"After much and close observation, I say fearlessly, that in all conventional points, good society in the States is equal to the best provincial circles in England. The absence of a court, together with the calls of business, necessarily preclude the possibility of any class from acquiring that grace of repose, that perfection of ease, which cultivation, example, and a conscious knowledge of the world gives to the beau-monde of Europe. On the other hand, in the absence of this, you are seldom pestered with the second-hand ladies-maid airs of your pretenders to exclusive gentility, so common amongst Europeans.

"The great mass of Americans are natural, therefore rarely vulgar; and if a freshness of spirits and an entire freedom from suspicion, together with the many guards which ill-bred jealousy draws around the objects of its care, may be viewed, as indeed it ought to be, as a proof of high feeling and true culture, then are the men of America arrived at a point of civilization at once creditable to themselves and honorable to their women, as nothing can be more perfectly unrestrained than the freedom enjoyed in all good families here. Strangers once introduced find every house at all times open to them, and the most frequent visits neither create surprise nor give rise to suspicion.

Hospitality is inculcated and practised, and the people entertain with a liberality bordering on profuseness: the merit of this is enhanced by the great trouble the absence of good domestics entails on the mistress of even the best establishinents. Ladies are here invariably their own house-keepers, yet no where is the stranger more warmly welcomed, and in no country is more cheerful readiness evinced in preparing for his entertainment."

The Impressions' are dedicated to The Public-the writer choosing rather to trust to the merits of his work for its transatlantic success than to the éclat likely to be gained by the high-sounding name of some titled patron. There are some errors of taste to give them the least censurable name — which we could wish had been corrected in the final revision. Such personal expletives as I swear!' I vow!' 'D—me!' etc., will, to say the least, make the judicious grieve. Their occurrence, it is true, is very rare; but we trust that the author in subsequent editions will perceive the blemish we have indicated, and 'reform it altogether.'

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Vol. I. By FRANCIS L. HAWKS, Rector of St. Thomas' Church, New-York.

THIS large and well-executed volume forms the first of a series of works intended to embrace so much of the ecclesiastical history of America as has relation to the Protestant Episcopal Church. The book before us is devoted to an account of the establishment and progress of this church in Virginia, which, intimately connected as it is with the history of the colony from its earliest settlement, furnishes much that is interesting and instructive, not only to the antiquary but the general reader. Appended to the volume, is a record of the proceedings of the different conventions of the church in Virginia, from the year 1785 to 1835, inclusive. In his preface, the author remarks, that his labors in preparing the present work have shown him that the materials are more ample than they are generally supposed to be, for the history of all the leading religious denominations in the United States; and he suggests to his fellow Christians of other denominations, the propriety of preserving their several histories, without which the book of our national story must always be incomplete. The author modestly and happily observes in conclusion: If the effort now respectfully submitted to the public, and especially to the Episcopal community, should serve in the humble office of a guide, to direct the researches of some future historian; if it should contribute to strengthen the attachment of but one man who already loves the church, or to soften the hostility of one who does not, the author will feel that he has not labored in vain for his book is the offering of filial affection to that church, in the communion of which he has, through life, found his best comfort, and in the bosom of which he trusts to enjoy, in death, a Christian's consolation.'

THE PASSIONS: A Poem pronounced at the Odeon, December 28, 1835, on occasion of the anniversary of the birth of SPURZHEIM. By GRENVILLE MELLEN. Boston: MARSH, CAPEN AND LYON.

PHRENOLOGY has much less to do with this poem than might be inferred from its title. It is a vivid picture of human passions, drawn with skill, well-colored, and displaying no small knowledge of the human heart: moreover, there is now and then a delicacy of taste and a refinement of imagination, both novel and refreshing. We annex an extract from that part of the poem which touches distinctively upon SPURZHEIM. The writer has here passed, with good judgment and fine effect, from the Spenserian stanza (in which the main poem is written,) to a less regular but more bold and stirring measure:

And now from hearth and home,

Forth on the weltering sea,
With tireless step behold him roam,
The Patriot Pilgrim of a new Philosophy!
With enchanting voice he came

Here, where the forest mount and shore,
Once to the dashing surf hung o'er,
Ere Freedom had a name!

