Chapter XIV (3)

FREDERICK THE GREAT (so-called), is not yet exhausted as a topic for book-makers, if we may judge by the _Anekdoten und Charakterzüge_ (Anecdotes and Traits of Character), drawn from his life, and just published at Berlin. The author is an adorer of the selfish old martinet.

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KOHL, the indefatigable traveller, has just published, at Dresden, his _Reise nach Istrien Dalmatien und Montenegro_. A book of travels in those countries is a novelty, and no explorer could give his reader a more vivid picture of the peculiarities of a nation and its country than Kohl. The book is in two volumes.

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The Shakspeare Society in London, at a recent sitting, received as a present a translation of Shakspeare, in twelve volumes, into Swedish verse. This laborious work has been accomplished by Professor HAGBERG, of the University of Lund, and it was transmitted through the Swedish Minister to England.

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A new history of German literature from the most ancient to the most recent times has just been published at Stuttgart by Dr. EUGEN HAHN. It is particularly valuable in respect of biography and the history of mental culture in general.

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A new work, called _Bilder aus Spainen_ (Pictures from Spain), is among the recent productions of the German press. Its author, HERR A. LONING, has already published several works on the Peninsula, where he resided several years.

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LISZT, the eminent pianist, has published in French a book on Richard Wagner's two operas, _Lohengrin_ and _Tannhäuser_. He praises them most enthusiastically; possibly he may succeed in having Wagner's pieces produced at Paris.

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DR. J. W. HADDOCK's work upon _Somnolism and Psycheism_, after having gone through a second edition in England, has just made its appearance at Leipzig in a German translation, made by Dr. C. L. Merkel.

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A new edition of that excellent work, _The History of the Poetic National Literature of the Germans_, by Gerbinus, has just made its appearance at Leipzig.

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SILVIO PELLICO is passing the present winter in Rome.

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In Tuscany, a periodical similar to the _International_ has been established under the title of _Rivista Britannica_. The main purpose is to select articles from English periodicals, and offer them in good Italian versions. French newspapers, novels, and magazines come in freely, too freely in Italy. The good ones will sometimes be seized at the frontier, or at the post-office, by the jealous police of Rome, Naples, and Tuscany: but against any thing that is corrupt and debauched no Italian despot, prince, or priest, was ever known to shut his door. French literature, such as it is under most circumstances, can have only a bad influence in that enslaved country, and scarcely an Italian is to be found able to read, who has any difficulty in understanding the French language. As an antidote to this poison, the editors of the _Rivista Britannica_ have thought of ministering copious draughts of healthful English. We wish they might quote English and American journals with perfect independence of all censorship.

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GIOBERTI, whose attack upon the Jesuits is fresh in the minds of all students of European literature, has lately published at Turin an elaborate work entitled _Del Rinovamento Civile d' Italia_ (Of the Civil Regeneration of Italy). It is in two parts, the first treating of the errors and misfortunes that have marked the past, the second of the remedies practicable in the present, and the hopes existing for the future. So large is the circle of readers who look with interest for every one of Gioberti's productions, that two simultaneous editions have been issued; one in two volumes 8vo. each of eight hundred pages, and the other in two volumes, 16mo. each of six hundred.

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The _Israel of the Alps, a History of the Vaudois of Piedmont and of their Colonies_, is the title of a work, by ALEXIS MUSTON, fulfilling a promise made by the author in 1834, in a volume on the same subject. It consists of an account of the martyrdoms of Calabria and Provence, and embraces a period from the origin of those colonies to the end of the sixteenth century. In the second part are described the extraordinary sufferings and deliverances of the Piedmontese--the massacre of 1658--the dispersion of the Vaudois into foreign lands--the return to their own, under the orders of Colonel Arnaud--and an entirely new exposition is given of the negotiations which led to the official re-establishment of the Vaudois in their native valleys. The author has filled up the gaps of the Vaudois historians, Gilles, Leger, and Arnaud, and, by the aid of numerous inedited documents, has established a succession of facts in relation to the history of the churches of the Piedmontese, and those of the colonies, to which Wirtemberg, Brandenburg, and Switzerland are indebted for their evangelical faith. M. Muston, contrary to the opinions of Gieseler, Neander, and Schmidt, agrees with that school of writers--from Perrin to Monastier--who suppose that the evangelical churches of Piedmont existed before the reformer Pierre Waldo, and trace their origin to the apostolic ages. This opinion has much to support it--in the authority of many centuries, in the unanimous convictions of the Vaudois historians, and in evidences given by the most ancient monuments of their language, particularly the poem entitled the _Noble Lesson_, which bears inscribed its own date (1100), and the literary perfection of which certainly suggests an anterior literature. J. Bonnett (_Archives du Christianisme_, for October 16) notices the work very favorably, but considers it imperfect in many particulars, and the author is charged especially with omissions in the catalogue of the defenders of the faith, whose blood was so profusely spilled in their beautiful valleys, and

"Whose bones
Lie bleaching on the Alpine mountains cold."

