By a decree of the President dated the 2d December, the French people were convoked in their respective districts for the 14th of the month to accept or reject the following plebiscite: "The French people wills the maintenance of the authority of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, and delegates to him the powers necessary to frame a Constitution on the bases proposed in his proclamation of the 2d December." On that day the voting consequently commenced by universal suffrage; and the President has been re-elected for ten years by a majority greatly exceeding that of his contest with Cavaignac. In Paris, of 394,049 registered voters 197,091 have voted in the affirmative; 95,511, in the negative; and 96,819 abstained from voting. The majority for Louis Napoleon being 191,500. In the provinces he has had a majority of eight to one. The inauguration of the usurper took place in the church of Notre Dame on the 3d of January, and the new order of things has been recognized by all the courts of Europe.

On the 25th of November a French squadron appeared before Salee, to claim satisfaction for an act of piracy committed by the inhabitants of that town. The Caid asked for six days to take the orders of the Emperor of Morocco; and the Caid of Rabat sent a similar evasive reply. The next day the French bombarded the place for seven hours, the fire being returned by both forts of Rabat and Salee. The Admiral, however, confined his chastisement to the latter, which he thoroughly performed, and fired the town in several places. The French fleet arrived at Tangier on the morning of the 29th, when the Consul-General for Morocco and several officers of the squadron landed, and had an interview with the Bashaw of the province, which ended in a satisfactory arrangement, to the great relief of the people of Tangier, who were in consternation at the prospect of sharing the fate of their neighbors.

From Austria we learn the partial amelioration in private business of the financial difficulties. The Emperor published, on the 1st of January, decrees, that whereas the provisions of the constitution were cancelled by the imperial edict of August 20, 1851, the last principles of political right conceded by the constitution are now disavowed. There now exists no political right in the empire. The Austrian government continues to watch with the keenest anxiety the proceedings of the exiled Italians and Hungarians, and by very stringent arrangements in regard to the press, and the interdiction of most foreign journals, keeps the "dangerous classes" in ignorance of the sympathy with which they are regarded from abroad.

The Queen of Spain, by a spontaneous act of her royal clemency, granted a pardon to all such prisoners, made in the last expedition against the Isle of Cuba, as are citizens of the United States, whether they be already in Spain, undergoing the punishments they have incurred, or whether they be still in Cuba. The queen on the 20th of December gave birth to a princess, who is heir to the throne.

From China there are reports that the Emperor has been compelled to resign in favor of the revolutionary general, whose triumphant march through many revolted provinces has, from time to time, been noticed in the last half year. The statement, however, does not appear to be credited by some of the best informed London journals.

The Queen of Madagascar is bent on exterminating Christianity in her dominions, and has long mercilessly persecuted those who prefer the "new religion." In the last outburst of this protracted persecution, four persons were burnt alive; fourteen precipitated from a high rock and crushed to death; a hundred and seventeen persons condemned to work in chains as long as they live; twenty persons cruelly flogged with rods, besides 1,748 other persons mulcted in heavy penalties, reduced into slavery, and compelled to buy themselves back, or deprived of their wives and families. Persons of rank have been degraded, and sent as forced laborers to carry stone for twelve months together to build houses; and, in an endless variety of other ways have the maddened passions of one wicked woman been permitted now for years past to plunge a great country in ruin.

There has been a serious Mussulman riot at Bombay, occasioned by the Parsee editor of an illustrated newspaper, in each number of which is given a life and portrait of some remarkable historical character, having published—in the series (next to one of Benjamin Franklin)—a life and portrait of Mahomet. Both are said to have been unexceptionable according to European ideas, but the whole Mussulman population (145,000 in number) considered their faith insulted and outraged by the publication, holding it sacrilege and idolatry to imagine and print any likeness whatever of so sacred a personage.

The Wahabees, who inhabit the interior and highland portion of Arabia, have pillaged the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, destroying the mosques, sacking the cities, and carrying off numbers of women and children into the desert. It is supposed to be in revenge for the punishment inflicted on them thirty years ago, when they had conquered the same cities.

The Turkish government has introduced the culture of cotton in the vicinity of Damascus, with seed procured from the United States. It is successful.



SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES AND PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

In London, among the scientific questions of a practical kind much discussed, is that of a patent process for contracting the fibres of calico, and of obtaining on calico thus prepared colors of much brilliancy. It is regarded by chemists as likely to lead to valuable results. In the British Association, it was described as the discovery that a solution of cold but caustic soda acts peculiarly on cotton fibre, immediately causing it to contract; and although the soda can be readily washed out, yet the fibre has undergone a change. Thus, taking a coarse cotton fabric, and acting upon it by the proper solution of caustic soda, this could be made much finer in appearance; and if the finest calico made in England—known as one hundred and eighty picks to the web—be thus acted on, it immediately appears as fine as two hundred and sixty picks. Stockings of open weaving assume a much finer texture by the condensation process; but the effect of the alteration is most strikingly shown by colors: the tint of pink cotton velvet becomes deepened to an intense degree; and printed calicoes, especially with colors hitherto applied with little satisfaction—such as lilac—come out with strength and brilliancy, besides producing fabrics finer than could be possibly woven by hand. The strength, too, is increased by this process; for a string of calico which breaks with a weight of thirteen ounces when not soaked, will bear twenty ounces when half condensed by the caustic soda.



At a recent meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences, M. YVART read an important practical Memoir on the production of Wool, in the Merino race. He teaches that the only means of obtaining fine wool—taking into account the weight of the sheep's body,—is the employment of races of small size. When the skin is very delicate, it secretes less of wool than when it is otherwise;—the fineness of the wool is proportioned to that of the skin. Those countries in which the winter is long or cold, or where the sheep remains in the fold the greater part of the year, and does not lie on ploughed lands, are especially suited to the production of the finest and most elastic wools, those chiefly sought after for manufacture of cloth.



