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Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey. He began his poetical career in boyhood, and at the age of fifteen published a spirited ode on the death of Kosciusko, of whom Campbell wrote ("Pleasures of Hope"):

"Hope for a season bade the world farewell,

DR. HEINROTH.-At Leipsie, aged 70, Doctor | eral years; but his impaired health made it neHeinroth. He was a pupil of the celebrated Pi-cessary for him to live in a milder climate, and he nel, whose views and those of the Esquirol, as to removed to Florence. He was attended in his the substitution of moral treatment for physical last moments by Louis and Jerome, who are his coercion, in the cure of madness, he was the first only surviving brothers.-Court Jour. to introduce into Germany, both in his own practice, and by his publication and annotation of the works of those two eminent physicians. On his REV. HENRY FRANCIS CAREY.-The death return from France, the Saxon government cre- of this distinguished author was announced by a ated a chair, for the teaching of this class of med-correspondent of the Times, last week; and also ical science, expressly for him, and appointed the the interment of his remains, on Wednesday, in new professor head physician to the St. George's Hospital for the insane-the functions of both which offices he discharged till his death. He was the author of many works of reputation, connected with his own specialty-besides some popular novels and romances, published under the pseudonym of Tremund Wallentreter-and member of most of the learned bodies in Europe, including the Royal Society of London.-Gent. Mag. On Friday, the 9th inst., at an advanced age, died that gallant Officer REAR ADMIRAL GALWAY. He entered the navy the 19th Feb., 1786, and has seen considerable service in his profession. At the Battle of the Nile he ably distinguished himself under the eye of the immortal Nelson, being senior lieutenant of the Vanguard, that hero's ship; at Walcheren he commanded the Dryad; and in 1811 was actively employed on the north coast of Spain in co-operation with the "patriots," or national party. He captured the Clorinde, French frigate, in 1814, that vessel of war having previously had a severe action with the Eurotas.-Ibid.

DEATH OF JOSEPH BUONAPARTE, EX-KING OF SPAIN. The news of the death of the head of the Buonaparte family, Joseph Buonaparte, Count de Survilliers, reached Paris on Monday. He expired at Florence, on the 28th ult, at the age of seventy-six. On the assumption of the Imperial Crown by Napoleon, he was offered the Kingdom of Lombardy, which he refused. He was made King of Naples in 1806, and in 1808 the will of the Emperor removed him to the throne of Spain, his fall from which we need not relate. On the abdication at Fontainbleau, he retired into Switzerland; but on the return of the Emperor, in 1815, came back, and entered Paris on the same day as his brother. After the battle of Waterloo, he went to reside in America. In 1817, the State of New Jersey, and in 1825, that of New York, authorized him to hold lands without becoming an American citizen. In 1832, he left America for England, where he resided for sev

And Freedom shriek'd when Kosciusko fell." Mr. Carey proceeded to the degree of M. A. in Christ's Church, Oxford, and took a wide and prominent range in the study of modern literature. In 1805 he published the "Inferno" of Dante in English blank verse, with the text of the original. An entire translation of the "Divina Comedia" appeared in 1814, and has long since taken its place among our standard English authors. To this Mr. Carey afterwards added a translation of the Birds of Aristophanes and of the Odes of Pindar. He contributed to the old "London Maga zine" a valuable continuation of Johnson's "Lives of English Poets," and also "Lives of Early French Poets." In 1826 he was appointed assistant librarian in the British Museum, which office he resigned about six years since. From that period he had continued his literary labors with almost youthful energy, having edited the poetical works of Pope, Cowper, Milton, Thompson, and Young, together with a fourth edition of his own Dante, to which he added many valuable notes. The late government marked its sense of his literary merits, by granting him a pension of £200 a year.-Lit. Gaz.