But now where sounding cities pour
The music of their ocean roar,

On their loud way to Fame!
He pour'd as from the sky

New radiance round the immortal image here,
Until a new divinity

Did on its brow appear,

And a new lustre flash'd along its eye!
To him, in Man, was given

To see the royalty and front of Heaven-
He saw that Death was but a nobler Birth-
The better destiny of Earth!

The change that goes

Over that front-cold- deep — and still-
The signet of the Eternal Will,

Borne on that last repose!

Clos'd was the Pilgrim's task- and full his years-
And round, in cloudy gaze,

Gather'd that world in tears,

As erst men gather'd round the bold and high —
Great captains of the soul's first Liberty,

When they pass'd to the sky!

And now on that tomb-pillar'd Mount,
Amidst its flower-encompass'd dead

How beautiful he sleeps with garlands o'er his head,
Beside the murmuring of the hidden fount!

How beautiful his sleep!

How lone! how deep!

Mid that unceasing harmony of great trees-
While on the ocean breeze

The far faint voices of the city steal,

And sullen requiem bell, with broken peal!
How beautiful his sleep!

With Mem'ry thus to keep

Her quiet watch, like sentinel, around

The consecrated mount of bloom - the hallow'd ground!'

There are occasional evidences of a lack of heedful revision, especially in some of the closing lines of the Spenserian verse. Byron somewhere speaks of the necessity as well as difficulty of ending this species of stanza gracefully; and in two or three instances Mr. Mellen appears either to have lost sight of this necessity, or to have been unable to combat successfully with the difficulty. We give a single example:

But the sad story 's told the hapless wire

Would not add sorrow to the heart 't was doom'd to tire.'

The last line is prose, and poor prose, too. The faults, however, of the poem are few, in comparison with its numerous excellencies, both of thought and versification. It is faultless in typographical execution; and we commend it to the hearts and tastes of our readers.

EDITORS' TABLE.

THE DRAMA.

Tragedy, comedy, opera, and farce, have by turns held their sway at the Park Theatre during the past month.

Miss MITFORD's beautiful composition, the tragedy of 'RIENZI,' was revived under the direction of Mr. WALLACK, and produced for his benefit, before a large audience. His personation of the noble tribune was, to say the least of it, equal to any of his former efforts in those melo-dramatic characters which he has already made his own; and far, very far superior to any of his previous performances in tragedy. The temperament of Rienzi, however, as drawn by Miss Mitford, partakes as much perhaps of the bold, enthusiastic character of a melo-dramatic hero, as it does of the higher and more refined attributes of a classically-tragic personage and is therefore much better suited to the style of Mr. Wallack than a composition more strictly tragic. Mr. Wallack, among his other good qualities as a melo-dramatic actor, possesses a fine idea of the picturesque, which makes his situations always remarkable for effect. This peculiarity is particularly prominent in his personation of the Roman enthusiast, and exhibited as it always is without an appearance of effort, was no doubt a great cause of the marked approbation with which this performance was received. Mrs. GURNER played Claudia in a manner which delighted while it surprised her audience. She gave an effect to the exquisite tenderness of the part, which could hardly be expected from one who has heretofore made no pretensions to superiority in the serious drama. Her last scene with Rienzi, urging him to rescue her husband from the hands of the executioners, was a beautiful picture of urgent affection, united with the exquisite suffering of a young and devoted wife. Mr. Wallack richly deserves the thanks of the public for his revival of this beautiful tragedy; and from the great applause with which it was received, he will, no doubt, on his return, be induced to favor us with its repeated representation. There is nothing perfect, however, in theatrical performances; and there was one especial draw-back to the just effect of the tragedy of Rienzi. One of the supernumeraries, a Mr. RUSSELL, a beardless youth, was, from some unaccountable obliquity of management, made to undertake the part of the old and infirm Camillo. His exits and his entrances were saluted by peals of laughter, and the most serious scenes of the drama (being those in which his presence is required) were thereby turned from their true purpose, into one directly opposite; and the truth of the adage that 'there is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous' was never more practically demonstrated. There is no excuse for such indignities: they are insults to the play, the actors, and the audience, and alike destructive of the interests of each.

