M. Dumas. "Yes, sir, take your notes! only | sions are given now-a-days. They are almost let me tell you that when you were representing always much more solicited than imposed. Beme as hunting lions, audacity was not the word sides, M. Dumas with his escort did not quit you should have used. You should have said France till October. But from June, when he courage. I am not an academician, and it is not promised "Les Quarante Cinq," to October is a lesson of language that I am giving you, but a four months. For M. Dumas this is an enorlesson of propriety. My travels in Spain and mously long time. He does not need so much Africa have been alluded to. I went away, be- by a great deal, to produce four volumes. What cause after having delivered 158,600 lines, that was he doing these four mouths? We know; is to say, forty-eight volumes in eighteen months, for it is one of the privileges of the great writers I was fatigued. This will be readily understood, of our days that they live, so to speak, in glass although I have been aided by a very excellent houses as in the times of the fairies. Nothing and intelligent collaborator, M. Auguste Maquet. that they do-nothing that they say escapes the Nevertheless this excessive labour exhausted my avid curiosity of the public. Truth to say, this strength and I took leave of absence. Yes, I public curiosity does not seem to annoy them pargot formal permission: for these gentlemen had ticularly. We sometimes see them lending themso worried and belabored me, that I thought it selves very complacently to its gratification. necessary to use with respect to them every pre- Be this as it may, we know that during these four caution. So three days prior to my departure, months M. Dumas was revelling in the delights I had M. de Girardin to dine with me at St. Ger- of his villa at St. Germain, of which the world main, and upon my faith we seemed to be on says such marvellous things. He was endeavsufficiently good terms with each other. He was ouring to realize there the dreams of which we in no hurry at all to get away. We took our read in his novel Monte-Christo. He was busy seats at the table at 7 o'clock. At 10 o'clock with his theatres. He was bringing out his own M. de Girardin was still at my house. In fact dramatic pieces, and the plays of Shakspeare. he did not leave till 2 o'clock in the morning, Now all this was very fine; but M. Dumas, who when he took off with him in his carriage Mile. was doing so much for art, ought to have been Brohan, (laughter.) Gentlemen, upon my honor, thinking a little all that while of his literary I am speaking in perfect good faith, and without creditors. October comes and lo! the rumor the slightest intention to rasp either Mlle. Bro- spreads over all France that M. Dumas is about han or M. de Girardin. I have merely stated a to accompany the Duke of Montpensier into fact, and every body knows that one may be in Spain to be present at his nuptials with the Spancompany with a woman, with an actress, with-ish Infanta. France, forsooth, would not have out giving the slightest ground for scandal. been worthily represented if M. Dumas were not there! So be it. But this trip to Spain was an "As for the novel Fabrien touching which peo- affair of a few days only. M., the duke of Montple have been so facetious and so malicious, I pensier was back in October, but we see M. Duadmitted myself upon re-perusal that it was une-mas running over Spain, traversing it in all qual to, and unworthy of, my other works, and directions. He will tell you that he did not have I thereupon without hesitation threw it into the a Princess to bring back with him. True. But fire, sacrificing thus an assured sum of more than his word of a gentleman and his formal engage18.000 francs ($3600). I tell you I burned that ments ought to have brought him back to France. novel. It is ashes." From Spain M. Dumas went into Africa. Upon a mission, says he. He went thither to seek subM. Lacan in behalf of the Constitutionnel re-jects for a novel to be written with a view to plies to Dumas, dwells severely upon the laxity popularize in France the idea of African coloniof principle which the facts of the case had zation. But he paid precious little attention to shown to characterize him, and to his inexcusable this subject while in Africa; and he did a multinegligence in complying with his engagements to the journals complainant. "In explanation M. Dumas pretends that he was compelled to travel for his health's sake!" tude of other things which retarded his return. Were French prisoners to be ransomed? M. Dumas was there! Was there a dance, or a fête, or a fight? M. Dumas was there. He was M. Dumas. "I had a mission from the Min- everywhere, and meddling with every thing. He ister of Public Instruction." was sitting for the Arabs, and the Arabs were M. Lacan. "This excuse is no better than the sitting for him, while his poor country was sufother. When a man has bound himself by writ-fering double famine-the want of bread, and of ten obligation there is no scientific mission of his novels. And moreover, while the Bey of Tuforce enough to nullify the contract. Moreover nis was here receiving the homage and the honours we all of us know perfectly well how these mis- which were his due, M. Dumas was pompously visiting the Bey's states, fraternizing with his The small fry are much less munificently remusubjects and causing to be rendered to himself |nerated for their literary labours. For them fifty the honours we were paying to their sovereign. francs ($10) per feuilleton is deemed excellent I admire. gentlemen, this prodigious activity; but pay. W. W. M. I may be permitted to regret this