THE

INTERNATIONAL

MONTHLY

MAGAZINE

Of Literature, Science, and Art.

VOLUME III.

APRIL TO JULY, 1851.

NEW-YORK:

STRINGER & TOWNSEND, 222 BROADWAY.

FOR SALE BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

BY THE NUMBER, 25 Cts.; THE VOLUME, $1; THE YEAR, $3.

Transcriber's note: Contents for entire volume 3 in this text. However this text contains only issue Vol. 3, No. 1. Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved to the end of the article.



PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME.

The INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE has now been published one year, with a constantly increasing sale, and, it is believed, with a constantly increasing good reputation. The publishers are satisfied with its success, and will apply all the means at their disposal to increase its value and preserve its position. They have recently made such arrangements in London as will insure to the editor the use of advance sheets of the most important new English publications, and besides all the leading miscellanies of literature printed on the continent, have engaged eminent persons as correspondents, in Paris, Berlin, and other cities, so that The International will more fully than hitherto reflect the literary movement of the world.

In wit and humor and romance, the most legitimate and necessary components of the popular magazine, as great a variety will be furnished as can be gleaned from the best contemporary foreign publications, and at the same time several conspicuous writers will contribute original papers. In the last year The International has been enriched with new articles by Mr. G. P. R. James, Henry Austen Layard, LL.D., Bishop Spencer, Mr. Bayard Taylor, Mr. R. H. Stoddard, Mr. Parke Godwin, Mr. John R. Thompson, Mr. Alfred B. Street, Mr. W. C. Richards, Dr. Starbuck Mayo, Mr. John E. Warren, Mr. George Ripley, Mr. A. O. Hall, Mr. Richard B. Kimball, Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, Mrs. Mary E. Hewitt, Miss Alice Carey, Miss Cooper (the author of "Rural Hours"), and many others, constituting a list hardly less distinguished than the most celebrated magazines in the language have boasted in their best days; this list of contributors will be worthily enlarged hereafter, and the Historical Review, the Record of Scientific Discovery, the monthly Biographical Notices of eminent Persons deceased, will be continued, with a degree of care that will render The International of the highest value as a repository of contemporary facts.

When it is considered that periodical literature now absorbs the best compositions of the great lights of learning and literary art throughout the world,—that Bulwer, Dickens, James, Thackeray, Macaulay, Talfourd, Tennyson, Browning, and persons of corresponding rank in France, Germany, and other countries, address the public through reviews, magazines, and newspapers—the value of such an "abstract and brief chronicle" as it is endeavored to present in The International, to every one who would maintain a reputation for intelligence, or who is capable of intellectual enjoyment, will readily be admitted. It is trusted that while these pages will commend themselves to the best judgments, they will gratify the general tastes, and that they will in no instance contain a thought or suggest a feeling inconsistent with the highest refinement and virtue.

NEW-YORK, July 1, 1851.



CONTENTS:

VOLUME III. APRIL TO JULY, 1850-51.

Alfieri, History and Genius of 229

American female Poets, Opinions of, by a Frenchman, 452

Anspach, Margravine of 303

American Missions in Ceylon and Sir E. Tennant, 308

American Saint, An, 163

Adventures and Observations in Nicaragua. (Illustrated.) 437

Arts, The Fine—Public Works by the King of Prussia, 136.—Herr Hiltensperger, 135.—Picture by Leonardo Da Vinci, 136.—Art-Union of Vienna, 136.—Another Picture by Raffaelle Discovered, 136.—Steinhauser's Group for Philadelphia, 136.—The Hillotype, 136.—Baron Hackett, 137.—Statue of Giovanni de Medici, 137.—Lectures before the New-York Artists, 137.—Belgian Exhibition, 137.—Brady's Gallery of Illustrious Americans, 137.—Portrait of Cervantes, 137.—Portraits by Mr. Osgood, 137.—Discoveries at Prague, 137.—Exhibition of the British Institution, 137.—Lortzing, 137.—Statue of Wallace, 137.—Engravings of the Art-Unions, 180.—Exhibition of the National Academy, 181.—Bulletin of the Art-Union, 181.—Girodet, 181.—Kotzbue, 181.—Mr. Elliott, 181.—Schwanthaler, 181.—Museum of Berlin, 181.—Munich Art-Union, 181.—Kaulbach, 181—French Contribution to the Washington Monument, 181—Widnmann, 181.—The Exhibitions in New-York, 327.—Prizes and Prospects of the Art-Union, 329.—Delaroche, 329.—Mr. Kellogg, 329.—L'Imitation de Jesus Christ, by Depaepes, 330.—New Members of the National Academy, 330.—Sculptures Discovered at Athens, 470.—New Works by Nicholas, 471.—German Criticism of Powers, 471.—Diorama of Hindostan, 471.—Unveiling the Statue of Frederick the Great, 471.—Jenny Lind, 471.—The Opera, 471.

