Monthly Record of Current Events.

POLITICAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

THE UNITED STATES.

The public mind has been almost wholly absorbed, during the past month, in anxiety for the safety of the American steamer Atlantic. She was known to have left Liverpool on the 28th of December, and was seen four days out by a packet which afterward reached New York. From that time until the 16th of February an interval of fifty days, nothing whatever was known of her fate. The anxiety of the public mind was becoming intense, when, on the evening of February 16th, the Africa arrived with news of her safety. It seems that on the 6th of January the main shaft of her engine was broken, which rendered the engine completely unmanageable. She stood for Halifax until the 11th, against strong head winds, when it became evident that she could not reach that port before her provisions would give out, and she accordingly put back for Cork, where she arrived on the 22d of January. Her mails and passengers came in the Africa. The Cambria had been chartered to bring her cargo, and was to sail February 4th. The Atlantic was to be taken to Liverpool for repairs, which would probably occupy three months. Few events within our recollection have caused more general joy than the intelligence of her safety.

Congress, during the past month, has done but little of permanent interest to any section of the country. Various important subjects have been extensively discussed, but upon none of them has any favorable or decisive action been taken. Several attempts have been made, by the friends of a protective tariff in the House of Representatives, to insert some provisions in the deficiency and appropriation bills which would secure an amendment of the existing tariff favorable to their views. None of these efforts, however, have been successful. A zealous discussion has also been had upon a bill to establish a branch of the United States Mint in the city of New York; it met with strong opposition—especially from the city of Philadelphia and was finally defeated. A bill concerning the land titles in California has also been largely discussed in the Senate, and finally passed. A resolution has been adopted in that body authorizing the President of the United States to confer the brevet rank of Lieutenant General; it is of course designed for application to General Scott. A bill further reducing the rates of postage has passed the House of Representatives. Three cents was by it adopted as the uniform rate of letter postage. The bill was very greatly changed in the Senate, and its fate is still doubtful. The French Spoliation Bill, the project for establishing a line of steamers on the coast of Africa, and other bills have been before Congress but no action has been had upon them. The Senate has passed a bill appropriating ten millions of acres of public lands (equal to twelve millions five hundred thousand dollars) to be apportioned among the several States in an equitable ratio, for the endowment of Hospitals for the indigent insane. This act is one of the most philanthropic and beneficent ever passed by any legislative body. It has been ably and zealously pressed upon the attention of Congress by Miss Dix, whose devotion to the cause of humanity has already won for her a world-wide reputation.

Elections of United States Senators have been held in several of the States with various results. In Florida, on the 15th of January, Mr. Mallory, Democrat, was elected over Mr. Yulee. In Missouri, after a protracted effort, Henry S. Geyer, Whig, was elected on the fortieth ballot, receiving 80 votes against 55 for Mr. Benton, and 20 scattering. Mr. Geyer is a German by birth, but came to this country when he was about three years old. He is now one of the ablest lawyers and most upright men in the State which he is hereafter in part to represent. In Pennsylvania, Mr. Broadhead, Democrat, was elected without serious difficulty. In New York both branches of the Legislature proceeded to nominate a Senator in accordance with the law upon the subject, on the 4th day of February. In the Assembly Hamilton Fish was nominated, receiving 79 votes against 48 for other candidates. In the Senate he had 16 votes, while 16 Senators voted each for a separate candidate, one of them, Senator Beekman from New York City, being a Whig. After two ballotings, on Mr. Beekman's motion, the Senate adjourned. No nomination has been made, nor can the attempt be renewed, except by the passage of a special law. In Massachusetts repeated efforts to elect a Senator have proved unsuccessful. Charles Sumner, Free Soil, has several times lacked but three or four votes of an election, Mr. Winthrop being his principal opponent. The vacancy occasioned by Mr. Webster's resignation has been filled by the election of Hon. Robert Rantoul. Mr. Boutwell was elected Governor of the State by the Legislature. The effort to elect a Senator for the next term will be renewed from time to time. In Rhode Island, after several ballotings, in which two Whigs and one Democrat received about an equal number of votes each, Charles T. James, Esq., Democrat, was elected, having received a large number of Whig votes. In Ohio, an attempt to elect a Senator to succeed Mr. Ewing, proved ineffectual. Ten ballots were had, after which the Legislature adjourned, thus abandoning the effort. In Michigan General Cass has been re-elected United States Senator by the Legislature.

The Legislature of North Carolina has closed its session. Notwithstanding the strenuous efforts that have been made to excite among the people of this State serious disaffection toward the Union, the action of the Legislature has been exceedingly moderate. Resolutions upon the subject, calculated to inflame the public mind, were laid upon the table by a very decisive vote. A bill has been passed authorizing an agricultural, mineralogical, and botanical survey of the State. The Governor is to make the appointment, and the Surveyor is required personally, or by his assistants, "to visit every county in the State, and examine every thing of interest or value in either of the above departments, to ascertain the nature and character of its products, and the nature and character of its soil, as well as to give an account of its minerals."

Gen. Quitman, Governor of Mississippi, has been indicted at New Orleans on charge of having participated in the unlawful expedition from the United States against Cuba. He has resigned his office, and given bail for his appearance in Court, asking for a speedy trial. A number of others have also been indicted, one of whom, Gen. Henderson, has been tried. The trial lasted several days, and was conducted on both sides with great ability. The connection of the accused with the expedition seemed to have been clearly proved: the jury, however, were not able to agree on a verdict, four of them, it is said, taking the ground that the expedition was justifiable and proper.

Intelligence to December 19th has been received from the Commission to survey the boundary line between Mexico and the United States. The Mexican Commissioner, Gen. Conde, had joined the American Commissioners at El Paso. Several conferences were had before a starting point could be agreed upon for the survey, as the maps of that region were very inconsistent and imperfect. Throughout New Mexico, according to the most recent advices, great inconvenience is sustained from Indian depredations, made in spite of treaty stipulations.

The Arkansas Legislature adjourned January 14, after a session of seventy-one days, which has been fruitful in acts of local importance.

The Governor of Texas has designated the first Thursday in March as a day of public thanksgiving. The fact is worthy of record here as an evidence that this New England custom is steadily making its way into the new States.

Accidents to steamboats on our Western waters continue to challenge public attention. The steamer John Adams on the Ohio, on the 27th of January, struck a snag and sunk in two minutes. One hundred and twenty-three lives were lost—mostly of emigrants.

Hon. George F. Fort was installed into office as Governor of New Jersey on the 21st of January. His inaugural address recommends the establishment of free schools, the enactment of general incorporation laws, homestead exemption, &c., and urges a full assent to the Compromise measures of the last session of Congress.

