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sadness of bereavement now settles into the deep, dark gloom of a wounded spirit; and life appears a burden to be borne, not a blessing to be cherished. In this condition, the appearance of his father's ghost, its awful disclosures and still more awful injunctions, confirming the suspicion of his uncle's treachery, and implicating his mother in the crime, complete his desolation of mind.

But this is not all. The garden of his own life having now become a desert, he feels that he can breathe nothing but desolation over the life which he has once sweetened with the music of his vows. In his terrible visitation he reads the necessity of giving up the gentle, the cherished Ophelia; for he loves her too well to entangle her in the web of horrors from which he sees no escape for himself. But, though he resigns the object of his love, he does not and cannot resign the love itself; and the consciousness that he must leave her whom he loves, and leave her even because he loves her, finishes the death and burial of his hopes.

"The sigh so piteous and profound, As it did seem to shatter all his bulk, And end his being,"

could only spring from the depths of a wounded spirit, as he gazed, in the anguish of despair, on the beloved one who had written her name all over his thoughts.

So much for Hamlet's internal history until the extinction of his earthly prospects and purposes in the awful words, "Remember

me."

But amid these accumulated agonies, and though suffering all that he can suffer save remorse and selfreproach, he yet retains all his original integrity and uprightness of soul, and his quick moral sensibilities shrink from the very conception of meanness and wrong. In the depths of his being, even below the region of distinct consciousness, there lurks the instinct and impulse of a moral law that forbids revenge, especially such a revenge as he is called upon to administer. With this impulse of rectitude thus dimly and deeply working within him, the injunction of his father's ghost comes in conflict.

What, indeed, is the quality of the act enjoined upon him? Nothing less, to be

sure, than to kill at once his uncle, his mother's husband, and his anointed sovereign. And this deed, thus involving homicide, parricide, and regicide, all rolled into one, he is called to perform, not as an act of justice, and in a judicial manner, but as an act of revenge, and by assassination. Surely this could hardly be expected of one who had the misfortune to live before the dawn of that wisdom which so admirably teacheth, that to kill a father, or mother, or bishop, or king, is but common homicide! How shall Hamlet justify such a deed to the world? How vindicate himself from the reproach of the very crime he is called upon to revenge? For the evidence upon which he is required to act is in its nature available at best only in the court of his own conscience. In view of such an act he might well say to himself:

"If I could find example

Of thousands who had struck anointed kings, And flourished after, I'd not do't; but since Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not

one,

Let villany itself forswear't."

Hamlet, then, is called upon to punish one crime, by committing what seems to him another crime; for the same religion which in his mind enjoins filial piety also forbids revenge; so that he dare neither reject nor perform the mandate from the ghost. Thus his conscience is divided, not merely against his inclination, but against itself; it plucks him on, and plucks him off; it provokes the resolution, but prevents the performance. However much he multiplies reasons and motives upon himself in favor of the deed, there yet springs up, from a depth in his nature which reflection has never fathomed, an impulse against it, which he can neither account for nor resist. The truth is, his moral instincts are too strong for his intellectual convictions. It is the triumph of a pure moral nature over temptation in its most imposing and insinuating form-in the form of a sacred call from heaven, or what is such to him. He thinks, indeed, that he ought to perform the act, resolves that he will do it, and blames himself for not doing it; but there is a power within him and yet above him, which, in spite of himself, overmasters his resolutions and thwarts them; and

he cannot do the thing for the simple reason, though he knows it not, and believes it not, that he is too good to do it. The trouble with him, in short, lies not in himself, but in his situation; it all arises from the impossibility of translating the outward call of duty into a free, spontaneous moral impulse; and of course he cannot perform it, until he has so translated it; for he is so constituted, that in such an undertaking he must act from himself, not from another.

It is from this strife between incompatible duties, that Hamlet's perplexity and indecision spring. For escape from this dilemma all his faculties and resources are taxed and strained to the uttermost. His moral sensitiveness, shrinking from the dreadful summons to revenge, throws him back upon his reflective powers, and sends him through the abysses of thought, in quest of a reconciliation between his conflicting duties, so that he may shelter either the performance of the deed from the reproach of irreligion, or the non-performance from the reproach of filial impiety. In this condition springs of thought, and feeling, and action, beyond the reach of our minds, are opened within him. Here, then, we have an example of a great mind so circumstanced that all its greatness has to come out in thought; which, indeed, seems to have been the poet's design.

