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party; arms it with new weapons, and places fession, would have exterminated Rabelais, it on higher ground. The hereditary castle and Swift, and Sterne.-Is he to spend his life doors begin to turn on their hinges as the mo- at Foston-le-Clay? Where, in heaven's name ment of his admission to the domestic hearth is Foston-le-Clay?" And somebody would draws nigh. The doors are thrown open; have brought him a map, and if he had been marquis and earl and baron receive him with secretary for the home department, he would outstretched arms, and mouths distended from have been able to see it was in Yorkshire; ear to ear. They almost discover the treasure and he would have said, "Let us show we of wisdom hidden under all that prodigality of can appreciate genius, and mirth, and goodfun. He makes their homes delightful to ness; let him have the best living in our gift them-they can scarcely tell why. Their-and we will make him a dean." "A dean, stiffnesses get thawed out of them by that per- my lord?" replies the confidential private petual sunshine of heart and brain. They secretary; a nephew, who was plucked at feel, somehow, as if they were men, and not college, and afterwards ran away with anmere images of departed grandeur. They other gentleman's wife; "you can't mean that! almost think they could descend to the arena, The man is a notorious wit." "Ah, I didn't and have a manly struggle, for the love of think of that. What would the bishops say the people and the enjoyment of power. if I promoted a wit? But hang it, let him Wherever meanness and darkness furked, have a living of a thousand a-year. Your there was this tremendous curate with his governorship, Charlie, is six." Ithuriel spear. Wherever there was an argu- The determined carrying-out of this satire ment too heavy for the feeble hand of a super- is a great failure in the work called The Life annuated duke, he set feathers to it and fined of the Reverend Sydney Smith (otherwise it down, and gave it a throw into the enemy's most tenderly and charmingly written by his camp, which transfixed dozens at a time, as daughter); and when the next edition comes Munchausen transfixed the ducks upon his out, I hope a new series of adventures will be ramrod. All this was acknowledged by these introduced, for it must be sickening to any of rich and right honorable men; cradled states- the younger clergy who have aspirations for men and pap-boated leaders of the nation. the kind and true, and who consider an occaAnd what did they in substantial acknowledg- sional laugh no sin against any of the comment? He must be a myth! Does it enter mandments, to perceive what their fortune is into the imagination of the dullest of men that, likely to be. They will look for comfort into in actual life, these dreamy pieces of state the realities of life, and subside from Christianwould have left such a man altogether unpro-ity and Sidneyism into selfishness and sucvided for, out of their private patronage, and cess. would have rewarded him, after much en- There is a glimpse allowed, to be sure, of treaty, with a government living, without a house, in the wilds of Yorkshire, with the descriptive name of Foston-le-Clay? Le-Clay, indeed! Not very good French, but very expressive English.

recognition at the end. After giving a good exchange to Combe Florey, the Whigs are supposed to follow the example of a noble Torya nobler than the one I have just imagined—and to make him a canon of St. Paul's. The fancied Sydney still goes on. He estab- So says this veracious chronicle. But he is lishes himself in the Yorkshire wilderness. old; he has seen all his juniors promoted over He builds a house, the ugliest and most com- his head. He has two dozen superiors in his fortable in England, at a great expense out profession, who look down from the awful plaof his private pocket; and sets such an exam-teau, or flat elevation, upon which their merits ple of a cheerful performance of duty and (and other considerations) have placed them, universal good-will, that we forget his wit, and at the man who never shuffled, nor lied, nor his literature, and his learning, and see only truckled, who was only a sayer of good things, the generous man, the useful minister, the but not a claimant of them; who did not heap noble soul. This lasted year upon year. And all his official preferment on himself, and did year upon year Whig preferments must have not even put his son into the church. Shut been falling vacant. But Whigs have syco- up the book; it is a malicious libel on the phants, and cousins, and nieces' husbands; Whigs. and Sydney is supposed still to be left in Fos- I suspect, after all, it is a mere reversal of ton-le-Clay. It must be a satire, this biog- somebody's else career. Instead of an honraphy-a bitter satire. And the Tories are est, true, open, independent, gallant gentlescarcely less satirized in it than these grateful man of the name of Sydney Smith, it is perprecious Whigs. What! If this were not a haps the topsy-turvied record of a grovelling, merely fanciful picture, do you think no Tory grasping turncoat of another name. Instead minister, no Tory magnate, would have said, "Well, here is a man who, if he had gone to the bar, would have forced his way into the Lords: if he had taken to literature as a pro

of wit and brightness, put down dinginess and stolidity; instead of earnest determination to make the best of the ills of life, of poverty, and neglect, and wilful misrepresentation, put

SYDNEY SMITH.

down a grasping after everything to be got, a Foston-le-Clay, and even Combe Florey, and craving for wealth and station, adulation to a a canonry at St. Paul's-hey-Room there lord, insolence to a curate; and instead of a for my lord the bishop!

