formation of opinions, were thus generated, which, operating on his exquisite organization, contributed to make him the masterspirit of his age. In the interesting account he gives of himself, in his auto-biography and diary, it is to the highest degree instructive to mark the effect of the various circumstances in which he was placed, on his trains of thought. Events, which on most children's minds "are only reflected as on looking-glasses, but make no impres sion," produced an effect on him of which the influence was never effaced. The coronation of Joseph II. at Frankfort, the annual mass, and the noble old city itself, with its associations of feudalism and German art, are pourtrayed by him seventy years after the feelings they had excited, with all the vividness of yesterday's impressions. It is probable that no one ever possessed such acute sensibility as Goethe. Goethe's father was a man of easy circumstances, and of some literary merit. He had travelled in Italy; had a great love for the fine arts; and had made a small collection of what Italians call objects of virtù. All this worked on the young poet, and at eight or nine years old he wrote a short description of twelve pictures, pourtraying the history of Joseph. At fifteen years of age he went to the University of Leipsic, where the lectures of Ernesti and Oellert offered him more attraction than the dry philosophy of the pedant, Gottsched. In 1768, he left Leipsic, and after a short tour settled for some little time in Alsace, where the beautiful Gretchen won his heart, and obtained for herself, in Faust and Egmont, a more lasting monument than brass. On leaving Alsace, he returned home; but soon left it again, on a visit to Wezlar, where another love affair gave birth to his romance of "Werther," in which he incorporated the Suicide of Young Jerusalem. In 1775, he went to Weimar, on an invitation from the Grand Duke, whom he had met travelling, and there remained till the end of his life, loaded with all the honours a German Sovereign could bestow, ennobled, a privy councillor, and for many years of his life Prime Minister, a treatment of genius hitherto unknown in the annals of literature, or of Mecenasship; and a splendid exception to the indifference with which rulers generally regard intellectual ex cellence. Goethe's first appearance in print was in short articles in the annuals and literary journals. But his "Gotz of the Iron Hand," published with his name in 1773, and his "Werther," in the year after, called at once the attention of his countrymen to the young master-mind. Never, probably, did two works produce such instantaneous effect on the literature of a May.-VOL. XXXVI. NO. CXXXVII. country. For more than a year after Gotz was published, imitations by all the multitudinous penny-a-line men (that fruitful growth in Germany) could not be produced too fast. Gotz and the Middle Ages were only put to fight by the Young Werther, which produced still more imitators, and for a still longer period, until Goethe himself, by his wit, his irony, and his eloquence, put an end to the sickly sentimentalism, which he first had called into action. Gotz and Werther alone survive the creations of which they formed the nucleus, and he is not to be envied, who can derive no pleasure from the perusal of each. Such a production as the first indeed, by a young man twenty-three years of age, at once placed Goethe at the head of his country's literature, a place which he preserved undisputed, undisputable to the hour of his death. His mind indeed never seems to have grown old, but to have presented a new phasis at each stage of his existence. Having breathed forth his feelings, in every species of poetry, he loved to measure his gigantic mind with the abstrusest problems in science, with the same pleasure no doubt (as Hume remarks) that men of great muscular power seek occasions for exertion. Comparative anatomy, geology, botany, the theory of colours, &c. were all studied by him most unweariedly, and most of them written on. To all these qualities of mind and varied acquisitions, Goethe joined a most courteous and affable bearing. Although his, and his friend Schiller's "Xenien" kept all the literary pretenders of Germany in fear and trembling, he never evinced the slightest jealousy of literary merit. Of this a complete testimony is afforded by his correspondence with Schiller, which affords a rare instance of the cordiality and intimacy with which two great writers laid themselves open to one another. The grandeur of Goethe's