Some attention has been attracted to a letter from Gen. Houston to Hon. John Letcher of Virginia, rebuking very severely the attempt made by South Carolina to induce Virginia to take the lead in a scheme of secession. Gen. Houston speaks of the Constitution as the most perfect of human instruments, and refuses to countenance any attempt to alter or amend its provisions. He says that every intelligent and disinterested observer must concede that agitation at the North is dying out, that the laws are obeyed, and that no necessity exists for resisting or dissolving the Union. The letter exerts a marked influence on the political movements of the day.

The House of Representatives in Delaware on the 5th of February adopted a series of resolutions very warmly approving the Compromise measures of the last session of Congress, and especially the law for the more effectual enforcement of the provisions of the Constitution requiring the surrender of fugitive slaves.

Hon. D.S. Kaufman, member of Congress from Texas, died very suddenly on the 31st of January. His decease was ascribed to an affliction of the heart, but it is supposed by those who knew him most intimately to have resulted from a wound received by a pistol shot some years since in a rencontre in the Texas Legislature. The ball had never been extracted. He was a gentleman of ability and of a very amiable disposition.

A large "Union meeting" was held at Westchester, N.Y., on the 30th of January. A letter was received from Daniel Webster, regretting his inability to attend the meeting, and warmly approving its objects. Mr. Clay also wrote a letter which was read at the meeting, in which he said that "two classes of disunionists threaten our country: one is that which is open and undisguised in favor of separation—the other is that which, disowning a desire of dissolution of the Union, adopts a course and contends for measures and principles which must inevitably lead to that calamitous result." He considered the latter the "more dangerous, because it is deceptive and insidious."

A correspondence between Mr. Mathew, a British consul, and the Governor of South Carolina, has excited some attention. Mr. Mathew represents the very great inconvenience occasioned by the law of South Carolina requiring the imprisonment of every colored person arriving in her ports until the departure of the vessel, and the payment of expenses by her captain. The correspondence is friendly, and the subject has been referred to a committee in the South Carolina Legislature. The fact of a correspondence between the representative of a foreign power and one of the States of the Union, in its separate capacity, excites remark and censure.

From California our advices are to the 15th of January. The cholera had entirely disappeared. The result of the late State election had been definitely ascertained. In the Senate there is a Whig majority of two, and in the Assembly a Whig majority of nine. This result is deemed important on account of the pending election of U.S. Senator in place of Mr. Frémont. Gov. Burnett has resigned, and Lieut.-Gov. McDougal been installed in his place. Hon. David C. Broderick, formerly of New York, was chosen President of the Senate. Renewed difficulties have occurred with the Indians, and the general impression seemed to be that no friendly arrangement could be made with them. They demand the free use of their old hunting-grounds, and will listen to no proposition which involves their surrender. The settlers, especially on the Trinity and Klamath rivers, suffer grievously from their marauding incursions, and have been compelled to raise and arm companies to repel them. A serious and protracted war is apprehended.

The latest arrival brings the report of a discovery of gold exceeding in magnitude any before made. Twenty-seven miles beyond the Trinity River, it is said, is a beach seven miles in extent, bounded by a high bluff. A heavy sea, breaking upon the shore washes away the lighter sand, and that which remains is rich to an unparalleled extent. A company has been formed to proceed to this locality, and the Secretary estimates the sum which each member will secure, at many millions.

The whole amount of gold dust shipped at San Francisco during the year 1850, is officially stated at $29,441,583. At least twenty millions are supposed to have gone forward, in addition, in private hands, so that the total product of the mines during the year is estimated at nearly fifty millions. The mines in all quarters continued to yield abundant returns.

MEXICO.

We have intelligence from Mexico to the 25th of January. Congress assembled on the 1st. The President opened the session by a speech about an hour in length. He says that the stipulations of the treaty of peace with the United States have been faithfully observed, and have proved highly advantageous for Mexico. Three treaties have been concluded during his administration—one with the United States in regard to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, another with the same power concerning the extradition of criminals, and another with Guatemala on the same subject. Domestic tranquillity has been preserved throughout the country; complaint, however, is made that the States transcend their rightful authority, and thus weaken the General Government; and the necessity of providing a remedy for this abuse, in order to maintain the integrity of the Federal Constitution, is strongly urged. Commerce and manufactures are said to have flourished, and the mining business, which is the chief resource of Mexico, has been peculiarly good. Their entire returns during the last year are estimated at thirty millions. The President urges the propriety of making laws to restrain the licentiousness of the press. The army has been thoroughly reformed, consisting now of only 6246 men, all of whom are characterized as "true soldiers," stationed in places where their services will be most useful to the Republic. On the 15th, Gen. Arista was inaugurated President of Mexico. His opening address was brief, pertinent, and patriotic. He spoke of peace as the first necessity of the Republic, and promised that it should be "maintained at any cost, as the only manner in which the happiness and prosperity of the people can be secured." He says that "every thing will be done by the central authorities to enable the States to equalize the expenses and their revenues; to multiply their ways of communication; to augment their agricultural and commercial industry; in short, to make them great and powerful, attracting to their bosoms the intelligent, industrious and enlightened population which they so much need." The address was received with great satisfaction. The ceremony of the inauguration was extremely brilliant, and was witnessed by an immense concourse of people. After it was over, the President and his ministers repaired to the cathedral, where a Te Deum was sung, and prayers offered up for the happiness of the nation. The personal popularity of Gen. Arista is very great, and the best hopes are indulged of his administration.

Mr. Letcher, the American Minister, left for the United States, on the 26th, and reached New Orleans Feb. 4th. It was supposed that he brought the Tehuantepec treaty ratified with him. A revolt against the central government has occurred in Guanajuato, but it was soon put down by the troops. A number of the ringleaders in it have been executed. The Mexican Government has granted to a company styled Rubio, Barron, Garay, Torre & Co., the whole of the public lands in the State of Sonora, comprising one of the most valuable tracts in the whole country.

The Yucatan papers complain loudly of the encroachments of the English in fortifying Belize, and in otherwise interfering in the affairs of the Peninsula. The American Hydrographic Party was busily engaged in surveying the route across the Isthmus.

CENTRAL AMERICA.