From Göttingen, we hear of the death of M. GEORGE CHRISTIAN BENECKE, the oldest of the functionaries of the University. For forty-two years he filled the chair of the ancient German languages and literatures; and he was chief Conservator of the University Library, to which he had been attached for sixty-one years. He was the last of the pupils of the philologist Heyne, and formed, himself, some of the distinguished scholars of Germany. He is the author of many works which have attained celebrity.-Athenæum.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

Great Britain.

A History of China, from the Earliest Records to the Treaty with Great Britain in 1842. By Thomas Thornton, Esq., Member of the Royal Asiatic Society. In two volumes. Vol. i. pp. 560, with a Map. London: Wm. H. Allen & Co.

they used to untie a knot when they undressed. Until they attained their majority, they wore their hair gathered up in two bunches on the top of the head. At sixteen they assumed the cap. Both men and women anointed their hair, (which was black,) and had an ivory comb at their side. It is well known that the practice of shaving the head was introduced into China by the Manchoo Tartars in the 17th century.

Mr. Thornton, the author of an elaborate HisThe walls of the houses were of earth. The tory of India, and other works connected with soil was beaten hard, and upon the beaten founthe East, some years since formed the design of dation of the intended wall was placed a frame writing a systematic history of the Chinese emof four planks, two of which corresponded to the pire, a work which he considered much wanted. two faces of the wall, which was dressed by a In point of fact, part of this history was printed plumb-line; the frame was filled up with moistso far back as 1835; but the design was suspend- ened earth, which was rammed down with wooded from the frequent announcement of original en clubs. The beams were of bamboo, fir, or works on China which appeared about that time. cypress. The frames of the doors were of wood. Mr. Thornton, however, concludes that none of The poor built themselves cabins of miserable those which have appeared have materially in- planks. In winter they commonly stopped the terfered with his design, or at all fulfilled his pur-door with mud, to keep out the cold. In the 14th pose, which was, to give a "narrative, written in century before Christ, the inhabitants of Western a plain and perspicuous style, of principal events, China had no houses, but dwelt in caverns or deduced from the Chinese annals and synchron- grottos. ical authorities, relieved, as much as possible, from matter that might impede or offend the general reader, without sacrificing any information essential to the Oriental student." He, therefore, resumed his labors, the first half of which lie before us, in an account of the origin of the Chinese nation, the physical geography of China, and Chinese chronology, with its Ancient History down to the Tein, or seventh dynasty. The volume concludes with an account of the Introduction of Buddhism. We fear that Mr. Thornton has cast his work on too broad a scale to be able to complete it satisfactorily in another volume. From some interesting notes ou the ancient manners of the Chinese we select the following speci

men :

Officers of state had six kinds of dresses, for the different seasons of the year; the princes had seven. At the court of Wan-Wang (in Shen-se) the officers wore woollen dresses embroidered with silk. In some courts, the upper garments were adorned with fur and leopard skin. A king of T'hsin wore a dress of foxes' skins. Generally speaking, the princes' habits were embroidered with silk. Red was the color adopted by the Chows as the court color. The officers of the court wore a red collar to their robe. The prince's cap was of skin, adorned with precious stones; the officers wore, in summer, a hat braided with straw; in winter, a cap of black cloth. The agricultural laborers had straw hats tied with ribbons. Beyond the court, the dresses worn were of various colors, except red; the caps were of black skin; the girdles of silk, fastened by a clasp, and wealthy people attached precious stones to them. Princes of the blood wore red shoes, embroidered with gold. In general, the summer shoes were of hempen cloth, and the winter of leather. The women of the middle class wore undyed dresses, and a veil or cap of a grayish color. The princes and dignitaries wore pendants in the ear. A lady was spoken of who had not only precious stones set in her ear-drops, but thin plates of gold in her hair. The toilette of the Chinese belles had a mirror made of metal. The ladies of rank plaited or frizzed their hair on each side of the head. The children of the rich wore in their girdle an ivory needle, with which

Cities were enclosed with an earthen wall, and a ditch, from whence the earth had been taken for the wall.

