Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

Expense per cent. of receipts 46,8 Average receipts for passengers booked 27,0d. Average distance travelled per passenger 18,2 miles Average receipts per passenger per mile 1,47d. Average number of passengers per train 54,0 Total average receipts per passenger train per mile 7s. Average receipts per ton of goods booked 6s. 8-1/2d. Average distance carried per ton 38,0 miles Average receipts per ton per mile 1s. 8d. Average number of tons per train 54,5 Total average receipts per goods per mile 8,2s.

The railways, of whose traffic we have here given a
synopsis, are those of the most active and profitable
description in the United States. It would, therefore,
be a great error to infer from the results here
exhibited general conclusions as to the financial
condition of the American railways. It appears, on the
other hand, from a more complete analysis, that the
dividends on the American lines, exclusive of those
contained in the preceding analysis, are in general
small, and in many instances nothing. It is, therefore,
probable that in the aggregate the average profits on
the total amount of capital invested in the American
railways does not exceed, if it indeed equal, the
average profits obtained on the capital invested in
English railways, which we have in a former article
shown to produce little more than 3 per cent.

The extraordinary extent of railway constructed at so
early a period in the United States has been by some
ascribed to the absence of a sufficient extent of
communication by common roads. Although this cause has
operated to some extent in certain districts it is by
no means so general as has been supposed. In the year
1838 the United States' mails circulated over a length
of way amounting on the whole to 136,218 miles, of
which two-thirds were land transport, including
railways as well as common roads. Of the latter there
must have been about 80,000 miles in operation, of
which, however, a considerable portion was
bridle-roads. The price of transport in the stage
coaches was, upon an average, 3.25d. per passenger per
mile, the average price by railway being about 1.47d.
per mile.

Of the entire extent of railway constructed in the
United States, by far the greater portion, as has been
already explained, consists of single lines,
constructed in a light and cheap manner, which in
England would be regarded as merely serving temporary
purposes; while, on the contrary, the entire extent of
the English system consists, not only of double lines,
but of railways constructed in the most solid,
permanent, and expensive manner, adapted to the
purposes of an immense traffic. If a comparison were to
be instituted at all between the two systems, its basis
ought to be the capital expended, and the traffic
served by them, in which case the result would be
somewhat different from that obtained by the mere
consideration of the length of the lines. It is not,
however, the same in reference to the canals, in which
it must be admitted America far exceeds all other
countries in proportion to her population.

The American railways have been generally constructed
by joint stock companies, which, however, the State
controls much more stringently than in England. In some
cases a major limit to the dividends is imposed by the
statute of incorporation, in some the dividends are
allowed to augment, but when they exceed a certain
limit the surplus is divided with the State; in some
the privilege granted to the companies is only for a
limited period, in some a sort of periodical revision
and restriction of the tariff is reserved to the State.
Nothing can be more simple, expeditious, and cheap than
the means of obtaining an act for the establishment of
a railway company in America. A public meeting is held
at which the project is discussed and adopted, a
deputation is appointed to apply to the Legislature,
which grants the act without expense, delay, or
official difficulty. The principle of competition is
not brought into play as in France, nor is there any
investigation as to the expediency of the project with
reference to future profit or loss as in England. No
other guarantee or security is required from the
company than the payment by the shareholders of a
certain amount, constituting the first call. In some
States the non-payment of a call is followed by the
confiscation of the previous payments, in others a fine
is imposed on the shareholders, in others the share is
sold, and if the produce be less than the price at
which it was delivered the surplus can be recovered
from the shareholder by process of law. In all cases
the act creating the companies fix a time within which
the works must be completed, under pain of forfeiture.
The traffic in shares before the definite constitution
of the company is prohibited.

Although the State itself has rarely undertaken the
execution of railways, it holds out in most cases
inducements in different forms to the enterprise of
companies. In some cases the State takes a great number
of shares, which is generally accompanied by a loan
made to the company, consisting in State Stock
delivered at par, which the company negotiate at its
own risk. This loan is often converted into a
subvention.

The great extent of railway communication in America in
proportion to its population must necessarily excite
much admiration. If we take the present population of
the United States at 24,000,000, and the railways in
operation at 10,000 miles, it will follow that in round
numbers there is one mile of railway for every 2,400
inhabitants. Now, in the United Kingdom there are at
present in operation 6,500 miles of railway, and if we
take the population at 30,000,000, it will appear that
there is a mile of railway for every 4,615 inhabitants.
It appears, therefore, that in proportion to the
population the length of railways in the United States
is greater than in the United Kingdom in the ratio of
46 to 24.

On the American railways passengers are not differently
classed or received at different rates of fare as on
those of Europe. There is but one class and one fare.
The only distinction observable arises from color. The
colored population, whether emancipated or not, are
generally excluded from the vehicles provided for the
whites. Such travellers are but few, and are usually
accommodated either in the luggage van or in the
carriage with the guard or conductor. But little
merchandise is transported, the cost of transport being
greater than goods in general are capable of paying;
nevertheless, a tariff regulated by weight alone,
without distinction of classes, is fixed for
merchandise.

Although Cuba is not yet _annexed_ to the United
States, its local proximity here suggests some notice
of a line of railway which traverses that island,
forming a communication between the city of Havana and
the centre of the island. This is an excellently
constructed road, and capitally worked by British
engines, British engineers, and British coals. The
impressions produced in passing along this line of
railway, though different from those already noticed in
the forests of the far west, is not less remarkable. We
are here transported at 30 miles an hour by an engine
from Newcastle, driven by an engineer from Manchester,
and propelled by fuel from Liverpool, through fields
yellow with pineapples, through groves of plantain and
cocoa-nut, and along roads inclosed by hedge-rows of
ripe oranges.