From Nicaragua we have intelligence to the 13th of January. A rich placer of gold is said to have been discovered about eight miles from Realejo. The crops throughout the country have been seriously threatened by immense flocks of locusts. In consequence of the alarm created by this menaced destruction, the Government has thrown open all the ports of the country to the free admission of all kinds of grain. Don Jose Sacasa has been elected Director of Nicaragua—the term of the present incumbent expiring on the 1st of May. The difficulties between the Government of San Salvador and the British Charge, Mr. Frederick Chatfield, have led to the blockade by the latter, on behalf of his Government, of all the ports of San Salvador. Mr. Chatfield resorted to this extreme measure because the Government refused to comply with his demands, that they should countermand certain instructions they had given to their agents, and contradict, officially, certain statements concerning the British Government made in the public prints of San Salvador. The cause of this blockade was certainly somewhat singular; but the form of it was still more so; for by its terms, British vessels were excluded from its operation. Mr. Chatfield has also written a letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua, complaining of the unwillingness of that Government to negotiate with Great Britain, acting on behalf of the King of Mosquito, for a boundary between the territories of Mosquito and those of Nicaragua; and saying that, "as a proof of the conciliatory spirit of the British Government," it had determined to prescribe and maintain a certain boundary line, which is designated. He adds that the British government is still willing to treat on the subject, and urges the importance of "coming to a friendly understanding with the Mosquito government, since no canal, or any other improved mode of transit across the Isthmus, can well be established before the difficulty, raised by Nicaragua on this point, is put an end to." In a subsequent letter, enforcing the necessity of arranging the claims of a British house for damages, Mr. Chatfield makes a singular but evident allusion to the hopes entertained by the Government of Nicaragua of aid from the United States. He says that, "Whatever assurances Nicaragua may receive that the conduct of its Government, however irregular it may be toward another, will at all times find support from third parties, still the Government of Nicaragua must feel that no reliance should be placed on such assurances, as no foreign Government will compromise political and commercial interests on the behalf of a country whose rulers reject the ordinary means of settling matters open to dispute, by argument, and negotiation."

From Valparaiso we have intelligence to January 2d. The U.S. Corvette Vincennes had been at that port, and took the American Minister, Hon. Bailie Peyton, on a visit to the province of Conception. A very destructive fire had occurred at Valparaiso, at which property to the value of a quarter of a million of dollars was consumed. Congress met December 16th, in extra session. A law had been passed authorizing the Executive to reform the Custom-House regulations. A law is under discussion making an appropriation of $36,000 annually to the Pacific Steam Navy. By an existing law of the country, eight acres of land are given to each foreign colonist: a new law is proposed, largely increasing the grant. The sum of $2244 has been voted to afford temporary residences for a colony of German emigrants. These facts are important indications of the efforts made to invite foreigners into the country. Henri Herz, the pianist, was at Valparaiso on the 1st of January. On the 5th, there was an eruption of the volcano of Portillo, near Santiago.

GREAT BRITAIN.

It is decided that Parliament is to be opened by the Queen in person, on the 4th of February. Speculation is rife as to the course of Government upon the subject of the "Papal Aggressions," of which though there are many rumors, nothing authentic has transpired. The excitement upon this subject, though the mode of manifestation is changed, seems not to have died away. It occupies less space in the newspapers, and fewer public meetings are held; the discussion now being carried on in books and pamphlets, of which the last month has produced about one hundred, in addition to nearly two hundred before published. In the address of the English prelates to the Queen, which was noticed in our last Number, no mention was made of the Irish Church. The bishops of that country have taken the matter up, and have protested both to her Majesty and to their English brethren, against any proceedings which shall imply that the two branches of the Episcopal Church have separate rights and interests. The Church question, in various aspects, can not well fail of being the prominent one in the ensuing session of Parliament. A movement has been set on foot, by the High Church Party with a view to a convocation for the settlement of various questions in debate within the Church; at a public meeting for this object speeches marked by peculiar acrimony were made. Secessions to the Roman Church, among the higher classes and the clergy, are more frequent than at any former period.

The unwonted prospect of a surplus in the revenue, has occasioned propositions for the abolition of many of the most onerous and odious taxes. Among those spoken of are the window tax, the tax on paper, that on tea, and the malt tax. The paper tax seems to be the favorite of the press; but the probability is that the reduction will be made upon the window tax. The question threatens to be an embarrassing one for the Ministry, who will find it difficult to decide among so many conflicting claims.

The Austrian government has officially demanded that punishment should be inflicted upon those persons who committed the assault upon General Haynau. After a somewhat prolonged correspondence the British Home Secretary declined to make any inquiry into the matter, on the plea that "it could not be attended with any satisfactory result." The refusal of General Haynau to enter any complaint before the authorities is assigned as the ground for this conclusion. Prince Schwartzenberg, in his closing dispatch, hints that the Austrian government may consider it "befitting to exercise reciprocity with regard to British subjects who may happen to be in Austria."

In the colonies, the process of "annexation" goes on steadily. In India one or two extensive districts are in course of absorption. At the Cape of Good Hope, the Governor has deposed the most powerful of the Kaffir chiefs, and appointed a British officer to assume the control of his people. In Australia vehement opposition has sprung up against the transportation system; and there is reason to suppose that this outlet for the criminal population of Great Britain will soon be closed.

The "Crystal Palace," is so far completed that it has been made over into the hands of the Commissioners. Severe storms have luckily occurred, which have proved the entire stability of the edifice, not a pane of glass, even, of which has been broken by them. Mr. Paxton has written a letter to Lord John Russell, strenuously urging that after the first fortnight, and with the exception of one day in each week, admission to the Exhibition be gratis.

FRANCE.

From France the political intelligence is of considerable importance, not so much on its own account, as showing a deep and increasing hostility between the President and the National Assembly. This feeling has been manifested by several incidents, and has caused within three weeks three separate Ministries, besides an interregnum of a week. The personal adherents of the President in the Assembly have never constituted more than a third of that body; but he has always succeeded in carrying his measures by dexterously pitting one party against the other: each party preferring him to their opponents. But when the President's designs for the perpetuation of his power became apparent, all parties began to look upon General Changarnier as in some sort a counterpoise. A collision having arisen between the General and the Ministers, the Assembly took part with the former, whereupon the Ministry resigned. The President, despite the remonstrances of the leaders of the Assembly, made the dismissal of Changarnier a sine quâ non in the appointment of a new Ministry. He at length succeeded in forming one that would take this step; and the General was dismissed, and the enormous military functions he had exercised were divided among a number of officers. A fierce opposition at once sprang up against the new Ministry. A singular coalition was formed, mainly through the tactics of M. Thiers, of Conservatives, Cavaignac Republicans, and ultra Democrats, so that a vote declaring want of confidence in the Ministry passed by 417 to 278; whereupon this Ministry resigned. No man of all the majority could be found who would undertake to form a Ministry from its discordant elements; a like attempt to form one from the minority in the Assembly was unsuccessful. At last, the President formed one of which not an individual was a member of the Assembly. Throughout the whole of these transactions, Louis Napoleon has shown a political skill and dexterity scarcely inferior to that manifested in the field by the Great Emperor. With vastly inferior forces at his command, he has gained every point: he has got rid of his most formidable rival, Changarnier; he has convinced, apparently, the middle classes that the only hope of peace and stability lies in his possession of power; and the Assembly have been driven into acts of opposition which can bear no other interpretation than that of a factious struggle for power. The position of the President is considerably strengthened by the late occurrences.

