candidate, and of the conventions, including those | coming in "by handfuls," and a poetically-minded of Utica and Buffalo. The writer (Monsieur editor, writing on the 22d ult., under the immediate Chevalier) thinks that the nomination of Mr. Van inspiration of a triad of monster meetings held Buren ruins General Cass and endangers General simultaneously on the previous evening, can only Taylor; and that the abandonment of Mr. Clay Seven thousand dollars, we are informed, were raised compare the influx of cash to "a shower of hail." by the whigs exemplifies the inveterate penchant in the course of that one night for no earthly purof democracy for men of the sword. He quotes pose except that of " promoting the cause of Irethe manifesto of the Utica convention in regard to land." Really, this is too good a thing to miss. the extension of negro slavery. On the whole, Why should the Emmetts, the Sheas, the O Conthough he expects a hard struggle and new organ-York St. Giles', have a monopoly of so splendid a nors, the Ryans, and the M'Graths of the New ization of parties on the slavery question, he does not entertain apprehensions for the union: American old, sound sense, he adds, will get round or The excitement will last quite long enough to reweather all controversies and difficulties. Amen! pay a timely expedition. The mere fact of the rebelHe remarks—what you should not forget-" All lion having ended before it began, and of there beeyes in Europe are more than ever fixed on the ing, consequently, at this moment, no cause of United States." He hopes that the cause of free Ireland" to be "promoted," will not create the trade will not be coupled with that of free terri-distinctly stated in all the English journals, and the smallest difficulty; for luckily, this fact has been tory. of the repeal trade at home? 66 66 66 New York Milesians make a point of resolutely Queen Victoria's speech is deemed cold and disbelieving everything that comes to them from vague, in the National Assembly and on the Ex- that tainted source. Up to the date of the last acchange. It is inferred that if France descend into counts, they were all as full as they could hold of Italy-England will leave her in the lurch. Fears the mythus of "the battle of Slievenamon," (the Lexington or Bunker Hill of the Irish revoluand rumors and even appearances of war multiply; yet the common impression is peaceable ad-tion,") at which "six thousand Saxons had bitten the dust." Of course, a mercenary and corrupt justment of both the Danish and Italian cases. British press" had weighty reasons for "distorting Girardin and de Genoude, the two editors aggrieved the real facts of the case," and placing the story by Cavaignac, Prince Louis Napoleon and Messrs. of the Ballingarry affray "in the best possible light Fould and Delessert, ex-bankers, are announced for the British government. With judicious as candidates for the National Assembly in the management, it will be six months, at the very elections of the 17th inst., for the department of least, before the "battle of Slievenamon" loses its the Seine. Their chances are good. The prince pockets. Mr. John O'Connell and " potency as a spell to conjure dollars out of Celtic my dear Ray" pledges himself, in a letter of 29th ult., dated may go over, if they will, as ministers plenipotenLondon, to serve if elected. A new perplexity tiary of the Green Republic; and if they only put for the republic. a good face on it, and abuse the "mercenary and corrupt British press," we will guarantee them enough of "implicit reliance" to pay their expenses both ways, and clear off the outstanding debt due from Conciliation Hall. EFFECTS OF IRISH AGITATION. By the late advices from England it appears that the recent demonstrations of an Irish war spirit in New York have had a disastrous effect upon the fortunes of the individuals engaged in the late rebellion in Ireland. It is is understood that the prisoners about to be put on trial will be treated with more severity on account of the threatening attitude taken by the Irish sympathizers on this side of the Atlantic. We find the following remarks on the subject in the London Morning Chronicle-Boston Courier, 26th Sept. Has it ever occurred to Mr. John O'Connell and "my dear Ray" to try an American tour? We think it would pay. Now that business is slack in Dublin, and the Burgh-quay shop closed for want of customers, they would surely do well to have something to be going on with; and, from all that we see in the New-York journals, of the temper of the Transatlantic Celts, we are convinced they might make a really good thing of it. We assure these gentlemen, the opening is worth being looked after. The patriots over the water seem in the finest mood for voluntary contributions. The meetings of the "devoted sons of Erin" are described as "tremendous;" the cheers are "vociferous and deafening;" the excitement is "terrific," and the gullibility unbounded. According to the most prosaic of the accounts we have seen, the money is Ameri We have not felt disposed to make the effort which would be requisite in order to treat these maniacal proceedings seriously. We have, on a former and recent occasion, said all we considered necessary for enabling the British public to appreciate the true moral and political significance of demonstrations, which, though nominally can," are, in reality, exclusively got up by a little Celtic colony, who live quite in a world of their tain classes of native American politicians, for party own, and whose fooleries are only tolerated by cerand electioneering purposes. In one point of view, perhaps, these frantic exhibitions may not be unattended by permanently useful results. We will venture to say that the New York public have, at this moment, a clearer insight into the real merits of the Anglo-Irish question than they ever had before, and that, should the madness last for any considerable length