stream. On his right, but much in advance of him, was the whole Mexican army. On his left, and much further off, and in the rear, were the troops, with which the Mexican column had been driven back. All that whip and spur and shout could do, to aid the jaded horses on-all that men could do, who forgot their fatigue in the desperate emergency of the occasion, was done, that these troops might reach Taylor before the Mexicans had annihilated him. To keep the Mexicans at bay, till this force arrived to sustain him, was now the great object of the general. Instants were ages now. Both sides felt the crisis. It was a race of life and death, of victory and defeat, in very truth. And we can well believe that a lifetime of thought passed through General Taylor's mind, as he watched the approach of the masses of the Mexicans on his right, and then turned to his left, to see the frantic efforts of his friends to reach him. Horse after horse fell. As the Mexicans came on, led by Santa Anna in person, they first met the infantry of Kentucky and Illinois, which stood firm until borne down by the very weight of numbers, and forced, not flying but fighting still, into the dreadful ravine, where the unresisting wounded were slaughtered, and where Clay, and Harden, and McKee were killed. The infantry overwhelmed, the Mexicans next came upon the little battery of artillery. This was all that now stood between the general and defeat. Cannoneer after cannoneer was killed. The officers labored, wounded, as common soldiers. The commander, at one time, might have saved his guns; but while he fought them the pace of the Mexicans was checked. He could hear, too, the approaching artillery that was to relieve him-and, abandoning the wish even to save his battery, he fought it until the Mexicans were at the muzzles; and then, to use the language of Carleton, "he and the few crippled fellows who had survived the carnage, hobbled away." But he did not retire until he saw that Bragg was close at hand-until he had seen the regiments of Lane and Davis clambering, at a run, up the sides of the last ravine that separated them from the general;-until, in fine, he had seen that in this fearful race his friends would be in season for victory. It is not necessary to continue the narrative. We all know that before the battery, as it came up and was brought into action, the Mexican army wilted away, and that Taylor, standing on the same plain which his army had occupied in the morning, was the victor of the field. incident have been wholly omitted by us; but we think we have described the great features of the battle rightly; and, in doing so, have enabled our readers to determine the validity of the pretensions now set up in Gen. Wool's behalf. We repeat, what we have already intimated, as to General Wool's merits. Nothing here said is intended to detract from them; nor, properly considered, can it in any way do so. The greatest generals have been defeated-Washington, Napoleon, and the like;-and General Wool cannot be offended by being put in that category. But, though Washington has been called the hero of Yorktown, he is not known as the hero of Brandywine ;--and unless our General Wool claims credit as the hero of a defeat, it is well for his friends to be quiet about his being the hero of his part of the battle of Buena Vista. Z. [In connection with the foregoing living picture, by a correspondent of the Baltimore American, we copy from the New York Courier an extract from a speech made by Col. Bragg in that city some months ago.] The battle was fought; you know the result, but you never can know the influence that the presence of has seemed to me, could have inspired, by a presence, General Taylor had upon the army. He alone, so it every soldier in the army as the volunteers were inspired. The confidence in him was complete. He had commanded volunteers before, and had been successful with them. He had never surrendered. He had never been whipped; and the idea got abroad that he never could be. When manœuvring my pieces athwart the gullies, (I cite this as an example of that confidence,) I saw clouds of dust about two miles from me. I was painfully anxious. I thought Gen. Minon had fallen on our rear and attacked our depots, and to meet him was my first thought. A man came galloping up through the dust into sight, screaming, "Old Zack is coming!" Every soldier gave involuntary utterance to his feelings. Old Zack came, and in fifteen minutes THE TIDE OF BATTLE TURNED. Four thousand and five hundred men repulsed twenty thousand; and to the influence of that presence, under God, I think I am alive here to dine with you to-day. [General Wool has so successfully served his country, and has gained so high a character, that we are unwilling to