Experiments on the application of electro-magnetism as a motive power, have been made with some striking results in Paris, as well as in this country. M. Dumont, in a paper on the subject submitted to the Female Academy, states, "that if in the production of great power the electro-magnetic force is inferior to that of steam, it becomes equal to it, and perhaps superior in the production of small power, which may be subdivided, varied, and introduced into employments or trades requiring but little capital, and where the absolute value of the mechanical power is less essential than the facility of producing instantaneously and at pleasure the power itself. In this point of view electro-magnetic power comes to complete, not to supersede, that of steam."



In the papers of the celebrated Lalande, recently presented to the Paris Academy of Sciences, by M. Arago, there is a note to the effect that so far back as the 25th of October, 1800, he and Burckhardt were of opinion, from calculations, that there must be a planet beyond Uranus, and they occupied themselves for some time in trying to discover its precise position. This is a very curious fact for astronomers.



RECENT DEATHS.

JOEL R. POINSETT, LL.D., long distinguished in society and in affairs, died at his residence in Statesburg, South Carolina, on the 12th of December. The first American ancestor of Mr. Poinsett came to this country from Soubisi, near Rochelle, in France, soon after the revocation of the edict of Nantz. His father was a physician, and served in the Revolution under Count Pulaski. He himself was born at Charleston on the second of March, 1779, and, after having passed some time at the school of the Rev. Timothy Dwight (afterward President of Yale College), at Greenfield, Connecticut, he was sent, at the close of the Revolution, to England, to complete his studies, and for the advantages of foreign travel. Returning in 1800, when he was twenty-one years of age, he commenced the study of law in the office of Mr. Desaussure, afterwards Chancellor of South Carolina, Before his admission to the bar, he again embarked for Europe, extending his travels to Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, and the northern countries of the continent. At St. Petersburg he became acquainted with the Emperor Alexander, soon after his accession, and was received by him with marked partiality, and often questioned respecting the peculiar institutions of this country. On one occasion, after he had been expatiating at large on the advantages of America, the Czar exclaimed, "Were I not an emperor, I would be a republican." Declining the offer of a place in the service of the Emperor, he commenced a tour into the East, travelling through Persia and Armenia, and, returning to Europe, resided for some time in its principal capitals. On the breaking out of difficulties between the United States and Great Britain, in 1808, he returned to his own country, and applied to Mr. Madison for a commission in the army. Owing to some objections by the Secretary of War, he did not obtain the commission, but was sent by the President to South America, to ascertain the result of the revolutions which had recently occurred in that quarter. While in Chili, he heard of the declaration of war between England and America. Embarking in the frigate Essex, to return to this country, with a view to enter the army, he was made a prisoner on the surrender of that vessel to the British by Commodore Porter. The British Commander refused to allow his return home with the rest of the prisoners, regarding him as a dangerous enemy of England, and he therefore determined to cross the continent to the Atlantic. He passed the Andes in the month of April, when they were covered with snow, and, after great difficulties, reached Buenos Ayres. He succeeded, in a Portuguese vessel, in reaching Madeira, where, on his arrival, he learned that a treaty of peace had been concluded. Soon after he reached South Carolina, he was elected to the Legislature of that State, in which he devoted himself chiefly to the establishment of a system of internal improvements. In 1821 he was elected to Congress, from the Charleston District, and was twice re-elected to that body. In 1822, he was sent to Mexico, by President Monroe, to obtain information with regard to the government under Iturbide. He performed this mission with signal success. Foreseeing the speedy downfall of the imperial administration, he gave his advice against all connection with it, on the part of this country. He had scarcely returned home, when Iturbide abdicated the throne. Soon after the election of Mr. Adams, which he had strongly opposed, Mr. Poinsett was again appointed Minister to Mexico, whore he remained until the summer of 1829. His important services in this period are amply detailed in a memoir of his political life, in the first volume of the Democratic Review, and were warmly approved in the first annual message of President Jackson. On returning to the United States, he devoted himself to the pursuits of private life, in South Carolina. When the States Rights controversy broke out, he again engaged in political affairs, and became a prominent advocate of the principles of the Union party, as opposed to Nullification. In 1836, he was nominated by his friends as a candidate for the State Senate, and was elected with but little opposition. On the formation of Mr. Van Buren's cabinet, Mr. Poinsett accepted the office of Secretary of War. On the election of Gen. Harrison he retired to his home in South Carolina, where he devoted himself to those literary pursuits which formed the pleasure of his life; and thence he issued, only two years ago, those stirring appeals against secession, which were among the most powerful influences for the preservation of the endangered peace of the Union at that period. Mr. Poinsett received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Columbia College in this city, and he was a member of many learned societies in this country, and in Europe. Besides his Notes on Mexico, written soon after his last return from that country, he published several addresses, was a large contributor to the Southern Quarterly Review and other periodicals, and furnished some important papers to the Paris Geographical Society, and other learned associations abroad and at home.



