a

and rightfully referred to the cause with accurate, that, if his poems were blotted out of which she was identified the flattering recep- existence, they might be restored simply from his tion with which she met. It is well known memory. This same accurate knowledge extends that a meeting took place at Stafford House between Mrs. Stowe and the ladies most honorably distinguished in the anti-slavery movements of our age. This meeting was most remarkable fact," and our author was wise enough not to appropriate the honor of it to herself. "I rather regard it," she says, " as the most public expression possible of the feelings Macaulay is about fifty. He has never married, of the women of England, on one of the most important questions of our day-that of individual liberty considered in its religious bearings." Referring to this meeting, Mrs. Stowe justly remarks:

to the Latin and Greek classics, and to much of the literature of modern Europe. Had nature fect historian, nothing better could have been put been required to make a man to order, for a pertogether, especially since there is enough of the poetic fire included in the composition, to fuse all these multiplied materials together, and color the historical crystallization with them.

yet there are unmistakable evidences in the breathings and aspects of the family circle by whom he was surrounded, that the social part is not wanting in his conformation. Some very charming young lady relatives seemed to think quite as much of their gifted uncle as you might have done had he been yours.

The most splendid of England's palaces has this day opened its doors to the slave. Its treas- and, like Coleridge, Carlyle, and almost every Macaulay is celebrated as a conversationalist; ures of wealth and of art, its prestige of high one who enjoys this reputation, he has sometimes name and historic memories, have been conse-been accused of not allowing people their fair crated to the acknowledgment of Christianity in share in conversation. This might prove an ob that form wherein, in our day, it is most fre- jection, possibly, to those who wish to talk; but quently denied - the recognition of the brotherhood of the human family, and the equal religious to me. as I greatly prefer to hear, it would prove none I must say, however, that on this occavalue of every human soul. A fair and noble sion the matter was quite equitably managed. — hand by this meeting has fixed, in the most pub- Vol. ii. pp. 2, 3. lic manner, an ineffaceable seal to the beautiful sentiments of that most Christian document, the

Milman, who was present on the same occaLetter of the Ladies of Great Britain to the La-sion, is represented as "tall, stooping, with a dies of America. That Letter and this public keen black eye, and perfectly white hair-a attestation of it are now historic facts, which wait their time and the judgment of advancing singular and a poetic contrast." Our author Christianity.-Ib. p. 298. sat between the two, and tells us in continuation of her sketch:

Our readers will be desirous of knowing the impression made on Mrs. Stowe by some of our literary celebrities. She met several of them on various occasions, and her sketches are full of interest. Designed primarily for American readers, her descriptions will be read on this side of the Atlantic with no slight curiosity and pleasure. Take for instance the following account of Macaulay, with whom she breakfasted at Sir Charles Trevelyan's.

Macaulay's whole physique gives you the impression of great strength and stamina of constitution. He has the kind of frame which we usually imagine is peculiarly English: short, stout. and firmly knit. There is something hearty in all his demonstrations. He speaks in that full, round, rolling voice, deep from the chest, which we also conceive of as being more common in England than America. As to his conversation, it is just like his writing; that is to say, it shows very strongly the same qualities of mind.

Somehow or other, we found ourselves next talking about Sidney Smith; and it was very pleasant to me, recalling the evenings when your father has read and we have laughed over him, to hear him spoken of as a living existence, by one quarrel with Sidney, for the wicked use to which who had known him. Still, I have always had a he put his wit, in abusing good old Dr. Carey, and the missionaries in India; nay, in some places he even stooped to be spiteful and vulgar. I could not help, therefore, saying, when Macaulay observed that he had the most agreeable wit of any literary man of his acquaintance: "Well, it was very agreeable, but it could not have been very agreeable to the people who came under the edge of it," and instanced his treatment of Dr. Carey. Some others who were present seemed to feel warmly on this subject, too, and Macaulay said:

"Ah, well, Sidney repented of that afterwards." He seemed to cling to his memory, and to turn from every fault to his joviality as a thing he could not enough delight to remember.

