Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 1. No 1, June 1850

The ministry during the month has been defeated upon several measures, though upon none of very great importance. In the first week of the meeting of parliament after the Easter holidays, the cabinet had to endure, in the House of Commons, three defeats – two positive, and one comparative; and, shortly after, a fourth. On a motion, having for its object improvement in the status and accommodation of assistant-surgeons on board Her Majesty's ships, ministers were placed in a minority equal to eight votes. On the measure for extending the jurisdiction of county courts, to which they were not disposed to agree, they voted with a minority, which numbered 67 against 144 votes. These were the positive defeats; the comparative one arose out of a motion to abolish the window-tax. Against this the cabinet made come effort, but its supporters only mustered in sufficient strength to afford a majority of three. Their last disaster was in a committee on the New Stamp Duties Bill. The ministry seem disposed to gratify the public by economy so far as possible. Lord John Russell having introduced and carried a motion for a select committee on the subject.

Great preparations are making for the Industrial Exhibition of 1851. It has been decided that it is to take place in Hyde Park in a building made of iron to guard against fire. The Literary Gazette has the following paragraph in regard to it:

"We are informed that an overture has been received by the Royal Commissioners from the government of the United States of America, offering to remove the exhibition, after its close in London, to be reproduced at New York, and paying a consideration for the same which would go toward the increase of the English fund. With regard to this fund, while we again express our regret at its languishing so much, and at the continuance of the jobbing which inflicted the serious wound on its commencement, and is still allowed to paralyze the proceedings in chief, we adhere to the opinion that it will be sufficient for the Occasion. The Occasion, not as bombastically puffed, but as nationally worthy; and that the large sum which may be calculated upon for admissions (not to mention this new American element), will carry it through in as satisfactory a manner as could be expected."

The Expeditions to the Arctic Seas in search of Sir John Franklin attract a good deal of attention. It is stated that Captain Penny was to sail April 30th from Scotland, in command of the two ships the Lady Franklin and the Sophia. He will proceed without delay to Jones's Sound; which he purposes thoroughly to explore. The proposed expedition under the direction of Sir John Ross will also be carried into execution. He will sail from Ayr about the middle of May; and will probably be accompanied by Commander Philips, who was with Sir James Ross in his Antarctic Expedition. Another expedition, in connection with that of Sir John Ross, is under consideration. It has for its object the search of Prince Regent's Inlet by ship as far south as Brentford Bay; from whence walking and boating parties might be dispatched in various directions. This plan – which could be carried into effect by dispatching a small vessel with Sir John Ross, efficiently equipped for the service – is deemed highly desirable by several eminent authorities; as it is supposed – and not without considerable reason – that Sir John Franklin may be to the south of Cape Walker; and that he would, in such case, presuming him to be under the necessity of forsaking his ships this spring, prefer making for the wreck of the Fury stores in Prince Regent's Inlet, the existence of which he is aware of, to attempting to gain the barren shore of North America, which would involve great hazard and fatigue. As a matter of course this second expedition would be of a private nature, and wholly independent of those dispatched by the Admiralty. These various expeditions, in addition to that organized by Mr. Henry Grinell of New York, will do all that can be done toward rescuing Captain Franklin, or, at least, obtaining some knowledge of his fate.

The death of Wordsworth, the Patriarch of English Poetry, and that of Bowles, distinguished also in the same high sphere, have called forth biographical notices from the English press. A sketch of each of these distinguished men will be found in these pages. The propriety of discontinuing the laureateship is forcibly urged. About £2000 has been contributed toward the erection of a monument to Lord Jeffrey.

The London Scientific Societies present nothing of extraordinary interest for the month. At the meeting of the Geological Society, March 28, Sir Roderick Murchison read a paper of some importance on the Relations of the Hot Water and Vapor sources of Tuscany to the Volcanic Eruptions of Italy. On the 10th of April, a paper was read from Prof. Lepsius on the height of the Nile valley in Nubia, which was formerly much greater than it is now.