believe that he was privy to the attempt to derogate from General Taylor's reputation. To support this opinion, we copy an article from the Republican, of Richmond, Va., dated 2 Feb.] Since we wrote our article, (a week or two ago,) expressing our strong reluctance to believe that the gallant Wool was privy to the assault upon General Taylor in the columns of the New York Evening In what has thus been said, it has been our pur-Post, we have had the great pleasure to meet with pose to present, as succinctly as we could, the mere facts in the case-generalized so as to bring them clearly before our readers-as the best proof that could be afforded, that the public voice had been right in proclaiming the hero of Buena Vista. Our statement has not been made for the military reader; nor has it been intended as a description of what was done by each arm of the service engaged; and many matters of detail and interesting the most satisfactory evidence that we were perfectly correct in the belief that General Wool could not be concerned in any attempt to strip a single leaf from the laurelled brow of Zachary Taylor. As an act of justice to General Wool, we give the following positive and entire disclaimer from the New York Evening Post: GENERAL WOOL AND THE BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA.-A morning paper, alluding to an account of the part borne by General Wool in the late campaigns against Mexico, calls on him either to deny the statement made in the article, or to assume the responsibility of its publication. The responsibility of either preparing the article for the press or publishing it, is what General Wool has no right, in any event, to assume, since neither of them was done by his desire or with his knowledge. If any of its statements are erroneous, they can be controverted. The question is properly an historical one, and ought not to be perverted into a personal controversy to serve the purpose either of a puerile malignity, or of a desire to obtain office under General Taylor's administration. Of course this sets the whole matter to rest, and entirely exonerates Gen. Wool from all suspicion of any connection with the articles in the New York Post. We trust that every newspaper which has given currency to the unjust imputations, will place Gen. Wool right before its readers, and do justice to one of the best soldiers and one of the most magnanimous men in the American or any other service. Our readers may possibly remember that one reason for our reluctance to believe the charge against Gen. Wool was, that he had uniformly upon the Rio Grande exhibited a most exalted spirit, free from the slightest taint of that narrow, contracted, and envious disposition which has soiled so many wreaths of glory in this war. Upon referring to some records of that, and of a subsequent period, in the journals of the day, we are enabled to place before the readers some evidence of the estimation in which Gen. Taylor was held by Gen. Wool. Among other matters, we ask the reader's attention to the following toast, offered by Gen. Wool at the great dinner given at Monterey, in February, 1848, celebrating the anniversary of the battle of Buena Vista: Gen Taylor. He has returned to the bosom of his family, crowned with a wreath of laurels, bearing on his shield the victories of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, and BUENA VISTA. And in conformity with this declaration was Gen. Wool's whole bearing upon the Rio Grande. Let us follow him down a little further, for we will venture to trespass upon the reader's patience, and all Virginia readers will forgive us, when the object is to do justice to a hero who has grown gray in the nation's service, and a man of noble and generous soul. The Troy Post, in replying to the unaccountable and unjustifiable assaults of the "Courier and Enquirer" upon Gen. Wool, has the following: The Troy Post also says-and it must be borne in mind that that paper is printed in General Wool's own city We will leave this wanton and gratuitous slander by repeating what we have in substance already said, that from the highest evidence, we know that General Taylor has no more sincere and ardent friend and admirer in the Union than Gen. Wool; and, while he takes no part in partisan politics, his language towards that gallant chieftain, both written and oral, on all occasions and to men of all parties, has been that of unbounded admiration and praise. Our object in this article is simple justice. We have no personal acquaintance with Gen. Wool, and have never seen him but once, when he was pointed out to us on board a Hudson river steamboat. But we know him through the pages of history, as one of the "bravest of the brave," in the wars with both England and Mexico; as