Dolph Heyliger, and are full of the humor of that charming Dutch story. Mr. Ehninger is a pupil of the Düsseldorf school, and has but just left its severe training. His style shows the conscientious faithfulness which is inculcated there, as one of the first requisites of a true artist; he has very happy conceptions of character, and seems to be thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the Knickerbocker times. In illustrating them he can not but achieve desirable reputation.

An informal meeting of a large number of the members and associates of the Academy of Design took place early in the last month. Its object was to devise measures to make the Academy a more efficient means of advancing the Art. It was determined, among other things, that lectures should be delivered upon Painting, and the various subjects connected with it. We have heard the Rev. Dr. Bethune named as likely to be the first lecturer. He could hardly fail to interest and instruct both the Members of the Academy, and the public generally, upon the subjects naturally falling within the scope of the first of such a series of lectures. It is gratifying to see that the members of the Academy are at last beginning to awake to the consciousness of its inefficiency, and we trust that some benefit may accrue to Art from their action.

Leutze's great picture of Washington Crossing the Delaware, a grand subject on which he had been engaged nearly three years, has been destroyed by fire, or rather in consequence of fire, as we learn by a letter from the artist himself, dated Düsseldorf, Nov. 10th. It is gratifying, for the artist's sake, to know that the picture was fully insured; but Insurance Companies, although very good protectors against pecuniary loss, can not reproduce works of genius or make up for their loss.

Mr. Hawthorne, whose Scarlet Letter showed such rare ability in the portrayal of the hidden workings of the heart, has a new work nearly finished, called The House of Seven Gables; it will be eagerly sought for, and we trust may prove as admirable a performance as the first-named book.

The purchase of the Greek Slave for distribution has brought the Western Art Union three thousand subscribers this year. It is an increase of nearly one hundred per cent upon the subscriptions of last year, but is hardly enough to warrant the addition of many other prizes to the great one.

Jenny Lind continues her triumphant progress through the country, delighting the world and doing good. Each place which she visits gets up an excitement, which if it be not equal to that at New York, is at least the result of a conscientious endeavor to accomplish the most which can be achieved with the means at command. Her four concerts in Baltimore are said to have produced forty thousand dollars, which is even more in proportion to the wealth and size of the place than the average receipts at her concerts in New York.

It is stated that the existence of a third ring around the planet Saturn was discovered on the night of Nov. 15th, by the astronomers at the Cambridge Observatory. It is within the two others, and therefore its distance from the body of Saturn must be small. It will be remembered that the eighth satellite of this planet was also discovered at Cambridge, by Mr. Bond, about two years since.

Mr. Junius Smith, who has been for some years very zealously engaged in introducing the culture of the tea plant into the United States, gives it as the result of his experiments that the heat of summer is far more to be feared for the tea plant, than the cold of winter, and requires more watchful care. In his field at Greenville, S. C., he has shaded every young plant put out the first week in June, and so long as he continued to do so, did not lose a single plant by the heat of the sun. The young tea-plants from nuts planted on the 5th of June last, and those from China set out about the same time, and most of them still very small, do not appear to have sustained the slightest injury, but are as fresh and green without any covering or protection, as they were in September. He thinks it not at all unlikely that the cultivation of the plant will become general in New England before it does in the Southern States.

Mr. Darley, whose outlines of Rip Van Winkle, and Sleepy Hollow, published by the Art Union, won him so much reputation in Europe as well as here, is about to publish a series of outline illustrations of Margaret, an American novel, said to be of great interest. We had some time since the pleasure of seeing the drawings for these illustrations, and will venture to say that in truthfulness of expression and accuracy of outline they are beyond any American works of their kind, and surpassed by none we know of which have appeared in Europe, we will not even except those of Retzsch.