"Surely," says M. Bonnett, "the author ought to have given us some notice of the imposing characters who were early laboring for the defence of the Vaudois churches, from the episcopate of Maximus (that intrepid missionary of the Alps whose thundering voice against abuses recalls the eloquent accents of Luther) to the controversy of Vigilance and Jerome, and the iconoclastic propositions of Claude de Turin. There is something inspiring in the remembrance of that prelate, now an evangelist, and now a warrior, combating with one hand the enemies of truth, and with the other those of the empire. 'I make,' says he, in one of his letters, 'continual voyages to the court during the winter. In the spring, with my arms and my books, I go as a sentinel to watch the coasts of the sea, and to fight against the Saracen and the Moor. I use my sword during the night, and my pen by day, to accomplish the works which I have commenced in solitude.' The military and ecclesiastical character of Claude de Turin was deserving a remembrance, and in describing him M. Muston could not have fulfilled better the expectations of the public. There is another instance of omission--that of Pierre Waldo. Concerning him all opinions agree. It is just where he stands that all contradictory systems upon the origin of the Vaudois meet. Whether he was the father or the son of the churches of the Valleys his history ought not to be forgotten. With what interest would not the pen of Muston have clothed the recital! what attraction! what novelty! How the reformation, which originated in the cell of an obscure cloister, had already germinated in the mind of Waldo; how the rich merchant of Lyons, in search of the treasures of the age, was suddenly changed into a bumble disciple, voluntarily poor; and what were the principal traits of his ministry, his voyages, his relations, his life, his death! Concerning such men, we cannot regret too deeply the almost utter silence of this historian of the Vaudois."

The following interesting fragment is translated from the history of the Vaudois de Calabre: "One day two young men were at a tavern in Turin, when a Calabrian lord came in to lodge for the night. The companions, in talking over their affairs, happened to express a desire to establish themselves somewhere away from home; for the lands of their own country were becoming so sterile, that they would soon cease to yield a sufficient support for the population. The stranger said, 'My friends, if you come with me, I will give you fruitful plains in exchange for your rocky wastes.' They accepted the proposal with a condition that they should gain the consent of their families, and with the hope that they would be accompanied by others. The inhabitants of the Valleys did not wish to make any determination before knowing to what kind of country they were invited, and commissioners were therefore sent to Calabria, with the youths to whom the lands had been offered.

"In this country," says Gilles, "there are beautiful ranges of fertile soil, clothed with every kind of fruit trees, such as the olive and orange; in the plains, vines, and chestnut trees; along the shore, the hazel and the oak; upon the sides and summits of the mountains, the larch and the fir tree, as in the Alps--every where were signs both of a land promising rich rewards to the laborer, and but few inhabitants. The expatriation was decided on; the young, ready to depart, married; proprietors sold their farms; some member of every family prepared for the journey." The joys of the nuptial ceremony mingled with the sorrow of departure from home, and more than one marriage cortege took its place in the caravan of exile. But they could say, as the Hebrews going forth to the promised land, _The tabernacle of the Lord is with us_, for the travellers took with them an ancestral Bible, the source of all consolation and courage. At the foot of the mountains, father and son, and mother and daughter embraced, weeping and praying together, that the God of their fathers would bless them. And the blessing of heaven was not wanting to this colony. The industrious cities of Saint-Sixte, la Quardia, and Montolieu, arose as by magic amid this land of ignorance, and presented the spectacle of a praying and working Christian people, refusing homage to the superstitions of the age. The reformation in the West brought many fears, and the wrath of the Roman pontiffs was not stayed; the emissaries of the inquisition hunted these faithful people through their peaceful valleys; they were destined to perish; and the massacre of the Vaudois of Provence was a mournful pendant to the extermination of the Vaudois of Calabria. The historian weeps that he cannot cast a veil over this picture; yet the mind, agonized with scenes so atrocious, finds repose in the contemplation of such an admirable character as that of the martyr-pastor, Louis Pascal, exhaling all his soul in his last letter to his affianced Camilla Guarina: 'The love which I bear you is increased by that which I bear to God, and as much as I have been refined by the Christian religion, so much the more have I been enabled to love you. Adieu. Console yourself in Jesus, and may you be a pattern of his doctrines.' "There are few subjects," says the reviewer, "more worthy the ambition of a writer, or that are more inspiring, than the history of the martyred Vaudois, in the inaccessible solitudes of the Alps, for some time protected by their obscurity, but at last devoted for ages to the most cruel persecutions." The mystery of the origin of this people, the drama of their destiny, the melancholy interest which attaches itself to the different phases of their existence, command in their favor the attention of the world, and suffuse the pages of the historian with that sympathetic emotion so easily communicated to the reader, and which is the very soul of departed times.

