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ANCIENT PRICE OF LABOR.—In the year 1352, 25th Edward III., wages paid to haymakers were 1d. a day. A mower of meadows, 3d. a day, or 5d an acre. Reapers of corn in the first week of August, 2d.; in the second, 3d. a day, and so on till the end of August, without meat, drink, or other allowance, finding their own tools. For threshing a quarter of wheat or rye, 21/2d.; a quarter of barley, beans, peas, and oats 11/2d. A master carpenter, 3d. a day, other carpenters, 2d. A master mason, 4d. a day, other masons, 3d., and their servants, 11/2d. Tilers, 3d., and their "knaves," 11/2d. Thatchers, 3d a day, and their knaves, 11/2. Plasterers, and other workers of mud walls, and their knaves, in like manner, without meat or drink; and this from Easter to Michaelmas; and from that time less, according to the direction of the justices.
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THE "QUARTERLY REVIEW" suggests that "If an additional postage of one penny per letter were to be charged to every person who prefers making the postman, or rather the public, wait until his servant shall think proper to open the door to receive a handful of prepaid letters, which could rapidly be dropped, exactly as they were posted, through a receiving slit into a tortuous receptacle, from which it would be impossible for any but the right person to extract them, the delivery of the correspondence of the country would be perfect."
* * * * * SOME LIBERALS in France have been carrying on a kind of duel by libel, the libel being enforced apparently by its strict truth. Some of M. Thiers's political antagonists, seeking to annoy him, volunteered to circulate in the form of a card the following advertisement for a lady who appears to be related to M. Thiers, and also to carry on an honest avocation:—
"MADAME L. RIPERT, Sister of M. A. THIERS, Ex-President of the Council of Ministers, &c. &c. keeps an excellent table meridionale at 3fr. a-head, wine included. Breakfast at all hours, at 3fr. 25c. 44, Rue Basse-du-Rempart, Paris."
The retaliation was a counter-card:—
"Mdlle. ——, brevetee de la police, et M. ——, liberated convict, the sister and cousin-germain of M. —— a thorough-bred Montagnard, continue to carry on their business, Rue de la Lune. On va en ville."
These attacks are very mean, and paltry, but it is clear that their castigation is beyond the effective handling of the law. Yet society exercises no effective jurisdiction in the matter; it shields offenders against decency and generosity so long as the offense is committed in subserviency to party.
* * * * *
LANGUAGES OF AFRICA.—At a religious meeting in London, the Rev. John Clark, formerly missionary in Jamaica, and afterward in Fernando Po, in Africa, said that at Fernandina there were persons belonging to fifty Different tribes, who understood English so well as to be of help to a translator of the Bible into their respective languages. He thought the Word of God would have to be translated into two hundred languages before all the tribes of Africa will be able to read it in their own tongue. The Mohammedans, who are spread through the length of the continent, have many who can read the Koran in the Arabic characters. If, therefore, the Word of God were translated into their tongues and printed in that character, many, not only of the Hovas and the Arabs of the desert, but also of the Foolahs, Mandingoes, and Housah, who professed Mahommedanism, would be able to read concerning Jesus Christ.
* * * * *
LETTERS FROM MR. RICHARDSON, the African explorer, have been received in London, dated at Mourzouk, June 22d. Mr. R. and his companions were detained six weeks waiting for the promised escort of the Touarick chiefs for Soudan by the way of Ghat. They expect to meet the many caravans coming down from the interior to Ghat. The actual arrival of the chiefs was greatly to the astonishment of the Moors and Turks of Mourzouk, who could never believe that the hardy bandits of the Sahara would obey the summons of a Christian, and escort English travelers through the unexplored regions of Central Africa. The Turks had on previous occasions repeatedly invited the Touaricks to visit the town of Mourzouk, but they never would do so.
* * * * *
THE PEACE CONGRESS of Frankfort closed its session on the 22d of August. However commendable its apparent object, it cannot be concealed that this and the preceding congress of the same kind have been little more than processes for the elevation of insignificant people into a transient notoriety. This year the usual philanthropic resolutions were passed. Victor Hugo, of France, excused himself from attendance on the score of ill-health; but the country was represented by Emile de Girardin. The congress is to meet next year simultaneously with the great World's Exposition at London. The most piquant incidents of the session were the speech of George Copway, a veritable American Indian Chief, and the presence, in one of the visitors' tribunes, of the famous General Haynau, whose victories and cruelties last year, in prosecuting the Hungarian war, were the theme in the congress of much fine eloquence and indignation.