particular mode of its exhibition, and to say that if before repairing to Tunis, M. Dumas had settled his accounts with us; and if he had even delayed his departure a little, he would have reaped this double advantage. He would not have left a big law suit behind him, and he would have had the pleasure of meeting at Tunis, and receiving hospitality from, the prince of the country himself." Dumas replied that it could not be said with truth that he had been staying at his villa with his arms folded: for a week before his departure, he had finished the eight volumes of Balsamo : and he had been attending rehearsals of his Shakespeare and Dumas-" Was not that," he asked, "a work of Art? And I beg leave to tell the gentleman that Alexander Dumas has never solicited any thing. He did not ask to be sent into Africa. M., the duke of Montpensier, mentioned to the minister of Public Instruction how agreeable it would be to him to see M. Dumas present at the fêtes in Madrid upon the occasion of his marriage. So M. Dumas went but he did not then think of going into Africa. M. the minister however, told him to go and visit those regions which were so completely terra incognita, to most persons in France, and especially to our legislators who talk about them at hap hazard, without knowing what they are talking about. It being thought that his visit might be made useful by spreading information touching Algeria M. Dumas concluded to go, and he went. As for the grand ribbon of the order of St. Michel, it was placed upon the breast, not of the man of letters, but of M. Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, of the man who had been present at the marriage of the Prince. As for my trip to Tunis, let me tell you, those pretended savages know very well what we are worth, and can well appreciate merit. The grand ribbon of the Order of the Nichan was bestowed upon me there." Dumas then stated that he had contributed in Africa to the preservation of twelve French prisoners, and that three thousand persons had, by way of recompense, offered him a banquet, and now if he was made to pay the eighty thousand francs damages, which were sought of him in this suit, for the share he had had in that act, why he would not regret them! M. The suit went against Dumas, not however to the full amount of damages sought, but for three thousand francs and costs, which amounted to twice as much more. I have given above the rates at which the most distinguished writers and feuilletonists are paid. MADONNA. BY SUSAN ARCHER TALLEY. Madonna, in the golden light, Down-pouring on thy pictured form From the stained window's archéd height, Mellow, and rich, and warm,— Lighting the halo on thy brow Into a living glow, Till scarce their radiance seems apartLike light and clouds at set of sun Softly melting into one, How beautiful thou art! All we might deem of good and fair, Thy wavy hair-a golden shower Upon thy brow disposed apart, Half bound beneath the white veil's fold, Half down thy bosom rolled In graceful negligence of art, Seem like the golden-tinted clouds, The golden-threaded clouds of eve Floating upon the liquid sea, The waveless, shoreless sea, The sea of light the yellow sunset leaves. Dimpling upon thy parted lip A breathing sweetness seems to lie Lest, pent within thy woman's heart, Thine eyes beneath their drooping fringe As still and dark their heavenly blue We scarce may pierce their depths profound, The baby on thy knee; Half in love and sweet surprise, While mingling with thy locks astray Loosely within their baby grasp The scattered tresses twine. Gazing upon thy pictured form, The woman's earnest soul revealing, My soul, uprising from its clay, Bends lowly to a purer sway Of more than earthly feeling. Something trusting, something holy, On my spirit dawning slowly, With a beauty half divine; Till thy spirit, meek and bright, Dawning with a living light Stealeth slowly into mine; Hushing the voice of earthly ill Binding me with an unfelt thrall,] For the meekness in thy gentle eyes Richmond. Editor's Cable. THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL. During the recent agitation of the Slavery question in the halls of Congress, and while the measures proposed for allaying the excited state of the public mind were still pending, we forbore to express any opinion on the unhappy divisions between North and South, for the reason that we could not do so without entangling ourselves with party alliances. The fact is well-known that upon some of the issues made up at Washington, Southern sentiment was by no means unanimous, and a literary jourual representing, to a certain extent, the views of the whole Southern section of our country, could ill attach itself to the peculiar interests of any one portion. Devoted, since its commencement, to the cause and the institutions of the South, its very title expressing significantly the sort of championship it owes to the people who sustain it, the Messenger has again and again struck hearty blows at the assailants of their rights, while it has yet ever manifested a loyal attachment to the American Union. In the late struggle which has so painfully convulsed the body politic, there were those at the South who inclined to think the time had not yet come for decided measures, and that the solemn voice of warning against aggression from our Northern fellow-citizens was rendered of less effect by a too frequent and untimely resort to it. If the tocsin of St. Mark's had sounded on every occasion of fancied peril, there had been few to heed its wild alarum in the last agony of the Republic. It were well, in the judgment of many, to defer raising the determined remonstrance