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AS WE learn from a recent number of the _Journal des Missions Evangeliques_, a new work appeared in China toward the end of 1849, under the title _Of the Geography and History of Foreign Nations_, by SEU-KE-JU, the viceroy of the important province of Foh-kien. It is in ten volumes, though the whole of them do not contain more matter than one of our common school text books, and is accompanied by a map of the world and several other maps. It has a preface by the Governor-General of the province, in which he declares that it is better than all previous geographical works in China, and recommends it to his countrymen as perfectly worthy of confidence. The two first volumes are occupied by a general introduction, in which Seu-ke-ju speaks of the sources from which he has derived information, and of the many difficulties he has had to contend with; he explains the use of maps, gives the simplest ideas concerning the spherical form of the earth, and expatiates on the difference of climates. Nothing can give a better idea of the profound ignorance of the Chinese upon these subjects, and nothing prove more decisively that they never can have possessed great mathematicians and astronomers than such passages as the following: "Formerly we were aware of the existence of an icy sea at the north only, but had never heard that there was another at the south. And when men from the west showed us maps on which such a sea was put down, we thought they had made a mistake from ignorance of the Chinese language, and had transferred to the south what ought to be in the north. But when we inquired about this subject of an American named Abeel (a missionary at Amoy), he said that the fact was certain, and now it indeed appears to us undeniable. The provinces of Kwang-tong and Foh-kien are mostly situated under the Kwang-tau (tropic) of the north, and when we compare them with the northern provinces in respect of heat, the temperature is found to be very different. At the time when we did not know that the sun passed over the middle of the globe, this fact caused us to believe that the farther one went to the south, the greater was the heat, and that at the south pole the stones ran in a melted state like a stream of gold. But this is not so; persons who go from Kwang-tong or Foh-kien, will find at the distance of five or six thousand _li_ the island of Borneo, which lies exactly under the Shih-tau (equator), and where the winter is like our summer. Going thence to the south-west the voyager reaches the south of Africa, where hail and snow are known; still farther on is Patagonia or the southern point of South America, near to the Hih-tau (polar circle) of the south, where ice is continual. Thus these warm and cold regions are successive, and therefore the region of the south pole is spoken of as a sea of ice. And why should the Chinese doubt this, because their ships have never gone so far and the province of Kwang-tong lies at the frontier of their country? In truth, we must listen to and accept this explanation."

From this simple piece of instruction, the author of the new Geography proceeds to describe the regions to the west. We give a specimen from his account of Europe: "Europe lies at the north-west of Asia, from which it is separated by the Ural mountains, but is only one quarter as large. Before the dynasty Hia (2469 B.C.), the inhabitants lived by hunting, and were clothed in the skins of the animals they killed, as is the way of the Mongols. But toward the middle of that dynasty (2000 B.C.), civilization, agriculture and the arts began in the states of Greece, situated at the eastern end of the continent." This is followed by a very brief review of the rise and decay of the Roman Empire, of the rise of Moslemism and of the conquests of Tamerlane; next comes a description of the individual countries, with their resources, military and naval forces, "all things about which writers give very different reports, so that it is not possible to be exact, for errors must needs be many where proofs are wanting." How well Seu-ke-ju understands the machinery of European states is apparent from what he says about public debts: "Thus the interest of the borrowed money is paid yearly, while the debt continually increases, inasmuch as the income of the year suffices not for the wants of the Government. Then are new taxes laid upon the people which embitters and makes them rebellious, while the governments grow weaker and fall into decay. The half of Europe is now in this condition." To the mental superiority of the western nations, and especially to the talent and energy of the Americans, Seu-ke-ju renders full justice. On the whole this book is an indication of real progress among the Chinese, much as it militates against the old notion which ascribed to them a considerable degree of scientific knowledge. There can be no doubt that when the prejudice among them, according to which the Celestial Empire is the greatest country, and its inhabitants the most wonderful people of the world, is dissipated, their native thirst for knowledge will urge them forward with rapidity. The habit of visiting foreign lands which is springing up among them, will also do its part, in breaking up the monotony and stagnation into which they have grown. In addition to this book by Seu-ke-ju, a number of other geographical works, drawn from English, German, and French sources, have appeared in Chinese, at the instance mainly of high officers of state.

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The Society of Horticulture, for Paris and Central France, is about to issue a large work, entitled _Pomologie Française, ou Monographie Generale des Arbres Fruitiers_. This will be one of the best works on fruit trees ever published, and our gardeners will do well to look after it.

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The most elaborate and erudite modern work on international law is the _Histoire du Droit des Gens et des Relations Internationales_, by Prof. G. LAURENT, of Ghent, of which three volumes were published, in 1850, in that city. The first volume treats of international law in Hindostan, Egypt, Judea, Assyria, Media and Persia, Phoenicia, and Carthage; the second is devoted to Greece, and the third to Rome. The mass of learning exhibited is astonishing. The idea of the author is that through the great course of history, humanity is ripening to a state of universal peace and fraternity. It is unnecessary to say that from this stand-point, international law becomes a subject of the grandest proportions and significance. Prof. Laurent treats it with as much ability as erudition.

ALEXANDRE DUMAS is the subject of a masterly criticism in the _Grenzboten_, in which justice is done him with that impartiality and moderation in respect to which a competent German is unequalled among critics. Among Dumas's dramas, the writer regards _Caligula_ as the best in spite of its grossness. In all the excesses, indecencies, improbabilities, and lawlessness of his romances, there is the trace of splendid talent. It is doubtful whether this talent could have been developed by industry and an earnest love of art into a higher sphere of power. Finally, the writer concludes that Dumas is doing more to corrupt the taste of France and Germany than any other romancer, except, perhaps, Eugene Sue.

