Chapter XII (2)

MRS. WALLACK, the wife of Mr. James W. Wallack the comedian, and the daughter of the celebrated "Irish Johnstone," died on Christmas day, aged fifty-eight years.

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MADAME CAROLINE JUNOT, the eldest daughter of Schiller, died suddenly on the 19th December, at Wurtzburg, in Bavaria.

GENERAL SIR PHINEAS RIALL, K.C.H., died in Paris, early in November. He entered the British Army in 1792, and served in the West Indies, receiving a medal and clasp for his services at Martinique, and Guadaloupe, in 1809 and 1810. In 1813, he served in the American war, and was severely wounded at the battle of Chippewa.

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LIEUT. GENERAL SEWIGHT MAWBY, who served during the wars of Napoleon, and since in India, died lately in London.

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M. MARVY, eminent as a landscape painter and as an engraver; and M. DUBOIS, a distinguished architect, are noticed in the recent Paris obituaries.

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GENERAL ETIENNE JOLY died at Villiers-les-Bel, on the 2d of January.

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HERMANN KRIEGE died at Hoboken on the last day of December. He was of German birth, but spoke the English and the French language with fluency. A Democrat and Socialist by constitution, he devoted all the resources of an ardent nature and ready talents to the triumph of his principles. It is now some eight years since he first removed to this country, and established in New-York a weekly paper called the _Volks-Tribun_, in which he advocated the most radical ideas upon the relations of capital and labor, with as much ability as earnestness. In his views of American politics he inclined to the so-called democratic party, and when the Mexican War commenced gave it a hearty support--not because he had carefully inquired into its justice, but because he regarded the absorption of Mexico, and indeed the entire continent, by the United States, and the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race in the western world, as absolutely essential to the progress of humanity. Though not originally a land reformer, he adopted and vigorously defended not only the doctrine that the earth belongs to the human race and cannot rightfully be trafficked in any more than can the air or the sunlight, but the measures which American reformers have deduced therefrom, namely, land limitation, freedom of the public domain, homestead exemption, &c. During this time he wrote and published in German a history of the United States, as well as a series of translations from the writings of our revolutionary patriots, works of the highest value to our German citizens. The _Volks-Tribun_ ceased to be published in 1847, and for some time after Mr. Kriege gained a livelihood by teaching German. He also gave here, in his native tongue, a course of lectures on German Literature, which were greatly enjoyed by those who attended them. On the breaking out of the Revolution of 1848, he returned to Germany, and took an active share in the democratic movements. He was one of the Supreme Executive Committee, consisting of three members, if we remember rightly, which had its seat at Berlin, and thence conducted a revolutionary propaganda throughout the country. In the spring of 1849 he returned to the United States again, and took editorial charge of the _Illinois Staats Zeitung_ at Chicago. But the reaction which now followed the intense excitement of the previous year in Europe, proved too much for his physical powers, which were far from robust. His health compelled him to resign his connection with that paper and come back to the city. He fell into a sort of apathy which resulted in a partial derangement of his mind, and finally in the complete prostration of his system. After lingering for some months he at last expired with tranquillity, in the thirtieth year of his age. He was a man of extensive acquirements. His knowledge of history was very comprehensive and accurate. His intellect, though not remarkably original or brilliant, was clear and vigorous. His heart was of the manly and noble kind. There is encouragement in the recollection of such a man.--_Tribune._

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MME. LOUISA HENRIETTA SCHMALZ, the most famous German _Cantatrice_ of the last century, and who for more than thirty years was the Queen of the German Lyrical Stage, has just died in Berlin, aged seventy-nine years. In her youth she was beautiful and she was always remarkable for fascination of manners.

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GEORGE SPENCE, an eminent lawyer, and lecturer on Equity Jurisprudence at Lincoln's Inn, committed suicide in London, on the 12th December. He was born in 1786, educated at a Scotch University, called to the bar in London in 1811, and made a Bencher in 1834. As a writer upon law, Mr. Spence had a high and deserved reputation. His work on "The Equitable Jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery," is founded partly on Maddock's "Treatise on the Principles and Practice of the High Court of Chancery;" yet it is, in many important particulars, essentially an original work. This able production, the second volume of which appeared in 1849, has been generally commended.

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GENERAL SIR WM. LUMLEY, G. C. B., a distinguished cavalry officer, died in London on the 15th December. He entered the army at the age of eighteen, in 1787, and continued in service through the greater part of his life. In the Irish Rebellion, in 1798, he commanded the 22nd Light Dragoons, and was wounded at Antrim. He was afterwards in Egypt, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in South America, at the capture of Monte Video in 1807. After commanding the advanced force at the taking of Ischia, and after attaining the rank of Major-General, Lumley joined the British army in the Peninsula. He there won great distinction at the first siege of Badajoz, and he led the whole allied cavalry at the battle of Albuera; few, indeed, were more useful during the Peninsular war.

