THE MESSRS. CHAMBERS OF EDINBURGH. (SE- | his many designs, and great talent in his original LECT WRITINGS OF ROBERT CHAMBERS.)-The contributions to their far and wide acceptation, as literary career of the Brothers Chambers is so ho- guides to the useful and pleasant pastimes to the renorable to them, has had so much influence on popu- creative. His nullum quod non ornavit tetigit is of a lar reading, and has been attended with such prodigious calibre; and Scotland has reason to be extraordinary success, that we trust a few remarks proud of his and his brother's labors. The influence upon this publication may not be deemed amiss from they have had, nationally, is incalculable; and the our pen. Few wayfarers on the thorny path of lite- seed they have sown must bear an inestimable harrature and especially of literature in a serial vest for many a future year, and tens of thousands form, have deserved to fare better; and very yet unborn. few indeed have fared so well. Sir Walter Scott, with all his genius; Mr. Charles Knight, with all his talent and irrepressible zeal, sustained by a powerful combination; Mr. Loudon, with indefatigable industry, and a vast amount of useful knowledge, are examples that One of the circumstances in the career of these writers ought not to be passed over in silence. They have throughout been self-supported. They were never trammelled with other alliances. Whilst yet young and trying their first lowly efforts, they were content to struggle on unaided by extrinsic help. They, by industry and ability, made their position; "Tis not in mortals to command success,"" and then they could, with better effect, gradually carry out their enlarged plans, and seek no assisthowever highly their merits may deserve the tri- ance. As they rose, their views were extended; till umph. We allude, of course, to such a degree of they took, indeed, a very universal publishing sursuccess as ought to crown such exertions, were all vey and occupation of Great Britain. We will venrewarded by equal fortunes, and without disparage-ture to surmise that if ever, at any period, they had ment to our much esteemed Edinburgh friends. departed from this course, they would never have They have exercised their abilities judiciously; they been what they are. have fulfilled their functions prudently and honestly; It is with feelings of sincere pleasure that we take they have performed their duties to the public not up the first volume of this collection, and seize the only irreproachably, but most beneficially, pandering occasion, not merely to commend its varied conto no false appetite, but mingling instruction with tents, but to offer this tribute of applause to contementertainment, and information with almost every poraries so truly deserving. In productions almost species of social improvement, till the limits of their as fertile as M. Alexandre Dumas we can discover enterprise have extended to a truly gigantic sphere, no tones of silly vanity, no diffusion of bad princiIt is marvellous to imagine how much the writer ples, no traces of ill-nature. Their sympathies with who dissipates himself in constant periodical publi- the million are not mingled with poisons for the cation does actually produce. On an estimate it million; their addresses are paid to truth, utility, or would seem as if his every breath had been a print- harmless entertainment, and not to irritate dangered sentence; as if his mouth never opened but to de-ous passions, nor feed like carrion vultures on the posit types, as the gifted fairy-favorite princess dropped diamonds [and by the way, there are types called both pearl and diamond]. The many years which Robert Chambers, in particular, has devoted to literary production, have accumulated a mass which, we believe, would astonish, were it placed in a Ms. heap before his eyes, even himself. And when we reflect on the character of the whole,-how good it has been, how free from objection, how well calculated to attract and benefit the popular mind in the very humblest circles where the art of reading is taught; yet often addressing the highest and most ultivated,-we cannot but consider the writer to have been a marked benefactor to his country and kind. He has displayed great judgment in the choice of sores they create, and the corruption their base appetites lead them to prefer to the fresh and sound in letters and the social system. To them pleasant fields and beauties have appeared more welcome than miry ways, and deformities detected on the right and the left as they passed along. Thus their vehicles have been convenient or handsome carriages, and not mud-carts with offal and offence. Must not the wise and good therefore rejoice in the prosperity which has attended their efforts; feeling that they have been directed to improve and humanize the public mind? We believe that such is the unanimous opinion of the world-an opinion with which upon the best of grounds, on very attentive examination, we most cordially agree. EXTRAORDINARY LITERARY ENTERPRISE.