GERMANY.

The Dresden Free Conference is still in session, and matters seem as impracticable as the Genius of Mysticism could desire. Enough has transpired to show that the minor Powers have not been alarmed without good reason. The cordial understanding between Austria and Prussia is displayed perhaps too ostentatiously to be altogether sincere; but there can be no doubt that the two governments have combined to aggrandize themselves at the expense of the others. It seems to be determined that the new Executive Committee will be composed of eleven votes, of which Austria and Prussia are each to have two. The Committee of the old Confederation consisted of seventeen votes, of which those Powers had one each, and even then it was complained that their influence was excessive. It is admitted on all hands that any approach to a nearer union is impracticable at present; that the Dresden Conference is quite as incapable of improvising a German Nation, as was that assembly of pedants and pettifoggers that called itself the Frankfort Parliament.——Hostilities have ceased in Schleswig-Holstein, the stadtholderate of which have yielded their functions to the commissioners of the Confederation.——The first trial by jury at Vienna, took place, under the new Austrian Constitution, on the 15th of January.

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, PERSONAL MOVEMENTS, Etc.

UNITED STATES.

The literary incidents of the month have not been very noteworthy. James, the English novelist, has been lecturing at Albany to large and interested audiences. He has bought a residence at Stockbridge, Mass., where he will reside, in the immediate neighborhood of Longfellow, the Sedgwicks, and other literary celebrities. A series of valuable lectures upon Art have been delivered before the Artists of New York, in pursuance of a very excellent plan adopted by their Association. The first of the series was delivered by Henry James, Esq., and was an excellent critical exposition of the nature and characteristics of Art. He was followed by George W. Curtis, Esq., in a fine sketch of the condition and prospects of Art on the Continent. The leading idea of his lecture was that Art never promised more abundant results than now.

Congress at its last session appropriated two thousand dollars to commence the purchase of a library for the use of the President of the United States. It is a little singular that a project so eminently useful should have been so long neglected. Its execution has been now undertaken with spirit, under the direction of Mr. Charles Lanman.

The birth-day of Burns was celebrated by a public dinner on the 25th of January at the Astor House, in New York. The poet Bryant was present as a guest, and made a very happy speech, in which he said that the fact that Burns had taken a local dialect, and made it classical and given it a character of universality, was of itself sufficient to stamp him as a man of the highest order of genius.

Mr. Hoe, celebrated for his printing presses, has just completed a new one, having eight cylinders, and thus throwing off eight sheets at each revolution, for the use of the Sun newspaper in New York. He was the recipient lately of a public dinner given to him by the proprietors of the paper, at which several of the most eminent literary celebrities in the country were present as guests. The occasion was one of interest: we hope it may be deemed indicative of a growing disposition to tender public honors to the benefactors, as well as to the destroyers, of their race.

The literary productions of the month will be found noticed in another department of this Magazine. Several works of interest are promised by the leading publishers. The Harpers have in press a volume of traveling sketches, entitled Nile Notes, by an American, which will be found to be one of the best of its kind. It is written with great vivacity and with very marked ability. Many of its chapters are fully equal to Eothen, and the work in its general characteristics is not at all inferior to that spirited and admirable book. The Harpers have also in press a work by Mr. H.M. Field, giving a succinct history of the Great Irish Rebellion with biographical sketches of the most prominent of the Irish Confederates. It will find a wide circle of readers. The Harpers are also about to publish Mayhew's London Labor and the London Poor in the Nineteenth Century, made up of his Letters in the London Morning Chronicle upon that subject, revised and extended. These papers reveal a state of things not at all creditable to the English people or to the age in which we live. As originally published in London they excited great attention and have done much toward arousing the public sense of justice to the poor.

Cooper, the novelist, has a work in preparation upon the Social History of this country. It will probably, however, not be published until fall. Mr. Putnam has in progress a new and very elegantly printed uniform edition of his novels. Another New York house promise a complete edition of Joanna Baillie's poems, with a new edition of Elizabeth Barret Browning.

Prof. Agassiz, the celebrated Naturalist, is making a survey of the Florida reefs and keys, in the hope that he may throw some light upon their formation and growth. He is nominally attached to the Coast Survey.

American scholars still continue their valuable contributions to classical learning. Prof. Drisler, of Columbia College, one of the most thorough and accurate linguists in the country, is engaged upon an English-Greek Lexicon, which will be a most valuable aid to the classical student, in connection with similar works by the same author hitherto issued.

In the departments of religious and theological literature, we find indications of renewed activity among the divines of our country. Prof. J. Addison Alexander, of Princeton, has a new critical and exegetical work in the course of preparation. Rev. Dr. Spring will soon publish, through M.W. Dodd, a volume under the title of First Things, a series of lectures designed to set forth and illustrate some of the facts and moral duties earliest revealed to mankind. From Rev. Dr. Condit, of Newark, we are to have a work entitled The Christian Home, setting forth the relations, duties, and benefits of the domestic institution. Rev. H.A. Rowland, author of a work on the Common Maxims of Infidelity, has in press a volume under the title of The Path of Life.

The late Edmond Charles Genet, Embassador from the Republic of France to this country at the close of the last century, left behind him, at his decease, a vast amount of papers, consisting of journals of his life, letters from the prominent statesmen and politicians of this country, and correspondence with his sister, the celebrated Madame Campan. It is understood that members of his family are arranging them with a view to publication. From the close social and political relations which M. Genet, after his dismissal from the embassy, bore to the prominent politicians of the Democratic party, there can be no doubt that these papers, if judiciously edited, will throw much light upon the political history of the period preceding the war of 1812.

It is known by those familiar with current Continental literature, that the wife of Prof. Edward Robinson published, some time since, in Germany, under her usual pseudonym, Talvi, a very full and excellent history of the early Colonization of New England. This work has lately been translated from German into English by William Hazlitt, and published in London. It was published originally at Leipsic in 1847. We presume it will be reprinted here.

Rev. H.T. Cheever's Whale and his Captors has been reprinted in London, with a preface by Dr. Scoresby, who commends it very highly.

EUROPEAN.

The London Leader destroys the romance of Lamartine's visit to England. It seems, according to that paper, that he did not go for the philosophic purpose of studying the country, but to make bargains for the publication of his History of the Directory, which he offered for five thousand pounds. The publishers, he urged, could issue it simultaneously in England, France, and Germany, and so secure an enormous profit. "Our countrymen," says the Leader, "with an indifference to Mammon worthy of a philosopher, declined the magnificent proposal: and Lamartine returned to France and sold his work to an association of publishers for 12,000 francs, which he hopes to get." He is also to publish a new novel in the feuilleton of the Siècle.

