rect attention to the discourse delivered by habit of drawing upon his memory, or some Dr. Carpenter at the Royal Institution on the compendium, for the history of the places he 12th of March, 1852, entitled, "On the in- sees. fluence of Suggestion in modifying and directing Muscular Movement, independently of Volition"-which, especially in the latter part, should be considered in reference to tablemoving by all who are interested in the subject. M. FARADAY.

Royal Institution, June 27.

The principal feature of the volume is the ascent of Mount Etna. The voyage was made in one of her majesty's steamers; and, on arriving at Catania, the captain, the surgeon, and the guest, resolved to do the mountain in four-and-twenty-hours, or one half the usual time. This was accomplished by two of the By these simple but conclusive experiments party, but by exertions which produced re(says the Literary Gazette), Professor Fara-sults that rendered the enterprise anything day has unmasked the fallacy which has been but desirable to imitate. The captain, who turning the heads, hats and tables, of all Eu- only attained the English cottage, never was rope; and with the aid of glass, resin and other non-conducting materials, has, we hope, satisfied the electrical public that tables will not turn unless they are pushed. be sorry," says Professor Faraday, who has been, doubtless, laughing in his sleeve while making these experiments, "if I thought this necessary on my own part;" and it seems to us rather hard that a great philosophic mind should have to go through all this tomfoolery for the sake of disproving what no really scientific man, as we stated two months ago, has yet ventured to assert. It is an act of condescension, on the part of the learned professor, for which he is to be honored. He has shown himself, in this instance, to be a watchful guardian, as well as an eloquent ex-veloped in the clouds of suffocating smoke, or positor, of popular science.

66 I should

From the Spectator. WATSON'S CRUISE IN THE ÆGEAN.* THIS volume contains something more than a cruise in the Egean. In addition to a steam-voyage from Constantinople to Sicily, Mr. Watson ascended Mount Etna, and visited several of the island cities, crossed over to Naples, spent about a week at Rome, and finally travelled through Savoy, Lombardy, and a portion of the Alps. He also increases the matter of his tour by reminiscences of

travel on other occasions.

Neither the voyage nor the land travel was remarkable for incidents. The scenery and the cities Mr. Watson saw were beautiful in themselves or interesting for their association. For the most part, however, they have often been described already; and if the author does not make too much of his description, he does not stick to his text. One thing in one place suggests something else like it which he has seen in another place, and the reader is favored with both at full length. He also falls into the too common

* A Cruise in the Egean. The Retrospect of a Summer Journey Westward "from the Great City by Propontic Sea." Including an Ascent of Mount Etna. By Walter Watson. Published by Har

rison.

his own man again, and he died in three years after. Mr. Watson and the doctor were obliged to lie down and rest or sleep at considerable risk from the cold; on their return in mid-day they suffered terribly from the heat. After all, they could not manage sunrise from the summit, which embraces the whole circuit; though what they saw was magnificent. They did reach the crater at last, at separate intervals; and then Mr. Watson was repaid.

4

In the immediate neighborhood of the crater the internal heat suffices to keep the ground dry and hard, so that the remaining portion of the ascent was accomplished without difficulty or danger; though we were from time to time en

66

vapor, which incessantly burst forth from the
crater. Our path now lay along the edge of a
vast hollow, perfectly round and smooth, and
lined with a thick crust of crystallized sulphur,
into which I rather hesitatingly followed the
guide; but seeing that he plodded on comme
si ne rien était, I felt I could not do better than
tread in his footsteps over the treacherous
ground. After descending a little way, we
again climbed the steep side, and, emerging from
this preparatory wonder, stood
upon the
crater's burning lips." I did not burst forth
into exclamations of wonder and delight, but
probably my countenance expressed the inward
feelings of the moment; for the guide looked at
me, and said, in a quiet, significant manner,
"Now, are you satisfied?". -as much as to say,
"It is worth the trouble, is it not?" I was
riveted to the spot, literally in breathless admi-
ration. Never before had I felt such a deep,
such an awful sense of the power of the Al-
mighty.

