by the Bureau, is all that is allowed to be pub- | $500,000 a year; and what may be called the aclished; it cannot initiate any law; amendments quired property, consisting of possessions gradon laws submitted to it by the President cannot ually purchased in a long course of years out of even be discussed until they have received the the accumulated savings of a wealthy, and, on sanction of the Council of State. All these bodies the whole, prudent, succession of princes. It is are mere instruments of the despotic will and this last species of property alone which has been selfish egotism of M. Bonaparte. made the subject of absolute confiscation. The decree reduces the Orleans princes to absolute poverty. The Comte de Paris and the Duke de Chartres are at the present moment utterly destitute of resources. The only property now remaining to the family, is that derived from Madame Adelaide, the only sister of Louis Philippe. This, not having belonged to Louis Philippe in 1830, does not fall within the operation of the decree of confiscation which affects the rest, and it is now all that remains to the family in France.

The same week witnessed other measures of a very important character also. The principal of these are, the suppression and reorganization of the National Guard, and the banishment of those public men who were either considered likely to thwart the success of the President's schemes, or on account of their Socialist and extreme democratic doctrines, were regarded as dangerous to the well-being of the State. Of the expelled representatives, M. Thiers has gone to England; General Changarnier and Lamoricière, it is thought, will fix their abode in Belgium; and Emile de Girardin, in the United States.

Louis Napoleon, it is intimated, will shortly make another step towards monarchy, by forming a matrimonial alliance with a Swedish princess, and by restoring titles in France. At present, there seems to be no check to his advancement

his side-the army is with him-Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain, and nearly all the other monarchies have resolved to support him—and it is probable that he will shortly assume the title and state of Emperor, as well as the Imperial authority.

In Austria, the constitution of 1848 has at last been formally and finally rescinded by an Imperial rescript. The reign of secret tribunals is restored; the proceedings of the law courts are no longer to be public. Along with the constitution of the revolutionary epoch, some few privileges and securities previously enjoyed by the subjects of the house of Hapsburg have also been swept away. The powers of the municipalities have, wherever they existed, been curtailed, and in some instances abolished entirely. It is not the status quo ante that has been restored in the Austrian dominions; the condition of the people has been rendered more servile.

The most important movement in administration, yet taken by the President, is in a decree that the members of the Orleans family, their hus--a large majority of the people are evidently on bands and consorts, and descendants, cannot possess any property (movable or immovable), in France. They are bound to sell them within the year, and in default they will be sold by the domain. Another decree cancels the donation of his private property, made by Louis Philippe on the 7th August to his children, and enacts that their properties, of about two hundred millions of francs, shall be employed as follows: Ten millions to societies of secours mutuels. Ten millions to the improvement of the lodgings for the work ing classes. Ten millions to the establishment of a fund for granting loans on mortgage in the departments. Five millions to a benefit fund for the poorer clergy. All the officers, sub-officers, and soldiers on active service will receive, according to their rank in the Legion of Honor, as follows: The Legionary, 250 francs; the Officers, 500 francs; Commanders, 1000 francs; Grand Officers, 2000 francs; Grand Crosses, 3000 francs. De Morny, Fould, and others of the Ministers, having refused to concur in this confiscation of the Orleans property, resigned, and the Ministry, which had been re-modelled and re-organized (a new "Ministry of State" and a "Ministry of Police" having been created), now consists of the following members, viz.: MM. Abbatucci, Justice; de Persigny, Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce; Bineau, Finances; de Saint Arnaud, War; Ducos, Marine; Turgot, Foreign Affairs; Fortoul, Public❘ Instruction and Worship; De Maupas, Police; Casabianca, State; Lefebre Duruflé, Public Works. The confiscation decree called forth spirited protests from Montalembert and Dupin, the eminent The railway between St. Petersburg and Moslawyer and President of the late Legislative As- cow is now in regular use. The first train, on sembly. The former, together with Merode, Mor- the 13th of last month, took from Moscow to the temart, Moustier, Giraud, André Mathieu, Baudet, capital 792 passengers. The line was eight Desrobert, and Hallez Chapared, refused to coun-years in constructing. The line from St. Peterstenance a Government which could be guilty of such a measure, and accordingly tendered their resignations as members of the Consultative Commission. Dupin, also, resigned his post of Procureur-General of the Court of Cassation, which high office he has filled for twenty-two years.