'Rural Felicity' is one of Jerrold's best, if not indeed the best of his humorous productions. The morale of the play consists in the disappointment of two young lovers, who, having been slighted by their coquettish mistresses in the city, make an excursion to the country in the Quixotic hope of finding, amid the rural scenes of nature, that simple, unsophisticated excellence which was denied them in London. Mrs. Culpepper, a busy, meddling, jealous, gossipping, old maid- a sort of feminine Paul Pry-is the first specimen of native purity which our two errant philosophers encounter. Mrs. Culpepper is just such another as an observer will meet with in almost every country village, on this side of the water at least; and as human nature is the same in all countries, she is no doubt an honest specimen of the same genus all over the world. She is a 40

VOL. VII.

curious, industrious body, who having no particular business of her own, most obligingly devotes her attention to the business of other people. After Mrs. Culpepper, they are by their letters introduced into a family consisting of Mrs. Wiley, and her daughter Jemima, des gens qui marquent être quelque chose, and an immensely important personage, who rejoices in the appellative of Charles, alias Simon Sly, a ci-devant stable-boy transformed into a walley de sham,' and personated as one might suppose he would be, by Mr. PLACIDE. Mrs. Wiley infers from the letters presented to her that her two visiters are bachelors of large fortunes, and she is immediately impressed with the phiJanthropic notion of doing them the greatest possible service in her power, by making one of them a matrimonial present of her all-accomplished daughter Jemima, and the other a free gift of her amiable self. She therefore welcomes, with all the suavity and condescending gentility of a fashionable matron who has daughters to marry, the wandering swains, and introduces to their particular notice the talented, the refined, the irresistible Jemima. Previous to this introduction, Mrs. Wiley, with a maternal eye to the effect of her daughter's charms, gives to Miss Jemima sundry important directions in regard to her toilette, which the fashionable taste of the accomplished daughter improving upon, she is presented to the lovers a perfect picture of an affected hoyden, laboring under an immense idea of her bon ton and fashionable grace. Mrs. Gurner's appearance in this character, and her whole performance, are irresistibly ludicrous, from their palpable truth. She is the very beau ideal of awkward pretence the idiot child of a foolish mother. The gentlemen, seeing through the game, very cleverly manage to play the trumps out of the hands of the cunning Mrs. Wiley, by gently insinuating a remark upon the resemblance which the eyes of Jemima bear to the same beautiful features in the countenance of one or the other of their own cara sposas. This of course creates an instantaneous change in the great and generous interest of the two ladies, and the warm hospitality which a moment before insisted upon the strangers making Mrs. Wiley's house their home, and the best rooms in the dwelling their own private apartments, is as conveniently shuffled off to a tone of indifference, which ends in the philosophers being respectively invited to be 'bowed out' by the obsequious 'walley.' The other scenes in the piece are extremely humorous and characteristic, and the female characters throughout, especially those personated by Mrs. Wheatley, Mrs. Vernon, and Mrs. Gurner, are admirable copies of bona fide originals. Placide was himself a host; and the awkward, quiet importance which he threw into the part—his immoveable countenance, too dignified for a smile, and his second-hand dress coat, loose enough to enclose an alderman — were altogether as full of droll comedy as ever appeared in any of his most favorite laughter-moving exhibitions. Mrs. Wheatley has the very character in which her talents show to the greatest advantage — and she does it ample justice. Mrs. VERNON'S Mrs. Wiley cannot be too highly praised. We have in remembrance at this moment some half dozen amiable mothers, one and all of whom could ་ 'see themselves reflected there.' Mrs. Gurner played with that truth and spirit which every day more and more convinces her friends of her rapid improvement. In such characters, she will soon become universally admired.

