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altogether novel, occasion for ascertaining the power of oratorical song. Many causes at this moment conspire to fill the public heart with sympathy for the cause of Poland; let Malibran give half-a-dozen evenings to the reconstruction of a nation. Suppose that, with a few assistants, she got up a night or two of patriotic lyricism. Moore, and Campbell, and Procter, would aid her, if she wanted aid: something like interlude might easily be got up by the Poles themselves to give her relief; but neither on poets, nor musicians, nor coadjutors, would we have her depend. Divine music, and the true voice which always raises superhuman feelings in the human heart, are enough: liberal teaching would go by lightning. We would ask no charity: the gift is to be done by sympathy, and not by money;-and perhaps we are less interested in the particular success of the Polish cause than in the universal triumph of genius, of which this would be the proof and the example.

Malibran we recollect on her coming out was coldly received, almost contemned; generally termed an imitator,-the only sign of approbation arose from the supposed nearness of the imitation of Pasta. This was at the King's Theatre, when we remember in her first character she introduced an extraneous song; for this crime she was nearly thrown back. At the little Haymarket Theatre her one or two songs, introduced without reference to anything on earth, fill the house and serve London for talk. How is this? Who is changed? Malibran or the public? Mademoiselle, at that time, was only seventeen, and may be supposed to have improved; but the public is an old and an incorrigible jade: we fear there is but little good in her.

DE BOURRIENNE'S MADNESS.-They who read the Memoirs of Bourrienne with interest, and in this country that number was not small, will learn with regret that a late visit to one of the lunatic institutions of France revealed the melancholy form of the poor ex-secretary of the mighty ex-emperor. What a termination to a tortuous career! What a mystery is the brain! Read the Memoirs of Bourrienne, and say who appeared to have a cooler head, a more worldly view of life, a more exact appreciation of character and of events than the author; and yet all of a sudden the mental structure totters and down it comes with a crash, involving all it reaches in eternal confusion, irremediable ruin. De Bourrienne is only one of very many whose intellects have sunk under the intensity of the Napoleon era. But the remarkable feature of mental disease of this character is, that the cord snaps on the instant. Compare Bourrienne's Memoirs, just finished previous to this melancholy event, from end to end, the close is as collected as the beginning; there is neither flagging in vigour of thought nor in fulness of information, and yet no sooner was the work done than the machine stopped. The brain is material, but the intellect follows none of the laws of matter; it does not decay, it disappears and leaves its place vacant. "Il ne faut qu'un léger accident, qu'un atôme déplacé pour te faire périr, pour te ravir cette intelligence, dont tu parais si fier." One of the best works that has lately appeared in Europe on the awful subject of mental disease is that of Dr. Uwins; he gives himself up not to theories little less wild than the hallucinations of his patients, but to observing and recording the phenomena that present themselves in the cases that come before him. Can anything be more eloquent than this description of a state of active-nullity,

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a volition dead, and a power of thought spinning away without balance, weights, or guide "I have asked patients sometimes their motives for refusing to speak, and the answers I receive are various. In one instance I was struck with the affecting account a patient gave of his feel ́ings. It seemed, he told me, As if I could and could not, or as if I would and would not, in such a strange way, that though silence was the result of the conflict, I felt in a manner guilt connect itself with my silence. Well may we exclaim with Hamlet, What a piece of work is man !!!!

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The insanity of the great men of France is not of the suicidal charac ter; suicide is more common in France than in England, but it is fara less mad. Intensity of occupation and anxiety in France may be abruptly stopped at the gate of the Maison des Fous, but it is rarely ter minated by the razor, In that country they have their Junots and their De Bourriennes, in this we have our Castlereaghs and our Romillys. Looking at the tragical fates of so many of the prime movers in events during the last fifty years of European politics, the moralist may be tempted to say, the paths of glory lead but to the premature grave, or to a still darker abode, the cell of the lunatic. But let no mistake bec made, the deaths of the illustrious obscure make no noise. Perhaps more men have fallen victims to the fox-chase than have thrown themselves! into the Curtian gulf of politics. While Whitbread was sacrificing himself to his Majesty's opposition, his Majesty's brother, the Duke of Kent, was catching his death of cold in snipe-shooting. Lord Althorp will survive the tremendous labours of the last session, while news comes that the wealthy Sir Harry Goodricke has just died of otter-hunting.

