visiting her cavern, and have come back in the mood of prophesying. She has, if not taught, confirmed on us impressions, in reference to the future progress of Poetry, which we may close this lucubration by ex That Poetry, notwithstanding its present degraded and enfeebled condition, is not extinct, nor ever shall be extinguished, we may at once assume. As long as the sky is blue, and the rainbow beautiful-as long as man's heart is warm and the face of harvest, summer and winter, shall not cease. Nay, may we not apply to it the words of Campbell, applied originally to Hope- should a true man, or a true woman, expose | ancient magicians, is equally adapted for themselves needlessly to such a charge? humorous sport, and for serious thought We think in general, that true taste in and enterprise. We have in spirit been this, as in matters of dress and etiquette, dictates conformity to the present mode, provided that it does not unduly cramp the freedom and the force of natural motions. There is, indeed, a class of writers who are chartered libertines-who deal with lan-pressing. guage as they please-who toss it about as the autumn wind leaves; who, in the agony of their earnestness, or in the fury of their excitement, seize on rude and unpolished words, as Titans on rocks and mountains, and gain artistic triumphs in opposition to all the rules of art. Such woman fair-Poetry, like seed-time and are Wilson and Carlyle, and such were Burke and Chalmers. These men we must just take as they are, and be thankful for them as they are. We must just give them their own way. And whether such a permission be given or not, it is likely to be taken. "Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook, or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee? Will the Unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? canst thou bind him with his band in the furrow? will he harrow the valleys after thee? wilt thou believe that he will bring home thy seed, and gather into thy barn "culty. One is the advancement of scientific No like the tameless creatures of the wilderness-like the chainless elements of the air-such men obey a law, and use a language, and follow a path of their own. But this rare privilege Mrs. Browning cannot claim. And she owes it to herself and to her admirers to simplify her manner -to sift her diction of whatever is harsh and barbarous to speak whatever truth is in her, in the clear articulate language of men-and to quicken, as she well can, the dead forms of ordinary verbiage, by the spirit of her own superabundant life. Then, but not till then, shall her voice break fully through the environment of coteries, cliques, and Magazine readers, and fall upon the ear of the general public, like the sound sweet in its sublimity, simple amid its complex elements, earthly in its cause and unearthly in its effect upon the soul, of a multitude of waters. At present she seems to have seated herself, like a second witch of Endor, in a cave of mystery and vaticination-her "familiar," her gifted husband, a spirit well worthy of holding high consultation with herself; and who, like the famuli of "Eternal Art, when yonder spheres sublime But in two things especially we perceive a provision being made in the present day, for the sustenance of the Poetic spirit, and for the further development of the Poetic fa truth. This, so far from being, as in the vulgar notion, adverse, is favorable to the progress of Poetry. Poetry, as a true thing, must be furthered by the advance of every other section of truth. Poetry can rule by division as well as by multiplication. Poetry stands ever ready to pour her forces through the smallest breaches which science makes. Nay, all the sciences are already employed, and shall yet be more solemnly enlisted into the service of Poetry. Botany goes forth into the fields and the woods, collects her fairest flowers, and binds with them a chaplet for the brow of Poetry. Conchology from the waters and from the sea shores gathers her loveliest shells, and hark! when uplifted to the ear of Poetry, "pleased, they remember their august abodes, and murmur as the ocean murmurs there." Anatomy lays bare the human frame-so fearfully and wonderfully made-and Poetry breathes back a portion of the spirit which that cold clay has lost, and its dry bones and withered sinews begin to live. Chemistry leads Poetry to the side of her furnace, and shows her transformations scarcely less marvellous and magical than her own. Geology lifts, with daring yet | polar star for a thousand years." We are, trembling hand, the "veil that is woven however, slowly nearing that star! And, with night and with terror," from the his- when men have become more enlightened, tory of past