are anxious; when it becomes calm, confidence re- | others, by restoring to labor the capitals, the coopturns everywhere. People of Paris, be proud of this strength, but do not abuse it. If you hold in your hands the destinies of the country, think of your responsibility on the page of history. But let us reassure ourselves. Unfortunate times will not return. The example of our ancestors will not be lost upon us. Our education was made under a constitutional government-the republic is only a purer form of the same govern ment. The revolution of 1830 put the power into the hands of the citizens; that of 1848 carried it up to its source to the people; that is the progress of the inevitable law of humanity. eration which is necessary to production. Once the crisis over, the government may fix the taxes on definite bases, and fix the mechanism of our finances. The payment of the 45c. will, in particular, be suppressed. It is a temporary sacrifice which property ought to make promptly, and which its knowledge of the state of affairs, and its devotedness to the republic impose on it, we doubt not much more that than the decree of the government. Poverty is exposed to many other sacrifices. In a word, it is particularly on the working classes, masters, and workmen, that the crisis weighs, and we cannot comprehend that property should not regard it not only as a duty, but as a kind of privilege to pay, to prevent difficulties, a debt comparatively light. It If all must emanate from the people, if all must is not when the workmen, whose very existence is be done for the people, must everything be done at stake, show such generous self-denial, and sponexclusively by them? Will not property and cap-rich should complain of having their superfluities taneously give their mite to the country, that the ital be an engine to use in the service of the repub- infringed on. "We have at the disposal of the lic? Would you make a new law of suspicion provisional government three months of misery," against the rich? Workmen of Paris, those who exclaimed a man of the people, with an outburst give you such counsels are mad. Distrust those of enthusiasm. That expression, so touching and ambitious men who only flatter the people to raise so profound, at once summed up and defined the themselves by means of them. Society is like an state of things, with all the difficulties and all the immense manufactory: labor must be divided in duties which it imposed. Let the instinct of sacrifice which so eloquently dictated that devoted exsuch a manner that every one may be classed ac- pression be in the heart of all, even in the heart of cording to his aptitude, in order that the enterprise those to whom their fortune renders the sacrifice may succeed. Let the career be opened to all, more easy. But, in our opinion, it is not even on one condition, that he who would take part in enough for them to confine themselves to pay the the direction of public affairs, should render him- extraordinary contribution of 45 centimes, and even self capable beforehand. That is the true civil the whole of their taxes, within the given delay; that would be to remain within the limit of strict equality-there is no other. Workmen of Paris, obedience to the laws. Circumstances call for more. believe me; it is a friend who speaks thus: oth- It is necessary that, in imitation of the initiative ers mislead or deceive you. taken by some among them, all the proprietors in France voluntarily anticipating the fixed period, 23 March, 2 o'clock. should at present bring to the treasury the whole THE National has an article on the increase of of the sums which they would have to pay during taxation as applied to the owners of lands and the year. This general movement in favor of the state, made under present circumstances, would be houses. It calls upon the proprietors to pay at one of the most energetic means that could be emonce the whole of their tax for the year, instead ployed to restore credit, and prevent disastrous of availing themselves of the faculty of paying it eventualities. Let the landed interest of France by instalments. The appeal will probably be re-think of this; it may coöperate in a result the most sponded to by a large portion, not on account of desirable at this moment for the country, and that, the indirect menace which has been held out to not by any sacrifice, but by a simple anticipation. them in certain quarters, but for motives of patriot-ileged position imposes on it great duties; it will appears to us that they cannot hesitate; its privism, or a sense of the importance of making saccomprehend them we feel confident, and we expect rifices with a view to the reestablishment of public to see them perform it. confidence and public credit; but, in the present crisis, there must be an immense number of proprietors who would find it exceedingly difficult to comply with the injunction of the National. This journal says: It The Constitutionnel has the following: We must submit to the dictatorship of the provisional government. We have several times said that, in many of its acts which go beyond its regular competency, and which under ordinary circumMany persons appear to forget that the urgent stances would only belong to the legitimate omnipmeasures adopted by the government to remedy the otence of the national assembly, the provisional financial crisis are only provisional, and by no means government is justified by considerations of urdefinitive. Decreed in face of an exceptional state gency. Placed moreover at the summit of society, of affairs, they will end at the same time as that it embraces the ensemble of facts. It can only take situation. It is, therefore, chiefly on the patriotism its boldest decisions by a majority of voices, and its of the citizens that depend the adoption of