-In March, 1845, M. Dumas, the celebrated French novelist, contracted literary obligations to the amount of eighty volumes, to be paid in a few months, including "Le Conde de Monte Christo," "Le Fils de Milady," "Le Viconte de Cragelonne," "Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge," "La Fille du Regent," ""Histoire de la Peinture," "Siècle de Louis XV.," "La Guerre des Femmes," &c. These works, it is true, bear some analogy to the copyrights enumerated by Swift in Mr. Edward Curll's catalogue, as "several taking title-pages, which only wanted treatises written to them." Yet the payments of M. Dumas must necessarily have been heavy. He owed 225,000 lines. He wrote five feuilletons for five different journals, and had "three horses, three servants, and the railway continually waiting for copy." dramas; and I will defy any person to discover in To conduct the monetary department of this im- "I went to Spain. I accompanied the Duke of Montpensier to Madrid. I alone, of all the Frenchmen, was invited to the marriage. I alone received the Grand Cross of Charles III. I went to Tunis. There I was received still better. There reigns a Prince who, though a Tunisian, is not a savage, and who knows our worth. He gave me the Grand Cross of the Order of Nichan. It was I who went into the interior of Africa to save twelve Frenchmen. It was I who rescued them. It was I who had a steam frigate of 220 horse power placed at my disposal-a vessel which had been never given but to me and to a Prince. It was I who conveyed the prisoners to Djemma-Ghazaouat, where I was received by 3000 persons, who offered me a bouquet, the remembrance of which consoles me for the insults I have this day received." "Vehemens et liquidus, puroque simillimus amni Fudit opes, Latiumque beavit divite lingua. Inasmuch, however, as M. Dumas took the money, though he withheld the goods, the patience and pockets of the editors began to sink, and they at length summoned him before the Civil Tribunal. M. Dumas attended in person to plead his own cause, in the presence of such an audience as had never been seen. The charge against him was twofoldthat he had written where he ought not, and had not written where he ought; and his defence accordingly assumed a similar division. His plea to the first count was rather embarrassed. M. Dumas could hardly tell what he had written, received, or paid. One" poor little thing of 11,000 lines he might have given away-the Tribunal would easily believe he might forget it." In a single point only at this stage of the trial was his refutation triumphant. The plaintiffs had rashly charged him with writing for the Mode a romance called "Elizabeth." "What!" he burst forth, "is it supposed that I could write a romance called Elizabeth,' when I hate the name? I ask pardon of any lady here present who may be named Elizabeth.' (Varied movement.) But I am forced to avow that the name is one of my antipathies. (Sensation.) I have published 300 volumes-I have written twenty-five The engagements of M. Dumas required that he should be in Paris; the historical policy of France required that he should be in Spain. It is, of course, needless to inquire which of these considerations should give way. When the trial was proceeding, M. Dumas was "escorted to his carriage by an immense crowd, who returned his salutes with enthusiastic plaudits." It is clear that he carries with him the sentiments of the nation. The niggardly and mean-spirited complainants, who would fetter genius to the terms of a bargain, and set the vulgar consideration of a few thousand francs against the grandeur of their country, meet with no compassion, excepting from the Court. M. Dumas "represented literature" throughout Spain and Africa; six persons in the suite represented painting and the drama; he carried the glory of France to an unexampled height in two quarters of the globe, and he thought he had earned the unquestioned right of pocketing his salary and repudiating his engagements.-Court Journal. HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE PROSCRIBED.-A prohibition has just been issued at Leipsic against the publication for the future of any works whatsoever in the Hungarian language. The reasons assigned are, 1st, that the printing-offices are not furnished with all that is necessary for such undertakings; and, 2dly, that there are no censors acquainted with the language, and consequently, they would be unable to report on their contents; as if this were the author's fault, or as if he ought to suffer on that account. How any government can, in the 19th century, have the-shall we call it courage or hardihood?