At the Royal Society, April 12, the Rev. Professor O'Brien, in a paper "on a Popular View of certain Points in the Undulatory Theory of Light," restricted his illustration to a single topic, namely, the analogy of the mixture of colors to the mixture of sounds, having first explained generally what the undulatory theory of light is, and the composition of colors and sounds. At the meeting on the 19th, Mr. Stenhouse, in concluding a paper on the artificial production of organic bases, said he did not despair of producing artificially the natural alkaloids, and the more especially as, thirty years ago, we could not produce any alkaloids. Before the chair was vacated, Mr. Faraday submitted a powerful magnet which had been sent to him by a foreign philosopher; indeed, it was the strongest ever made. A good magnet, Mr. Faraday said, weighing 8 lbs., would support a weight of about 40 lbs. The magnet he exhibited had surprised him; it weighed only 1 lb., and it supported 26-1/2 lbs. This magnet, so beautifully made, was, we believe, constructed by M. Lozeman, on a new method, the result of the researches of M. Elias, both of Haarlem.

At another meeting of the same society, Dr. Mantell submitted a paper upon the Pelorosaurus, an undescribed, gigantic terrestrial reptile, of which an enormous arm-bone, or humerus, has recently been discovered in Sussex. It was found imbedded in sandstone, by Mr. Peter Fuller, of Lewes, at about twenty feet below the surface; it presents the usual mineralized condition of the fossil bones from the arneaceous strata of the Wealden. It is four and a half feet in length, and the circumference of its distal extremity is 32 inches! It has a medullary cavity 3 inches in diameter, which at once separates it from the Cetiosaurus and other supposed marine Saurians, while its form and proportions distinguish it from the humerus of the Iguanodon, Hylæosaurus, and Megalosaurus. It approaches most nearly to the Crocodilians, but possesses characters distinct from any known fossil genus. Its size is stupendous, far surpassing that of the corresponding bone even of the gigantic Iguanodon; and the name of Pelorosaurus (from [Greek: pelor], pelõr, monster) is, therefore, proposed for the genus, with the specific term Conybeari, in honor of the palæontological labors of the Dean of Llandaff. No bones have been found in such contiguity with this humerus as to render it certain that they belonged to the same gigantic reptile; but several very large caudal vertebræ of peculiar characters, collected from the same quarry, are probably referable to the Pelorosaurus; these, together with some distal caudals which belong to the same type, are figured and described by the author. Certain femora and other bones from the oolite of Oxfordshire, in the collection of the dean of Westminster, at Oxford, are mentioned as possessing characters more allied to those of the Pelorosaurus, or to some unknown terrestrial Saurian, than to the Cetiosaurus, with which they have been confounded. As to the magnitude of the animal to which the humerus belonged, Dr. Mantell, while disclaiming the idea of arriving at any certain conclusions from a single bone, stated that in a Gavial 18 feet long, the humerus is one foot in length, i. e., one-eighteenth part of the length of the animal, from the end, of the muzzle to the tip of the tail. According to these admeasurements the Pelorosaurus would be 81 feet long, and its body 20 feet in circumference. But if we assume the length and number of the vertebræ as the scale, we should have a reptile of relatively abbreviated proportions; even in this case, however, the original creature would far surpass in magnitude the most colossal of reptilian forms. A writer in the Athenæum, in speaking of the expense of marble and bronze statues, which limits the possession of works of high art to the wealthy, calls attention to the fact that lead possesses every requisite for the casting of statues which bronze possesses, while it excels that costly material in two very important particulars – cheapness, and fusibility at a low temperature. As evidence that it may be used for that purpose, he cites the fact that the finest piece of statuary in Edinburgh is composed of lead. This is the equestrian statue of Charles the Second, erected in the Parliament Square by the magistrates of Edinburgh in honor of the restoration of that monarch. This statue is such a fine work of art that it has deceived almost every one who has mentioned its composition. Thus, a late writer in giving an account of the statuary in Edinburgh describes it as consisting of "hollow bronze;" and in "Black's Guide through Edinburgh" it is spoken of as "the best specimen of bronze statuary which Edinburgh possesses." It is, however, composed of lead, and has already, without sensible deterioration, stood the test of 165 years' exposure to the weather, and it still seems as fresh as if erected but yesterday. Lead, therefore, appears from this instance to be sufficiently durable to induce artists to make trial of it in metallic castings, instead of bronze.