To what extent this extraordinary rapidity of
advancement made by the United States in its inland
communications is observable in other departments will
be seen by the following table, exhibiting a
comparative statement of those _data_, derived from
official sources, which indicate the social and
commercial condition of a people through a period which
forms but a small stage in the life of a nation:

1793. 1851. Population 3,939,325 24,267,488 Imports L6,739,130 L38,723,545 Exports L5,675,869 L32,367,000 Tonnage 520,704 3,535,451 Lighthouses, beacons, and lightships 7 373 Cost of their maintenance L2,600 L115,000 Revenue L1,230,000 L9,516,000 National expenditure L1,637,000 L8,555,000 Post offices 209 21,551 Post roads (miles) 5,642 178,670 Revenue of Post-office L22,800 L1,207,000 Expenses of Post-office L15,650 L1,130,000 Mileage of mails ---- 46,541,423 Canals (miles) 0 5,000 Railways (miles) 0 10,287 Electric telegraph (miles) 0 15,000 Public libraries (volumes) 75,000 2,201,623 School libraries (volumes) 0 2,000,000

If they were not founded on the most incontestable
statistical data, the results assigned to the above
table would appear to belong to fable rather than
history. In an interval of little more than half a
century it appears that this extraordinary people have
increased above 500 per cent. in numbers; their
national revenue has augmented nearly 700 per cent.,
while their public expenditure has increased little
more than 400 per cent. The prodigious extension of
their commerce is indicated by an increase of nearly
500 per cent. in their imports and exports and 600 per
cent. in their shipping. The increased activity of
their internal communications is expounded by the
number of their post offices, which has been increased
more than a hundred-fold, the extent of their post
roads, which has been increased thirty-six-fold, and
the cost of their post-office, which has been augmented
in a seventy-two-fold ratio. The augmentation of their
machinery of public instruction is indicated by the
extent of their public libraries, which have increased
in a thirty-two-fold ratio, and by the creation of
school libraries, amounting to 2,000,000 volumes. They
have completed a system of canal navigation, which,
placed in a continuous line, would extend from London
to Calcutta, and a system of railways which,
continuously extended, would stretch from London to Van
Diemen's Land, and have provided locomotive machinery
by which that distance would be travelled over in three
weeks, at the cost of 1-1/2d. per mile. They have
created a system of inland navigation, the aggregate
tonnage of which is probably not inferior in amount to
the collective inland tonnage of all the other
countries in the world, and they possess many hundreds
of river steamers, which impart to the roads of water
the marvellous celerity of roads of iron. They have, in
fine, constructed lines of electric telegraph which,
laid continuously, would extend over a space longer by
3,000 miles than the distance from the north to the
south pole, and have provided apparatus of transmission
by which a message of 300 words despatched under such
circumstances from the north pole might be delivered
_in writing_ at the south pole in one minute, and by
which, consequently, an answer of equal length might be
sent back to the north pole in an equal interval.

These are social and commercial phenomena for which it
would be vain to seek a parallel in the past history of
the human race.

THE LAST EARTHQUAKE IN EUROPE.

A correspondent of the _Athenaeum_ gives the following account--the best we have yet seen--of the recent earthquake at Amalfi, in the kingdom of Naples:--

"I have, however, seen several persons from Malfi; and
from their narratives will endeavor to give you some
idea of this awful visitation. The morning of the 14th
of August was very sultry, and a leaden atmosphere
prevailed. It was remarked that an unusual silence
appeared to extend over the animal world. The hum of
insects ceased--the feathered tribes were mute--not a
breath of wind moved the arid vegetation. About
half-past two o'clock the town of Malfi rocked for
about six seconds, and nearly every building fell in.
The number of edifices actually levelled with the earth
is 163--of those partially destroyed 98, and slightly
damaged 180. Five monastic establishments were
destroyed, and seven churches including the cathedral.
The awful event occurred at a time when most of the
inhabitants of a better condition were at dinner; and
the result is, that out of the whole population only a
few peasants laboring in the fields escaped. More than
700 dead bodies have already been dug out of the ruins,
and it is supposed that not less than 800 are yet
entombed. A college accommodating 65 boys and their
teachers is no longer traceable. But the melancholy
event does not end here. The adjoining village of
Ascoli has also suffered:--32 houses laving fallen in,
and the church being levelled with the ground. More
than 200 persons perished there. Another small town,
Barile, has actually disappeared; and a lake has arisen
from the bowels of the earth, the waters being warm and
brackish.

"I proceed to give a few anecdotes, as narrated by
persons who have arrived in Naples from the scene of
horror:--'I was travelling,' says one, 'within a mile
of Malfi when I observed three cars drawn by oxen. In a
moment the two most distant fell into the earth; from
the third I observed a man and a boy descend and run
into a vineyard which skirted the road. Shortly after,
I think about three seconds, the third car was
swallowed up. We stopped our carriage, and proceeded to
the spot where the man and boy stood. The former I
found stupified--he was both deaf and dumb; the boy
appeared to be out of his mind, and spoke wildly, but
eventually recovered. The poor man still remains
speechless.' Another informant says:--'Malfi, and all
around present a singular and melancholy appearance:
houses levelled or partially fallen in--here and there
the ground broken up--large gaps displaying volcanic
action--people wandering about stupified--men searching
in the ruins--women weeping--children here and there
crying for their parents, and some wretched examples of
humanity carrying off articles of furniture. The
authorities are nowhere to be found.' A third person
states:--'I am from Malfi, and was near a monastery
when the earthquake occurred. A peasant told me that
the water in a neighboring well was quite hot,--a few
moments after I saw the building fall. I fell on the
ground, and saw nothing more. I thought that I had had
a fit.'