MOSES STUART, D.D., of the Theological Seminary at Andover, died at his residence in that town on the 4th of January, in the seventy-second year of his age. He was born in Wilton, Conn., March 16, 1780; was graduated at Yale College in 1799; and was a tutor in that institution from 1802 to 1804. After having studied the profession of the law, he turned his attention to theology, and in 1806 was ordained pastor of the Central Congregational church in New Haven. He was called to the Professorship of Sacred Literature in Andover Theological Seminary in 1810, and continued for nearly forty years to discharge its important duties. Professor Stuart was a man of great natural abilities, honorable principles, and a strong will; for a long period he occupied the first place among cultivators of sacred learning in this country; and though younger men, with larger opportunities, have recently attained to greater eminence, no one in the same field has ever exercised a more important and advantageous influence. His first considerable work was a Hebrew Grammar, published in 1823. It scarcely deserves comparison with the more celebrated performance of Gesenius, of which Professor Stuart himself gave to the public a translation, more than twenty years after the publication of his own work; but for some time after its original appearance it was the best Hebrew Grammar in the English language. In 1825 he was associated with Professor Robinson in the production of a Greek Grammar of the New Testament; in 1827 he published his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews; in 1829 his Hebrew Chrestomathy, and in 1830 his Course of Hebrew Study. His Commentary on the Hebrews, was received as an accession to the body of permanent theological literature. It was spoken of in England as "the most valuable philological aid" that had been published "for the critical study of that important, and in many respects difficult book;" and the late Dr. Pye Smith, one of the first biblical, theological, and classical scholars in Great Britain, stated, that he felt it to be his duty to describe it as "the most important present to the cause of sound biblical interpretation that had ever been made in the English language." In Germany also it secured for Professor Stuart the highest consideration; and it continues in all countries to be regarded as one of the noblest examples of philological theology and exegetical criticism. In 1832 Professor Stuart published another great work of a similar character: his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. It was distinguished for a profoundness of research, for an intensity and minuteness of philological labor, and a singleness of purpose to arrive at the meaning of the apostle, without regard to any preconceived or partisan opinions, which obtained for it a regard as an authority equal to that awarded to its predecessor. In 1845 he published a Commentary on the Apocalypse; a profoundly learned and critical work, in which the interpretation of this difficult book varies much from that which has been most generally received. In the same year he also gave to the church a Critical History and Defence of the Old Testament Canon. His devotion to biblical criticism continued to the close of his life, and we believe, his last use of the pen was in the correction of the concluding sheets of a volume of Commentaries.

In his later years Professor Stuart entered into political controversies, and was particularly distinguished for his defence of the policy of Mr. Webster, in a pamphlet entitled Conscience and the Constitution. He also ventured very injudiciously into the field of classical criticism, in an edition of Cicero, which was sharply reviewed by Professor Kingsley of Yale College; and he lost reputation in his more legitimate sphere by a controversy with Professor Conant, of Madison University, growing out of his translation of the Hebrew Grammar of Gesenius. It is not to be denied that in measuring his strength against that of these accomplished scholars, he was signally unfortunate.

In his personal character he was simple, sincere, enthusiastic, brave, and religious. He was well entitled to the great respect in which he was held by the church. He had been ordained for high services, and he had accomplished them. Every duty of which he was capable was finished, and he could have added nothing to his good reputation if his years had been prolonged.



WILLIAM GRIMSHAW, born in Ireland in 1781, but nearly all his life a resident of this country, where he was for many years well known as a writer, died near Philadelphia on the 8th of January. Besides editing and rewriting a considerable portion of Baine's History of the Wars growing out of the French Revolution, he was the author of Histories of Great Britain, France, and several other countries, which for a long time were very generally used as text-books in schools, and he also wrote The American Chesterfield, The Ladies' Lexicon, and numerous smaller volumes, which were creditable to his abilities. His reading was extensive, and his knowledge of events during his lifetime, particularly in British affairs, was minute and accurate. His mind lost none of its vigor with the approach of age, and in his fine countenance, and imposing figure, there were no appearances of decay. His love of reading continued to the last, and within a year he frequently employed his pen on such subjects as he took an especial interest in.



NICHOLAS GRAN DE DIEU SOULT, Marshal General of France, Duke of Dalmatia, &c., died on the 26th of December, at his chateau of Soult Berg, near the place where he was born. We have given in another part of this magazine an estimate of his character. The Paris Pays furnishes us a brief abstract of his history. He was born at St. Amand (Tarn), March 29, 1769. His father, who was a notary, seeing that he had no taste for his own profession, allowed him to enter the army. The future Marshal of France entered the Royal Regiment of Infantry in 1785, where he was soon remarked by his aptitude for the functions of instructor. He was made non-commissioned officer in 1790, and then passed rapidly through the intermediate grades, until he reached that of Adjutant-General of the Staff, when General Lefebvre attached him to his own service with the grade of Chief of Brigade. In that quality he went through the campaigns of 1794 and 1795 with the army of the Moselle, and owed to his talents, as well as to his republican principles, a rapid promotion. Successively raised to the rank of General of Brigade, and then to that of General of Division, he took part in all the campaigns of Germany until 1799, when he followed Massena into Switzerland, and thence to Genoa, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. Set at liberty after the battle of Marengo, and raised to the command of Piedmont, he returned to France at the peace of Amiens, and was named one of the four Colonels of the Guard of the Consuls. When the Empire was proclaimed, in 1804, he was nominated Marshal of France, and during the campaign which terminated in Austerlitz, held the command of the fourth corps of the grand army. After the conquest of Prussia and the battle of Eylau, Marshal Soult solicited and obtained the command of the second corps of the army of Spain, with which he overran Galicia and the Austrians, and passed into Portugal, where he fought the memorable battle of Oporto. Forced to abandon that city, when delivered up by treason to the English, he effected into Galicia a bold and perilous retreat, which did the greatest honor to his energy and presence of mind. Being named Commander-in-Chief of the army of Spain, he marched to the succor of Madrid, menaced by the Anglo-Spanish army, and his movement was crowned with full success. He continued in this command until March, 1813, when he was appointed in Saxony to the command-in-chief of the Imperial Guard. The disasters of Vittoria decided Napoleon to again confer on Marshal Soult the command of the French troops in Spain. The point then was to defend the menaced frontier of France. Forced to fall back on Toulouse, he there terminated by a brilliant engagement, due to most able strategic arrangements, the fatal campaign of 1814. On the announcement of the event at Paris he signed a suspension of arms, and adhered to the reestablishment of Louis XVIII., who presented him with the Cross of St. Louis, and called him to the command of the 13th military division, and then to the Ministry of War (Dec. 3, 1814). On March 8th, learning the landing from Elba, he published the order of the day which is so well known, and in which Napoleon is treated more than severely. On March 11th he resigned his portfolio as Minister of War, and declared for the Emperor, who, passing over the famous proclamation, raised him to the dignity of Peer of France and Major General of the Army. After Waterloo, where he fought most energetically, the Marshal took refuge at Malzieu (Lozere) with General Brun de Villeret, his former aid-de-camp. Being set down on the list of the proscribed, he withdrew to Dusseldorf on the banks of the Rhine, until 1819, when a Royal ordinance allowed him to return to France. He then went to live with his family at St. Amand, his native place, and on his reiterated representations his marshal's baton, which had been withdrawn from him, was restored. Charles X. treated Marshal Soult with favor, creating him knight of his orders, and afterward making him Peer of France. After the revolution of July, 1830, the declaration of the Chamber of Deputies of August 9th excluded him from that rank, but he was restored to it four days later by a special nomination of Louis Philippe, who soon after appointed him Minister of War. We shall not follow Marshal Soult through the acts of his administrative career. He always showed himself devoted to the constitutive principles of the Government of July. He was twice named President of the Council of King Louis Philippe, who elevated him to the dignity of Marshal General, of which Turenne had been the last possessor. Since the revolution of February, Marshal Soult has lived on his estate, in the midst of his family, and almost forgotten in our present political agitations.



