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lAirrffnltlT JL'UiUUUlU «
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issued in a neat and cheap form by Mr . Murray . The second volume of the Introduction to the Literature of Europe is now published . A second volume of the Nodes AmbrosiaruB of Professor Wilson has been ^ aimed by Messrs . Blackwood , at the " pinnacle of everlasting immortality , " and a sixth volume of Chalmers ' s works by the Messrs . Constable . This contains the Evidences of Christian Revelation , in which the positivism of Chalmers s is conspicuously illustrated . Vaulting to the antipodes of the world of letters , we find a treasure—Mr . John Forster ' s Life and Times of Oliver
¦ ^ ^ ¦¦¦• ¦¦¦¦^ ¦¦¦¦¦¦^ ¦¦ ^ "'""" ^^^^"" " ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^""''"' ' ^^ " ^^ " ¦¦ "'¦ ' ' ^ ¦¦ '" ¦¦¦ iif c mitteemen of Mechanics' Institutes . Messrs . Chapman and Hall ' s valuable Almanack of Science and Art should be mentioned by the side of Mr . Bogue ' s Year Book of Facts , the gathering of scientific discussion and inquiry in 1856 .
Goldsmith , anew and popular edition , with forty illustrations after designs by C Stanfield , D . Maclise , John Leech 3 Richard Doyle , and R . H- Hamerton . What more versatile and masterly art could be desired to illustrate this exquisite story of a strange and chequered life . To Mr . Forster s pictures of " Goldy V career , real and vivid as they are , are now added snch sketches as would adorn a history or an invented tale . The Life of Goldsmith , already a classic , becomes in this edition doubly pleasant and popular . Edmond About ' ss delightful story ,. Tolla , which we were the first to signalize to English readers , is also presented to us in Constable ' s Miscellany of Foreign Literature .
From the artists to the artisans , some skilled labourers have aided in the production of The British Empire ; Historical , Biographical , and Geographical ( Griffin and Co . ) In this triple encyclopaedia , Professor Creasy leads off with a review of the progress of the Anglo-Saxon race . Among his coadjutors we find Sir Archibald Alison , dull and voluminous ; Sir David Brewster , bold , clear , and sound ; Mr . J . A . Heraud , the Epic alive ; Mr . Charles Knight , who is the genius of popularity ; Mr . John Hill Burton , who atones by care for what he lacks hi impulse , and others , whose writings are reliable and pleasantly coloured . The design of the work is , to offer a view of the great events of English history , a biographical catalogue of English worthies , and a gazetteer of the empire and its dependencies . As a companion volume , let us particularise The Calendar of Victory ( Longman and Co . ) , "A Record of British Valour and Conquest by Sea and Land on
every Day in the Year , " projected and commenced by the late Major Johns , and continued and completed by Lieut . P . H . Nicholas ; of the Royal Marines . Among miscellaneous didactics , we find on our table New Zealand , Its Present Condition , Resources and ' Prospects ( Stanford ) , by E . B . Fitton—a concise and popular manual ; John rlampdenGurney ' s Evening Recreations ( Longman ancT Co . )—a series of varied lectures 5 Practical Hints ( very practical ^ / or Investing Money , by Francis Playford , a " sworn broker , " The Practical Stenographer , byE . Soper ( Darton and Co . )—the last is a guide easy to follow , and worth following . Mr . Benjamin Drew invites us , in a volume entitled The Refugee ( Triibner ) , to take a north-side view of slavery . He has collected the narratives of fugitive slaves in Canada , some anonymous , others improbable , many signifying
nothing . Some hundreds of men and women tell us > painfully , how they were stripped , exposed , whipped , paddled , cut , bruised , and flayed , until we are sickened , more than edified , by the story . Surely the evidence is complete ; the harrow is superfluous ; letusiiave no more of these bitter libels , which only aggravate a formidable social difficulty , and engage passion as well as interest in the cause of slavery . Miss ? Mary ISlizabetn wormiey , mi Our Cousin Veronica ; or , Scenes and Adventures over the Blue Ridge ( Triibner ) , follows on the same side ; but not in a newspaper narrative . Her pleadings are romantic ; she adopts the style of Uncle Torn , and writes gracefully and maliciously against the practices of her fellow-citizens . Mary Elizabeth , however , does not use the hickory-stick or cobbing-ladleto move us to sympathy .