Truly wit, like charity, covers a multitude of sins. A man who has the faculty of raising a laugh in this sad earnest world, is remembered with indulgence and complacency always. — Ib. p. 6.

I was informed that he is famous for a most uncommon memory: one of those men to whom it seems impossible to forget anything once read; and he has read all sorts of things that can be thought of, in all languages. A gentleman told me that he could repeat all the old Newgate literature, hanging ballads, last speeches, and dying Slight sketches are furnished of the histoconfessions; while his knowledge of Milton is so rian Haliam, Sir R. H. Inglis, Dr. Lushington,

Lord Campbell, the Archbishop of Canter-directed to it, and here is her solution of the bury, Lord Palmerston, Mr. Justice Talfourd, enigma :

B

Mr. Dickens, and others. The following an- A lady asked me this evening what I thought ecdote has more than ordinary interest. It of the beauty of the ladies of the English aristoc relates to an occurrence at the Mansion racy she was a Scotch lady, by-the-by; so the House, and confirms the impression generally made on all candid readers by the opinion

referred to.

question was a fair one. I replied, that certainly report had not exaggerated their charms. Then came a home question How the ladies of England compared with the ladies of America. A very dignified gentleman, dressed in black Now for it, patriotism," said I to myself; and, velvet, with a fine head, made his way through invoking to my aid certain fair saints of my own the throng, and sat down by me, introducing him- country, whose faces I distinctly remembered, I self as Lord Chief Baron Pollock. He told me assured her that I had never seen more beautiful he had just been reading the legal part of the Key women than I had in America. Grieved was I to to Uncle Tom's Cabin, and remarked especially be obliged to add : But your ladies keep their on the opinion of Judge Ruffin, in the case of beauty much later and longer." This fact stares State versus Mann, as having made a deep im- one in the face in every company: one meets lapression on his mind. Of the character of the dies past fifty, glowing, radiant, and blooming, decision, considered as a legal and literary docu- with a freshness of complexion and fulness of outment, he spoke in terms of high admiration line refreshing to contemplate. What can be the said that nothing had ever given him so clear a reason? Tell us, Muses and Graces, what can it view of the essential nature of slavery. We be? Is it the conservative power of sea fogs and found that this document had produced the same coal smoke - the same canse that keeps the turf impression on the minds of several others present. green, and makes the holly and ivy flourish? Mr. S. said that one or two distinguished legal How comes it that our married ladies dwindle, gentlemen mentioned it to him in similar terms. fade, and grow thin- that their noses incline to The talent and force displayed in it, as well as sharpness, and their elbows to angularity, just at the high spirit and scorn of dissimulation, appear the time when their island sisters round out into to have created a strong interest in its author. a comfortable and becoming amplitude and fulIt always seemed to me that there was a certain ness? If it is the fog and the sea-coal, why then severe strength and grandeur about it which ap-I am afraid we never shall come up with them. proached to the heroic. One or two said that they were glad such a man had retired from the practice of such a system of law.-Vol. i. pp. 260,

261.

But perhaps there may be other causes why a country which starts some of the most beautiful girls in the world, produces so few beautiful women. Have not our close-heated stove-rooms something to do with it? Have not the immense Those who have been in extensive inter- amount of hot biscuits, hot corn cakes, and other course with Americans can scarcely fail to compounds, got up with the acrid poison of salehave noticed the early deterioration of female ratus, something to do with it? Above all, has beauty. The fact is painfully obtruded, even not our climate, with its alternate extremes of on a casual observer, and has led to many heat and cold, a tendency to induce habits of inamusing theories. Few countries are richer deal to do with it; ours is evidently more trying door indolence? Climate, certainly, has a great in the personal beauty of its younger women, and more exhausting and because it is so, we but their bloom speedily disappears, and should not pile upon its back errors of dress and gives place, at a much earlier period than diet which are avoided by our neighbors. They amongst ourselves, to the indications of physi- keep their beauty, because they keep their health. cal exhaustion. An interval of a few years It has been as remarkable as anything to me, works marvellous changes in this respect. since I have been here, that I do not constantly, Health is supplanted by sickness, and the vi- as at home, hear one and another spoken of as vacity and hopefulness of youth give place to in miserable health, as very delicate, etc. Health the tokens of premature decay. How is this? seems to be the rule, and not the exception. For The question is frequently asked, and many that I know of for female beauty in America is, my part, I must say, the most favorable omen explanations have been offered." How far the multiplication of water-cure establishments,

