From the Examiner. Autobiography of James Silk Buckingham; including his Voyages, Travels, Adventures, Speculations, Successes and Failures, faithfully and frankly narrated; interspersed with Characteristic Sketches of Public Men with whom he has had intercourse during a period of more than fifty years. With a Portrait. Vols. I. and II. Longman & Co. mas. under sail, without the assistance of any one; and he used to perform in the harbor such evolutions, in a fast yawl, as made him feel himself “the observed of all observers" among the veteran tars," who mustered there in great force, the harbor being occupied by two squadrons of frigates, to say nothing of its being a packer-station. Once he was upset, and being almost drowned, relates that, during this submersion, "I saw distinctly a number of floating fishes, creeping crabs, large heaps of bones and other refuse cast, from time to time, from the ships; and, having read and recited several times to my mother and sisters, who were fond of exhibiting my powers of memory and elocution in this way, the well-known description of Clarence's Dream, in the Elegant Extracts from Shakspeare, I seemed to realise all its horrors, if not all its splendors." At the age of eight, Mr. Buckingham suffered a great sorrow of the heart, for he relates: I had formed an ardent and sincere attach MR. J. S. BUCKINGHAM certainly is a man whose life should be instructive and amusing. It is difficult to say where he has not been, whom or what he has not seen, and what kind of speculation he has not attempted. If it pleases him to write his own biography, it most likely will please many to read it. On the other hand, if it should please many to read it, there can be no doubt that it will please him very much to write it at considerable length. At present we have before us the first two volumes, and they close with a hint that "future volumes" may be looked for before ChristThe book, as its author tells us in a pre-ment to a young girl of Flushing, about my face, is intended not only to amuse, but to serve own age," with whom a close correspondence The pasas an example, to all persons battling with ob- was kept up by letters and visits. scurity or difficulty, of what may be done by sion was," we are told, "as strong as it was "industry, integrity, zeal, and perseverance pure, and was manifested by all the usual feellabor, economy, temperance, and that single-ings that mark its existence in maturer age." mindedness which regards the faithful dis- This young lady falling sick, Mr. Buckingham charge of duty as the great object to which all others must be made subordinate." Mr. Buckingham also purposes in this autobiography to clear his character from misrepresentation, and to leave behind him, "for the consideration of posterity, his "deliberate views as to many of the evils which still impede the progress of improvement in society." became distracted; and in a few days was, himself, reduced to the brink of danger. After her death, however, which next followed, in the assurance that she was at peace, he became calm and resigned; and he recovered health sufficiently to attend her funeral in mourning. The earliest developed of all his tendencies, Mr. Buckingham says, "were the enterprising, the devotional, the sympathizing, and the ama tory." Captured by a French corvette, on his third voyage to Portugal, when he had arrived at the age of ten years, Mr. Buckingham again had a romantic love passage in prison at Corunna. The governor of the prison had a handsome and dark-eyed young daughter, about his own The two volumes part with their hero at the age of about thirty, but by the time he was twenty-one he was already a married man, and competent to have the command of a vessel; he had made many voyages; he had been a prisoner to the French; he had visited Spain, the West Indies, and Virginia; he had written a tragedy, and had preached (at the age of fifteen) a powerful discourse from the pulpit. In-age deed, at the early age of eight, he had quelled a Cornish food-riot, by striking up the hymn Salvation, oh the joyful sound, a little past ten years old. She occasionally attended the prisoners with their food, and conceived, as she afterwards confessed, a violent passion which she found it impossible to control. "I may observe," Mr. Buckingham in presence of the miners; on which occasion adds, "that even in England I was considered he obtained" a capful of sixpenses, shillings, to be a very handsome boy; and the charm and half-crowns" for the exploit. On account of clear complexion, rosy cheeks, light-blue of Mr. Buckingham's precocity, in short, the eyes, and light-brown curly hair, so unusual in story of his life becomes amusing at a very Spain, made me appear, it would seem, quite early period. The son of a retired master of a an Adonis in her love-seeing eyes. She theremerchantman, born at Flushing, in a house fore revealed to me her inmost thoughts in her washed by the sea at high-tide; happiest, as a impassioned language, which I had learnt durboy, when in a boat, the taste for sea life and ing my voyages to Lisbon in conjunction with adventure was developed in Mr. Buckingham the Portuguese, and which I now sufficiently while yet in petticoats. When between seven understood to comprehend every one of her and eight years old, it was his great object of burning phrases, impressed as they