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LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, &c
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Little has been talked of in literary circles during the past week but the Burns celebration ,, and the preparations over the country are so . vast and vario \ is as almost to give warrant to a fear that the biTsincss may be slightly overdone . It is pleasant to notice , however , that instead of hunting for Lords and Bight ITonourables i o preside * at the different festivals , a certain fitness of things has been observed : the craft to which Burns belonged has hot
been forgotten , and literary presidents and literary guests have been eagerly sought for by the different committees . At Glasgow , where Sir Archibald Alison is to preside , the list of guests invited and expected includes the names of Monckton Milnes , Samuel Loveri Professor Nichol , Judge llaliburtoh , and Sir David Brewster , whilst the London press will be represented . , by Mr . Shirley Brooks ; , and Mr . James Lowe , the editor of the Critic . The lists at Dumfries , Alloway , and Edinburgh , are not less full . Lord Brougham has written , excusing himself from attendance , but the chair kept vacant for him will be filled by Lord Ardmillan ,
one of the Judges of the Court of Session . In . London there will be great doings ; the . Caledonian Society designing a dinner at the London Tavern , Bobert Marshall , Esq ,, the president of the society , presiding . Another dinner is projected at the Guildhall- ' Hotel , Grcsham-street , over which Mr . James Hannay , the Scotch novelist and essayist , will preside .. At the Crystal Palace they are accumulating all manner of relics and properties of the poet , autographs of all kinds ; a statue by Thorn , the Taylor and Nasmyth portraits , the escritoire upon which he wrote " Tarn O'Shanter , " and a lock of Ida hair , with another of " Bonnie Jean ' s . " Perhaps the most welcome book of the week has been " Passages from My Autobiography , " by Sydney Lady Morgan ( Bent ley ) ; a book filled with interesting and pleasant gossip and much information . Miss Gcraldi . no Jcwsbury ' s novel , "Right or Wrong * ' ( Hurst and Blaekett ) , lias also attracted attention . Among the rumours of Paternostcrrrow comes one that Lord Campbell has been unbending his legal mind by commenting upon Shakspcarc , and that he has written a book pointing out the bearing of nil the legal passages in the dramatist . The story that Shakspcarp served some period of apprenticeship in an attorney ' s office is not without plausibility , ' and oertainly gives a more reason able explanation of the fapt that his writings are thickly strewn with legal allusions than by adopting- Miss Delia Bacon ' s theory , that her groat namesuko had a hand in their composition . This branch of Shakspoarcan lure lias been treated to a small extout by uLiverpool attorney , Mr . William Ilushton ; but there must bo still left much to do for a mind so docply stored with law im Lord Campbell's . Lot us hope that the indefatigable Chief Justioo will bo more accurate as a commentator than as a biographor . Mr . Oobdon also , profiting by the lcisuro a Horded him by the mgratos of tho West Riding , has been translating a work on tho " Gold Discovprios , " by hia friond M . Chovalior , tho French ocqnomist . 'X'ho work is intended to traoo tho operation of l' » o gold discoveries of Australia ana California upon the monetary system of Iflnropo , and hos already acquired a continental celebrity . Tho edition will also rcooive a new value from tho addition w a profaoe ana notes by Mr . Oobdon . An important work by Mr . Peter Lund Simmonda ,-the author of " The Curiosities of Food , " and some ourious and valuable statistical works ,
deserves mention . It is upon "The Trade and Commerce of London , " From the prospectus before us some faint idea may be gathered of the immensity and importance of the work . The Shipping and Carrying Trade , Trade in Fibres used in Manufactures , Provision Trade , Trade in Metals , are among the headings of the chief divisions . It will appear ' in monthly parts , the first to be issued on the 1 st of February next .
Messrs . Hurst and Blaekett announce among their forthcoming publications " Memoirs of the Court of George IV ., " from original family documents , by the Duke of Buckingham , in two Volumes ; " OccolaV'by Captain Mayne Reid , in three volumes , with illustrations-by . " Weir ; a new novel entitled " Creeds , " by the author of " The Morals of Mayfair ; " and new works by the author of "John Halifax , " Mr . Jame 3 llanuay , aud the author of " The Discipline of Life , " &c .
Among the Paris items of gossip may be mentioned the curiosity excited respecting the expected publication of Benjamin Constant ' s letters to Madame R eamier , whose family-however , have interfered , and Madame Colct has not been able to give tlicm in the feuilleton of the Presse . Some letters by George Sand on the death of Alfred de Mnssct were also talked of as likely to be introduced to print ; but this lad }' , who numbers among her other gifts a knowledge " of law and a love of litigation , ' stayed the progress , of knowledge by the hands of a . fiuissier . . ¦ .
