his sons, fought with the fierceness of a violent | At last, a new abbot, who bore his title as a third, in Alberic, and he kept himself free from every othe themselves as naturally into a quantity of rounded episodes as the most ardent lover of the adventurous could desire. The grand incident of the tenth century was the revival of the Western Empire after it had died out in the hands of the latter Carlovingians, and the establishment-such as it was-of the German power in Italy. For several years before Berengar, the last Emperor of the French dynasty, was crowned in the church of Saint Peter, the Imperial crown had become a mere plaything in the hands of the Popes; but even after the death of that insignificant monarch the belief that the resuscitation of a temporal chief over the Christian world would stem the everincreasing tide of internal anarchy and barbarian aggression, was among the firm convictions of the human mind. Certainly mankind seemed sunk to so low a point of degradation that any change must necessarily be an improvement. Hungarians, Wends, and Arabs, were invading Christendom from without, and petty tyrants of every possible shape were crushing Christians within. The compact monarchy of Charlemagne had crumbled away; the spiritual power of the Pope had degenerated into a sort of grim Pompadour-dom, and there was not even a sublime villain to give dignity to the dark picture. Italy had, indeed, the advantage over the rest of the world in cultivation, for it still rejoiced in learned reminiscences of its Pagan days, but what it lacked in unsophisticated barbarism was made up by elaborate depravity. A description given by Herr Giesebrecht of the " doings" at the wealthy convent of Farsa, on the authority of Hugo, the Abbot, whose information is dated about the year 1000, will furnish no bad idea of monastic life in the most polished country of Christendom.— Through the liberality of the Carlovingians, the condition of the convents all over Italy had become very flourishing; but, as these were generally situated without the cities, they had suffered first, and most severely, from foreign attacks. Thus, the Convent of Farsa, in the Sabirte Mountains,-one of the wealthiest in Italy. had been destroyed by the Arabs, and the monks had dispersed in every direction, some going to Fermo, some to Rieti, some to Rome. About the year 925 they returned, and the convent was rebuilt; but the very first abbot, to whom it was indebted for its restoration, found the monks as bad as possible. Two of them, at last, became his murderers-assumed the title of abbot shared the goods of the convent between them--and took unto themselves wives. Campo, one of them, became the parent of three sons and seven daughters, all of whom he endowed with the property of the convent. One of his daughters he married to a Jew, named Azo, who was not passed over in the distri whom Eschylus might have sung with delight. Long had the influence of women become all powerful in Rome. The deeply-depraved nobles, who ruled the city, while the government of the Popes was only nominal, readily obeyed the auspices of artful women of high family. Among these none infamous Theodora, wife of the Consul Theophylactus. had acquired a more powerful influence than the The most important affairs were for a long time in her hands; and, with a masculine, but crafty mind, she guided the fortunes of the city. What neither Pope nor Empress could accomplish was effected by the adroitness of this artful wanton. From the hands of the profligate mother the power was transferred to her daughter, Marozia, who far excelled her mother in licentiousness and cunning. First the mistress of Pope Sergius the Third; then of the Margrave Alberic, who drove the Arabs from Garigliano, she, at last, married the Margrave Wido (Guy). More powerful than ever in the city, she occasioned the fall and death Leo the Sixth and Stephen the Eighth-were creaof Pope John the Tenth. The succeeding Popestions of her favour. At last, she ventured to raise her own son (by Sergius the Third) to the Papal chair, although he had scarcely passed his twentieth year. This was Pope John the Eleventh. According to Gibbon, the influence of Theodora and Marozia (whom, by the way, he calls "sisters") may have suggested the "fable" of a female Pope, though the pontificate of the famous Joan is to be placed, if anywhere, in the middle of the ninth century. Alberic, the son of Marozia, by the Margrave Alberic, was a great man for his age. When his mother, after the death of Wido, became the wife of Hugo of Burgundy, who gained the doubtful rank of "King of Italy," he happened one day, while the nuptial festivities were going on at Rome; to receive from his fatherin-law the ignominious present of a box on the ear. He, at once, assembled a Roman mob, besieged the Castle of St. Angelo, where Hugo was abiding, made himself tyrant-in the antique sense of the word-of the Papal city, and held this substantial office till the time of his death. As fame has been by no means obtrusive with regard to this potentate, we may not unprofitably extract the remarks of Herr Giesebrecht on his deeds and his position. - diate cause of the revival of that empire that ha been in abeyance ever since the death of Berengar. The first expedition of Otho the First across the Alps, which was romanticaly signalized by his marriage with Adelaide, the to Hugo, gained for him the kingdom of Italy, oppressed widow of King Lothair, son and heir and Berengar the Second, the reigning monarch, was content to hold his territory as a fief under the conqueror; but it was not till the Romans in compliance with a promise made to Alberic. raised his son Octavian, who had already inherited the tyranny, to the papal throne, with the title John the Twelfth, that Othe obtained the grand object of his desire-an Imperial crown that was to be something more than a useless gewgaw. Adopting a policy which has more than once proved fatal to Italian liberty, found repulsive even in an age when the the youthful Pope, whose scandalous life was moral standard was at the lowest, offered the German king the diadem of Charlemagne to induce him to cross the Alps again and restrain the aggressions of Berengar, who during his suzerain's absence from Italy had become virtually independent. The result is well know Otho, who had gained a prodigious accession of renown since his last visit-having defeated his rebellious sons, driven back the Wends, and s thoroughly routed the Hungarians that they never