"The town of Malfi--or, Amalfi--is 150 miles from
Naples, and about the centre of the boot. It is
difficult, therefore, to gain information. The
government, I should add, sent a company of sappers and
miners to assist the afflicted _nine days after the
earthquake_!--and a medical commission is to set off
to-morrow. In conclusion, I may observe, that Vesuvius
has for a long time been singularly quiet. The shock of
the earthquake was felt slightly, though sensibly, from
Naples round to Sorrento. I have just heard that the
shocks have not ceased in the district of Malfi; and it
is supposed that volcanic agency is still active.
Indeed, my informant anticipates that an eruption will
take place; and probably some extraordinary phenomena
may appear in this neighborhood. The volcanic action
appears to have taken the direction of Sicily, as
reports have arrived stating that the shocks were felt
in that direction far more strongly than in that of
Naples. I shall send you further particulars as soon as
I can do so with certainty."

MR. JEFFERSON ON THE STUDY OF THE ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE.

The trustees of the University of Virginia have had printed a few copies of _An Essay towards facilitating Instruction in the Anglo-Saxon and Modern Dialects of the English Language_: _By_ THOMAS JEFFERSON. The MS. has been preserved in the library of their University ever since Mr. Jefferson's death. It is a very characteristic production, and is printed in a thin quarto volume, prefaced by the following letter from Mr. Jefferson to Herbert Croft, LL.B., of London:

MONTICELLO, _Oct. 30th, 1798_.

Sir; The copy of your printed letter on the English and
German languages, which you have been so kind as to
send me, has come to hand; and I pray you to accept of
my thanks for this mark of your attention. I have
perused it with singular pleasure, and, having long
been sensible of the importance of a knowledge of the
Northern languages to the understanding of English, I
see it, in this letter, proved and specifically
exemplified by your collations of the English and
German. I shall look with impatience for the
publication of your "English and German Dictionary."
Johnson, besides the want of precision in his
definitions, and of accurate distinction in passing
from one shade of meaning to another of the same word,
is most objectionable in his derivations. From a want
probably of intimacy with our own language while in the
Anglo-Saxon form and type, and of its kindred languages
of the North, he has a constant leaning towards Greek
and Latin for English etymon. Even Skinner has a little
of this, who, when he has given the true Northern
parentage of a word, often tells you from what Greek
and Latin source it might be derived by those who have
that kind of partiality. He is, however, on the whole,
our best etymologist, unless we ascend a step higher to
the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary; and he has set the good
example of collating the English word with its kindred
word in the several Northern dialects, which often
assist in ascertaining its true meaning.

Your idea is an excellent one, in producing authorities
for the meanings of words, "to select the prominent
passages in our best writers, to make your dictionary a
general index to English literature, and thus to
intersperse with verdure and flowers the barren deserts
of Philology." And I believe with you that "wisdom,
morality, religion, thus thrown down, as if without
intention, before the reader, in quotations, may often
produce more effect than the very passages in the books
themselves;"--"that the cowardly suicide, in search of
a strong word for his dying letter, might light on a
passage which would excite him to blush at his want of
fortitude, and to forego his purpose;"--"and that a
dictionary with examples at the words may, in regard to
every branch of knowledge, produce more real effect
than the whole collection of books which it quotes." I
have sometimes myself used Johnson as a Repertory, to
find favorite passages which I wished to recollect, but
too rarely with success.

I was led to set a due value on the study of the
Northern languages, and especially of our Anglo-Saxon,
while I was a student of the law, by being obliged to
recur to that source for explanation of a multitude of
law-terms. A preface to Fortescue on Monarchies,
written by Fortescue Aland, and afterwards premised to
his volume of Reports, developes the advantages to be
derived to the English student generally, and
particularly the student of law, from an acquaintance
with the Anglo-Saxon; and mentions the books to which
the learner may have recourse for acquiring the
language. I accordingly devoted some time to its study,
but my busy life has not permitted me to indulge in a
pursuit to which I felt great attraction. While engaged
in it, however, some ideas occurred for facilitating
the study by simplifying its grammar, by reducing the
infinite diversities of its unfixed orthography to
single and settled forms, indicating at the same time
the pronunciation of the word by its correspondence
with the characters and powers of the English alphabet.
Some of these ideas I noted at the time on the blank
leaves of my Elstob's Anglo-Saxon Grammar: but there I
have left them, and must leave them, unpursued,
although I still think them sound and useful. Among the
works which I proposed for the Anglo-Saxon student, you
will find such literal and verbal translations of the
Anglo-Saxon writers recommended, as you have given us
of the German in your printed letter. Thinking that I
cannot submit those ideas to a better judge than
yourself, and that if you find them of any value you
may put them to some use, either as hints in your
dictionary, or in some other way, I will copy them as a
sequel to this letter, and commit them without reserve
to your better knowledge of the subject. Adding my
sincere wishes for the speedy publication of your
valuable dictionary, I tender you the assurance of my
high respect and consideration.

THOMAS JEFFERSON."