Intelligence from Mosul to the 4th ult. states that Mr. Layard and his party are still carrying on their excavations at Nimrood and Nineveh. A large number of copper vessels beautifully engraved have been found in the former; and from the latter a large assortment of fine slabs illustrative of the rule, conquests, domestic life, and arts of the ancient Assyrians, are daily coming to light, and are committed to paper by the artist, Mr. Cooper, one of the expedition. Mr Layard intends to make a trip to the Chaboor, the Chaboras of the Romans, and to visit Reish Aina, the Resen of Scripture, where he hopes to find a treasure of Assyrian remains.

The Literary Intelligence of the month is not of special interest. The first part of a new work by William Mure, entitled a "Critical History of the Language and Literature of Ancient Greece," has just been published in London, and elicits warm commendation from the critical journals. The three volumes thus far published are devoted mainly to a discussion of Homer. Mr. Charles Merivale has also completed and published two volumes of his "History of the Romans under the Empire," which extend to the death of Julius Caesar.

Mrs. Sara Coleridge, widow of Henry Nelson, and daughter of S.T. Coleridge, has collected such of her father's supposed writings in the Watchman, Morning Post, and Courier, ranging between the years 1795 and 1817, as could with any certainty be identified for his, and, with such as he avowed by his signature, has published them in three duodecimo volumes, as Essays on his own Times, or a second series of The Friend. They are dedicated to Archdeacon Hare, and embody not a little of that system of thought, or method of regarding public affairs from the point of view of a liberal and enlarged Christianity, which is now ordinarily associated with what is called the German party in the English Church. The volumes are not only a valuable contribution to the history of a very remarkable man's mind, but also to the history of the most powerful influence now existing in the world – the Newspaper Press.

A more complete and elaborate work upon this subject, however, has appeared in the shape of two post octavo volumes by Mr. F. Knight Hunt, entitled The Fourth Estate. Mr. Hunt describes his book very fairly as contributions toward a history of newspapers, and of the liberty of the press, rather than as a complete historical view of either; but he has had a proper feeling for the literature of his subject, and has varied his entertaining anecdotes of the present race of newspaper men, with extremely curious and valuable notices of the past.

Of books on mixed social and political questions the most prominent has been a new volume of Mr. Laing's Observations on the Social and Political State of the European People, devoted to the last two years, from the momentous incidents of which Mr. Laing derives sundry warnings as to the instability of the future, the necessity of changes in education and political arrangements, and the certain ultimate predominance of material over imaginative influences in the progress of civilization, which his readers will very variously estimate, according to their habits of thinking; and Mr. Kay's collections of evidence as to the present Social Condition and Education of the People in England and Europe, the object of which is to show that the results of the primary schools, and of the system of dividing landed property, existing on the Continent, has been to produce a certain amount of mental cultivation and social comfort among the lower classes of the people abroad, to which the same classes in England can advance no claim whatever. The book contains a great deal of curious evidence in support of this opinion.

Of works strictly relating to modern history, the first volume of General Klapka's memoirs of the War in Hungary, and a military treatise by Colonel Cathcart on the Russian and German Campaigns of 1812 and 1813, may be mentioned as having authority. Klapka was a distinguished actor in the war he now illustrates by his narrative, and Colonel Cathcart saw eight general actions lost and won in which Napoleon commanded in person.

In the department of biography, the principal publications have been a greatly improved edition of Mr. Charles Knight's illustrations of the Life of Shakspeare, with the erasure of many fanciful, and the addition of many authentic details; a narrative of the Life of the Duke of Kent, by Mr. Erskine Neale, in which the somewhat troubled career of that very amiable prince is described with an evident desire to do justice to his character and virtues; and a Life of Dr. Andrew Combe, of Edinburgh, an active and benevolent physician, who led the way in that application of the truths and teachings of physiology to health and education, which has of late occupied so largely the attention of the best thinkers of the time, and whose career is described with affectionate enthusiasm by his brother Mr. George Combe. Not as a regular biography, but as a delightful assistance, not only to our better knowledge of the wittiest and one of the wisest of modern men, but to our temperate and just judgments of all men, we may mention the publication of the posthumous fragments of Sydney Smith's Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy.