dared to molest Western Europe any more but were content to sit down in Pannonia as a civilized people-came and conquered, and in 962 the ceremony took place in the Church of St. Peter, which had not been seen since the days of Berengar the First. A litle incident which occurred on the occasion will how what the German thought of his ally even before any rupture had taken place. Yet the son of this very man was the imme When he commenced his solemn precession to Peter's Church, he said to his sword-bearer, you Ansfried of Louvain, "When I pray at the grave St. Peter to-day, keep your sword close to my know that my ancestors had often caue to the tricks of Rome, and a wise man anticipates betimcs. When we return, you yourself can prat I Monte Maria." The first result of Otho's coronation was complete triumph of the temporal over spiritual head of Christendom. John, here restive under the august protection had himself invited, began to conspire ag Otho almost as soon as the Imperial cere th was over, and was almost immediately depe Leo the Eighth, the Protoscrinarios, or lates the Roman scriveners, being nominated For two-and-twenty years he maintained the possession of Rome against attacks made on every side. He it was that first restored order in the city and the territory belonging to it. Under the name of "Prince and Senator of all the Romans," he governed with absolute power-dictated peace or war-held the supreme tribunal in his castle, by the Church Santi Apostoli had his name stamped upon coins-and appointed to every office. Church discipline, which had been totally relaxed, was again enforced,-the old convents were restored, and new ones were founded, the house on the Aventine, in which he was born, he devoted to a pious foundation, and the elect a Pope without the express sanction debrand, likewise made a handsome provision for his Convent of Santa Maria, in which Gregory the Emperor and his son. An abortive atte numerous children out of the convent possessions, Seventh was brought up, was founded in a similar the part of the turbulent, vacillating cit which were now almost squandered away. The manner. But Churchman as he was, according to set up a Pontiff of their own, in the per monks, too, had taken unto themselves wives, and the notions of his age, following in all spiritual Benedict the Fifth, an honest but not bution. The other murderer, whose name was Hil they pulled down their dwellings in the convent, that they might not be forced to return to them. They merely went to the convent church, as Sunday arrived, to hear and read Mass, after which they returned home, with the gold and silver that they had stolen, and had chains and other ornaments made of it for place by the all-potent Saxon,-and the Roma making a solemn oath that they would of expiring stngs nevertheless, he disposed of the Chair of St. Peter Roman independence. their wives. Rome, at length, became acquainted were nothing but tools in the hands of Alberic, made of Italy what Belgium was after with these proceedings, and sent monks to Farsa to although the State documents were signed, as before, called, the "cockpit of Europe." Otho had reception, and only saved their lives with difficulty. This show of superior power was no restraint to the compactness of the Frank monarchy is reform the convent; but they met the very worst with their names, and the coins bore their effigy. vived the empire, but it was an empire wi 2 L blished by Charlemagne,-its only superiority to the earlier institution consisting in the additions made to Christendom in the north and east of Europe, for though the Saxon Emperor had peculiar notions on the subject of ecclesiastical supremacy, his was an age of great conversions, and he zealously promoted the spread of Christianity among those nations who had hitherto been considered beyond the common pale of civilization. California, In Doors and Out; or, How we Farm, Mine, and Live generally in the Golden State. By Eliza W. Farnham. New York, Dix & Edwards; London, Low & Co. TEN years ago the name of California only conveyed a vague suggestion of a far-off country, somehow connected with the Vermilion Sea which we had heard of in our juvenile geographies. With it was associated the name of :: Drake, visions of dusky Indians, isolated Catholic missions, and a majestic country which seemed to belong to fable-land rather than to reality. A bit of gold picked up by a solitary labourer wrought a change which still more looked, in the telling, like fiction than like truth. The picking-up of that glittering particle peopled the solitudes, cultivated the wastes, converted villages into cities, covered miles of water with thousands of freighted ships, and made of the entire country at once a paradise and a hell. Within the ten years above alluded to, California has gone through a social progress which other countries have not accomplished in several centuries. Within a couple of lustres it has passed from the savage and the scattered settler to hordes of men from civilized nations who are wilder than the aboriginal savage. These and the speculator, with a contribution from worse classes of the other sex, lived their riotous and rapturous day. At the present moment the country has assumed a thorough business character. "Order reigns at San Francisco." Where there were once a dozen hells there are now a couple of dozen of commercial houses. The Laïs's of all lands would, we are told, fail to build up there a fortune of a hundred thousand pounds in two or three years. Depravity has no longer the land to herself. The duellist is now made to feel that he is unwholesome to moral society. The schoolmaster has settled down in a hundred localities. Nearly four dozen newspapers are now printed and published where, ten years ago, there was not one. The Church-that is, a collection of ' earnest men of all persuasions-has set up her tabernacle where gamblers used to pitch their tents. The wants of the population, and an idea of the population itself, in its religious aspect, may be seen in the fact that even Buddha has now a temple where gorgeous service is performed in mystic sacrifices daily offered. And amid the motley and busy throng of all nations the energetic Yankee walks with imperturbable pride, and says, or seems to say, that the land is a locality that never was equalled, and that it has been got hold of by the smartest nation on earth. Mrs. Farnham's narrative brings down the story of California to a very recent period, but a note added here and there marks