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Among the French socialists there has recently been considerable discussion on the principles of Government--discussion which has resulted in angry separation of the republican party into opposite camps; Rittinghausen, Considerant, Ledru Rollin, and Girardin having been severally aiming at the destruction of representative government, and the erection of _Direct Legislation_--a scheme which LOUIS BLANC, in his _Plus de Girondins_ and _La Republique Une et Indivisible_, has opposed with a degree of ability which promised to restore him to a respectable reputation. But PRUDHON, in his last book, not only denounces Rollin, Girardin, Blanc, and all the rest, with a school-boy vehemence, which _The Leader_ says is "pitiless," but he attacks without disguise _all government_, no matter what its form, as false in principle and vicious in effect. He believes neither in absolute monarchy, in constitutional monarchy, nor in democracy; he admits no divine right, no legal right, no right of majorities. He only believes in the right of justice in the empire of reason. The principle of authority he rejects in politics as in religion: he will admit only liberty--reason. Prudhon has won a name for talents, and has frequently written with real force--but such propositions are a disgrace to any man who has ever possessed a good reputation.

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The _Republique_, a new book just published By Paris, by M. LEFRANC, a member of the Assembly, treats of the events which have filled up the time since the revolution of 1848. M. Lefranc is an ardent republican, and his exhibition of this momentous period is not favorable to the party which hitherto, at least, has managed to gain the victory, if not to assure itself the possession of its traits. His style is singularly animated and impassioned, and it is not without justice that a prominent Parisian critic (Eugene Pelletan) calls him the most direct inheritor of that light-armed yet potent style of polemical writing, of which the famous Camille Desmoulins was so great a master.

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The popularity of SCOTT, in France, is shown by the appearance of the _twentieth_ edition of Defauconpret's translation of his novels; and the announcement of an entirely new translation of them by another hand. If Defauconpret had been the only translator, _twenty_ editions would have been an immense success; but there are besides, at the very least, _twenty_ different translations of the complete works (many of which have had two, three, or four editions), and innumerable translations of particular novels, especially of _Quentin Durward_.

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M. BLANQUART EVRARD, has commenced at Paris what he calls _D'Album Photographique de l'Artiste et de l'Amateur_. It is a pictorial work, containing reproductions by photography on paper of well-known works of art by ancient and modern masters. We have not seen it, but hear it spoken of as successful.

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M. GUIZOT has now published under the title of _Méditations et Etudes Morales_, a collection of essays that had previously appeared on the immortality of the soul, and kindred topics. To them he has added a new preface, in which he discusses the question of liberty and authority in religion.

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On the night of the 13th of November, FRANCOIS ARAGO, the great astronomer, was brought from his sick bed to the French Assembly, and walked up the chamber, supported by the arms of two of his colleagues, to give his vote in favor of Universal Suffrage.

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M. OTT has just published at Paris a _Traité d'Economie Sociale_, which has the merit of giving a careful statement of the doctrines of the various schools of Economists and Socialists. It makes a good-sized octavo volume.

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LOUIS FASQEULLE, professor of modern languages in the University of Michigan, has published (Mark H. Newman) a _New Method of Learning the French Language_, embracing the analytic and synthetic modes of instruction, on the plan of Woodbury's method with the German.

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M. LOUIS REYBAUD has published at Paris a new work under the title of _Athanase Robichon Candidat Perpetuel à la Présidence de la Republique_. M. Reybaud is one of the keenest of political satirists.

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The French papers state that Lord Brougham, in his retreat at Cannes, is preparing a work to be entitled _France and England before Europe in 1851_.

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DON JUAN HARTZENBUSCH has commenced, in Madrid, a reprint of the works of her most distinguished authors of Spain. From the earliest ages to the present time. It is entitled _Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles_, and it is a more difficult undertaking than things of the kind in western and northern Europe. Since many works of the principal authors never having been printed at all, the compiler has to hunt after them in libraries, in convents, and in out of the way places--whilst others, having been negligently printed, have to be revised line by line. Hartzenbusch has brought to light _fourteen_ comedies of Calderon de la Barca, which previous editors were unable to discover. The total number of Calderon's pieces the world now possesses is therefore 122; and there is reason to believe that they are all he wrote, with the exception of two or three, which there is no hope of recovering.

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The first and second volumes of the _Grenville Papers_--being the correspondence of Richard, Earl Temple, and George Grenville, their friends and contemporaries, including Mr. Grenville's Political Diary--were published in London on the 18th of December. We have before alluded to this work, as one likely to illustrate some points in American history, and possibly to furnish new means for determining the vexed question of the authorship of Junius. Among the contents will be found letters from George the Third, the Dukes of Cumberland, Newcastle, Devonshire, Grafton, and Bedford; Marquess Granby; Earls Bute, Temple, Sandwich, Egremont, Halifax, Hardwicke, Chatham, Mansfield, Northington, Suffolk, Hillsborough, and Hertford; Lords Lyttleton, Camden, Holland, Olive, and George Sackville; Marshal Conway, Horace Walpole, Edmund Burke, George Grenville, John Wilkes, William Gerard Hamilton, Augustus Hervey, Mr. Jenkinson (first Earl of Liverpool), Mr. Wedderburn, Charles Yorke, Charles Townsend, Mr. Charles Lloyd, and the author of the Letters of Junius.

The fifth and sixth volumes of Lord MAHON's _History of England_, embracing the first years of the American war, 1763-80, were also nearly ready. We regret that the earlier volumes of this important history, edited by Professor Reed, of Philadelphia, and published by the Appletons, have not been so well received as to warrant an expectation that the continuation will be reprinted.

