66 was ejected in a similar manner, and the also reports the second series of expericontents of the tub stirred with the hand. ments begun last winter as most satisfacAfter the lapse of a minute, the water was tory. The work was commenced on the poured off, with the exception of sufficient 22d of November, and finished on the 19th to keep the ova submerged, and fresh of December last, up to which time 183 water supplied in its place. This also was boxes had been stocked each with 2000 poured off, and fresh substituted previous ova. There seems, as we learn from the to removing the impregnated spawn to report, to be a very great scarcity of male the boxes prepared for its reception. The fish, as may be gathered from the followova were placed in the boxes as nearly si- ing entry in the pond journal, kept by milar to what they would be under the Mr. Marshall Peter of the Pools:" ordinary course of natural deposition as "When we [Mr. Ashworth and Mr. Buist, possible, with, however, this important of Perth] arrived at the river, they had advantage: in the bed of the river, the caught two female fish, and at the next ova are liable to injury and destruction in cast two other female fish were taken. At a variety of ways; the alluvial matter de- the third cast they captured a male fish posited in times of flood will often cover in fine condition, from twenty-four to the ova too deep to admit of the extrica- twenty-eight pounds' weight. We had cation of the young fry, even if hatched; now full opportunity of seeing the whole the impetuosity of the streams when flood-process of spawning performed. The feed will frequently sweep away whole male fish, after being relieved of their ova, spawning-beds and their contents. Whilst swam away quite lively, and each was deposited in boxes, the ova are shielded from injury, and their vivification in large numbers is thus rendered a matter of certainty, and the young fish reared in safety." The date when the first egg was observed to be hatched was on the 31st of March; and during April and May most of the eggs had started into life, and the fry were observed waddling about the breeding-boxes; and in June they were promoted to a place in the pond, being Those of our readers who feel anxious then a little more than an inch long. Sir for more information on the interesting William Jardine, in a paper read at the subject of pisciculture, may consult an recent meeting of the British Association, article in the Revue des Deux Mondes for with a copy of which we have been kindly 1854 (vol. vi.); and there are a great favored, says, of the first year's experi- number of pamphlets on the subject to be ment, that the results have been satisfac- had from the French booksellers, such as tory in shewing the practicability of hatch-" Pisciculture, Du Repeuplement des ing, rearing, and maintaining in health a very large number of young fish for a period of two years, and, not reckoning the original expense of the ponds, at a comparatively trifling cost., Sir William marked by punching a hole in the tail.? The same disparity between the quantity of males and females was observed in Ireland. The males were found to be in the proportion of 1 to 14 at Lough Corrib; but we mention this only incidentally, having no intention, in the present paper, to enter into the salmon controversy, or to trace the young fish further than its birth. Eaux de la France, par M. C. Millet”—a paper read before the savans of one of the Paris associations, and containing many curious ideas and much striking information on the subject. THE Boston Public Library has 28,080 | year, 1865 volumes and 5330 pamphlets volumes, exclusive of those already receiv- have been donations. ed from the last liberal donation of Mr. Bates, and of tracts, 12,380; last year the library contained 22,617 volumes, and 6507 tracts. Of the additions the past M. GOUJON, a young astronomer of great eminence, and an assistant of Arago, died in Paris on the 1st inst. From the Dublin University Magazine. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES SKETCHES TALMA. FRANCIS JOSEPH TALMA ranks amongst the most remarkable men of the age and country in which he lived. His theatrical eminence was only one of his many claims to distinction. The Garrick of the French stage, combined with the great artist the man of literature, the accomplished gentleman, the honest citizen, the steady friend, the affectionate husband and father, and the agreeable companion endowed with ample stores of knowledge, and unrivalled conversational powers. His memory resembled a vast magazine, from whence he could draw supplies at will, without danger of exhausting the hoard. He had read much, had witnessed more, and recollected all. He saw the death of Voltaire, the entire career of Chateaubriand, and the rise of Victor Hugo and Lamartine. He beheld the dawn of the great Revolution, became a spectator of all its terrible phases, from the destruction of the Bastile, the massacre of the Swiss Guards, the trial and execution of the King, the reign of terror, and the directory, through the glories of the consulate and the empire, to the extinction of the latter and the restoration of the Bourbons. With the past, he looked back to the reign of Louis the Fifteenth, and almost lived to see the barricades of 1830, and the election