To the department of poetry, Mr. Browning's Christmas Eve and Easter Day has been the most prominent addition. But we have also to mention a second and final volume of More Verse and Prose by the late Corn-law Rhymer; a new poetical translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, by Mr. Patrick Bannerman; and a dramatic poem, called the Roman, by a writer who adopts the fictitious name of Sydney Yendys, on the recent revolutionary movements in Italy. In prose fiction, the leading productions have been a novel entitled the Initials, depicting German social life, by a new writer; and an historical romance, called Reginald Hastings, of which the subject is taken from the English civil wars, by Mr. Eliot Warburton.

The Deaths of Distinguished Persons, during the month, have not been very numerous, though they comprise names of considerable celebrity in various departments.

Of Wordsworth and Bowles, both poets, and both friends of Coleridge, Lamb, Southey, and Crabbe, more detailed mention is made in preceding pages.

Lieut. – General Sir James Bathurst, K.C.B., died at Kibworth Rectory, Leicestershire, on the 13th, in his 68th year. When he entered the army in 1794, if his age be correctly stated, he could have been only twelve years of age. He served at Gibraltar and in the West Indies, the capture of Surinam, the campaign in Egypt in 1801, in the expedition to Hanover, and in the actions fought for the relief of Dantzic, as well as in those of Lomitten, Deppen, Gutstadt, Heilsberg, and Friedland. Subsequently he served at Rugen, and at the siege of Copenhagen. In 1808 and 1809, he served with the army in Portugal and Spain as assistant quartermaster-general, and as military secretary to the Duke of Wellington.

Madame Dulcken died on the 13th, in Harley-street, aged 38. She was the sister of the celebrated violinist, David, and had been for many years resident in England, where she held a conspicuous position among the most eminent professors of the piano-forte.

Sir Archibald Galloway, Chairman of the Hon. East India Company, died on the 6th, in London, aged 74, after a few hours' illness. He transacted business at the India House, on the 4th, and presided at the banquet recently given by the directors of the East India Company to Lord Gough.

Rear-Admiral Hills died on the 8th, aged 73. He became a lieutenant in 1798, and a post-captain in 1814. The deceased was a midshipman of the Eclair at the occupation of Toulon, and was lieutenant of the Amethyst at the capture of various prizes during the late war.

Dr. Prout, F.R.S., expired in Piccadilly, on the 9th, at an advanced age. He was till lately in extensive practice as a physician, besides being a successful author.

Captain Smith, R.N., the Admiralty superintendent of packets at Southampton, died on the 8th, unexpectedly. He was distinguished as the inventor of paddle-box boats for steamers, and of the movable target for practicing naval gunnery. He entered the navy in 1808, and saw a good deal of service till the close of the war.

Madame Tussaud, the well-known exhibitor of wax figures, died on the 10th, in her 90th year. She was a native of Berne, but left Switzerland when but six years old for Paris, where she became a pupil of her uncle, M. Curtius, "artiste to Louis XVI.," by whom she was instructed in the fine arts, of which he was an eminent professor. Madame Tussaud prided herself upon the fact of having instructed Madame Elizabeth to draw and model, and she continued to be employed by that princess until October, 1789. She passed unharmed through the horrors of the Revolution, perhaps by reason of her peculiar ability as a modeler; for she was employed to take heads of most of the Revolutionary leaders. She came to England in 1802, and has from that time been occupied in gathering the popular exhibition now exhibiting in London.