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SIR JAMES STEPHEN'S _Lectures on the History of France_, is an exceedingly interesting work, of which we hope to see an American edition. The author is well known in this country, by the largely circulated volume of his _Miscellanies_, published in Philadelphia, a few years ago. The present work consists of discourses delivered by him as professor of History in the University of Cambridge, and though not of the highest rank among systematic histories, it is inferior to very few in occasional grouping and character painting.

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The third volume of Mr. MERRIVALE's _History of the Romans under the Empire_; the ninth and tenth volumes of Mr. GROTE'S _History of Greece_; and a seventh edition of SHARON TURNER'S _History of the Anglo-Saxons_, are among the most interesting English announcements in historical literature.

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The _Life of Dr. Chalmers_, by Dr. Hanna, will extend to four volumes; the third, just re-published by the Harpers, is the most interesting yet issued. We observe that a volume of _Reminiscences of Chalmers_ has been published in London, by Mr. JOHN ANDERSON.

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ALICE CAREY'S _Clovernook, or Recollections of our Neighborhood in the West_, has just been published by Mr. Redfield, in one volume, illustrated by Darley. To those who have read one of the introductory chapters of this work which we copied into the _International_ for November, it seems quite unnecessary to say any thing in illustration or commendation of the author's genius; they will be likely to purchase _Clovernook_ as soon as they are advised of its appearance. We have nothing in our literature, descriptive of country life, to be compared with it, for effective painting or for truthfulness. The scene is laid in Ohio--near Cincinnati--while a suburban village is gradually growing up from the simple cottage in the wilderness till it becomes a favorite resort of patrician families; and few novelists have been more happy in describing the "progress of society," or exhibited, in such performances, more humor, tenderness, or pathos.

We have from Ticknor & Co., of Boston, a second series of _Greenwood Leaves_, by the public's old favorite, GRACE GREENWOOD. The tales which it embraces are in the author's happiest vein, and the letters are dashing and piquant, but liable to some objections which we might make in a longer notice. The same publishers have issued a capital book for children, entitled _Recollections of My Childhood_, by the same author.

CAROLINE CHEESEBRO is another young magazinist, whose productions have been very popular. Her _Dreamland by Daylight_ (published by Redfield), a collection of tales and sketches, contains much fine sentiment and displays a ready fancy and a just appreciation of social life, but she has a little less individuality than Miss Carey or Grace Greenwood.

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It will gratify every reader of American history to learn that we are soon to have three phases of the character of Washington, presented by men so eminent as DANIEL WEBSTER, Mr. IRVING, and Mr. BANCROFT. Mr. Webster, we have reason to believe, has nearly completed his Memoir of the Political Life of the great Chief; Mr. Irving's work, which has been some time announced, will make us familiar with his personal qualities, and Mr. Bancroft's History of the Revolution will display his military career as it has never before been exhibited, as it can be presented by none but our greatest historian. The first volume of Mr. Bancroft's work on the Revolution is passing rapidly through the press, and it will doubtless be published early in the spring. It has been kept back by the author's failure to obtain, until within a few weeks past, certain important documents necessary to its completion.

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Mr. HART of Philadelphia, has just published _A Method of Horsemanship, founded on new Principles, and including the Breaking and Training of Horses, with Instructions for obtaining a good Seat; illustrated with Engravings_: by F. BAUCHER. It is translated from the ninth Paris edition, and makes a handsome duodecimo. Among the many systems of horsemanship which have appeared none has fallen under our notice so valuable as this. The chief defect of previous publications has been that they were mere collections of rules, applicable to particular cases only, based on no established principles, and therefore as impracticable for general purposes as crude and unphilosophical in design. Ignorance was at the root of this. The authors did not understand the nature of the animal about which they professed to teach so much, and their rules were quite as applicable to the bear or the hyena. The agent employed by the old masters was force--severe bitting, hard whipping, and deep spurring. Some went so far as to recommend the use of fire, in extreme cases--thus establishing a kind of equine martyrdom, in which the poor brute suffered indeed, but without any advantage to the faith of his more brutal persecutors. These various punishments were prescribed with the utmost coolness, often with jocularity, as if the horse under the worst tortures were only getting his deserts, and as if the amount and importance of his laborious services by no means entitled him to any forbearance. Human ingenuity is capable of absolute development in the direction of cruelty; it seems to be the most visible and satisfying side of our capabilities; no man who commits a slow murder, whether on one animal or another, can doubt that he has done _something_--the proof stares him in the face. Then again, murder is adapted to the lowest capacities; there is not a groom in the land less capable of taking life than the finest gentleman. The issue of all this has been--if the horse were not killed at once--to shorten his days, to lessen his intelligence, to injure his form, and to degrade and dwindle his race, from generation to generation.