a generous, modest, and retiring gentleman, and both as a soldier and a man worthy the esteem and confidence with which he has ever been, and we venture to add, always will be, regarded by General Taylor, notwithstanding the ill-advised attempts to estrange and alienate from each other two venerable and illustrious patriots and warriors. TRADE WITH CANADA. of Congress to the proposed opening of trade with Can[We believe that the opposition by southern members ada, has arisen entirely from a desire to prevent the an We are sorry nexation of half a dozen northern states. that any of our free trade brethren should fail to promote the great objects of commerce and peace with all the world when the fairest opportunity they ever had is presented to them. We say to them, moreover, as we did to the north about Texas, that the annexation is inevitable. We do not believe that England will oppose it.] From the Albany Argus. RECIPROCAL TRADE WITH CANADA.-It is a remarkable fact, and one which reflects little credit upon the liberality or the sagacity of our legislation, that while the local government of Canada, under the enlightened and liberal policy of the present dominant party in that province, has adopted and tendered to us absolute free trade in agricultural products, we have as yet declined, or have not at least accepted, the proffered reciprocity. If with our acknowledged superiority of soil, climate, capital, and enterprise, we cannot (as we certainly can) gain an advantage by equality, in exchanging a few agricultural productions common to both countries, our assumption of freedom in intercourse and trade, upon general principles of reciprocity, in accordance with the spirit of our institutions, ought to impel us not only to adopt it ourselves, but to encourage rather than repress it in others. On the occasion of General Wool's return home, while on board the steamer Hendrick Hudson, on her way up from New York, a gentleman offered a In relation to the free exchange of agricultural sentiment "The health of the hero of Buena Vista, products with Canada, no one can doubt, who will Gen. Wool." At this time, among his personal take the pains to examine the subject, that it would friends, if ever, license in the language of admira- greatly preponderate in our favor. So much so, tion and praise should be excused. General Wool that we see with surprise the objections the proposeized upon the opportunity to pass the highest sition has been called to encounter from intelligent eulogium upon General Taylor's character and con-quarters in the U. S. Senate. If the facts are unduct, and to utterly disclaim any pretensions of his derstood and well considered, we are quite sure He concluded his remarks by offering Gen- that these objections will yield to more liberal and eral Zachary Taylor, THE Hero of Buena Vista. practical views. own. From the New York Tribune. hears the rustle of his wings. He is a vitialized speculation-a talking essence A SORT OF CELESTIAL EMANATION, ["Celestial Emanations" may properly be allowed to take an airing on comets.-ILLUSTRATOR.] THE critic of the Boston Post writes most dazzlingly of one of Emerson's delightful lectures. We can hardly call it criticism, for he does not properly criticize; he plays around the subject like a humming-bird round a honeysuckle—he darts at it like a fish-hawk after a pike. He looms up like a thunder-cloud, comes down in a shower of tinkling sleet, and rolls away like a fire on the prairies. He plays with figures of speech like a juggler, balancing the sentences on his chin, and -a bit of transparency broken from the sphereskeeping up six with each hand. His fancy goes a spiritual prism through which we see all beautiup like the jet of a fire engine, and comes down ful rays of immaterial existences. His leaping in a spiral ecstasy, like a Peruvian condor. He is fancy mounts upward like an India-rubber ball, a detonating mixture-a percussion cap-a me- and drifts and falls like a snow-flake or a feather. teoric shower-a spiritual shuttle, vibrating be- He moves in the regions of similitudes. He tween the unheard-of and the unutterable. Like comes through the air like a cherubim with a a child he shakes his rattle over the edge of Chaos | golden trumpet in his mouth, out of which he blows and swings on the gates of the Past-and he sits like a nightingale in a golden ring, suspended by a silver cord from a nail driven into the zenith. We cannot resist trying our hand at illustrating his description of the lecture-giving form to the writer's phosphorescent fancies. Our attempts in this line accompany the text. Mr. Emerson, whose splendid profusion of thought and imagery, combined with the magnetism of his voice and presence, must produce the deepest impression