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READING AND WRITING. There has been a good deal of controversy this month among the public writers on the value of such portion of literary education as is included in the arts of reading and writing among the poorer and laborious classes of the people. All the dispu tants appear to have overlooked the real nature of these accomplish ments. In themselves they are strictly mechanical. Learning to read is no more in itself than learning to play the flute, and does not indeed require intellectual capacities of so high an order. To read, is simply! to connect a sound with a sign. To write is still more mechanical; it? is the art of making very simple signs which it has been agreed upon shall represent a certain number of sounds. The mental processes em-it ployed in acquiring and practising these arts are of a very mean kinde No sound human being was ever found incapable of them. But they are instruments of stupendous power, and it is the uses to which they may be applied that has caused so much confusion respecting them. Under the old and clumsy methods of instruction, these arts were so slowly and painfully acquired, that, incidentally, numerous ideas were collected which contribute still more to complicate the notions attached to the subject. But in the midst of other improvements, the mode of commú✩ ® nicating a knowledge of these arts in the least possible time has been discovered. By the Lancasterian and other methods of teaching, the // art alone is acquired, and in the least possible time, so that the incidental. addition of a few ideas is lost. If then a bey, immorally educated, is taught also reading and writing, he is in nothing, or by very little, raised in intellectual cultivation, while two powerful instruments are put into his

hands. Thus the child rofna pickpocket or burglar will probably be neither pickpocket nor burglar, he will probably be a begging-letter writer, a forger, or an embezzler. If, on the other hand, a child be morally educated, these instruments of power will, according to his moral impressions, be turned to use. Like all power, however, they expose the pos sessors to temptation; and the greater the pressure of this force, the greater ought to be the moral and guiding power. A servant ungifted with the noble art of reading manuscript will not open letters or pry into secret papers-they tell him nothing. But if he can so read, then some sense of right and wrong, and the habit of moral conduct, is necessary to strengthen him against the temptation of curiosity. This is a small case of very universal application. But while a temptation is afforded on the one hand to do evil, there is also presented the means of instruction; the taste for reading is not an unbalanced good: it depends in part on the books read; the chance, however, perhaps is in favour of a wholesome result. From these considerations, it is manifest enough that literary education is so far from being a substitute for a moral one, that, on the other hand, it demands that a higher moral power should be exerted in order to steady and direct the progress of the human vessel. Reading and writing are like a too powerful steam-engine in a small and weakly boat the helm is disobeyed, and the timbers are shaken to pieces. The helm, in these cases, is instruction, moral and religious.

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DANGEROUS DOCTRINES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS.-The newspapersTM tell us that the censorship at St. Petersburgh has prohibited the impor tation into Russia of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments," lately' translated into German by Professor Habicht. What are the revolutionary principles of the "Arabian Nights?" How can the politics of Bagdad affect those of St. Petersburgh? Where is the libel on the Holy Alliance? Is it in the story of Sinbad the Sailor? And is despotism typified by the Old Man of the Sea, who would ride on Sinbad's shoulders, and would not be thrown, and who, the more Sinbad struggled to get him off, stuck in his knees the harder, kicked with his heels, and so aggravated the inconvenience of his mere weight, that the oppression became intolerable? Or, perhaps, arbitrary power sees its likeness in the fisherman and the giant who rose out of the iron pot, and threatened to put an immediate end to the existence of him, the being who had been the unconscious cause of erecting him into a great power. Is it supposed that the people will take the hint of cajoling the giant into the pot again, and once more cast him to the bottom of the sea, there to remain for ever?

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MEDICAL CORPORATIONS. The licentiates of the College of Physi cians have petitioned the House of Commons against the privileges of the College. The petition occupies a column of the morning papers, and is signed by a great number of the most distinguished medical names in London, whom the public, that knows little about these matters, will be surprised to hear are not in the enjoyment of all the honours, as well as most of its profits. Surely nothing can be more absurd than that a distinction should exist in the profession, turning neither upon skill, knowledge, practice, or fame, but on the fact of being educated at one of two Universities, where, in truth, medicine is not taught! But, then, is it more absurd than a good many other things in the same profes

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sion? Is it more absurd than that two men shall receive precisely the same education at the same schools, and that one shall be called a physician, and charge a guinea for a visit, while the other is entitled to no fee at all, but lives by vending the drugs in his shop, and is called apothecary, &c. The first has a direct interest in protracting the patient's complaint, and the other in overwhelming him with noxious medicaments. Surely these things might be better managed? It will, however, not be much improved by the licentiates being admitted to all the privileges of the College, which, however, is a step to reform, and in the right direction. The only thing to be regretted is, that it is not general enough. In this, however, as in other matters, a general reform is hardly to be expected from within. When the public mind is more fully enlightened on the great subject of education, embracing the medical as well as other departments, the true and philosophical reform will come from without.