Authors and Books.—The Russian Archives, 26.—Humboldt on the State, 26.—Russian Geographical Society, 26.—Recollections of Paris, by Hertz, 26.—The latest German Novels, 27.—Schaeffner's History of French Law, 27.—Fate of Bonpland, the Traveller, 27.—Russian Account of the War in Hungary, 28.—Buelau's Secret History of Mysterious Individuals, 28.—Italy's Future, by Dr. Koelle, 28.—German Translation of Channing, 28.—Essays by M, Flourens, 28.—Jacques Arago, 28.—New Book on Napoleon, by Colonel Hoepfner, 28.—Vaublanc's History of Prance in the Time of the Crusades, 28.—Works on the Statistics of Ancient Nations, 28.—French Version of McCulloch, 28.—MM. Viardot and Circourt on the History of the Moors in Europe, 29.—Breton Poets, 29.—Louis Phillippe's Last Years, as Described by Himself, 30.—M. Audin, 31.—Collection of Spanish Romances, by F. Wolf, 31.—Le Bien-Etre Universel, 31.—Notices of English Literature by the Revue Brittanique, 31.—History of French Protestants by Felice, 31.—Works in Modern Greek Literature, 32.—Dictionary of Styles in Poetry by Planche, 33.—Continuation of Louis Blanc's History of Ten Years, 33.—Mr. Hallam, 33.—General Napier and his Wife, 33.—Plagiarism by Charles Mackay, 33.—English Books on the Roman Catholic Question, 33.—New Work by R. H. Horne, 33.—Miss Martineau's Book against Religion, 34.—Sir John Cam Hobhouse, 34.—Another Book on "Junius", 34.—Fourier on the Passions, 34.—Mr. Grattan coming again to America, 34.—Poems by Alaric A. Watts, 35.—The Stowe MSS., 35.—The Scott Copyrights, 35.—Dr. Layard, 35.—Henry Alford, 35.—Letter by Washington Irving, 35.—Speech on Art, by Alison, 36.—Pensions to Poets, 36.—Lavengro, 36.—James T. Fields, 36.—W. G. Simms, 36.—Nile Notes by a Howadji, 36.—Use of Documents in the Historical Society's Collections, 36.—Fanny Wright, 37.—Prof. Channing's Resignation, 37.—Mr. Livermore on Public Libraries, 37.—Fenelon never in America, 37.—Mr. Goodrich and Mr. Walsh, 37.—Works of Major Richardson, 37.—Mr. Squier's forthcoming Works on American Antiquities, 38.—Letter from Charles Astor Bristed, on his Contributions to Fraser, 39—The Sillimans in Europe, 39.—Works of John Adams, 39.—The Caesars, by De Quincy, 39—Jared Sparks, and his Historical Labors, 40—The Opera, by Isaac C. Pray, 40.—Frederic Saunders, 40.—The Duty of a Biographer, 40.—Dr. Andrews's new Work on America, 663.—Bodenstedt's Thousand and One Days in the East, 165.—German Emigrant's Manual, 165.—Hungarian Biographies, 165.—Caccia's Europe and America, 165.—Fanny Lewald, 166.—German Reviewals of George Sand, 166.—Scherer's German Songs, 166.—New Book by Henry Muerger, 166.—Ebeling's Tame Stories of a Wild Time, 167.—Grillpazer, the Dramatist, 167.—Rhine Musical Gazette, 167.—Eddas, by Simrock, 167.—Transactions of the Society of Northern Antiquaries, 167.—Raumer's Historical Pocket Book, 167.—Bilder aus Oestreich, 167.—Poems by Dinglestedt, 167.—Autobiography of Jahn, 167.—The Deutsches Museum, 168.—The Constitutional Struggle in Electoral Hesse, 168.—Translations of the Scriptures in African Languages, 168.—History of the Prussian Court and Nobility, 168.—Biographical Dictionary of Illustrious Women, 168.—Countess Hahn Hahn, 168.—Italia, 168.—Humboldt, as last described, 169.—Rewards of Authors, 169.—New Translations of Northern Literature, by George Stephens, 169.—Old Work on Etherization, 169.—Phillip Augustus, a Tragedy, 169.—Bianchi's Turkish Dictionary, 169.—General Daumas, on Western Africa, 170.—De Conches, the Bibliopole, 170.—Jules Sandeau, 170.—French Play of Massalina, 170.—New French Review, 170.—Victor Hugo's New Works, 170.—M. de St. Beuve, 170.—The Shoemakers of Paris, 170.—Recovery of a Comedy by Moliere, 171.—Memoirs of Bishop Flaget, 171.—Travels in the United States by M. Marmier, 171.—Guizot and Thiers, 171.—M. Mignet, 171.—Lamartine, 171.—Michelet, 171.—Paris and its Monuments, 171.—Mullie's Biographical Dictionary, 171.—The Chancellor d'Auguesseau, 171.—Romance and Tales by Napoleon Bonaparte, 172.—Henry's Life of Calvin, 172.—Discovery of lost Books by Origen, 173.—Important Discoveries of Greek MSS. near Constantinople, 173.—Prose Translation of Homer, 173.—Gillie's Literary Veteran, 173.—Lord Holland's Reminiscences, 173.—Meeting of the British Association, 173.—Miss Martineau and the Westminster Review, 174.—Fielding and Smollett, 174.—Mr. Bigelow's Book on Jamaica, in England, 174.—Macready and George Sand, 174.—The Stones of Venice, 175.—Bulwer Lytton's New Play, 175.—The Last Scenes of Chivalry, 166.—Fanny Corbeaux, 176.—John G. Taylor on Cuba, 176.—Lady Wortley's Travels in the United States, 176.—Opinions of Mr. Curtis's Nile Notes, 177.—Rev. Satan Montgomery, 177.—Documentary History of New-York, 177.—Albert J. Pickett's History of Alabama, 178.—Mrs. Farnham, 178.—Mr. Gayarre on Louisiana, 178.—Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, 178.—Rev. J. H. Ingraham, and his Novels, 178.—Mrs. Judson.—The Lady's Book, 179.—Mr. J. R. Tyson, 179.—Dr. Valentine's Manual, 179.—Episodes of Insect Life, Mr. Willis, 179.—Robinson's Greek Grammar, 179.—Kennedy's Swallow Barn, 179.—American Members of the Institute of France, 179.—Works of Walter Colton, 179.—Cobbin's Domestic Bible, 179.—Works of Several American Statesmen now in Press, 180.—Professor Gillespie's Translation of Comte, 180.—Lincoln's Horace, 180.—New Novel by the Author of Talbot and Vernon, 180.—Life in Fejee, 180.—S. G. Goodrich in England, 180.—Recent American Novels, 180.—Publications of the Hakluyt Society, 180.—Dr. Mayo's Romance Dust, 180.—Thackeray's Lectures, 180.—Mr. Alison, 180.—Dr. Titus Tobler on Professor Robinson, 312.—New German Novels, 313.—Kohl, the Traveller, 313.—Anastasius Grun and Lenau, 313.—Sir Charles Lyell's American Travels Reviewed in Germany, 313.—More of the Countess Hahn-Hahn, 313.—German Translations of David Copperfield, Richard Edney, and Mrs. Hall's Sorrows of woman, 313.—Books on Affairs at Vienna, 314.—Travels of the Prince Valdimar, 314.—De Montbeillard on Spinosa, 314.—Joseph Russeger, 314.—Dr. Strauss, 314.—German Universities, 314.—Frau Pfieffer, the Traveller, 314.—Parisians sketched by Ferdinand Hiller, 314.—The Diplomats of Italy, 315.—A Parisian Willis, 315.—De Castro on the Spanish Protestants, 316.—Books on the Hungarian Matters, 316.—Literature in Bengal, 316.—Publications on the late Revolutions, at Turin and Florence, 317.—Pensions to Authors in France, 317.—MSS. by Louis XVI., 317.—Memoirs of Balzac, 317.—Quinet on a National Religion, 318.—New Life of Marie Stuart, 318.—Count Montalembert, 318.—English Biographies by Guizot, 319.—Romieu's Spectre Rouge de 1852, 319.—Novel by Count Jarnac, 319.—French inscriptions in Egypt, 319.—Saint Beauve and Mirabeau, 319.—Democratic Martyrs, 319.—Prosper Merimee on Ticknor's Spanish Literature, 320.—Innocence of M. Libri, 320.—The Politique Nouvelle, 320.—New Labors of Lamartine, 320.—An Assyrian Poet in Paris, 320.—The Edinburgh Review and The Leader on Cousin, 321.—Walter Savage Landor in Old Age, 321.—Moses Margoliouth, 321.—Publications of the Ecclesiastical History Society, 321.—The Life of Wordsworth, 322.—Blackwood on American Poets, 322.—Comte's new Calendar, 323.—Old Tracts against Romanism, 323.—The Scott Copyrights, 323.—Mrs. Browning's new Poems, 323.—Mrs. Hentz's last Novel Dramatized, 323.—New Book on the United States, 323.—The Guild of Literature and Art, 324.—Rev. C. G. Finney's Works in England, 324.—Talvi, 324.—Mrs. Southworth's new Novel, 324.—Dr. Spring's last Work, 324.—Mrs. Sigourney, 324.—Henry Martyn, 324.—Algernon Sydney, 324.—New Volumes of Poems, 324.—Paria, by John E. Warren, 325.—Klopstock in Zurich, 458.—Wackernagel's History of German Literature, 458.—German Dictionary with Americanisms, 458.—Carl Heideloff's new Book in Architecture, 458.—Siebeck on Beauty in Gardening, 459.—Schafer's Life of Goethe, 459.—Franz Liszt, 459.—History of the Khalifs, by Weil, 459.—Von Rhaden's Reminiscences of a Military Career, 459.—Life of Baron Stein, 459.—Adalbert Kellar, 460.—Heeren and Uckert's Histories of the States of Europe, 460.—The Countess Spaur on Pius IX., 460.—Illustration of German Idioms, 460.—Last Book of the Countess Hahn-Hahn, 460.—"Intercourse with the departed by means of Magnetism," 460.—Languages in Russia, 461.—Professor Thiersch, 461.—"The Right of Love," a new German Drama, 461.—New German Travels in the United States, 461.—Dr. Ernst Foster, 461.—New Work on the use of Stucco, 461.—Russian Novels and Poems, 461.—Captain Wilkes's Exploring Expedition and Taylor's Eldorado in German, 461.—Collection of Greek and Latin Physicians, 462.—Correspondence of Mirabeau, 462.—Louis Blanc's Pius de Girondins, 462.—Anecdote of Scribe, 462.—A Siamese Grammar, 462.—"The Death of Jesus," by Citizen Xavier Sauriac, 463.—Dufai's Satire on Socialist Women, 463.—Remains of Saint Martin, 463.—Documents respecting the Trial of Louis XVI., 463.—Another Book on the French Revolutions, 463.—Letters on the Turkish Empire by M. Ubicini, 463.—Collection of Sacred Moralists, 463.—M. Regnault's History, 463.—New Novel by Mery, 464.—French Revolutionary Portraits, 464.—Swedish Version of "Vala," by Parke Godwin, 464.—An Epic by Lord Maidstone, 464.—A Defence of Ignorance, 464.—New Story by Dickens, 464.—Thackeray's Lectures on British Humorists, 464.—Theodore S. Fay, 465.—Works Published by Mr. Hart, 465.—Carlyle's Life of Sterling, 465.—Historical Memoirs of Thomas H. Benton, 465.—New Life of Jefferson, 466.—Life of Margaret Fuller, by Emerson and Channing, 466.—The late Rev. Dr. Ogilby's Memoirs, 466.—Dr. Gilman on Edward Everett, 466.—W. Gilmore Simms, 466.—Works on "Women's Rights," 466.—Illness of Rev. Dr. Smyth, 466.—New Novels, 467.—Miss Bremer, 467.—Vestiges of Civilization, 467.—Shocco Jones, 467.—Works in Press of Mr. Scribner, 467.—John Neal, 467.—Poems of Fanny Green, 467.—Ik. Marvel, 467.—Martin Farquhar Tupper, 467.—Dr. Holbrook, 467.—New Edition of "Margaret," 467.—Mr. Schoolcraft's Memoirs, 467.—New Work by Mr. Melville, 467.—Col. Pickett's History of Alabama, 468.—Dr. Baird's Christian Retrospect, 469.—The Parthenon, 469.—Cardinal Wiseman's Lectures, 469.—Works of Walter Colton, 469.—History of the French Protestants, 469.—New Poems of Alice Carey, Boker, &c., 470.

Botello, Astonishing Adventures of James.—By Dr. Mayo, author of "Kaloolah," 40

Biography of a Bad Shilling, 92

Borrow, Real Adventures and Achievements of George, 183

Butchers' Leap at Munich, 298

Beautiful Streamlet and the Utilitarian, the 307

Benevolent Institutions of New-York. (Illustrated.) 434

Cooper, James Fenimore. (With a Portrait.) 1

Calhoun, Powers's Statue of John C. (Illustrated.) 8

Cocked Hats, A Supply of, 97

Costume of the Future, 103

Coleridge, Hartley and his Genius, 249

Conspiracy of Pontiac, 440

Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles V. 376

Crystal Palace, the. A Letter from London. (Illustrated.) 444

Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles V., 520

Doddridge, and some of his Friends, 77

Donkeys at Smithfield, 97

Duelling Two Hundred and Fifty Years Ago—By Thomas Carlyle, 108

Dog Alcibiades, the,—By C. Astor Bristed, 211

Dewey, George W., and his Writings. (Portrait.) 286

Dickens and Thackeray, 532

Egyptian Antiquities, Preservation of 299

Fashions. Ladies' (Illustrated.) 143, 287, 429

Fiddlers, Last of the,—By Berthold Auerbach, 87

First Ship in the Niger.—By W. A. Russell, 127

Faun over his Goblet.—By R. H. Stoddard, 184

Festival upon the Neva, 357

French Feuilletonistes upon London, 446

Gibbon, an Inedited Letter of Edward, 126

Genlis, Madame de, and Madame de Stael, 392

Glimpse of the Great Exhibition, 409

Great Men's Wives, 413

Grave of Grace Aguilar.—By Mrs. S. C. Hall, 513

Hindostanee Newspapers. The Flying Sheet of Benares, 24

Herbert Knowles: "The Three Tabernacles," 57

Hogarth, William. (Six Engravings.) 149

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. (Portrait.) 156

Has there been a great Poet in the Nineteenth Century? 182

Hat Reform: A Revolution in Head-Gear, 187

Heart Whispers.—By Mary E. Hewitt, 200

Herbert, Henry William. (Portrait, &c.) 289

Halleck, Fitz Greene. (A Portrait.) 433

Historical Review of the Month, 127, 269, 423, 585

Jews and Christians, 162

Jesuit Relations: New Discoveries of MSS. in Rome, 185

Jeffrey and Joanna Baillie, 312

Kendall, George Wilkins. (Portrait.) 145

Layard, Discoverer of Nineveh, to.—By Walter Savage Landor, 98

Life in Persia in the Nineteenth Century, 105

Littleness of a Great People: Mr. Whitney, 161

Leading Editors of Paris, 239

Love.—By John Critchly Prince, 247

Lyra, a Lament.—By Alice Carey, 253

London Described by a Parisian, 306

Lion in the Toils, the,—By C. Astor Bristed, 366

Legend of St. Mary's,—By Alice Carey, 416

Marcy, Dr., and Homoeopathy. (Portrait.) 429

Mining under the Sea, 102

My Novel.—By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, 110, 253, 399, 541.