Of the Essay itself we have room for only the initial paragraph, which is as follows:

"The importance of the Anglo-Saxon dialect towards a
perfect understanding of the English language seems not
to have been duly estimated by those charged with the
education of youth; and yet it is unquestionably the
basis of our present tongue. It was a full-formed
language; its frame and construction, its declension of
nouns and verbs, and its syntax were peculiar to the
Northern languages, and fundamentally different from
those of the South. It was the language of all England,
properly so called, from the Saxon possession of that
country in the sixth century to the time of Henry III.
in the thirteenth, and was spoken pure and unmixed with
any other. Although the Romans had been in possession
of that country for nearly five centuries from the time
of Julius Caesar, yet it was a military possession
chiefly, by their soldiery alone, and with dispositions
intermutually jealous and unamicable. They seemed to
have aimed at no lasting settlements there, and to have
had little familiar mixture with the native Britons. In
this state of connection there would probably be little
incorporation of the Roman into the native language,
and on their subsequent evacuation of the island its
traces would soon be lost altogether. And had it been
otherwise, these innovations would have been carried
with the natives themselves when driven into Wales by
the invasion and entire occupation of the rest of the
Southern portion of the island by the Anglo-Saxons. The
language of these last became that of the country from
that time forth, for nearly seven centuries; and so
little attention was paid among them to the Latin, that
it was known to a few individuals only as a matter of
science, and without any chance of transfusion into the
vulgar language. We may safely repeat the affirmation,
therefore, that the pure Anglo-Saxon constitutes at
this day the basis of our language. That it was
sufficiently copious for the purposes of society in the
existing condition of arts and manners, reason alone
would satisfy us from the necessity of the case. Its
copiousness, too, was much favored by the latitude it
allowed of combining primitive words so as to produce
any modification of idea desired. In this
characteristic it was equal to the Greek, but it is
more specially proved by the actual fact of the books
they have left us in the various branches of history,
geography, religion, law, and poetry. And although
since the Norman conquest it has received vast
additions and embellishments from the Latin, Greek,
French, and Italian languages, yet these are but
engraftments on its idiomatic stem; its original
structure and syntax remain the same, and can be but
imperfectly understood by the mere Latin scholar. Hence
the necessity of making the Anglo-Saxon a regular
branch of academic education. In the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries it was assiduously cultivated by
a host of learned men. The names of Lambard, Parker,
Spelman, Wheeloc, Wilkins, Gibson, Hickes, Thwaites,
Somner, Benson, Mareschal, Elstob, deserve to be ever
remembered with gratitude for the Anglo-Saxon works
which they have given us through the press, the only
certain means of preserving and promulgating them."

THE OBELISKS OF EGYPT.

In the last number of the _International_ we gave an interesting article from the London _Times_ respecting "Cleopatra's Needle." The subject of its removal has since been largely discussed in England, and Mr. Tucker, a civil engineer, has been sent out to Alexandria to "report on the condition and site of the obelisk," and Lord Edward Russell has been appointed to the Vengeance to proceed to Egypt for the purpose of bringing it to England. On the publication of these facts Mr. Nathaniel Gould writes to the _Times_ as follows:

How far a "man-of-war" is a proper vessel for this
purpose may be seen hereafter. The Premier is, however,
ready enough to appropriate some little _eclat_ to a
member of his own family. I stated that, so far as I
could make out, the bringing the obelisk of Luxor to
Paris had cost the French Government 40,000_l._; but it
is stated by Mr. Gliddon, late United States Consul at
Cairo, that it actually cost France 2,000,000f., or
80,000_l._! Private offers have been made to bring the
Needle to England for from 7,000_l._ to 12,500_l._
within a twelvemonth; it remains to be seen what it
will cost when brought on Government account.

Notwithstanding that so much has of late appeared upon
the subject of Egyptian obelisks, but little has been
given of value to the public touching the nature,
origin, inscriptions, numbers, and localities of these
curious and interesting objects. Perhaps, Sir, you may
not think it out of the way to give room for such
information as I have got together in my researches,
while contemplating the removal of the obelisk from
Alexandria. Obelisks are of Egyptian invention, and are
purely historical records, placed in pairs before
public buildings, stating when, by whom, and for what
purpose the building was erected, and the divinity or
divinities to whom it was dedicated.

We read that the ancient Hebrews set up stones to
record signal events, and such stones are called by
Strabo "books of history;" but, as they were
uninscribed, the Egyptian monoliths are much more so.
The Celts, too, have left similar stones in every
country in which they settled, as our own islands
sufficiently prove, whether in those of the Channel or
of Ireland and Scotland. The Scandinavian nations have
in more recent periods left similar records, some of
them inscribed with Runic characters, which, like the
hieroglyphics of Egypt, are now translated.

Egyptian obelisks are all of very nearly similar
proportions, however they may differ in height; the
width of the base is usually about one-tenth of the
length of the shaft, up to the finish or pyramidion,
which, again, is one-tenth of the length of the shaft.
The image of gold set up by king Nebuchadnezzar agrees
with these proportions--viz., sixty cubits high and six
cubits wide. They are generally cut out of granite,
though there are two small ones in the British Museum
of basalt, and one at Philoe of sandstone. The
pyramidions of several appear to be rough and
unfinished, leading some persons to suppose that they
were surmounted with a cap of bronze, or of rays. Bonom
writes, that Abd El Latief saw bronze coverings on
those of Luxor and that of Materiah in the 13th
century; with such a belief it is not improbable that
the obelisk of Arles, in France, found and re-erected
to the glory of the Great Louis, was surmounted with a
gilt sun. The temples of Egypt may be considered not
only as monuments of the intelligence and ancient
civilization of mankind, as vignettes in the great book
of history, but also as possessing a peculiar interest,
as belonging to a people intimately connected with
sacred records.