often were ambition to show that he could handle a boat, by kisses of the most thrilling intensity." This young lady offered to set the captive free and| Soon afterwards the energies of Mr. Buckdy with him, but there were practical difficul-ingham were directed in a very different ties in the way of her scheme, obvious to the young sailor. We have made these preliminary notes to show what may be expected from the current of a life so actively begun. During a temporary retirement from sea-life, Mr. Buckingham, before the age of fifteen, was placed in a book-selling and nautical-instrusent establishment at Devonport, where, he writes: channel. At length the smooth flow of the current of my life was partially broken by the intervention of a new feeling and a new phase in my existence. I was at this period about fifteen years of age; and having for some time led a life of as much gayety as was possible in the position in which I was placed, I found now and then, espe cially in the gloom of the evening and the early hours of the morning between waking and leavHaving, on my frequent visits to the theatre, ing my bed, something very like shame for misbecome acquainted with the manager and admit- spent time, and a desire to repair it. gradually ted to the green room and behind the scenes, stealing over me. This feeling reached its culand finding this a very agreeable relaxation af- minating point, by what might be called an acter the drudgery of the day, I became so fascina-cident, or at least an unexpected and unpremeted with the drama and all its accessories that I ditated event. On the evening of a day in Lent, conceived the idea of becoming a dramatic au- I was walking alone through St. Aubyn street, thor; and reading with great diligence all the and seeing that service was performing in the plays of Shakspeare, with those of Ford, Beau- church there, I went in, and took my place in mont and Fletcher, Massinger, Deckar, Ben Jon-one of the pews near the pulpit. After the evenson, and other ancient writers, as well as those of Lee and Otway, and of Mrs. Inchbald, and all the moderns, I wrought myself up to the belief that I was fully competent to produce something original in the dramatic form. The subject I selected was an imaginary Invasion of Circassia by the Russians; and the title of the piece was, "The Conquest of Circassia." It was furnished with an ample number of characters, with a principal hero and heroine of the conquered tribes, something after the model of Rolla and Cora in Pizarro, a play which, at that time, enjoyed immense popularity. It was written in blank verse, extended to five acts, with most elaborate provisions of scenery and costume, and engaged all the leisure I could command at intervals during about three months, the greater portion being written between midnight and three or four o'clock in the morning, in my solitary bed- Not being of a disposition then, any more than room, and by the flickering light of a single tal- since, to take up opinions on trust, or to have low candle, requiring perpetual snuffing, as sufficient reverence for authority as to be able to moulds, spermaceti, or wax were too extrava-place entire reliance thereon, I read earnestly, gant luxuries for such a household as that of which I was then an inmate. When the piece was finished, and had been gone over and corrected many times, I took it to the manager of the theatre, who promised to read it, and give it his best consideration. It was with him about a month, and was then returned to me, with the highest commendations of its excellence,-whether sincerely or not, I had no means of testing, but with the observation that to put such a drama properly on the stage would require an outlay of from to £300 to £500 to do justice to its scenery, costume, and decorations, and that only a first-rate London company could furnish the requisite amount and variety of talent to perform it well. ing prayer, the clergyman, whose name I think not merely the Old and New Testaments, but all the commentaries on them within my reach; and books of controversial theology soon became to me the most delicious food. I rose constantly in the morning at four o'clock, though not required to attend to business till nine, after breakfasting at eight. I rarely ever went to bed till midnight, reading therefore at least eight hours every day, attending worship three times on Sundays, and twice and thrice on the evenings of the week; so that in a year or so I had devoured perhaps a hundred volumes, large and small, on theology, no other subject having then The book of all the least attraction for me. others that fascinated me most was the celebrated treatise on Free Will, by the Reverend JonaThe piece was ultimately destroyed, in a sub- than Edwards, the American Puritan divine. sequent period of my career, when all such com- The writings of Bunyan, Baxter, Cotton Mather, positions were regarded by me as a profane Jeremy Taylor, Fuller, and most of the old Nonwaste of precious time, and a perversion of pow-conformist divines, were all agreeable to me, but ers that should be devoted to higher objects: but Jonathan Edwards bore away the palm. I beI record the fact as an instance of very early came, therefore, a confirmed Calvinist of the though misdirected ambition, and as the first lit- most rigid school, as firmly believing myself to erary production