Edmond Texier, a French journalist, has published a very lively history of French journals and journalists. It is a small and unelaborate book, but is exceedingly readable. Political writers in France, it will be remembered, are required to sign their names to their articles. The Vote Universel recently contained a strong essay signed by Gilland. The Attorney-general prosecuted the paper, alleging that the article was written by George Sand, and citing the bad spelling of Gilland's private letters as a proof that he could not have been the writer. Madame George Sand peremptorily denies having written a line of the article, and avers that Rousseau himself, in a single letter in her possession, makes three mistakes in spelling three lines, owing to the difficult and capricious rules of the French language.

Lady Morgan has published a pamphlet on the Roman Catholic Controversy. It is in the form of a letter to Cardinal Wiseman, and is a defense of herself against an attack upon a passage in her book on Italy. In that book she had related a curious anecdote. She said that when Bonaparte entered Italy the enthroned chair of St. Peter, contained in the magnificent shrine of bronze which closes the view of the nave in St. Peter's Cathedral, was brought into a better light and the cobwebs brushed off. Certain curious letters were discovered on the surface, which were deciphered and found to contain the Arabian formula, "There is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet." Cardinal Wiseman branded this story as "false, foolish, slanderous, and profligate." Lady Morgan gives as her authority for it the eminent savans Denon and Champollion, who saw the inscription, deciphered it, and told its meaning in her presence. Her letter is ably written, and excites attention.—Lady Morgan is said to be the oldest living writer who continues to write: for though Miss Joanna Baillie is some five years, and Rogers perhaps ten years her senior, neither of the latter has touched a pen in the way of authorship for a long time; whereas Lady Morgan, for all her blindness, has, according to the Liverpool Albion, for a good while back, been a regular contributor to one of the London morning journals.

The British government has bestowed a pension of £100 a year upon the widow of the celebrated Belzoni, who died fifteen years ago. The public satisfaction at this announcement is tempered with surprise that the pension was not bestowed fifteen years ago. Mr. Poole, the author of "Paul Pry," and other literary works of a light character, has received a retiring pension of the same amount. Similar pensions have been granted to George Petrie, LL.D., author of "The Round Towers of Ireland," and other antiquarian works; and to Dr. Kitto, editor of the "Pictorial Bible," "Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature," and other works in that department of letters. Dr. Kitto, although deaf from an early age, in consequence of an accident, has traveled over many lands in connection with the Missionary Society.

Letters from Rome announce the death in that city of Mr. Ritchie, the sculptor, of Edinburgh. The circumstances are peculiarly melancholy. It had been the dream of Mr. Ritchie's life to go to Rome; this year he was able to travel, and he arrived in that city in September last, with some friends as little acquainted with the nature of the malaria as himself. With these friends it appears that he made a visit to Ostia; the season was dangerous; the party took no precautions, and they all caught the malaria fever. He died after a few days' illness, and was followed to the grave by most of the English and American artists in Rome.

Austen Henry Layard, whose enterprise has opened a new field for historical research, was born in Paris, March 5, 1817. His father, who was Dean of Bristol, filled a high civil office in Ceylon, between the years 1820 and 1830. The early years of the future explorer of Nineveh were spent in Florence, where he early acquired his artistic tastes and skill as a draughtsman. On returning to England, young Layard commenced the study of law, but his love of adventure rendered this profession distasteful to him, and he abandoned it. In 1839 he left England, with no very definite object in view, visited Russia and the North of Europe, and spent some time in Germany. Thence he took his course toward the Danube, and visited the semi-barbarous provinces on the Turkish frontier, which form the debatable ground between the Orient and the Occident. In Montenegro he passed some time, aiding an active young Chief in his efforts to ameliorate the condition of his subjects. From hence he passed into the East, where he led the life of an Arab of the desert, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the languages of Arabia and Turkey. We next find him in Persia, Asia Minor, and Syria, where he visited almost every spot made memorable by history or tradition. He now felt an irresistible desire to penetrate to the regions beyond the Euphrates, to which history and tradition point as the birth-place of the wisdom of the West. At Constantinople, he fell in with the English Embassador, Sir Stratford Canning, by whom he was encouraged to undertake and carry on those excavations amid the Assyrian and Babylonian ruins, which have conclusively demonstrated that a gigantic civilization had passed away before what we are accustomed to call ancient civilization dawned, a civilization stretching back almost to the days when the ark rested upon Ararat; a civilization which was old when the pyramids were young. And, what is still more remarkable, the relics of this civilization are more perfect and beautiful in proportion to the remoteness of their date, the earlier of these ancient sculptures being invariably the noblest in design, and the most exquisite and elaborate in execution.

In 1848, Mr. Layard visited England for a few months, where, notwithstanding the monthly attacks of an aguish fever contracted in the damp apartments which he was obliged to inhabit while prosecuting his excavations at Nimroud, he prepared for the press the two volumes of his Nineveh and its Remains, executed the drawings for the hundred plates, and a volume of inscriptions in the cuneiform character for the British Museum.

The last survivor of Cook's voyage, a sailor named John Wade, is said to be now begging his bread at Kingston-on-Thames. He is within a few months of completing his hundredth year, having been born in New York in May, 1751. He was with Cook when he was killed on the Island of Hawaii; and is said to have served at the battles of Cape St. Vincent, Teneriffe, the Nile, Copenhagen, Camperdown, and Trafalgar.

An interesting collection of sketches, by members of the Sketching Society has been opened to the public. This society numbers among its members the two Chalons, Bone, Christall, Partridge, Stump, Leslie, Stanfield, and Uwins. What gives to the present collection a unique interest is that they are entirely impromptu productions, three hours being the limit allowed for their completion. At each meeting of the society the president announces a subject, and the drawings are made on the spot.

Sir Roger de Coverley's chaplain is familiar to the recollection of all. He has lately found an imitator. The Vicar of Selby announced a few weeks since, that he should that day commence reading the sermons of others, as there were many productions of the ablest divines which were altogether unknown to his parishioners; and he thought the time spent in writing so many new sermons might be more usefully employed in other matters connected with his profession. He then proceeded to read a sermon which he said he had heard preached at the University with great effect.

