an informing account of the national archives Paris. Copious footnotes accompany the letstill existing in manuscript at Venice, and of ters-furnishing full information on every the sources whence these volumes have been questionable point-sometimes, indeed, rather drawn. A rather heraldic notice of the family more than was needed, but this is an excess of Giustinian follows, with a narrative of the on the right side. Embassy's journey to England via Lyons and KING OF PRUSSIA. THE speech with which King Frederick William opened the sitting of his Chambers tells us little that we knew not before, but betrays how completely that anomalous monarch is still under the peculiar influence of his own constitution. He would still "mediate," if he could; and Prime Minister, who can read, but who cannot command the respect of the King's subjects. Spectator, 9 Dec, TO MY AGED FATHER. From the Youth's Companion. [On hearing of his recent calamity, in having his office destroyed by the late fire in School Street.] BY N P. WILLIS. Cares thicken round thee as thy steps grow slow, if in action he has become annexed to Austriaif henceforward he is merged in " Germany "-it is by the force of circumstances, and not of his own free will or deliberate reasoning. Indeed, there is some ground to suppose that King Frederick William is no longer master even of so much individual power as he once possessed. Although he is not aged, time has distinctly marked its ravages; his eyesight no longer enables him to read or write for himself; and his conduct would be accounted for upon the suppo. For less to suffer as thy strength grows less. sition, which does not originate with ourselves, For, oh, when life has been a stormy wildthat the jobbing politicians by whom he is sur-The bitter night too long, the way too farrounded-we cannot call them statesmen-take The aged pilgrim, ere he lays him down, advantage of this infirmity to make omissions, Prays for a moment's lulling of the blastadditions, or alterations, in the despatches which A little time to wind his cloak about him, they read to him. A Hamlet who has lost his And smooth his gray hairs decently to die. eyesight, and cannot protect himself against being played upon by Rosencrantz and Guilden- Yet. oh, not vain the victories unsung! stern, is an object of pity. But he is not the less Not vain a life of industry to bless. an encumbrance upon the statesmanship of And thou, in angel-history-where shine Germany and of Europe. In terms which once The silent self-forgetful who toil on drew political punishment upon a public writer For others until death-art nam'd in gold. in this country, it may be said that never had In heaven it is known, thou hast done well! sovereign a finer opportunity of becoming nobly But, not all unacknowledg'd is it, here. popular than will the successor of the present in- Children thou hast, who, for free nurture, given cumbent of the throne of Prussia. Opportunities With one hand while the other fought thy cares, however, are not always improved. Grow grateful as their own hands try the fight. And more-they thank thee more! The name thou leavest It is a fact of some significance, as showing how far, even under paternal administration, the Prussian public is ahead of its Government and independent of control, that a striking paper of Anti-Russian tendency, written many years ago for another occasion, is reproduced and freely circulated in Berlin. In a recent Life of Stein is published a memoir by Field-Marshal Knesebeck, speculatively sketching such a position of affairs on the continent with reference to Russia, Turkey, Austria, Germany, and the other powers, as constitutes in fact a tolerably correct description of the present state of affairs. In that memoir, the writer points out the policy of Austria to prevent an alliance between France and Russia, and the expediency of reinstating Poland as an independent state, and as a hostile guard upon the Russian frontier. The policy is entertained by many keen politicians, but the remarkable fact is that such a pamphlet is circulated and eagerly scanned under the very nose of King Frederick William, and, what is more, of his Spotless and blameless as it comes from thee- Cheer thee, then!- And pitilessly far thy cares pursue! From these thy trying hours-the hours when Most sorely press'd has won its victories- From the Times, 12 Dec. CANADA AND GREAT BRITAIN. up to which we have any intelligence. The bills for secularizing the Clergy Reserves and for abolishing the seignorial tenures had passed a third reading in the House of AsIt is now fourteen years since this country sembly. At the same time both Houses of entered on a new course of policy with regard the Canadian Parliament had agreed to a vote to the Canadas, and the experiment may now of 20,000l. in aid of the Patriotic Fund, be said to be fully and completely worked out. affording thus the most decisive proof of the The change was a bold and striking one, con- sympathy which the inhabitants of the colony ceived in a spirit of almost epigrammatical feel in our present struggle, and of their disantithesis to our former policy. The old position, were their aid needed, to give it system was, in few words, to