the changes to which California is subject even while a single volume is passing through the press. The authoress speaks with authority, for she roughed it as a settler, and now details her experience. She seems to have suffered much, but to have had courage and energy which placed her above the trials and disappointments to which she was naturally exposed. She had a cheerful heart that could not be subdued. She struggled stoutly, and put her trust in God. She laboured incessantly on her so-called farm, fulfilled many offices, did the work of half-a-dozen men, and when she was worn and weary, found rest and relaxation "in reading the racy pages of Douglas Jerrold." A farming life was no easy one in a country where a man has to turn his cattle loose in a field of a million acres, and in the morning has a tour of perhaps several miles before he is able to gather them for yoke or harness. The amusing incidents of such a life are many. Thus we find that, on a certain Saturday evening, "One of the waggoners, after discharging his last load, politely sent in a message that he was to preach to-morrow, and would be happy to see us among his audience." One of the richest farmers of the country is an individual who was migrating, with his oxen, to Oregon, but whose cattle, choosing to go south instead of north, he unreluctantly followed, and found Fortune in consequence. When a sufficient time has elapsed to allow this incident to belong to a mythological period, the poets will, perhaps, make something of the fact; as they may of the incidents of the twenty days between the abrogating of the Mexican law and the establishment of the legal code of the States. During this period there was no legal responsibility to the commonwealth, and even murder, for the time, rioted with impunity. There are other drawbacks even now, especially to the farmer. His crop, if late sown, is exposed to be destroyed by millions of grasshoppers. And there are lively troubles within as well as without. On one occasion, Mrs. Farnham went in from the field to the house, to learn how the governess was getting on with the children, whereupon "Miss Sampson" informed her that she had just killed fifty-seven fleas, "besides twenty in Charlie's bed"! But, four or five years ago, emigrant ladies who worked hard could enjoy delicious slumbers in spite of the fleas; or, indeed, of anything else. Our indefatigable authoress, for instance, made nothing of going to bed in a room with a miscellaneous set of chamber companions, from whom nothing divided her but "the curtain of irresistible sleep." She was equally independent when awake, and wore all sorts of costumes, the Bloomer included, suitable to her rough work and an uncertain season of the year. Very fine people stared at her, now and then, but she cared nothing for them, and had more respect for a "smart sprinkle of Methodist missionaries who reached the locality than for all the fashionable Missourians who stared at her in her strange-world costume. California farming has, or had, its exquisite side. Each cabbage raised sold for a dollar, or a dollar and a half; and, within Mrs. Farnham's own knowledge, one man rented three acres, for which he was to pay a fourth of the profits. "He planted potatoes, and, in the fall, paid his landlord a thousand dollars, and put three thousand in his own pocket." Wheat, too, brings fabulous returns; but it is exposed, not merely to the grasshopper, but to that terrible weed, "wild mustard, which grows to a size which literally verifies Scripture." But even with this the wheat is so abundant that there is sometimes difficulty in harvesting it. "The heads measure from five to eight inches in length, the average is between six and seven; fifty of them weigh a pound, with four or five inches of the straw attached." The average yield is from eighty to one hundred bushels per acre. If the labourers live near San Francisco they are afforded ample means of spending their wages, where "the theatres compete with the churches on Sunday evenings, which the gaming-houses no longer do, openly." This system was not very beneficial to morality, but Mrs. Farnham attributes the lawlessness and vice of the district to the accessions the country received "from the British colonies." We perceive, however, that every page of her book proves her to be wrong. No doubt the offscourings from those places were not savoury, neither was the flood from the States of a very salubrious quality. The authoress saves us much trouble of argument by showing the facts to be as we have stated. Almost the only steady business men were of the English houses, and almost the only creditable incident told of female settlers is of an Irish female servant, who was terror-stricken at the society into which she had fallen,—a society in which she seemed as exceptional to the general rule as the viviparous fish among the scaly denizens, produced in the usual way, in the Bay of San Francisco. The Irish generally seem to "hold their own," and preserve their natural wit in California. Here is an instance. "One of our fellow passengers, an Irishman, had stepped into the Methodist church one Sunday, whilst we were yet in San Francisco, where the took part, relating their various experiences, and the members were holding some meeting, in which all causes they had to be thankful to Him who had brought them safely through all. It struck Paddy that the chief thing which had been done for all these brethren, was bringing them safely around Cape Horn, and as he had gone through the like experience, he sat down with devout face and sober manner to listen. Presently a brother, who sat upon the same seat, and who appeared to be taking an active part in the exercises, turned to him and asked if the Lord had done nothing for him that ought to excite brought me round Cape Horn, with studding-sails his gratitude. Yes,' said he promptly; sure he all set alow and aloft. Ah,' said the brother, you have, indeed much to be thankful for. I don't know,' was the reply, he gave us a pretty tight switching after we got around; he didn't let us away from one place for three weeks."" This incident will remind our readers of Miss Edgeworth's Irishman, who, on being told, after rising unhurt from being ridden over at a review, to kneel down and be thankful, asked "to whom he was to be thankful for letting a whole regiment of cavalry ride over him?"Irish "Tom," too, has memory as well as wit.