* * * * *
A PROJECT is on foot for opening a spacious Zoological and Botanical Garden in the north part of the island of New York, immediately on the Hudson. A plan of an association for the purpose has been drawn up by Mr. Audubon, a son of the eminent ornithologist—the same who lately made an overland journey to California. His courage and perseverance in that expedition have given the public a sufficient pledge of the energy and constancy of his character, and his scientific knowledge, educated as he has been from his early childhood to be a naturalist, qualifies him as few are qualified, for the superintendence of such an establishment. The spot chosen for the garden is the property of the Audubon family, adjoining the Trinity Cemetery, and contains about twenty acres, which is about a third larger than the London Zoological Gardens.
* * * * *
The London Standard having asserted that "Mr. D'Israeli is not nor ever was a Jew," a correspondent of the Morning Chronicle testifies that the Member from Buckinghamshire was at one time a Jew; at least that "he became a Jew outwardly, according to the customary and prescriptive rites of that ancient persuasion; for a most respectable gentleman (connected with literature) now deceased, has been heard to boast a hundred times that he was present at the entertainment given in honor of the ceremony."
* * * * *
Dr. GROSS, who has lately been appointed to the professorship of surgery in the medical department of the New York University, is a gentleman of very eminent abilities, who has long been conspicuous as a teacher and practitioner at Louisville. He is a native of Berks county in Pennsylvania, is descended from one of the old Dutch families there, and was twelve or fourteen years of age before he knew a word of English. In his specialite he is of the first rank in America.
* * * * *
ANOTHER FESTIVAL IN GERMANY.—Near the close of August, musical and Dramatic ceremonies in inauguration of the statue of Herder took place at Weimar. On the 24th was represented at the theater the "Prometheus Unbound," with overture and choruses by M. Liszt. On the 25th, after the inauguration of the statue, Handel's "Messiah" was performed in the Cathedral, where Herder used to preach, and where he lies buried. On the 28th, was given at the theater the first representation of "Lohengrin," anew opera, by Herr Wagner, with a prologue written for the occasion by Herr Dingelstedt.
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THE WORDSWORTH MONUMENT.—In a former number of this journal we noticed the organization of a very influential committee, for raising subscriptions, in order that suitable monuments might be erected to the memory of the late poet, both in Westminster Abbey and in the locality which was his chosen residence, and so often his chosen theme. We perceive, with more regret than surprise, that the amounts advertised are mean in the extreme. We fear that ten times the sums would have been more readily collected, to do honor to a dancer or a singer.
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REVOLUTIONARY STAMPS.—The Secretary of the New Jersey Historical Society, W. A. Whitehead, Esq., has received through the Hon. W. B. Kinney, Charge d'Affaires to Sardinia, several of the identical stamps that were made for use in the Colonies, and which were the immediate cause of the American Revolution. A box of them was recently found in the Colonial Office in London, where our Minister procured them.
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There are no lineal descendants of Warren Hastings in existence. The estates of Mr. Hastings passed into the sister's family, and are held at present by Sir C. Imhoff, who resides at Daglesford House, near Stow-on-the-Wold. The house has much interest attached to it. The whole furniture of one room is composed of solid ivory.
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IN THE LATE MEETING OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, of Paris, it was announced that the Academy had received from Mr. Pennington of Baltimore, United States of America, a manuscript and a printed prospectus Concerning a project of a steam balloon, upon which he wished the Academy to decide.
* * * * *
The holder of the appointment of Examiner of Plays, in England, enjoys a salary of $2000 per annum, beside a tax upon every play, interlude, farce, or song, licensed for representation upon the stage. This appointment is in the gift of the Lord Chamberlain.
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GEORGE CATLIN, the Indian traveler, is soon to sail to Texas from Liverpool, with a large body of emigrants; they will settle on the lands of the Emigration Colonization Society.