The enormous property of the House of Orleans was divided into two main portions: the hereditary domains, consisting of the estates settled in 1692 by Louis XIV., upon his brother, the revenues arising from which amounted latterly to nearly

A very important movement has been going on in Germany. We refer to the attempt of Austria to combine her dominions with the Prussian Zollverein, by means of a treaty of commercial reciprocity for five years, with complete union afterward. A conference of delegates from all the im portant states, except Prussia, was sitting at Vienna during the month of January, but the results have not definitely transpired. Such a union would be beneficial to the people of the states involved, by favoring industry and giving new activity to trade, as well as by dispensing with a large proportion of the armies they are now obliged to support.

burgh to Warsaw has been commenced, under the direction of General Gersfeldt, who assisted General Klenmichel in the former line.

Through the representations of Lord Palmerston to the Turkish Government, all difficulties have been removed with regard to the Egyptian railway, the works of which are to proceed without delay. Mr. Stephenson has surveyed the line. The two branches of the Nile are to be crossed by a pontoon bridge. The Pasha has given orders for 18,000 laborers to be put upon the works.

The Fine Arts.

tains, occupy the background. It will be noticed that the artist has omitted many very important elements of Greek history and culture from this composition. It contains no hint of Thermopyla or Marathon, nor any allusion to Plato or Pericles. No doubt the learned artist has designedly avoided making his work too exact and didactic, but it certainly would seem that these were too prominent in themselves not to be wholly overlooked. It will also be observed that there is no action and no dramatic effect in the whole; but those who have seen the cartoon lack words to describe the noble beauty of the figures. Nearly all are men, but such majesty and harmony of form and feature, of outline and movement, well befit an age and people that produced the very ideal of manly beauty. The nymphs in the foreground are also said to be unspeakably lovely, and endowed with the most intimate charm of maidenly innocence. Of course it is impossible to appreciate the full effect of the picture, until it is executed in colors; but in that respect Kaulbach is certain of a perfection in nowise behind the other departments of his work.

KAULBACH has just finished the cartoon of | elevation at the left, this division of the pichis Homer. This is the second in the series ture is completed by a group which repreof great frescoes with which he is to adorn sents the atelier of a sculptor-the master, the new Museum at Berlin. The first, the with two youths and a maiden about him, Dispersion at Babel, and the third, the De- is at work on a statue of Achilles-but the struction of Jerusalem, are completed upon songs of Homer call his attention to other the walls, and have already been described and grander subjects of his art. These are in these pages. The Homer possesses the the Olympian gods themselves, who sit, some same richness of artistic combinations, and of them aloft in the clouds, over a sacrificial the same daring sweep of thought and imag- altar, around which warriors are dancing a ination, which undeniably place Kaulbach martial dance, while others are moving along at the head of the artists of this age. He re- a rainbow to enter temples just dedicated to presents in Homer the culture and the reli- them-Eros leading with the Graces, and gion of Greece; the idea he depicts is, that Apollo, with the Muses, following. A tem Homer gave Greece her gods, and the pecu-ple, in process of erection, and distant mounliar tendency of her intellectual development. The poet is, of course, the central figure in the picture. The Ionic bard sits upon the prow of a ship that is just approaching the Grecian shore. His right arm is raised in the excitement of poetic inspiration; a lyre rests upon his left. Behind him, partly veiled, lost in profound revery, sits a female form, in whose lofty, intellectual features we recognise the impersonation of the traditional source of all early poetry; it is the impersonation of the Saga or Myth. She recalls those sybils who came from Asia to Greece to proclaim the oracles of the gods. In her hand the helm is still resting, in token that her guidance has brought Homer to Greece. A group of unclad nymphs, mingled with swans, swim around the vessel; one of them rises wholly from the water to listen to the strains of the singer. This is Thetis; she knows that he is chanting the praise of her son Achilles, and has left her crystal abode with the Nereids to follow him. At the left of the picture, on the land, stand groups of grave, manly forms, the representatives of Greece, assembled to receive the poet and his teachings. There are three of these groups, connected by subordinate figures. In front is a lofty figure, crowned with laurel, a beak- A PICTURE by the Belgian artist, Gallait, er in his hand, and a charming cup-bearer at has produced a great excitement at Vienna, his side; this is the poet Alcaeus. Behind where it formed the most prominent feature him stands Mnesicles, the architect of the in the January exhibition of the Art Union. Propyla, with a plan of that work in his The subject is the Last Moments of Egmont. hand; next him is Solon, the lawgiver. On The Count is represented in prison, standing the other side stand Herodotus, Pindar, So- upon a bench to look out of the grated winphocles, Eschylus, and Pythagoras, their fea-dow upon the place where his own execution tures all marked with attention and interest; while a priest of a more ancient faith looks on in gloomy displeasure at the new singer and the impression he produces; and Bakis, the old soothsayer, hides his Golden Proverbs beneath the rocks. A second group, more toward the centre of the picture, is composed of country people, shepherds, huntsmen, and cultivators, with here and there a warrior, hearkening eagerly to the bard; among them a faun, with pointed ears and mocking mein, listens to the unaccustomed tones. On an