of time, the whole subject of "British oppression and tyranny" in Ireland will have a fair chance of being made level to the meanest Transatlantic capacity. When Jonathan has had further acquaintance with the patriots who preach that "the time has arrived when vengeance, red vengeance, is a virtue'—who exhort their countrymen to be as tigers in their deportment towards "the vile Saxon"-who get up public subscriptions for "bullets to pierce English hearts," and " pikes to skewer English red-coats”—who boast of "most implicit reliance" in the silliest of fables, and flatly refuse to know a fact when they see it-it will probably set him thinking, that "ruthless Saxon op pression" may, after all, be no very bad sort of government for some sort of subjects, and that if he had an Ireland of his own, within sight of the New England coast, he might be apt to turn "ruthless oppressor" himself. With our opinion of Jonathan's great good sense and fine instinct for the practical, we think nothing more likely than that he will, by-and-by, see precisely how the case stands between Great Britain and Ireland, and comprehend that there may be circumstances in which agitation against " tyranny and oppression" only proves that the agitators have a vast deal more liberty than they know what to do with. From the Times, of Sept. 8. VANCOUVER'S ISLAND AND AMERICAN POLICY. THE policy pursued by the government of the United States with regard to territorial aggrandizement is particularly deserving of attention. Prussia, in her vital struggles through the middle of the last century, was not more desperately bent upon consolidation and enlargement than is America at present; and a state which still retains in its original possessions sufficient unoccupied land to maintain double the amount of its population, is impressing into its service all the expedients of annexation, conquest, and purchase, with as much determination and energy as if it were actually gasping in those extremities of political existence which necessitated the seizure of Silesia and almost palliated the first partition of Poland. This policy may be, perhaps, to some extent, the manifestation of that high national purpose occasionally proclaimed by American statesmen-of reducing the uttermost parts of the continent under their rule upon the faith and sanction of scriptural donations; or it may be simply the natural development of ambition and activity in a thriving, uncontrolled, and unquiet people. But with either or both of these motives we have no doubt there is compounded, on the part of forecasting statesmen, a strong desire to multiply and extend as far as possible those outlets for discontent and restlessness, which are the very lungs of the American body politic, and to postpone to the remotest practicable period that moment when the rushing stream of expansive population must at length be checked, and with a sudden and terrible recoil. What emigration is, or ought to be, to Great Britain, migration is to the United States. Their colonies are in their western provinces. All opinions concur in stating that the facilities afforded by the wilderness of the far-west to the spirit of adventure or change have proved the salvation of the government, and have been the chief means of preserving intact for seventy years a constitution which, by the side of more recent incarnations of democracy, seems to wear not a few of the features of a steady and consolidated monarchy. The efforts of the American government to perpetuate the existence and secure the free action of this political safety-valve have been commensurate, in success not less than in spirit, with the necessities of the case. Taken with the previously vacant territories of the United States proper, we may say that the annexation of Texas, the acquisitions from Mexico, and the awards in Oregon, have placed at the disposal of the authorities at Washington a tract of land at least twice as spacious as the whole presently inhabited portion of their possessions. In fact, taking the whole breadth of the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between the 50th and 30th parallels, as representing the present dominions of the United States of America, it would be substantially correct to say that the whole space west of the Missouri, or, in other words, two thirds of the entire territory, is yet untenanted, and lies in reserve for the caprices or necessities of generations to come. It is particularly instructive to observe with what summary and business-like promptitude every acre of this accumulated property is secured in the government stores, and stamped, as it were, with the national mark, for the undetermined purposes of the nation. Already that coast, to the capabilities of which we seem to pay such little heed, has been brought within call of Washington, and the ports of the Pacific will be kept well in hand by a cabinet sitting on the shores of the opposite ocean. A line of mail steamers is forthwith to run between New York and New Orleans; at New Orleans it will join a second line from that port to Chagres, on the Isthmus of Panama; from the isthmus a third line of steamers will traverse the Pacific to and from the Columbia river. The ink of the treaties is scarcely dry, and yet in January next the direct and regular communication between New York and Oregon will be such as, at this time last year, had not been established between London and Ascension. The Americans want no sharesmen in their operations. The terms of the convention left certain possessory rights to the Hudson's Bay Company within the frontier assigned to the United States. These rights the States are anxious to purchase immediately, and it it is probable that the president, without waiting for the reassembling of Congress, will negotiate during the recess, at no illiberal valuation, his bargain for the whole of these possessions. How much of the price paid for Louisiana