of my pen. be one of the Elect as any of the teachers of un conditional predestination; and I am free to confess, that though the ground on which I could dare to think myself thus favored appears to me now most hollow and insufficient, it was a belief which made me inexpressibly happy. In the second volume of this autobiography, Mr. Buckingham, who has in the first volume been to the new world, is to be followed to Smyrna, to the Isles of Greece, to Grand Cairo, to the Cataracts of the Nile and Nubia, across the Isthmus of Suez, through the Land of Goshen, to Arabia, to India, and back to Egypt, where we leave him, in the dress of an Oriental, preparing, as an Envoy of the Egyptian Pasha, to traverse Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Persia. Much of Mr. Buckingham's experience yet to be told relates to India; and from the account of the first incident by which his attention was drawn to Indian affairs (a chance-attendance at a meeting held in the Egyptian-Room, something less than half a century ago, on the subject of the East-India Company's charter), we extract an amusing sketch of a well-known conservative proprietor of East-India stock, and of the way in which charter-renewal and free trade could be talked about, before these latter days: fore a year was over, we should be forcibly expelled from China-we should lose our glorious empire in India altogether, and then the sun of England's greatness would be set for ever! His speech, though short, was repeatedly interrupted by vociferous applause, and his portly body and round full rubicund face seemed lighted up with more than its usual tints of purple and crimson, in which the juice of the grape and the good cheer of his brother alderman, the cook and confectioner Birch, who furnished forth the the motion was put from the chair, Alderman city feasts, contended for the mastery. When Waithman's free-trade amendment was lost by an overwhelming majority, and the original resolution, recommending the renewal of the East India Gompany's charter, carried unanimously; for the minority was so small that none held up their hands when the original resolution was put to the vote. I returned from the meeting as much astonished as I was disgusted at the result. I remembered, when ten or twelve years younger, before the death of Pitt or Fox, reading the debates in Parliament, then scantily reported in the public papers; and being struck with the fact, that the arguments of the Whigs seemed to me so convincing, compared with those of the Tories, that I could never comprehend how it happened that the votes were always in favor of the latter. But anything so palpably gross as the exhibition at the Mansion-house I had never before experienced. We add a mention of two very different, and rather more interesting people, from Mr. Buckingham's account of what he saw in Cairo. Immediately after Alderman Waithman, rose Sir William Curtis, a wealthy ship biscuit baker and contractor, and a large proprietor of East India stock, who, though rather renowned for the absence than the presence of much wisdom, was, nevertheless, one of the most popular aldermen of London, and celebrated for his gastronomic fame, turtle and champagne dinners, and At Cairo we remained a short time, and had civic hospitality. He was received with the most the pleasure to meet there Sheikh Ibrahim, Mr. boisterous applause, even before he had opened Burckhardt, who had not yet set out on his his lips-so entirely satisfied were the audience, African journey. He passed several hours with apparently, that what he was going to say would us, expressed great interest in our voyage, and be agreeable to them. His speech was certainly renewed his assurances of friendship. This was original, and highly characteristic of the man. the last occasion of my meeting him, as he subHe said, in substance, it was all very well for sequently died at Cairo, and was interred there the honorable alderman who had just sat down as a Mohammedan, with all the usual rites and to come forward with his statistics, by which a ceremonies of the Moslem faith; never having man might prove anything, and with his argu-entered at all on the great African journey, for ments, which were not worth the trouble of re- which he had been six or seven years in trainfuting; it would, no doubt answer the speaker's ing and preparation. purpose in increasing his popularity among the enemies of our glorious constitution, who wanted to pull down all established institutions, beginning with the East India Company, and then passing on to the House of Lords, the established Church, and at last the very Crown itself. But he, Alderman Curtis, and his friends, had come forward to stand by the altar and the throne, to uphold whatever was established, and to resist all innovations. He knew enough of the Hindoos and the Chinese to know that they would never trade with any other parties than the Honorable East India Company; and as to the opening their countries to the rabble that would be sure to find their way there, if once the charter were abolished and the trade and intercourse made free, he was quite certain that be We met here, also, for the first time, Signor Belzoni, who had been employed by the Pasha as a hydraulic engineer, for the management of the waterworks and irrigation of his gardens at Shoobrah, in the Delta. We learnt from Signor