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AGES OF PUBLIC MEN.—The Duke of Wellington is aged 81: Lord Lyndhurst, 78; Lord Dunfermline, 74; Mr. Joseph Hume, 73; Lord Brougham, 72; Lord Heytesbury, 71; Lord Denman, 71; Lord Campbell, 71; Lord Gough, 71; Earl of Haddington, 70; Marquis of Landsdowne, 70; Lord Cottenham, 69; Earl of Ripon, 68; Earl of Minto, 68; Earl of Aberdeen, 66; Viscount Palmerston, 66; Right Hon. H. Goulburn, 66; Viscount Hardinge, 65; Sir Robert Inglis, 64; Sir John Cam Hobhouse, 64; Duke of Sutherland, 64; Sir George Clerk, 63; Duke of Richmond, 59; Mr. Andrew Rutherford, 59; Sir James Graham, 58; Lord John Russell, 58; Right Hon. C. Lefevre, Speaker of the House of Commons, 56; Right Hon. Richard L. Shiel, 56; Sir Frederick Thesiger, 56; Sir Francis Baring, First Lord of the Admiralty, 54; Sir Fitzroy Kelly, 54; Marquis of Normanby, 53; Right Hon. H. Labouchere, 52; Lord Stanley, 51; Sir George Grey, 51; Right Hon. T.B. Macaulay, 51; Earl of Clarendon, 50; Sir Charles Wood, 50; Mr. Fox Maule, 49; Lord Ashley, 49; Mr. J.A. Roebuck, 49; Earl of Carlisle, 48; Marquis of Clanricarde, 48; Earl Grey, 48; Sir John Jervis, 48; Mr. Cobden, 47; Mr. Benjamin D'Israeli, 45; Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 41; Right Hon. Sydney Herbert, 40; Earl of Lincoln, 39; Mr. John Bright, 39; Hon. George A. Smythe, 32; Lord John Manners, 32.
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ANCIENT DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA.—In the popular and unique work, "Notes And Queries," we find the following paragraph, from a correspondent who probably gleaned it from the last years Proceedings of the New-York Historical Society. "In the Voyage Round the World, by Captain George Shelvocke, begun February 1719, he says of California, (Harris's Collection, vol. i., p. 233:)—'The soil about Puerto, Seguro, and very likely in most of the valleys, is a rich black mould, which, as you turn it up fresh to the sun, appears as if intermingled with gold dust, some of which we endeavored to purify and wash from the dirt. But, though we were a little prejudiced against the thoughts that it could be possible that this metal should be so promiscuously and universally mingled with common earth, yet we endeavored to cleanse and wash the earth from some of it; and the more we did the more it appeared like gold. In order to be further satisfied, I brought away some of it, which we lost in our confusion in China.'" How an accident prevented the discovery, more than a century back, of the golden harvest now gathering in California!
* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT OF PERU has issued a decree, appointing the Minister of the Home Department, Don Lucas Fonceas, Don Nicolas Pierola, and Don Nicolas Rodrigo, a commission to select and take charge of articles intended to be sent to England for exhibition next year.
* * * * *
MR. GLIDDON'S MUMMY.—We find in the Boston Transcript a long letter from Mr. Gliddon, telling the whole story, which the latest and complete examinations of papyrus, straps, bandages, &c. have unfolded about his mummy early this summer in Boston. It seems the said mummy was all right, in the right coffin duly embalmed; the body being that of a priest who died about B. C. 900. The Theban undertakers, in this particular case, were honest; and all suspicion of fraud on their part is unnecessary and unfair. Mr. Gliddon made a slight mistake, before the opening of the coffin, in reading the fragments of the inscription; and so got the notion that the contents were a female body. The frank, manly, good-natured, and generous manner in which Mr. G. explains the whole affair and owns his error, should now stop the laugh, and satisfy everybody.
* * * * *
RACHEL is making a lucrative professional tour in Germany. The last accounts leave her in Berlin. She has lately had built in Paris, not far in the rear of the Madelaine, a hotel for her private residence. It is not large, but is a perfect gem of taste, (as the French understand it) and luxury. She receives there a choice circle of gentlemen of all professions. The ladies who frequent her salons are rarer, if not more select. Of course none but ladies of the same profession, or of equivocal reputation, would enjoy the elegant hospitality of the illustrious tragedienne.