or California would the government of Washington give for an island which seems to have gone begging for twelve months in London? There is this peculiar interest attached to these transactions on the American continent-that we there see in actual operation the course of those events of which in our own world we can only read. We may look at the North America of 1848 as at the Northern Europe of a thousand years before, and may watch with our own eyes the territorial settlement of a continent. There are the Spaniards of the Isthmus, the rival Saxons in the centre, the Slavonians in the northwestern angle, and a powerful element of Celts interspersed. We may imagine a new race of Franks establishing itself in a Transatlantic Gaul, a new colony of slaves struggling up to a new Pomerania, or a new swarm of Huns settling upon a new Danube. We have civilized instead of barbarous races to deal with, and therein consists the whole difference. With this variation we may fix our speculative eyes upon a continent of which the distribution and occupation is as uncertain and fortuitous as that of Europe in the days of Charlemagne. There may be one empire or two, of one or two races, or there may be kingdoms or republics innumerable. Nobody can yet calculate the members of the American family when the partition and tenancy of the continent shall be at length complete. The interest felt in such a prospect as this is not diminished by the consideration of the extent to which our own national credit is involved. Over half of this vast territory we have at least manorial rights, and it is indeed fitting that the institutions of the company to which we delegate so important a tenancy should be introduced to general notice. It should not be overlooked that our shall see the vine-leaves parted, with a quick, But I will not wait his coming! he will surely come once more. him so before; And he knows the stars of evening see me standing here again— wait in vain! remaining portion in these possessions is mainly deficient in those very advantages which we have recently proposed to bargain away. The immense tract of British North America has on the Pacific but a very inadequate proportion of seaboard. The Russian territories straggle half way down our O, he surely will not leave me now to watch and western coast from the north, and south of the Columbia river all will soon be subject to Amer-Tis ican rule. Vancouver's Island is not only the most promising harbor and position in these parts, but it is literally nearly one half of the western seaboard of our whole dominion. And yet this is the settlement on which we set so little store! And I the hour, the time, of meeting! in one moment 't will be past; last night he stood beside me; was that blessed time the last? could better bear my sorrow, could I live that parting o'er; O, I wish I had not told him that I would not come once more! Could that have been the night-wind moved the branches thus apart? Did I hear a coming footstep, or the beating of my heart? solves are vain ; THE Jamaica Morning Journal announces that entire success had attended the Hon. Captain Darling in his endeavors to produce and cure tobacco in the island of Jamaica. The samples from his estate had been declared by competent judges to be of excellent quality, and capable of ranking with No! I hear him, I can see him, and my weak retobacco produced in the island of Cuba, not only I will fly, but to his bosom, and to leave it not for the manufacture of cigars, but for export to the European markets. It was supposed that, were the cultivation of tobacco carried on, it would be of lasting good to the island, and the English market might eventually be supplied with free-grown tobacco as well as free-grown sugar. A LETTER from Frankfort of the 2d September states that the constitution of that free city is about to be changed, its principles being too much those of the middle ages, and excluding Jews and many Christians from political rights. From the National Era. RESOLVES. BY MISS PHOEBE CAREY. I HAVE said I would not meet him; have I said the words in vain? again! THE SPRING OF ACTION. IN Love must all things centre:-to this end 14. Correspondence, 15. Effects of Irish Agitation, 16. Vancouver's Island and American Policy, A Correspondent, Of the Living Age, SHORT ARTICLES.-Obligation to Brutes; Steam Cradle. 59.-Dog-Breaking, 65.-Leap-Frog; Swallows, 73; Fichte's Lecture, 88.-Resolves; Spring of Action, 95. Complete sets, in fifteen volumes. to the end of 1847, hanaseinely bound, and packed in neat boxes, are for sale at thirty dollars. Any volume may be had separately at two dollars, bound, or a dollar and a half in numbers. Any number may be had for 12 cents; and it may De worth while for subscribers or purchasers to complete any broken volumes they may have, and thus greatly enhance their value. Agencies. We are desirous of making arrangements, in all parts of North America, for increasing the circula tion of this work-and for doing this a liberal commission will be allowed to gentlemen who will interest themselve in the business. And we will gladly correspond on this subject with any agent who will send us undoubted refer ences. Postage. When sent with the cover on, the Living Age cousists 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, (14 cts.) We add the definition alluded to: A newspaper is "any printed publication, issued m numbers, consisting of not more than two sheets, and published at short, stated intervals of not more than on 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 o five weekly numbers. In this shape it shows to great advantage in comparison with other works, containing in Binding. We bind the work in a uniform, strong, and each part double the matter of any of the quarterlies. good style; and where customers bring their numbers in But we recommend the weekly numbers, as fresher and good order, can generally give them bound volumes in ex-fuller of life. Postage on the mouthly parts is about 14 change without any delay. The price of the binding is cents. The volumes are published quarterly, each volume 50 cents a volume. As they are always bound to one containing as much matter as a quarterly review gives in pattern, there will be no difficulty in matching the future eighteen months. volumes. 