Another decision, arising out of the same trial, | discussion in the Second Chamber on an address is yet more curious. Mr. Hartley had left £200 to the sovereign, expressing dissatisfaction with for the best essay on Emigration, and appointed the American Minister trustee of the fund. This bequest was also declared void, on the ground that such an essay would encourage persons to emigrate to the United States, and so throw off their allegiance to the Queen! The race of Justice Shallows seems not to be extinct. In FRANCE, after the passage of the electoral law, a bill was presented for increasing the President's salary to 3,600,000 francs per annum. Its introduction created considerable feeling. The committee to which it was referred reported in its stead a bill granting 1,600,000 francs to defray expenses incurred at the President's inauguration and this was afterward modified so as to grant 2,160,000 for the expenses of the President, in which form it was adopted by the Assembly, by a vote of 354 to 308, a majority of 46 for the government. This is regarded as a government triumph, but it was not won until after a sharp struggle, and it has increased very considerably the public disaffection.New laws for the restriction of the press have also been brought forward. The amount of caution money which newspapers are required to deposit is increased, and the system of postage stamps is introduced. During the discussion of these laws on the 8th of July, a scene of some warmth occurred in the Assembly. M. Rouher, in the course of a speech, spoke of the revolution of February as a great catastrophe, for which he was immediately called to order by Girardin, recently elected a member by the department of the Lower Rhine, as well as by others. The President refused to call him to order, but rebuked those who had interrupted him. The laws in regard to the press have been declared "urgent" by a vote of 370 to 251. the conduct of the government on the German question; and the Second Chamber broke up in solemn silence, withholding the usual cheers for the king. The Wurtemburg Diet, for a similar reason, was prorogued on the 4th. The German senate has given its consent for the meeting of the Peace Congress at Frankfort, and its sessions will commence on the 23d of August. It is to be a New World's Convention of the Friends of Peace. The King of PRUSSIA has recovered from the wound inflicted by the assassin Sefeloge. A royal decree has been published at Berlin, curtailing still further the Freedom of the Press. The system of "caution-money" is re-estab lished, with the government powers of cancel. ing the license to sell newspapers, and of refusing conveyance by post to obnoxious journals; and certain offenses against the press laws are "withdrawn from the competency of a jury." Among the journals affected by the decree is the London Punch, which has been proscribed in the city of Konigsberg and its province, and placed on the list of journals that are no longer permitted to pass through the post-office. From PORTUGAL we have intelligence of dif ficulties with this country, growing out of claims on that government which have been in existence for many years. The amount claimed is about $300,000. The principal one grows out of the destruction of the American ship, the General Armstrong, during the war of 1812, by a British fleet, while lying in the neutral port of Fayal, and therefore entitled to the protection of the Portuguese government. According to the law of nations, Portugal is responsible for her failure to protect her; and although Great Britain is the party in equity responsible, the United States have to look, in conformity to law, only to Portugal. The claims have been unsuccessfully pressed for a number of years; but the administration of General Taylor demanded an immediate settlement. Our Chargé, Mr. CLAY, under instructions, had required an answer to his demands within twenty days, and an American squadron had meantime arrived In GERMANY the settlement of the Constitution in the Tagus to enforce them. Some uneasimakes little progress. The Saxon chambers ness was felt as to the issue, but it was believed were suddenly dissolved on the 1st, to evade a that the Portuguese government would yield -A man named WALKER has been arrested, on his own confession of a design to assassinate Louis Napoleon, for which purpose he had waited several hours for him to pass out of his gate. He proves to have been insane. -M. THIERS has been on a visit to London, where he was received with distinction. He visited Louis Philippe, whose health is said to be failing. LITERARY NOTICES. LIFE AND LETTERS OF THOMAS CAMPBELL. Edited by William Beattie. In two volumes, 8vo, pp. 1077. New York: Harper and Brothers. THIS charming piece of biography is already familiar to the reading public in this country, from the copious and flattering notices it has received from the British journals and reviews. It will be welcomed in its present complete form by every lover of literary history, no less than