dred been mingled into one.' The lapse of time has failed to reconcile the conquered French to the conquering English; and the same ill feeling exists between them that for several centuries after the battle of Hastings prevailed between the Normans and the Saxons. The Citadel makes Quebec the key of the Canadas. The city, as already said, is built upon the side of a steep hill of rock. On the summit of this hill stands the Citadel, a fortress of stone, enclosing about twenty acres. Within the walls of the Citadel are barracks and magazines and store-houses, all built of stone, in the most substantial manner. The store-houses are always supplied with seven years' provision for a large army. Within the walls, also, are numerous wells, sunk several hundred feet through the solid rock, and affording at all times a plentiful supply of pure water. The only entrance to the Citadel is from the upper town, which is surrounded by a heavy stone wall, which abuts against the walls of the Citadel. The street leading from the upper town to the Citadel terminates in a narrow, zig-zag passage, enclosed on each side by a stone wall twenty feet high. At every angle in the passage, peeping out of port-holes in the wall, is placed a row of thirty-two-pounders, so as to command every foot of the passage. On the walls of the Citadel, which are twenty feet high and ten feet thick, high above the roofs of the upper town, are disposed, at regular intervals, huge cannon, which are so mounted that they can be pointed in any direction and aimed with the precision of a rifle. These guns command every part of the river below, and could sink in ten minutes any hostile ship attempting to pass. The prospect from the walls of the Citadel is extensive and enchanting. Three hundred feet below you the St. Lawrence, more than a mile in width, its steep shores covered with verdure and its bosom crowded with sails, sweeps majestically by. Far down the river, on the very verge of the horizon, is dimly seen the beautiful Island of Orleans, where Wolf's forces encamped previous to their attack upon the city. Immediately below you lies the city, its tin-covered roofs and steeples flashing in the sun. East of the city the river St. Charles flows down from the north, through a broad and fertile valley golden with autumn grain, and pours its impetuous flood into the quiet bosom of the St. Lawrence. Far to the east and north blue mountains bound the prospect. Behind the city, and nearly on a level with the walls of the Citadel, lie the plains of Abraham, a large, open, slightly-undulating common, the scene of the battle between the British forces under Wolf, and the French under Montcalm. This spot, now so quiet and lonely, presented a stirring spectacle on the morning of the twelfth of September, 1760. On the western verge of the plain stood, drawn up in 'battle's magnificently stern array,' six thousand English soldiers, calmly awaiting the onset of the eager French, who were rapidly advancing from the city. With characteristic impetuosity, the French rushed upon the unmoving lines of the enemy. The smoke of battle closed over the scene. For two hours the ball and the bayonet did their deadly work. For two hours the fate of the day hung in the even balance. At length the French columns waver; they break; and the English, with a shout, rush upon the retreating foe, and drive them in confusion from the field. But the gallant Wolf bought victory with his life. His often-expressed wish, that he might one day press some well-fought and hard-won field, and die with the shout of vic tory in his ear, was fulfilled to the letter. A small monument marks the spot where the hero fell, bearing the simple inscription, 'Here died Wolfe victorious.' Between the foot of Diamond Rock (such is the name of the height on which the Citadel stands) and the St. Lawrence, is a narrow passage; a spot made sacred by the death of General Montgomery. On the night of the thirty-first of December, 1775, Montgomery, at the head of a body of American troops, was noiselessly moving along this passway, with the design of attacking by surprise the lower town. But his movements had been watched; the alarm was given, and a battery of cannon placed to intercept his progress. On came that intrepid band, their devoted leader at their head. An angle in the road brought them in range of the enemy's guns, and a single discharge swept down the head of the column, and stretched its gallant leader lifeless in the dust. Newark, (0.) NOVEMBER. THICKLY in the breeze, from the hardy city trees, Pale November's sun shineth melancholy, wan, Crowding to and fro, thick the busy dwellers go, Scheming for the morrow, sowing seed for sorrow: Fools --- Slowly midst them all, walks a woman thin and tall, No one to her speaks; as the falling leaves her cheeks, Years ago, 't is said, her lips and cheeks were red, Friends she told by scores, and before her father's doors Now her friends are dead, lovers years ago have fled; 'Stead of wreath and veil, she longs for the shroud so pale, In her spring-time gay, in her golden summer day, Now her summer 's gone, and her days are so forlorn, Though I in my prime claim a lengthy lease of Time, That soon some wintry blast my leaves to the air may cast As the leaves that go o'er the pavement to and fro I am fain to smile, watching mid their pomp the while Pittsburgh, November, 1851. GEORGE H. THURSTON. LITERARY NOTICES. HISTORY OF ALABAMA, AND INCIDENTALLY OF GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD. BY ALBERT JAMES PICKETT, of Montgomery. In two volumes. Second Edition. Charleston: WALKER AND JAMES. 