Her countrywoman , Fanny Fern , is incorrigible . Fanny Fein ' s last sin is Rosa Clark , which is a romance of modern life , as per sample : — " Roll on , gentle stars ! shall not He who feedeth your never-consuming fires yet make every crooked path Straight , every rough place plain ? What though the tores grow amid the wheat until tlie harvest , shall not the great Husbandma n surely winnow them out , and gather the wheat into the heavenly granary ? Roll on , gentle stars ! " Roll on , Fanny Fern ! Harriot K . Hunt , though an " M . D ., " appears to be a woman . Her
Glances and Glimpses ( Trtibner ) , disclose " fifty years ' social , and twenty years' professional , life . " Her criticisms appertain to diseases of the mind and body ; but , she tells us , her father was named Joab , ami her mother Kezia , which may account for her Puritan fury ; she scathes with the malignity of Agag those " dicers for office" who play " with loaded majorities ; " she affirms that " sex is to be felt , not talked of ; " she apostrophises " the frost-bound freshets of sorrow ; " she invites us to inspect " the statue of her life " in so many attitudes , that we are embarrassed , and wonder what that society can be in which Miss Harriot K . Hunt not only studies , but practises , the medical art .
To these unmanageable miscellanies let us add a few light items of litera-* w - ~~ Old Jnrvis ' s Will ( Parker ) , a tale of real life ; False Honour ( Parker ); Wyndecote Hall ( Parker ); The Duke , by Mrs . Grey ( Routledge ) ; The Watch-» na » , by J . Maitland ( Routledp ; e ); The Hidden Path , by Harland ( Routledge ); My Brother ' s Wifely A . U . Edwards ( Routledge ); a new American edition of Mr . Horace St . John ' s Lift : of Christopher Columbus ( Low ) , and of Mr . Knighton ' s Private Life of an Eastern King . Messrs . Kent and Co . have published a remarkable collection of advertisements , disjecta membra of living romance , under the title Pujfs and Mysteries , and Tracings from the Capital of eke Second Column of « The Times' It is n ( lintmnt hut nmn < iin «
v 1 ° w Mr " Geor K Measom ' a Official Illustrated Guides to the London and North Western , and the Brighton Railway ; Mackintosh nnd Kemp ' s British Xear-bookfor the Country ; Mr . C . J . Jones' Account of the Queen ' s Visit to ram ( Ward and Lock ) , —lively and foolish ; The Family Friend ( Ward and LocWr—a treasure of amusement and information ; Enquire Within ( Kent mrR ° "'' univcrsal recci P l ) o . ° k * » nd Mitchell ' s Newspaper Directory for * o oo , —essential to largo lulvertinera ; may nil be registered seriatim . With tnwro wo , may rank The Home School , or Hints on Home Education , by JN ormau M-cteod ( Edinburgh : Paton and Ritchie ); Zapthnath Paaneah , or 7 History Qf Joseph ( Fueeman ) , by the Kev . Thoraeley Smith , and An Ad-« nwff ore , Mechanics Institutes ) and Popular Education , hy Richard Dawca , iVA . A .,, Dean of Hereford . This last ) we commend to nil presidents and com-
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We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful enccmrages itself . —Goethe .
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Fkom Ajtf Unpublished Volume of Alexander Heezen ' s Memoirs . 1825-1826 . One winter morning a senator visited our house before tne usual hour , and , with a mysterious expression on . his countenance , entered my father ' s library , and motioned to me not to follow . I remained in the saloon , wondering" what he had come to tell . Fortunately , I was not long left in doubt , for a door opposite me opened , and the round face of the senator ' s lacquey appeared as if framed in his richly-ornamented collar of fur . He made me a sign to draw near the door . " You know nothing ? " he said . "Of what ?"