of our section of the confederacy until some tangible issue should present itself, upon which prevailed VOL. XVI-83 an undivided opinion. The majesty of an outraged people should not be idly flaunted, in terrorem, at unseasonable times, lest it become "so common-hackneyed in the eyes of men," but should rather, like King Henry in the play, maintain its -presence like a robe pontifical, Ne'er seen, but wonder'd at. However this may be, it is certain that an issue is now presented on which to take a determined stand, and concerning which it becomes every southern man to speak out plainly. For ourselves, we feel impelled by every consideration of duty, to utter in the most intelligible language we can employ, our deliberate convictions upon the present state of affairs. It is, perhaps, no vain assumption to suppose that what we say will carry the greater weight because we have not thought it proper to allude to the painful subject before. We say to the people of the North, then, not as alarmists, but as those who love the Union of our fathers, in no spirit of menace, but rather in that of expostulation, that, in our judgment, the continued existence of the United States, as one nation, depends upon the full and faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Bill. The provisions of that bill are designed to secure to us the enjoyment of those rights of property to which we are entitled under the Constitution, let who will interpret that instrument. The Law, the Supreme Law, guaranties to us these rights," our enemies themselves being judges." No man of sound mind can read the Debates of the Convention that framed the Constitution, and not be convinced that without the clause for the rendition of fugitive slaves, no compact could have been formed between our ancestors. And surely when that compact is set at naught-when we can no longer safely repose under its over-arching canopy-when bud, base men, with the lie upon their lips, withhold from us what it clearly prescribes, it will be time to dissever the bouds that unite us as the fetters of an ignominious thraldom. It is our opinion that this sentiment pervades the entire South, from the Potomac to the Gulf. And we wish the people of the North could appreciate its universal prevalence. But we speak of course, only for ourselves when we declare that we should regard the Repeal of the bill as the knell of the Union-a knell more portentous than that "fire-bell in the night" that startled the sage of Monticello, as it shall ring out the ruin of a greater empire than ever before existed upon earth. These are sad words for us to write. For it has been a fond day-dream with us to shadow forth to the mind's eye the bright destiny of America in cycles of time yet to come-to shape the ends that the Union is hereafter to accomplish, and speculate upon the great mission that Providence designs her to full. We love to think of our country not only as the last asylum of freedom, but as the chief seat of the sciences and the chosen court of the arts. We love to fill up in imagination the picture, gleaming with the hues of the first promise, which the muse of Bishop Berkeley has sketched in his memorable Ode. We rejoice to think that here another Attica is, one day, to be found,—that painting and sculpture shall here enrich a new and loftier Acropolis,—that philosophy purified of the mists and errors of the past, shall here teach a holier evangel than it has ever before uttered, and music, rescued from the base uses it has been made to subserve, breathe a richer harmony than the soft chorus of the Athenian flutes. It is pleasant to persuade ourselves that augmentation of empire, within certain parallels of latitude, will have no tendency to weaken the ties that bind together a century of States, but that they will find in the variety and even the conflict of interests, the principle of coales- of machinery, to be convinced of his mistake. Indeed, cence: thus realizing the verses of the poet 'Tis jarring interests, of themselves create, And is this all but idle fancy? We fear that it is, if our fellow-citizens of the North are mad enough to withhold from us our constitutional rights. We would conjure them "by the ties of our common kindred," to disavow the usurpations of fanaticism. We say to them, be just, let us forget past differences, and learn to love one another as brethren. If they consent, we may yet prosper through long years; if they reject our proffered good-will, even to bringing upon us the dire extremity of civil commotion, we must say, in the sorrowful but resolute accents of Arnold Biederman, Landamman of Unterwalden, to the haughty Duke of Burgundy, "Then farewell peace, and welcome war, and be its plagues and curses on the heads of those who choose blood and strife rather than peace and UNION!" Let us hope that the better counsel may prevail, and that the United States may work out the grand results which the patriot would fondly see accomplished. THE INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION OF 1851. As the time approaches for this raree-show of nations, signs are beginning to be manifested of the interest felt in the undertaking by the people of the United States. We have always been confident that whenever a WORLD'S FAIR should be held, with a full representation of the inventive genius of all countries, the Yankees would bear off the palm, and as Prince Albert's scheme has been adopted by Continental Europe, with decided manifestations of zeal for its success, we begin to be solicitous that our fellow-citizens should have their "talents" properly the foreigner has long made it a subject for joking, that the Yankee looks first