And it should be especially remarked withal, that the same voice which calls Hamlet to this terrible undertaking, also reveals to him the fearful retributions of futurity; so that in proportion as he is nerved by a sense of the duty, he is at the same time shaken by a dread of the responsibility. "The eternal blazon," which "must not be to ears of flesh and blood," hurries him away from action into meditation on the dread realities of the invisible world; and his resolution is suspended by the apprehensions started up in his mind by the ghost's disclosures respecting "the secrets of its prison house." Nay, his filial reverence itself leads him, first to regret, then to doubt, and finally to disbelieve, that his father has laid upon him an injunction so repugnant to his sense of right. Upon reflection he discerns in the nature of the mandate something that makes him question and distrust its source; it clashes with his sentiment of moral rectitude; and he wisely thinks, that "light which leads. astray cannot be light from heaven." It seems to him more probable, that the ghost should be a counterfeit of his father, than that his father should give such an order. He must 66 have grounds more relative than this."

[To be concluded in our next number.]

FOREIGN MISCELLANY.

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The change in the persons of the members, is said to be vastly greater than was ever known before-excepting only the election which succeeded the passage of the Reform Act. There were then 280 new members, and in the present instance the number is 223, which, under the circumstances, is a more remarkable change. The alteration in the pursuits of the members is also indicative of political or social change. The number of railway directors, engineers and contractors, of barristers, merchants, retail traders, political writers and lecturers, is greater; while the naval and military officers, the connections of aristocratic and wealthy families, have diminished in numerical force. The intentions of the Russell ministry are yet unknown, not even the Queen's Speech on the opening of Parliament having yet ar

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rowed money to effect large improvements on his estate, by which he expected to employ a large number of persons during the coming winter. While engaged in this and other beneficent employments, he was shot down on his own estate-an occurrence, among others, which most painfully shows the disorganized state of society. A number of Irish members of Parliament, and influential persons, organized, for the purpose of demanding from the government employment for the people, on the unfinished improvements which were commenced last year; and, it is to be hoped, that in the present state of the peasantry, their efforts will be directed to measures of a purely practical character, and that no political feeling will be allowed to thwart the measures so im

rived here. Several failures have taken place in
the commercial part of the community, but not so
serious in amount as those which have preced-
ed; and it is confidently hoped that the severity
of the crisis has passed. A steady influx of
gold and silver has rendered the currency less
restricted; although discounts still remain at
very high rates, and money very difficult to be
obtained. The Directors of the Bank of Eng-
land availed themselves of one portion of the
recommendation of the ministry, mentioned in
our last-the charging "a high rate of inter-
est ;" but omitted to comply with that which
urged an enlargement of the amount of dis-
counts and advances; and their proceedings in
this respect have called forth considerable ani-
madversion. The number of bills drawn in the
colonies, which have been returned in conse-peratively demanded.
quence of the late failures, together with the
low price of sugar and other colonial products,
will yet cause considerable embarrassment;
but on the other hand, the slight rise in cotton
and grain, will cause a greater buoyancy in
the trade with this country; and, although upon
the whole, the amelioration is but small, the
change will operate to restore confidence, and
may prove more stable from being of slow mo-
tion. Strong hopes are entertained that the
Royal Bank of Liverpool and the Bank of North
and South Wales, both of which have suspend-
ed payment, will be enabled to resume business.
Government stocks are more firm in price; and
although the Bank of England still charges
eight per cent. discount, many private establish-
ments are content with seven and six and a
half per cent. Accounts from the manufac-
turing districts are still unfavorable, and not-
withstanding some little improvement has been
evinced, it is to be apprehended that short work
and a high price of provisions will be produc-
tive of very great distress among the opera-
tives and the laboring population generally.

Intelligence has been received of the total loss of the packet ship Stephen Whitney, which left New-York on the 8th October. Mistaking the light upon Rock Island, near Cape Clear, on the South Coast of Ireland, for the old Head of Kinsale, she went broadside on a rock called the West Calf, about four miles inside the Cape, and in less than ten minutes was dashed to atoms, involving in her destruction, the melancholy loss of her captain and no less than 92 of her crew and passengers-18 only, out of 110, having escaped with life--the ship with many articles on board being totally lost.

The commercial and financial difficulties of England do not appear to have reached France: on the contrary securities have been steady, and notwithstanding the negotiation of a loan of 250 millions of francs which was taken by the Rothschilds, and by which a large amount of fresh stock was created, the price of funds rose at the Bourse. A political agitation for the extension of the elective franchise is active in France, and though greatly discouraged by the government, large meetings are held, at Ireland still continues to present a melan- which the name of the king is not very respectcholy spectacle, and must cause very consider- fully greeted. Louis Philippe suffers much in able embarrassment to the present Parliament. public estimation from a belief of his interfering Famine appears again to threaten its appear-personally, with all the details of government, ance, while murder and agrarian outrages are so much on the increase, as to have produced a proclamation from the Lord Lieutenant, calling on all well-disposed persons to assist in their repression, and threatening offenders with the utmost rigor of punishment. The worst features in these offences are, that they seem to be committed by persons who have not the excuse of destitution; and that in many instances the victims are resident proprietors, who are exerting themselves to benefit the peasantry in their neighborhoods. The assassination of Major Rowan, of Stokestown, in the county of Roscommon, appears an offence of a most unaccountable character. With three years' rent due from the tenants of his estate, he last year chartered two vessels to assist a portion of them to emigrate, and had just bor