measures decrees, prepared after discussion, present themto shorten the continuance of the embarrassment selves under the double guarantee of a deliberation which has called for extraordinary enactments. In in common, and of the names of their authors. But this case private interest is in accordance with pa- may not the provisional government understand triotism. It is necessary that every one should that its collective dictatorship may concentrate comprehend and serve the necessities of the present itself in the far from tranquillizing unity of its state of affairs, the one in not extending their exi- departmental commissaries? Does it understand gencies beyond the limits of possibility, and the that its central dictatorship should be disseminated, and that it should be multiplied by the number of road carriages, and the means of remedy. On the its general and special commissaries? In the new present system there is a friction upon the rails, provisional organization there are more prefects than which these gentlemen propose to obviate by a difdepartments, and we suppose that it has momentarily increased the number of those public function-ferent mode of attaching the guide. The reporter aries, whilst occupied in reducing the number of declared that the recommendation was worthy of functionaries of every other kind. No. It is not trial, and proposed that the thanks of the Academy possible that it can be wished to install eighty or should be voted to the inventors. The proposition rather a hundred and some odd, provisional gov- was adopted.-A report was made by MM. Chevernments charged to exercise, each in its particular reul, Dumas, and Flourens, relative to some experlimits, a localized national sovereignty. Such, iments made by them to ascertain whether M. however, appears to be the case. Gannal, who has declared that he does not employ arsenic in his process of embalmment, really does not make use of that substance. They stated that they had discovered a very minute portion of arsenic in the composition, but that they attribute its credit to the assertion of M. Gannal.-Several presence to some tests which were used, and attach communications on chemistry were read, but they were without general interest. The Constitutionnel then proceeds to mention several acts, and especially some financial interference of the commissaries in some of the departments, which it warmly criticises. THE National Discount-Bank commenced its operations on Monday. Already 600 accounts are opened, and there are 800 more applications to be decided upon. On Monday bills to the amount of nearly 1,000,000fr. were discounted, and yesterday to upwards 1,200,000fr. discussion. NOTICES OF BOOKS. From the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. THE bill brought in by the Belgian minister of finance, to make the notes of the Belgian Bank a The Presse of yesterday contained an announce-legal tender, passed the chamber of representatives ment from M. Goupil, agent de change, that one the same day, though not without some curious of his clients, who wished his name to be kept secret, having received a quantity of silver in bars, had had it coined, and had authorized M. Goupil to give it without any charge in exchange for 500fr. notes, up to an amount of two hundred THE CZAR, HIS COURT AND HIS PEOPLE. New thousand francs. In consequence of this announcement, persons wishing to obtain specie applied to M. Goupil, at his residence in the Rue Taitbout, and received change for their notes without the slightest deduction being made. a At a meeting of the money-changers of Paris, held yesterday, it was resolved that in order to keep up the circulation of specie, they will give premium of 2fr. 50c. for every 1,000fr. paid to them in specie, and will not require more than 5fr. for every 1,000fr. given by them in exchange for notes. York. Baker & Scribner. We have read this instructive and interesting volume. It is the production of a young townsman, a son of Hugh Maxwell, Esq., who passed some time in Russia in an official capacity, and travelled over a considerable extent of the empire, taking the ancient capital, Moscow, in his way. to the aspect of the country, the dress and style of The descriptive portions proper-those which relate living of the people, their industrial pursuits, and the like-are marked by intelligent observation; but the writer's chief attention was given to the social and political condition of the Russians, which he represents in anything but a promising or agreeable THE minister of marine has addressed a circular light. We have seldom read a clearer or more to the prefects and maritime commandants, stating impressive exposition of the fatal tendencies of desthat as the delegates of several ports have made potism, in its operation on the wielder as well as inquiries whether the vessels generally engaged the subjects. According to Mr. Maxwell's showin the cod-fishery in the latitudes of Newfoundlanding, the emperor passes-or, rather, wastes-his and Iceland could proceed to their destination as usual, he thinks it right to state that as there appears not to be the slightest chance of peace being interrupted, they may set sail for the season's fishing without hesitation. tions and generous qualities, and the shifting, grindlife in a perpetual struggle between natural disposiing, harassing exigencies of his political system expending vast energies either to no practical resul or in a wrong direction. Corruption is universal deception and imposture, in a thousand forms, pervade the whole fabric of Russian government, in all ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.