wherever he is heard, has probably never imagined himself, even spiritually, in positions so remarkable. He will be equally amused with ourself at the result. Thus ecstasizes the writer : "Yet it is quite out of character to say Mr. Emerson lectures -he does no such thing. He drops nectar - HE CHIPS OUT SPARKS- -he exhales odors-he lets off mental sky-rockets and fireworks-he spouts fire, and, conjuror-like, draws ribbons out of his mouth. He smokes, he sparkles, he improvises, he shouts, he sings-HE EX PLODES LIKE A BUNDLE OF CRACKERS-he goes off in fiery eruptions like a volcano, but he does not lecture. He went swiftly over the ground of knowledge with a Damas cus blade, severing everything from its bottom, leaving one in doubt whether anything would ever grow again. Yet he seems as innocent as a little child who goes into a garden and pulls up a whole bed of violets, laughs over their beauty, and throws them down again. So that, after all, we are inclined to think no great harm has been done. He comes and goes like a spirit of whom one just tropes and figures and gossamer transparencies of suggestive fancies. He takes high flights, and sustains himself without ruffling a feather. He inverts the rainbow and uses it for a swing-now sweeping the earth and now clapping his hands among the stars." NEWLY-DISCOVERED SILVER MINES.-The "Heraldo" of Madrid, of the 26th, contains some information respecting the silver mines of Hiendenlaecina, in the province of Guadalajara. The principal vein, which is upwards of 400 yards in length and 123 in depth, is richer than any of those of Saxony; and quite as rich, though less extensive, as the best in America. The country around gives frequent indications of the existence of silver; but the principal pits are those of Malanoche, San José, La Tirolesa, Santa Cecilia, La Suerte, and La Fortuna. A large establishment for amalgamation, belonging to an English company, has contracted for 78,000 quintals of mineral a year, the total produce amounting at present to 400,000 quintals, valued at 60 reals a quintal. The net produce varies from 5 to 13 ounces of pure silver per quintal. 4. Rabies and Hydrophobia, 5. The French Neutrals," and Anthony Benezet, National Era, 6. Lamartine, 7. Austria's Resurrection, 8. Indelibility of Holy Orders, 9. On Slave Immigration, 10. Battle of Buena Vista-Gens. Wool and Taylor, 11. Emerson, Boston Post, New York Tribune, Boston Daily Advertiser, 463 465 466 467 469 471 474 Times, Edinburgh Review, Judge Heydenfeldt, of Alabama, 479 POETRY.-Too Late, 462.-To Lamartine, 466.-Three Songs by Thomas Hood, 473. SHORT ARTICLES. Macgregor's Commercial Statistics, 454. Earl of Aberdeen and the Scotch Fisherman, 468.-Enormous Application of the Electrotype; Parachute for Coal Pits, 470.-Trade with Canada, 478.-Refusal of Baptism, New Silver Mines, 479. PROSPECTUS.-This work is conducted in the spirit of | now becomes every intelligent American to be informe ttell's Museum of Foreign Literature, (which was favor- of the condition and changes of foreign countries. And ably received by the public for twenty years,) but as it is this not only because of their nearer connection with ourtwice as large, and appears so often, we not only give selves, but because the nations seem to be hastening, spirit and freshness to it by many things which were ex- through a rapid process of change, to some new state of cluded by a month's delay, but while thus extending our things, which the merely political prophet cannot compute scope and gathering a greater and more attractive variety, or foresee. are able so to increase the solid and substantial part of our literary, historical, and political harvest, as fully to satisfy the wants of the American reader. Geographical Discoveries, the progress of Colonization, (which is extending over the whole world,) and Voyages and Travels, will be favorite matter for our selections; and, in general, we shall systematically and very ully acquaint our readers with the great department of Foreign affairs, without entirely neglecting our own. The elaborate and stately Essays of the Edinburgh, Quarterly, and other Reviews; and Blackwood's noble criticisms on Poetry, his keen political Commentaries, highly wrought Tales, and vivid descriptions of rural and While we aspire to make the Living Age desirable to mountain Scenery; and the contributions to Literature, all who wish to keep themselves informed of the rapid History, and Common Life, by the sagacious Spectator, progress of the movement-to Statesmen, Divines, Lawthe sparkling Examiner, the judicious Athenæum, the yers, and Physicians-to men of business and men of busy and industrious Literary Gazette, the sensible and leisure-it is still a stronger object to make it attractive