KARL FRIEDERICH RUNGENHAGEN, late Royal Director of Music at Berlin, was born in that city on September 27, 1778. His father was a merchant. In 1801 he became member of the Singing Academy, and studied under Zetter. In 1814 he wrote the songs for a melo-drama, which was not successful. In 1815 he became director of the Singing Academy, with Zetter; most of his religious music was composed after this time. In 1825 he was appointed to the post of Royal Music Director, and in 1833, after Zetter's death, he became sole conductor of the Singing Academy. His influence has been considerable upon the culture of music in Germany. Carl Maria Von Weber was his friend, and Lortzing was one of his pupils. He died at Berlin on the 22d of last December.



The journals of Moscow announce the death of the Armenian Archbishop, MICHAEL SALLANTIAN, the most distinguished writer of Armenia at the present day. He was born at Constantinople in 1782, and educated at the Armenian monastery at Venice. He died at the age of sixty-nine at Moscow, where he had been professor of theology and literature for sixteen years before his elevation to the Archbishopric.



DR. GRAEFE, one of the most eminent veterans of European philology, died suddenly at St Petersburg on November 30th. He was born at Chemnitz, in Saxony, in July, 1780, but went to Russia in 1810, to assume the professorship of Greek at the Academy of St. Petersburg.



The Russian General, Kiel, has died in Paris. He was employed by the Emperor Nicholas in directing works of art in the Russian empire.



HERR MEINHOLD, author of the Amber Witch, died in Germany in December.



J. W. M. TURNER, the greatest of English artists, and the hero of Mr. Ruskin's brilliant book entitled The Modern Painters, died in London on the 20th of December, at the age of 77. He had always a reluctance to have his portrait taken, but the engraving accompanying this article—from a sketch made without his knowledge—is said, by the Illustrated London News to be remarkably like him. It is understood that by his will he has left a million dollars (L200,000) for the purpose of founding an institution for the relief of of decayed artists, and has given it also the chief part of his pictures, to adorn the building which is to be occupied by it. The Times says, "although it would be out of place to revive the discussions occasioned by the peculiarities of Mr. Turner's style in his later years, he has left behind him sufficient proofs of the variety and fertility of his genius to establish an undoubted claim to a prominent rank among the painters of England. His life had been extended to the verge of human existence; for although he was fond of throwing a mystery over his precise age, we believe that he was born in Maiden-lane, Covent-garden, in the year 1775, and was, consequently, in his 76th or 77th year. Of humble origin (he was the son of a barber), he enjoyed the advantages of an accurate rather than a liberal education. His first studies, some of which are still in existence, were in architectural design; and few of those who have been astonished or enchanted by the profusion and caprice of form and color in his mature pictures, would have guessed the minute and scientific precision with which he had cultivated the arts of linear drawing and perspective. His early manhood was spent partly on the coast, where he imbibed his inexhaustible attachment for marine scenery and his acquaintance with the wild and varied aspect of the ocean. Somewhat later he repaired to Oxford, where he contributed for several years the drawing to the University Almanac. But his genius was rapidly breaking through all obstacles, and even the repugnance of public opinion; for before he had completed his 30th year he was on the high road to fame. As early as 1790 he exhibited his first work, a water-colored drawing of the entrance to Lambeth, at the exhibition of the Academy, and in 1793 his first oil painting. In November, 1799, he was elected an associate, and in February, 1802, he attained the rank of a Royal Academician. We shall not here attempt to trace the vast series of his paintings from his earlier productions, such as the "Wreck," in Lord Yarborough's collection, the "Italian Landscape," in the same gallery, the pendant to Lord Ellesmere's "Vanderwelde," or Mr. Munro's "Venus and Adonis," in the Titianesque manner, to the more obscure, original, and, as some think, unapproachable productions of his later years, such as the "Rome," the "Venice," the "Golden Bough," the "Temeraire," and the "Tusculum." But while these great works proceeded rapidly from his palette, his powers of design were no less actively engaged in the exquisite water-colored drawings that have formed the basis of the modern school of "illustration." The "Liber studiorum" had been commenced in 1807, in imitation of Claude's "Liber veritatis," and was etched, if we are not mistaken, by Turner's own hand. The title-page was engraved and altered half-a-dozen times, from his singular and even nervous attention to the most trifling details. But this volume was only the precursor of an immense series of drawings and sketches, embracing the topography of this country in the "River Scenery" and the "Southern Coast"—the scenery of the Alps, of Italy, and great part of Europe—and the ideal creations of our greatest poets, from Milton to Scott and Rogers, all imbued with the brilliancy of a genius which seemed to address itself more peculiarly to the world at large when it adopted the popular form of engraving. These drawings are now widely diffused in England, and form the basis of several important collections, such as those of Petworth, of Mr. Windus, Mr. Fawkes, and Mr. Munro. So great is the value of them that 120 guineas have not unfrequently been paid for a small sketch in water-colors; and a sketch-book, containing chalk-drawings of one of Turner's river tours on the continent, has lately fetched the enormous sum of 600 guineas. The prices of his more finished oil paintings have ranged in the last few years from 700 to 1,200 or 1,400 guineas. All his works may now be said to have acquired triple or quadruple the value originally paid for them. Mr. Turner undoubtedly realized a very large fortune, and great curiosity will be felt to ascertain the posthumous use he has made of it. His personal habits were peculiar, and even penurious, but in all that related to his art he was generous to munificence; and we are not without hope that his last intentions were for the benefit of the nation, and the preservation of his own fame. He was never married, he was not known to have any relations, and his wants were limited to the strictest simplicity. The only ornaments of his house in Queen Anne-street were the pictures by his own hand, which he had constantly refused to part with at any price, among which the "Rise and Fall of Carthage" and the "Crossing the Brook," rank among the choicest specimens of his finest manner.