by the admirers of the favorite poet of "The Pleasures of Hope." The author had abundance of materials at his command, and has executed his task with commendable industry and good taste. In any hands, the subject could not be without intense interest, and as it has been treated in the volumes before us, possesses a fascination rarely found in any recent producFree use is made of the letters of CAMPBELL, many of which are of the highest order of epistolary composition, abounding in those delicate and expressive touches which reveal the heart of the man and the genius of the poet in the purest and most beautiful light. tion. The American edition is introduced by a letter of WASHINGTON IRVING to the publishers, in which our admirable countryman relates some personal reminiscences of CAMPBELL with so much felicity and exquisite grace, that we can not avoid transferring them to our pages: "My acquaintance with Campbell commenced in, I think, 1810, through his brother Archibald, a most amiable, modest, and intelligent man, but more of a mathematician than a poet. He resided at that time in New York, and had received from his brother a manuscript copy of "O'Connor's Child; or, the Flower of Love lies bleeding," for which he was desirous of finding a purchaser among the American publishers. I negotiated the matter for him with a publishing house in Philadelphia, which offered a certain sum for the poem, provided I would write a biographical sketch of the author to be prefixed to a volume containing all his poetical works. To secure a good price for the poet, I wrote the sketch, being furnished with facts by his brother; in was done, however, in great haste, when I was not in the vein,' and, of course, was very slight and imperfect. It served, however, to put me at once on a friendly footing with Campbell, so that, when I met him for the first time a few years subsequently in England, he received me as an old friend. He was living at that time in his rural retreat at Sydenham. His modest mansion was fitted up in a simple style, but with a tact and taste characteristic of the occupants. *Campbell's appearance was more in unison with his writings than is generally the case with authors. He was about thirty-seven years of age; of the middle size; lightly and genteelly made: evidently of a delicate, sensitive organization, with a fine intellectual countenance and a beaming poetic eye. He had now been about twelve years married. Mrs. Campbell still retained much of that personal beauty for which he praises her in his letters written in the early days of matrimony; and her mental qualities seemed equaly to justify his eulogies: a rare circumstance, as none are more prone to dupe themselves in affairs of the heart than men of lively imaginations. She was, in fact, a more suitable wife for a poet than poet's wives are apt to be; and for once a son of song had married a reality and not a poetical fiction. "I had considered the ea y productions of Campbell as brilliant indications of a genius yet to be developed, and trusted that, during the long interval which had elapsed, he had been preparing something to fulfill the to find that, as yet, he had contemplated no great and public expectation; I was greatly disappointed, therefore, sustained effort. My disappointment in this respect was shared by others, who took the same interest in his fame, and entertained the same idea of his capacity. There he is, cooped up in Sydenham,' said a great Edinburgh critic to me, simmering his brains to serve up a little dish of poetry, instead of pouring out a whole cal dron.' "Scott, too, who took a cordial delight in Campbell's poetry, expressed himself to the same effect. What a pity is it,' said he to me, 'that Campbell does not give him up to the skies, and he does now and then spread full sweep to his genius. He has wings that would bear them grandly, but folds them up again and resumes his perch, as if afraid to launch away. The fact is, he is a bugbear to himself. The brightness of his early success is a detriment to all his future efforts. He is afraid of the shadow that his own fame casts before him.' "Little was Scott aware at the time that he, in truth, was a 'bugbear' to Campbell. This I infer from an observation of Mrs. Campbell's in reply to an expression of regret on my part that her husband did not attempt something on a grand scale. It is unfortunate for Campbell,' said she, 'that he lives in the same age with Scott and Byron.' I asked why. 