As regards the original sites of the obelisks, none are
found on the west bank of the Nile, neither are any
pyramids found on the eastern bank of Egypt Proper;
this caused Bonomi to think that obelisks were intended
as decorations to the temples of the living, symbolized
by the rising sun, and pyramids decorations of the
temples of the dead, symbolized by its setting. The
greater number of obelisks are engraven on the four
faces; some are engraven on one face only, and some
have never been inscribed. Some of the faces are
engraven in one column, some in two, and some in three
columns. In some instances the side or lateral columns
have been additions in after times, in different and
inferior styles of engraving; and in some instances the
name of the king, within the oval or cartouche, has
been erased and another substituted. The inscriptions
are hieroglyphic or sacred writing, which have been
unintelligible till within the last few years. The
French occupation of Egypt commenced that discovery,
which has been perfected by the key of Young and the
alphabet of Champollion--though mainly perhaps indebted
to the Rosetta Stone, found in 1799, engraven in three
characters, hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek. The more
ancient inscriptions are beautifully cut, and as fresh
as if just from the tool, and are curiously caved
inwardly, and exquisitely polished.

It would take too much of your space and of my time to
give a history of the progress of this wonderful
discovery, by which we now know more of the Egyptian
history before the time of Abraham than of England
before Alfred the Great, or of France before
Charlemagne. Some of these monuments are considered to
date as far back as 2,000 years before the Christian
era. It is sufficiently evident, from the small number
that are known to exist, that they were a most costly
production, requiring a long time for their completion,
and the most elaborate skill of the most perfect
sculptors to execute. Bonomi, to whose indefatigable
research, and clear and positive style of writing, and
condensation of his knowledge I am indebted, out of his
papers read before the Royal Society of Literature (of
which I am a member), gives us an account of all the
known obelisks.

The number of Egyptian obelisks now standing is 30; of
which there are remaining in Egypt, 8; in Italy, 14; in
Constantinople, 2; in France, 2; in England, 4. The
loftiest is that of the "Lateran," at Rome, which is
105 feet, though 4 feet were cut from its broken base,
to enable it to stand when re-erected. The shortest is
the minor "Florentine," which is 5 feet 10 inches. The
number of prostrate obelisks known is 12, viz.: at
Alexandria, 1; in the ruins of Saan, or Tanais, 9; at
Carnack, 2; all in Egypt, and all colossal, and of the
18th and 20th dynasties. Thus it seems that, like the
cedars of Lebanon, there are more in other parts of the
world than in the country of their original location.

The 12 obelisks at Rome were conveyed thither by the
Caesars to adorn the eternal city; that of the Lateran
was brought by Constantine from Heliopolis to
Alexandria, and from Alexandria by Constantius, and
placed in the "Circus Maximus." It was brought from
Alexandria in an immense galley. When the barbarians
sacked Rome they overthrew all the obelisks, which were
broken in their fall; this was in three pieces, and the
base so destroyed that when raised by Fontana in 1588,
by order of Sixtus V., above 4 feet were cut from its
base; it is now 105 feet 7 inches in shaft. It is
sculptured on all four sides, and the same subject on
each. There are three columns--the inner the most
ancient and best cut. The obelisk of the Piazza del
Popolo was brought from Heliopolis by Augustus, and,
like the preceding, was broken in three pieces, and
required above three feet to be cut off its damaged
base. This, too, was re-erected by order of Sixtus V.,
in 1589. Its height, as now shortened, is 87 feet 5
inches. It is sculptured on all four sides in three
columns of different age and excellence. The obelisk of
"Piazza Rotunda" was re-erected by Clement XI., A. D.,
1711. It is 19 feet 9 inches shaft. It has only one
column of hieroglyphics, with the name of Rameses on
each. Those of Materiah and the Hippodrome at
Constantinople also have but one centre column
engraved. So much for some of those at Rome. Of the
four in England, two small ones, of basalt, are in the
British Museum; they are only 8 feet 1 inch in height.
That at Alnwick Castle was found in the Thebaid, and
presented to Lord Prudhoe by the Pacha in 1838, and got
to England by Bonomi. It is of red granite, 7 feet 3
inches in height, and 9-3/4 inches at the base. It is
inscribed on one face only. That at Corfe Castle was
brought over for Mr. Bankes by the celebrated Belzoni.
It is of granite, and 22 feet in height.

Mr. Gould proceeds to repeat the particulars respecting Cleopatra's Needle, which were contained in the October number of this magazine. Signor Tisvanni D'Athanasi also writes to the _Times_, proposing to undertake the removal of this obelisk, and says:

"Every body knows that from the time of the Romans up
to the present century the only colossal objects which
have been transported from Egypt, with the exception of
the obelisk of Luxor, are the two sphynxes which are
now at St Petersburgh, and which were found and sent to
Alexandria through my means."

DR. LATHAM ON THE MOSKITO KINGDOM.