comprehensive Britannia, the sober and respectable Chris- and useful to their Wives and Children. We believe that tian Observer; these are intermixed with the Military we can thus do some good in our day and generation ; and and Naval reminiscences of the United Service, and with hope to make the work indispensable in every well-inthe best articles of the Dublin University, New Monthly, formed family. We say indispensable, because in this Fraser's, Tait's, Ainsworth's, Hood's, and Sporting Mag-day of cheap literature it is not possible to guard against azines, and of Chambers' admirable Journal. We do not the influx of what is bad in taste and vicious in morals, consider it beneath our dignity to borrow wit and wisdom in any other way than by furnishing a sufficient supply from Punch; and, when we think it good enough, make of a healthy character. The mental and moral appeinte ase of the thunder of The Times. We shall increase our must be gratified. variety by importations from the continent of Europe, and from the new growth of the British colonies. The steamship has brought Europe, Asia, and Africa, into our neighborhood; and will greatly multiply our connections, as Merchants, Travellers, and Politicians, with all parts of the world; so that much more than ever it We hope that, by "winnowing the wheat from the chaff" by providing abundantly for the imagination, and by a large collection of Biography, Voyages and Travels, History, and more solid matter, we may produce a work which shall be popular, while at the same time it wil aspire to raise the standard of public taste. tion of this work-and for doing this a liberal commission will be allowed to gentlemen who will interest themselves in the business. And we will gladly correspond on this subject with any agent who will send us undoubted refer TERMS.-The LIVING AGE is published every Satur- Agencies. We are desirous of making arrangements day, by E. LITTELL & Co., corner of Tremont and Brom-in all parts of North America, for increasing the circula field sis., Boston; Price 12 cents a number, or six dollars a year in advance. Remittances for any period will be thankfully received and promptly attended to. To insure regularity in mailing the work, orders should be addressed to the office of publication, as above. Clubs, paying a year in advance, will be supplied as follows: Postage. When sent with the cover on, the Living Age consists of three sheets, and is rated as a pamphlet at 4 cents. But when sent without the cover, it comes within the definition of a newspaper given in the law, and cannot legally be charged with more than newspaper postage, (14 cts.) We add the definition alluded to: A newspaper is "any printed publication, issued in numbers, consisting of not more than two sheets, and published at short, stated intervals of not more than one month, conveying intelligence of passing events." Monthly parts. For such as prefer it in that form, the Living Age is put up in monthly parts, containing four or five weekly numbers. In this shape it shows to great advantage in comparison with other works, containing in Binding. We bind the work in a uniform, strong, and each part double the matter of any of the quarterlies. good style; and where customers bring their numbers in But we recommend the weekly numbers, as fresher and good order, can generally give them bound volumes in ex-fuller of life. Postage on the monthly parts is about 14 change without any delay. The price of the binding is cents. The volumes are published quarterly, each volume 50 cents a volume. As they are always bound to one containing as much matter as a quarterly review gives in pattern, there will be no difficulty in matching the future eighteen months. volumes. WASHINGTON, 27 DEC., 1845. Or all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe and in this country, this has appeared to me to be the most useful. It contains indeed the exposition only of the current literature of the English language, but this by its immense extent and comprehension includes a portraiture of the human mind in the utmost expansion of the present age. J. Q. ADAMS. LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 252.-17 MARCH, 1849. 