1851. A CENTURY hence we shall appreciate the labors of the historian who attempts to collect authentic accounts of the first settlement of the States which form our Union. New-England has been fortunate in the number of works written to preserve the earliest transactions of the colonists. Indeed, all of the more northern States, including Virginia and the Carolinas, have numerous and well-written histories, running back to an early period. Of the south-west, however, we have had comparatively but meagre narrations, often unreliable from the manifest disregard of probability in conjecture, and of historic exactness in detail. And yet what portion of our country is so romantic as this? What history more stirring than that of the renowned De Soro, the discoverer of the Mississippi, who, penetrating one region after another in search of gold, 'found nothing so remarkable as a burial-place!' The plan of our 'Literary Notices' does not afford scope for a review of a work like this. We can do little beyond calling the attention of the reader to it: and we say to him that he will find something else than dry historic detail, without comment or classification. On the contrary, the work of Mr. PICKETT is written with a freshness of style absolutely enchanting: we are persuaded he had his heart in the work, and it is executed throughout con amore. The history commences with the expedition of DE SOTO in 1539: it gives a most interesting account of the aborigines at that period, and then proceeds to the consideration of the modern Indians of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi; which embrace the Creeks, Mobilians, Chatots, Thomez and Tensaws, the Choctaws and Chickasaws, and the Cherokees. We have at the same time an admirable description of the ancient mounds and fortifications. Thence the history is continued during the occupancy of the French and the Spaniards, and so down to the first State Legislature in 1819. Here the author takes leave of his labors, remarking, as we think, finely: 'Here we lay down our pen. The early history of Alabama, as far as it rests in our hands, is ended, and our task is accomplished. To some other person, fonder than we are of the dry details of state legislation and fierce party spirit, we leave the task of bringing the history down to a later period.' We regret that we cannot make room for extracts, especially from the narrative of the arrest of AARON BURR in Alabama, in 1807, which possesses unusual interest. But we refer the reader to the volumes themselves, which are got up with numerous and well-executed plates, printed on the finest paper, and are altogether worthy of the best style of PUTNAM. FALL OF POLAND: containing an Analytical and Philosophical Account of the Causes which Conspired in the Ruin of that Nation: together with a History of the Country from its Origin. By S. C. SAXTON. In two volumes: pp. 1162. New-York: CHARLES SCRIBNER. THESE Capacious volumes, from abundant materials which have been for several years accumulating upon the author's hands, are very full and perspicuous upon the numerous and various themes whereof they treat. They not only contain the history of Poland from its origin, but also a general view of all the learning necessary for the scholar, statesman, or traveller, in relation to that unfortunate country, both as a work of reference and of general information. The work is arranged under those analytical and philosophical divisions known in history as the general characteristics of nations, around which are grouped the principal facts and philosophy applied to each national feature. The author has wisely, we think, deemed it better adapted to the general history of Poland, to discuss continuously the several subjects involving the causes of her fall, rather than to interrupt the unity by periodical divisions. After a general historical sketch of Poland, therefore, containing the outlines of the chronology and geography of the country, the principal characteristics of the nation are distributed into the subsequent chapters under the most prominent national features of every fallen nation. The style in which the work is written is unambitious and clear, and befitting the dignity of an historical narration. The volumes are well printed, moreover, and illustrated by portraits of some of the great men of Poland. THE CAPTAINS OF THE OLD WORLD: as compared with the great Modern Strategists. By HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT. In one volume: pp. 364. New-York: CHARLES SCRIBNER. WHAT With NAPOLEON and his Marshals,'' WASHINGTON and his Generals,' and this present volume, 'The Captains of the Old World,' our friend the publisher of each has laid the foundation of a war-library, which will not be without its influence upon the public mind. The series, when completed, might be condensed into a' Hand-Book of Fighting,' an