Who, after following the old course of training, has a right to complain of the degeneracy which he sees in the broken-hearted drudges around him, or, having any feeling, will hesitate in adopting a more humane course, if one be offered? Such a course is submitted to English readers for the first time in this translation of M. Baucher. The harsh bit is entirely cast aside, and the whip and spur are used very sparingly--as means of persuasion only, never as instruments of punishment. Baucher's system is intended to develope the better instincts of the animal, not to punish the vices which we have taught him, in vain efforts to subdue a strength incalculably greater than ours--which by resolute cruelty we have forced him to employ in resisting our unjust demands. Baucher lays it down as an axiom that no horse is naturally vicious, but that his vices are acquired through bad management. One may possess a higher temper than another, to be sure, but spirited horses are those which turn out best under his method of training. The more intelligent the animal, the more capable of instruction--the more frolicksome but the more tractable is his disposition. We all remember "Mayfly," a trick horse at Welch's circus, that could perform anything possible to a horse: he was a pupil of Baucher. But before falling into his skilful hands, this animal was so vicious, that on the race course it was thought necessary to start him from a box, in order to prevent his injuring himself and the other horses. Here there is an instance in which confirmed ill habits were completely eradicated by proper discipline; and how much easier must it be to establish good ones, where we have nothing but pliant ignorance with which to contend. It is not within our limits to enter fully into the different merits of Baucher's treatise. It is sufficient to say that it has been tested, approved and adopted by the most skilful riders of Europe--the late Duc d'Orleans, a more than graceful horseman, having been Baucher's patron until the day of his unfortunate death. The most vigorous and searching inquiries of the government failed to overthrow the system in a single particular; and wherever Baucher was led into argument with his opponents, the mere force of his philosophical reasonings was sufficient to put them down. His book has gone through nine editions in France, and as many in Russia, Germany, Belgium and Holland. The present translation is well executed, in clear comprehensible English; its only defect, if that can be considered one, is, that it is somewhat too idiomatically precise. So little does it smell of the usual vulgarity of the stable, that we are led to believe Baucher has fallen into the hands of a translator of taste and refinement, who not only admires the system for its practical uses, but also for its logical exactness and genial humanity. The work is copiously illustrated with explanatory engravings, and is well printed on good thick paper, as a manual should be. Nothing is wanting, but the extensive circulation which it deserves, to make it useful to equestrians, and beneficial to that much abused animal to which it is devoted.

* * * * *

The _Heroes and Martyrs of the Modern Missionary Enterprise, with some Sketches of the Earlier Missionaries_, edited by L. E. SMITH, with an introduction by Rev. Dr. SPRAGUE, will soon be published by P. Brockett & Co., of Hartford. It will be an octavo of about six hundred pages, with portraits.

The Fine Arts.

KAULBACH's picture of the Destruction of Jerusalem is at last finished, in fresco, upon the walls of the New Museum in Berlin. It is worth a journey thither to see it. Nor is it alone. The other parts of the series of pictures which adorn the great stairway of that edifice, are rapidly advancing to completion. The five broad pilasters, which separate the main pictures, are nearly done, many of the chief figures being finished in color, while others are drawn in their places. They will exhaust the history of the early religious and intellectual development of humanity. The Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Greek, Hebrew, and Roman religions, are all illustrated with that masterly genius, comprehensiveness and fertility of imagination, for which Kaulbach is without a peer among the artists of the age. Each religion is depicted in the persons of its divinities and early teachers and heroes. Thoroughly to understand the whole scope of these pictures, requires as much learning in the theology and mythology of these antique races as the artist has employed in painting them, not to speak of skill in deciphering allegories; but to be impressed with their wonderful richness, grandeur, and beauty, requires no learning, beyond a true eye and a mind capable of feeling. Besides, these mythological pictures, the symbolical men of history are introduced, such as Moses and Solon. The Grecian mythological part is not yet completed, the artist having reserved that to be done next summer; in it he intends to lay himself out as on a favorite and congenial subject.

* * * * *

The works of INGRES, the eminent French painter, have been published in splendid style by the great house of Didot at Paris.

Noctes Amicæ.

There are being born into this great city a vast number of young people--enough babies indeed, every day, to make a great noise in the world sometime, if every one should turn out to be a Demosthenes or Cicero, an Alexander, a Cæsar, or a Napoleon. But though every dame may think her own the prettiest child alive, it seems to us not altogether agreeable to good taste for her to anticipate the judgment of the future in naming it after that celebrity that he or she is destined to rival or eclipse. In seriousness, the habit which prevails so generally of bestowing illustrious names in baptism, is ridiculous and disgraceful, and is continually productive of misfortunes to the victims, if they happen to be possessed of parts to elevate them from a vulgar condition. In the south they manage these things better; the Cæsars, Hannibals, Napoleons, Le Grands, Rexes, &c., are all to be found in the negro yards; but almost every public occasion in the north, affords an instance by which a "man of the people," hearing his name called in an assembly, or seeing it printed in a journal, is compelled to feel shame for the weakness of his parents, by which he is burthened with a name that belittles the greatest actions of which he is capable.

* * * * *

In illustration of the passport system, a good story is told of the recent arrest of a Turk on the frontier of the Herzegowina. For some time past, the Turkish Government has allowed its authorities to wring something out of the people by means of passports and the devices thereunto belonging, but it chances that a great many persons in power can neither read nor write, and therefore a shrewd fellow may palm any species of official-looking paper he thinks proper as his regular pass on the officials; thus it was that a Turk who had travelled some time in peace with a document of imposing appearance, which he had picked up in the streets at Constantinople, at last found one who could read it, and it was discovered to be one of Jean Maria Farina's Eau de Cologne labels!