* * * * *
INDIA RUBBER is now so cheap and common, that the following reference to it in the "New Monthly Review" for February, 1772, sent to "Notes and Queries" by a correspondent, may cause a smile: "I have seen," says Dr. Priestly, "a substance, excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from paper the marks of a black lead pencil. It must, therefore, be of singular use to those who practice drawing. It is sold by Mr. Nairne, mathematical instrument-maker, opposite the Royal Exchange. He sells a cubical piece, of about half an inch, for three shillings; and, he says, it will last several years."
* * * * *
CONVENIENT UMBRELLA.-A gentleman residing at Taunton has constructed an umbrella on a novel principle, the main feature of which is that it can be carried in the pocket with ease. He intends sending it to the great Exhibition of next year.
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THE CORRESPONDENT OF THE DAILY NEWS at Constantinople; writing on the 25th ult., says: "Yesterday, the 15th of Ramazan, witnessed a famous ceremony, which consists in adoring the shirt of the prophet, preserved in an apartment of the old Seraglio at Topkapon (Cannon-gate). The Sultan, ministers, and high dignitaries, were admitted to kiss this sacred relic, which will remain exposed during some days for the veneration of the faithful."
* * * * *
THE CONTINUED EMIGRATION OF THE IRISH is one of the most remarkable points of contemporary history. Subsequent to, or in consequence of, the great failure of the potato crop in 1846—that calamity which revolutionized Ireland—not less than a million of people must have left its shores to try their fortunes this side the Atlantic. Between emigration and the ravages of famine and pestilence, we may calculate that the population of Ireland has diminished by at least a million and a half or two millions since the autumn of 1846. How long the emigration will continue, it is, of course, impossible to predict, as every new settler in America who prospers, is the agent by which a fresh demand is made upon the old country. It is one of the best features in the Irish character, that, in the new land to which they flock, they do not forget the friends or relatives that they have left behind them, and that every packet carries money from America for the relief of people in Ireland, or to pay their passage out to the forests or prairies of a world where there is elbow-room for all, and where a willing heart and a stout pair of hands are the surest passports to independence and a competency.
* * * * *
DWARKANTH TAGORE was a marvelously intelligent man, greatly in advance of his countrymen—a man who could discern the value of European civilization, and who devoted his energies and his means to the duty of grafting them on Hindu society. His riches were, like all merchants', in supposition. He had argosies, and lands, and merchandise; but what with land rats and water rats, and mortgages, glutted markets, and competitions of all kinds, that which had an untellable value to-day, was at a discount to-morrow. His influence in the southern provinces of India maintained the credit of his house while he lived; he died bequeathing no atom of his commanding spirit and exquisite tact, and the house which he had created, together with the Bank he had sustained, fell in the general commercial wreck which afflicted all Calcutta three years ago. Thus much of admirable Dwarkanth Tagore.
* * * * *
MADAME BOULANGER—the Mrs. Glover of the Paris Opera Comique, has a Conspicuous place in the recent foreign obituaries. The French, in their musical comedies, cherish dramatis personae of a maturity not known on any other musical stage, save among the background figures. "So often as we think of the good lady in question, with hardly a note of voice left, but overflowing with quaint humor, and willingly turning her years and ill looks to the utmost account, with a readiness to be absurd, if the part needed, which even a Lablache could not outdo,—so often as we recollect her Madame Barnek, in 'L'Ambassadrice,' and her La Bocchetta in 'Polichinelle, some of our most comic operatic impressions will be revived. Madame Boulanger was buried in the church of Notre Dame."
* * * * *
TRAVELING, in France, like everything else there, has been reduced to science, or rather to art. Companies are now formed at Paris which convey passengers to London and back at an expense of only thirty francs—about six dollars. They will pay all your expenses for this sum, and give you four days in London to see all the lions. It took more time and more money a few years ago to journey from Paris to Rouen, which is only a few miles off. These pleasure trains, as they are called, quit Paris on Saturday, cross the channel in a good steamer on Sunday, reaching London in the afternoon, give the voyagers Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the city, leaving in time to get back to Paris by Friday night.