:

these are satisfactory it is not for us to say. where our ladies, if they get nothing else, do gain One thing at least is certain. The universal- some ideas as to the necessity of fresh air, reguity of the fact proves the existence of some lar exercise, simple diet, and the laws of hygiene general law, far wider in its range and more in general.-Vol. ii. pp. 18-20. certain in its operation than the varying modes of fashion. Mrs. Stowe frequently expresses It is well known that Mrs. Stowe is the surprise at the measure of health enjoyed in daughter, sister, and wife of American divines, this country, and admits it, as undoubted, that and she may therefore be safely assumed to personal beauty is far longer maintained than be conversant with the style of preaching amongst her own country women. The ques- common throughout the States. As a general tion is, doubtless, somewhat perplexing, and rule, she represents it as more logical and arto ladies themselves, must be fraught with no gumentative than that of our country. ordinary interest. Our author's attention was takes more cognizance of the intellect, as

It

sumes less, and seeks by the force of reason-1 of absolutism. History records no struggle ing to induce conviction, rather than by the more sagaciously planned or more heroically urgency of appeal, to give practical effect to conducted than that over which he presided. admitted truths. "One principal difference His personal integrity is beyond suspicion. that struck me," she says, "was, that the Eng- The deepest devotion of his heart is conselish preaching did not recognize the existence crated to the constitutional rights of his counof any element of inquiry or doubt in the try, and future ages, rising superior to the popular mind; that it treated certain truths whispers of envy, and despising the concluas axioms, which only needed to be stated to sions which a false philosophy draws from debe believed; whereas, in American sermons feat, will enrol his name amongst the worthiest there is always more or less time employed in of our race. Pure, high-minded, and heroic, explaining, proving, and answering objections as enlightened in his patriotism as he is unito the truths enforced." Mr. Binney is re-versal in his knowledge, he is the type of that presented as an exception to this rule, and we should be glad to see this feature of his public exercises more extensively prevalent amongst us. Speaking of Mr. Binney, we are told :

He is one of the strongest men among the Congregationalists, and a very popular speaker. He is a tall, large man, with a finely-built head, high forehead, piercing, dark eye, and a good deal of force and determination in all his movements. His sermon was the first that I had heard in England which seemed to recognize the existence of any possible sceptical or rationalizing element in the minds of his hearers. It was, in this respect, more like the preaching that I had been in the habit of hearing at home. Instead of a calm statement of certain admitted religious facts, or exhortations founded upon them, his discourse seemed to be reasoning with individual cases, and answering various forms of objections, such as might arise in different minds. This mode of preaching, I think, cannot exist unless a minister cultivates an individual knowledge of his people.-Ib. p. 30.

comes.