'Oh,' said she, they write so much and so rapidly. Now Campbell writes slowly, and it takes him some time to get under way; and just as he has fairly begun, out comes one of their poems, that sets the world agog and quite daunts him, so that he throws by his pen in despair.' "I pointed out the essential difference in their kinds of poetry, and the qualities which insured perpetuity to that of her husband. You can't persuade Campbell of that,' said she. He is apt to undervalue his own works, and to consider his own little lights put out whenever they come blazing out with their great torches.' "I repeated the conversation to Scott some time afterward, and it drew forth a characteristic comment. "Pooh!' said he, good humoredly, how can Campbell mistake the matter so much. Poetry goes by quality, not by bulk. My poems are mere cairngorms, wrought up, perhaps, with a cunning hand, and may pass well in the market as long as cairngorms are the fashion; but they are mere Scotch pebbles after all; now Tom Campbell's are real diamonds, and diamonds of the first water.' "I have not time at present to furnish personal anecdotes of my intercourse with Campbell, neither does it afford any of a striking nature. Though extending over a number of years, it was never very intimate. His residence in the country, and my long intervals of absence on the Continent, rendered our meetings few and far between. To tell the truth, I was not much drawn to Campbell, having taken up a wrong notion concerning him from seeing him at times when his mind was ill at ease, and preyed upon by secret griefs. I had thought him disposed to be querulous and captious, and had heard his apparent discontent attributed to jealous repining at the success of his poetical contemporaries. In a word, I knew little of him but what might be learned in the casual intercourse of general society, whereas it required the close communion of confidential friendship to sound the depths of his character and know the treasures of excel lence hidden beneath its surface. Besides, he was logged these and many more traits set forth in his biography bring forth his character in its true light, dispel those clouds which malice and detraction may at times have cast over it, and leave it in the full effulgence of its poetic glory." THE LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF ANDREW COMBE, M.D. By George Combe. Philadelphia A. Hart. 12mo, pp. 424. for years by certain malignant scribblers, who took a pleasure in misrepresenting all his actions, and holding lum up in an absurd and disparaging point of view. In what this hostility originated I do not know, but it must have given much annoyance to his sensitive mind, and may have affected his popularity. I know not to what else to attribute a circumstance to which I was a witness during my last visit to England. It was at an annual dinner of the Literary Fund at which Prince Albert presided, and where was collected much of the prominent talent of the kingdom. In the course of the evening Campbell rose to make a speech. I had not seen him THE remarkable popularity of the works of for years, and his appearance showed the effect of age ANDREW COMBE on Physiology and Hygiene, in and ill health; it was evident also, that his mind was this country, will make the present biography obfuscated by the wine he had been drinking. He an object of interest with a very large number was confused and tedious in his remarks; still, there of readers. It is written with singular impar. was nothing but what one would have thought would be received with indulgence, if not deference, from a veteran of his fame and standing, a living classic. On the contrary, to my surprise, I soon observed signs of impatience in the company; the poet was repeatedly interrupted by coughs and discordant sounds, and as often endeavored to proceed; the noise at length down, sinking into his chair overwhelmed and disconcerted. I could not have thought such treatment possi became intolerable, and he was absolutely clamored ble to such a person at such a meeting. "Hallam, author of the Literary History of the Middle Ages, who sat by me on this occasion, marked the mortification of the poet, and it excited his generous sympa thy. Being shortly afterward on the floor to reply to a of Campbell, and in so doing called up in review all his toast, he took occasion to advert to the recent remarks eminent achievements in the world of letters, and drew such a picture of his claims upon popular gratitude and popular admiration as to convict the assembly of the glaring impropriety they had been guilty of-to soothe the wounded sensibility of the poet, and send him home to, I trust, a quiet pillow. "I mention these things to illustrate the merit of the piece of biography which you are about to lay before the American world. It is a great act of justice to the memory of a distinguished man, whose character has not been sufficiently known. It gives an insight into his domestic as well as his literary life, and lays open the springs of all his actions and the causes of all his contrariety of conduct. We now see the real difficulties he had to contend with in the earlier part of his literary career; the worldly cares which pulled his spirit to the earth whenever it would wing its way to the skies; the domestic afflictions, tugging at his heart-strings even in his hours of genial intercourse, and converting his very smiles into spasms; the anxious days and sleepless nights preying upon his delicate organization, producing that morbid sensitiveness and nervous irritability