-to enforce such laws, is to us perfectly incomprehensible. LORD MORPETH AND CRICKETING.-It may not be known to many, and we had the happiness of being one of the few who had become acquainted with the fact, that during the last three years-indeed ever since the noble viscount returned to his native shores -Lord Morpeth had been constant and unceasing in his efforts to cultivate cricket amongst all classes of society, but especially amongst those who are engaged in agricultural and manufacturing pursuits. It has not been an uncommon thing, in the progress of the period we have alluded to, to see his Lordship scoring throughout a match which has been played by the servants of his noble family against another club or a different parish; and his Lordship has been often heard to say that whenever the opportunity was afforded to him of furthering the practice or the interests of so national and healthful a sport, he would not permit it to escape. It is gratifying, therefore, to find that one of his high and proud birth should carry into office the opinions and intentions which were expressed when holding the simple position of a private gentleman. Lord Morpeth, when merely the son of an earl, patronized, by his pocket and cheering presence and personal assistance, the first of England's pastimes. Lord Morpeth, now a Minister of the Crown, and consequently with increased power, has, in his official character, given instructions, or permission, that nine acres of a park, which is even yet in the course of formation, the Victoria park, situated somewhere below Whitechapel, shall be reserved and prepared as a cricket ground for the inhabitants of the district. It is but fair to infer that the results which Lord Morpeth witnessed in Northumberland, from the constant commingling of classes in the practice of the game upon all who were engaged in the matches, or, indeed, in the pastime, has led to this step-one, too, which, in the present rage for building, is the more acceptable, setting aside the peculiar circumstances | of this particular case, because even the small number of grounds which have been hitherto applied to the purpose of cricket are, we lament to hear, being considerably diminished. This proceeding of the noble lord comes with increased benefits and claims upon the sympathies of the public. It is a boon of vastly enhanced value, and in proportion is his Lordship entitled to the thanks of the world at large. We earnestly trust we may hear of further grants of land for the recreation of the people. A park is to be laid out in Battersea-fields; could not a portion be set aside for cricket?-Sheffield Iris. explain his remarkable but undeniable ability of telling that which he does not see, and never has seen before. His demeanor is wild and incoherent, and indicates not the usual soundness of mind. CHARLES LEVER, THE NOVELIST.-A great many writers have already distinguished themselves by narrative of military adventure. Of these, by far the best and most spirited, is Charles Lever. I don't know whether he ever was in the army, or bore the banner of the Enniskillens; but I say deliberately, that he has taken the shine out of all military writers from the days of Julius Cæsar downwards. There is a rollicking buoyancy about his battles which to me is perfectly irresistible. In one chapter you have the lads of the fighting Fifty-first bivouacking under the cork trees of Spain, with no end of spatchcocks and sherry-telling numerous anecdotes of their early loves, none the worse because the gentleman is invariably disappointed in his pursuit of the well jointured widow-or arranging for a speedy duel with that ogre of the army, the saturníne and heavy dragoon. In the next, you have them raging like lions in the very thickest of the fight, pouring withering volleys into the shattered columns of the Frenchmen-engaged in single-handed combats with the most famous marshals of the empire, and not unfrequently leaving marks of their prowess upon the persons of Massena or Murat. Lever, in fact, sticks at nothing. His heroes indiscriminately hob-a-nob with Wellington, or perform somersets at leap-frog over the shoulders of the astonished Bonaparte; and, though somewhat given to miscellaneous flirtation, they all, in the twentieth number, are married to very nice girls,-with lots of money and accommodating papas, who die as soon as they are desired. It may be objected to this delightful writer-and a better never mixed a tumbler—that he is, if anything, too helter-skelter in his narratives; that the officers of the British army do not, as an invariable rule, go into action in a state of delirium tremens; and that O'Shaughnessy, in particular, is rather too fond of furbishing up, for the entertainment of the mess, certain stories which have been current for the last fifty years in Tipperary. These, however, are very minor points of criticism, and such as need not interfere with our admiration of the light lancer of literature, who always writes like a true and high minded gentleman.