The Art-Union Bulletin is our authority for stating that Mr. Darley has also engaged to furnish, to a print publisher in this city, twelve designs of large size, representing prominent scenes in American history. They are to be sketches in chiaroscuro, which will afterward be engraved in mezzotint. The first of these designs represents The Massacre of Wyoming. The point of time chosen by the artist, is the first demonstration made by the savages against the settlement, on the day preceding the general slaughter. A letter to the Tribune states that Mr. Healy, one of our best portrait painters, is hard at work on the figures of the former two great rivals, Mr. Webster and Mr. Calhoun. That of Mr. Calhoun is simply a full-length portrait, representing him as taking his leave of the Senate; it is for the Charleston authorities. The accessories of the painting are unimportant. That of Mr. Webster, however, gives us a large section of the Senate chamber, galleries included, and about one hundred and fifty figures or portraits, all after life. It is yet in outline. Boston will possess this valuable work of art, and almost living history of the celebrated speech on the Constitution.

GREAT BRITAIN.

Mr. J. Payne Collier, the annotator upon Shakspeare, has received a pension of £100 a year from the Royal Literary Pension Fund. Another pension, of the same amount, has been granted to Mr. James Bailey, the translator of Facciolati's Latin Lexicon, and one of the most accomplished scholars of the day. So, entirely, however, had Mr. Bailey abstracted himself from the great literary world, that when the announcement was made of the pension conferred upon him "in consideration of his literary merits," not one of the literary journals, not even the Athenæum, was able to tell who the recipient was; but all declared that they knew of no man of letters bearing that name. This fund amounts to £1200, and the lion's share of it, the remaining £1000, is appropriated in a singular manner. It has been bestowed upon the wife of the new Lord Chancellor, Lord Truro, lately Mr. Solicitor Wilde. This lady is the daughter of the late Duke of Sussex, one of the sons of George III. The duke contracted a marriage with her mother, which was illegal by the terms of the Royal Marriage Act, and which he afterward repudiated by forming a similar connection with another woman, for whom he succeeded in procuring the title of Duchess of Inverness, and an allowance from the public treasury, to enable her to support her dignity. On the death of the duke an attempt was made to procure the recognition of his children by the former connection, as members of the royal family, with a pension. This being unsuccessful, the sum of £500 a year was first given to the daughter, who bore the name of D'Este, from the literary fund; which sum was afterward increased by an additional £500, from the same fund. The chief counsel in prosecuting these claims was Mr. Wilde, who, immediately on his elevation to the bench, as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, marries this soi-disant Princess D'Este. Though the present chancellor is very wealthy, and receives a large income from his office, his wife still continues to absorb five-sixths of the sum at the disposal of the crown as a reward to "eminent literary merit:" her merit, like that celebrated in Figaro, being that she "condescended to be born;" from all of which it appears, that the merit of being a spurious off-shoot of the royal family, is just ten times as great as that of the most earnest and successful prosecution of literary and scientific pursuits.

The English papers, and especially the Literary Journals, express considerable apprehension that the English people are likely to be outdone in the coming Exhibition. The Athenæum complains of the comparative indifference which pervades the English manufacturers, while every mail from the Continent and from America, brings intelligence of an increased activity in their workshops. The prize of victory, in this case, it says, must rest with the strong. A new era in industry and commerce opens with 1851: and for a producer to be out of the Catalogue of the Exhibition will be equivalent to abandoning the field.

The gardens of the Zoological Society of London are constantly receiving new accessions from the liberal efforts of the English colonial Governors, and others in foreign parts. Fine presents of rare animals have also been received from several of the royal families of Europe.

A scheme has been proposed to convert the now abandoned grave-yards of London, into ornamental gardens, by throwing down useless walls, planting elms, mulberries, fig-trees and other plants which flourish in crowded thoroughfares, and laying out the surface with walks and flower-beds. Not to interfere with the sanctities of the graves, or permanently to remove any historic marks from their present localities, it is also proposed to collect the grave-stones and form with them the base of a pyramidal or other kind of monument to be erected in each church-yard.

The rumor that government intends to impose a mileage tax upon the electric telegraph has elicited very warm and emphatic remonstrances from the English press. The fact is very prominently brought forward that in England the telegraph is used much less than in the United States, because its employment is very greatly restricted by high charges, while in America it is thrown open to the great body of the public and is accordingly used by them. The Athenæum, speaking of the matter, says that, instead of adding to the expense of working the iron messengers, every effort should be made to reduce it so as to bring its benefits and consolations within the reach of smaller means. In this, as in some other respects, America sets the old continent a good example.

