ment of the present financial or commercial | prisoner. The American Minister was the state of France. Mercantile failures were first to recognize the Provisional Government. numerous at the commencement of the revolu- He was succeeded by those of Great Britain, tion. They were first manifested in Paris, but Belgium, and Prussia. spread rapidly to all the commercial towns; and throughout France the mercantile community may be said to be in a state of bankruptcy. A decree was passed postponing all payments for fifteen days, and subsequently another staying law-suits for three months. The Bank of France was early compelled to suspend specie payments, except ten per cent. on amounts drawn out, when that portion was certified to be necessary for payment of workmen. Nearly all the private bankers in Paris have failed, and mercantile confidence is lost. Numerous establishments are closed, and multitudes of workmen are out of employ. In many places outbreaks of the laboring classes have arisen. In Rouen the Commissary has been compelled to forbid the visits of large assemblages, and ordered them to send in their communications by small deputations; and in Lyons, that functionary has sent to the Provisional Government for instructions to quell the tumults, and has expressed his determination to pursue his instructions rigidly. The Government of Paris were obliged to augment the direct taxes fortyfive per cent., and the Commissary at Lyons added fifty-five per cent. more, thus doubling the amount in that city. Having undertaken to find employment for all idle hands, has thrown upon the government a burden which, under any circumstances, would be insupportable in the present crisis it appears impossible, and yet there seems no retreat open at present. The Revolution said the government was made for the people, and they are to benefit by it. The calm, which at first appeared almost incredible, seems to be giving way. In a late paper we counted a list of fifty-two political clubs established in Paris. Attacks on the government have lately appeared in some of the newspapers; the Presse, edited by M. Emile Girardin, was threatened by the mob, and protected by armed workmen of the establishment. The residents of Paris are in a constant dread of the populace, and an unarmed police force of 1300 has lately been organized. The election of members of the National Assembly has been postponed till the 23d April. The Government have ordered the Banks in the principal commercial cities to suspend cash payments, and that their notes shall be received in payment. Large bodies of troops are being collected at various points, particularly in the neighborhood of the Alps, to be ready, if required, to enter Italy. A band organized in France invaded Belgium, to effect a revolution, the first detachment being carried by the considerably beyond the frontiers, were by two regiments of soldiers, and confortress for safe keeping; the latter it was defeated, and its leader taken 1 In Belgium the news from France created great sensation and much commercial embar rassment. The King announced that if the people desired a republic, he would abdicate rather than be the cause of bloodshed. This announcement was responded to in terms of loyalty; a determination was expressed to uphold their government and national integrity; and measures were adopted to maintain their position in case of attack. The whole of Europe has been violently affected by the crisis. In the Italian provinces of Austria risings have taken place and the Emperor's troops have met with defeats. The King of Sardinia is said to have marched his army for the purpose of driving the Austrians out of Italy. The Pope, at the demand of his people, has accorded a constitution. A revolution has taken place in the Duchy of Modena, and the Duke was vainly trying to conciliate the people by concessions. In Sicily the King of Naples is still defied. The Austrians have availed themselves of the prevailing excitement to demand large concessions from the Emperor, who has been com pelled to yield. Prince Metternich, so long his chief adviser, was obliged to fly from Vienna to his estate in the country, from whence, it is said, he has found it necessary to depart, and is now on his way to England. Bohemia and the States of Hungary also rose in revolt; the latter has been granted a ministry of her own, and hence all cause of danger as regards that portion of the empire would seem to have ceased. A proclamation bas been issued granting liberty of the press and s constitution to the Bohemian States. The greatest enthusiasm is said to prevail in both these countries. Serious disturbances occurred in Berlin on the 13th March. A large assen blage having met to consider a petition to be presented to the King, it was reported that some arrests had been made, and that the government intended, by armed force, to prevent any public demonstration. A gendanne happening to arrive was pursued by the crowd which in its turn was driven back by the mil tary, upon which serious riots ensued. the following day the Burgomasters and Se tors issued a proclamation expressing conf dence in the good intentions of the King, and urging peace and good order on the people On the same day a deputation was received by the King, who presented to him the petition On the 18th the King issued a proclamation convoking the States for the 2d April, granting the liberty of the press. The ministry was also changed. The King of Bavaria, who had renders himself both obnoxious and contemptible byl conduct with the notorious Lola Montes, signed his crown, and is succeeded by his son. The King of Hanover has, also, at the call of his subjects, granted considerable concessions. The Emperor of Russia has ordered a large and immediate augmentation of his army, as well on account of the excited state of Poland as of the proceedings in the other parts of Europe. CRITICAL NOTICES. A Summer in Scotland. By JACOB ABBOTT. With Engravings. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1848. Notwithstanding this somewhat unpromising title, Mr. ABBOTT has here given the public a very fresh and interesting narrative of a last summer's journey. He is a clear writer, and sketches vivid pictures of scenery and salient peculiarities of character, in a natural, manly, unaffected style. His fault, or not to call it by that name, since it oftener gives individuality to his writing than it obtrudes itself disagreeably, is his dry minuteness of explanation, and his too evident consciousness that everything he does or thinks shall be exactly right-a little touch of pedantry, which his turn of mind and long experience in teaching and writing on teaching have naturally forced upon im. Though this is less apparent in the presnt book than in others, yet it is still sufficienty so to be characteristic and often amusing. Who but Mr. Abbott, for example, would think f entertaining us with the following reflections fter witnessing a burial at sea? "It is a common opinion, though undoubtedly mistaken one, that heavy bodies, sinking at 2a, go down only to a certain depth, when they nd the water in such a condition, owing to the perincumbent pressure, that it sustains them om any further sinking; and that there each he finding its own proper level, floats about forer. It is true, indeed, that the pressure of the ater is enormously increased at great depths; it its power of floating heavy bodies depends on its density, not upon its pressure. If war could be compressed itself into very much rrower dimensions than it naturally occupies the surface, so that a large bulk of it could be ade to occupy a small space, its weight and its loyant powers would, in that case, be very much creased. It would become like mercury, and would then be able to float iron, lead, stones, fact, all other bodies lighter than itself. But such effect can be produced upon it. "There can be no doubt, therefore, that the aded coffin, in such a case as this, continues e descent commenced by its first solemn plunge, I it reaches the bottom. The average depth the ocean has been ascertained to be five miles. If we suppose now, which may not be far from the truth, that such a weight would descend with a motion of about one mile an hour, the body would be five hours proceeding to its final this! Five hours! alone, unattended, unthought place of repose. What a march to the grave is of, passing steadily on, away from all light and life; passing, without even a pause, the limit where the last ray of the sun becomes extinct, and where the last trace of life forever fails! And what a tomb to come to at last! what silence! what darkness! what desolation! what eternal and motionless rest! At such a depth it would seem that almost absolutely nothing could ever transpire; and a human body, seeking there its last home, must find one so entirely its own, that probably for ages past and for ages to come, there will have been nothing but its own intrusion to disturb the death-like repose." Flames in the forehead of the morning sky!" Mr. Abbott's description generally has much in common with Basil Hall's, though the Captain is the more easy. Both have a similar passion for explanation and demonstration, and a similar want of confidence in the reader's acuteness; yet neither is ever dull. The accounts of York Cathedral, Edinburgh, Holyrood, Staffa and Iona, and the Newcastle Collieries, in this volume, are very entertaining. The following observations are just and timely; they deserve to be widely circulated, as embodying the general sentiment of intell Americans: "One of these impressions is, that there is a general wish in America that England should be revolutionized, and a republic founded on the ruins of the monarchy. I think it the duty of every American gentleman travelling in Europe to endeavor to remove this impression by stating, what is undoubtedly the fact, that all intelligent and well-informed Americans wish well to England and to the English Constitution as it now stands; of course, including such gradual improvements and progress as it is all the time making to adapt itself to the advancement of civilization, and to the changing spirit of the age. Such advances are not modifications of the English Constitution, they are only the working out of an essential function of the Constitution itself; for a capacity to follow and adapt itself to the progress of the times, has always been a remarkable feature of this most remarkable bond of union, and is as essential a part of it as the provisions for maintaining the prerogatives of the crown. With this understanding, Americans wish well to the English Constitution as it is. They desire no sudden or violent changes in English society, and no interruption to the vast operations of English industry. I do not think they wish for any diminution of the extent of English power. Wherever this power extends, in whatever quarter of the globe, there travellers can go with safety-there letters can penetrate, and merchandise be sent and sold. It is true that pride and ambition have, no doubt, powerfully influenced English statesmen in many of their measures; and English conquest, like all other conquest, has often been characterized by injustice and cruelty. All political action, as the world goes at present, is sadly tainted with selfishness and sin; and English administrations undoubtedly share the common characters of humanity. But still, after all, there has probaby been no government since the world began that would have exercised the vast powers with which the British government has been clothed, in a manner more liberal and just, both in respect to her own subjects and to foreign nations, than she has exhibited during the last quarter of a century, and is exhibiting at the present time. The enormous magnitude of the power she wields, and the extent to which its regulating effects are felt throughout the world, exert a vast influence on the extension and security of commerce, and, consequently, on the welfare and physical comforts of the human race. In fact, it must be so. The English mind is in advance of all other mind in the Old World; they who exercise it are superior to all others on that stage; and