The last portion of Dr. ROBERT G. LATHAM'S learned work on the Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies, treats of American ethnology, a branch of the subject which, though extensively investigated, is greatly in want of systematic arrangement. Some of Dr. Latham's views are novel. The following sketch of the Nicaraguan Indians is interesting at the present moment for political reasons:--

"The Moskito Indians are no subjects of England, any
more than the Tahitians are of France, or the Sandwich
Islanders of America, France, and England conjointly.
The Moskito coast is a Protectorate, and the Moskito
Indians are the subjects of a native king. The present
reigning monarch was educated under English auspices at
Jamaica, and, upon attaining his majority, crowned at
Grey Town. I believe that his name is that of the
grandfather of our late gracious majesty. King George,
then, King of the Moskitos, has a territory extending
from the neighborhood of Truxillo to the lower part of
the River San Juan; a territory whereof, inconveniently
for Great Britain, the United States, and the commerce
of the world at large, the limits and definition are
far from being universally recognized. Nicaragua has
claims, and the Isthmus canal suffers accordingly. The
King of the Moskito coast, and the Emperor of the
Brazil, are the only resident sovereigns of the New
World. The subjects of the former are, really, the
aborigines of the whole line of coast between Nicaragua
and Honduras--there being no Indians remaining in the
former republic, and but few in the latter. Of these,
too--the Nicaraguans--we have no definite ethnological
information. Mr. Squier speaks of them as occupants of
the islands of the lakes of the interior. Colonel
Galindo also mentions them; but I infer, from his
account, that their original language is lost, and that
Spanish is their present tongue; just as it is said to
be that of the aborigines of St. Salvador and Costa
Rica. This makes it difficult to fix them. And the
difficulty is increased when we resort to history,
tradition, and archaeology. History makes them
Mexicans--Asteks from the kingdom of Montezuma, and
colonists of the Peninsula, just as the Phoenicians
were of Carthage. Archaeology goes the same way. A
detailed description of Mr. Squier's discoveries is an
accession to ethnology which is anxiously expected. At
any rate, stone ruins and carved decorations have been
found; so that what Mr. Stephenson has written about
Yucatan and Guatemala, may be repeated in the case of
Nicaragua. Be it so. The difficulty will be but
increased, since whatever facts make Nicaragua Mexican,
isolate the Moskitos. They are now in contact with
Spaniards and Englishmen--populations whose
civilization differs from their own; and populations
who are evidently intrusive and of recent origin.
Precisely the same would be the case if the Nicaraguans
were made Mexican. The civilization would be of another
sort; the population which introduced it would be
equally intrusive; and the only difference would be a
difference of stage and degree--a little earlier in the
way of time, and a little less contrast in the way of
skill and industry. But the evidence in favor of the
Mexican origin of the Nicaraguans is doubtful; and so
is the fact of their having wholly lost their native
tongue; and until one of these two opinions be proved,
it will be well to suspend our judgment as to the
isolation of the Moskitos. If, indeed, either of them
be true, their ethnological position will be a
difficult question. With nothing in Honduras to compare
them with--with nothing tangible, or with an apparently
incompatible affinity in Nicaragua--with only very
general miscellaneous affinities in Guatemala--their
ethnological affinities are as peculiar as their
political constitution. Nevertheless, isolated as their
language is, it has undoubtedly general affinities with
those of America at large; and this is all that it is
safe to say at present. But it is safe to say this. We
have plenty of data for their tongue, in a grammar of
Mr. Henderson's, published at New-York, 1846. The chief
fact in the history of the Moskitos is that they were
never subject to the Spaniards. Each continent affords
a specimen of this isolated freedom--the independence
of some exceptional and impracticable tribes, as
compared with the universal empire of some encroaching
European power. The Circassians in Caucasus, the
Tshuktshi Koriaks in North-Eastern Asia, and the
Kaffres in Africa, show this. Their relations with the
buccaneers were, probably, of an amicable description.
So they were with the negroes--maroon and imported. And
this, perhaps, has determined their _differentiae_. They
are intertropical American aborigines, who have become
partially European, without becoming Spanish. Their
physical conformation is that of the South rather than
the North American; and, here it must be remembered,
that we are passing from one moiety of the new
hemisphere to the other. With a skin which is
olive-colored rather than red, they have small limbs
and undersized frames; whilst their habits are,
_mutatis mutandis_, those of the intertropical African.
This means, that the exuberance of soil, and the heat
of the climate, make them agriculturists rather than
shepherds, and idlers rather than agriculturists, since
the least possible amount of exertion gives them roots
and fruits, whilst it is only those wants which are
compatible with indolence that they care to satisfy.
They presume rather than improve upon the warmth of
their suns, and the fertility of the soil. When they
get liquor, they get drunk; when they work hardest,
they cut mahogany. Canoes and harpoons represent the
native industry. Wulasha is the name of their evil
spirit, and Liwaia that of a water-dog. I cannot but
think that there is much intermixture amongst them. At
the same time, the data for ascertaining the amount are
wanting. Their greatest intercourse has, probably, been
with the negro; their next greatest with the
Englishman. Of the population of the interior we know
next to nothing. Here their neighbors are Spaniards.
They are frontagers to the river San Juan. This gives
them their value in politics. They are the only well
known extant Indians between Guatemala and Veragua.
This gives them their value in ethnology. The
populations to which they were most immediately allied
have disappeared from history. This isolates them; so
that there is no class to which they can be
subordinated. At the same time, they are quite as like
the nearest known tribes as the American ethnologist
is prepared to expect. What they were in their truly
natural state, when, unmodified by either Englishman or
Spaniard, Black or Indian, they represented the
indigenous civilization (such as it was) of their
coast, is uncertain."

GOLD-QUARTZ AND SOCIETY.

The Burns Ranch Union Mining Company in California have published a prospectus--we suppose to facilitate the sale of their stock--and the writer indulges in some speculations respecting the influence of the discovery that the chief mineral riches of the new state are in mines, instead of the sands of rivers, thus:

It appears to be the destiny of America to carry on the
greatness of the future, and that Providence--which
shapes the ends of nations as well as of persons, at a
time when it was most needful for the prosecution of
her mission, when war and the expedients of political
strategy are out of vogue, and the people is most
powerful of which the individual civilization, energy,
ambition, and resources are greatest--that Providence,
at this crisis, has opened the veins of the Continent,
slumbering so many thousand years, in order that we
might derive from them all that remained necessary for
investing the United States with the leadership of the
world.