Marie Antoinette.—By Lord Holland and Mr. Jefferson, 23

Music.—By Alfred B. Street, 25

Monte Leone.—By H. De St. Georges, 58, 201, 346, 489.

Modern Haroun Al Raschid, 245

Man of Tact, the, 372

Meeting of the Nations in Hyde Park.—By W. M. Thackeray, 330

Mary Kingsford: a Police Sketch, 417

Mayo, Dr., author of "Kaloolah." (Portrait.) 442

Marie, Jeanne, and Lyrical Poetry in Germany, 457

Nell Gwynne.—By Mrs. S. C. Hall. (Portrait and six other Illustrations.) 9

Natural Revelation.—By Alfred B. Street, 200

Nicholas Von der Flue.—By the author of "Rural Hours," 472

Old Maids, a Family of, 289

Otsego Hall—Residence of J. F. Cooper. (Illustrated,) 285

Our Phantom Ship among the Ice, 386

Our Phantom Ship—Japan, 534

Policarpa La Salvarietta, the Heroine of Colombia, 162

Professional Devotion in a Lawyer, 188

Paganini, Anecdotes of, 237

Prospects of African Colonization, 397

Politeness in Paris and London.—By Sir Henry Bulwer, K.C.B., 363

Physiology of Intemperance, 98

Prophecy.—By Alice Carey, 244

Recent Deaths:—(Portrait of Joanna Baillie.)—Viscount Gardinville, 140.—Rev. Dr. Ogilby, 140.—George Thompson, 140.—The Emir Bechir, 140.—Dr. Leuret, 140.—M. Kockkoek, 140.—Joanna Baillie, 140.—Spontini, the Composer, 142.—Charles Coqurel, 142.—Col. George Williams, 142.—Charles Matthew Sander, 142.—Lord Bexley, 143.—John Pye Smith, 143.—Samuel Farmer Jarvis, D.D., LL.D., 279.—Judge Burnside, 279.—Ex-Governor Isaac Hill, 280.—Judge Daggett, 231.—Major James Rees, 281.—M. M. Noah, 282.—John S. Skinner, 282.—Major General Brooke, 282.—F. Gottlieb Hand, 282.—M. Jacobi, 282.—Hans Christian Oersted, 283.—Henri Delatouche, 283—Madame de Sermetz, 284.—Marshal Dode de la Bruniere, 284.—M. Maillau, 284.—Dr. Henry de Breslau, 284.—Commissioner Lin, 284.—John Louis Yanoski, 284.—Count d'Hozier, 284.—George Brentano, 284.—Francis Xavier Fernbach, 284.—Jules Martien, 284.—Captain Cunningham, 428.—John Henning, 428.—Padre Rozavan, 428.—Prince Wittgenstein, 428.—Lord Langdale, 428.—E. J. Roberts, 428,—Professor Wahlenberg, 428.—Philip Hone, Archbishop Eccleston, Gen. Brady, 428.—Dr. Samuel George Morton, 563.—Richard Lalor Shiel, 563.—Richard Phillips, 565.—Dowton, the Comedian, 565.—Admiral Codrington, 565.—Lord Chancellor Cottenham, 565.

Record of Scientific Discovery—Photography, 138.—London Society of Arts, 138.—Barry 138.—Gold, 138.—Light and Heat, 138.—Chinese Coal, 138.—Water of the Ocean, 138.—The Asteroids, 139.—Shooting Stars, 139.—Geology of Spain, 139.—Scientific Researches in Abyssinia, 139.—New Motors, 276.—Water Gas, 276.—Improvements in the Steam Engine, 276,—New Applications of Zinc, &c., 276.—New Adaptation of Lithography, 276.—Annual of Scientific Discovery, 276.—Oxygen from Atmospheric Ari, 277.—Whitened Camera for Photography, 277.—M. Laborde on Photography, 277.—Abich on the Country near the Black Sea, 277.—D'Hericourt on African Discoveries, 277.—Enormous Fossil Eggs, 277.—Papers by Leverrier and others before the Paris Academy of Sciences, 278.—Barth and Overweg in Africa, 278.—General Radowitz on Philology, 278.—Latour, on Artificial Coal, 278—Scientific Congress at Paris, 278.—Experiments at the Porcelain Factories in Sevres, 279.—Captain Purnell on Ship Cisterns, 279.—Electric Sun at Gotha, 279.—Letter from Professor Morse on the Hillotype, 566.—Professor Blume and the French Academy, 566.

Rotation of the Earth. (Illustrated.) 296

Shelley, Memoir of the late Mrs. Percy Bysshe, 16

Shakspeare, Mr. Hudson's New Edition of, 18

"Stones of Venice," the,—By John Ruskin, 19

Story Without a Name.—By G. P. R. James, 45, 189, 333, 477.

Sweden, Sketches of Life in, 450

Sorcery and Magic, History of 247

Snowdrop in the Snow.—By Sydney Yendys, 201

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, and his Works. (Portrait.) 300

Second Wife, or the Tables Turned, 331

Smuggler Malgre Lui, the, 394

Sorel, Agnes, True History of—By R. H. Horne, 396

Strauss, Dr. David, in Weimar, 410

Schalken, the Painter: A Ghost Story, 449

Scenes at Malmaison, 504

Transformation: A Tale.—By the late Mrs. Shelley, 70

Thurlow, Lord, and his Terrible Swearing, 85

Twin Sisters.—By Wilkie Collins, 221

Trenton Falls.—By N. P. Willis. Four Engravings, 292

Tobacco, 311

Washington. (Two Engravings.) 146

Wilfulness of Woman.—By the late Mrs. Osgood, 188

Wreck of the Old French Aristocracy, 373

Walpole's Opinions of his Contemporaries, 488

"Work Away," 533

Yeast: A Problem.—By the author of "Alton Locke," 160



THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE

Of Literature, Art, and Science.

Vol. III NEW-YORK. APRIL 1, 1851. No. I



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.



The readers of the International have in the above engraving, from a Daguerreotype by Brady, the best portrait ever published of an illustrious countryman of ours, who, as a novelist, take him all in all, is entitled to precedence of every other now living. "With what amazing power," exclaims Balzac, in the Revue de Paris, "has he painted nature! how all his pages glow with creative fire! Who is there writing English among our contemporaries, if not of him, of whom it can be said that he has a genius of the first order?" And the Edinburgh Review says, "The empire of the sea, has been conceded to him by acclamation;" that, "in the lonely desert or untrodden prairie, among the savage Indians or scarcely less savage settlers, all equally acknowledge his dominion. 'Within this circle none dares walk but he.'" And Christopher North, in the Noctes: "He writes like a hero!" And beyond the limits of his own country, every where, the great critics assign him a place among the foremost of the illustrious authors of the age. In each of the departments of romantic, fiction in which he has written, he has had troops of imitators, and in not one of them an equal. Writing not from books, but from nature, his descriptions, incidents, and characters, are as fresh as the fields of his triumphs. His Harvey Birch, Leather Stocking, Long Tom Coffin, and other heroes, rise before the mind, each in his clearly defined and peculiar lineaments, as striking original creations, as actual persons. His infinitely varied descriptions of the ocean, ships gliding like beings of the air upon its surface, vast solitary wildernesses, and indeed all his delineations of nature, are instinct with the breath of poetry; he is both the Horace Vernet and the Claude Lorraine of novelists; and through all his works are sentiments of genuine courtesy and honor, and an unobtrusive and therefore more powerful assertion of natural rights and dignity.

WILLIAM COOPER, the emigrant ancestor of JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, arrived in this country in 1679, and settled at Burlington, New Jersey. He immediately took an active part in public affairs, and his name appears in the list of members of the Colonial Legislature for 1681. In 1687, or subsequent to the establishment of Penn at Philadelphia, he obtained a grant of land opposite the new city, extending several miles along the margin of the Delaware and the tributary stream which has since borne the name of Cooper's Creek. The branch of the family to which the novelist belongs removed more than a century since into Pennsylvania, in which state his father was born. He married early, and while a young man established himself at a hamlet in Burlington county, New Jersey, which continues to be known by his name, and afterward in the city of Burlington. Having become possessed of extensive tracts of land on the border of Otsego Lake, in central New-York, he began the settlement of his estate there in the autumn of 1785, and in the following spring erected the first house in Cooperstown. From this time until 1790 Judge Cooper resided alternately at Cooperstown and Burlington, keeping up an establishment at both places. James Fenimore Cooper was born at Burlington on the fifteenth of September, 1789, and in the succeeding year was carried to the new home of his family, of which he is now proprietor.