2. The Mechanic's Magazine. Vols. XLVII. and XLVIII. London: 1846-7-8. PROSAIC and business-like as the contents of these volumes appear, there are perhaps few works that will be found upon examination to contain more of the elements of tragedy. Not the "rejected addresses" of suitors for royal favors-not the scrolls which despairing lovers hung in the temple of Leucadia before they took the all-curing leap-could exhibit a more melancholy record of profitless labors and disappointed hopes! And to he became the celebrated astronomer; and Sir Michael Faraday passed the earlier years of life in practising the handicraft art of bookbinding. Considering that the state of the law renders the privilege of a patent both expensive and difficult of attainment, and that the whole cost, in addition to that required for completing the invention, must be incurred before any benefit can possibly be derived ;-it becomes an inquiry of some interest to trace the motives that lead men, many of whom are sufficiently needy and busy already, to embark upon enterprises so hopeless. One chief cause may, perhaps, be detected in that propensity to gambling which is unfortunately so prevalent in arrive at this conclusion, there is little need to every stage of civilization. In literature, as in inquire into the subsequent history of the inven- manufactures-among members of the learned, tions, or the inventors. The simple perusal of the military, and even the clerical professions, as their own specifications, aided by a very moderate among the mechanical inventors and merchant degree of scientific knowledge, will suffice to adventurers-the rewards of industry are divided prove that, nine times out of ten, all the labor and into great prizes, and blanks. Success admits the expense that have been lavished upon the produc- aspirant within the dazzling circles of wealth and tion of these cunningly devised engines could result fame; failure condemns him to oblivion, and too in nothing but total failure. Nor do the inventors often to penury. Whatever may be the effect upon appear to profit by example. In spite of the individuals-and to him who has aimed high, even abundant warnings held out to them in the fate failure is not without its consolations-there can be of their predecessors, they persist in adopting the little doubt, that in a national point of view the same inefficient means, the same defective con- results are advantageous. The general standard structions; or in hopeless attempts to extort from of excellence is raised. When more men "dare some natural agent the performance of tasks for greatly," more will achieve greatly. A larger which it is manifestly unfitted. Nay, the identiamount of talent is allured to engage in active cal mechanism, that has broken down a dozen careers, and to endure in patience their inevitable times in other hands, is once more made the sub-fatigues and disappointments; while from time to ject of new patents, by men who are not only ignorant of the simple scientific principles which would have taught them their folly, but who do not know the fact that the self-same ideas have long since been worked out, and abandoned as impracticable. Without skill to shape their own course, they cannot perceive the scattered debris that might warn them of impending shipwreck. Is it credible that ingenious men, who have seen or heard of the suspension tunnel, and the electric telegraph, should still waste years in a search for the perpetual motion? Yet such is the fact; and one such machine, at least, may even now be seen in London, by those who have more faith than knowledge, pursuing its eternal revolutions. time, discoveries and works of magnificent novelty and utility are contributed as additions to the stores of national wealth. Projectors, since the days of Laputa and long before, have provoked the ridicule of the wits. It was not till Adam Smith had added the gravity of his censure, that Bentham, writing from Crichoff in White Russia, and full of fellow-feeling for them, interposed in their behalf in a letter of remonstrance, the justice of which Adam Smith admitted. In proof of their national importance, (for Manchester was then but in its cradle,) Bentham relied on Adam Smith's own examples. one. Birmingham and Sheffield (he replies) are pitched upon by you as examples, the one of a projecting town, the other of an unprojecting that this comparison of your own choosing did not Can you forgive my saying, I rather wonder suggest some suspicions of the justice of the conceptions you had taken up to the disadvantage of projectors. Sheffield is an old oak, Birmingham In the majority of instances, we apprehend that these inventors are but little acquainted with the practical details of the branches of art or manufacture whereon they exercise their ingenuity. They attempt to do better than other men, things that they do not know how to do at all. And if, perchance, some remark be hazarded as to their want of experience, they consider it sufficient to reply, that In England, the first expense of a patent for the Arkwright was a barber, and Cartwright a clergy-paid beforehand. In France, every article that is breveté three kingdoms is £345 in fees alone, which must be man; that Sir William Herschel taught music before pays an annual sum for the privilege as long as it lasts, |