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ROBERT ROSCOE, third son of the historian, died during the early part of December, in his sixty-first year. For some time he followed the profession of the law, in partnership with the late Mr. Edgar Taylor; but he retired from active life, in consequence of infirm health, many years ago. Like all the members of the Roscoe family, he had literary powers, which an unusual amount of self-distrust prevented his exercising largely. The completion of Mr. Fitchett's huge epic of "Alfred" was done by him in fulfilment of a promise, and he wrote other poems, and some small works in prose, not unworthy of a son of William Roscoe.

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MR. RICHIE, a sculptor of some reputation, from Edinburgh, went lately to Rome, where he died during the month of September. His death is mainly attributable to an excursion he made with some friends to Ostio, where, ignorant of the effects of the climate, and of the precautions necessary to be taken in it, he caught the malaria fever, and expired after his return to Rome. He was followed to the English cemetery by most of the English and American artists resident there. His journey to Rome had been for some years the object of his most ardent hopes and wishes.

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M. MARTIN D'AUCH, the only surviving member of the first Constituent Assembly of the First French Republic, and the only one who, at the oath of the Jeu de Paume, refused to sign the declaration of the Tiers-Parti, has just died at Castlenaudary. In David's well-known picture, M. d'Auch is represented with his arms folded on his breast, and refusing to join his colleagues.

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The well-known Dutch painter, MORITZ, died lately at the Hague, aged seventy-seven years.

Scientific Miscellany.

A Report by five eminent members has been made to the Paris Academy of Sciences, on a paper from Colonel Lesbros, entitled _Hydraulic Experiments relative to the Laws of the Flowing of Water_. Two thousand experiments, carried through four years, are detailed in three hundred and twelve pages of text, with thirty-seven large plates. The work was recommended to the Academy by the Minister of War. The Committee say, at the end of their report:--"Considering the high utility of these experimental researches, prosecuted to the end in the most satisfactory and complete manner; and being convinced of the beneficial effect which the publication of them may have in the promotion of science, and its application to public works,--to navigation, agriculture, hydraulic establishments, and the various branches of industry connected with them,--the Committee are of opinion that the Academy should accord full approbation to the work, and direct the early insertion of it in the Transactions." All parts of the report show that the publication will be of importance to both sides of the Atlantic.

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Of the December number of the _Comte Rendu_ of the Paris Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, nearly twenty pages are occupied by one of the Reports of Blanqui, the Political Economist, on the Rural Populations of France. He made his personal survey, this year, as Commissioner of the Academy. He is preparing a work, in several volumes, on the state, in every particular, of the inhabitants of France, in every part. His abstract of his recent survey of the Departments of the centre, including the basin of the Loire, abounds with curious details, especially as to the diversity of the manner in which the Revolution of February, 1848, affected the rural and city populations in their minds and interests. He speaks of the city of _Saint Etienne_ as _extemporized_ after the American fashion.

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THE AFRICAN EXPLORING EXPEDITION.--Intelligence has been received from the Saharan African Expedition up to the 29th of August last. The expedition had literally fought its way up to Selonfeet in Aheer, near to the territory of the Kaillouee Prince, En-Nour, to whom it is recommended. Mr. Richardson had been obliged to ransom his life and those of his fellow-travellers twice. The whole population of the northern districts of Aheer had been raised against the expedition, joined by all the bandits and robbers who infest that region of the Sahara. The travellers are now in comparative security. The great Soudan route, from Ghat to Aheer, is explored. Of the expedition of Von Muller we have a few days later but not important news.

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The Royal Society of London, at the last annual meeting, awarded "the Royal Medal" to Mr. Benjamin Brodie, F.R.S. (eldest son of Sir B. Brodie, Bart.) for his papers on the chemical nature of wax. It is nearly forty years since the Royal Society awarded the "Copley medal" to Sir Benjamin Brodie for his paper "on poisons;" the only instance of father and son receiving the same distinction.

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Of an Hungarian Academy, Mr. Walsh writes to the _Journal of Commerce_, "Last month Mr. Kenigswater transmitted to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, a very interesting communication relative to the National Academy of Hungary, with the existence of which few of the French savants were acquainted. The idea of establishing a National Society for universal knowledge, dates from the end of the last century. Its accomplishment was delayed by political causes, and the want of adequate funds. But a Magyar Count succeeded, in 1827, in obtaining an act of the Diet for the creation of such an institute. He presented it with a sum of thirty thousand dollars; another magnate gave twenty thousand dollars; many others ten thousand; so that the fund from voluntary contributions, amounts to nearly two hundred thousand dollars--a million of francs. The Academy was inaugurated in 1830, and divided into six sections--Philology, Philosophy, History, Jurisprudence, Mathematics, and the Natural Sciences. Its only President since that period has been Count Joseph Teleki, deemed an excellent historian, to whom and his brothers it is indebted for a sum of twenty-five thousand francs, and a library of fifty thousand volumes. It consists now of nineteen honorary members; thirty-eight active or resident; and of a hundred and twenty-five corresponding members for the several sections. Each section has a weekly meeting; there are monthly and annual sittings of all. Papers on erudite and scientific subjects are read; the Magyar language is alone permitted in its business and transactions, except as to the communications of its foreign correspondents. It has published, at its own expense, a very large number of works; among them a series of critical Commentaries on the ancient monuments of the Magyar language, "which bears no affinity to the European tongues, and differs as much from the Sclavonic as from the Teutonic and the Latin idioms." There is a very important and very rich collection of Hungarian translations of the Latin and Greek classics; another of translations of the principal modern dramatic authors. The Hungarian mind has been prolific for its stage, in original pieces. The Academy awards prizes, confers distinctions, &c., &c."