THE INVALID'S MOTHER.

TO THE SUN, AT LISBON.

O SUN! whose universal smile Brightens the various lands, From burning Egypt's fruitful Nile And Lybia's desert sands.

To where some frozen Lapland hut,
Dingy, and cold, and low,
Bids half its gleaming surface jut
In light above the snow ;

I loved thee as a careless child,

Where English meadows spread Their cowslip blossoms sweet and wild By Thames' translucent bed!

Now, with a still and serious hope,
I watch thy rays once more,
And cast life's anxious horoscope
Upon a foreign shore.

O sun that beam'd to Camöen's eyes
Bright as thou dost to mine,
That calmly yet shall set and rise,
On life and death to shine.

O sun! that many an eager heart
With false hope hath beguiled,
Deal gently with me ere we part,
And heal the alien's child i

A stranger stands on Tagus' banks,
And looks o'er Tagus' wave,

Oh! shall we leave here joy and thanks,
Or weep beside a grave?

Deep rivers of my native land,

Where paler sunshine gleams,
On your green margin shall we stand
And laugh beside your streams;

And talk of foreign flowers and climes
Whose glorious radiance shed
Such pleasure o'er these travelled times,-
Or shall we mourn our dead?

No answer comes! Beyond the sea,
Beyond those azure skies,

A speck in God's eternity,
Our unseen future lies!

And not as one who braves His will,
(Which, murmur we or not,
Must guide our onward course, and still
Decide the dreaded lot :)

But with a deep mysterious awe,
I see that orb of light,
Which first by His creative law
Divided day from night;

Which, looking down upon the earth
With strong life-teeming rays,
Compels the diamond star-like birth,
The red gold's sultry blaze;

Or bids some gentle fragile flower
Burst from its calyx cold,
To bloom, like man, its little hour,
Then sink beneath the mould.

O sun! thou cherisher of life, Thou opposite of death, Dissolver of the frost-bound strife That seals up Nature's breath!

Nurse of the poor man's orphan'd brood,
God of the harvest fields,

Ripener of all earth grants for food,
And all her beauty yields;

Deliverer of the prison'd streams From winter's joyless reign; Awakener from mournful dreams To sound and sense again.

They fable of thee pleasant things ;-
To bear our loved to thee,

The great ships spread their strong white wings,

Like angels o'er the sea.

And daily in thy heavenly glow
Our sick and weak we set!
Watch for the end of anxious woe,
And sigh, "Not yet-not yet!

O sun! look down on me and minc
From that o'erarching sky;
Emblem of God's great glory shine,
And his all-pitying eye;

Lest when I on that glory gaze,

Mine eyes through tears look out, Like one who sees with sore amaze And faint distressful doubt,

The changed face of some faithless friend,
Who promised generous aid,

Was trusted, tried, and in the end,
The trembling hope betray'd.

Household Words.

From the Times, 1 Sept.

THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES have been much talked about in these latter days. From being mere names to many, the reminiscences of geographical half-hours at school, or connected only with ideas of corn and prices current, they are now recognized as forming a country of great political importance, and the interest of Europe is roused by observing that they are evidently coveted by two great empires, and are as certainly about to fall away from the decaying dominion of a third. Their occupation was the cause of the war, while the treaty which enforced their abandonment was looked upon at the time as most propitious and important; and, though impatient politicians may declare it to have only substituted one enemy for another, the change may still be considered as an unquestionable, though not unmixed, benefit.

are attracted to an empire where a career is suf ficiently open to talent; and the Czars, with no little wisdom, have encouraged this sympathy by admitting men of every race brought under their sway to a full equality, so that they be Russianized in feeling. And they become Russianized. Geor gians and Finlanders hold high rank in the armies which seized their countries, while the chief command in Poland is actually held by a Pole. The Moldo-Wallachian aristocracy has always contained a number of Russian partisans, who would have been more numerous but for the insanely protective and isolating system of the late Czar. The Boyards could not anticipate without dread that their productive lands should be brought within the iron cordon of Russian Custom-houses and quarantines. The actual presence of the Muscovite, from whom they have lately had two visits, had a great effect in diminishing the sympathies of all classes for the Czar; but, perhaps not unnaturally, the severity of the Russian rule has been forgotten in the unpopularity of a new occupation.