Professor Owen, in 1840, had submitted to him for examination, a fossil body, which he was enabled to identify as the tooth of some species of whale. It was subsequently discovered that certain crags upon the coast of Suffolk, especially one at Felixstow, contained an immense quantity of fossils of a similar character, which examinations, undertaken by Owen and Henslow, showed to be rolled and water-worn fragments of the skeletons of extinct species of mammals, mostly of the whale kind. This discovery has been shown by a recent trial in the English courts, to be of immense pecuniary value. A Mr. Lawes took out a patent for the manufacture of super-phosphate of lime, as a substitute for bone-dust, for agricultural purposes, by applying sulphuric acid to any mineral whatever, known or unknown, which might contain the phosphate of lime. It was found that these fossil remains contained of this from 50 to 60 per cent., and Mr. Lawes undertook to extend his patent so as to include the production of the super-phosphate from them. In this he was unsuccessful, the court deciding that he could not claim a monopoly of all the fossil remains in the country. It was shown on the trial, that an income of more than $50,000 a year has been derived from the use of this phosphate.

A number of classical works of decided interest have recently been published; among them are: Platonis Opera Omnia. This new edition of Plato is edited by Stallbaum, whose name is a sufficient guarantee for the faithful editorial care bestowed upon it. It is in one volume, small folio, uniform with the edition of Aristotle by Weisse, and that of Cicero by Nobbe.—Lachmann's edition of Lucretius supplies a want which has been long felt of a good critical edition of the philosophical poet. The volume of the text is accompanied by a critical commentary in a separate volume.—The second part of the second volume of Professor Ritschl's edition of Plautus containing the "Pseudulus," has appeared. The editor has the reputation of being the best Plautinian scholar in Germany. He has spent years in the preparation of this edition, having undertaken an entirely new recension of the works of the great dramatic poet.—Corpus Inscriptionum Græcarum. This important work, under the editorial charge of the veteran Böckh, with whom is associated Franz, is rapidly approaching completion. The third part of the third volume is published. A fourth part, which will complete the work, is promised speedily.

From the press of the Imperial Academy at St. Petersburgh has appeared the first volume of a collection of Mohammedan Sources for the History of the Southern Coasts of the Caspian Sea. The volume contains 643 pages of the Persian text of the history of Tabaristan, Rujan, and Massanderan, by Seher-Eddin, edited, with a German introduction, by Bernhard Dorn, Librarian of the Imperial Library. It gives a history, commencing with the mythical ages and ending with the year 1476, of the various dynasties which have ruled those regions, which have scarcely been brought within the light of authentic history, but to which we must look for the solution of many interesting problems in relation to the progress and development of the race. The editor promises forthwith a translation of the history, with annotations.

Professor Heinrich Ewald, of Göttingen, has just put forth a translation of and commentary upon the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, marked by that free dealing with the sacred text characteristic of the Rationalistic school. He proposes to himself the task of separating what he supposes to be the original substance of the evangelical narrative from subsequent additions and interpolations—"to free the kernel from the Mosaic husk." The author had intended to delay the publication of this commentary until after the publication of his History of the Jews; but he thought he perceived in the present state of religion in Germany, and especially in the alarming decline of the religious element among the masses of the people, a call upon him to furnish an antidote—such as it is. In the preface he takes occasion to make some severe criticisms upon the politics of the day, and in particular those of Prussia.

OBITUARIES.

John James Audubon, the Ornithologist, died at his residence a few miles from New York, on the 27th of January. He was born in Louisiana, about 1775, of French parentage, traces of which were apparent through life in the foreign intonation with which he spoke the English language, although he wrote it with great vigor and correctness. He early manifested that enthusiastic love of nature, which subsequently became his ruling passion, and the mainspring of all his endeavors through life. In the preface to his "Ornithological Biography," he gives a vivid sketch of the growth of his fondness for the winged creation. "None but aerial companions," says he, "suited my fancy; no roof seemed so secure to me as that formed of the dense foliage under which the feathered tribes were seen to resort, or the caves and fissures of the massy rocks to which the dark-winged cormorant and the curlew retired to rest, or to protect themselves from the fury of the tempest." With increasing years, a desire for the actual possession of his favorites grew up in his mind. But this longing was nowise satiated by the possession of them dead: with their life their charms were gone. At this period his father showed him a book of illustrations—of no very high artistic excellence, we may well believe. A bush thrown into certain solutions, in a particular state, will cause crystalization. The young enthusiast's mind was in such a state—the vague desires, the indefinite longings crystalized around that Book of Illustrations. He longed to be a creator. To imitate by lines and colors the beings he loved, became the passion of his life. But like all true artists, he was at first doomed to experience the disappointment of being unable to realize his ideal: his drawings so far from truly representing the originals, were even inferior to the engravings in his book. Every year he made hundreds, which he regularly burned upon every succeeding birthday.

In his sixteenth year he was sent to Paris to pursue his education. There he studied drawing under the revolutionary painter David. But his heart was ever in his native woods, and after a stay of eighteen months he gladly returned. His father now gave him a farm near Philadelphia, at the junction of the Pekioming Creek and the Schuylkill. Here he married, and entered into mercantile transactions, apparently with ill success. He was in the forests when he should have been in the counting-house, if he would succeed in business. His friends looked askance at him, as one who only made drawings when he might have made money. They were doubtless correct in their estimate of his capacity. That indomitable spirit which bore him thousands of miles through the untrodden wilderness, softened the earth or the branch of a tree for his bed; "bore bravely up his chin" when he swam the swollen stream, with his rifle and painting materials lashed above his head—was doubtless adequate, if directed to that end, to have gained any given amount of money. Pegasus made an indifferent plow-horse; and Audubon but a poor trader. So after ten years of this divided pursuit, one bright October morning found him floating down the Ohio in a skiff in which were his wife and child, his scanty wares, and a couple of negro rowers. He set up his household gods at Henderson, Kentucky, where he resided for some years, and engaged again, with a partner, in trade. Still he was accustomed to make long excursions, with no companion but his dog and rifle, a tin box strapped to his side containing his brushes and paints. All this while his collection of drawings, which was subsequently to constitute the "Birds of America," grew under his hand; yet strange to say, the thought of publishing never entered his mind.

One spring day in 1810, a stranger entered the counting-room of Audubon, presented specimens of a book he was preparing, and requested his patronage. The stranger was Alexander Wilson, and the book was his "American Ornithology." Audubon was about to subscribe for it, when his partner asked him, in French, why he did so, assuring him that his own drawings were far better, and that he must be as well acquainted with the habits of American birds as the stranger could be. Wilson asked if Audubon had any drawings of birds. A large portfolio was exhibited: and the veteran ornithologist could not avoid the conclusion that his own efforts were far surpassed. He became sad, and though Audubon showed him every attention, loaned him drawings, and accompanied him through the neighboring woods, the thought of being excelled was more than he could bear. He departed, shaking the dust from his feet, and entered in his diary that "literature or art had not a friend in the place."