"Mr. Turner seldom took much part in society, and only displayed in the closest intimacy the shrewdness of his observation and the playfulness of his wit. Every where he kept back much of what was in him, and while the keenest intelligence, mingled with a strong tinge of satire, animated his brisk countenance, it seemed to amuse him to be but half understood. His nearest social ties were those formed in the Royal Academy, of which he was by far the oldest member, and to whose interests he was most warmly attached. He filled at one time the chair of Professor of Perspective, but without conspicuous success, and that science has since been taught in the Academy by means better suited to promote it than a course of lectures. In the composition and execution of his works, Mr. Turner was jealously sensitive of all interference or supervision. He loved to deal in the secrets and mysteries of his art, and many of his peculiar effects are produced by means which it would not be easy to discover or to imitate.

"We hope that the Society of Arts or the British Gallery will take an early opportunity of commemorating the genius of this great artist, and of reminding the public of the prodigious range of his pencil, by forming a general exhibition of his principal works, if, indeed, they are not permanently gathered in a nobler repository. Such an exhibition will serve far better than any observations of ours to demonstrate that it is not by those deviations from established rules which arrest the most superficial criticism that Mr. Turner's fame or merit are to be estimated. For nearly sixty years Mr. Turner contributed largely to the arts of this country. He lived long enough to see his greatest productions rise to uncontested supremacy, however imperfectly they were understood when they first appeared in the earlier years of this century; and, though in his later works and in advanced age, force and precision of execution have not accompanied his vivacity of conception, public opinion has gradually and steadily advanced to a more just appreciation of his power. He is the Shelley of English painting—the poet and the painter both alike veiling their own creations in the dazzling splendor of the imagery with which they are surrounded, mastering every mode of expression, combining scientific labor with an air of negligent profusion, and producing in the end works in which color and language are but the vestments of poetry. Of such minds it may be said in the words of Alastor:

"Nature's most secret steps He, like her shadow, has pursued, where'er The red volcano overcanopies Its fields of snow and pinnacles of ice With burning smoke; or where the starry domes Of diamond and of gold expand above Numberless and immeasurable halls, Frequent with crystal column and clear shrines Of pearl, and thrones radiant with chrysolite. Nor had that scene of ampler majesty Than gems or gold—the varying roof of heaven And the green earth—lost in his heart its claims To love and wonder...."



THE LATE J. W. M. TURNER

BASIL MONTAGU, an eminent philosophical and legal writer, was the illegitimate son of the well-known statesman, John fourth Earl of Sandwich, many years First Lord of the Admiralty, by the unfortunate Miss Margaret Reay, who was assassinated, in 1779, by her affianced lover, the Rev. Mr. Hackman. The tragic affair, which excited immense interest at the time, and which gave rise to various romantic stories, is to be found in most series of judicial investigations, and especially in a collection of celebrated trials recently published. It appears that Margaret Reay was the daughter of a stay-maker in Covent-garden, and served her apprenticeship to a mantuamaker. Having attracted the attention of Lord Sandwich, he treated her from that period until her assassination, with the greatest tenderness and affection. He introduced to her a young ensign of the 68th Regiment, then in command of a recruiting party at Huntingdon, in the neighborhood of the mansion of the Montagues. Mr. Hackman from the first moment was desperately in love with her, and his passion increased with the daily opportunities afforded by invitations he received to Lord Sandwich's table. With the object of continuing his attentions, and the hope of ultimately engaging her affections, he quitted the army, and, taking orders, obtained the living of Wiverton, in Norfolk. That Miss Reay had given him some encouragement, is proved by the tenor of their correspondence; but prudential motives induced her afterwards to refuse the offer of his hand, and to intimate a necessity for discontinuing his visits. Stung by this unexpected termination of his long-cherished expectations, Hackman's mind became unsettled; on the 7th of April, 1779, he was occupied all the morning in reading Blair's Sermons; but in the evening, as he was walking towards the Admiralty, he saw Miss Reay pass in her coach, accompanied by Signora Galli. He followed, and discovered that she alighted at Covent-garden Theatre, where she went to witness Love in a Village. He returned to his lodgings, armed himself with a brace of pistols, went back to the theatre, and when the performance was over, as Miss Reay was stepping into her coach, he took a pistol in each hand, one of which he discharged at her, and killed her on the spot, and the other at himself, but it did not take effect. He then beat his head with the butt of the pistol, to destroy himself, but was, after a struggle, secured and carried before Sir John Fielding, who committed him to Bridewell, and he was shortly after tried at the Old Bailey, before the celebrated Justice Blackstone, found guilty, and hanged at Tyburn on the 19th of the month.