* * * * *
FOUR courses of lectures will be delivered the coming season before the Lowell Institute, Boston. One is to be on Political Economy, by Prof. Bowen, of Cambridge; another course on Natural Religion, by Rev. Dr. Blagden, of Boston; another by Prof. Agassiz, subject not known; and the fourth, on the Comparative Physical Geography of the United States, and the race that will shortly inhabit these States, by Prof. Guyot.
* * * * *
The Gazette des Tribunaux announces that M. Libri has ceased to be a member of the Legion of Honor, in virtue of the sentence of the Assize Court of Paris, pronounced on the demand of the Grand Chancellor of the order. Since his flight to England, some two years and a half since, he has married there. Madame Libri is now in Paris, attempting to recover possession of the furniture, and other personal effects, which M. Libri was compelled to leave behind him in his flight.
* * * * *
The Opinion Publique has the following:—"Is it known who at this moment inhabits the small house at Brompton, occupied some few months since by M. Guizof? It is M. Ledru-Rollin. Thus, M. Ledru-Rollin, an exile, succeeds at Brompton in his house of exile, M. Guizot, whom he succeeded at Paris in the Government."
* * * * *
The Committee of the Associate Institution for Improving and Enforcing the Laws for the Protection of Women, intends to offer a prize of 100 guineas for the best Essay on the Laws for the Protection of Women.
* * * * *
DR. T. SOUTHWOOD SMITH, who was the medical member of the General Board of Health during the period of the Orders in Council, has been appointed the second member of the Board provided by the English Metropolitan Interment Act.
* * * * *
The Gazette of Rome, of the 9th, contains the nomination of the Abbe Talbot, son of Lord Talbot of Malahide, and lately priest of St. George's, Westminster-bridge-road, to the office of camereire secreto.
* * * * *
The arrival of JENNY LIND is the most memorable event thus far in our musical history. The note of preparation had been sounding for half a year; her name, through all the country, had become a household word; and every incident in her life, and every judgment of her capacities, had been made familiar, by the admirable tactician who had hazarded so much of his fortune in her engagement. The general interest was increased by the accounts in the chief foreign journals of her triumphal progress through England, and when at length she reached New-York, her reception resembled the ovations that are offered to heroes. Her first concert was given at the Castle Amphitheater, on the 11th September, to the largest audience ever assembled for any such occasion in America. There was an apprehension among the more judicious that the performances would fall below the common expectations; but the most sanguine were surprised by the completeness of her triumph. She surpassed all that they had ever heard, or dreamed, or imagined. It was, as the Christian Inquirer happily observes, as if all the birds of Eden had melted their voices into one, to rise in gushing song upon the streaming light to salute the sun. Her later concerts have increased rather than diminished the enthusiasm produced by her first appearance. Mlle. Lind is accompanied by M. Benedict, the well known composer, and by Signer Belletti, whose voice is the finest baritone probably ever heard in New York, and whose style is described by the Albion as "near perfection." The orchestral arrangements for her concerts have never been surpassed here. Many were deterred from being present at her first appearance by a fear of crowds and tumults, but so perfect were Mr. Barnum's appointments that all the vast assemblies at the Castle have been as orderly as the most quiet evening parties in private houses.
The personal interest in Mlle. Lind is almost as great as the interest in the singer. Her charities in New York have already reached more than $15,000. and it is understood that all the profits of her engagement in America, not thus dispensed here, are appropriated by her for the establishment of free schools in Sweden.
Mlle. Lind has given to the Fire Department Fund, $3,000; Musical Fund Society, $2,000; Home for the Friendless, Society for the Relief of Indigent Females, Dramatic Fund Association, Home for Colored and Aged Persons, Colored and Orphan Association, Lying-in Asylum for Destitute Females, New York Orphan Asylum, Protestant Half-Orphan Asylum, Roman Catholic Half-Orphan Asylum, and Old Ladies Asylum, each $500. Total, $10,000. The lives of Mr. Barnum, Jenny Lind, M. Benedict, and Signor Belletti, with all the details of the concerts, have been issued in a pamphlet displaying the usual tyographical richness and elegance of Van Norden & Leslie, Fulton-street.
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