Belzoni, that he was a native of Padua, and being gifted with almost superhuman strength, which his fine athletic figure and great height seemed to indicate, as well as with great flexibility of limb and finger, improved by constant exercise, he had exhibited his powers as an athlete and juggler in his own country and Maita, and from thence had visited England, where he made a tour through all the provinces, exhibiting feats of strength and dexterity, under the name of the Patagonian Samson, till he had exhausted public curiosity, and had now come out to Egypt. with a view to visit India, for a similar purpose. | ramids of Memphis, penetrating into several of Both Mr. Babington and I did our best to per- the unopened tombs of the kings at Thebes, and suade him against incurring such a risk of loss publishing a faithful and interesting account of -first, as he had no license to visit India, for his researches in Egypt; while Mrs. Belzoni, his the want of which I had been banished from the English wife, added her contribution in an accountry, and next, because the athlete and jug-count of the state of female society in the East, glers of India form a very low and degraded to which she had been freely admitted. caste, and would cause his occupation to shut him out from all European society. It appears We have said enough to show both the that he was impressed with this advice, as he strength and weakness of these volumes; and subsequently relinquished the intention, was af whichever quality may be predominant, a certerwards employed by Mr. Salt and Mr. Bankes to bring down some of the fragments of ancient tainty remains that they can hardly fail to be monuments from Upper Egypt, and then obtain- thought readable. We anticipate both amuseed deserved celebrity as an enterprising and suc- ment and instruction from the continuation cessful traveller, by opening one of the great Py-of Mr. Buckingham's Memoirs. mate result. Of the character of that result it would evi dently be premature for me to speak with any confident anticipation, but I may be permitted to express my conviction that it will be in perfect keeping with the antecedents from which it abled to produce and to contribute a Treaty of Peace to the Exposition in question, but he guarded himself from characterizing such treaty, and the rest of the Conference thought that he had gone as far as could be expected. Some discussion then ensued upon the position of Vienna, but this bore less upon her political attitude than upon her topographical situation, and Count Buol was so good as to recommend me to ascend the spire of St. Stephen's Church in order to form a perfect idea of the surrounding country. With this recommendation it is my intention to comply. I take this occasion of informing your may Lordship that Vienna is not situated upon the Danube, as I had supposed, but upon a branch of that river called the Wien, from which Vienna takes its name; and, indeed, the capital is The representatives of the negotiating Powers called Wien in German maps. I received this information from Baron Bourqueney, and as have met, and have exchanged the most satisfactory assurances of the pleasure which was afford-coming from the representative of an ally, I conceive that it may be accepted unhesitatingly, but ed to each by the opportunity of meeting the its verification cannot be difficult. emanates. others. Special gratification was expressed that such meeting should take place under the auspices of the Austrain Minister. The Count Buol was prompt in affirmation that few things could have given him greater happiness than the reunion, in his Sovereign's capital, of several individuals whose character he held in the highest esteem. I deemed it my duty to state, distinctly, that I should have been equally glad to see all parties in Chesbam-place, and I am happy to add, for your Lordship's information, that this statement, though made with some frankness, was accepted in a similar spirit, and produced the most desirable results. The Baron Bourqueney signified that his Imperial master would have rejoiced to assemble the party at the Tuileries, the rather that he would have had the gratification of showing them the Palais de l'Industrie, upon which the eyes of Europe are now turned. At our first meeting no further business was transacted than that which I have the honor to indicate, but a second was arranged, of the proceedings at which it will be my duty to make your Lordship aware in my next despatch. The Baron Bourqueney was good enough to invite me to a very delightful dinner at his hotel. As I take no step without your Lordship's full sanction, I inclose the carte, and your Lordship will find my initials (J. R.) placed against each dish of which I partook, with the exception of some stewed apricots, which are not marked down. I have the honor to remain, etc. JOHN RUSSELL. The Viscount Palmerston, etc. etc. A Paris paper announces a curious fact-the discovery, by M. Egger of the Institute, in an Egyptian papyrus, of an unpublished fragment of a lost tragedy of Euripides. The papyrus formed part of the collections recently brought The Count Gortschakoff said, with earnest-to France by M. Mariette, who is well known by ness, that he hoped the Congress would be en-his discovery of the ruins of Memphis. From Chambers's Journal, 31 March. will go screaming and panting through the land