better class of minds out of which the regenerators of a nation are born. Had the aristocracy of England shared his sagacity, they would have been amongst the foremost to do him honor, but the opposite course which they have pursued will tell with terrible effect against them when the day of retribution avoid the necessity of appealing to the popuOur rulers are intensely anxious to lar mind of Europe, and hence their protracted negotiations with Austria. Kossuth naturally looks to the war which is now raging, as that which will probably bring the great principle of his public life into prominent action. We can readily imagine with what intense solicitude he listens to the reports which reach taken if he is not yet destined to act a conspius from the seat of war; and are greatly miscuous part in the struggle. The urgency of the crisis has drawn him from his retreat, and. his marvellous oratory has again thrilled the hearts of thousands of our countrymen. From his views some will dissent, but the point of difference between us is not great. Vienna We can find room only for one extract is more accessible to the Czar than Constantimore, and amongst many we select the fol- nople, and we may yet live to see the Gerlowing, in which honor is done to one of the man Cæsars more endangered in their capital noblest and most patriotic exiles whom op- than the Sultan has ever been. But we must pression has ever driven to our shores. We not forget Mrs. Stowe. The theme is tempthave frequently expressed our opinion of the ing, but we recur to the visit of our American ex-governor of Hungary. It is impossible to traveller to the English residence of the Maghave gazed on his calm and somewhat sorrow-yar chief. She says:—

ful countenance, or to have witnessed its in

stantaneous lighting up when the fortunes and We found him in an obscure lodging on the hopes of his fatherland are spoken of, without outskirts of London. I would that some of the being deeply prepossessed in his favor. Re-editors in America, who have thrown out insinuceived with open arms, welcomed at once to ations about his living in luxury, could have seen the heart and to the home of the English room, which had nothing in it beyond the simthe utter bareness and plainness of the receptionpeople, this distinguished man has conducted plest necessaries. Here dwells the man whose himself amongst us with singular sagacity.greatest fault is an undying love to his country. Ordinary men would have been stimulated We all know that if Kossuth would have taken by his flattering reception to imprudence, if wealth and a secure retreat, with a life of ease for not to rashness; but Kossuth wisely retired himself, America would gladly have laid all these from the public eye, and waited, in hopeful at his feet. But because he could not acquiesce confidence, that the better star of his coun- in the unmerited dishonor of his country, he lives try would yet pierce through the dark clouds a life of obscurity, poverty, and labor. All this by which its brightness had been obscured. Yielding to a necessity which no genius could resist, he landed on our shores the victim of domestic treachery, as well as the sworn enemy

ful. blue eye. But to me the unselfish patriot is was written in his pale, worn face, and sad, thoughtmore venerable for his poverty and his misfor

tunes.

Have we, among the thousands who speak loud

of patriotism in America, many men who, were people who involve in themselves so many of the she enfeebled, despised, and trampled, would fore-elements which go to make up our confidence in go self, and suffer as long, as patiently for her? It human nature generally, that to lose confidence is even easier to die for a good cause, in some hour in them seems to undermine our faith in human of high enthusiasm, when all that is noblest in us virtue. As Shakspeare says, their defection can be roused to one great venture, than to live would be like "another fall of man.—Ib. pp. 51, for it amid wearing years of discouragement and hope delayed.

52.

There are those even here in England who deWe purposely omit reference to Mrs. Stowe's light to get up slanders against Kossuth; and continental excursion, as our space is preocnot long ago some most unfounded charges were cupied with matters more interesting to the thrown out against him in some public prints. English reader. Her volumes are enriched By way of counterpoise, an enthusiastic public with numerous illustrations, and will be pemeeting was held, in which he was presented with rused with intense delight by large numbers a splendid set of Shakspeare's Works. of our countrymen. We part from them with He entered into conversation with us with regret. Unlike our ordinary experience, we cheerfulness, speaking English well, though with were sorry to arrive at their close. We wishthe idioms of foreign languages. He seemed quite amused at the sensation which had been ed that she had gone on writing, and shall be excited by Mr. S.'s cotton speech in Exeter Hall. glad to renew our acquaintance with her at C. asked him if he had still hopes for his cause? the earliest possible moment. He answered: "I hope still because I work still; my hope is in God, not in man."

I inquired for Madame Kossuth, and he answered: "I have not yet seen her to-day;" adding, "she has her family affairs, you know, madam; we are poor exiles here;" and fearing to cause embarrassment, I did not press an interview. When we parted, he took my hand kindly, and said: "God bless you, my child."

for any-
men,
There are some

I would not lose my faith in such thing the world could give me.