* * * * *

A Mayor of the department of the Haute-Saône, France, has had the following decision placarded on the church door:--

"Whereas, at all times, there have been disorders, and always
will be; and whereas, at all times, there have been laws to
repress them, and always will be; and whereas magistrates are
appointed to have them properly executed, I ask, ought we, or
ought we not, to do our duty? If we do our duty, we are
calumniated. Well, then, taking these things into
consideration, I declare that if that horde of
good-for-nothings who are in the habit of frequenting the
churchyard during Divine service, shall continue to do so, they
will have to come into collision with me."

* * * * *

M. MICHAUD, of the French Academy, is pleased to express literary malice against those whom he loves and esteems the most. A political man came one day to confide a secret to him, and recommended to him the strictest discretion. "_Do not be uneasy_," replied M. Michaud, "_your secret shall be well kept; I will hide it in the complete works of my friend Lacretelle_." We think we know of an American author whose "various writings" would serve the same purpose.

* * * * *

In the last _International_ we mentioned the death of the well-known ballad composer ALEXANDER LEE. Some painfully interesting circumstances of his last days have since appeared in the journals:

"About a week before his death, he called on a friend and
brother pianist, Thirlwall, stated his extreme destitution, and
asked that a concert might be got up for his relief. This was
done, generously and promptly. The concert was advertised, Lee
and Thirlwall to preside at the piano. The other performances
were to be by Mr. Thirlwall's four daughters, and by half a
dozen other friends and pupils of Lee, who had offered their
gratuitous services. On the day of the proposed concert, he for
whose benefit it was to be given, died. It was thought best to
perform the concert, however, and to devote the proceeds to
paying the proper honors to his memory. They did so, but most
of those who tried their voices were too much affected to sing,
and the performance was at last brought to an abrupt
termination by one of his pupils, who burst into a passion of
tears while endeavoring to sing _The Spirit of Good_, an air by
the departed master."

* * * * *

STORIES of the sagacity of elephants are endless; here are two which imply complicated processes of thought:

"Another elephant that was exhibited in London was made to go
through a variety of tricks, and among them that of picking up
a sixpence with its trunk; but on one occasion the coin rolled
near a wall beyond its reach. As the animal was still ordered
to get it, it paused for a moment as if for consideration, and
then, stretching forth its trunk to its greatest extent, blew
with such force on the money that it was driven against the
wall, and was brought within reach by the recoil. An officer in
the Bengal army had a very fine and favorite elephant, which
was supplied daily in his presence with a certain allowance of
food, but being compelled to absent himself on a journey, the
keeper of the beast diminished the ration of food, and the
animal became daily thinner and weaker. When its master
returned, the elephant exhibited the greatest signs of
pleasure; the feeding time came, and the keeper laid before it
the former full allowance of food, which it divided into two
parts, consuming one immediately, and leaving the other
untouched. The officer, knowing the sagacity of his favorite,
saw immediately the fraud that had been practised, and made the
man confess his crime."

* * * * *

A delegation of those disgusting creatures of the feminine or neuter gender, who hold conventions for the discussion of "Women's Rights," obtruded into the presence of the wife of Kossuth, just before the Hungarian left England, with an address, which, in addition to expressions of sympathy, contained an intimation that a statement of opinions was desired respecting their efforts to achieve the "freedom of their sex." The lady replied that she thanked them for their attentions, and that, with respect to her views on the emancipation of woman, she had in earlier years confined herself to the circle of her domestic duties, and had never been tempted to look beyond it; that latterly the overwhelming course of events had left her, as might be well supposed, still less leisure for any speculations of this kind; it would, moreover (such was the conclusion of her little speech), be forgiven in her, the wife of Kossuth--a man whom the general voice, not more than her own heart, pronounced distinguished--if she submitted herself entirely to his guidance, and never thought of emancipation! Probably this admirable answer has saved her the annoyance of receiving any such visitors in this country.

* * * * *

We find the following in the _Gazette des Tribunaux_:

"In 1814, Lord W---- was colonel of an English regiment, and
joined the allied army which invaded France. Shortly before his
departure from Dover, where he was in garrison, the Colonel
married a rich heiress, but he left her with her family whilst
he went to encounter the risk of combats. The campaign of
France being terminated, nothing further was heard of the
colonel; it was known, however, that his regiment had been
almost entirely destroyed in a combat with the French in the
south of France, but his death not having been regularly
proved, some law proceedings took place between the different
members of his family respecting property to a very large
amount. These proceedings, which are not yet terminated, will,
no doubt, receive a solution from the following singular
circumstances:--Some time ago an old soldier, M. R----,
residing in the environs of Marseilles, came to Paris on family
affairs, and took up his residence in a hotel in the quarter of
the Chaussée d' Antin. Having run short of money, he begged the
hotel-keeper, M. D----, to advance him 100f., and as a
guarantee he left him provisionally a superb gold watch,
ornamented with diamonds, and on the back of which was the
miniature of a lady, with the initials 'E. W----.' M. R----
told the hotel-keeper that in a combat in 1814, in the south of
France, he had wounded and taken prisoner an English colonel;
that the colonel dying almost immediately after of his wounds,
his watch had remained in his hands. He recommended M. D----to
take particular care of the watch, and he went away, some days
ago, announcing that he would soon send by the messageries the
sum lent, and demand restitution of the watch. Two days back
there was such a numerous gathering of travellers in the hotel
of M. D----, that he was obliged to give up his own room to an
Englishman. On seeing the watch hanging over the chimney the
Englishman uttered a cry of surprise, and examined it closely.
From the miniature on the back, and the replies of the hotel
keeper to his questions, he recognized it as the property of
his brother, Colonel W----. With an obstinacy peculiarly
English, the Englishman would not give up the watch, and
offered to pay 100,000f. for it if required; for it was, with
the testimony of R----, the proof of the decease of his
brother, and the termination of the law proceedings, which had
been pending thirty years; but in the absence of the proprietor
of the watch, the hotel-keeper could not dispose of it. To
satisfy, however, the obstinacy of the Englishman he called in
the commissary of police, who consented to take it as a
deposit. The same day the Englishman set out for Marseilles to
seek for Mr. R----."