-Sitting of March 20. its departments. Yet the capabilities of the people -Babinet made some observations on the total are wonderful; and wondrous will no doubt be their eclipse of the moon which took place on the even-performance, when the elevating power of liberty ing of the 19th. They were chiefly confined to shall at last have sway among them, as in Heaven's the red appearance of the moon on that occasion, good time it doubtless will. "Until then Russia will continue to be a phenomenon among nations-perwhich he stated arose from the rays of light pene-haps become a terror and a scourge. trating the earth's shadow.-M. Becquerel pre- CHILDREN OF THE NEW FOREST. By Captain Marsented, in the name of MM. Brunel, Bisson, and ryatt. New York. Harper & Brothers. Gauguin, some fine specimens of metallic objects A new work, primarily intended for the young, bronzed by a new galvanic process.-M. Combes which is said to be equal to anything the author has made a report on a paper by MM. Poncelet and written. The period of the story is that of the ProPiobert, relative to the vicious construction of rail-tectorate and Charles I. SCRAPS. Natural Uses of Hair; A Gentleman Grown, 210 PROSPECTUS. This work is conducted in the spirit of Littell's Museum of Foreign Literature, (which was favorably received by the public for twenty years,) but as it is twice as large, and appears so often, we not only give spirit and freshness to it by many things which were excluded by a month's delay, but while thus extending our Scope and gathering a greater and more attractive variety, are able so to increase the solid and substantial part of our literary, historical, and political harvest, as fully to satisfy the wants of the American reader. The elaborate and stately Essays of the Edinburgh, Quarterly, and other Reviews; and Blackwood's noble criticisms on Poetry, his keen political Commentaries, highly wrought Tales, and vivid descriptions of rural and mountain Scenery; and the contributions to Literature, History, and Common Life, by the sagacious Spectator, the sparkling Examiner, the judicious Athenæum, the busy and industrious Literary Gazette, the sensible and comprehensive Britannia, the sober and respectable Christian Observer; these are intermixed with the Military and Naval reminiscences of the United Service, and with the best articles of the Dublin University, New Monthly, Fraser's, Tail's, Ainsworth's, Hood's, and Sporting Magazines, and of Chambers' admirable Journal. We do not consider it beneath our dignity to borrow wit and wisdom from Punch; and, when we think it good enough, make use of the thunder of The Times. We shall increase our variety by importations from the continent of Europe, and from the new growth of the British colonies. The steamship has brought Europe, Asia, and Africa, into our neighborhood; and will greatly multiply our connections, as Merchants, Travellers, and Politicians, with all parts of the world; so that much more than ever it Timber Mining, 219- Poetical now becomes every intelligent American to be informed of the condition and changes of foreign countries. And this not only because of their nearer connection with ourselves, but because the nations seem to be hastening, through a rapid process of change, to some new state of things, which the merely political prophet cannot compute or foresee. Geographical Discoveries, the progress of Colonization, (which is extending over the whole world,) and Voyages and Travels, will be favorite matter for our selections; and, in general, we shal systematically and very ully acquaint our readers with the great department of Foreiga affairs, without entirely neglecting our own. While we aspire to make the Living Age desirable tc all who wish to keep themselves informed of the rapid progress of the movement-to Statesmen, Divines, Lawyers, and Physicians-to men of business and men of leisure-it is still a stronger object to make it attractive and useful to their Wives and Children. We believe tha we can thus do some good in our day and generation; and hope to make the work indispensable in every well-informed family. We say indispensable, because in this day of cheap literature it is not possible to guard against the influx of what is bad in taste and vicious in morals, in any other way than by furnishing a sufficient supply of a healthy character. The mental and moral appetite must be gratified. We hope that, by "winnowing the wheat from the chaff" by providing abundantly for the imagination. and by a large collection of Biography, Voyages and Travels, History, and more solid matter, we may produce a work which shall be popular, while at the same time it wil aspire to raise the standard of public taste. Postage. When sent with the cover on, the Living Age consists of three sheets, and is rated as a pamphlet, at 4 cents. But when sent without the cover, it comes within the definition of a newspaper given in the law and cannot legally be charged with more than newspaper postage, (1) cts.) We add the definition alluded to: A newspaper is "any printed publication, issued in numbers, consisting of not more than two sheets, and published at short, stated intervals of not more than one month, conveying intelligence of passing events." Monthly parts.--For such as prefer it in that form, the Living Age is put up in monthly parts, containing four or five weekly numbers. In this shape it shows to great advantage in comparison with other works, containing in each part double the matter of any of the quarterlies. But we recommend the weekly numbers, as fresher and fuller of life. Postage on the monthly parts is about 14 cents. The volumes are published quarterly, each volume containing as much matter as a quarterly review gives in eighteen months. WASHINGTON, 27 DEC., 1845. Or all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe and in this country, this has appeared to me to be the most useful. It contains indeed the exposition only of the current literature of the English language, but this by its immense extent and comprehension includes a portraiture of the human mind in the utmost expansion of the present age. J. Q. ADAMS LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 208.