intellect is also vividly set forth in this correspondence, through which we may observe Schiller's noble mind "Contending with low wants and lofty will," and cowering before the superiority of his friend. It may add to the interest attending Goethe to know that he was as richly gifted in person as in mind, and that, in the words of a native of Weimar, "his eyes were like two lights." Only one thing in Goethe we may regret, that he was no politician; but this the character of his mind forbade. A chilling scepticism, as to the progressive improvement of man, runs through all his writings, and of course prevented all attempts to make human institutions more productive of human happiness. The death of Goethe seems in a manner to mark the close of a social æra, and to 2 G sever one of the latest links between the past and the present. His name has long been associated in our minds with the impression of a mighty moral influence over European society; and the moment when that influence has for ever ceased to be personal, suggests inquiry what was its mode and character. Some have made an epoch in intellectual history by publishing a new revelation in morals or religion; others by addressing themselves to patriotic impulses; while others again have been followed as the guiding lights of philosophy, or of practical or scientific culture. None of all these influences was pre-eminently exerted by Goethe: (his enthusiasts have claimed for him the praise of embracing and wielding all.) His muse was neither that of devotion, philosophy, nor patriotism, though flowers from each and all these fields have been culled to grace his poetical wreath; and a future age will edify or amuse itself with the spectacle of one who was an intellectual giant in his generation, yet in dulged himself in a sort of semi-sceptical "aloofness" from all the mystic influences which have given prophets and poets their empire. During the last two years, and particularly since the death of his son, his spirit lost its energy, and he was but the shadow of that which he once had been. To his daughter-in-law he was indebted for that tenderness and assiduity which soothed his declining years. Goethe retained his faculties to the last. Though more than eighty years of age, he still meditated literary projects, and talked of completing his Faust," and of executing other elaborate works, with as much confidence as if he was in the vigour of his youth and genius. Few men, in the walk where Goethe shone so conspicuously, enjoyed more happiness than he did. His superiority no one attempted to dispute. He maintained a tranquil empire over the literature of his country, which was implicitly acquiesced in by every candidate for literary fame. In his intercourse with the world, Goethe acted as a man of practical good sense: his enthusiasm and romanticism he reserved entirely for his productions. He lived to see his name universally worshipped; and upon Weimar, the place of his residence, he has conferred an undying interest. The death of Goethe cannot be regarded as an event of importance merely to the literary world; it marks distinctly the termination of one era, and the commencement of another. He expires with the literary age of his country, at the instant almost when its political existence begins. Goethe has appointed Dr. Eckermann, of Hanover, to be the editor of the unpublished MSS. which he has left. This is a choice with which the world has reason to be satisfied, as Dr. E. has already rendered great service by the care he bestowed on the complete edition of the author's works. The admirers of Goethe will certainly be delighted to hear that among the finished MSS. there is an entire volume of his own life, which follows in order the third volume of "Wahrheit und Dichtung." It contains the account of his first appearance at Weimar, and of the early years of his life and literary labours in that town, a period in which some of his finest works were composed. This volume nearly fills up the interval till his visit to Italy. We may also expect an entire volume of new poems, and the original MS. of " Gotz von Berlichingen," which is said to differ very materially from the published play. Besides these, among many other precious relics, there is the second part of Faust,' complete in five acts. The last two acts were composed in inverse order-the fifth in the winter of 1830-31, immediately after the receipt of the dreadful news of the death of his only son, which had nearly proved fatal to him. The classic-romantic phantasmagoria, Helena (which has been long known,) forms the third act, as a kind of intermezzo. Among the collections of his letters, a whole volume will be published of his correspondence with his friend the musician Zelter, in Berlin, more interesting even than that with Schiller. " The mortal remains of Goethe were deposited, on the 26th of March, with great pomp, in the grand ducal family vault at Weimar, near to those of Schiller. On the same day, the theatre, which had been closed out of respect to his memory, was opened with the representation of his Tasso." INCIDENTS, ECCLESIASTICAL PREFERMENTS, APPOINTMENTS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS. Waterloo-street.