which at times overlaid the real sweetness and amenity of his nature, and obscured the unbounded generosity of his heart. "The biography does more: it reveals the affectionate considerateness of his conduct in all the domestic relations of life. The generosity with which he shared his narrow means with all the members of his family, and tasked his precarious resources to add to their relief; his deep-felt tenderness as a husband and a father, the source of exquisite home-happiness for a time, but ultimately of unmitigated wretchedness; his constant and devoted friendships, which in early life were almost romantic passions, and which remained unwithered by age: his sympathies with the distressed of every nation, class, and condition; his love of children, that infallible sign of a gentle and amiable nature; his sensibility to beauty of every kind; his cordial feeling toward his literary contemporaries, so opposite to the narrow and despicable jealousy imputed to him; above all, the crowning romance of his life, his enthusiasm in the cause of suffering Poland, a devotion carried to the height of his poetic temperament, and, in fact, exhausting all that poetic vein which, properly applied, might have produced epics; tiality, indeed with too little of the spirit of affectionate admiration, by the celebrated George Combe, whose own writings on the constitution of man and the observance of physical laws, have made him a general favorite in many intelligent circles, which have no peculiar interest in the special department of science with which his name has been identified. Each of the brothers has the merit of presenting important principles in plain language. With utility for their motto, they have written for the mass of the people, and, perhaps, have done more for the diffusion of popular knowledge, than many authors whose intellectual pretensions are far superior to their own. Destitute, to a remarkable degree, of every ray of imagination, with no approach to the creative power, which is the test of genius, their writings are marked with a robust common sense, a patience and clearness of statement, and a fertility of simple, homely illustration, which account for their deep impression on the popular mind. In early life, the subject of this memoir displayed none of the brilliant qualities which give promise of future eminence. He was shy and reserved in his manners, and with no facility in the use of words, though often showing a certain droll humor in his actions. His progress in learning was slow, though this may be ascribed in part to the injudicious method which was pursued in his education. While engaged in his medical studies, he first made the acquaintance of Dr. Spurzheim, an event which decided the direction of his mind for the remainder of his life. This soon ripened into intimate friendship, which was cherished by frequent personal intercourse with Spurzheim during a visit at Paris. He at once became a zealous convert to the doctrines of Phrenology, making them the basis of his medical practice, and his anthropological system. COMBE's health early received a severe shock, From an imprudent exposure to cold, Dr. from the effects of which his system never fully recovered. His subsequent life was that of an habitual invalid. He was forced to maintain a constant battle with disease. While spreading the principles of health in a multitude of house. holds, wherever the English language is spoken, by his lucid writings on the subject, he was scarcely permitted for a single day to enjoy the inestimable treasure. He, consequently, spent no small portion of his time in traveling in dif- union of narrative and description, which forms a leading feature of the series, is managed by Mr. Lossing with remarkable dexterity, and gives a perpetual charm to the composition. In the five numbers already issued, we have a graphic survey of the scenery and historical reminiscences of the portion of the State of New York and of Canada, which is embraced within the routes of our fashionable summer tourists. They describe the principal theatre of the French and Indian Wars, and many of the most interesting localities of the American Rev He left the character of a man of sterling integrity, excellent judgment, admirable candor and fairness of mind, a single-hearted devotion to truth, and a disposition of rare kindness and disinterested humanity. His biography will be read with satisfaction, by those who feel them-olution, including Glenn's Falls, Lake George, selves indebted to his writings. It is simple, honest, unpretending, like its subject. With the singularly prosaic mind of Mr. George Combe, no one can expect to find it animated with any living glow. It records the life of a public benefactor, but with as little freshness or enthusiasm, as if the author were giving a Phreno-impression of the great battle-grounds of the logical lecture on a collection of skulls. DR. JOHNSON; HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE AND HIS DEATH. New York: Harper and Brothers. 