The first intelligence of the discovery of gold in
California fell upon the general mind like news of a
great and peculiar revolution. It was at once--even
before the statements on the subject assumed a definite
or certain form--it was at once felt that a new hour
was signally on the dial-plate of history. Immediately,
those immense fortunes which were acquired by the
Portuguese and Spaniards nearly four centuries
ago--fortunes which, in the decline of nations, have
still remained in families as the sign and substance of
the only nobility and power which mankind at large
acknowledge--those astonishing fortunes which raised
the enterprising poor man to the dignity and happiness
of the most elevated classes in society, were recalled,
and made suggestive of like successes to new and more
hardy adventurers. The reports came with increased
volume; every ship confirmed the rumors brought by its
predecessor, and new intelligence, that, in its turn,
tasked the popular credulity; and it came soon to be
understood that we had found a land literally flowing
with gold and silver, as that promised to the earlier
favorites of Heaven did with milk and honey. As many as
were free from controlling engagements, and had means
with which to do so, started for our El Dorado, making
haste, in fear that the wealth of the country would
quickly be exhausted--not dreaming, even yet, that
there was any thing to be acquired but flakes and
scales and scattered masses of ore, which would be
exhausted by the first hunters who should scour the
rivers and turn the surface soil.

But at length the geologists began to apprehend, what
experience soon confirmed, that, extraordinary as were
the amounts of gold found in drifts of gravel, and
deposits that had been left in the beds of streams,
these were merely the signs of far greater
riches--merely indexes of the presence of rocks and
hills, and underlayers of plains, impregnated with
gold, in quantities that the processes of nature could
never disclose, and that would reward only the
scientific efforts of miners having all the mechanical
appliances which the laborious experiments of other
nations had invented. The fact of the existence of
veins of gold in vast quartz formations, and ribs of
gold in hills, was as startling almost as the first
news of the presence of the precious metal in the
country. This at once changed the prospect, and from a
game of chance, elevated the pursuit of gold in
California to a grand industrial purpose, requiring an
energy and sagacity that invest it with the highest
dignity, and to such energy and sagacity promising,
with absolute certainty, rewards that make it worthy of
the greatest ambition.

Now, men of character and capital--the class of men
whose speculating spirit is held in subjection by the
most exact reason--began to turn to the subject their
investigations, and to connect with it their plans.
This will account for the fact that has so much
astonished the world, which had supposed our Pacific
colony to be composed of the reckless, profligate and
desperate only--the fact, that when California made her
constitution of government, it shot at once in
unquestionable wisdom directly and far in advance of
all the states on the Atlantic, presenting to mankind
the very highest type of a free government that had
ever been conceived. The demonstration that California
was a _mine_, like other mines in all but its
surpassing richness, elevated it from a scene of
gambling to one for the orderly pursuit of riches, and
by the splendor of its promises, drew to it the most
sagacious and most heroical intelligences of the time.

Astonishing as are the present and prospective results
of the discovery in California, however, we are not to
suppose that there is any possibility of a decline in
the value of the precious metals. In absolute material
civilization, the world in the last three-quarters of a
century has advanced more than it had in any previous
three full centuries; and the supply of gold, for
currency and the thousand other objects for which it
was demanded, was becoming alarmingly insufficient, so
that the addition of more than thirty per cent. to the
total annual product of the world, which we are led by
the officially-stated results thus far to expect from
California, will merely preserve the historical and
necessary proportion and standard value.

INEDITED LETTER OF DR. FRANKLIN.

The following characteristic and interesting letter by Dr. Franklin is first printed in the _International_. Captain Falconer, to whom it is addressed, took Dr. Franklin to France when he was appointed commissioner, and proceeded thence with his ship to London. The letter is directed _To Captain Nathaniel Falconer, at the Pennsylvania Coffee-house, Birchin Lane, London_, and the autograph is in the collection of Mr. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia:

PASSY, July 28, 1783.

DEAR FRIEND:--I received your favor of the 18th.
Captain Barney brought us the dispatches we so long
expected. Mr. Deane as you observe is lost. Dr.
Bancroft is I believe steady to the interest of his
country, and will make an agreeable passenger if you
can take him. You desire to know something of the
state of affairs here. Every thing goes well with
respect to this court and the other friendly powers;
what England is doing or means to do, or why the
definitive treaty is so long delayed, I know perhaps
less than you do; as, being in that country, you may
have opportunities of hearing more than I can. For
myself, I am at present as hearty and well as I have
been these many years; and as happy as a man can be
where every body strives to make him so. The French are
an amiable people to live with; they love me, and I
love them. Yet I do not feel myself at home, and I wish
to die in my own country. Barney will sail this week
with our dispatches. A good voyage to you, my friend,
and may God ever bless you.

B. FRANKLIN.
CAPTAIN FALCONER.

A BALLAD OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

FROM A FORTHCOMING VOLUME OF POEMS BY GEORGE H. BOKER.

"The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around."--COLERIDGE.

O, whither sail you, Sir John Franklin?
Cried a whaler in Baffin's Bay.
To know if between the land and the pole
I may find a broad sea-way.

I charge you back, Sir John Franklin,
As you would live and thrive;
For between the land and the frozen pole
No man may sail alive.

But lightly laughed the stout Sir John,
And spoke unto his men:--
Half England is wrong, if he is right;
Bear off to westward then.