A new public park is soon to be opened, on the south side of London. The shooting grounds and premises so well known as the Red House, nearly opposite to Chelsea Hospital, have been purchased by Government for, it is said, £11,000. Of the new bridge to be erected across the Thames, in connection with this park, the works are soon to be begun.

Mr. Charles Locke Eastlake, has been elected President of the Royal Academy; he has also had the honor of knighthood conferred upon him.

Mr. Macready has been giving readings from Shakspeare the proceeds of which he appropriates to the purchase of Shakspeare's house for the country. He was one of the most liberal of the original subscribers to this fund, and has by this renewed donation aided still more effectually the accomplishment of the object.

Professor Faraday, at a late meeting of the Royal Institution, announced his discovery that oxygen is magnetic, that this property of the gas is affected by heat, and that he believes the diurnal variation of the magnetic needle to be due to the action of solar heat on this newly discovered characteristic of oxygen—the important constituent of the atmosphere. It is said that Bequerel also has recently directed attention to a somewhat similar conclusion; he communicated to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, that oxygen is magnetic in relation to the other gases, as iron is to the rest of the metals, and inferred that it is probable or possible that diurnal variation may be connected with this property of oxygen.

Henry Fitzmaurice Hallam, M.A., the only surviving son of the eminent English historian, died at Sienna, after a short illness, on the 26th of October, and at the early age of twenty-seven years. He had visited Rome with his father and others of the family, and they were on their return homeward, when this affliction fell upon them. It will be remembered, that a few years ago his elder brother, full of college honors and of the highest promise, died under equally afflictive circumstances.

A pamphlet by Sir Francis Bond Head, on the defenseless state of Great Britain, has excited a good deal of attention, and elicited some pretty sharp criticism from the London journals. Still, it is very generally conceded that there is a great deal of truth in his representations.

A correspondent of the London Athenæum, writing from Naples, gives an account of a visit paid to the studio of the American sculptor, Powers. The figure of "America," upon which he is now engaged, is that of a robust young female, with a noble and dignified expression of countenance, and the head surrounded by a diadem of thirteen stars. The left arm and hand are elevated, as if exhorting the people to trust in heaven; while the right rests on the fasces, which are crowned with bay leaves, enforcing the precept that Union is Strength and will be crowned with Victory. The statue, which is half covered with drapery, will be 14 feet high; and for power, beauty, and dignity combined, the writer says, it is one of the finest that he has ever seen in Italy. Powers is about to commence working it out in marble, and calculates that in fifteen months it will be ready for sending off. By the side of it stands a half-developed statue of "California."

FRANCE.

A new method of voting, which offers incontestable advantages on the score of accuracy and rapidity, has received an appropriation from the French Chambers. Each member is provided with a box containing ten ballots; five white (ayes), and five blue (nays). These consist of oblong squares of steel, having the name of the representative engraved upon each side. The urns are so arranged that the white and blue ballots fall into different compartments, not at random, but arrange themselves against a graduated copper rod, which shows at a glance the number of ballots for or against. These rods are taken from the urns, and placed upon a piece of mechanism upon the tribune, so arranged that one side shows all the ayes, the other all the nays, and the secretaries have only to add up the sums of the rods. Then, by touching a lever, the sides are reversed, so that the secretaries who have added the ayes have the nays presented to them; thus mutually checking each other. The result is thus ascertained in a few minutes, with scarcely a possibility of error. Lists are prepared beforehand bearing numbers corresponding to those engraved on a corner of the ballots, by which means the copy for the Moniteur is speedily furnished, with the utmost accuracy. This which used to take a considerable time, and swarmed with errors, can now be done in ten minutes. This ingenious and beautiful apparatus costs 27,000 francs.