A speedy decision as to the future government of these provinces and their relation to the Porte, is to be desired both in the interests of Europe and of the inhabitants themselves. Until lately, The Wallachians are not men of high feeling, no part of the Turkish Empire promised such they have been accustomed to subjection; they wide prosperity. Our own free trade was the have had to do with Phanariote Hospodars and great principle which called the fertile plains Turkish Commissioners; their rulers and the innorth of the Danube into productiveness, and, in struments of their rulers have been corrupt since spite of a long Russian occupation, at the time of modern history began; yet they say that the the European disturbances the wealth of the pro- presence of the Austrians is degrading to them. prietor, and, it may be said, the comfort of the They use this word, and use it in contradistinc peasant, went on increasing. The richer owners tion to the feeling inspired by the occupations of of estates began to be found in the capitals and the Russians and the Turks. There must be somewatering-places of Europe, and to take their place thing peculiarly offensive in that rule which exwith the magnates of other lands. The people, cites the same bitter feeling in Italy, in Hungary, with few pretences to heroism, are industrious and and among the pliant and almost servile populapeaceable, and more capable of an advance in the tion of a province accustomed to be enslaved. path of material improvement than the idle Ser- We do not know that the Austrians have inflicted vian or the cateran of the Montenegrin hills. any general injury on the country; they are not But by the renewed occupation of 1853 and the numerous enough to diminish its resources, and closing of the Danube, their prosperity was in a material point of view the change from 200,000 crushed. They have, since that time, seen their men to 30,000 must be a benefit. Yet the Walcapital in the hands of three armies; and that lachians dislike the new-comers. The Russians which holds it now is unquestionably more dis- took what they wanted, and gave bonds on the liked than the imperious Muscovite or the sullen Wallachian treasury, which was empty. Yet the but not tyrannical Turk. Indeed, the feeling people have begun to forgive. Bucharest abhors which exists with regard to Austrian occupation, the Germans. If the Russians were tyrannical, is a chief reason for a speedy decision on their they were not shabby. The officers went everyfuture political state. There has always been a where, were agreeable waltzers, gave dinners, and Russian party in the provinces, as in the other paid for them. The Austrians are boorish and parts of Turkey. Indeed, through all the coun- supercilious, never buy a bouquet, and want to go tries contiguous to the Czar's empire, from the to the Opera for twopence. We do not know how Baltic to the Black sea, such a party exists, se- far our statesmen regard the feelings and tendencretly or declared. Even putting aside the influ- cies of the East: but there can be little doubt ence of gold and decorations, Russian nationality that the Austrian occupation, with its insolence, has a strong attraction for all bold and ambitious its acts of individual cruelty, and its recent prospirits. It is difficult for Englishmen to under-clamation of martial law, is reviving a sympathy stand this. How can they wish to be under a which it is the interest of the Western Powers despotism? But it may be asked, what they are and the world to extinguish.

under now. Prussia squares their smallest ac- Another point, not to be neglected, is the influtions by her drilled bands of pedantic functiona-ence of religion. People talk of the Greek Church ries; Austria kills all thought, and labors only to as if it were only the creed of the small and scatkeep together a disjointed empire, that its iso- tered race which has given it a name, and as if lated provinces may stagnate, as they have done for centuries. As for the Wallachians themselves, it is better to be under the despotism of Nicholas or Alexander than that of Stirbey. Constitutional liberty the neighbors of Russia have never had, and they do not feel the want of it. The aspiring

the religious and political sympathies which the Greek has made himself conspicuous by proclaiming, were not felt even more deeply by other races less pertinacious and voluble. The church, which calls itself orthodox, has in the Wallachians sincere though not enthusiastic disciples. They are