12.0, pp. 405. Ticonderoga and Champlain from Whitehall to St. John's, Montreal, Quebec, the St. Lawrence to Kingston, Lake Ontario, Niagara, and a part of the Upper Valley of the Mohawk—all truly classic ground to the lover of American history. Whoever would obtain an accurate and indelible Revolution, while seeking recreation in a summer jaunt, should not fail to make these beautiful numbers his traveling companions. Harper and Brothers have reprinted SYDNEY SMITH'S posthumous Lectures entitled Sketches of Moral Philosophy, which is introduced with THE author of this volume is not surpassed a commendatory letter by Lord Jeffrey, written by Boswell in reverence for "the Great Old | but a few days before his death, wherein he says Samuel," but happily is not infected with his that these Lectures "will do their author as puerilities. His book is a favorable specimen much credit as any thing he ever wrote, and of the right kind of "Hero Worship," dealing produce on the whole a stronger impression by tenderly with every relic of the departed, and the force and vivacity of his intellect, as well as religiously gathering every precious tribute to a truer and more engaging view of his character his memory. It reproduces a variety of char- than what the world has yet seen of his writacteristic events and scenes in the life of DR. ings. The book seems to me to be full of good JOHNSON, without having the air of a compilation. sense, acuteness, and right feeling-very clearly No source of information seems to have been and pleasingly written-and with such an adoverlooked, while the labors of previous writers mirable mixture of logical intrepidity, with the are so digested and arranged as to give the absence of all dogmatism, as is rarely met with effect of an original production. The main sub- in the conduct of such discussions." The verject to which the volume is devoted, is the satile author discusses a great variety of topics, illustration of DR. JOHNSON's religious charac- slenderly connected it is true, with Metaphysics ter, but numerous attractive episodes are also or Moral Philosophy, and on this account has introduced, which relieve it from all tendency left a far more readable volume, than if it had to monotony. The last incidents in his life are been rigidly devoted to the questions which it described with peculiar interest. Several chap-professes to treat. His remarks are always ters are wholly occupied with his Churchman-lively, pointed, and apposite, betraying a famil ship, and under different heads, we have a iar knowledge of the world, and a quick perspirited description of his humanity, his treat-ception of the bearing and character of current ment of dissenters, his views of monastic life, his sympathy with Roman Catholics, and his superstition, all the statements being fortified with quotations from his own language. Various questions of collateral interest are discussed by the author, as suggested by the topics under review, and are usually treated with equal ability and religious feeling. The work will doubtless be received as a valuable complement to our Johnsonian literature. Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, published by Harper and Brothers, has reached its fifth number, and fully sustains the wide reputation which it has acquired, as an elegant, spirited, and instructive work on American history. The events, while their caustic wit is usually attempered with an inexhaustible fountain of good humor. We have received The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil, volume 2d, from the veteran editor of whose zeal and ability in maintaining the doctrine of "harmony" and mutual dependence between all the great branches of domestic industry, it affords abundant evidence. Mr. Skinner contends, with every appearance of assured conviction, that as our country spreads over so many latitudes, and embraces climates and resources more various and abundant than any other, our policy, too, should be peculiar; and that instead of importing iron, cloth, and other manufactures, for which we have materials, or capabilities inexhaustible, we should import men, as the best of all importations, whose de- densed generalizations are often profound and mands, while occupied with other industries, always suggestive. would create a steady and remunerating market for the products of agriculture, which, he insists, would be, of all things, the surest guarantee for improvements in the art of terra-culture. This enterprise is one of the ablest of the kind, to illustrate the importance of placing the consumer by the side of the agriculturist; and whether reference be had to the long services of the editor in the cause of cultivators of the soil, or the earnestness and power with which he and his correspondents enforce their doctrine, there can be no hesitation in saying, that those who unite with them in opinion will do well to give encouragement to The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil. It is but justice to add, that it is well