The year following, we find Audubon far down among the bayous of Florida, still engaged in collecting materials for his work; yet still, apparently, with no definite purpose of publication. Of the next ten or twelve years of his life, we have no particular accounts. But we understand that he has left behind him an autobiography, which will doubtless be made public, and which we venture to predict, will exceed in interest and adventure the lion-king Cumming's African exploits, springing as Audubon's did from high devotion to science, instead of the mere animal instinct of destruction. All this while his great work was growing. But in a single night the result of the labor of years was destroyed by a pair of rats, who selected a box containing two hundred drawings, with more than a thousand figures, as a place in which to rear their plundering brood. "The burning heat," says he, "which rushed through my brain was too great to be endured without affecting the whole of my nervous system. I slept not for several nights, and the days passed like days of oblivion, until the dormant powers being aroused into action through the strength of my constitution, I took up my gun, my note-book, and my pencils, and went forward to the woods as gayly as though nothing had happened." In three years his portfolios were again full.

In 1824, Audubon found himself at Philadelphia, on his way to the great lakes. Here he was introduced to Lucien Bonaparte, who seems to have induced him to determine upon the publication of his work. A year and a half of happy toil ensued, enlivened by a new object. He had loved and wooed Nature for her own dear self; but now he began to feel presentiments that his bride would raise him to a throne among the immortals. In 1826 he set sail for England. His first feeling was that of despondency. What was he, whose acquirements had been won by the solitary wanderings of more than a quarter of a century, amid lonely forest solitudes; what could he be in comparison with those who had been trained and taught by intercourse with civilized life? But these feelings were of brief duration. The wonderful backwoodsman was warmly welcomed by the best and wisest men of Europe. Cuvier was his admirer, Alexander von Humboldt became his cherished friend and correspondent. "The hearts of all," wrote Wilson, "warmed toward Audubon, who were capable of conceiving the difficulties, dangers, and sacrifices that must have been encountered, endured, and overcome, before genius could have embodied these, the glory of its innumerable triumphs."

And so Audubon was encouraged to publish his work. It was a vast undertaking. It would take sixteen years to accomplish it; he was now somewhat declined into the vale of years, and would be an old man when it was completed; and when the first drawings were put into the hands of the engraver he had not a single subscriber. But his heart was upborne by reliance on that Power, on whom depends success. After three years spent in Europe, he returned to America in 1829, leaving his work in process of execution in Edinburgh. Toward the close of 1830 his first volume, containing one hundred plates, every figure of the size and colors of life, was issued. It was hailed with universal applause; royal names headed his subscription list, which, at one thousand dollars each, reached the number of 175, of whom eighty were Americans. His name was enrolled among the members of the learned Societies of Great Britain and the Continent, and the world claimed him among her great men.

In the Autumn of 1831, Audubon visited Washington, where he received from Government letters of protection and assistance, to be used at all national ports, revenue, and naval stations. Having been delayed by sickness, he proceeded upon his expedition toward the close of the following summer. He tracked the forests of Maine, explored the shores of the British provinces, bringing back rich spoils; and returned to Charleston, to spend the winter in the preparation of his drawings and the accompanying descriptions. In 1834 he published his second volume. The three following years were passed in exploring expeditions, mostly to the South, one of which was to Florida, another to Texas, in a vessel placed at his disposal by Government, and in the preparation of his drawings and descriptions. At the close of this period he published the fourth and last volume of plates, and the fifth of descriptions. The whole work contained 435 plates, comprising more than a thousand figures of birds, all drawn of the size of life, in their natural attitudes and circumstances, and colored from nature.

In 1839 Audubon commenced in this country the republication of the "Birds of America," in seven large octavo volumes, which were issued during the succeeding five years. Before the expiration of this period, however, he commenced the preparation of the "Quadrupeds of America," of which he had materials for five large volumes: in the literary department of which he was assisted by Dr. Bachman, of Charleston. This has recently been concluded, and forms a monument to his memory hardly less imposing than his earlier work. In the meanwhile, though more than sixty winters had passed over his head, he projected an expedition to the Rocky Mountains, with all the adventurous spirit of his youth. But he perhaps over-rated his physical capabilities; at least the expedition was not made. The concluding years of his life were passed on the beautiful estate of Minniesland, upon the Hudson, some ten miles from New York. For several years his health had been giving way, until the time when he passed from earth to the still land of the immortals. His was a happy life. He had found his vocation, and pursued it for long years, earnestly, faithfully, and triumphantly. The forms of beauty which won his early love, and drew him into the broad forests, he brought back to cheer us who can not follow his footsteps. He has linked himself with the undying loveliness of Nature; and, therefore, his works are a possession to all men forevermore.

Joseph Bem, the famous Polish General in the late Hungarian war, died at Aleppo in the early part of December. It is somewhat singular that during the whole course of hostilities he declared his conviction that he should survive until the year 1850. Bem was born in 1795 at Tarnow in Gallicia. Having completed his education at the Military School in Warsaw, he entered the army, and served as lieutenant of artillery in the divisions of Davoust and Macdonald. On the conclusion of peace, he remained with the Polish army, who were now in the Russian service, where he attained the rank of captain and adjutant, and was finally appointed teacher in the Artillery School at Warsaw. Dissatisfied with his position, he applied for a discharge, which was granted; but for some unexplained cause he was summoned before a court-martial, and sentenced to an imprisonment of two months. From 1825 to the outbreak of the Polish insurrection in 1830, he resided at Lemberg, where he busied himself with mechanical and mathematical studies. When the rising of the Poles took place, he hastened to Warsaw, was appointed major, and obtained the command of a regiment of flying artillery. For his distinguished services at the battles of Igania and Ostrolenka he was raised successively to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and colonel, and received the command of the Polish artillery. At Ostrolenka he was wounded, but as he lay upon the ground, he directed the movements of his guns. When the cause of Poland was lost, he headed the first emigration to France, where the greater portion of the next eighteen years was spent. In 1833 he entered into negotiations with Don Pedro of Portugal to raise a Polish regiment for his service; but the project was unsuccessful; and Bem incurred the suspicions of his fellow exiles, by one of whom an attempt was made to assassinate him. The following years he passed in France and England, where we trace him by several treatises which he published upon the organization of artillery, the manufacture of powder, the distillation of brandy, the modes of working in wood and metal, and a system of mnemonics. He also taught languages, for a time, for very scanty pay, at London and Oxford, but was obliged to abandon this occupation in consequence of a surgical operation for the extraction of a bullet; for a time he was in receipt of the few shillings weekly which the Polish Association were able to bestow upon destitute exiles. The bread of exile which Dante found so bitter, was sweet compared with that which Bem, for long years, was forced to taste. He made an attempt to establish a Polytechnic Company, near Paris, which failed from the want of adequate funds.