is about to happen. On the bench beside him sits a priest, who seeks to recall him from earthly contemplations.

THE Emperor of Austria has ordered a monument of Metastasio to be erected in Vienna,-where the poet passed the greatest part of his life, and composed all his works. Metastasio, it will be remembered, was attached to the court of Austria in quality of Imperial poet. The monument is to be executed by Lucciardi, a young German.

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES AND PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 425

THE Bulletin of the New-England Art THE American Art Union is to have its Union contains an etching of Allston's Witch drawing at the end of the present month, havof Endor, in anticipation of the large engraving received a sufficient number of subscriping of it, which is to be distributed among tions, at length, to make this step seem adthe subscribers. This is expected to be of a visable in the opinion of its directors. much higher order than any thing that has yet appeared from any Art Union in the world.

The Philadelphia Art Union is taking vigorous steps to retrieve its recent losses by fire.

Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies.

OUR countryman, Mr. E. E. SQUIER, is now in London, where he has just brought out an edition of his work on Nicaragua, and he recently addressed the Royal Society of Literature on the Mexican Hieroglyphics, as exhibited in the publication of Lord Kingsborough. The MSS. engraved in this splendid work are chiefly rituals-a few only being historical. Of the events referred to, some occurred 600 years B. C., and one reference appears to be to an eclipse that happened 900 years B. C. The dualistic principle runs through the Mexican Pantheon; it consists, i. e., of male and female divinities, representing the active and passive principles in nature. We find also in this mythology a trinity, corresponding to Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva-the productive, preserving, and destroying powers-in the Indian. Inferior deities represent attributes; each name denoting an attribute; hence, the gods of the Mexicans were far from being so numerous as they appear to be. The supreme divinity had about fifty names: several of which agree in signification with those applied in the Old Testament to Jehovah. He is represented wearing a mask, to intimate that he cannot be looked upon. For each character or attribute there was a different mask, frequently representing animals; particular animals being dedicated to particular deities. The different deities were likewise symbolized by different colors -the water-god by blue-the god of fire by red -the inferior divinities by a dark tint, &c. Peculiar symbols likewise appear as crests, or head ornaments. The lecturer stated that the Mexicansion to try it on all the railways. records unquestionably refer to an Eastern origin of the nation.

tum. All kinds of portable gauges are, either not to be depended upon, or subject to frequent repairs; so much so, that by law every steamengine used in France is provided with a gauge on the barometer principle, that is 10 feet, 15 feet, 20 feet high for a steam pressure of 60 pounds, 90 pounds or 120 pounds to the square inch. Mr. Bourdon, chief engineer at the Creusot works, where the engines of the frigate Mogador, were built, has devised a guage, which has obtained for him a medal at the London Fair, and is highly spoken of. It is based upon the fact, that a thin metal tube, coiled up and subjected to internal pressure, will tend to uncoil itself in proportion to the amount of the pressure. The tube used is first flattened preparatory to the coiling up, so as to render this operation more easy. One of the extremities communicates with the boiler, the other is pointed and turned up so as to serve as an index on a circular scale. The apparatus is fixed in a case, in the shape of a hair medallion, and closed with a glass. Experiment must show if the effects of temperature be insignificant compared with those of pressure, and if the internal working of metallic atoms will not in time make this guage give wrong indications.-If the instrument can bear the test of practical use, it will soon supersede every other already known. The inventor has already been rewarded by a council medal at the London Exhibition, and the cross of the Legion of Honor in France. In the last named country, the Government has made provi.