printed on fine paper, giving no less than 64 pages monthly, at the rate of $5 for two subscribers, or $3 for one. Edited and published by that old and tried soldier in the cause-the founder of the first agricultural journal in the United States-J. S. SKINNER, 79, Walnut-street, Philadelphia. Phillips, Sampson, and Co. have published a new edition of The Rebels, one of the earliest and most popular novels of the admirable Mrs. Child. Its character is too well known to authorize criticism at this time, and its reproduction in the present edition will gratify the troops of friends, with whom the author is a distinguished favorite. The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, edited by C. EDWARDS LESTER, Esq. has reached its seventh number, which contains a portrait and biographical sketch of the distinguished ornithologist, J. J. AUDUBON. The engraving presents a delightful view of the intellectual and expressive features of the veteran forester, savan, and art. ist, while the sketch by Mr. Lester gives a rapid and satisfactory summary of the principal incidents in his adventurous life. The daguerreotypes by BRADY, and the lithographs by D'AVIGNON, throughout this series, are highly creditable specimens of their respective arts. The biographical notices are carefully written and beautifully printed. The previous numbers embrace Taylor, Calhoun, Webster, Wright, Clay, and Fremont-and that our readers may form some idea of the striking fidelity of the Portraits, we present, in a previous page, the well-known likeness of our late President, copied on wood by Lossing, from the first number of the work. A. Hart, Philadelphia, has reprinted from the English edition, The Phantom World, from the French of CALMET, with a Preface and Notes by Rev. HENRY CHRISTMAS, giving a general survey of the history and philosophy of spirits, apparitions, ghosts, elves, fairies, spooks, bogles, bugaboos, and hobgoblins. It will probably meet with an extensive circulation in these days when Connecticut divines are haunted by infernal visits, and the Rochester sibyls are on exhibition in New York. Dies Boreales, or Christopher Under Canvas, is republished from Blackwood's Magazine in a neat edition, by A. Hart, Philadelphia, and will meet with a warm reception from the innumerable admirers of the noble, eloquent, impassioned, kaleidoscopic, frisky, and genial old Christopher. Among the valuable scientific serials now issuing from the New York press, is The Dictionary of Mechanics, Engine Works, and Engineering, edited by OLIVER BYRNE, and published by D. Appleton and Co. Of this work we have thirteen numbers, which bring the subjects, in alphabetical order, to the article on One of the most remarkable books of the month is The Logic and Utility of Mathematics, by CHARLES DAVIES, LL.D., published by Barnes and Co. It is not intended as a treatise on any special branch of mathematical science, and demands for its full appreciation a general acquaintance with the leading methods and routine of mathematical investigation. To those who have a natural fondness for this pursuit, and enjoy the leisure for a retrospect of their favorite studies, the present volume will possess a charm, not surpassed by the fascinations of a romance. It is an elaborate and lucid exposition of the principles which lie at the foundation of pure mathematics, with a highly ingenious application of their results to the development of the essential idea of Arithmetic, Geometry, Algebra, Analytic Geometry, and the Differential and Inte- Etching," the last number completing the gral Calculus. The work is preceded by a gen- elaborate description of the "Steam Engine," eral view of the subject of Logic, mainly drawn which in itself forms a treatise on a leading from the writings of Archbishop Whately and Mr. branch of practical science, and may be comMill, and closes with an essay on the utility of mended in high terms to the attention both of mathematics. Some occasional exaggerations, the general reader and the professional engineer. in presenting the claims of the science to which It is rarely that such a mass of important inhis life has been devoted, must here be pardoned formation is condensed into so lucid and pleasing to the professional enthusiasm of the author. a form, attractive no less by the clearness of its In general, the work is written with singular scientific details, than by the bright picture which circumspection; the views of the best thinkers it gives of the progress of the useful arts in on the subject have been thoroughly digested, and are presented in an original form; every thing bears the impress of the intellect of the writer; his style is for the most part chaste, simple, transparent, and in admirable harmony with the dignity of the subject, and his con modern times. Another work, of similar value, is A Treatise on Marine and Naval Architecture, by JORN W. GRIFFITHS, a serial which has reached its seventh number, and has elicited the warmest encomiums from distinguished constructors and |