monopolize the freely in support of a country in which they trade, to interfere with the local concerns of recognize no longer a harsh and domineering the colony, and to absorb its patronage, and, mistress, but a kind and respectful friend. In in exchange for all this, to keep up, at a great this very Canada-where, not twenty years expense, a military establishment. The new ago, the people rose in armed rebellion against system has consisted in precisely the contrary what they believed the intolerable yoke of of all this-in throwing open the trade of the Great Britain, where the supplies used to be whole world to our dependencies, in leaving stopped every year, and a Governor was forevery office of trust and emolument-except tunate who escaped both mobbing and im that of the Governor-General, which serves peachment, this is the language of an inas the connecting link between the mother fluential member of the press with regard to country and the dependency-entirely open this noble donation:-"A weekly contemto colonial talent and enterprise, in religiously porary proposes a contribution towards the abstaining from all interference whatever in expenses of the war itself. We see no reason local concerns, and in relieving the parent for that as yet, but, should the struggle be State from the expense of maintaining, at unhappily prolonged, as there is great reason any rate in time of peace, a military force for to fear it will, the time may come when it the protection of its hardy and independent may be our duty to contribute, not money subjects. Dire were the prognostications of only, but men also-not to give of our subevil with which the advent of this policy was stance alone, but to shed our blood as well; hailed. It was said to be the first step towards and this we believe, should urgent necessity the dissolution of the connection between the arise, will be cheerfully done." Such a macolony and the mother country, and all the nifesto, expressing, as we have every reason terrors which agitated men's minds so vainly to believe it does, the public opinion of the at the close of the first American war were country, is more gratifying to England, and called up anew to terrify us from our generous conveys more positive assurance of strength; policy towards Canada. Our concessions were than the costliest fleets and the most numerous at first imperfect and inadequate, and a period armies. We have men and money amply of turbulence and discontent followed, which sufficient, we believe-especially when forwas only put an end to when the results of tified by such allies as we possess,-to bring the principles established in 1840 were fully the present war to a successful and glorious worked out and conceded. The right of termination. But if our hopes should be dedealing with the Clergy Reserves was only ceived in this particular, and we are just conceded in the session of 1853, after a stout suffering in the protracted anxiety of the opposition from Lord DERBY; and this year siege of Sebastopol a severe lesson on the we have seen, also in contravention of the vanity of apparently the best-founded expecprinciples of Lord DERBY, the trade of Ca- tations, it is cheering to know that there are nada thrown open to the United States, and beyond the Atlantic hearts that would feel for the freest intercourse invited and encouraged. and hands that would aid us. The United In this year also we have withdrawn from States of America, now long emancipated Canada the bulk of our forces, leaving only, from our Government, give but a dubious we are bound to say, just as many troops in response in favor of the liberties of Europe Quebec as are sufficient to keep up the me- and of the cause of that country to which mory and appearance of military occupation, they owe their existence. In this, as in so when the reality has passed away for ever. many instances, the advocates of free instituAt this period, then, the dismemberment of tions all over the world are grieved to find the empire ought to be complete, and Canada, how strong a sympathy may exist between freed from all shackles and bound by no certain of the democrats of one hemisphere material ties, might be supposed about to drift and the tyrants and oppressors of another. away from us for ever. Let those who take But in Canada the public voice is not divided, this view of the subject consider what has and, recognizing the blessings of their alliance taken place in Canada during the last week with Great Britain, her people heartily iden DLVIII. LIVING AGE. VOL. VIII. 20 terest. tify themselves with us in sentiment as in in- is one of affectionate regard and attachment to the mother country, and only by the most When we can point to such magnificent re- perverse and vexatious interference can these sults of the system of colonial enfranchisement feelings be overcome. Of these things no -when we can show that the prosperity and statesman can plead ignorance with the excontentment of our colonies vary much more ample of Canada to warn and to instruct him. in proportion to the degree in which the When governed by the Colonial-office, noColonial-office leaves to them the management thing could exceed her alienation and disof their own affairs