of Louis Philippe. Personally, he was the friend of Chenier, David, Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and was one of the familiar intimates of Napoleon. His life was a link connecting that of many others, rather than a distinct single existence. His professional popularity never waned with the vicissitudes of a career of nearly forty years; and the affection of his private friends, enduring through life, accompanied him to the tomb. He must have been preeminently a happy man, for his mind was pure, truthful, ingenuous, and straightforward: neither let it be forgotten, in the enumeration of his many enviable endowments, that he realized a handsome fortune by his own exertions. * A short time before his death, Talma was asked by an admiring friend why he did not write his own biography, as La Clairon, Le Kain, Preville, and Molé had done before him. He answered that he had not time; and that having so incessantly studied and repeated the thoughts and words of others, he could find no original phrases in which to express his ideas. Nevertheless, an extensive collection of notes and memoranda was discovered amongst his papers after his death, written by him with a view to a personal history of his life and times. These papers, after a lapse of more than twenty years, were consigned, with permission of the two sons of Talma, to Alexandre Dumas, to arrange and edit. The ingenious novelist commenced the task with his usual rapidity, and four volumes were published in 1850. Talma is made to speak throughout in the first person, but how far the imagination of Dumas has embellished or obscured reality, is a question not easily decided. He gives some original anecdotes, and verifies others that have been in print before. The narrative altogether has an air of doubtful authenticity. It is too discursive, and meanders into so many labyrinthine episodes, that the individual biography is not easily disentangled. We have been given to understand by more than one competent critic, that the work is considered in France, as "peu serieux." In 1827, within a year after the death of Talma, an excellent memoir upon the man and his art appeared from the pen of Regnault-Varin, who knew him long and intimately. This volume is highly esteemed, and may be faithfully relied on. Tissot and Moreau also published pamphlets upon the same subject; and the celebrated comedian Regnier has written an excellent article on Talma, which appeared in a volume of the Biographie Universelle, edited by Michaud. It will be seen that, from these combined sources, ample materials may be collected for a correct account of the life and actions of the French Roscius. On a just comparison of pretensions, it must be admitted that Talma was beyond all question the greatest tragic actor that France has ever produced. Men of high renown preceded him-such as Baron, Le Kain, Monvel, La Rive;* but he excelled them all, and none of his successors, to the present year inclusive, are worthy to rank in the same file. The Gallic throne of Melpomene is exclusively occupied by Mademoiselle Rachel. There is not even a shadow of Talma amongst the living men. He was to the French stage what Garrick was to the English; a bold reformer and the inventor of a new school. Inferior to Garrick in executive versatility, he far surpassed him in classical acquirement and profound study of the ancient models. He was the only French actor who had the good taste and courage to break through the conventional fetters of declamation. He disregarded the measured monotony of the rhyme, and took nature for his exclusive guide. An enthusiastic worshipper once said to him, "You must be deeply affected to produce such powerful emotions in your audience. How intensely you identify yourself with the character you represent His reply embraced a lecture on his art. "Acting," said he, “is a complete paradox; we must possess the power of strong feeling or we could never command and carry with us the sympathy of a mixed audience in a crowded theatre; but we must at the same time control our own sensations on the stage, for their indulgence would enfeeble execution. The skilful actor calculates his effects beforehand. He never improvises a burst of passion or an explosion of grief. Everything that he does is the result of pre-arrangement and forethought. The agony which appears in stantaneous, the joy that seems to gush forth involuntarily, the tone of the voice, the gesture, the look, which pass for sudden inspiration, have been rehearsed a hundred times. On the other hand, a dull, composed, phlegmatic nature can never make a great actor. He who loves his profession and expects to excel in it, must study from himself, and compare his own proved sensations under grief, happiness, disappointment, loss, acquisition, anger, pain, pleasure, and all the ordinary variations of human events and feelings, with the imaginary emotions of the cha racters he is supposed to represent. Not long ago," he added, "I was playing in Misanthropy and Repentance,' with an admirable actress. Her natural and affecting manner, deeply studied nevertheless, completely overpowered me. She perceived, and rejoiced in her triumph, but whispered to me, 'Recover yourself, Talma; you are excited.' Had I not listened to the caution my voice would have failed, the