EXPERIMENTS have been made on the Paris and Lyons Railway for the application of electromagnetism to locomotives. The report goes on to say that the apparatus prepared for the purpose was applied to an exceedingly large locomotive, and succeeded perfectly, first on a level, and then on an ascent of thirteen millièmes, the steepest in fact of the line. It was feared that difficulties would arise from the smoothness of the wheels on the rails,—but no inconvenience was perceptible from that circumstance.

RESPECTING experiments in Photography, the London Literary Gazette says "the preparation of albumenized glass plates promised much, and in some hands, as in those of Ross and Thomson of Edinburgh, and Langhenheim of Philadelphia, -the best results have been obtained. Essentially, their processes consist respectively of separat ing the fluid portion of the white of egg, and adding thereto a weak solution of the iodide of potassium. This is floated over a clean glass plate, so as to cover it with a very thin film, and LORD BROUGHAM has been passing a few weeks carefully dried. When this is completed, the pre- in Paris, and the papers dwell upon the marvelpared surface is dipped into a solution of nitrate lous preservation of his powers, which seem to of silver, and thus an iodide of silver is formed baffle the attacks of time. Galignani says he on the surface. This iodide of silver being wash-"read at the Academy of Sciences, before a most ed, as in the calotype process, with gallo-nitrate crowded auditory, a paper on the optical and of silver, is very sensitive to the solar radiations, mathematical inquiries which have occupied his and being placed in the camera-obscura, is speed-time during his late residence at Cannes. His ily impressed with a dormant image, which is developed by the deoxi lizing action of gallic acid." A good steam gauge has long been a desidera

lordship accompanied the reading of this memoir with numerous demonstrations on the board, and for upwards of an hour captivated the attention

of his hearers. MM. Arago, Biot, Ténard, and other eminent scientific men were present, and appeared deeply interested in the explanations of their learned confrère. His lordship spoke the whole time with great animation, and his numerous friends present were delighted to perceive that he was in such excellent health."

MR. ISAAC LEA, of Philadelphia, since his retirement from the house of Lea & Blanchard, is devoting himself more assiduously than before, to those scientific pursuits in which he has attained to such well-deserved eminence. The London Athenæum has the following notice of his most recent publication:

“Observations on the Genus Unio, &c. Vol. IV: by ISAAC LEA. It is pleasant, amidst all the material activity of the United States, to find ourselves ever and anon called on to bear testimony to the love of nature, truth, and beauty which there developes itself. In Mr. Lea's book we have descriptions and drawings of shells, originally published in the Transactions of the American" Philosophical Society, which would have done honor to any of the scientific societies of Europe. Such works can be of interest only to the professed conchologist; but in his hands they become treasuries of facts by which he works out the great laws of morphology regulating the animal forms that he more particularly studies. The shells described in this volume are for the most part American, and from fresh water; and indicate how large a field for natural history inquiry the vast continent of America still presents."