not likely to aspire to martyrdom; their zeal alty, with the gay Brussels of the East for a capimight cool in the enjoyment of a prosperous corn- tal, make the Wallachian plains rival in produc trade; but such feelings as they have, are for the tiveness those which we have all admired? Belchurch, and these feelings have become deeper gium has been a barrier in Europe; placed at an during the present war. All the Christians have important point, between two great military mon fallen back on their religion which they think in archies, its neutrality makes war almost impossidanger. They have little political conversation with ble. Why may not the kingdom to be formed on strangers, most of whom they suspect; they nour- the Danube enforce by moral means the same reish each other's prejudices, strengthen each oth-spect from the other two continental giants? Beler's fanaticism; and, as they never hear an argu- gium is strong in fortresses and the matrimonial ment against their own views, think them unan- ramifications of its dynasty; the new King of the swerable. The war, which we look upon as neces- Roumanians would, of course, marry and throw sary and just, is to them a portentous and unin-up earthworks. But, if we have had a Leopold, telligible impiety. We are fighting against Christ- we have had an Otho. It is quite possible that, in ianity and liberty-against the honor of God ten years after his accession, the sovereign of our and the rights of man. These opinions will pre- choice would be in the hands of the Greek priests. vail until the Allies effect great changes in the We should hear of his views on Servian annexaland they are defending, and in the Danubian tion, his sympathy with Bulgarian grievances, his provinces a beginning may be made. A field is strong diplomatic notes in the case of a bastinaopen in which we may prove that we are sincere. doed cattle-stealer from Montenegro. He might Should we, in the place of these feeble and cor- be a Catholic, like Otho, or a good Lutheran ; rupt Governments which now press down the di- but ambition might turn his head, and, after all, vided provinces, establish an exemplary rule in a he must consult the interests of his children, who compact state, we will not say with popular or are being educated in Eastern orthodoxy. He will even representative institutions, but at any rate be an independent sovereign, and no one may with capable and incorrupt officials, - should we control his conduct. He will be close to Russia, open the Danube and keep it open, should we and it will be difficult to reach his capital with treat the new community with respect, even with frigates and gunboats. On the whole, it is a dan. more than it deserves, we shall have shown the gerous experiment. falsity of those calumnies which are now Russia's best instruments for attracting to herself the sympathies which, rightly, should be ours.

We believe that the union of the two provinces under a ruler appointed with the sanction of the protecting Powers, would suffice to make the popIt is plain that the Hospodariate cannot last. ulation contented and Europe secure. Whether If ever there was a Government destroyed by the called President or Hospodar, the governor should malaria of its own corruption, it is this. Hospo- still yield homage to the Sultan as his suzerain. dars were appointed at about middle age-some We have engaged to support the integrity of the died at their posts; the career of some was cut Ottoman Empire, and must keep our word. It is short by an execution or recall; but all grew rich. well also not to break the link, however weak, The present rulers were appointed for seven years, which binds these outlying territories to Constanin pursuance of the treaty of Balta Liman, and tinople. A day may come when they may all be their term of office has nearly expired. The inter-restored, without limitation, to such a Governval may be employed in resolving what kind of ment as may exist there. In such a case, we government shall succeed the misrule of ages. should not like to find that we had created a dyWe believe that a monarchy has been thought of nasty with its obstructive rights. But the whole a scheme which is generally tried, and which question deserves consideration in detail; and, has succeeded once. Leopold may be said to happily, there is time enough for its discussion. have done much to make the Belgians what they What is done should not be done hastily, when it are; and why should not a scion of German roy-is remembered that it is done forever.

BELLS OF CAST STEEL. There is a cast- Bells of cast-iron have been made at Dundysteel bell suspended in the works of Messrs. Nay-van Iron Works, near Glasgow, of a very large lor, Vickers, and Company, at Sheffield; which size. The iron is mixed with a very small prowas made at the manufactory of Mayre and portion of tin (I believe) as an alloy, and the reKuhne, at Bochum in Westphalia, in 1853, and sult is a very sonorous metal; but so extremely was sent over too late for the Dublin Exhibition. brittle that a very large one cast, at Dundyvan, Its weight rather exceeds a ton, and its height is for the Hyde Park Exhibition was cracked, acciabout four feet six inches. I have heard it rung, dentally, by a workman, who gave it a knock and it gives out a powerful and good tone, but with a small hammer. The sound was said to seems to have less vibration of sound than bell-be equal to that of most bells of its size.-Notes metal. Messrs. Naylor and Co. are now casting and Queries. some steel bells, not of a large size. I understand that the price of them is full one third less than if made of ordinary bell-metal. I should be glad if any of your correspondents have information or observations to offer on this subject.

"ALMIGHTY DOLLAR."-This phrase originated with Washington Irving, who first made use of it in his charming little sketch of "A Creolo Village, which appeared in 1837. Malta.