Basil Montagu was born in 1770, and received his education at the Charter House. He was called to the English bar by the Society of Gray's Inn, the 19th of May, 1798, and soon obtained considerable practice as a conveyancer. It was, however, by his legal authorship and reporting that he became particularly distinguished in the profession. His various works and reports on the subject, principally of the Law of Bankruptcy, were of high estimation and lasting utility. In 1801, he produced his Summary of the Law of Set Off, with an Appendix of Cases, argued and determined in the Courts of Law and Equity, in one volume, octavo; in 1804-5, in four volumes, A Digest of the Bankrupt Laws, with a Collection of the Statutes and of the Cases, which reached three editions, and brought him into immediate notice and considerable practice; and, some time afterward, he printed a pamphlet on Bankrupts' Certificates. His fame in this branch of forensic learning procured him the appointment of a Commissioner of Bankruptcy. Mr. Montagu wrote also on philosophical subjects. Among his productions of this tendency were Thoughts of Divines and Philosophers; Selections from Taylor, Hooker, Bishop Hall, and Bacon. He edited an edition of Lord Bacon's works, in seventeen volumes. Another bent which his mind took, placed him by the side of Romilly and Mackintosh in the cause of Humanity. He had in his nature an abhorrence of depriving any living thing of life, and with regard to his own diet he totally abstained from animal food. This led him to bestow his active attention towards putting a stop to capital punishment. In 1809 he published Opinions of Different Authors on the Punishment of Death. The work was so well received, that he added a a second and third volume to it. In 1811, when the important question occupied Parliament, he edited The Debates on a Bill for Abolishing the Punishment of Death for Stealing in a Dwelling House. In 1815 he reprinted a tract originally published in 1801, called Hanging not Punishment enough for Murderers. Mr. Basil Montagu, who had some years ago been made a Queen's counsel, died at Boulogne on the 27th of November, in the eighty-second year of his age.



REAR-ADMIRAL HENRY GAGE MORRIS, entered the navy at the early age of twelve, and served as midshipman throughout the French and American wars. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, April 2, 1793. He was engaged at the capture of the French frigate Sybille, in 1783, and at the attack on Martinique, in 1793. He was promoted to post rank August 12, 1812, and was made rear-admiral in 1847. He died at Beverley, 24th ult. aged eighty-two. Admiral Morris was younger brother of the late Captain Amherst Morris, being second son of Colonel Roger Morris, a member of the Governor's Council at New-York, by Mary, daughter of Frederick Phillipse, of this city. This family of Morris is one of great antiquity, deriving its descent from Elystan Glodrydd, a famed chieftain of Wales in the eleventh century.



MR. SAPIO the once celebrated tenor singer, was born in London, in 1792. In his early life he was page to Queen Caroline, consort of George IV. He made his first appearance on the metropolitan stage at Drury Lane, the 1st December, 1824, as the Seraskier, in the "Siege of Belgrade," and he soon attained and long preserved a high vocal reputation. He died in obscurity, in London, about the end of November.



One of the most distinguished chiefs of the war of Greek independence, General JATRAKO, is just dead at Athens. He was one of the primates of Marna; his family, as his name indicates, have for many generations back been famous for their hereditary medical talents, and the tradition exists among them that a branch of their family formerly passed from Sparta to Italy, translated their name into Medici, and gave rise to the celebrated family of that name.



PRIESSNITZ, the celebrated founder of hydropathy, died at Graefenberg on the 26th of November, at the age of fifty-two. In the morning of that day Priessnitz was up and stirring at an early hour, but complained of the cold, and had wood brought in to make a large fire. His friends had for some time believed him to be suffering from dropsy of the chest, and at their earnest entreaty he consented to take a little medicine, exclaiming all the while, "It's of no use!" He would see no physician, but remained to the last true to his profession. About four o'clock in the afternoon of the 26th he asked to be carried to bed, and upon being laid down he expired! In early life he received serious injury in the chest from an accident, and he used to say himself that his constitution was bad; that nothing but his own mode of life and his own "cure" would have sustained him. It is not known what attempts will be made to carry on the establishment at Graefenberg, which was in full activity at the moment of his death. The most probable conjecture is, that his eldest daughter and her husband (a Hungarian of property) will carry it on, with the aid of some physician who has studied Priessnitz's method. This may succeed to a certain extent, for the place and neighborhood are admirably adapted for taking the water-cure, and the prestige of Priessnitz's name, as well as the tradition of his practice, will long survive him: but the attraction which brought patients, not only from the neighboring cities, but from the remotest parts of the world, is gone. It is not exactly known what amount of property Priessnitz left, but it is supposed to be nearly L100,000. When it is considered how small, compared to that given to other physicians, was the remuneration he received from his patients, and that thirty years ago, Priessnitz was a poor peasant, this fortune gives some measure of his immense success.



GEORGE DUNBAR, the distinguished Professor of Greek Literature in the University of Edinburgh, died on the 6th of December, at his residence in that city. The natural decay attending even an otherwise green old age has been for some years aggravated by a virulent internal malady, which at the commencement of the present season compelled him to relinquish his academic duties. He was born at the village of Caldingham, in Berwickshire, in 1774. In early life he labored as a gardener, but an accidental lameness, which lasted throughout his subsequent life, incapacitated him from active bodily employment. His attention was then devoted to literature. He soon became a scholar, and in truth a ripe and good one. Going to Edinburgh, he readily obtained, on proof of his acquirements, a tutorship in the family of Lord Provost Fettes. Having been shortly after selected as assistant to Professor Dalziel, he was appointed, on that professor's death, to the Greek chair in the Edinburgh University, in 1805. The duties of this responsible position he discharged most zealously and ably. The published works of Professor Dunbar are well known. The Collectanea Minora, the Collectanea Majora, and the Greek Grammar, have all had great reputation. His chief production—massive in every sense—the main object of his life of learned toil, was his Greek Lexicon, which was given to the world with his name in 1840.



MR. HENRY LUTTRELL, one of the ornaments of a society of what may be termed conversational wits, died on the 19th of December, at the advanced age of eighty-six. He was the friend and companion, hand impari passu, of Jeckyll, Mackintosh, Jeffrey, Alvanley, Sydney Smith, and others of that brilliant school, and of which the Misses Berry, Rogers, Moore, and but a few others, are still left. A correspondent of the Times says: "He charmed especially by the playfulness and elegance of his wit, the appropriateness and felicity of illustration, the shrewdness of his remarks, and the epigrammatic point of his conversation. Liveliness of fancy was tempered in him with good breeding and great kindness of disposition; and one of the wittiest men of his day, he could amuse and delight by the keenness of playful yet pungent sallies, without wounding the feelings of any one by the indulgence of bitterness and ill-nature."