worlds, of cycles of ruin and more welded into unity, more penetrated with renovation of creations and destroyings, high principle, more warmed with the emoand allows the eye of Poetry to look down tion of love-when the earth has become in wonder, and to look up in fire. And more worthy of shining between Orion and Astronomy conducts Poetry to her observa- the Great Bear-between Mars and Venus tory, and enjoys her amazement at the there shall break forth from it a voice of spectacle of that storm of suns, for ever song, holier far than Amphion's; sweeter blowing in the midnight sky. In the pro- than all Orphean measures; comparable to gress of astronomy, indeed, we see opening that fabled melody, by which the spheres up the loftiest of conceivable fields for the were said to attune their motions; comparpoet. Who has hitherto adequately sung able, say rather, to that nobler song, the wonders of the Newtonian-how much wherewith, when Earth, a stranger, first less of the Herschellian heavens? In prose appeared in our sky, she was saluted by her alone (excepting, indeed, some splendid kindred orbs "when the morning stars passages of the "Night Thoughts")-prose sang together, and all the Sons of God often kindling into poetry; the prose of shouted for joy." Chalmers and of Nichol, have these themes been worthily treated. But who is waiting, with his lyre in his eager hand, to be ready SCULPTURE FOR THE BRITISH MUSEUM.-Several to sing the steep-rising glories of the Ross-cases of Assyrian sculpture, intended for deposit in ian heavens ? We have the "Night the British Museum, have arrived in the Thames in Thoughts," which are a century behind the the vessel Grecian, from Bombay, and have been present stage of the science; but who shall landed from the importing ship, and delivered, by write us a poem on "Night," worthy, in the especial directions of the Treasury, free of duty, some measure, of vieing with that solemn yet spirit-stirring theme? Sooner or later it must be done. The Milton of Midnight must yet arise. Another security for the future triumphs of Poetry is to be found in the spread of the Earnest Spirit. That such a spirit is coming over the age, men feel as by a general and irresistible intuition. There are, besides, many distinct evidences, and in nothing more so than in the present state of Poetry. Its clouds, long so light and gay, are rapidly charging with thunder, and from that black orchestra, when completely filled, what tones of power and music may be expected. All the leading poets of our later day -Tennyson, Browning, Mrs. Browning, Emerson, and Bayley-are avowing and acting on their belief that Poetry is no child's pastime, but one of the most serious of all serious things. This fills us with hope and high expectancy. It recalls to us a past period, when the names of prophet and of poet were the same; when bards were the real rulers; when the highest truth came forth in melody; when rhyme and reason had never been divorced. It points us forward, with sunbeam-finger, to a future day, when, in Emerson's fine language, shall lead in a new age, as Poetry there is a star in the constellation Harp, which shall yet, astronomers tell us, be the to the establishment mentioned. GERMANY.-The several States comprise 20,158,957 Protestants, 16,880,104 Romanists, 507,519 Jews, 242,791 of various other sects, and 5,184 Greeks. In 1820, the numbers were about 13,690,and 3,280 Greeks. In Hungary and Transylvania 000 Romanists, 15,215,500 Protestants, 350,000 Jews, there are 860,840 German Romanists, and 610,720 Protestants: in Switzerland, 1,039,279 Protestants, and about 50,000 Romanists, all Germans. Of the 6,000,000 and upwards of individuals of German extraction, in the United States of America, the number of Romanists does not exceed 300,000. The number of Germans who have seceded from Rome, since Ronge's movement began, is under 40,000, which are the 8,000 in Breslau, and 2,000 in Berlin. and they constitute 219 flocks, the two largest of Kutscheit's Church in Germany. RELICS OF NINEVEH.-A large room on the ground floor has been prepared at the Louvre for the fragments brought from Nineveh. It is to be called the Salle de Nineveh.-Paris paper. the whole of the coast around Southend was visited EXTRAORDINARY FLIGHT OF INSECTS.