Affairs in Italy seem very unpromising. The Pope returned to Rome on the 12th: and in this number of this Magazine will be found a detailed and very graphic account of his approach, entry, and reception. From subsequent accounts there is reason to fear that the Pope has fallen entirely under the influence of the Absolutist party, which now sways the councils of the Vatican; and the same arbitrary proceedings appear to be carried on in his immediate presence as were the order of the day when he resided at Portici. The secret press of the Republican party is kept at work, and its productions, somehow or other, find their way into the hands of Pio Nono himself, filling him with indignation. It is said that the Pontiff is very much dissatisfied with his present position, which he feels to be that of a prisoner or hostage. No one is allowed to approach him without permission, and all papers are opened beforehand by the authority of Cardinal Antonelli. It is generally feared that his Holiness is a tool in the hands of the Absolutists – a very pretty consummation to have been brought about by the republican bayonets of France! Italy, for which so many hopes have been entertained, and of whose successful progress in political regeneration so many delightful anticipations have been indulged, seems to be overshadowed, from the Alps to the Abruzzi, with one great failure.

The two Overland Mails from India which arrived during the month brought news that there had been some fighting in the newly acquired territories. On the 2d of February a body of Affredies, inhabitants of the Kohat hills, about a thousand strong, attacked the camp of a party of British sappers, employed in making a road in a pass between Peshawur and Kohat. Twelve of the latter were killed, six wounded, and the camp was plundered. To avenge this massacre a strong force under Colonel Bradshaw, Sir Charles Napier himself, with Sir John Campbell, accompanying him, marched from Peshawur an the 9th. The mountaineers made a stand in every pass and defile; but although the troops destroyed six villages and killed a great number of the enemy, they were obliged to return to Peshawur on the 11th without having accomplished their object. On the 14th February another force was sent to regain the passes and to keep them open for a larger armament.

Accounts from Egypt to the 6th, state that the Pacha, who had been residing at his new palace in the Desert, had returned to Cairo. The proximity of his residence has drawn his attention to the Improvement of the Overland Route; and he has said that means must be adopted to reduce the period of traveling between the ships in the Mediterranean and Red Sea to 60 or 65 hours, instead of 80 or 85 hours. He has sent a small landing steamer to ply in Suez harbor; and he is causing the work of Macadamizing the Desert road to be proceeded with vigorously. An agreement has been made with contractors to enlarge the station-houses on the Desert, so as to admit of the necessary stabling accommodation for eight or ten relays of horses, instead of four or five, by which means 50 or 60 persons will be moved across in one train, instead of, as at present, half that number. Mules, again, are to be substituted for baggage camels in the transport of the Indian luggage and cargoes, with the view to a reduction of the time consumed in this operation between Suez and Cairo, from 36 to 24 hours. It is easy to perceive the benefits which will be derived from these measures.

Mr. P. Colquohon sends to the Athenæum, the following extract of a letter from Baron de Rennenkampff, the Chief Chamberlain of H.R.H. the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, and President of the Museum of Antiquities at Oldenburg, which is almost entirely indebted to that gentleman for its collection – narrating an important discovery of Roman silver coins:

"A most interesting circumstance, the particulars of which have much occupied my attention, has occurred here lately. Some poor day laborers in the neighborhood of the small town of Jever, on the border of Marsch and Gest, found, in a circle of a few feet, at a depth of from 7 to 8 feet, a heap of small Roman coins, of fine silver, being 5000 pieces of Roman denarii. The half of them immediately fell into the hands of a Jew of Altona, at a very inconsiderable price. The greatest portion of the remainder were dispersed before I gained intelligence of it, and I only succeeded in collecting some 500 pieces for the Grand Duke's collection, who permitted me to remunerate the discoverers with four times the value of the metal. The coins date between the years 69 and 170 after Christ while the oldest which have hitherto been discovered on the European Continent, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, &c., date from 170 or 180. Each piece bears the effigy of one of the Emperors of the time, the reverse is adorned with the impression of some occurrence (a woman lying down with a chariot wheel, and beneath it the legend via Trajaceæ, a trophy, and on the escutcheon Dacia capta, &c.), and these are so various that pairs have only been found in a few cases. The discovery is so much the more wonderful, as, historically, no trace can be found of the Romans having penetrated so far down as Jever."

The French Minister of the Interior has decided on postponing the Exhibition of Painting in Paris this year until November. The comparative absence from the capital during the fine season of strangers and of rich amateurs likely to be purchasers of pictures, is the motive for this change in the period of opening the Salon.