-6 MAY, 1848. From Tait's Magazine. PROFESSOR NICHOL. BY GEORGE GILFILLAN. WE propose a short series of criticisms upon the more prominent popular lecturers of the day —a class of persons who are rapidly rising into consequence, who are already exerting very considerable influence on society, and whose merits deserve to be canvassed somewhere else, and with somewhat more care, than in the columns of a newspaper. This, indeed, is the age of public lecturing, and we might spend a long time in discussing its pros and cons, its advantages, and its evils. The open and legitimate objects which popular lecturing proposes to itself are chiefly the three following: Instruction, Excitement, and Communication between the higher minds of the age, and those of a lower grade. Now, in reference to its utility as an organ of instruction, much may be said on both sides. In public lecturing, truth is painted to the eye; it is enforced and illustrated by voice, gesture, and action; it stands in the person of the orator, as in an illuminated window. The information thus given, attended by a personal interest, and accompanied by a peculiar emphasis, is more profoundly impressed upon the memory; and many, by the fairy aspect of truth which is presented, are induced to love and learn, who otherwise would have remained indifferent and distant. On the other hand, the quantity of knowledge communicated by lecturing is seldom large; and, as to its quality, lecturers are under strong temptations to dilute it down to the capacities of their audience; and, instead of conducting them from first principles to details, they give them particular facts, and tell them to travel back themselves to leading principles-an advice which they seldom, if ever, follow. Too often the hearers, however strongly urged to the contrary by their instructors, forget to pursue profounder researches, to seek after higher sources; and the close of the six or seven lectures is the close of their studies, and furnishes the complement of their knowledge. Often, too, the class who have least access to books have also least access to lectures, or even when privileged to attend them, find their special wants but indifferently supplied. In the excitement produced by good public lecturing, its advocates find a more plausible argument in its favor. It is an amusement so happy and so innocent; it withdraws so many from the theatre, the card-table, and the tavern; it gives such a stimulus to nascent intellects; it creates around the lecturer such circles and semicircles of shining faces; it rouses in so many breasts the spark of literary and scientific genius; it commences the manufacture of so many incipient Miltons, no longer mute and inglorious; and of whole generations of young Arkwrights, worthy of their illustrious progenitor. Nay, we would go a little further still, we would "better the instruction." Its excitement and pleasure do not stop here. The lecture-room promotes a great many matches; it brings young ladies and gentlemen into close and intimate propinquity; it excites active and animated flirtations; it forms, besides, a pleasant interchange to one class with the card-table-to another, an agreeable lounge on the road to the afterpiece, and to a third, a safe and decent halfway house to a quiet social crack in a quiet alehouse. It is also a nursery for the numerous sprigs of criticism which abound-faithfully figured by the immortal Punch, in those specimens of the rising generation who deem that, as for that ere Shakspeare, he has been vastly over-rated." And last, not least, it permits many a comfortable nap to the hard-wrought doctor or dominie, or artisan -to whom it matters not whether the lecturer be in the moon, or in the clouds, as they are only, like their instructor, absent and lost. 66 Joking, however, apart, popular lecturing is undoubtedly a source both of much entertainment and excitement, though we are not sure but that that entertainment is more valued by the luxurious as a variety in their pleasures, than by the middle and lower classes as a necessity in their intellectual life; and although we are sure that an undue portion of that excitement springs from the glare of lights, the presence of ladies, the mere "heat and stare, and pressure," of which Chalmers complained; and that comparatively little of it can be traced to the art, less to the genius, and least of all to the subject, of the discourser. As a means of communication between men of science and literature, and the age, it is, we are afraid, what Mr. Horne would call a "False Medium." You have in it the prophet, shorn, dressed, perhaps scented, perhaps playing miserable monkey-tricks to divert the audience-and not the Moses coming down the Mount, with face shining, but with lips stammering, from that dread communion on the summit; or if the prophet do preserve his integrity, and speak to the souls instead of the eyes and ears of his audience, it is at his proper peril; wild yawnings, slumbers both loud and deep, not to speak of the more polite hints conveyed in the music of slapping doors and rasping floors, are the reward of his fidelity. We are aware, indeed, that a few have been able to overcome such obstacles, and in spite of stern adherence to a high object, to gain general acceptance. But these are the exceptions. Their success, besides, has greatly resulted from other causes than | night sky. The telescope enabled us to stand the truth they uttered. Certain graces of manner behind the processes of the Eternal-it was a wing -certain striking points in delivery-a certain by which we overtook the