words would have escaped my memory, my gesticulations would have become unmeaning, and the whole effect would have dwindled into insignificance. No, believe me, we are not nature, but art; and in the excellence of our imitation lies the consummation of skill." It has been often said that Talma was an Englishman; partly because he spoke our language with more fluency and less of the foreign idiom than those not "native and to the manner born" usually exhibit; and partly because his father had long been settled in London as an eminent dentist, having been induced to emigrate by the persuasion, and under the immediate patronage, of Earl Harcourt. The date also of his birth has been frequently misstated. Dumas says that Talma himself has settled the question by a written memorandum, to the effect that he was ushered into the world, in Paris, on the 15th of January, 1766. Regnault-Varin, on the contrary, states, that he once asked him his age, and he evaded the answer, by saying with a smile, that "actors and women should never be dated." are old or young," added he, "according to the characters we represent." The biographer then, on a comparison of evidence, fixes 1763 as the correct epoch. The day, the 15th of January, has never been disputed; and becomes doubly memorable as being also the anniversary of the birth of Moliére. is We The name of Talma is uncommon, and of Arabic origin, signifying intrepid. Founded on this, a son of the reigning Emperor of Morocco who happened to be on a visit to the French metropolis, once asked the father of the actor whether he was not of eastern descent, and of the family of Ishmael. The elder Talma could produce no evidence, and felt himself compelled to ignore the respectable pedigree. When he came to England he brought his family with him, but the young Francis Joseph, at nine years of age, was sent back to Paris, to complete his education; it being intended that in due time he should succeed to the paternal business. At the boarding school where he was placed, plays written by the master were occasionally acted by the scholars. At one of these exhibitions, Talma, then the youngest and most promising boy in the seminary, was entrusted with a secondary part in a tragedy called "Tamerlane." The character here represented wound up the play with a narrative conveying to Tamerlane the intelligence of the death of his dearest friend; which friend was in fact his own Talma had suffered his mind to be come so complete absorbed with the event he had to describe, and so identified himself with the situation, that he told his story in a flood of real tears. He was too young to have studied the classical canon of Horace, which says, son. "Si vis me flere, dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi ;" but nature prompted him to strike the true chord, and he obeyed her mandate without scholastic instruction. The curtain fell, and the young actors retired to their apartments; but after a time, it was perceived that Talma was missing. They sought for him, and he was found seated in the dressing-room, wrapped up in his tragic mantle, and weeping bitterly. His companions endeavored to divert his grief, but so strong was the impression made upon his dawning faculties, that he fell into a fever from which he did not recover for several days. Soon after this incident, his father sent for him to London. Talma's fondness for the stage, originally imbibed at school, strengthened with his growth, and induced him to collect together a band of juvenile amateurs of his own nation, who got up plays at the Hano ver square Rooms, then belonging to Sir John Gallini. They began with Boissy's comedy of "Le François à Londres," in which Talma acted the Marquis de Polainville; and Moliére's "Depit Amoureux," in which he played Eraste. These performances were continued for several months, and were patronized with an eagerness almost exceeding that subsequently bestowed upon the fashionable and secret assemblies at the Argyll Rooms. On one occasion, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and other distinguished personages of the highest rank were present. Amongst other pieces, Beaumarchais' "Barbier de Seville," was given, when Talma personated Le Comte Almaviva. The brilliant success of these experiments led Sir John Gallini to suppose that he might derive great emolument from mingled representations, in which Molé* and Mademoiselle Contat, then at the head of the French stage, might appear together in a selection from their best scenes. Talma, who was about to return to France to finish his education, was commissioned to treat with them upon the subject. The success of John Kemble and and Mrs. Siddons, whose performances he had frequently witnessed with rapture in England, had unsettled his mind for the study of his father's avocation, and predisposed him to seize the first opportunity of engaging in the pursuit that had caught his fancy. Molé declined the offer of which Talma was the bearer; but the acquaintance opened to the latter by the negotiation, paved his way to the stage, and relieved him from the profession of a dentist, which, although exceedingly distasteful, he had begun to practise in Paris, in obedience to the wishes of his father. Molé became so struck by the genius of Talma, as it gradually won upon him, that he