than in proportion to their content. When governed by herself, words acquired or natural advantages-we must ex- are weak to do justice to her loyalty and atpress our surprise that the Canadian system tachment. The whole secret of binding tohas not been made universal, and that so many gether our great empire by an indissoluble and such important settlements are still left chain is to respect the rights of every part of in a state of dependance on remote authority, it, and to treat our fellow-subjects so well that with just enough of freedom to excite their they shall have no desire for a change. This aspirations, and a constant and vexatious in- has already been done in North America; terference to irritate their passions. The na- how long are we to wait for its accomplishment tural and normal state of every British colony in Australia? A STEAM BATTERY. A CAPITAL JOKE appeared the other day in the Times. A correspondent of that journal proposed to batter Sebastopol by means of Perkins's Steam-gun. This proposal has no doubt excited as much laughter as the very best thing in Joe Miller. Of course it is perfectly absurd. Why? Oh, nonsense! Yes, but why absurd? Oh, fiddlestick! - pack of stuff! Nay, but, how so? How? why, of course, the thing is impossiblethat is, impracticable-in other words, can't be done. If we fail we fail and it is a failure to the extent of the cost of the experiment. Is the risk equal to that of one transport in a storm - of one regiment in a battle? If we succeed - only think What fun that would be. What a laughable idea was that of Steam-how much we save. navigation when first started! When it became So let us laugh at the mention of Perkins's a fact, how ridiculous was the hope of its utility Steam-gun-but leugh to think that it is not to any extent! That hope, however, having been tried laugh with Mr. Bright, and the Greeks, justified, how unreasonable it was to expect that and the Russians - laugh on the other side of the a steam-vessel would ever cross the Atlantic; mouth than the right.-Punch. and how utterly preposterous was the chimera of railroads! Haw, haw, haw! chorused the old THE ceremony known as "the trial of the Pyx," gentlemen, and some of the young ones, at each in other words the testing of the coinage of the of these anticipated failures in succession-hee-realm by a jury of goldsmiths, was performed on haw! The impossibilities all came to pass, though. Nevertheless, let us laugh at the suggestion of trying Perkins's Steam-gun against Sebastopol. To be sure the son of Mr. Perkins declares that he is "prepared to undertake to supply the Government with a Steam-gun capable of throwing a ball of a ton weight a distance of five miles." It is true that he adds the assurance that, with such a gun, fixed in Brunel's large ship of 10,000 tons, Sebastopol might be destroyed without [our] losing a man." No doubt that to throw a ball of a ton weight five miles, by steam, may be a less difficult thing than to drag several tons, any number of miles, three or four times faster than a stage-coach. But, then, fancy a gun loaded with steam instead of powder! What a queer gun! And a bullet of a ton weight! Imagine such an odd projectile. It strikes one as so droll. Ho, ho! Try it? Oh, pooh! Yet we do try some things which we are by no means sure will answer. We try expeditions without knowing what force they will have to encounter. We try to batter a fortress by means of ordinary ordnance, without being at all certain 6th December, at the Exchequer Office, Whitehall. The last trial took place four years ago. The order of it was this. The Lord Chancellor and four Privy Councillors, namely, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Baron, the President of the Board of Trade, and Sir Edward Ryan, assembled and formed a court; The Master of the Mint and his principal officers being present. The pyx, or the boxes containing specimens of the coinage from 16th December 1850 to 30th June 1854, stood on the table. The gold represented was 28,838,534/. 16s. 10d., of the standard of 22 carats of fine gold and two carats of alloy. The amount of silver was 1,030,005/ 1s. 3d., of the standard of 11 ounces 2 pennyweights of fine silver and 18 pennyweights of alloy. There was also a bar of standard gold whereby to test the coinage. A jury of goldsmiths having been sworn, they were charged by the Lord Chancellor, and a piece of the standard gold having been clipped off, the boxes were conveyed to Goldsmiths' Hall, where the trial took place. The report of the jury, presented on Thursday, finds the coinage of the required weight and finenessin fact, rather in favor of the public. From The Spectator. DR. DORAN'S HABITS AND MEN.