in a greater degree than is consistent with a limited and constitutional monarchy, where the responsibility for such acts is exclusively confined to the ministers. Count Bresson, who figured considerably in negotiating the marriage of the Queen of Spain, and also of her sister to the Duc de Montpensier, lately committed suicide, while ambassador at Naples; and his immediate predecessor at that post, Count Mortier, made a like attempt while laboring under mental alienation. Monsieur Deschappelles, the celebrated chess-player, died in Paris about the beginning of the past month; and Monsieur Parmentier, who was so disgracefully connected with the late proceedings of General Cubieres and Monsieur Teste, died of grief at Lure. It is said that the Archduchess of Parma, Maria Louisa, widow of

Napoleon, has married the Count de Bombelles, | may be considered the first step towards a poone of her ministers. The Commerce announces that reports from the Prefects have been received by the Minister of the Interior, which state that the potato crop had been gathered throughout France, and that it was abundant and of good quality, the disease having only shown itself at a few points and its effects being insignificant.

The Universal Gazette of Prussia, publishes a letter from St. Petersburgh of the 17th November, which states:

"The cholera makes fresh progress in the two directions, which it is following in Russia. It has just broken out in the governments of Simbrisk, Kazan, Nijni, Novogorod, Riasan, Poltawa, and Tamboff. Thus far, it does not appear disposed to spread on the side of Podolia and Gallicia, and it even appears to have very little intensity in that neighborhood. In that direction it has only shown itself on one point, at Ickaterinoslaf, where it traversed the Dnieper. Without counting Georgia, Caucasus, and the country of the Cossacks of the Black Sea, it already reigns in sixteen governments. On the 30th ult. it broke out at Moscow."

The latest intelligence from the latter place states the number of cholera patients there on the 16th November, at 105; on the evening of the 17th October, the number was 135.

Spain still continues the victim of intrigue. The French party is in the ascendant, and notwithstanding the constant changes in the ministry, Narvaez appears to be the director of affairs, aided by the queen mother, Christina. An apparent reconciliation has been effected between Queen Isabella and her husband, but a strong opinion is maintained in Madrid that their feelings are as much estranged as ever, and that their present union is only a matter of state necessity. The Carlist and Montemolinist parties are endeavoring to excite civil war in Catalonia and other provinces, but meet with litle encouragement from the peasantry, and are generally routed when met by the queen's troops. Espartero, the exiled general, has been offered the embassy to London; which he has refused, it is said, on account of want of sufficient fortune to sustain the dignity of the station.

The civil war in Portugal having been terminated through the combined intervention of the allies of the queen's government, the parties opposed are busy at the work of intrigue, and are making great exertions to gain the supremacy at the coming elections.

In Italy, Pius IX. still continues to persevere in his judicious reforms. His views all appear to tend towards practical results, and are, for that reason, likely to prove more lasting and effective. A commercial treaty and customs league has lately been concluded between the Pope, the King of Sardinia, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany and Duke of Lucca, which

A

litical union of the Italian States. The terms of this treaty will not be made public until it is known whether the King of Naples and the Duke of Modena will join the league, propositions having been made to them to do so. Paris paper announces that the Sultan has sent Chebel Effendi on a mission to Rome, to express his desire that the protection of the Christians of the Libanus should take place in a direct manner by the intervention of a representative of the Holy See; and the Pope has, in consequence, re-established the office of Patriarch of Jerusalem, and raised to that dignity a simple missionary priest.

The civil war in Switzerland has commenced. The troops of the Federal Government were investing Fribourg, and the bombardment of that place was said to have commenced on the 12th inst.; but the latter fact appears doubtful, as reports of a later date state that the Grand Council of Fribourg had assembled, and demanded a suspension of hostilities, which had been granted by the commander of the Federal forces. Great excitement exists in the Tyrol, in consequence of the events taking place in Switzerland, and which is increased by the movements of the Austrian troops. It is understood that overtures have been made, by the representatives of some of the continental powers, to the British Cabinet, for an amicable mediation to terminate the differences now existing in the Helvetic republic.