— "On one occasion a difficulty arose between one of the drivers and Tom, and in the set-to which was to decide their respective pretensions, the American, who was a Kentuckian, had nearly destroyed an eye for his antagonist-the 'gouging' faculty being in a state of active development in that gentleman. His employer and patron looked coolly on while the engagement was progressing, and after it was over said a few words, not of consolation to the half-blind them, whether his eye was in its place or in his man, who was not certain, at the moment he heard enemy's hand. At the succeeding election this gentleman lost the office of county judge, to which he aspired, by one vote, which the enraged Irishman had the satisfaction of feeling he had cast against him. He is now planing and sawing boards, instead of enjoying the honours and emoluments of that position which has fallen into far worse hands. Thus is the balance of life often adjusted in these new regions." Of a native class of labourers the following is a sample. They were "Gentlemen from Arkansas, who took a gentle undisturbing interest in our affairs, and discussed them, while reposing in the sunshine, in heavy red flannel shirts, outside boots, worn up to the knee, those days they allowed that California was no and with commodious pipes in their mouths. In better than other countries, and the proof of it was, that they could only get twenty dollars a week and board offered them for driving an ox-team. They wanted thirty, and this being refused, spent the days reclining for the most part, in the sun against their house, or the mill, or a fence, their feet elevated to the height most conducive to that perfect ease which such gentlemen of leisure court." Mrs. Farnham's power of drawing portraits accidentally brought to the locality where he was If the "conveyancer" gets hanged, we learn and describing characters is still more ably "One day at dinner, I was late at table, and found her sitting with a lady-friend and one or two others. She was telling her friend that she had been 'dreadfully disappointed' within a few days. She had heard from an acquaintance at home whom she "Another child was found dead. He was one of the three that had been brought from his mother in the lower cabin. He had a young sister who had set out in comparatively good condition, but was now emaciated and stupefied. The warmth of the fire revived and enlivened her, and when she missed her brother and learned that he was dead, she begged Mr. B. to go up and cut a piece off him, for her to eat. O child,' exclaimed the horror-stricken woman, you would not eat your own brother.''O yes, I will. Do, Mr. Breen, am so hungry, and we ate father and uncle at the cabin !"" 6 sure shop, in the coarsest, most cunning, least cre ditable forms ever since king admitted the courtier and the courtier's fair daughter or wife, unfits M. Capefigue for a subject like the one before us. Had we recollected this, we might have been spared the disappointment we fel teresting. We will allow our author to strike on closing a volume so pretending, yet so unirthe key-note of the book in his own words: If [says he in his Introduction] one has indepen dence enough to doubt the genius and even the virtue of the Philosophers and the Economists; one dare point out the injury which they have done to French society and to established powers-the demoralization and satiety of souls, which has been their work; if one dares to defend with sharp touches the only strong power, the principle of authority; if one has the courage to denounce the dud and vast conspiracy, the aim of which, in philosophy, in letters, in education, even in academies, has been to enfeeble government, religion, and the principle of boldly that the system of equilibrium and the balance obedience (that first duty of peoples); if one says of powers is a worn-out Utopia-that aristocracy is a necessary force-that the old society had its grandeur, its majesty, its happiness by the domestic hearth, *** then one raises a tempest among those great wits, who have made nations march towards inquiry, dispute, the denial of power, and civil war, It is almost necessary to refer the reader to the original of the above precious string of "if since he may otherwise conceive that we ge caricaturing the postulates of an Absolutist historian, for the sake of ironical illustration. That there should still be found in these days French men of letters who fail to see how the superstitions of the nobles of the ancies re made philosophy an inevitable caustic,-how the vices of the impoverished courtier called the swarm of economists into being, to fortit means for his extravagance,-will seem asteanding to those who have not had a glimpse to the Faubourg St.-Germain, nor personally en measure of the vapidity, the arrogance, the pettiness calling itself grandeur, and the pride which for ever swings its own censer beneath Bankers, Contractors, Purchasers of National its own nostrils, of those who there sit and Property-Loans Financial System of Pitt sneer and gossip apart, apathetic and impotent, and Castlereagh.-Banquiers, Fournisseurs, waiting for some monstrous sucession of mita &c.]. By M. Capefigue. Amyot. had been expecting out here, and he was going to THE story of the great bankers of Europe during devastated France another Grand Mor cles, which shall restore to their vexed and England instead. You see,' she said, he's an Englishman and has been the Queen's best friend the last fifty years, though not a very heroic with his magnificence and his Montespans, and afore he come to Meriky, but when the Ingins drove one, might have yielded much curious detail- his condescension to a starved, and musted. her off her throne, she advised him to come to Mis- many characteristic traits of character, and and pressed-out people. For such farin souri; and now the Ingins has been beat, and she's illustrations of social and political change,-even blood has been shed and history been writte got back, so she wrote for him and he's gone. My to one whose views are so fixed and whose pen vain,-in vain have family chests given up the gracious,' said the astonished auditor, I didn't know runs in so narrow a groove as M. Capefigue's. memoirs, and in vain have those filthy th gracious, as any Ingins where the Queen is. Yes, If such a writer treated such a subject, it might the newspapers told how time has brough indeed,' replied she who is now mistress of that man- be supposed that he would treat it with reference reckoning and redress for past enormitie sion, there's plenty on 'em, but they're beat clear to its capabilities, and not solely to his philo- surely as autumn brings the ripe com out now, and never'll fight agin, I reckon.