The recent decision of the House of Lords, in the case of Jeffereys v. Boosey, having annulled the copyright of Messrs. Low, they have issued an edition in foolscap 8vo, at the low price of 2s., in order to meet the competition which is threatened. As Mrs. Stowe has an interest in their editions, we strongly recommend them to the preference of our read

ers.

-

From the Examiner, 26 Aug., commenced by land, and in due form. But how GRANITE BATTERIES. unlike is the attack to that upon Silistria! The form is very soon neglected- the French speediAr the moment when some of our contempo-ly grow tired of being methodical, and do the raries were reprobating, in language most severe work allotted them by assault-the English, and unmeasured, the indiscretion of those who meanwhile, have dragged six 32-pounders, by advocated, in Parliament or the press, a rather main force, over rocks and ploughed fields, more vigorous action on the part of our fleets in without making a single zig-zag, to a point the Black Sea and the Baltic, and at the time we whence the guns can be directed, at pleasure, were told, on the authority of an admiral who had against the towers or the principal fortification. seen Cronstadt from the top of a lighthouse, that Capt. Pelham takes a line of his own, and places "the batteries were of solid granite, to attack a ten-inch gun in a wholly irregular but very anwhich would be certain destruction, on the au- noying position. There is a moment when Sir thority of Sir Charles Napier," we ventured to Charles Napier has made up his mind to rush to remark: certain destruction, but he is restrained, and the fleet merely throw a shot and shell every five minutes by way of diversion for the Russians.

"Cronstadt is, no doubt, as strong as it can be made; but if it has any extraordinary look of solidity, such as to strike an observer out of cannon-shot range at the top of a tower, it is to be suspected that such a show is false, that it is postiche, that the place is padded out, that it is an impostor of a fortress, or in one word, Russian, which expresses every mystification."

Now mark the consequences, as related in a private letter, published by the Standard. It is Capt. Pelham's fire:

Three or four shots set the great stones visibly chattering, as I could mark by a pocket telescope; Well, as far as Cronstandt is concerned, the one block then fell out, then another, then a third, accuracy of our guess remains to be verified; lanche of loose rubbish, just as you see macadafourth, etc., and these were followed by an avabut we have had a specimen of Russian fortifica-mizing stones pour out from the end of a cart wher tion at Bomarsund. The batteries there, also, the back-board is removed. were pronounced to be granite; and we were told to prepare for a siege of some duration, because the ground is extremely unfavorable for digging trenches and approaches; and of course the lineof-battle ships, though carrying guns of larger range than the fortress, were not to be risked against the granite batteries. So the siege is

Next as to the face of the fort, exposed to the distant fire of the ships, not one of which appears to have been damaged.

of the fort, and which in appearance offered an The large blocks of granite that formed the face

surrendered.