Mr. Gutzlaff, the missionary to China, has just completed a voluminous history of that empire, and sent the manuscript to Mr. Cotta, the publisher at Stutgardt. He has published at Hong Kong a universal geography, in Chinese, with sixty large maps; and has begun to compose a dictionary of that language. He has founded a Chinese society, which already numbers 600 members, and includes mandarins and native savans of the first rank; and the society has already published a large number of popular works. This establishment was instituted from a conviction that Christianity, and its civilizing results, can only be successfully propagated in China, by the Chinese themselves.

Dr. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the great musical composer, died suddenly, of inflammation of the brain, at Leipsic, on the 4th of November last, aged 30. He was born at Berlin, on the 3d of February, 1808; and was son of the celebrated Archæologist James Solomon Bartholdy, and grandson of the philosopher Mendelssohn. At 8 years of age, he had composed some remarkable pieces, and performed on the piano, at Paris and London, with great success. Six songs for a soprano voice, three motets for mixed chorusses, (already in the press,) a large portion of his new Ortario of Christ, and some other works, were found in his writing desk, after his decease.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

Old Wine in New Bottles; or, Spare Hours of a Student in Paris. By AUGUSTUS KINSLEY GARDNER, M. D. New-York: C. S. Francis & Co., 252 Broadway. Boston: J. H. Francis, 128 Washington street. 1848.

what they had not the firmness to do for themselves-rid them of an enormous and perilous burden, not imposed by any dictate of natural law."

Here is no sympathy with crime, no inquiry into palliative circumstances. The man who was guillotined had attempted several times to murder his wife, and at last nearly beat her brains out with a hammer. The doctor was evidently glad to see his head cut off. As the reader glides over the description he feels so likewise, though it is only medical and military men, whose nerves are educated out of the sympa

THIS Volume is a republication of a series of letters,written by the author when he was a medical student in Paris, to the Newark Daily Advertiser. They are exceedingly entertaining and full of interesting description, good humor and good sense. The author has an observant eye, and while his correspondence lets us into the heart of life in the gay capital, its thousand excite-thetic influence of pain, that can witness such ments evidently did not disturb the serenity of his understanding. He appears the same quiet observer in all the various scenes through which he takes us-the theatres, the opera, the hospitals, the bal masque. One who wishes to ramble around the city, which seems the physical and social centre of the world, as London does its intellectual and moral, could not choose a more agreeable companion. He is always cheerful and amusing; not narrow in his views of French life, but at the same time thoroughly and indisputably American in his observations and reflections. Many of his opinions are deeply colored with the mode of thinking peculiar to physicians; but that of course does not diminish the gratification of the reader. It is curious to observe how differently the same in-effect, because the fact appeals directly to the cident will be regarded by different minds. The following, for example, would hardly have come from a young lawyer, after witnessing an execution by the guillotine :

"An individual, it is agreed, by all people of sense, may take life in necessary self-defence. What may be thus done by one may be done by another, and so society becomes invested with the same high prerogative, as a dernier resort. I do not acknowledge myself under any obligation to incur the trouble, expense and risk of chaining a wild beast of a man, to keep him from preying on his fellow-men. The virtuous portion of the community is not bound, and sometimes is not able, to waste the fruits of its hard and honest labor in building penitentiaries, in which the worthless, aye, and still dangerous existence of a demon may be carefully prolonged, and his body clothed and fed-often much better than the poor who are taxed to pay for it-till the culprit shall be pardoned by an impotent or corrupt executive, to vex the country again with his murders and conflagrations; or till a natural death shall do for the people

things with a becoming indifference. Perhaps it is owing more to this sympathetic influence, which the subtle fancy can any moment image to the mind, that we have such discordance of opinion respecting capital punishment. The easy confidence with which physicians throw out opinions on social questions is often not only entertaining, but really instructive; we are led to see the matter in a new light. A lawyer is troubled with the uncertainties of jury trials, and the thousand other hindrances to justice; doctors consider all that as an accurately working part of the social machine, and look only to the abstract question. A man who kills his wife ought to be hung, they think; most people have an instinctive feeling to the same

sense of natural justice. But the doctors go a step further: not only do they have the natural feeling, but, being accustomed to surgical operations, they have also a feeling that they should be perfectly willing to officiate in the matter, if no one else were at hand, and that by the mode least painful to the subject. They are terrible slashers. But perhaps their cool mode of thinking contributes, on the whole, to the health of the body politic, no less than their science does to that of the body individual. At all events, however much any one may differ with Dr. Gardner on this and other points, there will be no difference as to the fact of his having written a very readable volume.

The American in Paris. By JOHN SANDERSON.
In two volumes. Third edition. Philadelphia:
Carey & Hart. 1847.

Since these letters were originally published in 1835, they have had many imitators, some of them displaying much ability; yet, and also after a lapse of more than ten years, which is

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