Mr. GEORGE CATLIN, the well-known American traveller, has brought forward in London a plan for a Museum of Mankind, “to contain and perpetuate the familiar looks, the manufactures, history, and records of all the vanishing races of man." A report on the subject was read by him at one of the scientific societies; and on the 9th of January he delivered an address on the subject at his American-Indian Collection. He opened by a general review of his past labors in the study of the native tribes of America, illustrated by a reference to some of the numerous records he has collected, and by the appearance of various natives themselves in full costume. He then proceeded to enforce the comprehensive scheme which now occupies him. After pointing out the urgent necessity of at once engaging in the formation of a museum of the kind proposed by him, if it is to be gathered together at all-for the inroads of civilization are rapidly extirpating the native races of the world-he went on to develope his plan in its practical details. He proposes, as the first step, the purchase and fitting-up of a steamer " as a floating museum," in which the seaport towns of all countries should be visited; considering that this mode of exhibition would possess great advantages through "the facility of its visiting the chief cities of the world, stopping no longer in any than a lucrative excitement could be kept up" and in the great immediate saving of time, as well as in other respects. Mr. Catlin's present collection would form the basis of such a museum. Mr. Catlin defines the word "mankind," for his purpose, as meaning no more than the expiring members of the great human family

the Red Indian, the native Australian, the Greenlander, the Peruvian,-and so forth. Measures, no doubt, might be taken for obtaining and preserving such memorials as exist of these and similar races; and it is a reflection on the governments of England and of the United States that they have hitherto remained so indifferent in the matter, that being severally custodians of certain interesting and rapidly obliterating pages of the book of human history, they should suffer the final extinction of the record to take place before their eyes without any attempt to preserve its lessons for futurity."

MAJENDIE, LOUIS and LONDE-appointed by the French Academy of Medicine to examine a work by Dr. James Gillkrest, entitled, Is Yellow Fever contagious or not? have made a report in which they speak highly of the industry and skili displayed by Dr. Gillkrest, and adopt the conclusion at which he arrives with regard to the non-conta giousness of this disease. "The author," say they, establishes by numerous well-selected and incontrovertible proofs that yellow fever is not contagious under any circumstances,-not even in the case of crowding in this disease, whether of the dead or of the living; that the removal of the individuals from the influence of the local causes which produce this affection is the fittest means of preventing its extension; and, lastly, that the cordons called sanitary and quarantine measures, far from arresting yellow fever, on the contrary favor its extension by combining the population within the influence of the local causes which give it birth." It may be hoped that with valuable testimony like this before them, governments will lose no time in abandoning oppressive quarantine regulations, at least as far as yellow fever is concerned.

FROM Holland, we hear that the dissolution of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, which was ordered by royal decree to take place on the 1st of this month, has caused great dissatisfaction in the literary and scientific circles, and has called forth a rather indignant remonstrance from the Dutch Literary Association. The Institute held its last meeting on the 15th December; and it drew up a series of resolutions, expressing, in dignified terms, its sense of the injustice done it, and declaring that its dissolution will be “a heavy blow and a great discouragement" to Dutch science. The want of funds is the pretext put forth by the government for breaking up the learned body.

THE Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen is about to publish an Archæological Atlas of the North, accompanied by explanatory matter in French and Danish. It will be a valuable addition to the memoirs, papers, and documents, already published by the Society. This scientific associa tion is one of the most important in Northern Europe, and its members include many of the most distinguished savans of Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. It possesses an excellent library, which contains, amongst other things of great value, about 2000 Icelandic manuscripts, very ancient, and written in the old Scandinavian tongue.

Recent Deaths.