with the eye of utility at every thing that is presented to him, to see if no amendment may be suggested. Leigh Hunt, in his Autobiography tells us a good story of Jeremy Bentham, that when this worthy visited him in prison and found him playing at battledore, the utilitarian philosopher developed the peculiar bent of his mind by proposing a great improvement in the construction of shuttlecocks. A much better story, though a wicked one, is related of the New England missionary, who failing to bring over many of the Hindoos to Christianity, submitted a plan for propelling the car of Juggernaut by steam. As for the exhibition itself, we confess to have regarded it with the more interest from the fact that it was originated by his Royal Highness, the Prince Consort. Apart from the happy results that we may anticipate from such a friendly emulation between the countries of the civilized world, it is surely a much more commendable way of amusing one's self, in a Prince, than the diversions in which such people usually engage. It is a nobler and manlier pastime, looked upon simply in that light, than building a great Pavilion by the sea-side, or preparing a dinner-table with a river of running water down the centre, or any other of those niaiseries that filled up the life -"a sick epicure's dream"-of Geo. IV. Men of high position, with plenty to get and nothing to do, are apt, we know, to fall into modes of killing time, of which the propriety is more than questionable, and we are glad to see ALBERT engaged in so laudable a method of escaping the ennui of a palace. He will secure for himself the respect Peace Congresses have ever been able to effect, in promoof the world by this enterprise, and accomplish more than ting kindly feelings among different races of men, by bringing them together in the great inart of civilization and causing them to feel of how much real service they can be to each other, in the friendly interchange of com modities and fabrics. the din of preparation already begins to resound in Hyde We gather from our recent files of English papers that set forth. We are anxious that England, who is fond of calling herself "the work-shop of the world," should find Park, and that the great building designed for the exhibiout that we have some pretensions on this side of the At-lic attention with the Nepaulese Ambassador and the tion, even in its present state of forwardness, divides publantic to the honors of mechanical excellence, and we should be well satisfied to give up, without a contest, to other countries the preeminence in the lighter and more elegant branches of workmanship, could we but secure, what we so well deserve, that crown of industrial glory covered in by the beginning of the New Year. From a Hippopotamus. The edifice will be put together and late number of the London Athenæum, we take the following description of the structure, which we doubt not will prove interesting to our readers— which belongs of right to the most useful artisan-nation upon earth. We might forbear to contend with the Chinese in the working of concentric balls in ivory, and all "The building will be 1,848 feet long (why not three those other ingenious follies that have been transmitted feet more, that it might have symbolized in its figure the from father to son, through fifty generations of the disci- great year to which the event will give its name?) by 40% ples of Confucius. We might yield to the Turk the su- feet broad and 66 feet high :—and another of its peculiar periority in the preparation of drugs, and leave to the features (and a comfort for the alarmists) is, that it can be roguish little grisette of the Rue de la Paix the fashion- entirely prepared away from its destined site, and will ing of primrose kids. France might excel us, too, in the want merely putting together on the ground. The long silks of Lyons and the laces of Mechlin. She might main- line is crossed by a transept 108 feet high, which will intain her supremacy in cookery, in the person of M. Alexis close a row of elm trees now standing at a point so near Soyer. But with her, as with England, we would enter the centre as to divide the length into 948 feet on the one the lists, for the wreath in the award for useful inventions, side and 900 feet on the other. In addition to the timber in the arts and sciences. And compared with this wreath for joists, flooring, &c., the glass and supports of iron "the laurels that a Cæsar reaps are weeds." It is neither comprise the entire structure. The columns are similar wet with tears nor stained with blood. It is to be fairly in form throughout. The same may be said of each of won, upon an equal field, where the conflict is without the sash-bars and of each pane of glass. The number of strife and the victory without abatement. He who doubts, if there be such a person, the superior skill of the American people in the useful inventions, need only walk through the Patent Office at Washington, and examine the infinite variety of contrivances he will there meet with, for the economy of labor, and the perfecting columns, varying in length from 14 feet 6 inches to W feet, is 3,230. There are 2,244 cast-iron girders for supporting galleries and roots, besides 1,128 intermediate bearers of binders, 358 wrought-iron trusses for supporting root, 34 miles of gutters for carrying water to the columns, 22 miles of sash-bars, and 900,000 superficial feet of glass. "As already explained, the exhibiting surface will occupy a space of about 21 acres. The total cubic contents of the building will be 33,000,000 feet. The total amount of contract for use, waste, and maintenance is 79,800. or rather less than one penny