* [perception," that we ridicule the nether garment of the Dutchman. Why is this? Is it association of ideas? Does a latent moral By "habits" Dr. Doran does not mean that sense overcome "the beauty of the world?" persistence in conduct or behavior which at Do "pants" and a tailless jacket last becomes a "second nature," and establish- notion of stinginess? or worse than stinginess, suggest the es customs or manners; but those "habits" want of money? or lower still, want of credit which originated with the Fall, and have ever with a tailor? while in flowing robes and casince continued the mode of mankind. Clothes, pacious nethers we have the idea of ample and the men who wore or made them, are the means? Or does the principle that to imitate subject of the Doctor; the "more worthy is not to copy servilely, lurk under what the gender of the ungallant grammarians, includ-present generation cannot remember, the uniing the better half of creation. He runs over form of the London Light Horse Volunthe history of dress from the earliest records teers? Why do judges pronounce our modern on the monuments of Egypt, down to the last habits to surpass those of all other times and great luminary of the last generation, Beau peoples in ugliness? Is it our impossible atBrummell, with a slight allusion to the beau tempt to combine opposites that cause our we have lately lost, Count D'Orsay,-just merely to intimate that the author has reached ground where the tread must be tender, and to point the moral of excess in habits. or!" failure; to have garments neither tight nor loose, with a tail behind which, whether "swallow" or spread, unconsciously suggests to the mind the idea of the parent monkey to which Monboddo traced us? These are matters, Doctor, that require settlement and are worthy of thy skill. His career only furnished a further proof that the profession of a beau is not a paying one. He was great in a Fieldingian sense, and according to the poet's maxim, which says, "Base is the slave of Habits and Men, which probably will not be We can wait patiently for a second edition that pays." Mere generosity does not make a gentleman; and even generosity that is oblivious long in coming. Meanwhile, we can be enterof justice is of no value. There was really noth-tained with the wide and curious reading, the ing to admire in him. A recent "friend and ac- well selected facts and illustrations touching quaintance," indeed, has been so hard put to it to dress, the anecdotes of the wearers, and the find out a virtue in D'Orsay, that he has fixed notices or biographies of the leaders of ton, in upon his neglect of paying his creditors as one; which we are happy to say old England is and the "friend" thinks that it was sufficient preeminent. Beau Fielding, Beau Nash, Beau honor for tradesmen to have him for their debt-Brummel, rise to the mind, as heroes of the beau monde who reached excellence in habits Between these wide extremes-the Jews as other people's money. by a liberal expenditure of their own time and Neither should the pictorially dressed at Beni Hassan, and as ac- tailors whom Dr. Doran commemorates be tually victimized by modern beaux-the au- overlooked in the list of national worthies,― thor expatiates on striking dresses and striking Hawkwood the heroic tailor, Admiral Hobson dressers; illustrating the mass from history the naval tailor, Stow and Speed the antiquaand the individual by biography. Dress, how-rian tailors, Pepys the official tailor, Ryan the ever, is construed widely. It not only em- theatrical tailor, Paul Whitehead the poet braces gloves, hats, and buttons, but beards, tailor; and surely as well as "Mems. of Merand incidentally sundry accessories necessary chant Tailors," there was a regiment of tailors, to "the glass of fashion." In spite of his Elliott's Light Horse, who could beat the enedepth of research and amplitude of exposition, my, but were not permitted to reform their Dr. Doran does not quite reach the fundamentals of his subject. We have no investiHomer sometimes nods, and the sun has gation into the laws of habits, no attempt to spots; how then can Dr. Doran be faultless? fix the philosophy of dress. "What a piece At times, more especially at the opening, his of work is man!.... the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!" Yet it is tute writing for matter: but this may be mere pen runs away with him; he wishes to substiheld proper to disguise this paragon. In dress the principle of " tights" is considered fect of overwriting is rather a tendency to preluding to get his hand in. Akin to the dea false principle. We are referred for beauty to the flowing blanket of the ancients overdoing. There are slips too in his chronolor the ample trousers of the Turk; yet produce authorities for some of his facts. His ogy, and we suspect he might be puzzled to such is the inconsistency of "judgment by "good stories" are obnoxious to a similar re*Habits and Men, with Remnants of Record mark; but who cares for the authenticity of a touching the Makers of both, By Dr. Doran, Au- joke? Like an old deed, it proves itself.thor of "Table Traits," etc, Published by Bent- Here is a passage from stage-dresses, where ley. the author is his own authority. own habits. A bit of genealogy, perhaps as true as most heraldic stories. Our provincial theatres exhibit some strange | man," whose Othello "will be new dressed, afanomalies with regard to costume, and there the ter the manner of his country." sons and daughters of to-day have middle aged sires wearing the costume of the time of George I. But the most singular anomaly in dress ever encountered by my experience, was at a small theatre in Ireland, not very far from Sligo. The One of the greatest of the North