enterprise which we venture to suggest to that class of shameless literary thieves who contrive to coin money out of other people's brains, or from other people's labors. But this apart. Mr. HERBERT, in the handsome volume before us, has produced authentic details concerning the great generals of antiquity, with the particulars of their campaigns and conduct, more elaborate and complete than the pages of general history bave spared from other matters of less engrossing interest: he has elucidated their feats and exploits by comparison with the rules and principles of modern warfare; illustrated them by keeping up a parallel of modern geography, so that they may be verified by the aid of any common map: he has given them life and reality by accurate accounts of scenery, dress, manners and habits; and ascertained their real merits and comparative degrees of skill and excellence, by comparison with the greatest strategists and tacticians of the latter ages. Mr. HERBERT has accomplished the task he assumed with his usual success. He is an accomplished Greek scholar, and has described the classic wars of the age of which he writes very much as old FROISSART depicts the battles of his characters; somewhat as if he were fighting them himself; becoming fatigued and quite 'tuckered out' at the end of one of his struggles, like the immortal KNICKERBOCKER, after one of his accounts of the tremendous contests under the Dutch Dynasty of old Manahadda. Some half-dozen wood-cuts illustrate, if they do not ‘embellish,' this well-printed volume. AMERICAN POETRY: 'The Pilgrim Spirit,' by ALFRED B. STREET: A Book of Romances, Lyrics and Songs,' by BAYARD TAYLOR: Poems by RICHARD HENRY STODDARD.' THE necessity of saying 'many things in a few words' which is laid upon us by our friends the publishers, at this their busiest season of the year, compels us to condense into one the notices of the three publications above named. The first is a poem delivered by Mr. STREET before the Connecticut Alpha of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale College; and although a 'mere college performance,' is certainly one which does credit to his reputation. Indeed it is marked by some of the best characteristics of his popular muse. No reader of the KNICKERBOCKER needs to be informed, that in minute description of external nature Mr. STREET has scarcely a superior, if he has an equal, among the younger native poets of our day. Moreover, in artistic execution, in the melody and rhythm of his verse, he is even growing upon the admiration of the public. We must content ourselves for the present with simply commending it to public attention. It is from the press of Mr. B. L. HAMLIN, New-Haven, printer to Yale College. The next two volumes upon our list are from the prolific press of Messrs. TICKNOR, REED and FIELDS, Boston. BAYARD TAYLOR'S contains, in addition to the poetical romances and lyrics which have made him so favorably known to his countrymen, several new effusions which will add not a little to his reputation. We have seen nothing finer from his pen than two or three of the autumnal pieces in this book. Of these and other of his later effusions, it is our purpose to speak as soon as our available space shall permit. Mr. STODDARD is one of our youngest poets, but he is undeniably one of the most promising of all the later poets of America. His is a true poetical genius He creates his pictures through an 'imagination all compact,' and all his own. His sense of rhythmical melody is acute, and his execution facile and tasteful. Read 'The Castle in the Air,' 'Spring,' and 'The Broken Goblet,' and admit the justice of this cordial praise. Nor is there less of real merit, although of another description, in the lines to 'Harley River,' 'The Blacksmith Shop,' 'The Old Elm,' etc., which, with 'The Fair Boy LEO NATUS,' and other poems in the collection, first appeared in these pages. SWALLOW-BARN, OR A SOJOURN IN THE OLD DOMINION.' By J. P. KENNEDY. Revised Edition. With twenty Illustrations by STROTHER. In one volume: pp. 506. New-York: GEORGE P. PUTNAM. OUR popular bibliopole, PUTNAM, has evinced his accustomed good judgment in the reproduction of this American classic; for classic it is, in the best sense of the term. We remember the impression made upon us in a perusal of the work for the first time, now some eighteen years ago. Its quiet yet forcible pictures are of that class which live in the memory, because they are true sketches of homely, every-day life. It really does one's heart good to follow the author in his limnings of country-life in the 'Old Dominion' some twenty-five or thirty years ago; the portraits of the characters who made up her quiet and happy neighborhoods; 'the mellow, bland, and sunny luxuriance of her old-time society;' the good fellowship of 'Old Virginia;' its hearty and constitutional companionableness, the thriftless gayety of the people, their dogged but amiable invincibility of opinion, and that overflowing hospitality which 'knew no retiring ebb.' Our author admits that these characteristics, although far from being impaired, are nevertheless greatly modified at the present day; and he laments, as has been so frequently lamented in these pages, that the older States |