-On Friday, by one of the most numerous flights of insects on record. They consisted of at least five species of for miles along the coast, to resemble a swarm of lady-bird, and they came in such dense numbers, as, bees during hiving. The sea destroyed countless millions of them,-the grass and hedge- rows, and every crevice that afforded shelter from the wind, miles it was impossible to walk without crushing were colored with their numbers, and for many numbers beneath the tread. The insects evidently came from the east, the wind having veered round to that point during the night. Every true friend of agriculture, however, hails the appearance of these insects, as they are well known to be the destroyers of aphides,-a race of flies the most injurious to vegetation. From Fraser's Magazine. A BATCH OF PARLIAMENTARY BARRISTERS. BY THE AUTHOR OF LITERARY LEGISLATORS." SIR F. THESIGER. THE last few years have presented tempt- [pected to see in parliament, still less as one ing opportunities to aspiring young barris- of the constitutional advisers of the legislaters; and, if we take cognisance of the ture. His own handsome face would have abilities and claims of those who are at been the first to break into a gay laugh at present the most rising men at the bar, it the bare thought of such a thing; for his seems probable that an equally seductive abilities did not appear to lie in the direcfield will be offered for some time to come. tion chosen by senators. He was (and is) The death of Sir William Follett, and the the beau idéal of a nisi prius lawyer, at least elevation of Sir Thomas Wilde to the in cases which call forth character in an adbench, created a vacuum in the sphere of vocate, and require persuasive eloquence, parliamentary and official honors, which it and a keen, quick insight into the follies was not easy for the ministers at the several and weaknesses of human nature. Had it periods adequately to fill. Causes, per- been our ill-luck to be concerned in an sonal in their nature, were held to be suffi- action for (forbid it Heaven!) crim. con.; cient to exclude the individual who was or even (scarcely less serious !) in a runningpointed out by general opinion as the most down case, or a horse cause; or had it been fit person to fill the vacant post in the one our hard necessity to unravel and defeat the case; and, in the other, although an able finesse and machinations of some skilful but man was chosen, yet it was not possible to recreant limb of the legal profession, or to find in the ranks of the parliamentary bar- expose some artfully schemed imputation risters on that side one confessedly worthy of indecorous improprieties, or, more than to hold an office which even in more recent all, a full-blown charge of breach of prodays had been illustrated by the eloquence mise, that young, handsome, active, gayof a Copley, the skill of a Scarlett, or the looking, clear-eyed, stuff-gownsman, who laborious but admirable legal exactitude of talked so loudly and so volubly, who crossa Campbell. It was under such circum-examined so skilfully, whose by-play was stances that Sir Frederic Thesiger was as perfect as that of a Farren, and who was attorney-general for about a year, and that Sir John Jervis has succeeded him in the post, which he has also held for about the same period. Sir Frederic Thesiger has been at once a most successful and a most unlucky man. Paradoxical as this may appear, a very slight reflection will show it to be true; for he has advanced both at the bar and in parliament to a much higher position than his most sanguine hopes could ever have aimed at, and yet, by an unaccountable caprice, Fortune turned her back on him, about a year ago, at the very moment when he had almost within his grasp still more brilliant promotion. Fifteen, or even ten, years ago, no one would have predicted that Sir Frederic would, in seven years from the latter date, have risen to the post of solicitor-general. An excellent nisi prius advocate, suspected of being less learned in the law than in the physiognomies of juries, he was almost the last man whom one exVOL. XII. No. II. 17 on such capital terms with a jury that they scarcely seemed to know, or care, which side of the case he was for, because, of course, he was only doing his very utmost to come at the truth,-he would have been the man we should have pitched upon for our cause, in spite of attorneys putting forward, conscientiously, claims of flowery Talfourds, or heavy, boisterous Platts, or shrewd, argumentative Campbells. For his grace and manner half won a cause of the kind. With the jury he was so confidential, with witnesses (on his own side) so winning and amiable, with those called for the opposite party so searching and sarcastic, towards the judge so respectfully deferential. Watchful and wary, well knowing human nature, with tact inimitable, and a style of speaking and of bearing himself so popular and engaging, it was not at all surprising that he should soon become the favorite of attorneys, for all cases in which a counsel carrying much ballast was unsatisfactory such a choice might have been to the profession; but, as it was, Sir Thomas Wilde was the