Sea chieftains entertainment consisted of Venice Preserved, and derived his name from his dress, and Ragner the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. The Lodbroch means Ralph Leatherbreeches. The Venetian ladies and gentlemen were attired in Lethbridges of Somersetshire are said to be deevery possible variety of costume; yet not one scendants from this worthy. They might go of them wore a dress that could have been further in search of an ancestor and fare worse. distinguished at any period as being once worn Lodbroch delighted in blood and plunder; wine by any people, civilized or savage. Jaffer and he drank by the quart; wealth he acquired by Pierre, however, presented the greatest singulari-"right of might;" he believed in little, and fearty, for they were not only indescribably decked, ed even less. A family anxious to assert its nobut they had but one pair of buskin boots be- bility could hardly do better than hold fast by tween them; and accordingly, when it was ne- such a hero. Many a genealogical tree springs cessary for both to be in presence of the audi- from a less illustrious root. ence, each stood at the side-scene with a single leg protruded into sight and duly booted. Another coincidence struck me in the Irish theatre. The performance was announced as for the benefit of a certain actor and his creditors. I should have set this down as Irish humor, had I A story of a mode invented by the Merry Monarch, and beaten out of fashion by le Grand Monarque. Charles II. of England, was the inventor of the vest dress." It consisted of a long cassock, not remembered having read that Spiller, in 1719. which fitted close to the body, of black cloth, had made the same announcement at Lincoln's Inn Fields. pinked" with white silk under it, and a coat over all; the legs were ruffled with black riband, like a pigeon's leg; and the white silk piercing the black made the wearers look, as It is usually said that John Kemble was the Charles himself confessed, very much like magfirst who attended to accuracy of stage cos-pies. But all the world put it on, because it had tume, or at least who dispensed with Cato's been fashioned by a monarch; and gay men wig, flower'd gown, and lacker'd chair." If thought it exquisite, and grave men pronounced Dr. Doran "has writ his anhals true," Kemble would never alter it; while his courtiers" it "comely and manly." Charles declared he gave only reduced the reform to system; it had him gold by way of wagers that he would not been introduced before upon occasion. persist in his resolution." Louis XIV. showed his contempt for the new mode and the maker of it, by ordering all his footmen to be put into vests. This caused great indignation in England; but it had a marked effect in another way, for Charles and our aristocracy, not caring to look like French footmen, soon abandoned the new costume. - Paul Whitehead, the tailor-poet, used to say. that the taste of the nation depended upon Garrick. Davy's own taste was very questionable in some respects, for he played Macbeth in the then costume of a general officer, with scarlet coat, gold lace, a and tail-wig. All the other actors were attired in similar dresses; and if Malcolm, on seeing Rosse at a distance, exclaimed, “My THE REVUE CONTEMPORAINE. Compared countryman!" he was quite right to exclaim, on with England, France is poor in periodical literaseeing an English recruiting-sergeant advance, ture. The Revue des Deux Mondes has hitherto "and yet I know him not!" But Rosse might enjoyed almost a monopoly, and its able articles have said as much of Malcolm. It was Macklin have enabled it to maintain the high position it who first put Macbeth and all the characters into had achieved. A formidable rival has now national costume, when he played the chief entered the lists against it, edited by le Vicomte character himself in 1773; and all the thanks Alphonse de Calonne. Its principles are Libehe got for it was in the remark that he look-ral-Conservative. Founded on a similar plan to ed like a drunken Scotch piper - which he did. But Macbeth in kilts is nearly as great an anomaly as when he is in the uniform of a brigadier-general; and even Mr. Charles Kean, though he exhibited the Thane short-petticoated, seemed glad to get into long clothes and propriety as soon as the Thane had grown into a king. that of its rival, it purposes devoting a large portion of its pages to English literature. Among the contributors we find the names of MM. Guizot Villemain, de Salvandy, Mermèe Alfred Nettement, Philaréte Charles, de Calonne, etc. The November number contains an elaborate historical and statistical account of the Crimea, being a 'Macklin was a comedian rather than a trage- fuller narrative on that country than any we dian; and it is singular that it is to another com- have before seen. It is complied with great care, ic actor we owe the correct dressing of Othello. and cannot fail to attract the attention it deIt was in the latter character that Foote made serves at the present moment. The chronique, or his first appearance in London, at the Hay-mark-political retrospect for the fortnight, is very ably et, in 1744. He was announced as a "gentle-written by M. de Calonne. |