--The long projected arrangements for the new street from Waterloo-bridge to Long-acre are about to be carried into effect. Workmen are now employed in clearing the foundation for Mr. Arnold's theatre, to be completed in the course of the summer. The principal entrance to the boxes will be under a handsome portico in the new street. That which was formerly the chief part, in the Strand, 1832. Ecclesiastical Preferments-Appointments. will afford admission to the pit, and there will be various other passages to the private boxes, stage, &c.; so that all the inconveniences which resulted from the confined position of the former theatre will be completely got rid of. When the building is completed, the houses in the Strand will be removed, the tenants having for some time received notice to quit, and the street, as far up, at least, as the entrance to the theatre, will be forthwith open to the public. A numerous meeting of Planters, Merchants, and others connected with the West Indies, has been held (the Earl of Harewood in the chair, in the unavoidable absence of the Marquis of Chandos), to take into consideration the distressed state of the West India interest; when resolutions were agreed to, expressive of the injustice practised towards them both by the present and past Governments of the country, and that the policy now adopted had a direct tendency to dissever them from the Empire. A petition founded on them passed to solicit relief from the Legislature. ECCLESIASTICAL PREFERMENTS. The Rev. C. Griffiths, B.A., of Christ Church, Oxon, and P. C. of Llandygwydd, in the county of Cardiganshire, has been collated by the Lord Bishop of St. David's, by commission, to the Prebendal Stall of Treffloyden, in the Cathedral Church of St. David's. The Rev. J. B. Graham, M. A., has been in. ducted into the Rectory of the one mediety of Burnsall in Craven, in the county of York. The Rev. S. W. Packer, clerk, B.A., has been instituted to the Rectory of Woodton, in the county of Norfolk. The Rev. H. Daniel, formerly of Jesus College, Oxford, has been instituted by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln to the Vicarage of Swinstead, Lincolnshire. The Rev. J. C. Hall has been instituted to the Rectory of Cressingham Magna, and St George's Chapel with Bodney, Norfolk. The Rev. R. Etouch, D.D., Vicar of Stonesby, Leicestershire, has been instituted to the Vicarage of Croxton Kerrill, Leicestershire. The Rev. J. Bowstead, B.D., of Peter House, Cambridge, Master of the Free Grammar School of Bampton, and Incumbent of Mardale, has been collated to the Rectory of Musgrave, in the county of Westmorland, by the Lord Bishop of Carlisle. A dispensation has passed the Great Seal to allow the Rev. C. J. Myers, M.A., vicar of Flintham, Notts, chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, to hold the Rectory of Ruskington, in the county of Lincoln, vacant by the death of the Rev. J. Myers, M.A., together with the vicarage of Flintham. The King has been pleased to appoint the Rev. R. R. Bailey, M.A., to the chaplaincy of the Tower of London, with the rectory of St. Peter ad Vincula, on the nomination of his Grace the Duke of Wellington. 227 Lord Edward Chichester, second son of the Marquis of Donegal, to the Deanery of Raphoe, vacant by the death of Dr. Allett. The Rev. Mr. Bennet, of Westbury, has been presented to the living of Corsham, on the resig nation of the Rev. John Methuen. The Rev. William Dalby, Vicar of Warminster, has been collated, by the Bishop of Salisbury, to the Prebendal Stall in the Cathedral Church of Salisbury, vacated by the death of the Rev. Henry Hetley. The Rev. J. Jennings, curate of Westmeon, to the Rectory of St. John the Evangelist, West minster. The Rev. J. Stevenson, curate of Whitley and Thursley, to the Rectory of St. Peter's, Cheesehill, near Winchester. The Rev. John Hall has been presented, by the Lord Chancellor, to the Rectory of St. Werburg, Bristol, vacant by the death of the Rev. W. Tandy. The Rev. John Thomas Hinds, M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, has been instituted to the Rectory of Pulham, Dorset, vacant by the cession of G. S. Penfold, D.D. been instituted to the Rectory of Chipping-Warden, The Rev. Edward Gibbs Walford, M.A. has in Northamptonshire, vacant by the demise of Dr. Lamb. The Rev. D. Wilson, M.A. to the Bishoprick of Calcutta, vacant by the death of the Right Rev. Dr. Turner. The Rev. Richard Duffield, B.D. Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, Minister of St. Edward's, and Vicar of Impington, to the Consolidated Rectories of Thorington and Frating, Essex, vacated by the death of the Rev. Edward Frewen, D.D. Patrons, the Master and Fellows of that Society. The Rev. Arthur Carrighan, B.D. a Senior Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Margaret Preacher in the University, to the Rectory of Barrow, Suffolk. Patrons, the Master and Fellows of St. John's College. The Rev. Philip Gurden, A.M. to the Rectory of Cranworth with Letton annexed, Norfolk. The Rev. Henry John Ridley, A.M. to a Prebend in the Cathedral Church of Norwich, vacant by the resignation of the Rev. Edward Bankes, B.C.L. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The Rev. E. Crane, B.A., has been appointed by the Trustees, Chaplain of Berkeley's Hospital, in the city of Worcester, upon the resignation of the Rev. R. Grape. The Rev. H. Le Mesurier, M.A. Fellow of New College, Oxford, to the Second Mastership of Bedford School. The Rev. J. Romilly has been elected Registrar of Cambridge University. APPOINTMENTS, PROMOTIONS, &c. William Mackworth Praed, Esq. has been appointed Recorder of Barnstaple and South Moul ton, in the county of Devon. The Court of Directors of the East India Company have appointed Lieut. General Sir Frede rick Adam, K.C.B., Governor of Fort St. George. The Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty's House 228 Marriages-Deaths-Provincial Occurrences. hold has appointed John Beaumont, Esq. Gentleinen Usher of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Chamber in Ordinary, in the room of Captan Henry John Hatton, R.N. deceased. The following gentlemen have been elected Directors of the East India Company :-William Astell, Esq.; Russell Ellice, Esq.; Campbell Majoribanks, Esq.; John Masterman, Esq.; Charles Elton Prescott, Esq. aud George Smith, Esq. His Majesty has appointed William Woods, Esq. Officer of Arms attendant upon the Knights Commanders and Companions of the Bath, vacant by the decease of Sir George Naylor; and Sir Harris Nicolas, Secretary appertaining to the said Knights Commanders and Companions, in the room of William Woods, Esq. Married.] At Falmouth, J. L. Nogueira Da Gama, Esq. eldest son of Colonel Da Gama, and nephew to the Marquis Baebenay, Brazil, to Emma, fourth daughter of Thomas Andrew, Esq. Penryn. Sir W. L. Young, Bart. of the 8th Hussars, to Caroline, sixth daughter of John Harris, Esq. of Hughendon House, Bucks. At Hunsdon, Henry Warre, Esq. to Mary, third daughter of Nicolson Calvert, Esq. M.P. of Hunsdon House, Herts. At St. John's Church, Lambeth, James Dunn, Esq. Purser in the Royal Navy, and of Stamfordstreet, Blackfriars, to Lucy, only daughter of the late Richard Dore, Esq. formerly his Majesty's Deputy Judge Advocate of the Colony of New South Wales. At Trinity Church, Marylebone, John Lloyd Clayton, Esq. son of Sir William Clayton, Bart. of Harleyford, Bucks, to Louisa Sophia, daughter of Charles Littledale, Esq. of Portland-place. At Haydor, Lincolnshire, Sir Edward Cholmeley Dering, Bart. of Surrenden Dering, Bart. Kent, to the Hon. Jane Edwardes, youngest daughter of Lord Kensington. Lieutenant Colonel the Hon. George Ralph Abercromby, son of the Right Hon. Lord Abercromby, to Louisa Pennel, youngest daughter of the Hon. John Hay Forbes, one of the Senators of the College of Justice. At Fareham, Captain Richard Kirwan Hill, of the 52nd Light Infantry, to Jane Margaret, eldest daughter of Vice-Admiral Halkett. Edward Fizgerald, Esq. to Charlotte, daughter of the late Sir R. Jephson, Bart. At Barkby, Leicestershire, the Rev. G. Stratton, nephew of the Earl of Roden, and rector of Somersell, Derbyshire, and of Thornton-le-Moor, Lincolnshire, to Eleanor, eldest daughter of R. May 1, Norman, Esq. of Melton Mowbray, and niece of the Duke of Rutland. Lient.