Judge Cooper being a member of the Congress, which then held its sessions in Philadelphia, his family remained much of the time at Burlington, where our author, when but six years of age, commenced under a private tutor of some eminence his classical education. In 1800 he became an inmate of the family of Rev. Thomas Ellison, Rector of St Peter's, in Albany, who had fitted for the university three of his elder brothers, and on the death of that accomplished teacher was sent to New Haven, where he completed his preparatory studies. He entered Yale College at the beginning of the second term of 1802. Among his classmates were John A. Collier, Judge Cushman, and the late Justice Sutherland of New-York, Judge Bissel of Connecticut, Colonel James Gadsden of Florida, and several others who afterwards became eminent in various professions. John C. Calhoun was at the time a resident graduate, and Judge William Jay of Bedford, who had been his room-mate at Albany, entered the class below him. The late James A. Hillhouse originally entered the same class with Mr. Cooper; there was very little difference in their ages, both having been born in the same month, and both being much too young to be thrown into the arena of college life. Hillhouse was judiciously withdrawn for this reason until the succeeding year, leaving Cooper the youngest student in the college; he, however, maintained a respectable position, and in the ancient languages particularly had no superior in his class.

In 1805 he quitted the college, and obtaining a midshipman's warrant, entered the navy. His frank, generous, and daring nature made him a favorite, and admirably fitted him for the service, in which he would unquestionably have obtained the highest honors had he not finally made choice of the ease and quiet of the life of a private gentleman. After six years afloat—six years not unprofitably passed, since they gave him that knowledge of maritime affairs which enabled him subsequently, almost without an effort, to place himself at the head of all the writers who in any period have attempted the description of the sea—he resigned his office, and on the first day of January, 1811, was married to Miss De Lancey, a sister of the present Bishop of the Diocese of Western New-York, and a descendant of one of the oldest and most influential families in America.

Before removing to Cooperstown he resided a short time in Westchester, near New-York, and here he commenced his career as an author. His first book was Precaution. It was undertaken under circumstances purely accidental, and published under great disadvantages. Its success was moderate, though far from contemptible. It is a ludicrous evidence of the value of critical opinion in this country, that Precaution was thought to discover so much knowledge of English society, as to raise a question whether its alleged author could have written it. More reputation for this sort of knowledge accrued to Mr. Cooper from Precaution than from his subsequent real work on England. It was republished in London, and passed for an English novel.

The Spy followed. No one will dispute the success of The Spy. It was almost immediately republished in all parts of Europe. The novelty of an American book of this character probably contributed to give it circulation. It is worthy of remark that all our own leading periodicals looked coldly upon it; though the country did not. The North American Review—ever unwilling to do justice to Mr. Cooper—had a very ill-natured notice of it, professing to place the New England Tale far above it! In spite of such shallow criticism, however, the book was universally popular. It was decidedly the best historical romance then written by an American; not without faults, indeed, but with a fair plot, clearly and strongly drawn characters, and exhibiting great boldness and originality of conception. Its success was perhaps decisive of Mr. Cooper's career, and it gave an extraordinary impulse to literature in the country. More than any thing that had before occurred, it roused the people from their feeling of intellectual dependence. The popularity of The Spy has been so universal, that there is scarcely a written language into which it is not translated. In 1847 it appeared in Persian at Ispahan.

In 1823 appeared The Pioneers. This book has passages of masterly description, and is as fresh as a landscape from another world; but it seems to me that it has always had a reputation partly factitious. It is the poorest of the Leather Stocking tales, nor was its success either marked or spontaneous. Still, it was very well received, though it was thought to be a proof that the author was written out. With this book commenced the absurdity of saying Mr. Cooper introduced family traits and family history into his novels. How little of truth there is in this supposition Mr. Cooper has explained in his revised edition, published the present year.

The Pilot succeeded. The success of The Pilot was at first a little doubtful in this country; but England gave it a reputation which it still maintains. It is due to Boston to say that its popularity in the United States was first manifested there. I say due to Boston, not from considerations of merit in the book, but because, for some reason, praise for Mr. Cooper, from New England, has been so rare. The North American Review took credit to itself for magnanimity in saying some of his works had been rendered into French, when they were a part of every literature of Europe. America, it is often said, has no original literature. Where can the model of The Pilot be found? I know of nothing which could have suggested it but the following fact, which was related to me in a conversation with Mr. Cooper. The Pirate had been published a short time before. Talking with the late Charles Wilkes, of New-York—a man of taste and judgment—our author heard extolled the universal knowledge of Scott, and the sea portions of The Pirate cited as a proof. He laughed at the idea, as most seamen would, and the discussion ended by his promising to write a sea story which could be read by landsmen, while seamen should feel its truth. The Pilot was the fruit of that conversation. It is one of the most remarkable novels of the time, and every where obtained instant and high applause.

Lionel Lincoln followed. This was a second attempt to embody history in an American work of fiction. It failed, and perhaps justly; yet it contains one of the nicest delineations of character in Mr. Cooper's works. I know of no instance in which the distinction between a maniac and an idiot is so admirably drawn; the setting was bad, however, and the picture was not examined.

In 1826 came The Last of the Mohicans. This book succeeded from the first, and all over Christendom. It has strong parts and weak parts, but it was purely original, and originality always occupies the ground. In this respect it is like The Pilot.

After the publication of The Last of The Mohicans, Mr. Cooper went to Europe, where his reputation was already well established as one of the greatest writers of romantic fiction which our age, more prolific in men of genius than any other, had produced. The first of his works after he left his native country was The Prairie. Its success every where was decided and immediate. By the French and English critics it has been deemed the best of his stories of Indian life. It has one leading fault, however, that of introducing any character superior to the family of the squatter. Of this fault Mr. Cooper was himself aware before he finished the work; but as he wrote and printed simultaneously, it was not easy to correct it. In this book, notwithstanding, Natty Bumpo is quite up to his mark, and is surpassed only in The Pathfinder. The reputation of The Prairie, like that of The Pioneers, is in a large degree owing to the opinions of the reviews; it is always a fault in a book that appeals to human sympathies, that it fails with the multitude. In what relates to taste, the multitude is of no great authority; but in all that is connected with feeling, they are the highest; and for this simple reason, that as man becomes sophisticated he deviates from nature, the only true source of all our sympathies. Our feelings are doubtless improved by refinement, and vice versa; but their roots are struck in the human heart, and what fails to touch the heart, in these particulars, fails, while that which does touch it, succeeds. The perfection of this sort of writing is that which pleases equally the head and the heart.

The Red Rover followed The Prairie. Its success surpassed that of any of its predecessors. It was written and printed in Paris, and all in a few months. Its merits and its reception prove the accuracy of those gentlemen who allege that "Mr. Cooper never wrote a successful book after he left the United States." It is certainly a stronger work than The Pilot, though not without considerable faults.

The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish was the next novel. The author I believe regards this and Lionel Lincoln as the poorest of his works. It met with no great success.

The Water Witch succeeded, but is inferior to any of the other nautical tales. It was the first attempt by Mr. Cooper—the first by any author—to lay the scene of a tale of witchcraft on the coast of America. It has more imagination than any other of Mr. Cooper's works, but the blending of the real with the ideal was in some parts a little incongruous. The Water Witch was written in Italy and first printed in Germany.

Of all Americans who ever visited Europe, Mr. Cooper contributed most to our country's good reputation. His high character made him every where welcome; there was no circle, however aristocratic or distinguished, in which, if he appeared in it, he was not observed of all observers; and he had the somewhat singular merit of never forgetting that he was an American. Halleck, in his admirable poem of Red Jacket, says well of him:

COOPER, whose name is with his country's woven, First in her fields, her pioneer of mind, A wanderer now in other lands, has proven His love for the young land he left behind.

After having been in Europe about two years he published his Notions of the Americans, in which he "endeavored to repel some of the hostile opinions of the other hemisphere, and to turn the tables on those who at that time most derided and calumniated us." It contained some unimportant errors, from having been written at a distance from necessary documentary materials, but was altogether as just as it was eloquent in vindication of our institutions, manners, and history. It shows how warm was his patriotism; how fondly, while receiving from strangers an homage withheld from him at home, he remembered the scenes of his first trials and triumphs, and how ready he was to sacrifice personal popularity and profit in defence of his country.

He was not only the first to defend and to praise America, but the first to whom appeals were made for information in regard to her by statesmen who felt an interest in our destiny. Following the revolution of the Three Days, in Paris, a fierce controversy took place between the absolutists, the republicans, and the constitutionalists. Among the subjects introduced in the Chambers was the comparative cheapness of our system of government; the absolutists asserting that the people of the United States paid more direct and indirect taxes than the French. La Fayette appealed to Mr. Cooper, who entered the arena, and though, from his peculiar position, at a heavy pecuniary loss, and the danger of incurring yet greater misfortunes, by a masterly expose silenced at once the popular falsehoods. So in all places, circumstances, and times, he was the "American in Europe," as jealous of his country's reputation as his own.