introduced the young aspirant to the committee of the Theatre François-the Drury-lane and Covent-garden of Paris. *François Réné Molé was equally celebrated for his excellence in delineating the tender passions, whether in tragedy or sentimental comedy. He came out in 1760, being then in his twenty-fifth year, and died in 1802. During the progress of the Revolution he enrolled himself amongst the Jacobins, and officiated in the church of St. Roch as the priest of the Goddess of Reason. Louise Contat, afterwards Madame de Parny, was famed for her beauty no less than her rare abili ties. She was born in 1760, maintained a leading position on the French stage for thirty-two years, and died in 1813. By them he was engaged, and in 1787, | the public alive to this ridiculous anachronand in the twenty-fourth year of his age, ism, that they clapped their hands and he made his first appearance as Seide, in shouted with delight, when in "Cinna" the "Mahomet" of Voltaire. This tragedy they witnessed the entry of the courtiers had been for many years familiar to the of Augustus; because these good old genEnglish public in the translation of the tlemen all appeared, their arms a-kimbo, Reverend James Miller, illustrated by the with the hand on the hip on the left side, admirable acting of Garrick and Mrs. and the hat and feathers flourishing on Cibber, and will long be remembered in the right, like the great lords in the galIreland as the ostensible cause of the lery of Versailles-an interesting and destruction of the Smock Alley Theatre truly Roman portraiture of the court of in Dublin. the second Cæsar. Talma's first attempt was comparatively a failure, equally mortifying to his friends and himself. He was pronounced too natural and familiar, and not sufficiently imposing and impressive for the million. There were a few discerning exceptions, however, who saw that the true spirit was in him; and Ducis, who has been called "The French Shakspeare," was amongst the number. He introduced himself to the debutant, and proffered a friendship which terminated only with his life. Talma and Ducis have been mutually indebted to each other for much of the reputation they both enjoy. Theatrical management seems ever to have been a system exclusively sui generis. The one governing principle extends to all ages and countries. The encouragement of a beginner is measured more by his success than his actual merit; while the latter does not of necessity produce the former. For this reason genius has sometimes been stifled in the outset of a career, before it has acquired confidence to hazard what it knows to be right. Timidity and want of self-reliance have not unfrequently entombed talent in a premature grave. It was not thus in the case of Talma. Though he was thrown back for a weary interval into the most insignificant parts, nothing could wean him from the profession to which he felt himself internally called. A happy idea occurred to him while ruminating in the solitude of his quatrieme étage. He was surrounded by the absurdities of a formal, pedantic school, fed, fostered, and perpetuated by the subservience to routine of a buckram court, which shrank from innovation or improvement, regarded novelty in the light of treason, subjected even its most insignificant relaxations to the laws of rigid etiquette, and amused itself by rule. The stage representatives of every age and every nation were clad in the prevailing garb of the drawingrooms of the Tuileries. So little were Lekain, it is true, had already commenced a reform. Impelled by genius, enlightened by taste, and supported by the science of Mademoiselle Clairon, his rival, he succeeded in extending the narrow circle of dramatic rules and customs by which his ardent mind found itself checked and diminished. Then was seen what was never before witnessed on the Parisian boards-a Turk in Bajazet, a Tartar in Gengis Khan, and a barbarian prince in Rhadamanthus. But the classical department of the stage was still left to revel in its rude incongruities and absurdity. It remained for some daring hand to divest the Greek and Roman worthies of their three cornered hats and full bottomed periwigs. Talma, who saw no hope of promotion from the ranks, but by a startling experiment, the success of which might lift him beyond conventional despotism, determined to risk his hopes and fortunes upon a radical reform in this particular branch. He had been in abeyance for some time, and was the reverse of popular with the authorities of the theater. The public when they saw him, which seldom happened, classed him with the unhonored crowd; and he was fast sinking into the most fatal of all conditions to an aspiring soul-utter obscurity-that condition in which (as Washington Irving has said of the utility men of a theater)-he "above the fear of a hiss, and below the hope of applause." At this turning point of his destiny, Voltaire's "Brutus" happened to be commanded at court, and either in default of numbers, or in the absence of a better man, he was selected to perform the tribune Proculus, a minor part of less than twenty lines. Spurning silk, embroidery, velvet, powder, and flowing ringlets, habited in a robe of plain cloth, with no ornament beyond the tasteful disposition of the folds, the hair cut and plaited on the forehead, the arms bare, was |