--Blackwood. FESTIVAL IN HONOR OF SPOHR.-On the 22d of EXTRAORDINARY. Rabbi-Hirsch-Daennemark, last month, Cassel was witness of a truly characwhose wonderful memory and sight have produced | teristic_festival. On that day, the celebrated coma great sensation in Russia, France, and Germany, poser, Spohr, had been for twenty-five years a resiand puzzled the most eminent men of the faculty, dent in the town, and his fellow-citizens determined made his appearance at the Sussex-hall, on Thurs- it should not pass over unnoticed. His royal day, the 30th ultimo. At a mere glance he exactly highness the co-regent gave evidence of the high told the number of lines on a page, in manuscript or estimation in which he held his master of the chapel, print. In any Hebrew book, or in any other lan- by naming him general director of music, a rank guage interspersed with Hebrew words, the rabbi which gives him the entrée to court. The King of told, without looking in, the words occurring on the Prussia surprised him also by sending him the line and page being named. A pin being stuck Order of the Red Eagle. His house and gardens through ever so many leaves, he tells the exact word were thronged during the day by those who were to which the point of the pin penetrates. This he anxious to bring him their congratulations, and to accomplished in books which some of the audience testify their esteem. From the town of Cassel, as brought from home. Being rather an uneducated well as from Göttingen, he received the rights of man, and not able to read any other language than citizenship. In the evening a piece written for the Hebrew, his extraordinary powers cannot be brought occasion was represented at the theatre, which was to bear upon any other language. He wears a dia- crowded to excess. Favorite scenes from Spohr's mond ring, presented to him by the Emperor of operas were given, which were followed by ta Russia, and a gold watch, by Prince Metternich.bleaux. In the pretty piece which was afterwards The Germans call him "Der Wunder Man" (the given, a deputation of the members of the theatre man of wonder), and no one yet has been able to fetched the composer from his box, and he presently appeared on the stage, where a chair was placed for | charmed, smote me with remorse for my long neglect him. His appearance was welcomed by the or- of a great, original, deep-hearted poet. And yet it chestra, and the shouts and applause of all present. seemed almost impossible to believe that some of the One of the ladies then advanced, and after repeating poems were new to me. With so singular a felicity some complimentary verses, placed a wreath of did they touch on some chords of feeling and memolaurel on his brows. The stage was immediately ry, that they seemed old, but strangely-forgotten covered with a shower of flowers, wreaths, and things,-strains heard in remote boyhood.-voices pieces of poetry. On the following day his most breathed with mighty, but homely power, from the intimate friends and his family assembled, and depth of years. It seemed to me, as I read, as if many were the testimonies of regard which he re- I knew what was coming next, as our real life someceived from all those who have had an opportunity of times seems to break on the fragments of a reviving becoming more intimately acquainted with him. dream; yet how far beyond all my poor conceptions was the grace and glory with which fragments of my own being seemed invested!" Mr. Dempster IN ENGLAND.-The United States of America continue to send us over not only cotton and flour, but rich contributions to our means of entertainment. There is something in the character of these contributions that is extremely gratifying; -a native simplicity, a spirit of pure intellect and poetry, which comes like a breeze from a transatlantic forest, like a sudden view of a far-western champaign, or the rolling strength of one of their great rivers. There are those who go to witness the power and passion of Miss Cushman, who complain that she has not softness and finish enough for them; there are those who listened to the Hutchinsons who exclaimed, "Oh, there is no science there!" there will be those who will go to listen to Mr. Dempster, who will make the wonderful discovery that he is not Tamburini, or Lablache. We should be sorry to find that Miss Cushman, or the Hutchinsons, or Mr. Dempster, were anything but what they