We stood on the edge of a precipitous chasm, sharp and rugged as if the mountain had just been rent asunder. The internal surface, as far as the eye could penetrate, consisted of a coating of sulphureous earth, which seemed to be continually burning without being consumed ; whilst through innumerable fissures jets of flame darted up, and played over the glowing mass, dazzling the eye by the intense brightness and variety of their coloring. The jagged, irregular outline of the whole crater is divided by a vast projecting wall of rock, of most singular appearance, coated with the deposit of the fumes

which rise from the great laboratory below. of the earth. Those whose recollection of This sublimation, being chiefly sulphur, appeared past political contests is especially sharp, in every shade of bright yellow, orange, and probably thought the introduction of such a crimson, as it glittered in the morning sunbeam. topic a violation of the proprieties of the ocClouds of dense white vapor rose from time to casion, though the cordial applause with time from the innermost depths, with a hissing, which his remarks were received indicated a roaring sound, like a mighty cataract. The occasional intermission of the rising clouds which steamed forth from the great gulf, afforded a partial glance at the lurid fire raging in the internal abyss. All around, as far as the eye could reach, within the crater, huge masses of rock lay tumbled over each other in chaotic confusion. Such an appearance, when the volcano is in a quiescent state, cannot fail to impress a spectator with a fearful idea of the inconceivable powers set in operation when the pent-up fires burst their bonds; and through this chasm, which is said to be near three miles in extent, the mountain hurls back the rocks buried within it by the fury of some earlier commotion. The forest, which is the midmost of the three different regions or districts passed in the ascent, furnishes a striking picture.

tree.

The Forest Region has also an interest peculiar to itself; for the trees, chiefly oak in the part through which we passed, have as unnatural, unearthly an appearance, as the place in which they are found. The want of a sufficient depth of soil preventing the roots from penetrating downwards, they have spread themselves in curious network over the surface; or, being forced upwards by the hard substratum, have formed the most extraordinary natural arches against the parent trunk, which is frequently of immense diameter, but rarely above fifteen or twenty feet high, and stag-headed like a pollardThe straggling branches afforded but a meagre shade under such a grilling sun; and for the benefit of future travellers we could but exclaim, like the Persians, as we passed, "May your shadows never be less!"' It is impossible to convey any adequate idea of the black petrified torrents which we sometimes crossed, sometimes followed for a while. There was a strange illusion in some of these streams of lava, where the liquid fire had ploughed a deeper channel than usual. Seen from a little distance, the oaktrees growing on the high banks deceptively led one to think that the sparkling water was actually bounding over the rocks, filling the air with its joyous music and refreshing spray; and the contrast was the more hideous as one became conscious of the dead mass in the river-bed, and the deathlike stillness of the air. Where the

Forest Region terminates, on the descent, the streams of lava have spread out like a great river losing itself in low marshy land.

From the N. Y. Times, 18 July. FREE TRADE AS A BOND OF PEACE.

MR. SECRETARY DAVIS, at the banquet on Friday night, took occasion to declare himself very warmly in favor of free trade, as a means of preserving peace among the nations

very general concurrence in the sentiments expressed. Indeed, we believe the public generally regard the question of protection as having been settled, and as having taken its place among the obsolete ideas which belong exclusively to the past. It is not likely again to constitute one of the dividing lines of political parties. Whether the whig party is dead or not (a point on which political doctors disagree), it is not likely again to advocate the adoption of such a tariff as shall protect American labor from the fullest and the freest competition with the labor of the world. That issue has been made and decided over and over again; and the popular verdict has been against the principle of protection. It is very easy, it is true, to explain the adverse result in each case, by attributing it to the fact that other issues intervened that the public mind was misled

and that the contest, therefore, was neither fact; for if the popular conviction had been fair nor final. But this cannot alter the distinctly in favor of protection, other issues would not have been allowed to interfere with its expression. Right or wrong, the people of this country have decided almost as directly, and, we suspect, quite as finally, in favor of unrestricted commerce, as have those of England. And that party will not be wise, in either country, which shall challenge the verdict and insist upon another trial of the issue.