Immediately after, he published The Bravo, the success of which was very great: probably equal to that of The Red Rover. It is one of the best, if not the very best of the works Mr. Cooper had then written. Although he selected a foreign scene on this occasion, no one of his works is more American in its essential character. It was designed not only to extend the democratical principle abroad, but to confirm his countrymen in the opinion that nations "cannot be governed by an irresponsible minority without involving a train of nearly intolerable abuses." It gave aristocracy some hits, which aristocracy gave back again. The best notice which appeared of it was in the famous Paris gazette entitled Figaro, before Figaro was bought out by the French government. The change from the biting wit which characterized this periodical, to the grave sentiment of such an article, was really touching, and added an indescribable grace to the remarks.

The Heidenmaur followed. It is impossible for one to understand this book who has not some acquaintance with the scenes and habits described. It was not very successful.

The Headsman of Berne did much better. It is inferior to The Bravo, though not so clashing to aristocracy. It met with very respectable success. It was the last of Mr. Cooper's novels written in Europe, and for some years the last of a political character.

The first work which Mr. Cooper published after his return to the United States was A Letter to his Countrymen. They had yielded him but a hesitating applause until his praise came back from Europe; and when the tone of foreign criticism was changed, by acts and opinions of his which should have banded the whole American press for his defence, he was assailed here in articles which either echoed the tone, or were actual translations of attacks upon him by foreigners. The custom peculiar to this country of "quoting the opinions of foreign nations by way of helping to make up its own estimate of the degree of merit which belongs to its public men," is treated in this letter with caustic and just severity, and shown to be "destructive of those sentiments of self-respect and of that manliness and independence of thought, that are necessary to render a people great or a nation respectable." The controlling influence of foreign ideas over our literature, fashions, and even politics, are illustrated by the manner in which he was himself treated, and by what he considers the English doctrines which have been broached in the speeches of many of our statesmen. It is a frank and honest book, which was unnecessary as a vindication of Mr. Cooper, but was called for by the existence of the abuse against which it was chiefly directed, though it seems to have had little effect upon it. Of the political opinions it contains I have no more to say than that I do not believe in their correctness.

It was followed by The Monikins, a political satire, which was a failure.

The next publications of Mr. Cooper were his Gleanings in Europe. Sketches in Switzerland, first and second series, each in two volumes, appeared in 1836, and none of his works contain more striking and vivid descriptions of nature, or more agreeable views of character and manners. It was followed by similar works on France, Italy, and England. All of these were well received, notwithstanding an independence of tone which is rarely popular, and some absurdities, as, for example, the imputations upon the American Federalists, in the Sketches of Switzerland. The book on England excited most attention, and was reviewed in that country with as much asperity as if its own travellers were not proverbially the most shameless libellers that ever abused the hospitality of nations. Altogether the ten volumes which compose this series may be set down as the most intelligent and philosophical books of travels which have been written by our countrymen.

The American Democrat, or Hints on the Social and Civil Relations of the United States of America, was published in 1835. The design is stated to be, "to make a commencement toward a more just discrimination between truth and prejudice." It is essentially a good book on the virtues and vices of American character.

For a considerable time Mr. Cooper had entertained an intention of writing The History of the Navy of the United Stated, and his early experience, his studies, his associations, and above all the peculiar felicity of his style when treating of nautical affairs, warranted the expectation that his work would be a solid and brilliant contribution to our historical literature. It appeared in two octavo volumes in 1839, and reached a second edition in 1840, and a third in 1846.[A] The public had no reason to be disappointed; great diligence had been used in the collection of materials; every subject connected with the origin and growth of our national marine had been carefully investigated, and the result was presented in the most authentic and attractive form. Yet a warm controversy soon arose respecting Mr. Cooper's account of the battle of Lake Erie, and in pamphlets, reviews, and newspapers, attempts were made to show that he had done injustice to the American commander in that action. The multitude rarely undertake particular investigations; and the attacks upon Mr. Cooper, conducted with a virulence for which it would be difficult to find any cause in the History, assuming the form of vindications of a brave and popular deceased officer, produced an impression so deep and so general that he was compelled to defend the obnoxious passages, which he did triumphantly in a small volume entitled The Battle of Lake Erie, or Answers to Messrs. Burgess, Duer, and Mackenzie, published in 1843, and in the notes to the last edition of his Naval History. Those who read the whole controversy will perceive that Mr. Cooper was guided by the authorities most entitled to the consideration of an historian, and that in his answers he has demonstrated the correctness of his statements and opinions; and they will perhaps be astonished that he in the first place gave so little cause for dissatisfaction on the part of the friends of Commodore Perry. Besides the Naval History and the essays to which it gave rise, Mr. Cooper has published, in two volumes, The Lives of American Naval Officers, a work of the highest merit in its department, every life being written with conciseness yet fulness, and with great care in regard to facts; and in the Democratic Review has published an unanswerable reply to the attacks upon the American marine by James and other British historians.

The first novel published by Mr. Cooper after his return to the United States was Homeward Bound. The two generic characters of the book, however truly they may represent individuals, have no resemblance to classes. There may be Captain Trucks, and there certainly are Steadfast Dodges, but the officers of the American merchant service are in no manner or degree inferior to Europeans of the same pursuits and grade; and with all the abuses of the freedom of the press here, our newspapers are not worse than those of Great Britain in the qualities for which Mr. Cooper arraigns them. The opinions expressed of New-York society in Home as Found are identical with those in Notions of the Americans, a work almost as much abused for its praise of this country as was Home as Found for its censure, and most men of refinement and large observation seem disposed to admit their correctness. This is no doubt the cause of the feeling it excited, for a nation never gets in a passion at misrepresentation. It is a miserable country that cannot look down a falsehood, even from a native.

The next novel was The Pathfinder. It is a common opinion that this work deserves success; more than any Mr. Cooper has written. I have heard Mr. Cooper say that in his own judgment the claim lay between The Pathfinder and The Deerslayer, but for myself I confess a preference for the sea novels. Leather Stocking appears to more advantage in The Pathfinder than in any other book, and in Deerslayer next. In The Pathfinder we have him presented in the character of a lover, and brought in contact with such characters as he associates with in no other stages of his varied history, though they are hardly less favorites with the author. The scene of the novel being the great fresh water seas of the interior, sailors, Indians, and hunters, are so grouped together, that every kind of novel-writing in which he has been most successful is combined in one complete fiction, one striking exhibition of his best powers. Had it been written by some unknown author, probably the country would have hailed him as much superior to Mr. Cooper.

Mercedes of Castile, a Romance of the Days of Columbus, came next. It may be set down as a failure. The necessity of following facts that had become familiar, and which had so lately possessed the novelty of fiction, was too much for any writer.

The Deerslayer was written after Mercedes and The Pathfinder, and was very successful. Hetty Hunter is perhaps the best female character Mr. Cooper has drawn, though her sister is generally preferred. The Deerslayer was the last written of the "Leather Stocking Tales," having come out in 1841, nineteen years after the appearance of The Pioneers in 1822. Arranged according to the order of events, The Deerslayer should be the first of this remarkable series, followed by The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, and The Prairie.

The Two Admirals followed The Deerslayer. This book in some respects stands at the head of the nautical tales. Its fault is dealing with too important events to be thrown so deep into fiction; but this is a fault that may be pardoned in a romance. Mr. Cooper has written nothing in description, whether of sea or land, that surpasses either of the battle scenes of this work; especially that part of the first where the French ship is captured. The Two Admirals appeared at an unfortunate time, but it was nevertheless successful.

Wing-and-Wing, or Le Feu Follet, was published in 1842. The interest depends chiefly upon the manoeuvres by which a French privateer escapes capture by an English frigate. Some of its scenes are among Mr. Cooper's best, but altogether it is inferior to several of his nautical novels.

Wyandotte, or the Hutted Knoll, in its general features resembles The Pathfinder and The Deerslayer. The female characters are admirable, and but for the opinion, believed by some, from its frequent repetition, that Mr. Cooper is incapable of depicting a woman, Maud Meredith would be regarded as among the very first class of such portraitures.

Next came the Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief, in one volume. It is a story of fashionable life in New-York, in some respects peculiar among Mr. Cooper's works, and was decidedly successful. It appeared originally in a monthly magazine, and was the first of his novels printed in this manner.

Ned Myers, in one volume, which followed in the same year, is a genuine biography, though it was commonly regarded as a fiction.

In the beginning of 1844 Mr. Cooper published Ashore and Afloat, and a few months afterward Miles Wallingford, a sequel to that tale. They have the remarkable minuteness yet boldness of description, and dramatic skill of narration, which render the impressions he produces so deep and lasting. They were as widely read as any of his recent productions.

The extraordinary state of things which for several years has disgraced a part of the state of New-York, where, with unblushing effrontery, the tenants of several large proprietors have refused to pay rents, and claimed, without a shadow of right, to be absolute possessors of the soil, gave just occasion of alarm to the intelligent friends of our institutions; and this alarm increased, when it was observed that the ruffianism of the "anti-renters," as they are styled, was looked upon by many persons of respectable social positions with undisguised approval. Mr. Cooper addressed himself to the exposure and correction of the evil, in a series of novels, purporting to be edited from the manuscripts of a family named Littlepage; and in the preface to the first of these, entitled Satanstoe, a Tale of the Colony, published in 1845, announces his intention of treating it with the utmost freedom, and declares his opinion, that the "existence of true liberty among us, the perpetuity of our institutions, and the safety of public morals, are all dependent on putting down, wholly, absolutely, and unqualifiedly, the false and dishonest theories and statements that have been advanced in connection with this subject." Satanstoe presents a vivid picture of the early condition of colonial New-York. The time is from 1737 to the close of the memorable campaign in which the British were so signally defeated at Ticonderoga. Chainbearer, the second of the series, tracing the family history through the Revolution, also appeared in 1845, and the last, The Red Skins, story of the present day, in 1846. "This book," says the author, in his preface, "closes the series of the Littlepage manuscripts, which have been given to the world as containing a fair account of the comparative sacrifices of time, money, and labor, made respectively by the landlord and the tenants, on a New-York estate, together with the manner in which usages and opinions are changing among us, and the causes of these changes." These books, in which the most important practical truths are stated, illustrated and enforced, in a manner equally familiar and powerful, were received by the educated and right-minded with a degree of favor that showed the soundness of the common mind beyond the crime-infected districts, and their influence will add to the evidences of the value of the novel as a means of upholding principles in art, literature, morals and politics.