are. They are representatives of the best portion of American artists. They make no pretensions to the superb accomplishments of Europe; they do not carry coals to Newcastle all the way from the Alleghanies; they do not bring the finest quavers from Alabama, or the most long-drawn or high-soaring flights of song from Buffalo. They know better. They bring us that which we need, and not that which we do not need,-soul, and thought, and simple truth, and a sentiment deep and pure as the springs of their forest hills. We have heard a great deal from our travellers of the conceit, and the cute impertinence of Americans; how delightful is it then to find in all the parties just named the very opposite of those qualities; to find, as we do, such true simplicity, such genuine worth, and so natural a possession of the noblest poetic temperament. In them we discover the total absence of that worldly knowingness which so much repels us in actors and singers who have lived too much amongst the crowds and the lamp smoke of London. There is a delightful freshness about them; a love of the beautiful and the noble, which gives a charm to their acting or their singing, which we fail to feel in many others of far higher pretensions. We are becoming fastidious towards art without sentiment; we long for the earnest expression of the true, the beautiful, and the tender.-Howitt's Journal. POETRY OF TENNYSON.-"I forthwith dived to the bottom of my bag, and eviscerated the first volume of 'Tennyson's Poems,' which, strange to confess, I had never read before, having been deterred by a most villanous prejudice, adopted from some false, fleeting' criticism which represented them as replete with poetic power, but wild, irregular, and affected; which I translated into meaning something you are bound to admire, and compelled to dislike. was therefore no less astonished than delighted with the passionate beauty, the intensity of generous pathos, the felicitous expression of a weight of human experience in few words, which, while they DANISH SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION.-A Danish manof-war, the Galathea, is now on a voyage round the world. We find in our files of China papers, some account of her progress and her visit to China. She is said to have been the first man-of-war that ever visited China from Denmark. The Danes were among the earliest to open a trade with China, but unlike the Portuguese, who led the way to the Celestial Empire with men-of-war and merchantmen together, they went only as merchantmen. Previously to 1745, the Danes had sent to China 32 ships, 22 of which never returned, so difficult and dangerous was the navigation of the Eastern seas in those early times. The Galathea is a corvette, carrying 26 guns. The object of her cruise is both scientific and diplo matic. She is commanded by Captain Steen Bille, the chamberlain to her Royal Highness the Princess Caroline of Denmark; and she has on board a scientific corps, including zoologists, botanists, mineralogists, painters for the department of natural history, &c., with a crew of 230 men.-She left Copenhagen in June, 1845, and touching at Madeira, Tranquebar, and Madras, reached Calcutta early in November. During her stay at Tranquebar and Calcutta, a formal transfer was made to the British authorities of the Danish possessions on the main land. At Calcutta, the expedition was joined by a commercial agent, appointed by the king of Denmark, and who had arrived by way of Suez. A Steamer was purchased on account of the Danish Government, at Calcutta, and sent to Pulo Penang, to carry a company of Chinese laborers to the Nicobar Islands; where some of the officers and the mineralogists designed to remain, for purposes of exploration. The Galathea reached the Nicobars early in January, 1846, and remained there several weeks, during which time great pains were taken to explore those long-neglected islands. The search for coal is said to have been successful. Having stopped at Penang, Singapore, Batavia, and Manilla, the Galathea reached Hong Kong in June, just a year from the time of her sailing from Copenhagen, She was at Wampoa in July, and her marines went up to Canton to quell the riot which occurred there on the 25th of that month. She afterwards visited Amoy and Shanghai, and subsequently sailed for the Sandwich Islands, Sydney, and the West coast of America, intending to pass round the Cape to Rio, and thence return to Copenhagen, where she expected to arrive about the present time. MR. GRENVILLE'S LIBRARY.-The late Mr. T. Grenville's Library, consisting of 20,300 volumes, as bequeathed by him, has been moved into the British Museum. It required five days to complete this transfer; and the estimated value of the legacy is at least 100,000. |