Upon the breaking out of the revolutions of 1848, we find Bem in the thick of the conflict. On the 14th of October he made his appearance at Vienna, where he endeavored to organize the revolt in the Austrian capital. Here he could never have anticipated success; but he was aware that resistance in Vienna would give the Hungarians time to arm. Finding the cause hopeless in Vienna, he betook himself to Kossuth, at Comorn. Here he had some difficulty in proving his identity; but at length Bem succeeded in winning the confidence of the Hungarian ruler. At Pesth, where he concerted future operations with Kossuth, another attempt was made to assassinate Bem by a young Pole who had conceived the idea that he had betrayed the popular cause at Vienna. From Pesth Bem was dispatched by Kossuth to Transylvania, in order to organize the revolt against Austria. The transactions in Transylvania formed perhaps the most brilliant portion of the whole Hungarian war. In the course of ten weeks, with a newly raised army, always inferior in force to the enemy, by a series of hard fighting and skillful manœuvres, he placed Transylvania in the hands of the Hungarians. The accession of Russia to the side of Austria was decisive of the contest. Bem, sorely pressed in Transylvania, was summoned by Kossuth to assume the command in chief; and at Temesvar, on the 10th of August 1849, he lost the last battle of Hungary; though he here displayed the highest qualities of the soldier and the general. The Austrians were repulsed at all points, mowed down by the terrible fire from the Hungarian artillery, which Bem had posted with his accustomed skill; but his troops were exhausted, and a fresh body of Austrians under Prince Lichtenstein, decided the day. "A single draught of wine to each hussar," said Guyon, "would have saved the battle." In the rout which ensued, Bem, who was weakened by his wounds, was thrown from his horse, and broke his collar bone. The day following the disastrous battle of Temesvar, Kossuth resigned the dictatorship into the hands of Görgey, who two days after, on the 13th of August, surrendered his whole army, consisting of 24,000 men with 144 pieces of cannon, to the Russians.

Bem at first made some efforts to prolong the hopeless contest; but it was in vain, and on the 17th of the month he bade farewell to the country from which he had hoped so much. Kossuth, Dembinski, Bem, and some others took refuge in Turkey, where their residence or extradition was made a political question by the powers of Europe. In the anticipation of being given up, Bem embraced Mohammedanism, and entered the Turkish service, under the name of Murad Bey. There is nothing to wonder at in this procedure. His one principle through life had been hatred to Russia, and to this he would not hesitate to sacrifice any and every other consideration; his only religion was to avenge his country upon the Czar; if that could be done, it mattered little to him whether it was effected under the banner of the cross or the crescent. He persisted to the last in his profession of Mohammedanism, and was buried with military honors, greatly lamented by the Ottoman government, into whose military organization he had introduced many beneficial reforms. Bem possessed military genius of a high order; he was bold and rapid in his decisions, fertile in resources, whether to take advantage of a victory or to retrieve a defeat. He clearly perceived that the most effective arm in modern warfare is artillery, the service of which he always superintended in person. Previous to a battle he appointed the positions his guns were to assume, examined and leveled them in person, whence he was nicknamed, by his German legion, "the Piano-forte player." At the time of his death, he had reached his fifty-sixth year, but the severe exposures which he had undergone, and his numerous wounds, gave him the appearance of a still greater age. As a man, all who knew Bem were enthusiastic in his praise. Generous in disposition, gentle and modest in demeanor, he inspired deep personal attachment in all with whom he came in contact.

Viscount Alford (John Hume Cust) died on the 2d of January. In 1849 he succeeded to the vast Bridgewater estates, and assumed, by royal license, the name of Egerton, in place of that of Cust. He was a member of the House of Commons from 1836 to 1847. He inherited an estate from the late Earl of Bridgewater, under a will of very singular character. By this document it was provided that unless Lord Alford should, within five years, succeed in gaining a rank in the peerage higher than that of earl, the estate should go to his brother, with a like condition, which also failing, it was to pass to another branch of the family.

The Duke of Newcastle (Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham Clinton) died Jan. 12, at the age of 66. He was one of the most consistent and unbending of the Tory conservative nobility of England, and a most strenuous opponent of every measure of reform. He said of himself that "on looking back to the past, I can honestly assert that I repent of nothing that I have done. Vestigia nulla retrorsum. Such has been the cradle of my opinions: time may have matured them, and given them something like authority; at all events, the sentiments that might have been doubtful, are now rootedly confirmed." Thus incapable of learning by experience, of becoming wiser as a man than he was when a boy, his political career was thoroughly consistent. He was alike opposed to Catholic emancipation, the repeal of the Test Act, and any modification of the Corn Laws. When Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, he refused, in spite of the positive demand of Government, to insert in the commission of the peace the names of two gentlemen who were not members of the Established Church. When the Reform Bill was in agitation, he stood up manfully for the rotten boroughs which enabled him to return six members to the House of Commons, the disfranchisement of which cost him a large sum which he had invested in property of which the franchise constituted the main value. His hereditary possessions were very large, and by his wife he obtained estates to the value of £12,000 per annum, besides personal property to the amount of £200,000; yet, owing to extensive purchases of unproductive estates, he was embarrassed in pecuniary matters. Apart from his narrow and bigoted politics, his character was marked by many noble and excellent traits.

Frederick Bastiat, the leader of the free-trade party in France, died at Rome, on the 24th of December. He was a member of the National Assembly; and his death was hastened by his severe and protracted labors during the last session. His essays, bearing the general title of Sophismes Economiques, originally published in a periodical, the Journal des Economistes, of which he was editor, have been made known to the American public through the columns of the Evening Post, which is a sufficient guarantee of their authority with the upholders of that policy.

W.H. Maxwell, the Irish novelist, died at Musselburg, near Edinburgh, December 29. In early life he was a captain in the British army, and noted for his social qualities. He subsequently entered the Church, and obtained the benefice of prebendary of Balla, a wild district in Connaught, with an income, but no congregation or official duties. Among his works we recollect "Hector O'Halloran," "Story of My Life," "Wild Sports of the West," and many humorous sketches in the periodical literature of the day.

Professor Schumacher, the Astronomer of the Observatory at Altona, died on the 28th of December, in his 71st year. For many years he conducted the Astronomische Nachrichten, in which capacity he was well known in the scientific world. He had been successively Professor of Astronomy at the University of Copenhagen, and Director of the Observatory at Manheim, in Baden. From 1817 to 1821 he measured the length of the degree of longitude from Copenhagen to the western coast of Jutland, and that of the degree of latitude from the northern extremity of Jutland to the frontiers of Hanover. He subsequently executed for the English Government the measure of the difference of longitude between the observatories of Greenwich and Altona.