and one-twelfth of a penny per foot cube." The building will stand ou about 18 acres of ground,- A friend in the country has sent us the following verses giving, with the galleries, an exhibiting surface of 21 acres; by the late Francis S. Key. As a piece of playful poetibut provision will be made for a large increase of galle-zing by the author of the "Star Spangled Banner," which ries if necessary. The gallery will be 24 feet wide, and has never before appeared in print, they will attract the will extend nearly a mile. The length of tables or table reader's attention. The occasion which called them forth space for exhibiting will be about 8 miles. An idea may probably lingers yet in the recollection of the old stagers be formed of the unprecedented quantity of materials that at the Virginia Springs. It was the death of the venerawill be employed in this edifice from the fact, that the glass ble bear, so long familiar to the guests of the Red Sulalone will weigh upwards of 400 tons. phur, which afflicting occurrence took place in the sum mer of 1838. Bruin found, indeed, a worthy elegist : There was a Bear-alas that we most bear The loss of such a bear. He was the pet And playmate of the children, men and maids; The ladies, too, wept briny tears for him Till all the springs were salt-for much he loved To play his tricks before them, and to take From their fair hands the dainties they would bring; "The glass roof consists of a series of ridges and val- And they would stroke his sable fur, and feel leys,' exactly eight feet wide. Along the sloping sides His velvet paws, and then he licked his paws. without and within, the water is conducted into gutters at And paws so touched, he could have licked and lived the head of each column, whence it escapes through the Long in such licking. But, alas! he died. columns themselves. In no instance has the water fur- Now a bare bear-skin, and some bare bones, ther than twelve feet to run before it is delivered into the Are all that's left of Bruin,-save at night valleys. We may mention that the temporary offices ex- When blaze the lights upon the mountain side, hibit some of the actual roofing.—The provision for veu- And music o'er the valley floats, and calls tilation is, according to Mr. Paxton, a very peculiar part The bright-eyed maidens to the sprightly dance, of his plan. The whole building, he says, will be fitted Upon the glossy curls that shade the cheek with louvre, or luffer, boards,-so placed as to admit air And brow of beauty, Bruin's fat is there, but exclude rain. The roof and south side of the build-Softening and polishing the silken locks. ing will be covered with canvas,-and in very hot weath- Bruin! thy chops were savory-so said er it may be watered and the interior kept cool. In The chaps that did with them their chops regale. the transept alone there will be above 5,000 superficial The ladies ate thee not-they would not feed feet of ventilators provided,—and it will be found that if Upon a tamed and educated bear. Mr. Paxton has erred at all in respect of the means of Nor me, could steak or cutlet, fried or broiled, ventilation, there will be too much rather than too little. Stewed paw, or garnished head, tempt to the feast. By covering the south side and roof of the building with For I had seen thy death.-It was a death canvas, a gentle light will be thrown over the whole of Unseemly too-unworthy of thy race. the building, and the whole of the glass of the northern But hadst thou died among thy native wilds, side of the building will give a direct light to the interior." When hound and horse and horn had from thy lair Arous'd thee, and thou nobly stood at bay, And many a canine foe had howl'd his last Within thy perilous embrace, and gallant hunters Closed round thee slowly, marking thy dread glare, Admiring thy stern courage, giving death In honorable wounds, then hadst thou died A death of glory; and had I been one Of that proud ring, I could have joined the feast Won by fair chase and combat-ate thy steaks, And picked thy bones unscrupulous-alas! Far other was thy death!—a felon's death The coward gave thee-threw around thy neck A noose, and thrice essayed to drag thee back As a vile prisoner. The agencies through which American artisans may participate in this World's Fair are the local Committees appointed by the Governors of the several States, acting in connection with the central authority recognized by the State Department at Washington. Our own worthy Chief Magistrate has not yet, we believe, designated a Local Committee for Virginia; and we respectfully call his attention to the matter, with the suggestion that as the articles intended for exhibition should be ready for shipment by the 1st of January next, as little delay as possible should occur in our movements. Surely, in such a Fair, Virginia, long known for many of her products, and the unbounded mineral wealth that underlies her sierras, should not be unrepresented. Many inquiries having been made of us, as to the authorship of the translation of the First book of the Æneid, published in our number for March last, we have obtained permission of the writer to announce his name to the public. The translation is from the pen of WILLIAM BURKE, Esq., long known to the people of Virginia as one of the most elegant scholars in the South, and as the preceptor of many of our first young men in the learned professions and in the councils of the Commonwealth. Our readers will of course recognize, in his translation of the Second Book in the present number, the same facility of versification and fidelity to the original which distinguished the former effort. Once when escap'd, I marked |