if we, on this side of the Atlantic, can claim anything like an equality with them, it is only because we are English ourselves, as well as they. "Americans accordingly wish well to England. It is true, they are pleased to witness the advances which the English Constitution is making, especially as they tend in the same direction in which societ ncing in America. We might even celerate this advance a little in at there is no desire to which should aim at ratic in form. In fact, t in the English Constitu tion is regarded by thinking men in America as constituting a far less important point of distinction between that government and ours than would at first be supposed. The prerogative of the crown is coming to be, in fact it has already become, little else than a name. It is the function of requesting, in form, the party to take power, which Parliament makes dominant in fact. It is, in a word, public sentiment which appoints the head of the administration, in England as well as in America; the difference being, that in England it is a part, and in America the whole of the community whose voice is heard in forming this public sentiment. It is the existence of other features altogether in the British system which constitutes the real ground of distinction between the political conditions of the two countries." The Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, in Greek, with English Notes, Critical, Philological and Exegetical; Maps, Indexes, etc., together with the Epistles and Apocalypse. The whole forming the complete Text of the New Testament. For the use of Schools, Colleges, and Ecclesiastical Seminaries. By Rev. J. A. SPENCER, A.M. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1847. Dr. Spencer having "witnessed with deep regret the gradual and almost entire disuse of the Greek Testament as a part of liberal education," rightly judged "that some effort should be made to re-introduce the New Testament in the original into seminaries of sound learning throughout the country." One obvious step to this was the providing of a suitable school edition, which, strange to say, did not exist. Our own that nothing is to be found among the English experience abundantly verifies Dr. S.'s assertion and Continental issues of the proper dimer sions. This is the more remarkable, as the Greek Testament is very much read in the English schools and universities, and that, too. by a not very advanced class of students; and there are several good English editions of some of the Gospels separately, and some very good ones of the Acts alone. It was suggested to Dr. Spencer by Prof. Anthon, whose pupil he had been, that he should prepare an edition himse and we do not think the Professor has a reason to be ashamed of his pupil or to repet of his suggestion. The volume contains abo 800 pages, two-thirds of which is occupied the part commented upon. The notes, with being superabundant or otiose, are in gener sufficiently explicit. We extract two as spe imens, one on Acts ii. 3: "diaμspi Cóμevaι, dispertita, divided, tributed' to each person. Comp. Heb. i woda wosi rugós, i. e. the flame appeared the pyramidal or pointed form like tongas The Hebrew idiom speaks of the fire licking up what it consumes.-Exάdios. This verb seems to have no nominative: it is variously supplied. Bloomfield gives ἐκάθισε (scil. εκάστη τῶν γλωσσῶν) ἐφ ̓ ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν, with the sense, and there were seen, as it were, tongues of fire distributing themselves, and settling upon them, one on each."" Perhaps hardly stress enough is laid here on the error of our received version, which translates διαμεριζόμεναι as if it were σχιζόμεναι οι διασχιζόμεναι, “ cloven.” 66 “ δεισιδαιμονεστέρους, 'much devoted to religious things,' more than others, on which the Athenians prided themselves. The word is susceptible of both a good and a bad sense; the for mer is here to be preferred. St. Paul never could have begun his address in the offensive manner in which the English version leads one to suppose that he did. His object was to conciliate, not harshly reprehend; hence he says, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that you are exceed ingly devoted to the worship of the deities;' which remark they would receive as a high compliment to themselves and to their city." We have but one fault to find with this edition. The root of almost every irregularly inflected verb is given, after the manner of a clavis. It may be said that the work will fall into the hands of many who need such assistance, but we are thoroughly convinced that any one who intends to read Greek at all, must begin by learning his verbs, regular and irregular. Any delay upon this in the outset will prove a great saving in the end. The Sketches. Three Tales: 1. Walter Lori- 1848. fore they were submitted to the writers. It sketches have been applied to three different ume. But these tales have great merit, aside from the ingenuity of their construction. They are thoughtfully and elegantly written, and bear the impress of pure, refined, and elevated minds. They are somewhat didactic, and are evidently the productions of deeply religious spirits; yet neither the moral purpose nor the piety is so obtrusive in them as to make them unreadable, or bring them under the head of "instructive" or "religious" stories. They are pleasant reading for quiet parlors and sober families. An Illustrated History of the Hat, from the This is a capital treatise. It goes fully into These three tales are not unworthy the dis- the subject, irons it out with the iron of learninguished reputation of their writers. The ing, brushes up its nap with the camel's hair of hance thought which gave rise to them was a fancy, and leaves it implanted on the reader's ortunate one, and the stories bear witness to understanding with the firm-seated solidity of a s having been carried out in the manner good fit. Though not divided into heads, it is tated in the preface: "This little volume had by no means a shapeless mass, torn and fractured 8 origin in the following circumstance. It with rents, or