English journals notice with expressions of regret the death in Philadelphia of R. C. TAYLOR, on the 26th of October, aged sixty-two. Mr. Taylor emigrated in the year 1830, being previously well known as a Fellow both of the Antiquarian and of the Geological Societies. He had published a work of great care and research while resident in his native county, Norfolk, Index Monasticus for East Anglia; and had made some useful explorations into the fossil remains on the coast of Norfolk. In America he wrote for various philosophical societies, and published, in 1848, his work on the Statistics of Coal, by which alone he was much known to the public of this country.



The Royal University of Berlin has lost by death since Christmas, MM. Lachmann, Stuhr, Jacobi, Erman, and Dr. CHARLES THEODORE FRANZ, who died at Breslaw early in January, at the untimely age of forty-five. For eleven years Dr. Franz occupied the chair of Classical Philology in the University of Berlin. He is the author of a variety of works: in the first rank of which stand his Criticisms on the Greek Tragic Poets, and his several collections of Greek and Latin inscriptions before unpublished. The London Morning Chronicle remarks that the continent never before lost so many great scholars in one year as in 1851.



WILLIAM JACOB, F.R.S., a profound writer on science and agriculture, was born in 1762. His work, An Inquiry into the Precious Metals, has been held in high estimation. His other principal productions were Considerations on the Price of Corn; Tracts on Corn-Laws; and a View of Agriculture in Germany. Mr. Jacob, who was formerly Comptroller of Corn Returns in the Board of Trade, died on the 17th of December, at his residence in London, aged eighty-eight.



MR. PAUL BARRAS, died in Paris from wounds received in the contests between the people and the military, on the second day of the usurpation of Louis Napoleon. M. Barras resided in New-York about twenty years, and was engaged here as a teacher of his native language, and as a correspondent of one of the Parisian journals. He was an amiable man, of considerable talents, and enthusiastic in his attachment to Republicanism. He wrote several articles on American subjects in the Revue de Paris.



LADIES' FASHIONS FOR FEBRUARY.



In matters of fashion there have been very few changes since our last publication. We are in the midst of the gay season, but its modes, until disturbed by the approach of spring, were fixed before the holidays, and for the most part have already been reported. The Paris journals, we may remark, however, dwell much on the unusual ascendency of black, in furs, velvets, cloths, and other heavy stuffs, for walking and carriage dresses, and on the greater demand than in recent winters for every species of embroidery.

In the first of the above figures, representing a promenade costume, we have a high dress of rich silk; the skirt has plaided tucks woven in the material; it is long, and very full. Manteau of velvet, very richly embroidered; a broad black lace is set on round the shoulders in the style of a cape, and the cloak is embroidered above it. Capote of white silk, of a very elegant form, with deep bavolet or curtain; a droop of small feathers on the left side.

The second figure, or visiting costume, of heavy silk, with four flounces, and corresponding waistcoat. The waistcoat now takes the first place in a lady's toilette, and may be considered a triumph of luxury and elegance, reviving every description of embroidery, and forcing the jewellers to be constantly bringing out some novelty in buttons, &c. It is made very simple or very richly ornamented: for instance, those of the most simple description are made either of black velvet, embroidered with braid, and fastened with black jet buttons, or of cachemire; and a pretty style, of straw color, embroidered in the same colored silk, and closed with fancy silk bell buttons, whilst a few may be seen in white, quilted and embroidered with oak leaves and rose-buds. The rich style of waistcoat being covered with embroideries, and being closed up the front with buttons of brilliants. As a general rule, the waistcoat is made high up the throat, round which is a fall of lace, or opens en coeur, having a fichu a plastron of embroidery, worn under. The waistcoat has also two pockets.



FOOTNOTES

1 The large outer porch of Cowley's house had chambers above it and beneath the window in front a tablet was affixed, upon which was inscribed the epitaph "upon the living author" which Cowley had written for himself, whilst living in retirement here, commencing

"Hic, O Viator, sub lare parvulo, Couleius hic est conditus hic jacet."

It is represented in its original condition in the two views we have engraved.

2 Some additional rooms have been added to the house by the same occupant, who has, however, religiously preserved all the old rooms, which still exhibit the "fittings" that existed in Cowley's time. The bed-chambers are wainscotted with oaken panels. The staircase is a very solid structure, with ornamental balusters, leading toward the small study in which the poet wrote,—a little back room, about five feet wide, looking upon the garden. It may be distinguished in our back view of the house, by a figure placed at the window. Cowley ended his life in this house at the early age of forty-nine.

3 Brayley, in his History of Surrey, states that Cowley accompanied by his friend Dean Spratt, having been to see a "friend," did not set out for his walk home until it was too late, and had drunk so deep, that they both lay out in the fields all night; this gave Cowley the fever that carried him off. Brayley's authority for this slander (which is not borne out by the poet's previous course of life), is "Spence's Anecdotes."

4 Life and Letters of Joseph Story, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Dane professor of law at Harvard University. Edited by his son, William W. Story. Two vols. Boston: Little & Brown, 1851.