AUGUSTUS SIDNEY DOANE was born, of a highly | Commissioners of Emigration. Fearless and respectable family, in Boston, on the second day energetic in the discharge of his official duties, of April, 1808. He was educated at Harvard (which he always attended to in person, and not, College, from which he received the degrees of as the custom of some is, by deputies), he protectMaster of Arts and Doctor of Medicine, in 1828, ed the city from unnecessary fear, as well as from a few months before attaining his majority. He disease, and presented bills of mortality scarcely soon after went to Europe, where he passed two paralleled in the hospitals of the country-averagyears in travel, and in attendance upon medical ing but seven per cent. The Commissioners in and surgical lectures, in Paris; and returning, in general superintendence of the Quarantine, in 1830, was married to Miss Gordon, the daugh- reports to the Legislature, awarded to him the ter of an eminent merchant of Boston, and settled highest praise for his administration, and when, in the city of New-York, where he continued to in consequence of a change in the political chareside until his death, at Staten Island, on the racter of the government, he was superseded, in morning of the 27th of January. Although at 1843, both the Irish and German Emigrant Sociall times an earnest student and successful prac-eties tendered him expressions of gratitude for titioner in his profession, Dr. Doane, for several his unwearying zeal and humanity in behalf of years after his settlement in New-York, devoted the class most dependent upon his services. In considerable attention to political, historical and 1848, he was appointed one of the consulting general, literature, and from the first, he was an physiciaus of the Bellevue Hospital, but declined industrious writer on medicine and surgery. the office, in consequence of holding the agreeable When the cholera first broke out in this country, and profitable post of physician to the Astor in 1832, he was the earliest to address the profes- House. During the prevalence of the cholera in sion in a scientific and practical discussion of its New-York in 1849, he was one of the ward chocharacter, and the ability, untiring industry, lera physicians, and devoted himself with his bravery and benevolence which he exhibited dur- customary earnestness, to practise among the ing that melancholy season, established his popu- poor of his district. In 1850, he was again aplarity with the people, and secured for him a de- pointed Health Officer by Governor Fish, and he gree of respect from his class which they have discharged his duties until he followed Drs. Treat, seldom bestowed on one so young. Among his Ledyard, Baily, De Witt, and others, in the sacriearliest contributions to medical literature, was fice of his life to them. He was seized with the his edition of Dr. Good's Study of Medicine, in ship-fever on the 14th of January, while inspectwhich he embodied, not only very important dis- ing the packet Great Western, which arrived cussions and notes of fact by himself, but the from Liverpool early on the morning of that day, best views of the medical writers of the United with nearly seven hundred immigrants, of whom States on the various subjects treated in that ce-a large proportion were sick. He spent several lebrated performance. He inscribed his edition of the Study of Medicine to the common friend of the author and himself, the learned and excellent Dr. JOHN W. FRANCIS. He also translated MAYGRIER'S great work on Midwifery, and several standard authorities on Anatomy and Surgery; among which are DUPUYTREN'S Surgery, LUGOL's Researches on Scrofulous Diseases, BAYLE'S Descriptive Anatomy, BLANDIN's Topographical Anatomy, MECKEL's Anatomy, SCOUTETTEN on Cholera, RICORD on Syphilis, and CHAUSSIER on the Arteries. His editorial contributions to Surgery Illustrated, and many occasional papers in the medical journals also increased his fame and usefulness. It was, perhaps, his chief distinction as an author, that, being familiar with the languages of France, Germany and Italy, and personally acquainted with the living lights of medical science in those countries, and with the practice which obtained in the chief foreign hospitals, he was among the first, as he was the most diligent and successful, in translating the chief works of the European physicians into our language, and adapting them to our habits and necessities. In 1839, he was appointed Professor of Physiology in the University of New-York, but he soon resigned, with his colleagues. In 1840, he received from Governor Seward, the place of Health Officer and Physician in Chief to the Marine Hospital, and, with Dr. TURNER, Health Commissioner, and Dr. MCNEVIN, Resident Physician, constituted the Board of Commissioners of Health, which there were exhibitions of knowledge such as is but then exercised all the functions of the present rarely possessed by the students, whose aim is

hours in examination and the supervision of removals to the hospital, during which several deaths occurred, and was soon after, with Mr. Lewis B. Butler, the humane and efficient steward, who had been honorably associated with him in both terms of his administration as Health Officer, attacked with the fever in its most malignant form. Dr. Doane died on the 27th of January, and Mr. Butler on the 6th of February. These deaths were public as well as private calamities. Dr. Doane must be ranked among the most generous, wise, and active citizens-the most warm-hearted and respectable men-as well as among the most eminent physicians, of our time, in New-York. On the 15th of February, an eloquent discourse upon his life and character was delivered by his friend, the Rev. E. H. Chapin, in his church in Murr-aystreet, of which Dr. Doane was a member.

Since the above notice of Dr. Doane was written, we have received from one of the most eminent physicians of the United States the following estimate of his character and abilities:

"The character of Dr. Doane commends itself to our consideration for many striking traits. His whole life, from his boyhood, was marked by a devotion to the acquisition of knowledge. His attainments enabled him to enter Harvard University at an early age, and he was recognized in that admirable school as a young man of splendid abilities and thorough scholarship. His medical theses