Looking at the matter, therefore, from a political point of view, Gen. Davis committed no very heinous offence against propriety when he introduced the subject of free trade into his speech at the dinner of Friday night. And in every other respect the reference was clearly pertinent. The very first topic which an exhibition of the products of the industry of all nations naturally suggests, is that of the freest possible intercourse the largest pos

And

sible interchange of commodities, among
them. The great London Exhibition, which
was the first ever had in which all nations
joined, was due directly to the adoption of
Peel. It seemed to grow naturally from it-
the free trade policy secured by Sir Robert
to be its direct and inevitable result.
the very general desire which has been shown
to imitate that great demonstration, and to
hold similar exhibitions in different countries,
indicates a growing tendency, on the part of
the people of those countries, towards greater
freedom of commercial intercourse. Nations
no longer repel the products of each other's
labor. They rather invite the interchange.

The interests of England forbid it. Free trade has so increased the commercial intercourse and the mutual interdependence of the two countries, as to render it impossible.

And whatever may be thought of free trade shall have become consolidated by the unias a question of political economy, and in its versal adoption of free trade, international relations to the welfare of particular coun- wars must become matters of memory and tries, no one can doubt that it is the most of history only. When war shall fall upon potent of all possible agencies for preserving the great mass of the people of each nation peace among the nations which adopt it. who stay at home with a heavier hand than Gen. Davis and the French minister were upon those who fill the ranks of the contendclearly right in declaring that the best possi-ing hosts when famine shall waste those ble means of preventing war is to multiply whom the sword shall spare - no government the commercial relations of the different will be rash enough, or strong enough, to countries of the earth. The direct tendency plunge its country into war. No ministry at of free trade is to break down the barriers this day, which should menace the people of which separate nations - to create for them England with the calamities of a war with one common interest, and thus to render the United States, upon any of the grounds hostilities among them a mutual suicide. which have occasioned wars hitherto, could Just in proportion as nations become mutually maintain itself a month. Neither the fisherdependent upon one another for the products ies, nor Cuba, nor Canada, will ever occasion of their industry, will it become impossible war between England and America. for them to go to war. So long as England could produce upon her own soil food for her own people, manufacture her own goods and provide within herself the raw material, it would be comparatively easy for her to wage hostilities against other nations. But now that she has opened her ports to the products of other lands -now that her millions of workmen look to the United States for the cotton they use, and in part for the grain they consume, as well as a market for the goods they make war with this country becomes entirely another thing. The relative strength of our armies and our ships of war is a matter of little consequence. England might win a battle every week, and sink our fleets and annihilate our armies as fast as we could bring them into the field against her, and yet suffer immeasurably from the interruption of commerce which the fact of hostilities would occasion. A declaration of war would at once cut off her supplies of cotton, and thus throw millions of her laboring population out of work; while at the same time it would diminish her supplies of grain, and thus raise the price of food to her people at the very moment it had lessened their means of paying for it. Famine and pestilence would thus tread closely upon the footsteps of war, and that, too, whether victory Sketches of an Evangelical or Low Church or defeat should wait upon her banner. The family, and their favorite minister; of two chances of war, therefore, are greatly dimin- young Tractarian curates, and the manner of ished by the adoption of free trade between conducting the service at their church; and of any two of the great nations of the earth. the true media via of safety, as exhibited by an And if the day shall ever come when commer- excellent country parson, his amiable family, a cial intercourse among all the nations shall pattern landlord, and a worthy village. Bellebe unfettered when each shall interchange ville and its various inhabitants may possibly be its own commodities with every other, and discovered in real provincial life, but we fear as thus make itself dependent upon every other sort of rara avis. The picture of Rubric, the for some essential part of what its people gentlemanly and scholarly Tractarian curate, is need-it will become almost impossible for sketch of the "serious family" and the Honoraa favorable likeness, not exaggerated. war to break out among them. Oppression ble and Reverend Mr. Mild might have had more may still, as it ought, create rebellions at force and richness of coloring without ever pass home; the crushed and down-trodden may ing the boundaries of the real. The book is rise against the arbitrary power that afflicts supposed to be written by a returned colonist them; but when the interests of all nations wishing to find the church of his youth. — Spect.