fortunate man, and no one was to be found who did not feel satisfied that matters so turning out, turned rightly. not required. In cross-examination, how | in less than two years more, the death of easy and nonchalant his manner! None Sir W. Follett placed the attorney-geneof that stern pomposity, that ferocious ralship within his grasp so that within six arrogance, which some young men mistake years of his entrance into parliament he for impressiveness, frightening the witness, had risen to the highest attainable post in perhaps, but also putting him on his guard. his profession which he could hold consistNo, a good-humored air; a light, indifferent, ently with a seat in the House of Commons. smiling, off-hand manner of putting ques- What made this rapid rise the more retions, as though they were matters of course; markable in his case was, that neither the drawing out the points with inimitable skill, profession nor the leaders of parties had but pouncing down upon them with a hawk- given him credit for any such pre-eminence like avidity as soon as the game was start- as a lawyer, or such parliamentary talents, ed! And his running fire of gestures to as would, in the case of Follett or even of the jury, commencing by a smile, or a shrug, Kelly, have been held to justify such proor a lifting of the eye-brow, nay, even motion; for, great as Sir Frederic Thesisomething very like a wink of the eye, and ger's merits undoubtedly are, they did not so preparing their minds, by making them lie in the direction of political promotion. laugh, and joining them with him, as it But close on the heels of the success came were, in the management of his case, for a piece of provoking ill-luck. Scarcely had the views he was afterwards to expound in Sir Robert Peel resigned office, when the his speech or his reply! Nor is his address Chief-justiceship of the Common Pleas beto a jury less appropriate or artistical: it came vacant. Had that event happened a is a sort of confidential chat upon the mat- few weeks earlier, precedent would have ters that have been before them, inter- justified Sir Robert Peel in giving the apspersed with shrewd suggestions, and occa-pointment to the attorney-general, however sionally with a good argument or a strong appeal; the whole calculated to disabuse their minds of all suspicion that they are being played upon or bamboozled. Inferior as Sir Frederic Thesiger is to the late Lord Abinger in most other respects, he, of all men now prominent at the bar, approaches nearest to him in the admirable finesse and acting with which he embellished his advocacy. But beyond these minor but most essential requisites of the nisi prius lawyer, Sir Frederic's excellence goes not. In all other attributes he is respectable, but in this he stands supreme. For impressiveness in addressing a jury, where the issue is serious, or for readiness in grappling with any incidental legal argument, he is not to be named in comparison with Follett, Wilde, or Kelly. And in a dry, hard, legal argument, he is behind all those, and Sir John Jervis to boot. But the qualities in which he did excel soon brought him into very general request, until, on a lucky opening being afforded on the home circuit, he suddenly became the first man in all the leading business. Called to the bar in 1818, two-and-twenty years elapsed before he attempted to enter parliament. His first attempt, when he contested Newark with Sir Thomas Wilde, in February, 1840, was a failure, but in March of the same year he was returned for the Duke of Marlborough's borough of Woodstock. In four years after, he was solicitor-general; and that Sir Frederic Thesiger has not been successful in parliament. His performances have not kept pace with his promotion. Although the necessity of his position has made him a constant talker, he has never done or said anything by which he could be remembered. Sir William Follett, years before he received any office from government, had stamped on the mind of the House such a conviction of his powers, the political accident which kept his party out was almost deplored as the cause of a continued injustice. Sir Thomas Wilde, too, although his parliamentary eloquence was too much of the forensic order, yet achieved eminence by his speech on the Privilege question; and Sir F. Kelly, although he has not equalled as a parliamentary orator the expectation formed of him, still has created on his behalf the idea that he possesses latent power. But Sir Frederic has talked, and talked, too, volubly and pretentiously, yet to no purpose. Considering his opportunities, he has done less for his reputation than his juniors in the House. Even Mr. Watson, or Mr. Dundas, or Mr. Stuart Wortley, have created a stronger