If

immense resistance, fell out in masses, and the rub- about six fathoms, which is little more than ble with which the wall was filled in, tumbled out sufficient for a man-of-war. By sinking stonein heaps. The Edinburgh, the Ajax, and the laden hulks in this narrow channel, one month steamers fired at long range on the Bomarsund would suffice to imprison the Russian fleet infortress while at the same time the Leopard at- side; and this itself would be of the highest imtacked the fort of Presto, on the other side the narrow channel. At half past twelve a flag of truce portance, for if the allied fleets, either by storms, was held out at an embrasure of Bomarsund, to- battles, or otherwise, were withdrawn, the Ruswards the fleet; a boat, with an officer was sent on sians would immediately come out and sweep shore, and at about half past twelve the governor the Baltic, to the terror not only of this country, but also of Sweden and Denmark, who, for that reason alone, dare not sympathize with us. More Now, supposing that Fort Menschikoff had been than this, however, might be accomplished. exposed for a forenoon, not to a shot and shell Britain were to make a permanent barrier, the every five minutes, but to the sustained fire from effect would be so destructive to the power of the broadsides of five or six line-of-battle ships, Russia, that, very possibly, the mere threat might is there not a strong probability that the solid induce Nicholas to make peace on any terms. granite would have been "macadamized" into Two or three thousand hulk's laid down in the the loose blocks of rubble to which the Bomar-channel I have referred to, would produce an imsund forts were reduced by the employment of a portant geographical change. The impeding of twentieth part of the means supposed? Possibly the current would, of course, raise the level of Fort Menschikoff might have surrendered as the water considerably, and form extensive lakes nimbly as Fort Presto himself. and marshes where there are at present roads The construction of granite towers is, in fact, and houses. The silt, instead of being swept a return to a wholly obsolete method of fortifica- through the narrow channel, would settle down tion. When arbalests were superseded by artil- in the hollow, and in a few years fill it up. lery, it was speedily perceived that stone walls Petersburg, which lies so low that it is in danger, could no longer be relied upon. The "gins and every year, of being flooded, would feel the effect cracks of war," imperfect as they were in their of the change almost immediately; but the cominfancy, produced a speedy revolution in the con- plete catastrophe would not take place till struction of fortified places. The lofty towers spring, and then the destruction of both St. and high walls of the castle disappeared, to be re- Petersburg and Cronstadt would be inevitable. placed by carth-works of enormous thickness, At the breaking up of the ice, the present chanand of the smallest elevation that would afford a nel is scarcely sufficient to allow the deluge of range to the guns. The solid mound of the Ro-water, ice, and mud, which sweeps downwards man reappeared (faced sometimes with masonry, into the Gulf of Finland, to pass; but when that to prevent an escalade), because it alone possessed channel is choked up, St. Petersburg and Cronthe power of resisting, for any length of time, the stadt would be entirely submerged, and the terrible energy of the new invention. However, whole lower basin of the Neva covered with the Russians, having built towers of granite or débris, increasing in quantity each successive some scagliola substitute, the word went forth, spring. Were the operation fairly begun, Nichand granite towers were pronounced impregnable.olas would have sufficient work on his hands To doubt their strength, exposed you to ridicule; without a war. He would require to remove the to deny it, to anathema. They were religiously entire population, with the archives and most believed in; and if the Czar had mounted them valuable property, to some other locality, before with catapults, it would have been pronounced spring; and where would he go? The govern"certain destruction" to approach, armed only ment would be removed to Moscow, commerce with Paixhans. However, the granite-battery to Riga; the lakes and marshes of the Neva pretext for inaction will avail no longer. would become the frontier of Sweden, and the pressure at present exercised upon Sweden and Denmark would be transferred to Prussia and Austria, who would then feel the necessity of looking very sharply to the freedom of the Danube and the independence of Turkey."

Not the least gratifying part of the gallant and important achievement at Bomarsund is, that it has been accomplished with a small loss of life. Had the short and decisive course which was there employed been adopted sooner, how many might have been saved out of the thousands of the Allied, the Turkish, and the Russian soldiers, who have perished by the sword, or still more miserably by disease, at Gallipoli, Varna, Silistria, and in the fatal marshes of the Dobrudscha?

BLOCK UP CRONSTADT AND SUBMERGE ST. PETERSBURG.-James Gall. Jun., communicates, in a letter to the Edinburgh Witness, a plan for ending the war without bloodshed. He develops his scheme as follows:

Among recent inventions, Dr. Marcet's apparatus for Artificial Respiration promises to be useful, as it has the advantage over other contrivances of the same kind of being self-acting. It has a double cylinder, into which air is compressed; and each, by the alternate filling and discharge, with the end of a slender tube inserted into one of the nostrils, causes the lungs to go through the process of expiration and inspiration. Beyond the reach of the batteries at Cron-It has been tried on asphyxiated dogs with per stadt the channel of the Neva is only six miles fect success; and there remains now to test its broad, with an average depth of about four fath-capabilities on human beings. — Chambers's Jouroms. In the centre of the stream it deepens tonal.