A new aeronautic machine has been exhibited at Paris, which it is claimed solves the long sought problem, at least on a small scale, of directing the course of a balloon through the air. The leading ideas of the machine are drawn from the structure of birds and fishes, the animals that possess the power of traversing a liquid element. The model with which the successful experiments were performed, consists of a balloon of gold-beaters' skin, inflated with hydrogen, some three or four yards long, nearly round in front, and terminating in a horizontal rudder like the tail of a bird; a little before and above which is another rudder placed vertically, like the tail of a fish. The former is to change the course of the vessel up and down, the latter to turn it to the right or left. Toward the head of the balloon, in a position corresponding to that of the fins of a fish, are placed light wings, capable of a rapid motion, which constitute the motive power. In the model these are set in motion by machinery; but in the working machine human power is proposed. A framework of hollow iron is placed horizontally around the balloon to which it is attached by cords; this furnishes the fixed point to which are attached the cords which move the rudders; and from it is suspended the car in which the passengers are to be placed. The inventor promises to construct a machine capable of carrying up fifty persons. He acknowledges that the apparatus will be bulky, but consoles himself by the reflection that there is no present danger of the air being crowded. The whole weight of the machine and its burden is to be so proportioned to the amount of hydrogen in the balloon, that it will remain in equilibrium; an anchor is then to be thrown overboard, when the machine will of course rise; when a sufficient height is gained the anchor is to be weighed, and the equilibrium being again restored, the machine will be stationary; and it may then be propelled and guided by the wings and the rudders. Such, at least, is the belief of one of the editors of La Siècle, who was present at the trial of the model, and who indulges in the most glowing anticipations of the future success of the invention.

Rossini is said to be secretly superintending, at Boulogne, the production of a musical work to which he attaches great importance. He passes every evening and a part of each day with the famous tenor Donzelli, in revising this work, which has not yet been made known to the public, and which, it is said, will soon be performed at Boulogne.

Armand Marrast is engaged in writing some very curious memoirs respecting the events of the years 1848 and 1849. It is said that they will contain verbatim extracts from a report made to him and to General Cavaignac, by M. Carlier, on occasion of the election of Louis Napoleon to the Constituant Assembly. M. Carlier goes into many details of the habits and customs of Louis Napoleon, and of other members of his family.

It is stated in the French journals that in consequence of the confusion existing between the maritime calculations of different powers, and the unfortunate occurrences to which it sometimes leads, the naval powers of the north—Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland—have entered into an agreement to open conferences on the old question of a common meridian for all nations. France, Spain, and Portugal, it is said, have given in their adhesion to the scheme; and a hope is held out that England will come into the arrangement. The most advanced opinion on the Continent seems to be in favor of the selection of an entirely neutral point of intersection—say Cape Horn—which it is said would have the immense advantage of being agreeable to the Americans.

M. Polain, keeper of the Archives at Liege, has recently discovered that the famous French historian, Froissart, whose Chronicles are universally known, copied the first fifty chapters of his work from Jehan le Bel, an author of his own time, whose manuscripts have been recently discovered in the Belgian libraries. This is a discovery of considerable interest to antiquarians. An edition of one hundred and twenty-five copies of Jehan le Bel's book has been printed for the use of a select number of historical savans.

A whimsical discovery is announced by M. Jules Allix, in the feuilleton of the Paris Presse. It seems too absurd to merit repetition, but it is reproduced in some of the London literary papers, and is there treated as if there might be something real in it. It is stated that a method has been discovered of communicating instantly between any two places on the earth, without regard to distance or continuous lines, and through the agency of magnetized snails! The inventors of this novel telegraph are said to be M. Benoit, of France, and M. Biat, of America; and they are further said to have been engaged for several successive years in experimenting upon the subject. They claim to have ascertained that certain descriptions of snails possess peculiar properties or sympathies, which cause them to feel the same sensation, no matter at what distance they may be, when acted on in a particular way by galvanic and magnetic influences. A snail placed in a box, suitably provided with the requisite apparatus, in France, thus responds to the motions of a snail, placed in a similar box, in America; and by providing a snail for each letter, a conversation may thus be carried on. The correspondent of the London Literary Gazette, says that he saw experiments on the subject in Paris, which were attended with complete success. The whole thing is probably an ingenious hoax. A skeptical correspondent of the Literary Gazette proposes an easy method of testing the new telegraph. He says, "If the Presse newspaper will every day for a few weeks give a short abstract of contemporary American news, or indeed mention any points of prominent interest which occur on the other side of the Atlantic; thus anticipating by some weeks the ordinary mails; and if, when these arrive, the news given by the snail telegraph is confirmed, doubts will vanish, and snails will be at a premium."