prestige in their favor. Yet of calm self-possession, of dignity, of repose. He says too much by half. He takes a clear view enough of the case, but he mystifies it by his explanations and repetitions. If he had a sort of attorney-general's devil at his elbow, to winnow his speech and sum up his arguments, the residuum would tell effectively. For the higher duties of an attorneygeneral he seems to be unfit. It was his good fortune never to have been placed in the post of danger and difficulty; but, although his performances might have belied these anticipations, there is some reason to believe that he would have been found deficient: for, on more than one occasion, when the Government were suddenly placed in a dilemma from which a shrewd and able attorney-general might have rescued them, Sir Frederic Thesiger proved unequal to the task. He "foundered" as no lawyer ought, and was helped out by those not of the cloth. He has no pretension to be called a constitutional lawyer; he is not even a safe parliamentary advocate. He has retrograded in useful he has every adventitious aid to success. |lery is ineffective in St. Stephen's. He is Nature has favored him. Tall, well-form- too talkative, too restless. There is a want ed, prepossessing in appearance; with a face which, if not intellectual, is at least highly expressive and intelligent; and a voice which, if it wants tone and modulation, is always powerful and often impressive; with a confident manner, acquired in the courts, and habits of mind which, if they did not carry him beyond the superficial, at least made him extremely ready,-qualified in this way for a popular assembly, he ought, one would think, aided by his singular luck, to have made his way. But it was not so. He is undervalued on the score of shallowness his opinions or his arguments carry no weight; credit is not given to him even for the knowledge and power of mind which he possesses; a notion has got abroad that, both as a lawyer and as a politician, he is a pretender. The dullest, heaviest, most laborious of legal plodders, would have a better chance with the House of Commons than he. The cause appears to be, that the very qualities which secure him success in the courts militate against him in the House. Take up whatever subject he may, -a grave political question, a legal argument, an ex-officio explanation, or a rail-ness as he has advanced in rank. His first way case, he equally seems to speak as from a brief. He carries all the habits, gestures, and mode of treatment of the nisi prius advocate into parliament. All is superficial, arguments, illustrationsall seem borrowed. He seems to have no reserve of thought. You never hear a philosophical remark generated by the case before him all is sacrificed to produce the momentary impression. There is also, perhaps wrongly, an appearance of haste. Like the barrister who, knowing nothing of the contents of his brief till it is put into his hands, twitches his gown and begins common-place with the jury till his eye has glanced over the case, Sir Frederic seems always in his speeches to trust to the inspiration of the moment. Perhaps he does himself injustice in all this; perhaps his manner belies his mind; that is very likely. But the effect on the House is the same. They are only a very large jury, we know; and consummate tacticians like Peel, or Russell, or Graham, can manage them as well as Sir Frederic can manage the twelve wiseacres who, on the average, may compose his nisi prius audience; but it is by very different means. Sir Frederic does not succeed so well with a special as with a As an advocate in the courts, Sir John common jury; for similar reasons his artil-Jervis has not been so successful as Sir essay in the House of Commons appeared to justify an expectation of after success. It was a speech on the China war, displaying great tact as well as ability; but it was not followed up by anything better, or even as good. SIR JOHN JERVIS. The position of Sir John Jervis, as attorney-general, is an instance of success scarcely less remarkable than that of his predecessor. If his rise was not quite so rapid, it is at least not more easily to be accounted for; his claims, if differing in some respects from those of Sir Frederic, being certainly of no higher order. Yet he reached the attorney-generalship at the age of four-and-forty; and such is the dearth of legal talent in the House of Commons, that Lord John Russell could not, from among his followers, have selected any in dividual (that is to say, for the solicitorgeneralship, which always precedes the other) who possessed in a greater degree those qualifications which, within the last few years, have been deemed sufficient to establish a claim to office. |