** A topics. But the fruits of the best modern seed has been sown. To see the oralis lady was one day paying me a visit, and in the course Prench intelligence, which has fed on admiration whom such fanatics believe treating the of her talk accused me of going too little into society. I replied in my blunt, foolish way, that of the ancien régime, must be withered, tasteless of our times with a gingerly touch, and a there was none to go into. O, I beg your pardon, and small, however gay be their colour; and of genteel aversion, would indeed be a sightsaid my visitor. If you have not been out here for M. Capefigue, however diligent as a writer and make the most saturnine of mourners langt some time, you'll find things is greatly metramor- honourable as a man, cannot be characterized were it not as melancholy as it is absurd. phosist; there's a circle of the real ellile that meets as possessing the best intelligence of his party. The book before us is the second volume : every fortnight at Mrs. So-and-So's, and Mrs. So-and- He can be courteous in manner where it suits a History of great Financial Operations, So's, and we have delightful times. You really ought him. He is sincere, we doubt not, within the followed by other volumes. Neither polits You'd enjoy yourself very much. It's so limits of his convictions and prejudices. We philosophy, to our liking, was to be refreshing to be in coessecee with your neighbours in would trust him with the history of Templar on from M. Capefigue; but we confess th But pretension is not confined to would, trust set forth any story of Temple toy knowledge of the world to which he belon females. I loaned Combe's Physiology' to a gentle-tomceivable amount of self-sacrifice in the life prepare us to expect anecdotes, scandals, turned it in due time, with the remark, that he and services of some great courtier belonging of character. Nothing of the kind is to be f didn't consider the treaty to be as deep as Layrayter to Louis Quatorze-sinking the servility, the The will to be ill-natured may be traced was on the same subject; and lighter writings coming sensuality, the coarseness and the cringing, the power is wanting;-known materials under remark in the course of the visit, he replied to of the real nobleman, who flattered or who been overlooked-new sources of infor a question by Geordie, if he had read the Last of pandered to Le Grand Monarque. But finance have not been opened. Of what value to the Mohicans,' that he had not, but he had been is not a subject for his treatment. His apparently trate) is the chapter devoted to Beaumart The idea of hanging seems to be as singular predominance and station, and does not inherit picture of that busy adventurer' life here fixed idea, that a man who rises to wealth, in a book which follows such a full and br as that of the above gentleman's novel-reading. them, must be base, his anti-shopkeeping spirit, Loménie has given to the world! A gentleman told me that news was one day which ignores the fact that aristocracy has kept sketch, again, of the Rothschild family- to a land!' very much pleased with the First!" We imagine that the above will suffice to exhibit the temper of M. Capefigue as a historian and a painter of character, and conceive that his work can have little or no value with any class or party of readers, except it be viewed from one point of view-as a curiosity. origin and its growth to the power and place | condiment; the larded pullet, subsequently baptized We will not recall the story of that glorious it has now held for the last half-century; but à la Marengo, with its seasoning of oil and garlic day. But we wish to show our readers with this contains little more than names and a that turns the strongest stomach; the matelote Nor- what strength and picturesqueness the brave few of the commonest facts, which the most mande and the sauce en tortue, dishes only remark-Hungarian writes; and we extract for this purmeagre history of Europe reveals, sprinkled over able for their quantity and their triviality. pose a short passage on the alarm before the with the old vituperations and insinuationsbattle, apologizing to General Kmety for markspices that once were burning, but here, by ing with italics a line or two of a description in having been kept in a shallow vessel, have lost which every word tells distinctly.their power to hurt. The great Thellusson fortune might naturally have made some figure in this book; but we do not meet anything beyond the name. In brief, the only readable pages are the few containing comparative pic-4 ures of society and manners-one or two of which may amuse by their spirit, and as many more by their rancorous partizanship. We will ive a specimen of both : The National Almanac of the Republic of 1798 ontains almost the same names of bankers as in 792, under the Convention: the Swiss and Genezese school still directs operations in France, with the ame strictness. Nothing highly intellectual or atactive-a love of cold and mathematical regularity, circulating preachment, and nothing expansive bepond. People speculated coldly on the national coperty or on mortgages. Then, beyond the limits this dry and pedantic school, might be remarked few bolder bankers-certain hard-headed men, prung from the ranks, such as M. Ouvrard,-with em contractors, a mongrel race betwixt soldiers and hanciers, with their leather breeches, horseman's oots and riding-whips. They could not be called ociety, so much as a herd of newly-enriched people, ith the coarse manners of drovers, butchers or horse -ry. Narrative of the Defence of Kars on the 29th we crowned with chiefest honour a soldier who had lost an army and a fortress. More rewards, commands, pensions, titles, were showered on the defeated of Kars than on the victors of Inkermann and Azoff. As yet, we are in no position to say whether the national enthusiasm -in its feverish desire to decorate somebody, as a balance against Duke Malakoff-ran right or wrong in the particular case: history will judge us sternly for our faults, if we have made a blunder; but it is noticeable, even now, that Continental military writers treat the defence in a spirit very wide of ours. What if the whole business was an error? What if the defence of Kars was another form of the Balaclava charge alers. The contractor, with one foot in the army ous? That Kars generally is a post indefensible -a splendid error-very showy and