One of the principal resources for subsistence was hunting, in which bows and arrows were employed. The bow was made of carved wood, adorned with silk; it was kept in a leathern case. The game consisted of wild fowl, wild boars, wolves, foxes, deer, and wild cattle or buffaloes. Dogs were employed in the chase. hunting parties of the chiefs and grandees reThe great sembled those of modern Asiatic princes: large spaces of forest were enclosed, and the game was forced together by setting fire to the grass. Another resource was fishing, which was performed by line, but most commonly with nets made of fine split bamboo.

Cultivation of the soil, by means of irrigation, was carried on in the vast plain which forms the lower valley of the Yellow River, from Lung-mun in Shan-se, to the Gulf of Pih-chih-le. Each portion of land assigned to a family was surrounded with a trench of water, which communicated with canals from the river. Till the Chow dynasty, beyond this large valley, to the west and east especially, were vast tracts of forest. Herds and flocks are mentioned as constituting the wealth of the powerful families. The grains referred to in the Sheking are rice, wheat, barley, buck-wheat, and two kinds of millet. The plough is enumerated amongst agricultural instruments, with its share; the hoe or spade, and the scythe or sickle. Weeding is recommended, and the burning of the weeds in heaps, “in honor of the genii who preside over the crops," the ashes manuring the soil. After two crops the ground was suffered to lie fallow for a year. A plant was cultivated which yielded a blue color, and others from which a yellow and a red dye were extracted.

Bread was prepared in the same manner as at the present day. Meat was broiled on the coals, or roasted with a spit, or boiled in pots. Amongst the common people, pigs and dogs were kept for food. According to the Chow-le, the Le-ke, and Mencius, the practice of eating dogs' flesh was general. Beef and mutton were served only on the tables of the chiefs and dignitaries, who kept herds and flocks. Wine was ordinarily

drank at solemn repasts; the wine was a spirit { marks, that the editor of the present collection extracted (as at the present day) from rice. One of the odes states that, "in the tenth moon, the rice is cut to make the wine of spring." This wine was kept in vessels of baked earth. The lower orders drank out of horns rough or cut.

The metals referred to are gold, silver, iron, lead, and copper. Articles were manufactured of all these metals Gold was obtained from mines in the south; mines of iron were worked in Shense by Kung-lew, in the 18th century B. c.

References to matters relating to war are numerous, and seem to denote that, excepting in the use of fire-arms, the Chinese have made little progress in the art military since those early umes.-Tait's Magazine.

Germany.

Niederländische Sagen-Gesammelt und mit Anmerkungen begleitet, herausgegeben von Johann Wilhelm Wolf. (Legends of the Netherlands, collected, illustrated with Notes, and edited by J. W. Wolf). Leipsic. 1843. 8vo. pp. 708. Since the year 1818, when those profound scholars and philologists, the brothers Grimm, published their collection of German Traditions, a spirit of inquiry into these interesting relics of the literature of the people has manifested itself in almost every country of Europe, and produced numerous volumes of popular legends, calculated

has had many predecessors, even in our own day, in the great work of collecting the traditionary remains of the Netherlands; and as he has more. over diligently sought them out from time-honored chronicles, and noted them down from the recitation of venerable graybeards, in whose memory the tales heard in their youth still held their place, and in addition to these sources, has been favored with communications from some of the most distinguished Flemish antiquaries, it will readily be believed that the five or six hundred legends with which his goodly octavo volume is filled, form a perfect storehouse of Flemish traditionary lore-the value of which is certainly considerably increased by the editor's notes and comments. The connexion which subsists between the early language and literature of England and Flanders, and the light which they are calculated to throw upon each other, render the present volume one of peculiar interest to the antiquaries of this country, who will find in it many a striking picture of the manners and customs of bygone times, many a startling illustration of old world feelings and old familiar phrases.

alike to interest the mere reader for amusement, SELECT LIST OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS. and the philosophical investigator into national antiquities and the history of fiction.