" The Emperor is dead , at Taganrog I " I was astonished and excited by the news .. I had never before conceived the possibility of Alexander ' s death ; they who , from infancy , had surrounded me , had only imbued my mind with veneration of the Czar . I called to recollection the last occasion on which I had seen him , just before his departure for Taganrog . He was on horseback , riding slowly from a review near the Barriere de Tuer , and was accompanied by two generals , one of whom was Diebitch . His face was calm and mild ; he seemed weary and pensive . I took off my hat , he smiled , and returned my salute . How different from Nicholas , who perpetually carried Medusa ' s head , half bald , and looked round him with a serpent ' s fierceness , whether in the streets or at the palace among his officers and ladies of honour ! Nicholas sought continually to emulate the boa-constrictor , and to freeze the blood in the veins of those with whom he spoke . Had Alexander ' s affability been assumed , I should have esteemed such hypocrisy preferable to the insolent candour of absolutism .
While in all the shops portraits of " the Emperor Constantine" were exhibited ; while the crowds rushed to the churches to swear allegiance to him , the rumour of his abdication spread . The senator ' s lacquey , indeed , announced to me that there was an insurrection at St . Petersburg , and that cannon had been fired on the Place de Traak . The next evening , General Count ComaroSfsky visited us . He came from St . Petersburg , where he had been a witness of the insurrection . He described it to us , and I in amazement , listened . A new world seemed to open , , i ;~» .. ~ . A *>{\ r \ i * i \ t *>* c"flfi •« ' <* - > ' »¦• - + A fill mv imagination .
In a few days began a series of arrests and domicihai'y visits throughout Moscow . Mothers and wives trembled ; all seemed at once to become gloomy . To the nation at large Nicholas was utterly unknown ; while Alexander reigned he lias been nothing ; . - ^ he had been seldom mentioned . Now , every one was interested in him . The officers of the Imperial Guard were anxiously questioned , and from them the public began to learn some traits of his coldly-cruel , vindictive , implacable character , — traits which were speedily exemplified . Once , while yet only a Grand Duke , having complaints to make against an officer , he seized him by his collar . The officer said sternly , " Your Highness , do not forget that I have a sword in my hand 1 " Nicholas recoiled , but he did not forget him . Upon becoming Emperor , he asked , two or three times , whether that officer had not been detected among tlie conspirators .
The officer , Count Samiloff , threw up his commission , and went to live in retirement at Moscow . Nicholas recognised him at the theatre , and remarked that he was dressed with an approach to foppery . He at once expressed his august desire to turn him into ridicule . Accordingly , the manager directed an actor to imitate the dress and the manners of Count Samiloff , and the mimic acquitted himself to perfection . After the performance , i ; he real count went in search of the manager , and demanded an interview with the ready-witted actor , declaring , however , that he would do him not the slightest harm . As the request was made in public , the manager , dreading a quarrel , called the actor forward * Samiloff thanked him for his clever imitation , but remarked that he wanted one ornament to complete it * So saying , he took off the splendid diamond that glittered on his breast , and said , "Permit me to offer you this ; every time you are ordered to mimic me , do me the favour to wear it . " Then , bowing , he returned to his stall , and Kicholas , perceiving that the laugh was not with him , forbade a repetition of the farce .
One of the earliest acts of the young Emyeror was the organisation of that ; formidable gendarmerie , which , centralisednearhis palace , exercised its espionage throughout the empire . The aocret police of Alexander were disbanded , and their chief officer , an old Volturian , was himself placed under surveillance . The fear of banishment , —a real or imaginary danger—hung over all ; it was as though society had been smitten dumb . Only women , compassionate and heroic , ventured to declare their sympathy with the relatives and friends , dragged from home nnd thrust into casemated dungeons . The names of some of these macnanimoua and pious ladies are known , —the princesses
Troubetaky , the Nariskins , and the YoueUoreffskis , —I must add that ot Madame TvashelF . Her story is fctw * interesting to be omitted , M . Tvaaheff belonged to a nohte and opulent family . He conceived , a pasaion for his sister ' s governess , and would have married her , but that his mother created such a storm that the young girl retired to Paria , and he was forced to defer his intention . Ultimatel y * aa one of the moat ardent leaden of the great conspiracy , he was condemned ]) to civil death , and to forced labour in perpetuity . Hia father hod a natural son to whow he bequeathed the family estates * beseeching him , however , noi
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¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ J February 16 , 1856 . THE LEADER . lgj _
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 16, 1856, page 163, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2128/page/19/
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