EDITORIAL AUTOCRACY.-The business of an Editor is necessarily a despotism it admits no participation, no hesitation, no deliberation. I will it so-is the rule in all well-conducted publications. The reason is plain discussion once allowed between Editor and penman on the subjects that come under the surveillance of the press, it would be an endless and continual source of embarrassment. Thus an Editor becomes undisputed sovereign of a certain territory of opinion, and is in a great measure irresponsible: altogether so to his subjects, that is to say, his readers, who have no means of calling him to account: their only remedy is that of quitting his kingdom and changing their allegiance, a process he does not feel, for it generally happens that where he loses one subject he gains another. Sometimes his brother sovereigns of the neighbouring kingdoms of opinion presume to find fault with the manner in which he rules his subjects; but then the discussion is always carried on as between sovereign and sovereign, power and power. Now, we all know the effect of irresponsible power on the human heart it is not, therefore surprising, that Editors should be much influenced in their characters and dispositions by the circumstances in which they are placed; and it is incumbent on all writers, who deal with the signs of the times, to warn them of the dangers incident to the high places in which they maintain their supreme control. The Press pretty nearly governs the world, so we are much concerned as to who governs the Press. And when the stamp is annihilated, it is probable that the Press will become still more gigantically powerful, and Editors still more numerous. The faults Editors are likely to fall into, curiously resemble those of other despots who rule not opinions, but deeds; and that by the application of police and armies. The Editor feels he must not be argued with, consequently he becomes conceited; by finding his opinion always prevail, he begins to fancy it is by its excellence, and not by the nature of his office. Having a good deal in his hands, he is, of course, liable to the approach of flatterers and parasites, who, for the sake of small advantages, puff up this conceit to the most extravagant pitch. To differ with an Editor, is simply to excite astonishment as to where you have lived-evidently out of the atmosphere of his domain. An Editor must necessarily avoid society, for the same reason as Kings and Emperors; the rules of society would impose the necessity of listening to remarks conceived in a tone of freedom-this is disagreeable to the despotic ear: besides, an Emperor might

find himself vis-à-vis some gentleman whose brother he had sent to Siberia or Gehenna, the day before. This grieves the Imperial heart; so an Editor may get seated side by side with some criminal whom he had that morning punished with the critical knout, or the paragraphical cat-o'-nine tails: this is disturbing to that tranquillity that ought always to reign in the bosom of an Editor. In the amusements even of despots, the vicious effects of irresponsible power may be detected: the appetite comes to revel in wanton cruelty: so it is with Editors under a fit of bile or ennui-they take to stinging individuals with pointed pens, they will crush a poor fellow under the weight of a tremendous column of matter, simply for pastime, and because he happened at the moment to pass across the mental retina. The intolerance of Editors is remarkable: Paul could not bear that any of his subjects should wear a round hat, and he had their coat flaps cut according to his fancy; the alternative was the knout or Siberia. So it is with every man in the editorial territory; he must be exactly of their mind, and the slighter the difference the greater the heresy. It will be found that an Editor-despot sometimes will publish an ukase, ordaining the establishment of the most liberal opinions; but the opinions must be neither more nor less liberal than the editorial standard, or the heretic must expect to be immediately sacrificed to the moral Moloch. Sometimes an Editor does not know himself what opinion to be of-the duty of others is not therefore the less clear; they must vacillate as he vacillates; if he shakes his head they must do the same; if he stumbles they must also make a false step, and what is of the highest importance, they must maintain, as he does himself, that his course has always been straightforward, that he has never hesitated, that he was prompt, decisive, and clear from the first. It is one of the first rules of the editorial court, that an Editor cannot be inconsistent. It often happens that very arbitrary monarchs think themselves the most humane and benevolent beings in the world: it is one of the evils of their situation: the truths we have here told the Autocrats of the Press they are probably ignorant of, and some, we dare say, of the most intolerant of them all are little aware of the tyrants they are become. But being now warned, they will set a watch upon themselves.

The Lion's Mouth.

ALIENA NEGOTIA CENTUM."—Horat.

PARLIAMENTARY REPORTERS.

To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine.

SIR, The quarrel between Mr. O'Connell and the Parliamentary reporters produced, among many other paragraphs on the subject in the newspapers, the following in the leading article of " The Times," of Monday, the 29th of July:

"There is one other consideration connected with this matter which must not be concealed, and which, if not kept carefully in view, will inevitably lead to the most prejudicial results, both as regards Parliament and as regards the public; it is this:-that part of the press of this country which consists of the reporters was at one time filled by persons of

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