MRS. and MISS WATSON have appeared in opera, through a short engagement, during the month. Both of these ladies have many admirers, created by the very agreeable manner in which they have exhibited their musical talents heretofore, at concerts and elsewhere. Mrs. Watson made her first appearance in this country as 6 Cinderella,' the music of which she executed with admirable effect, considering the disadvantages always attendant upon a début. Miss Watson appeared in the same opera as the Prince, and sang the music, as transposed for her, with as much truth and power as could be expected. We must confess, however, to a particular prejudice against the assumption by a lady of a male character in opera, most especially by one of the fine, delicate proportions of 'little Miss Watson.' It transforms the exhibition into a sort of burlesque, to say nothing of the difficulty of giving a just effect to the music by transposition,

There are

and certainly can have no higher claim than novelty to recommend it. many characters in opera in which Miss Watson's voice and figure are especially available, but the Prince in Cinderella is not one of them. The after performances of Mrs. and Miss Watson were well received, and attracted larger and better audiences than have latterly assembled at the Park.

C.

'AMERICAN THEATRE,' BOWERY. The same entertainments mentioned in the February number of this Magazine have prevailed, for the most part, at this establishment during the past month. Mr. HAMELIN-a gentleman proverbial for his timely liberality, on all available occasions-having realized large receipts from the new play of Norman Leslie, generously awarded a benefit to the amiable and gifted author of the novel of that name, THEODORE S. FAY, Esq. The house, we are gratified to say, was filled from pit to gallery, and the 'benefit' was such, in reality—the result being a cheque from Mr. Hamblin in favor of Mr. Fay for one thousand and forty-four dollars.

THE FRANKLIN THEATRE Continues to enjoy the favor of the play-going public, in no limited degree. The plays produced at this house have been, to say the least, effective-since they have served to fill the petite establishment with admiring audiences. Its stock company, it is generally conceded, is unexceptionable; and it has its fair share of 'stars' those twinkling luminaries, without whose evanescent light, (however erroneous the supposition,) most theatres are considered as being involved in little better than total darkness.

JOHN HOWARD PAYNE, ESQ. —The arrest and imprisonment of this gentleman by the Georgia Guard has been regarded by the public, in every quarter, as an act equally lawless and brutal; and the universal indignation which the event awakened, speedily caused the disbanding of a corps, the officers of which are forever wedded to ridicule and contempt by the exposé of their sometime prisoner. From this document, which is now for the first time before us, we make the annexed touching extract. The writer is describing the journey into Georgia, after his capture in Tennessee:

'The earlier part of the night was bright and beautiful. But presently a wild storm arose. The rain poured in torrents. The movements of our escort were exceedingly capricious; sometimes whooping and gallopping, and singing obscene songs; and sometimes, for a season, walking, and in sullen silence. During one of the pauses in the blended tumult of the tempest and of the travelers, I chanced for a while to find myself by the side of the smooth and silky Mr. Absalom Bishop. My mind was absorbed in recollections of the many moments, when abroad, I had dwelt upon my innocent and noble country. I remembered that in one of those moments I had composed a song which has since met my ear in every clime, and in every part of every clime where I have roved. At that instant I was startled by the very air on which I was musing. It came from the lips of my companion. I could scarcely believe my senses: it almost seemed as if he had read my secret thoughts. What song was that I heard you humming?' "That? Sweet Home' they call it, I believe. Why do you ask? 'Merely because it is a song of my own writing, and the circumstances under which I now hear it, struck me as rather singular.' My partner simply grumbled that he was not aware I had written the song; but added, knowingly, that it was in the Western Songster, and the verses there generally had the authors' names annexed. We halted at Young's tavern. happened, curiously enough, that the Western Songster was the first object which caught my view upon the table, standing open at Sweet Home,' and fortunately for my chatracter, with the author's name annexed.' I pointed it out to Mr. Ross, and we both smiled.'

It is due to Georgia to add, that no where was the base act of a few cowardly ignoramuses, dressed in a little brief authority, received with more marked evidences of