-Col. John Geddes, to Miss Magdelina Hessing, of Stockwell, Surrey, daughter of the late Colonel George William Hessing, of Deegha, near Patna, in the East Indies. James Sedgwick Wetenhall, Esq. to Eliza Emily, daughter of the Hon. John and late Lady Louisa Rodney. Colonel Berkeley Drummond, to Maria, daughter of the late William Arthur Crosbie, Esq. The Rev. Henry Beauford, Vicar of Eaton Socon, Bedfordshire, to Isabella Elizabeth, daughter of John Linton, Esq. of Stirtloe House, Huntingdonshire. Died.] The Rev. Thomas Bartlam, A.M., a Prebendary, Canon, and Precentor of the Cathedral Church of Exeter. Harriet, wife of Sir T. Phillipps, of Middle Hill, Worcester, Bart., and daughter of Lieut.General Molyneaux. In his 63rd year, John Molyneux, Esq. youngest son of the late Right Hon. Sir Capel Molyneux, Bart. of Castle Dillon, Armagh, Ireland. In the 70th year of his age, Edmund Alexander M'Naghten, Esq. for many years one of the Representatives in Parliament for the county of Antrim, and one of the Lords of his Majesty's Treasury. March 3rd, at Grant's Braes, East Lothian, Miss Annie Burns, the eldest sister of the Scottish Bard; for nearly half a century she was an inmate of the family of her excellent brother, Gilbert, whose death was recorded in November 1827. At Paris, Catherine Creighton, wife of Sir George Beeston Prescott, Bart. of Theobalds-park, Herts. On board his Majesty's ship Alfred, off Napoli di Romania, Lieutenant Alexander Baring, fourth son of Alexander Baring, Esq. M.P. At Streatlam Castle, in the county of Durham, in the sixty-second year of her age, the Right Hon. Lady Anna Maria Jessup, last surviving daughter of John, ninth Earl of Strathmore, and Mary Eleanor Howes, of Gibbside. At Blackheath, Stephen Groombridge, Esq. F.R.S., R.A.S. in his 78th year. At Highbury Place, Islington, John Morgan, Esq. aged forty-eight. At Sandbills (the seat of the Right Hon. Sir George Henry Rose, M.P.) in the fourth year of her age, Harriet Bridget Emily, seventh child of the Earl and Countess of Morton. At Ethy, Lady Penrose, relict of the late Sir C. V. Penrose. PROVINCIAL OCCURRENCES IN THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND, AND IN WALES, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. BEDFORDSHIRE. It is with pleasure we give publicity to the following. Cases of similar atrocity are so frequent that it is high time for the legislature to interfere. At the Bedfordshire assizes, Jonathan Cranfield and William Preston were indicted for conspiracy, under the following circumstances:-in June last, Cranfield was an overseer, and Preston a constable of Cardington. On the 12th of that month, a poor woman was found lying by the road side, in 1832. Cornwall-Devonshire-Hampshire-Kent, &c. that parish. She was naked to the waist, without bonnet or cap, and on one side of her head all her hair was cut off. The prisoners heard of this; and instead of taking her into the workhouse, as casual poor, went to her, and half walked and half dragged her along the road, till they got her into the parish of Hawnes. Several persons collected, and taunted them, with their inhuman conduct. They replied that they had got her out of their parish into Hawnes, and now the Hawnes people might put her into another parish. The poor woman, an unknown wanderer, was in a dying state; she was taken to the Hawnes poorhouse, where she died in the evening. She was buried at the charge of the parish of Hawnes. The defence was, that the woman was not in a dying state, and that she was asked by the defendants several times where she was going, and she always answered "to Sherford." The defen. dants, as is customary on such occasions, called persons to vouch for their humanity and goodness of disposition. The jury found them guilty of conspiring to exonerate the parish of Cardington, by conveying the woman, when too ill for removal, into Hawnes parish, from the charges which might ensue from the woman remaining in Cardington. They were sentenced to be imprisoned for a month, and to pay each a fine of fifty pounds. CORNWALL. The rage for emigration that now prevails in the north of this county is wholly unprecedented in Cornwall; in different parishes, from 200 to 300 persons each, have either departed, or are preparing to leave for Canada or the United States. DEVONSHIRE. The communication with Dartmouth across the river Dart, by means of the newly-invented floating steam-bridge, is daily becoming of the greatest importance to the agricultural and commercial interests of the surrounding district. This beautiful specimen of mechanical ingenuity and national utility (being the