The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak, followed in 1847. It is a story of the Pacific, embracing some of Mr. Cooper's finest sea pictures, but altogether is not so interesting as the average of his nautical tales.

Oak Openings, or the Bee-Hunter, came next. It has the merits characteristic of his Indian novels, masterly scene-painting, and decided individuality in the persons introduced.

Jack Tier, or the Florida Reef, appeared in 1848, and is one of the best of the sea stories. The chief character is a woman, deserted by a half smuggler, half buccaneer, whom she joins in the disguise of a sailor, and accompanies undiscovered during a cruise. In vividness of painting and dramatic interest it has rank with the Red Rover and The Pilot.

The Sea Lions, or the Lost Sealers, was published in 1849. It deals to some extent in metaphysics, and its characters are for the most part of humble conditions. It has more of domestic life than any of the other nautical pieces.

In the spring of 1850 came out The Ways of the Hour, the last of this long series of more than thirty novels, and like the Littlepage MSS. it was devoted to the illustration of social and political evils, having for its main subject the constitution and office of juries. In other works Mr. Cooper appears as a conservative; in this as a destructive. The book is ingenious and able, but has not been very successful.

In 1850 Mr. Cooper came out for the first time as a dramatic writer, in a comedy performed at Burton's theatre in New-York. A want of practice in writing for the stage prevented a perfect adaptation of his piece for this purpose, but it was conceded to be remarkable for wit and satirical humor. He has now in press a work illustrative of the social history and condition of New-York, which will be published during the summer by Mr. Putnam, who from time to time is giving to the public the previous works of Mr. Cooper, with his final revisions, and such notes and introductions as are necessary for the new generation of readers. The Leather Stocking Tales, constituting one of the great works to be ranked hereafter with the chief masterpieces of prose fiction in the literature of the world, are among the volumes now printed.

It cannot be denied that Mr. Cooper is personally unpopular, and the fact is suggestive of one of the chief evils in our social condition. In a previous number of this magazine we have asserted the ability and eminently honorable character of a large class of American journals. The spirit of another class, also in many instances conducted with ability, is altogether bad and base; jealous, detracting, suspicious, "delighting to deprave;" betraying a familiarity with low standards in mind and morals, and a consciousness habituated to interested views and sordid motives; degrading every thing that wears the appearance of greatness, sometimes by plain denial and insolent contempt, and sometimes by wretched innuendo and mingled lie and sophistry; effectually dissipating all the romance of character, and all the enthusiasm of life; hating dignity, having no sympathies with goodness, insensible to the very existence of honor as a spring of human conduct; treating patriotism and disinterestedness with an elaborate sneer, and receiving the suggestions of duty with a horse-laugh. There is a difference not easily to be mistaken between the lessening of men which is occasioned by the loftiness of the platform whence the observation is made, and that which is produced by the malignant envy of the observer; between the gloomy judicial ferocity of a Pope or a Tacitus, and the villain levity which revels in the contemplation of imputed faults, or that fiendishness of feeling which gloats and howls over the ruins of reputations which itself has stabbed.

For a few years after Mr. Cooper's return from Europe, he was repeatedly urged by his friends to put a stop to the libels of newspapers by an appeal to the law; but he declined. He perhaps supposed that the common sense of the people would sooner or later discover and right the wrong that was done to him by those who, without the slightest justification, invaded the sacredest privacies of his life for subjects of public observation. He finally decided, at the end of five years after his return, to appeal to the tribunals, in every case in which any thing not by himself submitted to public criticism, in his works, should be offensively treated, within the limits of the state of New-York. Some twenty suits were brought by him, and his course was amply vindicated by unanimous verdicts in his behalf. But the very conduct to which the press had compelled him was made a cause of ungenerous prejudices. He has never objected to the widest latitude or extremest severity in criticisms of his writings, but simply contended that the author should be let alone. With him, individually, the public had nothing to do. In the case of a public officer, slanders may be lived down, but a literary man, in his retirement, has no such means of vindication; his only appeal is to the laws, and if they afford no protection in such cases, the name of law is contemptible.

I enter here upon no discussion of the character of the late Commander Slidell Mackenzie, but observe simply that no one can read Mr. Cooper's volume upon the battle of Lake Erie and retain a very profound respect for that person's sagacity or sincerity. The proprietors of the copyright of Mr. Cooper's abridged Naval History offered it, without his knowledge, to John C. Spencer, then Secretary of the State of New-York, for the school libraries of which that officer had the selection. Mr. Spencer replied with peculiar brevity that he would have nothing to do with such a partisan performance, but soon after directed the purchase of Commander Mackenzie's Life of Commodore Perry, which was entirely and avowedly partisan, while Mr. Cooper's book was rigidly impartial. Commander Mackenzie returned the favor by hanging the Secretary's son. A circumstance connected with this event illustrates what we have said of obtaining justice from the newspapers. A month before Commander Mackenzie's return to New-York in the Somers, Mr. Cooper sent to me, for publication in a magazine of which I was editor, an examination of certain statements in the Life of Perry; but after it was in type, hearing of the terrible mistake which Mackenzie had made, he chose to suffer a continuation of injustice rather than strike a fallen enemy, and so directed the suppression of his criticism. Nevertheless, as the statements in the Life of Perry very materially affected his own reputation, in the following year, when the natural excitement against Mackenzie had nearly subsided, he gave his answer to the press, and was immediately accused in a "leading journal of the country" of having in its preparation devoted himself, from the date of that person's misfortune, to his injury. The reader supposes, of course, that the slander was contradicted as generally as it had been circulated, and that justice was done to the forbearance and delicacy with which Mr. Cooper had acted in the matter; but to this day, neither the journal in which he was assailed, nor one in a hundred of those which repeated the falsehood, has stated these facts. Here is another instance: The late William L. Stone agreed with Mr. Cooper to submit a certain matter of libel for amicable arbitration, agreeing, in the event of a decision against him, to pay Mr. Cooper two hundred dollars toward the expenses he must incur in attending to it. The affair attracted much attention. Before an ordinary court Mr. Cooper should have received ten thousand dollars; but he accepted the verdict agreed upon, the referees deciding without hesitation that he had been grossly wronged by the publication of which he had complained. After the death of Mr. Stone one of the principal papers of the city stated that his widow was poor, and had appealed to Mr. Cooper's generosity for the remission of a fine, which could be of no importance to a gentleman of his liberal fortune, but had been answered with a rude refusal. The statement was entirely and in all respects false, and it was indignantly contradicted upon the authority of President Wayland, the brother of Mrs. Stone; but the editors who gave it currency have never retracted it, and it yet swells the tide of miserable defamation which makes up the bad reputations of so many of the purest of men. Numerous other instances might be quoted to show not only the injustice with which Mr. Cooper has been treated, but the addiction of the press to libel, and its unwillingness to atone for wrongs it has itself inflicted.

It used to be the custom of the North American Review to speak of Mr. Cooper's works as "translated into French," as if thus giving the highest existing evidence of their popularity, while there was not a language in Europe into which they did not all, after the publication of The Red Rover appear almost as soon as they were printed in London. He has been the chosen companion of the prince and the peasant, on the borders of the Volga, the Danube, and the Guadalquivir; by the Indus and the Ganges, the Paraguay and the Amazon; where the name even of Washington was never spoken, and our country is known only as the home of Cooper. The world has living no other writer whose fame is so universal.

Mr. Cooper has the faculty of giving to his pictures an astonishing reality. They are not mere transcripts of nature, though as such they would possess extraordinary merit, but actual creations, embodying the very spirit of intelligent and genial experience and observation. His Indians, notwithstanding all that has been written to the contrary, are no more inferior in fidelity than they are in poetical interest to those of his most successful imitators or rivals. His hunters and trappers have the same vividness and freshness, and in the whole realm of fiction there is nothing more actual, harmonious, and sustained. They evince not only the first order of inventive power, but a profoundly philosophical study of the influences of situation upon human character. He treads the deck with the conscious pride of home and dominion: the aspects of the sea and sky, the terrors of the tornado, the excitement of the chase, the tumult of battle, fire, and wreck, are presented by him with a freedom and breadth of outline, a glow and strength of coloring and contrast, and a distinctness and truth of general and particular conception, that place him far in advance of all the other artists who have attempted with pen or pencil to paint the ocean. The same vigorous originality is stamped upon his nautical characters. The sailors of Smollett are as different in every respect as those of Eugene Sue and Marryat are inferior. He goes on board his ship with his own creations, disdaining all society and assistance but that with which he is thus surrounded. Long Tom Coffin, Tom Tiller, Trysail, Bob Yarn, the boisterous Nightingale, the mutinous Nighthead, the fierce but honest Boltrope, and others who crowd upon our memories, as familiar as if we had ourselves been afloat with them, attest the triumph of this self-reliance. And when, as if to rebuke the charge of envy that he owed his successes to the novelty of his scenes and persons, he entered upon fields which for centuries had been illustrated by the first geniuses of Europe, his abounding power and inspiration were vindicated by that series of political novels ending with The Bravo, which have the same supremacy in their class that is held by The Pilot and The Red Rover among stories of the sea. It has been urged that his leading characters are essentially alike, having no difference but that which results from situation. But this opinion will not bear investigation. It evidently arose from the habit of clothing his heroes alike with an intense individuality, which under all circumstances sustains the sympathy they at first awaken, without the aid of those accessories to which artists of less power are compelled to resort. Very few authors have added more than one original and striking character to the world of imagination; none has added more than Cooper; and his are all as distinct and actual as the personages that stalk before us on the stage of history.