crushed with ominous dents; on ras suggested as a Christmas amusement, that the contrary, it has the uniform glossy texture ne of a party should draw a series of sketches, without, and cleanly arrangement within, hich the rest should severally interweave into which are marks of excellence in books as >me short story or description. The original well as in hats. The mass of information it lan has been faithfully adhered to: the en- affords, is truly surprising. It begins, as all ravings, therefore, are not illustrations of the histories ought to do, with the remotest a tter-press, but the letter-press of the engrav-quity, and after carrying round the hat th igs. The sketches themselves are in fact the various epochs of time, and chiefly ews of actual scenes, and were finished be-lish history, leaves it finally at "its it should be borne in mind that pure innovation. are not, though for argument's sake it be admitted they are with hats, necessarily adranes towards perfection. They are forms and state based on reason, knowledge, character, exper ence, and hence those elements must concur in the changes, or else there will be no mal progress. degree of excellence"-i. e. the present spring | manner. In our social and political condities fashion, we suppose. Some of its speculations are no less ingenious than just. "In the melancholy fate which befell that fair-haired youth Absalom, the Scriptures afford a striking instance of the danger of not wearing a covering upon the head. If Absalom had worn a hat, it is very certain that his hair could not have caught in the branches of the oak tree. It is not likely that he rode out bareheaded; but it is probable that in the skirmish with Joab his hat fell off, and was thus the cause of his death." This reminds us of some modern medical treatises, which begin with showing from the Psalms particular diseases with which King David was afflicted. Our author, who generally writes very well, appears to have made a slight slip in the last clause of the above; for how Absalom's hat, because it fell off, could become the cause of his death, it is not easy to discover. We are very far from cottoning, also, to the following opinions :— "Stubbes belonged to that very virtuous class of writers, not wholly extinct even now, that rail against the fashions of men's apparel, as though there were intrinsic good or evil in the shape and color of a coat; who judge of a man's morals by the pattern of his vest, and regard the texture of his pantaloons as a test of religious principles. It is time that the philosophy of fashion were better understood, but the plan of this little book prevents an expression of our opinions on this important subject. The latest fashion is always the best, because it is of necessity an improvement on the one which it supplants; therefore, to rail at an existing fashion is simply to rail at improvement. If a fashion were perfect, it would be permanent; but no fashion ever can be perfect, because man being endowed with the capacity of improvement, he can never arrive at a point beyond which he cannot advance. Progress is the law of our nature, and progress implies infinity. The possibilities of human improvement have not been dreamed of. A conservative, unim proving people, like the Chinese, never change their fashions, because they make no progress, or at least their progress is so slow, that it is not perceptible. There is no such thing as stability with nations." To this it might be replied that the changes in the shape of hats are not always improvements, since old fashions come round again so often. Therefore we may be allowed to rail at existing fashions if we please. But granting that every change in hats is an improvement, these changes are ones of simple form, not based on reason, or taste, but wholly arbitrary, and beyond our control; the hatters make these for us twice every year, for which we are taxed nine dollars per annum. But that progress which is the law of our nature does not, in most other matters, operate in this Some people at the present day seem u think that governments are like hats; that we may change the block as often as we p and it will be sure to be for the better. T even go beyond the hatters; for whereas tho worthy members of society are content allow our headgear to remain stationary months at a time, these would have states In forever in a condition of pure democratie revolutionary bloody flux-progressing nitely, pell-mell, everywhere. There is great probability that the hats won by social reformers of this order do not every instance conceal the largest possia amount of medullary substance. CORRECTIONS.-There is an error in G wold's "Prose Writers of America," which tributes to R. H. Dana an article on Mot written by Prof. E. T. Channing of Harve University. We devote a paragraph to correction of it, because the mistake was lowed in an article on Mr. Dana in this Revie for March, 1847. Prof. Channing's and N. A. Review for Nov., 1817, vol. vi. was on "Lalla Rookh," and appeared in Another sentence in the article on Dana, would seem to make him the author of review of Brown, which appeared in the N. Review, vol. ix., and was also written by Pr Channing. A review of Brown, by Mr. Dam appeared in the U. S. Review for Aug, 1887 much later. If these reviews were of merely ordina merit, it would be superfluously nice to gi even a sentence to settling questions of the parentage; but they are thoughtful and elas rate essays, and by no means destined to transitory fame. Only a small edition hundred copies) of the N. A. Review was sued previous to and during the editorship Prof. Channing, who was assisted by Mr. Dang and copies are, now scarce. To our yo readers and writers, many of the best essays those gentlemen are, necessarily, as enume unknown as if they had never written th They owe it to us, to the "rising generics" as well as to their own reputations, to give collected editions of their works; and we tevi very confident that in respectfully urging the request that they would do so, we speak in cordance with the wishes of our whole liter public. |