* * * * *

The London _Spectator_ has the following just observations on a scandalous exhibition in the theatres:

"There is a certain degree of elevation, especially in the
course of human events, which foretells a speedy downfall.
Tyrannies, before their decline, become more and more
abominable; and probably the last tyrant is the one who deems
his position most secure and his impunity best established. We
are forced to this reflection by a burlesque on Auber's _Enfant
Prodigue_, brought out this week at the Olympic. Here we have
the most affecting story of sin and repentance, derived
moreover from the lips of One whom almost every inhabitant of
this island esteems as sacred, made the peg whereon to hang the
ordinary jokes which we hear _usque ad nauseam_, every
Christmas and Easter. There must be an overweening confidence
in the safety of burlesque to make such an experiment possible.
We are by no means anxious to assume the Puritanical tone, or
to lay down the doctrine that certain subjects are to be
excluded from any department of art. The most sacred themes are
worked into oratorio-books, and the most straitlaced portion of
the community applauds their combination with music. But when a
subject is in itself solemn, let it be solemnly treated.
Opinions may be divided as to whether the story of the Prodigal
Son can with propriety be represented in the form of serious
opera or spectacle, but that it is an improper theme for
burlesque there cannot be the shadow of a doubt. Our dramatic
authors have too long been in the habit of trying to raise a
laugh about every thing, and we have too long been inundated
with a species of drama in which the chief wit is anachronism
and the chief wisdom a Cockney familiarity with the
disreputable works of the Metropolis. We trust that the _début_
of the _Prodigal Son_ at Vauxhall and the Casinos is that
crisis of a disease which precedes a return to health, and that
henceforth we shall hear less about Haroun Alraschid's views of
the polka, and Julius Cæesar's estimate of cider cellars and
cigars. As for the Olympic burlesque itself, it is by no means
void of humor; nor is it unsuccessful. We only stigmatize it as
the perfection of a bad genus."

Some time ago when a comic opera founded on the history of Joseph was produced in England the people refused to hear it.

Historical Review of the Month.

In Great Britain through November, and in all the last month in the United States, Louis Kossuth has been the object of principal interest to every class of persons. Arriving in New-York on the 5th of December, he has delivered a series of brilliant orations, probably unexampled in all history by any one man, in so short a period, for displays of various knowledge, effective method, and popular eloquence; and, whatever his subject or occasion, the central point of every one was the deliverance of Hungary. The most important result thus far is the organization of a Finance Committee, consisting of a number of the most eminent citizens of New-York, to collect voluntary contributions of money, for the purpose of carrying on a projected resistance to Austria and Russia by the Hungarians. Of the Government of this country, it is understood, Kossuth asks no active intervention, but that England and America shall unite in affirming the policy, that "every nation shall have the right to make and alter its political institutions to suit its own condition and convenience," and that the two nations (England and America) shall not only _respect_ but _cause to be respected_ this doctrine, so as to prevent Russia from again marching her armies into Hungary. By a large majority of both Houses of Congress, Governor Kossuth has been invited to Washington, and it is probable that he will soon disclose in a speech before the representatives of the nation, more fully than he has yet done, his plans, his hopes, and his expectations.

The first session of the thirty-second Congress assembled in Washington on the 1st of December. In both houses there is a strong majority for the Democratic party. Of the Senators, _twenty-four_ are Whigs, _two_ (Hale and Sumner) distinctive Free Soilers, _thirty-four_ Democrats including Mr. Chase of Ohio, an avowed Abolitionist, and Messrs. Rhett and Butler of South Carolina, Secessionists. There are now three vacancies in the Senate, the last occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Clay, on account of ill-health and his great age. This illustrious orator and statesman may now be regarded as having closed his public career. The present House consists of 233 Members, besides four Delegates from Territories, who can speak but not vote. Of the Members, the _Tribune_ reckons, _eighty-six_ Whigs, _five_ distinctive Free Soilers (besides several attached to one or the other of the great parties); the remaining _one hundred and forty-two_ are of the Democratic party, including all the Southern Rights men and such Union men as were not previously Whigs. The House was organized on the first day of the session by the election of Linn Boyd, of Kentucky, as Speaker, by a considerable majority.