first bridge of the kind in the kingdom) excites general admiration, from the facility with which it conveys stage-coaches over a stream of 1700 feet with perfect safety, and without taking off the horses or the passengers descending. The royal assent has been given to a Bill for erecting a similar bridge on the river Tamar, at Saltash, which, from the facility it will afford of communication with the neighbouring county, cannot fail to prove of incalculable advantage to the population of Plymouth, Devonport, Stonehouse, and their vicinities. The scientific skill displayed in this novel application of steam to mechanical powers in a floating-bridge, does great credit to Mr. Rendell, the engineer, and to Mr. Mare, of the Plymouth Foundry, who executed the machinery. HAMPSHIRE. The Visiting Magistrates of the Gaol and Bridewell of Winchester have forwarded a Report to the Secretary of State, made at the Epiphany Sessions of the present year, which announces an alarming increase of crime within the county, and attributes the large and disproportionate increase chiefly to two measures recently passed by the Legislature the Game Laws Amendment Act, and the new Beer Act. According to this Report, 97 persons have been summarily convicted before 229 the magistrates for offences against the Game Laws in the short period included between the 1st of September 1831, and the 31st of December of the same year, and this, too, exclusive of twelve cases of murder in a poaching affray, and several cases of night-poaching still to be tried. The ratio of increase is, it appears, more than double, as compared with the corresponding period of the former year. As for the Beer Act, the Report imputes the more immediate cause of the increase of crime to the effects arising from that measure. "The Visiting Justices possess, unfortunately," says the Report, "such conclusive evidence of the pernicious effects of the licence to vend and consume beer in these houses, that they can have no hesitation in declaring that the moral character of the agricultural labourer has already received a general and very severe injury in consequence of their existence, and that this lamentable effect is daily becoming more and more manifest; so that if the law be not altered, and the licence to drink upon the premises withdrawn, the condition and character of the peasantry of this county, if not of the whole kingdom, will, at no very distant period, be totally changed and destroyed. These houses are many of them situated in retired places, and almost all of them have secret and retired apartments, where, removed from the sight and observation of the public, the idle and the dissolute resort to plan their deeds of mischief and crime; and in the more public parts of the premises, quarrels, riots, and assaults, the consequences of intoxication, are constantly occurring. Many of the unhappy men whose names appear in the calendar for capital offences, and some of them for murder and arson, have been brought to their present ignominious and pitiable condition in consequence of frequenting the beer-shops."-Whether this be the fact all over the kingdom, or whether it be confined to the immediate county whence the Report emanates, it is evident that something must be done immediately to check the torrent of vice which appears to be spreading upon the rural population. We trust that the Report will be well considered, not only by the Ministers, but by every man who professes to sit in Parliament with a view to promote the interests of the country at large. KENT. An experiment has been successfully tried at Cheshunt. Land has been taken at 271. including this has been rented to 49 cottagers, four only an area of 13 acres, 2 roods, and 38 perches; and having failed to pay their rents. Two tons of po tatoes, and abundant summer vegetables, have been the produce of each strip of land. There is much good would ensue. no doubt that if this example were followed, LANCASHIRE. Some idea of the extent and importance of the trade between Ireland and Liverpool, may be formed from the following list of Irish articles imported into Liverpool during the year 1831. It would not be easy to form an accurate estimate of the value of these imports, but it must amount to several millions sterling. It will be seen that the articles imported consist entirely of agricultural produce. Ireland, in fact, seems destined to become the granary of England; and we cannot help hoping that the continually increasing intercourse between the two countries, will at last |