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 presert age. J. Q. ADAMS. LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 231.-21 OCTOBER, 1848. [This article appeared just before the Living Age began-but our readers will be obliged to us for looking back to it.] From the Edinburgh Review. FREDERIC THE GREAT AND HIS TIMES. Frederic the Great and his Times. Edited, with an Introduction, by THOMAS CAMPBELL, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. London: 1842. THIS work, which has the high honor of being introduced to the world by the author of "Lochiel" and "Hohenlinden," is not wholly unworthy of so distinguished a chaperon. It professes, indeed, to be no more than a compilation; but it is an exceedingly amusing compilation, and we shall be glad to have more of it. The narrative comes down at present only to the commencement of the Seven Years' War, and therefore does not comprise the most interesting portion of Frederic's reign. It may not be unacceptable to our readers that we should take this opportunity of presenting them with a slight sketch of the life of the greatest king that has, in modern times, succeeded by right of birth to a throne. It may, we fear, be impossible to compress so long and eventful a story within the limits which we must prescribe to ourselves. Should we be compelled to break off, we shall, when the continuation of this work appears, return to the subject. policy his successors have agreed to ascribe their greatness. He aquired by the peace of Westphalia several valuable possessions, and among them the rich city and district of Magdeburg; and he left to his son Frederic a principality as considerable as any which was not called a kingdom. nity. Frederic aspired to the style of royalty. Ostentatious and profuse, negligent of his true interests and of his high duties, insatiably eager for frivolous distinctions, he added nothing to the real weight of the state which he governed: perhaps he transmitted his inheritance to his children impaired rather than augmented in value, but he succeeded in gaining the great object of his life, the title of king. In the year 1700 he assumed this new digHe had on that occasion to undergo all the mortifications which fall to the lot of ambitious upstarts. Compared with the other crowned heads of Europe, he made a figure resembling that which a nabob or a commissary, who had bought a title, would make in the company of peers whose ancestors had been attainted for treason against the Plantagenets. The envy of the class which he quitted, and the civil scorn of the class into which he intruded himself, were marked in very signifi cant ways. The elector of Saxony at first refused to acknowledge the new majesty. Louis the Fourteenth looked down on his brother king with an air not unlike that with which the count in Molière's play regards Monsieur Jordain, just fresh from the mummery of being made a gentleman. Austria exacted large sacrifices in return for her recognition, and at last gave it ungraciously. Frederic was succeeded by his son, Frederic William, a prince who must be allowed to have possessed some talents for administration, but whose The Prussian monarchy, the youngest of the great European states, but in population and revenue the fifth amongst them, and in art, science, and civilization, entitled to the third, if not to the second place, sprang from a humble origin. About the beginning of the fifteenth century, the marquisate of Brandenburg was bestowed by the Emperor Sigismund on the noble family of Hohen-character was disfigured by the most odious vices, zollern. In the sixteenth century that family embraced the Lutheran doctrines. Early in the seventeenth century it obtained from the king of Poland the investiture of the duchy of Prussia. Even after this accession of territory, the chiefs of the house of Hohenzollern hardly ranked with the electors of Saxony and Bavaria. The soil of Brandenburg was for the most part sterile. Even round Berlin, the capital of the province, and round Potsdam, the favorite residence of the margraves, the country was a desert. In some tracts, the deep sand could with difficulty be forced by assiduous tillage to yield thin crops of rye and oats. In other places, the ancient forests, from which the conquerors of the Roman empire had descended on the Danube, remained untouched by the hand of man. Where the soil was rich it was generally marshy, and its insalubrity repelled the cultivators whom its fertility attracted. Frederic William, called the great elector, was the prince to whose LIVING AGE. VOL. XIX. 7 CCXXXI. and whose eccentricities were such as had never been seen out of a madhouse. He was exact and diligent in the transaction of business, and he was the first who formed the design of obtaining for Prussia a place among the European powers, altogether out of proportion to her extent and population, by means of a strong military organization. Strict economy enabled him to keep up a peace establishment of sixty thousand troops. These troops were disciplined in such a manner, that placed beside them, the household regiments of Versailles and St. James' would have appeared an awkward squad. The master of such a force could not but be regarded by all his neighbors as a formidable enemy, and a valuable ally. But the mind of Frederic William was so ill regulated, that all his inclinations became passions, and all his passions partook of the character of moral and intellectual disease. His parsimony degenerated into sordid avarice. His taste for mili |