O, whither sail you, brave Englishman?
Cried the little Esquimaux.
Between the land and the polar star
My goodly vessels go.

Come down, if you would journey there,
The little Indian said;
And change your cloth for fur clothing,
Your vessel for a sled.

But lightly laughed the stout Sir John,
And the crew laughed with him too:--
A sailor to change from ship to sled,
I ween, were something new!

All through the long, long polar day,
The vessels westward sped;
And wherever the sail of Sir John was blown,
The ice gave way and fled.

Gave way with many a hollow groan,
And with many a surly roar;
But it murmured and threatened on every side,
And closed where he sailed before.

Ho! see ye not, my merry men,
The broad and open sea?
Bethink ye what the whaler said,
Think of the little Indian's sled!
The crew laughed out in glee.

Sir John, Sir John, 'tis bitter cold,
The scud drives on the breeze,
The ice comes looming from the north,
The very sunbeams freeze.

Bright summer goes, dark winter comes--
We cannot rule the year;
But long ere summer's sun goes down,
On yonder sea we'll steer.

The dripping icebergs dipped and rose,
And floundered down the gale;
The ships were staid, the yards were manned,
And furled the useless sail.

The summer's gone, the winter's come,
We sail not on yonder sea:
Why sail we not, Sir John Franklin?
A silent man was he.

The summer goes, the winter comes--
We cannot rule the year:
I ween, we cannot rule the ways,
Sir John, wherein we'd steer.

The cruel ice came floating on,
And closed beneath the lee,
Till the thickening waters dashed no more;
'Twas ice around, behind, before--
My God! there is no sea!

What think you of the whaler now?
What of the Esquimaux?
A sled were better than a ship,
To cruise through ice and snow.

Down sank the baleful crimson sun,
The northern light came out,
And glared upon the ice-bound ships,
And shook its spears about.

The snow came down, storm breeding storm,
And on the decks was laid;
Till the weary sailor, sick at heart,
Sank down beside his spade.

Sir John, the night is black and long,
The hissing wind is bleak,
The hard, green ice is strong as death:--
I prithee, Captain, speak!

The night is neither bright nor short,
The singing breeze is cold,
The ice is not so strong as hope--
The heart of man is bold!

What hope can scale this icy wall,
High over the main flag-staff?
Above the ridges the wolf and bear
Look down with a patient, settled stare,
Look down on us and laugh.

The summer went, the winter came--
We could not rule the year;
But summer will melt the ice again,
And open a path to the sunny main,
Whereon our ships shall steer.

The winter went, the summer went,
The winter came around;
But the hard, green ice was strong as death,
And the voice of hope sank to a breath,
Yet caught at every sound.

Hark! heard you not the noise of guns?
And there, and there again?
'Tis some uneasy iceberg's roar,
As he turns in the frozen main.

Hurra! hurra! the Esquimaux
Across the ice-fields steal:
God give them grace for their charity!
Ye pray for the silly seal.

Sir John, where are the English fields,
And where are the English trees,
And where are the little English flowers
That open in the breeze?

Be still, be still, my brave sailors!
You shall see the fields again,
And smell the scent of the opening flowers,
The grass, and the waving grain.

Oh! when shall I see my orphan child?
My Mary waits for me.
Oh! when shall I see my old mother
And pray at her trembling knee?

Be still, be still, my brave sailors!
Think not such thoughts again.
But a tear froze slowly on his cheek;
He thought of Lady Jane.

Ah! bitter, bitter grows the cold,
The ice grows more and more;
More settled stare the wolf and bear,
More patient than before.

Oh! think you, good Sir John Franklin,
We'll ever see the land?
'Twas cruel to send us here to starve,
Without a helping hand.

'Twas cruel, Sir John, to send us here,
So far from help or home,
To starve and freeze on this lonely sea:
I ween, the Lords of the Admiralty
Had rather send than come.

Oh! whether we starve to death alone,
Or sail to our own country,
We have done what man has never done--
The open ocean danced in the sun--
We passed the Northern Sea!

REMARKABLE PROPHECY.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF M. LAHARPE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE.

BY H. J. BEYERLE, M.D.

It seems to me as if it had been but yesterday, and yet it happened in the beginning of the year 1788. We were at table with one of our colleagues of the Academy, a respectable and lively gentleman. The company was numerous, and selected from all ranks: nobles, judges, professional men, academicians, &c. We had enjoyed ourselves as is customary at a well-loaded table. At the desert, the _malvasier_ and Cape wine exalted the pleasure and increased in a good company that kind of liberty which does not remain within precise limits.

People in the world had then arrived at the point where it was allowed to say every thing, if it was the object to excite laughter. Chamfort had read to us some of his blasphemous and unchaste tales, and the noble ladies heard them without even taking for refuge to the fan. Then followed a whole volley of mockery on religion. One mentioned a tirade from the Pucelle; the other reminded us of those philosophical stanzas of Diderot, wherein he says: "With the intestines of the last priest tie up the throat of the last king;" and all clapped approbation. Another rises, holds up the full tumbler, and cries: "Yes, gentlemen, I am just as certain that there is no God, as I am certain that Homer was a fool!" and really, he was of the one as certain as he was of the other: we had just spoken of Homer and of God, and there were guests present, too, who had said something good of the one and of the other.

The conversation now became more serious. We spoke with astonishment of the revolution Voltaire had effected, and we agreed that it is the most distinguished foundation of his fame. He had given the term to his half-century; he had written in such a manner, that he is read in the anteroom as well as in the hall.