great retreat of the melody, to which their thoughts were set-created Deity, if indeed a retreat it was, and not rather 3 at the first an interest which gradually, as the enthusiasm of the speaker increased, swelled into a brute wonder, which made you fancy the words, "Orpheus no fable," written in a transparency over the speaker's head. But clear, steady vision of truth, true and satisfying pleasure, and any permanent or transforming change, were not given. The audience were lifted up for a season, like an animal caught in a whirlwind, by the sheer power of eloquence; they were not really elevated one distinct step-they came down precisely the same creatures, and to the same point, as before, and the thing would be remembered by them afterwards as a dream. Minds, again, somewhat inferior to the prophetic order, find a far freer and more useful passage to the public ear and intellect, and succeed in giving not only a vague emotion of delight, but some solid knowledge, and some lasting result. Such a mind is that of our admirable friend, Professor Nichol; and even at the apparent risk of indelicacy, we propose to analyze its constituent qualities, as well as the special causes of his great success as a lecturer. May this article greet his eyes, and cheer his heart somewhere in that great land of strangers, where he is at present sojourning, (would he could read it under the shadow of the Andes!) and convince him that his friends in Scotland have not forgotten him, and are, in the absence of himself, either drawing, or looking at, his picture! The first time we heard of Professor Nichol was on the publication of his "Views of the Architecture of the Heavens," and the first thing that struck us about the production was the felicity and boldness of its title. The words "Architecture of the Heavens" suggested, first, the thought that the heavens were the building of a distinct divine architect; secondly, that the building was still in progress; and, thirdly, that from even this low and distant platform we are permitted glimpses of its gradual growth toward perfection. The essence, in fact, of the nebular hypothesis was contained in the title; and although that hypothesis is now commonly thought exploded, it is only so far as the visible evidence is concerned-as a probable and beautiful explanation of phenomena, the origin of which is lost in the darkness of immeasurable antiquity, it retains its value. But how suggestive to us at the time was the expression, "Architecture of the Heavens!" Formerly we deemed that when man awaked into existence, the building, indeed, was there in all its magnitude, but that the scaffolding was down-all trace and vestige of the operation elaborately removed and that the Almighty architect had withdrawn and hid himself. But now we had come upon the warm footprints of omnipotence-the power was only a few steps in advance; nay, thrilling thought we had only to lift our telescopes to behold him actually at work up there, in the mid perpetual progress—a triumphal march onwards into the infinite dark. It brought us ever new, electric, telegraphic tidings of Him whose goings forth were of old-from everlasting—and which were new to everlasting as well. Such were the dim, yet high suggestions of the nebular hypothesis. If we relinquished them recently with a sigh, we now sigh no more; for now we have been taught, in a manner most impressive, the immense age of the universe, whose orbs seem hoary in their splendor, and have thus found a new measure for computing our knowledge, or rather for more accurately estimating our ignorance, of the days, of the years, of the right hand of Him that is the Most High. How long, we now exclaim, it must be since the Great Artist put his finishing touch to that serene gallery of paintings we call the stars, and yet how perfect and how godlike their execution; since their lustre, their beauty, and their holy calm are this night as fresh and unfaded as at the beginning! And how solemn the thought, if these works, in the hiding of their Creator, be so magnificent, how great must himself be, and how great must he have been, especially as he travailed in birth with such an offspring, amid the jubilant shouts of all awakening intelligence! It is very common to skip the preface in order to get at the book. In this case, we skipped the book to get at the pictures. We read, nay, devoured, the plates-the poems shall we call them-ere we read a word of the letterpress. And most marvellous to us was their revelation of those starry sprinklings, relieved against the dark background-those wild capricious shapes, which reminded you of rearing steeds under the control of perfect riders-seeming at once to spurn and to be subject to immutable laws-those unbanked rivers of glory flowing through the universe-why, we seemed standing on a Pisgah, commanding the prospect of immensity itself. But still more striking to overlook, as we then imagined, the laboratory of God, and to see his work in every stage of its progress-the six demiurgic days presented to us contemporaneously and at once. No wonder that such plates enchanted us, and that we seemed gazing on rough copies from the paintings of the divine hand itself. What a triumph, too, to mind over matter, and to a poor sun-illumined worm, over his haughty torch-to be able, with a pinpoint, to indicate, and, if necessary, to hide his place in the firmament! It was, indeed, an hour much deserving of memory. The folding-doors of the universe seemed to open upon us in musical thunder; and if we could not, as yet, enter, yet we could wish, like Mirza, for the wings of a great eagle to fly away within them. It was one of those apocalyptic moments that occur, or that can occur so seldom in life, for it is not every day that we can see, for the first time, in the expanded |