Too many of these collections have, however, been disfigured by one glaring and unpardonable fault-an attempt to invest their contents with a dignity and importance utterly at variance with The their artless and fragmentary character. best and most interesting of these traditions, although furnishing admirable materials for the poet and romancer, possess, in their childlike simplicity, a grace beyond the reach of art, and are always most effective when narrated in the homely style of the old crone whom Akenside so admirably describes :

"By night

The village matron, round the blazing hearth,
Suspends the infant audience, with her tales,
Breathing astonishment, of witching rhymes
And evil spirits; of the deathbed call ́
To him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd
The orphan's portion; of unquiet souls
Risen from the grave, to ease the heavy guilt
Of deeds in life concealed; of shapes that walk
At dead of night, and clank their chains, and

wave

The torch of hell around the murderer's bed."

From this offence against propriety and good taste, the vast body of Flemish traditions, here gathered together by the industry and research of the editor, is entirely free, as indeed might be expected from the complaints to which he has given utterance, against such of his predecessors as have fallen into this error. Thus, while he commends Schayes for his Essais Historiques sur les Usages, les Croyances, et les Traditions des Belges,' and Dr. Bovy for his Promenades Historiques,' he does not scruple to point out the defects of Berthoud in his Chroniques et Traditions surnaturelles de la Flandre,' and to denounce as utterly unworthy of notice the 'Chroniques des Rues de Bruxelles.' As it will be seen from these re

·

GREAT BRITAIN.

Valpy's Schrevelius' Greek Lexicon, translated into English, edited by the Rev. J. R. Major, D. D.

Guide to the Geology of Scotland, with Geological Map and Plates, by James Nichol.

a

Library of Travel, Vol. I. 'Syria and the Holy Laud,' by Walter K. Kelly.

An Aid-de-camp's Recollections of Service in China, by Captain A. Cunnyng

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HARRIS'S HIGHLANDS OF ETHIOPIA.

From the North British Review.

The Highlands of Ethiopia. By Major W. Cornwallis Harris, of the Hon. East India Company's Engineers. Author of "Wild Sports in Southern Africa," "Portraits of African Game Animals," &c. In three volumes. London: Longman and Co. 1844.

THESE Volumes contain an account of Major Harris's journey to the Christian court of Shoa, in Abyssinia, and of what he learned regarding that court and kingdom during a residence of eighteen months. He went thither as the chief of an embassy to the Negoos, or King of Shoa, from the British Government; having been chosen by the Governor-General of India, who had charge of the affair, in consequence of previous experience of his talents and general acquirements. The object of the mission was to establish relations of alliance and commercial intercourse between the two governments and their subjects, and thereby to promote the extinction of the slave trade, the diffusion of legitimate traffic, and the increase of geographical and general knowledge.

The Embassy was despatched from Bom-
DECEMBER, 1844. 28

bay in April, 1841. Including the savans it consisted of ten persons, was attended by a small escort of British soldiers, besides some artisans and servants, and was amply supplied with the stores necessary for conciliating, by gifts or bribes, the chiefs of the barbarous countries through which it was to pass. Every security seems to have been taken for the attainment of its objects. And, accordingly, if we may believe Major Harris, the embassy was successful. A commercial convention was in due time concluded between Great Britain and Shoa. It consisted of sixteen articles. They are not published in these volumes, but Major Harris tells us that "they involved the sacrifice of arbitrary appropriation by the Crown of the property of foreigners dying in the country-the abrogation of the despotic interdiction which had, from time immemorial, precluded the purchase, or display of goods by the subject, and the removal of penal restrictions upon voluntary movement within and beyond the kingdom;" which restrictions, it seems, are a modification of an old national rule, not to permit a stranger who had once entered Abyssinia ever to depart from it. These are certainly great improvements in the laws of the Shoan kingdom; and if the