No one will doubt that this is a result of the highest possible importance to the wellbeing of the human race- one to which much of what generally passes for national prosperity may well be sacrificed one compared with which all our notions of national independence seem of little weight. All the tendencies of the age are clearly towards the adoption of free trade principles. There is at this moment no considerable nation in the world, which is not relaxing, rather than tightening, the bonds of its commercial intercourse with other nations. And in this fact we may easily find ground for trust, that the world draws sensibly near to that great consummation of prophecy and of hope, when the brotherhood of man shall be universally acknowledged when the nations of the earth shall not learn war any more, but strive by all possible means to advance the common happiness and well-being of the human race.

-

The Adventures of a Gentleman in Search of the Church of England.

a

The

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 483.-20 AUGUST, 1853.

CONTENTS.

1. History of the French Protestant Refugees,

2. Wainwright the Murderer, .

3. A Storm,

4. The Lady Novelists of Great Britain,.

5. The Late Louis Philippe, .

6. American Authorship-Herman Melville,

7. French Literature,

8. The British Jews,

9. Wilkie's First London Picture,

10. Mr. Macaulay,

11. Thomas Moore,

12. England or Russia - The Position of Aus

tria, Russia, and Turkey,

13. The Aztec Mystery,

508

Athenæum and Gentleman's Mag.,

Examiner and Spectator,

Spectator,

Chambers' Journal,

511

14. A Midland Town in the reign of George III., Gentleman's Magazine, . 15. Cost of Iniquity, . POETRY: The Last Retrospection, 449; Lines -The Wondrous Well- Epitaph, 450. SHORT ARTICLES: English in Ireland - Sartines, 467; Thackeray's New American Theme, 476; George Wilson - The Potato, 479; Eliza Robbins - Beethoven, 480; Sweet Oil vs. Bed-bugs, 487; Ardent Spirit in the United States, 492; The Pea, 503; Character in a Blue-bag, 507; Mr. Hannay on Satiric Literature, 512.

NEW BOOKS: Meliora; or, Better Times to Come, 467; The Sea-weed Collector's Guide, 487.

From the Dublin University Magazine.
THE LAST RETROSPECTION.
FAREWELL, bright sun! thou goest to thy rest,
And I to mine. When thou dost rise again,
This busy heart, this racked and aching head,
Shall feel and throb no more;
these failing

eyes
Shall never watch thee sink behind the roofs,
And fill with tears to think of other times,
When they beheld thee fading from a sky
That overhung green hills and leafy woods.
'T is my last gaze on thee I perish here,
An idle weed, cast, by the tide of life,
To wither on a bleak and desolate shore.
No heart, in this wide city's wilderness,
Will think the light of day less bright and fair,
That I shall see it not no loving tears
Will fall upon my coffin -not a soul
Will ache and sicken at its own strong life,
When all which made that life seem beautiful
Lies low with me in my cold, silent grave.
Ah me! far, far away from these close streets
There lies a spot, hidden in waving boughs,
Where the thrush carols and the swallow flits
Through the long summer-day-where waters
gleam

Between high bowery banks, whose willows droop
To kiss the ripples.
CCCCLXXXIII.

LIVING AGE. VOL. II. 29