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An important discovery has been made by M. NICHOLAS ZACH, a lithographer of Munich. He has invented a process by which, by means of a preparation applied to designs traced by a pointed instrument on a plate of any sort of metal, the drawing reproduces itself in relief, in less than an hour, on the plate. M. Zach has given to his discovery the title of _Metallography_.

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GAS FROM WATER.--Mr. Paine's alleged discovery of a new process of procuring gas _from water_, after some months of discredit and ridicule, is acquiring fresh interest and importance. Mr. Elizur Wright, editor of the Boston _Chronotype_, and other gentlemen of ability and intelligence, have visited Worcester, and examined the whole process and the apparatus employed in it, and are perfectly convinced of the reality and importance of the discovery. A similar discovery is said to have been made recently in Paris. Mr. Paine has received from England letters patent for his discovery.

Ladies Fashions for February.

I. _Ladies' Equestrian Costume._--Riding-habit of green cloth or cashmere; the skirt very long and full, and the corsage fastened from the waist to the throat by a row of fancy silk buttons of the color of the habit. A pardessus or polka jacket of cinnamon-colored cloth or merino. It has rather a deep basquine, and the corsage, which has a turning over collar and lappels, is open in front of the bosom. It is edged with a narrow band of black velvet. The sleeves are long, close to the arms, and slit open at the lower part, showing under sleeves of white cambric of moderate fulness, gathered on bands at the wrists. The pardessus is confined in front (not quite so low as the waist) by a gilt agrafe. Round the throat a small collar of worked muslin or a necktie of plaided ribbon. Round riding-hat of black beaver, with a small cock's-tail plume on one side. Veil of a very thin green or black tulle. Under the habit a jupon of cambric muslin with a deep border of needlework. Pale yellow riding gloves, and black boots.

II. _Boy's Dress._--Jacket of bright blue cloth, trimmed on the two fronts with broad silk braid of the same color, placed in rows of three and three together. The sleeves are close at the ends, and the wristbands of the shirt are turned up just sufficiently to cover the edges of the jacket sleeves. Waistcoat of white pique. Trousers of white and blue stripe. A plain square shirt collar, turned down, and a red silk necktie. Cap of black velvet. Glazed leather boots.

III. _An Evening Costume_, of pale lavender silk; the waist and point of a moderate length; the corsage is low, and _a la Grecque_; the short sleeves are open the front of the arm, and trimmed with a looped silk fringe; the skirt is long and full, and has five pieces, _en bias_, set on plain, and edged with fringe corresponding to that on the sleeves.

IV. _An elegant Visiting Dress_ of pale stone-colored _taffetas_, the skirt handsomely trimmed with three distinct rows of flounces, each row consisting of four rows of narrow flounces, pinked and waved at the edge, the upper row reaching to a little below the waist; plain high corsage, made open in the front, and trimmed with four narrow frills, put on nearly plain upon the front, where they meet in a point at the waist, and forming a kind of cape over the back and shoulders; half-long sleeves, trimmed to match; under-sleeves and chemisette of fine lawn. Bonnet of pink _velours epingle_, the exterior decorated with a cluster of pink flowers on the right, a pink blond encircling the edge, being turned back plain over the front, the interior fulled with pink _tulle_, and half wreaths of green heath.

_The skirts of ball dresses_ still continue to be very highly trimmed. Flounces are the favorite style of trimming, and not unfrequently as many as ten are put on. Sometimes rows of lace are disposed alternately with flounces of the same material as the dress. For this purpose either black or white lace may be employed; the choice being determined by the tint of the dress. A novel style of trimming for the skirts of evening dresses consists of rows of broad fringe instead of flounces.

Another description of _trimming_ resembling fringe, but made of marabout feathers, is employed for ball dresses. Tulle dresses of two or three jupes have the lowest one edged simply with a hem, and the upper ones edged with a row of marabout fringe. The sleeves and berthe should be edged with corresponding trimming.

_Manteau Andriana_, of violet velvet, having a small _capuchon_, or hood, decorated with a rich fancy trimming in _passementerie_, to which are attached at regular distances long soft tassels; very wide sleeves, in the Oriental form, decorated to match the _capuchon_; the lower part of the cloak is ornamented with a kind of shell-work in _passementerie_, which forms _galerie_; upon the fronts are placed _brandebourgs_ in Spanish points.

_Caps_ intended for morning toilette are very novel in their form and appearance, the most favorite style being a little _coiffe Bretonne_, having _papillons_ of lace turned back, and _chutes_ of lilac and violet velvet; then, again, those the crown of which is formed of _torsades_ of ribbon, over which fall two rows of English lace, and having two half-wreaths of _vapeur_ ribbon encircling the back part.