5 As an example of the gravity and formality with which proceedings in matters of this nature were conducted, even as late as the end of the sixteenth century, take the subjoined palinode or recantation of a Flemish ecclesiastic, who had been guilty of the offence of doubting the evection, or bodily transport through the air, of witches and wizards. The original may be found in Delrio, at the end of the Appendix, in his 5th book:—

"I Cornelius Loseus Gallidius, born in the town of Gouda, in Holland, now, by the command of the renowned and illustrious Lord Nuncio Apostolic, the Lord Octavius Bishop of Tricaruis, arrested and detained in the Imperial Monastery of St. Maximin, near Treves, on account of certain tracts 'On True and False Witchcraft,' rashly and presumptuously by me written, published, and sent to be printed at Cologne, without the perusal or permission of the superiors of this place: whereas I am informed for certain that in the aforesaid books, and also in certain of letters on the same subject, sent clandestinely to the clergy and senate of Treves, and others, for the purpose of impeding the course of justice against witches and magicians, there are contained many articles which are not only erroneous and scandalous, but also suspected of heresy, and savoring of sedition: I therefore hereby revoke, condemn, reject, and repudiate, as if they had never been said or asserted by me, the said articles, as seditious and temerarious, contrary to the common judgment of learned theologians, to the decision and bulls of the supreme Pontiffs, and to the practice, and statutes, and laws of the magistrates and judges, as well as of this Archdiocese of Treves, as of the other provinces and principalities, in the order in which the same are hereunto annexed.

"1. Imprimis. I revoke, condemn, reject, and hold as disproved, what both in words and writing I have often and to many persons pertinaciously asserted; and what I would have had taken as the head and chief ornament of my disputations, to wit, that what is written touching the corporeal evection or translation from place to place of witches and magicians, is to be held as a vain superstition and figment, as well because that opinion savors of heretical pravity, as because it partakes of sedition, and so also savors of the crimes of lese majeste. 2. In the second place, I revoke what I have pertinaciously, but without solid reasons, alleged against the magistracy, in letters secretly sent to several, that is to say, that the course of procedure against witches is erroneous and fantastical: asserting, moreover, that those witches were compelled by the severity of torture to confess acts that they had never done; that innocent blood was shed by a cruel judicature; and that by a new alchemy gold and silver were extracted from human blood. 3. Thereby, and by the like assertions, partly diffused by private oral communications among the vulgar, partly by various letters addressed to both branches of the magistracy, imputing to superiors and judges the exercise of tyranny towards the subjects. 4 And consequently, inasmuch as the most reverend and illustrious Archbishop and Prince Elector of Treves not only permits witches and magicians to be subjected to deserved punishment in his diocese, but has also ordained laws regulating the mode and cost of the procedure against witches, thereby with inconsiderate temerity tacitly insinuating the charge of tyranny against the said Elector of Treves. 5. Item. I revoke and condemn these following conclusions, to wit, that there are no such beings as sorcerers, who renounce God and worship the Devil, who bring on tempests, and do the work of Satan and such like, but that all these things are dreams. 6. Moreover that magic is not to be called sorcery, nor its practisers to be deemed sorcerers, and that that that place of Exod. xxii, ('Ye shall not suffer sorcerers to live') is to be understood of those who slay with material poison, naturally administered. 7. That no contract exists or can exist between man and the demon. 8. That demons do not assume bodies. 9. That the life of Hilary, written by St. Jerome, is not authentic. 10. That the demon cannot carnally know mankind. 11. That neither demons nor witches can excite tempests, rain, hail, &c., and that what is alleged in that behalf is mere dreams. 12. That spirits and forms can be seen by mankind separate from matter. 13. That it is rash to assert that whatever demons can do magicians can also by the help of demons. 14. That the assertion that the superior demon can expel the inferior is erroneous and derogatory to Christ.—Luke xi. 15. That the Popes in the bulls do not allege that magicians and sorcerers perpetrate such acts as above mentioned.

"All these and the like, my assertions, with my many calumnies, falsehoods, and sycophancies, petulantly, indecorously, and mendaciously expressed against the magistracy, as well secular as ecclesiastical, wherewith my writings on witchcraft abound, I hereby expressly and deliberately condemn, recant, and reject, earnestly beseeching pardon of God and my superiors, and faithfully promising that henceforth I will not, either by word of mouth or by writing, by myself or others, in any place where I shall happen to be, teach, promulgate, or assert the same or any of them. If I shall do to the contrary, I subject myself thenceforth and henceforth to the pains of the law against relapsed heretics, recusants, seditious misdemeanants, and convicts of lese majeste, to the pains of libellous sycophants publicly convicted, and also to those enacted against perjurers. I submit myself also to arbitrary correction at the pleasure of the Archbishop of Treves, and of the other magistrates under whom I shall happen to live, and who may be certified of my relapse or violated undertaking, that they may punish me according to my deserts, in name, fame, goods, and body. In testimony of all which I have, with my proper hand, subscribed this my recantation of the aforesaid articles, in presence of the notary and witnesses."

"(Signed,) Cornelius Loseus Gallidius."

"Attestation.—These presents were done in the Imperial Monastery of Saint Maximin Without, near Treves, in the abbatial chamber, there being then present the Venerable and Excellent Lord Peter Binsfeldt, Bishop of Azof, Vicar-General of the Most Reverend Lord Archbishop of Treves, our Most Gracious Lord in matters spiritual; Reiner, Abbot of the said monastery; Bartholomew Bodegem, Reader of either Law in the Ecclesiastical Court of Treves; George Helffenster, Doctor of Sacred Theology, Dean of the Collegiate Church of St. Simon, in the city of Treves; and John Golmann, Doctor of Laws, Canon of the said Church, and Seal-Bearer of the Court of Treves, &c.; in the year of our Lord 1592, Treves style, on Monday, the 15th day of the month of March, in presence of me, the Notary underwritten, and of Nicholas Dolent, and Daniel Major, the Amanuensis and Secretary respectively of the Reverend Lord Abbot, trustworthy witnesses specially called and required hereto.

"Subscribed, Adam Tecton, Notary.

"Compared with the original and found to agree, by me, the under-written Secretary of the town of Antwerp.

S. Kieffel."

6 Lockhart's Spanish Ballads.

7 Continued from page 109.

8 We are indebted to Dr. Francis for a revised copy, with additions, of his very interesting address here printed, which was delivered at the Printers' Banquet in New-York on the 16th of January.

THE END