very ruinid the other at Paris, loved pleasures that gave no ouble, and spent his money badly, with the waste- against a powerful enemy is the conviction of Iness of a servant out on a frolic-playing the General Kmety. That the defence of it against art of satyr at the bacchanal festivals of the Direc- General Mouravieff was a mistake in strategy is The stock-jobber of the Bourse at Paris *** the unconcealed opinion of Omar Pasha. That eserved in part the good manners and some of the the attempt to hold the place ended in the loss egant traditions of the Farmers-General: at least of an important and gallant army-even in the his dress, such as the engravings of the time ex-hour of triumph-is now unhappily a fact of bit-a coat of any colour, as bright blue, yellow or history. arlet a diamond on his finger-long chain dangg down his thigh-earrings a powdered perriwig th whisker-curls-silk breeches, open-work silk ockings, with gold buckles in his pumps-eye-glass, quisite was, to a slight degree, the caricature of financiers of the ancien régime, and even of the mers-general. Those who wore it played at being ll bred, as their only means of distinction among herd which the Revolution had conjured up. A page or two later, are described other conrations of the Republic (which, as M. Capeque knows, conjured up itself, without provotion or antecedents), and these are even ore repulsive than the Centaur-contractors, dolent of the stable, to rebuke whose horrid arseness the financier who still cherished a few od traditions, went on 'Change in silk stockings, jonquil-coloured coat, and earrings. The uthor of The Art of Dining,' in reprinting 's essay, transcribed therein the lament of a rench gastronome, who, being pressed to ontribute some new dish to the new edition, plied by a wail over the departed glory of rench cookery. According to M. Capefigue, e Revolution began it. d knobbed cane in the hand. This costume of an If no one [says he, continuing his fantasia on the Downfall of Paris'' in the same sonorous strain] ould collect a select society, it had become still less ossible to give those elegant dinners which had stinguished the financiers of the eighteenth century. uring the epoch of revolutionary gluttonry vast bles were indispensable. For these Gargantuas, evoid of delicacy, coarse bills of fare must be urveyed. The wines preferred were common, rong, heady, because many of the rich men of e hour were promoted from the kitchen to the arlour, and coarse strong wines suited such clumsy, ed folks. It was not till the Consulate that people ot back to Clos-vougeot and Chambertin. Four ishes of deplorable vulgarity were invented about hat time, the sauce Robert, a true guard-room "On the 28th September, shortly before nightfall, my aide-de-camp reported that he had seen near the blockading detachment, on the heights of Kanikeui, some large white squares, but without being able to distinguish clearly of what they were composed, or for what object they were there. Any further examination was prevented by darkness. The enemy fired his evening gun as usual, and by this report, no one conjectured what a bloody although a slight but vague foreboding was caused on the morning of the 29th September, messengers morning would dawn upon us. About three o'clock from advanced posts on three different sides came to my tent almost at the same moment, breathless with haste, and reported, 'The enemy is advancing.' I ordered the reserves to turn out without noise, sent Major Aali Aga of the artillery to see to his guns, and forwarded the report to head-quarters, one hour (about three miles) distant from me. had the reserves in hand, officers were despatched to the right flank, to observe whether the enemy was and to the left flank, to observe whether he was advancing on the weak position of Shirshani-tepessi, moving on the road, by which an enemy well acquainted with the ground would be able to turn the position of Hussein Pasha, and surprise Fort Lake. hastened to the centre and then to the right flank, Convinced that Hussein Pasha was on his guard, I that I might satisfy myself of the truth of the reports sent in by the advanced posts. The night, now drawing to its close, was clear, almost cloudless, and the moon high. By its light, at first, I could only see in the valley before me that some parts of the ground were darker than others, not unlike the contrast of Whilst I still ploughed and pasture lands lying in a distant plain. As, however, the darker parts were seen alternately to move and then to remain stationary, as the valley became continually more and more full of these fields of shadow, as, with my ear upon the ground, I was able to distinguish the noise of wheels moving quietly through the valley, I was soon convinced that the enemy was before me in great force, and was preparing to storm Tachmas." Meanwhile, the General chiefly honoured in unduly, as is said, ignored the services of Gene- "The Turkish army, profiting by the enthusiasm Williams. General Kmety objects that General Williams gave an account of the battle of Kars with scarcely any mention of his name,-and with an entire suppression of the fact that the battle was really fought and won by him. Yet, if the accounts now rendered with extreme particularity may be trusted, this appears to have been the case. General Kmety, it seems, held an independent command at Tachmas, three miles from Kars,-followed his own views and arranged his own plans,-and there received and defeated the columns of the Russian army, with scarcely any support, and no counsel or assistance from General Williams, who was three miles from the great battle-field. This, at least, is what we gather from his statement; for his language is extremely mild and courteous, free from all irritation and personality. That the Russians were defeated under his works there is the evidence of the dead. Of the 6,500 Muscovite corpses buried by the Turks, 6,000 were picked up under the guns of Tachmas. Such a fact concludes the question. reigned during the early part of the night before the rising of the moon, should have undertaken an attack on the night after the victory by several light moveable columns, directed from different sides upon Ainalli, to surprise the enemy's troops, which, some 3,000 or 4,000 strong, after having been beaten back from the Ingliz Tabias, had retired to that village, and were there encamped. This camp was distant more than four hours' march from the main camp at the enemy's head-quarters near Tchivilli Kaya, whereas