Among the literary promises of works " loomingin the future , " is one of some " Memoirs of Robert Zloudin , " the , conjuror , in two volumes—a work likely enough to be amusing in its way ; We have npt heard what value Houdin has set upon his literary performances , but we are sure that it ought to be at least equal to that of Barnum ' s lectures on humbug and money-making , which their author rates at so high'a sum that he has refused 1200 / . from Mr . Routledge for the exclusive right of publishing them in England , The First President of the Court of Cassation , a gentleman who boasts the extraordinary name of M . Troplong , has lately published a remarkable criticism on Grluck's " Armide , " in the lievue Contemporaine , proving that the bard of " Ion" is not
the only lawyer who can spare time for wooing the Muses . A capital story respecting this exercitation is going the rounds of the frequenters of the famous Salle das Pas Perdus , the Westminster Hall of Paris . According to the legend , a solicitor who had . heard of the article before its appearance in print ( for it had been much talked about ) , fell into the mistake of supposing it to be already published , and happening to have an audience of the First President , he began a string of fulsome compliments upon the merit of the criticism . " You have read it , then ? " asked M . Troplong ; " Ten times at least , " replied he of the unblushing cheek . " You must be a very clever rnan indeed then , " rejoined the judge , " for the article will not appear for five days . "
The executors of the poet Bt ranger are collecting his correspondence for publication . The Monileur announces flic foundation of a now bi-mpnthly review , to bo entitled the Revue Bwopienne—most plainly a device to oppose tho during , though fettered Jicvtto dos Den . v Mondes . It will , of course , bo entirely under Government influence , and the nanio of M . Gra . nicr do Cassagnao is confidently mentioned in connexion with tho editorial chair . The last item of continental news is that Professor Holler has discovered , in the library of Count Tliun , at Totschon , a precious oodcx for tho history of music , which dates from lOu-l , and contains , on a
hundred and sixtocn pages of parchment , a complete course of musio as it was known in the eleventh oontury . Tho value of this discovory is , of course , entirely dependent upon its authenticity , with regard to which niusioians look doubtful . Tho obituary of the woek includes a few names of literary intprost . Mrs , Wordsworth , the widow of tho poet , died at Kydul on Monday , the last of a family cirolo wliiqh at 0110 , 0 included some of the brightest and most genial of minds . —LodyGeorgiana Wool IF , udo { Stanhope , also dorivoa a literary interest from tho porformanoos of her husband , the loaruod and oooentrio missionary to Bokhara .
Literature, Science, Art, &C
LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , &c .
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LITERARY CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK .
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DESCRIPTIVE ETHNOLOGY . - Descriptive Ethnology . By R . G . Latham , M . D . Two vols . 8 vo . " Van Voorst . " The proper study of mankind is man , " not only the anatomy of his mind arid the functions of his body , but no less so the difference of habits of thought , of language , and of formation itself , as exhibited in the various tribes of which the great family of man consists , and which are scattered over the face of the globe . Throughout the whole human race " the chain holds on , but where it ends , unknown , " and to track its course , and to connect its links , is the proper office of ethnological science .
Of Man , what see we but his station here , From which to reason , 6 r to which refer ? National affinities are best traced by the affinities of language , and the intimate connexion of man with the soil he inhabits and the language he speaks , is the most important of all aids . to enable us to trace and define each of the many ramifications into which mankind has spread , showing to a certain extent how much in all nationality is but the creature of circumstance , and man ' s " knowledge measured to his state and place . "
The chain which connects all these races together is a circular one ; ' and it is difficult to find its beginning no less than its-: end . Hence Dr . Latham , wise ! vbegins his book wit bout one word of preface , without an . attempt at introduction . The first volume is devoted to Eastern [ and Northern Asia , and to Europe , and the first chapter to : the Bhot Group . What does that name indicate ? - Ethnolosicallv speaking it has a wide signification .
. Thousrh little known in its naked form , it is common , enough in its altered shape . It is the Butt , in Bultistau , the But , in Butan , the Bet , it Thibet . Sometimes we hear of the B 7 iooteeas , sometimes of the B / wtivas . In etlmoiog 3- it comprises the Little Tibetans , the natives of Lad ~ ak , the Titans of Tidei Proper , and the closely allied tribes of Bitten . This tract of land is likely to become one of great interest to Europeans in consequence of pur recent treaty with China . Let us see what its natural surface
presents to pur view : — The Tibet of the ordinary maps is too much of a table-land , plateau , or steppe . This is because it is imperfectly known ; being a land under the dominion of the Chinese , and jealously protected against European exploration . Where enterprising travellers have actually penetrated , it has—to compare gTeat things with small—been found to resemble the dales of Yorkshire and the lake district rather than the sandy levels o £ Hampshire and Norfolk . It has presented long and narrow valleys , and even gorges on the branches « f great rivers . It has presented the level alluvia . of drained lakes , pre-eminently numerous in Ladak and elsewhere . It has determined the industry of the inhabitants to a true and characteristic form of
agriculture , for where water is scarce and irrigation necessary , canal after canal , watercourse after watercourse , has to be constructed , and these are to be found up to the very limits of the inhabited part of the Himalayas . Even , wlien we follow the course of the IJramaputra , where we can follow it , the difference is only one degree . These is still the river between its rocky and elevated banks There is still the tract of alluvial and cultivated soil . The only difference is that the belts of cultivation are wider as the stream of tho river . grows stronger . If these bo omitted in the maps it is because they have not been described , not because they arc non-existent . Nevertheless some portion of the phot area is what ; the ordinary representations make it— -actual steppo or tableland , with tho niaunorfl and customs of Tartary and Mongolia to match .
Here is a Held for the explorations of another Eothcn , " or subject for another From Pall-modi to Ixts&a . W hut , an opening for railway speoulation ivud electric telegraphs ; wlmt a market foe Manchester , Birmingham , find Glasgow ; and more limn all , what iv limcl for English travellers , whore passports am not ureTled , douanicrs do not overhaul luggage , mucI gendarmes aro unknown ! And what if there arc n ( present dangers and difficulties in tho
wny ? So much greater our mission to overcome them j so much nuiro need of tho spread of oivilisation , by nioaus ol' " eommerco and enterprise , to bring such a . favoured Imid into obmimmlon with our aolvos . Its frontiers are with EMndostnn and Cashmoro—shawls nnd Ue ^ cnt-stroot—with Littlo Bokhara and tho iulldol distriols of Knur-isinn . There is Lassn , too , with its pnlttoo , 307 l'eot high , renohing
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1859, page 107, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2278/page/11/
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