convention shall lead to the actual entrance friendship, their country has been almost of British traders and British manufacturers altogether concealed from view, or has among the Shoan people, it will as greatly been seen only, as it were, by glimpses, ameliorate their condition. Major Harris and when placed at disadvantage. Any does not say what provision was made for the tolerable description of it must therefore creation of such actual intercourse between possess a very peculiar interest, bringing the people of the two governments. The before us, as it does, a people who at once Shoan country is a tempting field for com- excite the curiosity awakened by utter merce; but its frontiers are between three strangers, impress us with the reverence and four hundred miles distant from the west- due to historical antiquity, and move in ern coast of the Red Sea. The route lies us the sympathies of brotherhood in relithrough a country difficult to traverse from gion. its physical peculiarities, and dangerous. It is difficult to imagine a more attractive from the habits and prejudices of its inhab- subject for a book. But the volumes beitants. A safe transit must be secured to fore us, though in some respects highly the trader. Perhaps this was the subject interesting, are on the whole very unsatisof one of the sixteen articles of the con- factory. Their chief defect is a want of vention. We should have been glad of precise information. The proceedings of some information on this point; for one of the embassy are not detailed distinctly, or the first questions which these volumes with that specification of names, time, place suggest, regards the practical utility of and circumstances, by which ordinary jourhaving a treaty of commerce with the ruler nalists give life and authenticity to their of an inland territory accessible only narrations. Of the individuals attending through countries so little friendly to the it, we learn from a list, that Captain D. traders for whose protection the convention Graham was principal assistant, Messrs. is designed. But to this, and some other Kirk and Impey, surgeons, Dr. Roth, natuinquiries of equal interest, they give no ralist, &c. But they scarcely appear in satisfactory answer. the narrative; and neither from it, nor The objects of the Embassy, and its from the vague compliment in the preface, measures, are not, however, the topics could any reader have the least notion of to which we mean to devote this paper. the great services to the embassy rendered Our design is to extract such information by the Rev. Mr. Krapf. A similar obscuas we can condense within a limited space, rity besets many other topics, and makes respecting the people and country visited the information regarding them most diffiby Major Harris. On these subjects, his cult of apprehension. One main cause of volumes, and the recent journals of the this is the style of the author, which will English Church Missionaries, Messrs. Isen- direct words. In the preface, he tells us, berg and Krapf, afford us much interesting never let him tell his story in plain and and curious information, and give the first that, "written in the heart of Abyssinia, minute account, by modern eye-witnesses, amidst manifold interruptions and disadof the southern provinces of the ancient vantages, these pages will be found redolent empire of Abyssinia. Neither Bruce the of no midnight oil." Accordingly, we traveller, nor Gobat the missionary, who expected to find an artless, unlabored, and penetrated farther than any other modern rather rude and blunt narration, betokening visitors, reached the limits of Shoa. Hence au intelligent yet unrhetorical and practical the work of Major Harris opens up what soldier. To our surprise, and disappointis, to British readers in general, an entirely ment, we found one directly the reverse,new country, and depicts a people which, artificial and rhetorical in an unusual deif it cannot be termed new, is only on that gree, as if the author's chief thought had account more interesting. Its monarchs been how to be impressive-to place obclaim to be descendants of King Solomon jects and incidents in the most picturesque and the Queen of Sheba. They are the positions, and clothe them in the most undoubted successors of those Christian sonorous diction. Of a work of travels, Emperors of Ethiopia, who, in the earlier centuries, entered into alliances with the Emperors of Rome, and who, in the sixteenth century, renewed, through the Portuguese, a friendly intercourse with Christian Europe. Since the rupture of that

the style is an inferior quality. Nor should we have made any complaint, if the fault had been on the side of poverty; but, in the opposite fault, there is conveyed one of those claims to literary merit, which we, as critics, are bound either to allow or reject.

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