it was only one hour and a half distant from us. The enemy's troops écheloned between these two camps had been withdrawn, immediately after the battle, to his head-quarter camp. No support, therefore, could have come to Ainalli for four hours. The want of horses for our artillery is no excuse; for by night, and on broken ground, we required no guns, and we had three battalions of rifles. The usual order and discipline could not have reigned in the enemy's camp after so bloody a day, on which so many of his superior officers had fallen, and enMoreover, we were elated by success, whilst the cumbered, as it must have been, with wounded. enemy was correspondingly depressed. According enemy's total effective force round Kars, after deto the information in the hands of the defenders, the ducting his losses in the battle, was believed not to exceed some 15,000 infantry and 10,000 or 12,000 cavalry, including the troops at Ainalli. The effec tive force of the defenders, at this time within the entrenched camp, might have been some 17,000 or 18,000 men, of whom, as will have been seen by the recital of the battle, a considerable portion had not been engaged. The defenders were not half so much fatigued as the enemy, the whole of whose infantry must have been in movement throughout the preceding night. By dispersing the camp at Ainalli, the victory would have been utilized, and the least result would have been that the enemy would not have had sufficient force to continue his blockade, shutting us up within a circumference of ten hours' march. By omitting this enterprise, the glorious victory remained unfruitful, as to any result it had upon the war; as must be the case with all victories which are not, as General Clausewitz says, 'immediately used in the military household.' The General in command of the Russian army underrated his foe, whereas the General in command of the Turkish army overrated his." These are questions-however little mooted in this country, where war is considered chiefly in Balaclava tableaux--much debated in Continental circles; and we are not sorry to read and consider the opinion of a man standing so high in his profession and of such unimpeachable integrity and courage as General Kmety. With regard to the particular object of this work, we think the appeal will be answered in England as the writer desires. Whatever wrong may be done by individuals, public judgment in this country is too deep and solid for continued injustice. General Kmety is safe in the hands of Englishmen; and we undertake to say that no historian of the war will refuse him his fair share of military renown. OUR LIBRARY TABLE. A Life's Lessons. By Mrs. Gore. 3 vols. (Hurst & Blackett.)-Mrs. Gore is always welcome, for her works are sure to have the grace of good workmanship, however slight the materials of which they may be wrought. 'Life's Lessons' is a graceful story, with a deeper touch of humanity than is customary with this authoress. Of course there are fashionable people and scenes of high life, but they do not make up the staple of the book. The scene is laid in Westmoreland, and though the pictures of the dales and the dalesmen are rather painted from information than actual life, still they are artistically managed; the Dutch people are extremely well described, and the De Lanvilles are a novelty upon the usual run of fashionable people. It is the fashion to lay the venue of some portion of every novel now-a-days in Rome :-Mrs. Gore takes her heroine there, but she deals mercifully with the reader. The sketches of English characters, both at home and abroad, are as spirited as ever, and look wonderfully like types of the originals. Sir Ralph Bernadiston and little Progetts are particularly well "bitten in." On the whole, 'A Life's Lessons' is light, pleasant reading, and there is a refinement throughout which bespeaks it the work of a gentlewoman. tion. "" Agnes Milbourne; or, Foy pour Devoir. By Mrs. Hubback. 2 vols. (Skeet.) There was a song, or a farce, or a street saying, we forget which, current a year or two since, and its burden was "Why did you send your Wife to Camberwell?" Mrs. Hubback will probably be shocked at the levity of any one who says that her religious tale irresistibly brought back to us that once familiar quesWhy did you let Agnes Milbourne go to Scotland?" considerate critics have a right to inquire. The young Lady was disposed to remain quietly in union with the Church of England till she went northward, when under the pressure of sorrow, to pay a visit to some disagreeable Presbyterians, and the consequences of this were that she herself narrowly escaped becoming a Presbyterian (and of course disagreeable, too), and thereby losing a charming Church-of-England husband, with whom she could not, or would not, wed if their Churches were to turn out different. In Scotland Agnes Milbourne fell under the influence of an eager and unpleasant woman, who did what was possible to dragoon Agnes out of the Church into the Kirk. But meddlers rarely escape scot-free,-and in so doing the disagreeable Ann Atkinson aforesaid very nearly lost the pet preacher to whom she had paid her addresses, and who had reluctantly consented to receive the same. Agnes Milbourne fell in his way, and he fell in love with her; but a copy of "The Christian Year,' and other aids and helps, not the smallest of which was an unexceptionable cousin Hannah, won the battle. Agnes was shocked at Mr. Craig, wandered back from the Kirk door to the Church chancel, and, by doing so, became an eligible wife for Bernard the orthodox, who would have had nothing to do with a heretic wife. There is no need for us to apportion the several quantities of faith, hope and charity contained in and moralized by a fable such as this. The novel contains several romantic scenes, among others, the breaking down of two railway bridges, and the siege of a small Welsh cottage by a bull, somewhat after the fashion of the Anaconda in Monk Lewis's tale of wonder. argument, we are not irreligious enough to find We are not pious enough to relish the tone of the strained tones of some of its scenes and combinations amusing. Llewellyn's process. Mr. DelaMotte, in this essay. has given very exact an concise descriptions ef all the manipulatory details, by following which, any photographer may easily avail himself of all the advantages belonging to the use of oxymel. Prize Essay on the Stereoscope. By William O. Lorrie, A.M. (London Stereoscopic Com pany.)