W. W.

[Notes and Queries.

From The Spectator.

not to forbid its use, but to render it useless for purposes of profit or advancement.

A GERMAN NOBLEMAN'S RECOL

build the new edifice on the right foundation, the Russian language was recognized as the only one valid in German countries. No German student can be matriculated in his own fatherland without perfect acquaintance with the Russian language. None can become professors in their own German home who cannot give their lectures in the Russian language. The testimony of the ignorant professor of Russian has more weight than that of all the others. If he refuse his "testamur," no genius, no talent is available, even if it spoke with the tongues of angels.

LECTIONS OF RUSSIA.* The keystone of the Dorpat University was INTERNAL evidence carries these thirty- removed,-namely, the right of choosing its own three years' Recollections of Russia as far professors. The Russian Government underback as the French invasion of 1812; so that took this good office, a piacere. In order to the actual experience of the reminiscent would seem to have terminated some ten years ago. "The translator has in confidence been informed of the name of the author; who vouches for the authenticity of the information it [the work] contains." The capacity in which the German Nobleman visited Russia, and his object in remaining there for so long a time, do not appear. From passing indications, and the feeling with which he denounces the manner in which tutors and other foreigners tempted into the country are frequently cheated by their Russian employers, it may be inferred that he himself filled some situation scarcely compatible with English notions of a

nobleman.

*

*

*

*

*

The University has become a Zwing-Uri. The student, like a private, must bow to every generlaid aside by Germans, and the Russian taken al he meets. The German language has been up in its stead; which is much the same as givThe book consists of personal narrative, ing a bottle of hock for the same quantity of Neparticular description, and the result of much va water. German is now thought good enough experience or observation brought into gener- for servants and tradesmen, but the literary and al conclusions. The principal subjects are educated classes apply themselves to Russian. serfdom, the police system, including the pris- Literature is the voice of civilization in a nation. ons, the bureaucracy or civil service, and the Up to the present there has been no Russian litpublic and private life of the Russian people. erature. What is so termed is merely an inspiThe capital, with its characteristics, edificial ration from foreign sources. Because, here and and human, furnishes a chapter, as likewise there, a poetical mind has flown beyond the do the author's first impressions of the country from the German frontier to St. Petersburg: and very sickening first impressions they are, for tyranny and brutality; but they must have occurred so long ago, that matters have doubtless mended since, at least as regards of ficers and soldiers. There is also a chapter on the history and rights by treaty of the Germano-Baltic provinces, and an account of the manner in which treaty stipulations were disregarded by the late Emperor. This is the freshest, the truest-looking, the most interestSome despotisms, that pay no regard to ing, and the most informing section of the political or even civil rights, profess to have a book. It lays bare the utter disregard of the respect for the rights of conscience; and at Russian Government for engagements or rights all events tolerate religions different from that either political or religious; it exhibits the of the state. With great professions of religslow, calculating, and, under the circumstanc-ious liberality, and great practical indifference es, irresistible policy of Russia, by which the on the part of the educated classes, this is the national life of a people is crushed out of it; way matters were managed in Russia by the so that if the people cannot be actually made late Emperor :Russian, they shall at least cease to be Ger

school system-because a romance or novel full
of polished Epicurism has been sent to press-
because gallantry and witticism are considered
genius and philosophy-a fond idea is entertain-
ed about the flourishing state of native literature.
It might have been supposed that a work like
Krusenstern's "Travels Round the World"
would have excited a peculiar interest on the
literary horizon of Russia, because it was the
first of the kind published by a Russian. Just
in Russia.
ask, however, how many copies were disposed of

mans, Poles, or any other nation. A princi- Now that compulsory measures are employed pal step in this direction is to destroy a lan- in religious matters, the Greek Church has by guage, and with it of course all that that lan-ukase been introduced as the dominant one, even guage teaches and inspires. The process is, where according to existing treaties, the Luther

* Recollections of Russia during Thirty-three Years' Residence. By a German Nobleman. Revised and Translated, with the Author's sanction, by Lascelles Wraxall. (Constable's Miscellany of Foreign Literature, Volume VIII.) Published by Constable, Edinburgh.

an ought to have remained unassailed. The the Russian ritual. Children of mixed marriag Evangelical churches are also forced to yield to es, as well as illegitimate ones, are the prey of the Greek Church; and the Russians, settling as they do all over the country, increase the number of these marriages and these children. Govern

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