Louis Napoleon, in his Message announced that the French government has proposed to the different Cabinets international relations for putting an end to the long tolerated abuse of literary and artistic piracy—that these propositions have been favorably received, in principle, by most of the Cabinets—and that between France and Sardinia a treaty has already been signed for the mutual protection of both these species of property. The announcement has been hailed with great satisfaction by the literary public.

A correspondent of the Literary Gazette says, that the distinguished French poet, Beranger, occupies himself a good deal in writing biographies, anecdotes, criticisms, &c., of the public men with whom, in the course of his long career, he came in contact. It is now two years since he announced his intention of giving such a work to the public, and he seems to think that it will possess great historical value.

A clever hoax was played off by La Presse against the President. The day previous to the one when the President's Message was to have appeared, that journal published a document entitled, "Message of the President of the Republic to the General Assembly," bearing the signature L. N. Bonaparte. Under the various heads which such a document would naturally contain, the most radical and sweeping propositions were laid down; propositions which nobody suspected the President of entertaining in the Elysée, whatever his opinions might have been when meditating in the Castle of Ham. Official communications were at once dispatched to the evening papers, declaring the publication a forgery; and stating that the Procureur of the Republic had caused the paper in question to be seized at the post and in the office of publication. The next day La Presse opened with an article stating that the paper of the day before had been seized for publishing such and such an article, copying its message of the previous day, and declaring it to be genuine, for that every word of it was the acknowledged publication of the President. The fact was that it was made up of extracts from various publications which Bonaparte had put forth at different epochs; and could hardly be branded as a forgery. Thus far the paper seemed to have the advantage. But the court soon turned the scale by sentencing the gérant of the paper, M. Nefftzer, to an imprisonment of a year, and a fine of 2000 francs.

GERMANY, Etc.

A correspondent of the London Literary Gazette gives an account of an interesting quarrel between the directors of the Theatre Royal at Brussels and the Press. Disliking some of the criticisms of the latter, the directors posted placards announcing that they had withdrawn from sundry papers a specified number of free admissions worth a specified sum per annum. The proprietors of the paper had sued them for libels, and the case was before the courts.

Few of living literary men have enjoyed a wider reputation in the same department than the celebrated German critic Heinrich Heine. The literary world will, therefore, learn with regret that he is dying. An article in a late number of the London Leader says, that "paralysis has killed every part of him but the head and heart; and yet this diseased body—like that of the noble Augustia Thierry—still owns a lordly intellect. In the brief intervals of suffering Heine prepares the second volume of his 'Buch der Lieder;' and dictates the memoirs of his life—which he will make a picture gallery, where the portraits of all the remarkable persons he has seen and known will be hung up for our inspection. Those who know Heine's wicked wit and playful sarcasm will feel, perhaps, somewhat uncomfortable at the idea of sitting for their portraits; but the public will be eager 'for the fun.' There is little of stirring interest in the events of his life; but he has known so many remarkable people, and his powers of vivid painting are of an excellence so rare in German authors, that the announcement of his memoirs will create a great sensation."

The King of Bavaria has formed the gigantic design of causing to be executed a series of pictures on subjects derived from the annals of all times and all nations; the whole being destined to form a sort of pictorial universal chronology. But the expense and vastness of such a project warrant the fear that it will never be realized.

The Emperor of Russia has resolved to have copies, in default of the originals, of all the great paintings of the old masters of all schools; and he is at present causing to be copied in Venice two great works of Titian. It is to be done by M. Schiavone who is quite celebrated for the skill with which he copies. The Ex-Emperor of Austria, it is said, surprised to find, in one of his visits to Venice, that no monument had been erected to the memory of Titian, ordered, at his own expense, the construction of one worthy of the immortal painter. He left to the Academy of Venice the choice of the form of the monument, and of the site on which it should be erected. The Academy, after a discussion pro forma, confided the monument to one of its members, M. Zandomeni, professor of sculpture. The monument is to be placed in the church of St. Mary of Frari, near that of Canova. It will be inaugurated in about a year's time with great pomp. Shortly after the monument was commenced, Zandomeni died, but his son has carried out his design.