-The London Stereoscopic Company offered a prize of twenty guineas for the best Essay on the Stereoscope, Sir David Brewster having accepted the office of judge. Fourteen essays were submitted to the Principal of St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, and he writes: "Having carefully e amined the fourteen Essays on the Stereoscope. which you transmitted to me, in competition for the prize of twenty guineas, I have awarded this prize to Mr. William Lorrie, Mathematical Mas ter in the Madras College, St. Andrews," This sufficiently stamps the character of the work; and those who desire to obtain a popular knowledge of the principles involved in this beautiful instrument, will find in Mr. Lorrie's little work all they require. A Journey in the Island of Rhodes-[Voyage dans l'Isle de Rhode]. By V. Guerin (Not) -A large proportion of this volume is occupied A Few Hours with Scott; being Sketches in the with antiquarian details. As M. Guerin remarks, way of Supplement to the Two Poems of the Lord of "the generality of modern travellers only touch at the Isles and of Rokeby. By One of his Old Rhodes, leaving the interior unexplored, so that Readers. (Edinburgh, Black & Co.)-If Mr. the ground is fresh, and the minute geographer Thackeray was found less amusing when he con- may enjoy great satisfaction and some excitement Mrs. Perkins's Ball' or exhibited Lady Kicklebury itineraries." tinued 'Ivanhoe' than when he discoursed of in comparing ancient references and correcting the Of course, the island and its monson the Rhine, we fear that any less popular or ments have been elaborately described by a s plete that which he fancies incomplete in two of worn away by the reiteration of holiday tourist lively writer who lends himself seriously to com- cession of writers; but its interest has not ben Scott's romances, must look for his reward in his M. Guerin carried on his researches methodical, own seriousness and fancy, not in the sympathy-visiting each of the forty-seven villages of Elhvdes of his readers. A few minutes will satisfy most ransacking the local archives, where say s persons that these 'Few Hours with Scott' are existed, and collecting information of all kind only so much lost time. Betwixt the new conclu- —to furnish a general account of the island. I sions to The Lord of the Isles' and to Rokeby' stead of preserving the form of a narrative, be ba a‘Sketch from Scutari' is poked in, with a con- condensed his observations into a "study," begi clusion complimentary of Miss Nightingale. What ning, as an encyclopædist would begin, with such an offering has to do in such a place it would general aspects," position, extent; capes, morbe difficult for Michael (not Walter) Scott to ex-tains, forests, and rivers. Thence the reader who plain, could the Wizard be recalled to earth to is so disposed may follow M. Guerin through a throw light on the inexplicable tricks played by systematic series of descriptions, including the mortal conceit in this nineteenth century. climate, earthquakes, vegetable, animal and Incidental Remarks on some Properties of Light; mineral productions, the ancient names of the being Part V. of an Essay on Vision. By Lieut. island, and their etymology, the present form of R. W. H. Hardy, R.N. (Bell & Daldy.)-Why government, statistics of population, and notes Part V. of an Essay on Vision should be pub- on the Turkish, Greek, and Jewish characters lished before Part I. we do not understand. The Thence to ports and fortifications, and to the central topic of the book, the Rhodian antiquities Here M. Guerin pauses to discourse at farge of ancient architects and historians, of orators and poets, of disputed topography, and the identity d various architectural remains. As a descripti the book is complete: it adds something t knowledge of a very interesting island, an abounds in erudite gossip and fascinating Gre quotations. The writer busies himself to exe sively with Pindar and his race to remember that ordinary readers are not likely to participate his enthusiasm; but he addresses himself and desires evidently to place his monograp the shelves of the learned. author says "because it is a fair specimen of the design and general scope of the work." Accepting this excuse for this order of publication, we have carefully examined the "Incidental Remarks." We cannot discover one fact which has not been much better explained and more satisfactorily accounted for in the writings of Herschel and Brewster. We therefore advise Lieut. Hardy to withhold the publication of the other parts of his Essay on Vision. First Steps in Photography. By Gilbert Fleming, (Fleming )-This is one of a class of publications, which are now issued in considerable numbers by dealers in photographic apparatus. This tract is devoted exclusively to the collodion process, and, as containing simple directions for using the preparations, &c. sold by the author, it answers its purpose. The Oxymel Process in Photography. By Philip H. Dela Motte. (Chapman and Hall.)-The Oxy mel process, recently introduced by Mr. Llewellyn of Penllergare, is a most valuable discovery in the art of photography. By the use of oxymel-a medicinal preparation of honey and vinegar-all the beautiful delicacy of the finest collodion pictures may be obtained with the convenience of the paper process, and with much more certainty and much greater ease. * ticher; London, Thimm.)-A German play Der Tugendbund. (Riga and Leipzig, Be five acts, which is founded on a French nave, action of which takes place in modern Paris the author of which is "J. L." Surely re go no further than the Preface, which tell a las well it is fitted for the German stage. Lifeof Grabbe-[Grabbe's Leben]. By Karl (Hamburg, Hoffmann & Campe; London, Tra & Co.)-Although Grabbe is the idol of clique in his own country, his fame in Boga never exceeded that of a mere name. Nor likely that this position will be altered,--for that tourists may take a dozen or two plates, about literary abortions. However, here is a r Mr. DelaMotte informs us things in the world people in general care ready prepared, and during a week or a fortnight, biography for those who want one. may expose them in the camera as they may require, and in the evening, or even in a day or of the Remedies, by J. C. Shairp,-The Scle The Wants of the Scottish Universities, and two afterwards, may develop the pictures they the Workshop, why should they not Combu have obtained at their convenience. This, we believe, is the experience of all who have tried Mr. the Hon. and Rev. G. M. Yorke, M.A.,-F |