To be American, without falling into Americanism, is the true task that is set before the native artist in literature, the accomplishment of which awaits the reward of the best approval in these times, and the promise of an enduring name. Some of our authors, fascinated very excusably with the faultless models of another age, have declined this condition, and have given us Spectators and Tattlers with false dates, and developed a style of composition of which the very merits imply an anachronism in the proportion of excellence. Others have understood the result to be attained better than the means of arriving at it. They have not considered the difference between those peculiarities in our society, manners, tempers, and tastes, which are genuine and characteristic, and those which are merely defects and errors upon the English system; they have acquired the force and gayety of liberty, but not the dignity of independence, and are only provincial, when they hoped to be national. Mr. Cooper has been more happy than any other writer in reconciling these repugnant qualities, and displaying the features, character, and tone of a great rational style in letters, which, original and unimitative, is yet in harmony with the ancient models.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] The first and second editions appeared in Philadelphia, and the third in Cooperstown. It was reprinted in 1830 in London, Paris, and Brussels: and an abridgment of it, by the author, has been largely introduced into common schools.



STATUE OF JOHN C. CALHOUN, BY HIRAM POWERS.



The above engraving of the statue of JOHN C. CALHOUN is from a daguerreotype taken in Florence immediately after the work was completed, and therefore presents it as it came from the hand of the sculptor, unmutilated by the accidents to which it was subjected in consequence of the wreck of the Elizabeth. The statue of Mr. Calhoun was contracted for, we believe, in 1845, and completed in 1850. It is the first draped or historical full-length by Mr. Powers, and it amply justifies the fame he had won in other performances by the harmonious blending of such particular excellences as he had exhibited in separation. It indeed illustrates his capacities for the highest range of historical portraiture and characterization, and will occasion regrets wherever similar subjects have in recent years been confided to other artists. We have heard that it is in contemplation to place in the park of our own city a colossal figure of Mr. Webster, by the same great sculptor. It is fit that while Charleston glories in the possession of this counterfeit of her dead Aristides (for in the indefectable purity of his public and private life Mr. Calhoun was surpassed by no character in the temples of Grecian or Roman greatness), New-York should be able to point to a statue of the representative of those ideas which are most eminently national, and of which she, as the intellectual and commercial metropolis of the whole country, is the centre. For plastic art, Mr. Webster may be regarded as perhaps the finest subject in modern history, and the head which Thorwaldsen thought must be the artist's ideal of the head of Jove, when modelled to the size of life, in the fit proportions of such a statue as is proposed, would be more imposing than any thing that has appeared in marble since the days of Praxitiles.

This figure of Mr. Calhoun is considerably larger than that of the great senator. The face is represented with singular fidelity as it appeared ten years ago. The incongruous blending of the Roman toga with the palmetto must be borne: civilization is not sufficiently advanced for the historical to be much regarded in art; and our Washingtons, Hamiltons, Websters and Calhouns, must all, like Mr. Booth and Mr. Forrest, come before us in the character of Brutus. With this exception as to the design, every critic must admit the work to be faultless; and Charleston may well be proud of a monument to her legislator, which illustrates her taste while it reminds her of his purity, dignity, and watchful care of her interests.

By the wreck of the ship Elizabeth, the left arm of the statue was broken off, and the fragment has not been recovered.



NELL GWYNNE.



The above picture is from Sir Peter Lely's portrait, copied in the Memoirs of Grammont. Nell Gwynne has been the heroine of a dozen books, in the last ten years, and a very interesting work respecting her life and times is now being published in The Gentleman's Magazine. We copy the following article, with its illustrations, from the Art Journal, in which it appears as one of Mrs. S. C. Hall's "Pilgrimages to English Shrines."

There may be some who will object to the application of so honored a term to the dwelling of an actress of lost repute; but surely that may be a "shrine" where consideration can be taught—where mercy is to be learned—and—that which is "greater" than even faith and hope—charity!

However agreeable may be the present, and we have no reason to complain of it in any way, there is inexhaustible delight in reverting to the past. We do not mean living over again our own days; for though, if we could "pick and choose," there are sundry portions of our lives we might desire to repeat, yet, beginning from the beginning, taking the bad and the good "straight on," there can be few, men or women, who would willingly pass again through the whole of a gone-by career. And this, properly considered, is one of our greatest blessings; stifling much of vain regret, and teaching us to "look forward" to the future. We have always had, if we may so call it, a domestic rambling propensity; a desire to see "dwellings," not so much for their pictorial as their, so to say, personal celebrity: and sometimes, as on our visit to Barley Wood, this longing comes upon us at the wrong season, when a cheerful fire at "home" would be a meet companion. It is now six years ago—six years, last month—that, pacing along Pall Mall, we paused, and turned to the left hand corner of St. James's Square, full of painful and un-English memories of the Asiatic court of the second Charles; the sovereign who had endured adversity without discovering that "sweet are its uses;" who had "suffered tribulation" without "learning mercy"—the king who makes us doubt if, as a people, we have any claim to what is called "national character"—for the change that came over England, within a few brief years, from gloomy fanaticism to reckless license, is one of the marvels that give to history the aspect of romance. We had been walking round Whitehall,[B] recalling the change that had swept away nearly all relics of the past in that quarter, and strolled so far out of our home-ward path to look at the house in Pall Mall (recently removed from its place) which tradition says was the dwelling of Nell Gwynne, besides her apartment at Whitehall, to which she was entitled by virtue of her office as lady of the bed-chamber to a most outraged queen. One of our friends remembers supping in the back room on the ground-floor of that very house, the said room being called "the Mirror Chamber," because the walls were panelled with looking-glass[C]. There are others who affirm that Nelly lodged at the opposite side of Pall Mall, because Evelyn gossips of her leaning from her window, "talking to the king," who was lounging in St. James's Park, thereby wounding the propriety of many, who think vice only vice when it becomes notorious. Evelyn was always sadly perplexed by his faithful and high devotion to Charles, the king, and his abhorrence of the vices of Charles, the man; while Pepys jogged on, sometimes in the royal seraglio, sometimes at church, sometimes with my Lady Castlemaine, sometimes with "Knip" at the "king's house," seeing, admiring, and repeating—his morality held in abeyance; and yet always, even to the kissing of "Mistress Nelly," "a sweet pretty soul," companioned by his wife. If Pepys was a curiosity, what must Madame Pepys have been![D] What must the "court set" of those days have been, when we are absolutely refreshed by turning from them to the uneducated but frank-hearted and generous woman,—tainted as she is to all history by the worse than imperfections arising out of her position, yet redeemed in a degree, by virtues, which, in that profligate court, were entirely her own!



The scene in St. James's Park to which Evelyn refers, was an index to the age[E].

Blessed as we are in the knowledge that nowhere in England are the domestic virtues better cultivated or more truly flourishing than in our own pure and high-souled court, we are almost inclined to treat as a mythological fable, the history of Whitehall during the reign of Charles the Second. No one trait of the father's better nature redeems that of the son. His life was indeed

"a sad epicure's dream,"

and worse. He was not worthy even of the earnest devotion which the poor orange-girl, of all his favorites, alone manifested to the last.

Poor Nell! the sympathy which every right-thinking woman feels it a Christian duty to give to her and her class, far from extenuating vice, is only a call upon the virtuous to be more virtuous, and to the pure to be more pure. No one would plunge into crime, merely for the sake of being redeemed therefrom; no one take the sin, who looked first at the shame, hideous and enduring as it must be—however overshadowed by the broad wings of mercy; the burn of the brand can never be effaced, however skilfully healed. And when the wit, the loveliness, the generosity, the fidelity of "Madame Ellen," when the memory of the well-spent evening of her checkered life, and the allowance we make for the early impressions of a young creature, called upon to sing her first songs in a tavern, and sell oranges in the depraved and depraving saloon of "the King's House;"—when all these aids are exerted to excite our sympathy, we only accord the sentiment of pity to "poor Nell Gwynne!"

While looking at the house said to have been inhabited by this "femme d'esprit par la grace de Dieu!" we vowed a pilgrimage to Sandford Manor House, at Sandy End, Fulham,—to the dwelling where there is no doubt she spent many summer months. Near as it is to our own, we were doubtful of the way, and determined to inquire of our opposite neighbor, who keeps the old Brompton tollbar.

"Sandford Manor House," repeated he, "I never heard tell of such a place in these parts. Whereabouts is it?"

"Exactly what we want to know. It is a very old dilapidated house, by the side of a little stream that runs into the Thames somewhere by Old Chelsea. I think you must have heard of it. It was once inhabited by the famous Nell Gwynne." I might almost as well have talked Hebrew to our neighbor, who seemed born to lay in wait for market-carts, and pounce upon them for toll.



"Old house! Nell Gwynne!" he again repeated, and something like an expression of life and interest moved his features while he added—"It's the Nell Gwynne public-house you're after, I'm thinking; that was in Chelsea; but whether it's there now or not, is more than I can tell."

"No, no," we answered, perhaps, sharply, "it is the house she lived in we want to see—Sandford Manor House."