of the Pharaohs. In India, too, the railway is open for 120 miles, and a train leaves Calcutta one day, and returns the next. This, for Hindostan, is good progress; but the Indian telegraph may be cited as an instance of ASTRONOMERS are to be on the alert during the present year, to decide, if possible, an important question that has lately arisen with respect to Saturn, namely, the collapsing of its praiseworthy enterprise-3,000 miles having rings. Compared with drawings made two been erected in less than twelve months, at a hundred years ago, a considerable difference is cost of £42 per mile. The news conveyed by now perceived, as though the rings were grad- the mail to Bombay is now flashed to Madras, ually falling in upon the body of the planet ; Calcutta, Agra, and Lahore, in about three and if such be the fact, these remarkable ob- hours! Think of the wires being stretched to jects will some day disappear. This, it must within a few miles of the fatal Khyber Pass ! be admitted, is an interesting inquiry one A line is to be carried also to Prome, Rangoon, worthy of the science of the present day; and to the capital of Arracan; so that ere long and as the planet, for the next twelve months, the governor-general will receive daily or will be particularly well situated for observa- hourly reports of what is going on in the retion, an attempt is to be made to verify the motest parts of his wide dominion. And our change. Huyghens made his observations with communications with the west are likely to be a tubeless telescope, and the Royal Society expedited, for a submarine wire will soon come being in possession of his glasses, contemplate into play from Nova Scotia to St. John's, Newthe erection of an edifice, with the necessary foundland; and after that, means are to be apparatus, at Kew, for applying those glasses found for sinking a wire from St. John's to Galin a series of observations on the planet and way, and then messages from New York will its rings. We trust the opportunity will not be be as frequent and familiar as they now are lost, as the same favorable circumstances will from France. There is something truly wonnot again occur for fifteen years. In any case, derful in this rapid extension of the electric the results will be valuable. telegraph. The notion started by a French astronomer, that the temperature of the earth varies according to the meridian of the sun which is turned towards us, has been inquired into by the astronomer-royal, and found to be a mistake. Another notion, thrown out by an eminent German astronomer, remains under discussion. He concludes from long study, that the centre of gravity of the moon is sixty miles on one side of the centre; the effect of which would be that the side visible to us may be regarded as a vast mountain sixty miles high, while the other side that which we do not see- may have all the water and all the atmosphere. Hence our satellite may not be so devoid of these two elements as is commonly believed; but to determine the question will involve investigations of the profoundest character. The French Académie have portioned their Lalande prize among the six discoverers of the last instalment of small planets. English observers come in for a share. It is considered a triumph, that during the late snow-storms no interruption took place in the simultaneous dropping of the time-balls at Greenwich and Deal. To insure the punctual transmission of the signal to the latter place, an ingenious contrivance-a switch-clock is fixed at Ashford, which being always fast, lifts the Dover wire a few minutes before the hour, establishes a connection with that leading to Deal, and after the signal has passed, lets the Dover wire fall into its place again. The electric clock lately fitted up at the South-eastern Railway terminus, London Bridge, moves beat for beat with that at Greenwich Observatory. On this line, a message of twenty words can now be sent to any station for one shilling. Incredible though it seem, the Greek government have voted £4,300 towards the canalization of the Euripus- that awkward strait which separates Negropont from the main. The narrowest part is to be widened and deepened, to allow of the passage of ships; and The Panama Railway is now complete from a swing-bridge and beacons are to be erected. one side of the Isthmus to the other, a distance The Pleiad steamer, which was sent out last of forty-nine miles, rising at one part of the year to explore the African rivers, has made a line to a height of 250 feet above the sea. successful voyage. Under charge of Dr. BaiCommunication between the two oceans will kie, the Tchadda was ascended 250 miles furnow be more rapid than ever; and when the ther than before; a trip was also made up the Pacific line of steamers is in operation from Quorra, the good-will of the natives was conPanama to Sydney, we shall get news from ciliated, and openings established for trade. Australia in about forty days. The cost of this One hundred and eighteen days were passed work is £1,400,000. The railway from Alex-in the rivers, and the expedition returned to andria to Cairo, 130 miles, will be opened the coast without losing a man -- a striking through the entire route as soon as the three proof that, by proper management, health may bridges are finished; and then locomotives | be preserved in the worst climates. To obviate |