"Perhaps it's the madhouse," he suggested. We walked on. "Please," said a little rosy-faced boy, "if you want to find out any thing about old houses, Hill, the rat-catcher, knows them all, as he hunts up the rats and sparrows about; and you have only to go down Thistle Grove, into the Fulham road—straight on. His is a low house, ma'am—his name in the window—you can't pass it, for the birds and white mice."

And is there no one left, we thought, to tell where the witty, light-hearted, true-hearted Nelly lived—she who was the friend of Dryden and Lee, the favorite of Lord Buckhurst, the rival of the Duchess of Cleveland, the protector of the soldiers of England—the one unselfish friend of the selfish Charles? Is there no one in a district that once echoed with the praise of her charities—no one to tell where she resided, but Hill, the old rat-catcher? We proceeded through the prettily-built, but gangrened-looking, cottages located in Thistle Grove, once called Brompton Heath, (or Marsh, we forget which,) until the sounds of traffic reminded us that we were in the Fulham road. Presently the sharp voice of a starling, just above us, attracted our attention.

"Poor Tom!" said the bird—"Tom!—poor Tom!"

The old rat-catcher invited us to enter. He is a man of powerful frame, with a massive head, fringed round with an abundance of gray hair, with deep well-set eyes, and a quiet smile. Two sharp, bitter-looking, wiry-haired terriers began smelling, casting their sly eyes upwards, to see if we feared them or were friendly to their advances, and, after a moment or two, seemed sufficiently satisfied with the scrutiny to warrant their wagging their short stumpy tails in rude welcome. The room was hung round with cages of the songbirds of England—some content with their captivity, others restless, and passing to and fro in front of the wires, eager for escape. Strong inclosures, containing both rats and ferrets, were ranged along the sides of the small room; the latter, long, yellow, pink-eyed, and pink-nosed creatures, lithe as a willow wand, courting notice; while the rats, on the contrary, moved their whiskers in defiance, and, with bright, black, determined eyes, sat lumped up in the distant corners of their dens, ready 'to die game,' if die they must. Gay-colored finches, the gold and the green, graced the window in little brown bob cages; while mice of all colors, from the burnt sienna-colored dormouse, who was more than half asleep within the skin of an apple which it had scooped out, to the matronly white mouse, who was sitting composedly amid a progeny of thirteen young ones, attracted groups of little gazers, every now and then dispersed by the larger terrier, who ran out amongst them, snarling and threatening, but doing them no harm. "Come in, old chap; that will do, old fellow," said his master, adding, "I would not keep a dog that would hurt any thing but a varmint."

"Oh, oh! Nell's old house," he replied to our inquiries; "Nell Gwynne's house at Sandy End, where runs the little river they deepened into a canal—the stream I mean that divides Chelsea from Fulham—Sandford Manor House! Ay, that I do, and I'd match it against any house in the county for rats!—terrible place—I lost two ferrets there, this time two years, and one of them was found t'other side of the canal; it must have been a pleasant place in those days, when the king was making his private road through the Chelsea fields, and the stream was as clear as a thrush's eye, and birds of all sorts were so tamed by Madame Ellen, that they'd come when she'd call them. Ah, a pretty woman might catch a king, but it's only a kind one that could tame the wild birds of the air; I know that; I'll show you the way with pleasure." "Poor Tom," sung out the starling. "Your bird is calling you," we observed, after he had told his wife not to let the jay pick "the splints" off his broken leg, and we were leaving the door. "It's not me he's calling," answered the old man, with a heavy sigh. "Now that's a bit of nature, ma'am. A bird, I'm thinking, remembers longer than a Christian does. Poor Tom's wife is married again, but the starling still calls for its master. It's hard to say, what they do or do not know; the bird often wrings my heart; but for all that, I could not part with him." At any other time we would have asked him the reason, but just then we were thinking more of Nell Gwynne than of our guide. We walked on, until we came to the "World's End." "It is nothing but a common public-house now," observed our companion, who had not spoken again, except to his dog: "but I remember when it was more than that; and, moreover, in Nell's time, it was a place of great resort for noblemen and fine ladies—a royal tea-garden, they say—filled with the best of good company; they liked the country and the open air in those days." We continued silent, until at last our guide called "Stop!" so suddenly, as to make us start. "Do you see that bank just under the arch of the bridge we stand on? The hardest day's work I ever had was digging an old rat out of that bank. This is Sandy End; and that house opposite is Sandford Manor House[F]."

There was nothing in the sight of those green, grim walls to excite any feeling of romance. Yet positively our heart beat more rapidly than usual for a minute or two—"a way it has" when we are at all interested. We turned down a lane seamed with ruts, by the side of a paling black with gas tar. We passed two or three exceedingly old houses, and one in particular with three windows in front. It was evident that the paling had been run across the garden, which must have been very extensive. After waiting a few minutes for permission from the master of the gas-works, to whom the Manor House belonged, to enter, an elderly man of respectable appearance opened the gate, and told us he resided there, and that the servant would show us all over the house. The rat-catcher commenced poking his stick into the various mounds of earth wherever there was the appearance of a hole, and his dogs became at once busy and animated. There was but one of the three walnut trees said to have been planted by royal hands, remaining, and that stood gnarled, and thick, and stunted, close to the present entrance—bent it was, like a thing whose pleasantest days are gone, and which cares not how soon it may be gathered into the garner. A circular plot of thick green grass was directly opposite the hall door, and in its centre grew a young golden holly, some of the turf being cleared away from round its root. This was encircled by a fair gravel walk, leading to the house, which was entered through a rustic porch, covered with ivy; very old and rampant it was, and its deep heavy foliage, so densely green, had a pall-like look, as it rustled and sighed in the sharp keen air. It was flanked by two cypress trees, well-shaped and well-grown. Dank ivy and deep cypress where the living Nell would have twined roses and passion-flowers! You see the old door-way when under the porch; it is of no particular order, but massive and pointed,—the hall is like the usual entrance to old-fashioned country-houses, panelled with oak. The staircase is very remarkable, as Mr. Fairholt's sketch will show; broad twisted iron rods, of great thickness, springing from the oak square pillars which flank the turnings, and assisting to support the flight above. The room on the right is large, the ceiling low, the windows deep set in the thick walls. A very gentle looking little maid was nursing a pretty white cat by the fire; her young fresh face and bright smile were like sunbeams in a tomb; what did she there? We could fancy old withered crones in such a dwelling, rather than a fair tender child, and yet she looked so happy, and so full of joy! The opposite room had been fitted up as a kitchen, and was clean and cold. We paced up the stairs so often trodden by Nell's small feet, when they descended briskly to meet the lounging heavy footfalls of her royal master, whom she loved for himself, and careless of her own future, as she was of her own person, cared more for the honor of the indolent Charles, than ever he cared for his own! In nature, in feeling, in all honors save the one, how superior was the poor orange-girl to her rivals; they envied and slandered each other, disdaining no article to fix the fancy of the king, who desired nothing more than that they should all live peaceably together, and was not able to comprehend why they did not agree when he endeavored to please them; they copied each other—but Nell resembled only herself. Instead of going like the generality of her sex from bad to worse, the more her opportunities of evil increased, the better she became. The ladies of the court swore, drank, and gambled; it was the fashion to be coarse and vicious, and the more coarse they were, the better they pleased the English Sultan; and if the poor orange-girl endeavored to keep her lover by what bound him to others,—where's the wonder? Her manners had their full taste of the time; but we look in vain elsewhere for the generous bravery, the kind thoughts, the disinterested acts, which have retained her in our memories. "Poor Nell!" we said aloud, "poor, poor Nell!" "Please, if you will only go on, I will show you her bed-room and dressing-room, them's little more than closets; but this was her bed-room, and that, the madam's dressing-room," said the servant, a little impatient of delay. Both rooms were furnished, but cold and gloomy; the floor of what the girl called her dressing-room was chippy and worm-eaten. "And there," persisted the servant, "in that corner just by, if not in that little cupboard, the money was found." "What money?" "The money the madam, or some one about her, forgot, fifteen thousand good pounds, I am told; and a gentleman came here once, who told me he had some of the coins that were discovered there." "That must be a mistake," we said. "Oh, there's no knowing. Why should the gentleman tell a story?" We saw the girl was determined we should believe her, contrary both to our knowledge and reason, so we made no further observation, while she muttered that she would "just go and put her own room straight a bit." We were left alone in Nell's dressing-chamber! She never bestowed much time upon her toilet; and Burnet, who was particularly hard upon her at all times, says that, after her "elevation," she continued "to hang on her clothes with the same slovenly negligence;" and, truly, Sir Peter Lely, would make it appear that all the "ladies" of the court, however rich the materials that composed their dresses, and well assorted the colors, "hung" them full carelessly over their persons; nay, it would be difficult to imagine how they could stand up without their dresses falling off; they certainly have a most uncomfortable look[G]. However she dressed, she certainly succeeded in winning, and even keeping, the fancy (for we may doubt if he had any affection for the ministers of his vices) of Charles until the end. And although Burnet was marvellously angry that at such a time the thought of such a "creature" should find its way into the mind when it was about to lay aside the draperies of royalty for the realities of eternity—yet the only little passage in the life of the voluptuary that ever touched us was, his entreaty to his brother James, "Not to let poor Nelly starve!" We closed our eyes in reverie, and endeavored to picture the "beauties" upon whom the licentious king conferred a shameful immortality. Unfortunately the most powerful female influence in the Cabinet has generally been exercised by worthless women; an argument, if one were needed, to prove that a woman is little tempted to interfere with State affairs if her mind is untainted, and directed to the source of woman's legitimate power.