13. Q. takes Kt.
14. Kt. to Q. second
15. Q. R. to K.

16. B. to K. third

17. K. to R.

18. Kt. to K. R. third 19. R. takes Kt. 20. Q. to K. second 21. P. to Q. B. fourth 22. P. to Q. Kt. third 23. Q. takes B. 24. R. takes B. 25. Q. takes Q. P. 26. K. R. to Q. Kt. 27. Q. to Q. seventh 28. Q. to K. Kt. fourth 29. R. to K. Kt. third 30. P. to K. B. fifth 31. Kt. to K. B. fourth

13. P. to Q. third

14. Q. to K. second 15. P. to Q. B. fourth 16. Kt. to K. Kt. fifth 17. P. to K. R. third 18. Kt. takes B. 19. B. to K. third 20. B. takes Q. R. P. 21. B. to Q. R. fourth 22. B. takes Kt. 23. B. takes Kt. P. 24. Q. takes K. P. 25. Q. takes Q. B. P. 26. P. to Q. Kt. third 27. Q. to K. B. second 28. P. to Q. B. fifth 29. Q. R. to Q. Kt. 30. Q. R. to Kt. second 31. Q. takes P.

32. Kt. to Kt. sixth (ch.) 32. K. to Kt.

33. Q. takes B. F. (ch.) 33. Q. to K. B. second 34. Q. takes Q. (check) 34. K. R. takes Q. and after a few moves the game was abandoned as drawn.

White had a good chance of winning-why did he not try?

This short and brilliant game, with which we have been favoured by Mr. Pearson, we give as an amusement to our readers.

WHITE (AMATEUR.)

1. P. to K. fourth 2. P. to K. B. fourth 3. K. P. takes P. 4. Kt. to K. B. third 5. P. to Q. fourth 6. P. takes B. 7. K. to K. B. second 8. Q. takes P. (a) 9. K. to K. Kt. third (b) 10. K. to K. R. third

11. K. to K. R. fourth 12. K. to K. R. fifth 13. K. to K. R. sixth 14. K. to K. Kt. fifth 15. K. to K, R. fourth 16. K. to K. Kt. third

BLACK (MR. P.)

1. P. to K. fourth
2. P. to Q. fourth
3. B. to Q. B. fourth
4. P. to K. fifth
5. P. takes Kt.

6. Q. to K. second (ch.)
7. Kt. to K. B. third
8. Kt. to K. Kt. fifth (ch.)
9. Q. to K. eighth (ch.)
10. Kt. toK. B. seventh
(check) (c)
11. Q. to K. second (ch.)
12. P. to K.Kt. third (ch.)
13. Q.to K. B. square (ch.)
14. P. to K. R. third (ch.)
15. Q. to K. second (ch.)
16. Kt. takes R. Mates.

(a) This weak move cost white the game. (b) Had white played King to K. K. square he must have equally lost.

(c) From this point all the moves are forced.

"THE Life of Henry Fielding, with Notices of his Works, his Times, and his Contemporaries."

Were it not that Mr. Lawrence himself has already given a biography of Fielding in "SHARPE'S MAGAZINE," most gladly should we devote a long paper to the first of our English novelists-most certainly the first in point of time; for Henry Fielding may, fairly enough, without any injustice to Defoe, be pronounced the father of the English novel. Yet, if for the reason just assigned, a sketch of his career is unnecessary for our readers, we may, without impropriety, here make some

• By F. Lawrence, Esq. London: Hall, Virtue, and Co.

remarks of our own.

Whatever may be objected to it as countenancing moral laxity, his "Tom Jones" is undeniably of first-rate excellence as an artistic production; unrivalled in completeness of admirably contrived, and no less admirably conducted, plot; to say nothing of the masterly delineation of character. Besides being fraught with genial comic power, and displaying a deep insight into human nature, Fielding's novels show that his own nature was replete with both heartiness and largeheartedness.

Apart, too, from their intrinsic excellences, those productions of his pen have now acquired a value and interest that did not belong to them at

80,

first, inasmuch as they have become historical, depicting those traits of society which the historian seldom condescends to notice at all, or, if he does it is only very hurriedly and imperfectly. Fielding's pen and Hogarth's pencil enable us to judge tolerably accurately of the moral constitution as well as the costume and customs of their time. What the painter exhibits to us in dumb show, the other interprets in his graphic narratives. They mutually illustrate each other; and both the one and the other paint contemporary manners and characters more faithfully than flatteringly. We, of the present day, may, however, feel complimented when we compare ourselves -when we compare our own time with that of George II. Though no more than a century has since elapsed, the change is little less than marvellous. The race of Squire Westerns and Parson Trullibers has become quite extinct. Hard drinking, gambling-except among professed gamblers in their own haunts-and riotous supper parties, have gone out of fashion. Ladies no longer admit morning visitors into their dressing-rooms assist at the mysteries of the toilet; lords condescend to lecture in public, and-oh, shade of Chesterfield, what awful degeneracy!-even to mechanics. What further changes another hundred years may produce, it is impossible to foresee, but it may safely be predicted that even then Henry Fielding will have a far greater number of readers than his contemporary, Richardson, has among ourselves.

to

"The

PROFESSOR LONGFELLOW's high poetic reputation will be enhanced by his new poem, Song of Hiawatha," "* that is to say, it will be increased amongst those hardy spirits who, after looking at the formidable intersprinkling of hard words and unpronounceable names which stud every page, retain courage to read it carefully, and then set to and read it again a duplicate process essential towards mastering the metredigesting the unconscionable proper names, and appreciating the poetic beauties. The gist of the poem may be said to consist of illustrations, in epic narrative form, of the mythology (we use the term for want of a better definition) of some of the tribes of North American Indians, and which, as we read on, struck us as having many remarkable analogies with those of the old classic ages and nations. We really do think that it would be worth Professor Longfellow's while to substitute something more manageable in the future editions which will, doubtless, be called for, in place of 'the unmerciful polysyllabic inflictions by which the effect of the poem is so seriously damaged.

THE spirit-rapping controversy, it appears, has not been laid, either by the scientific opposition of Professor Faraday, or the ambi-dexterous exercitations of that facile princeps of illusion, Professor Anderson! The Rev. A. Mahon, First President of Cleveland (U.S.) University deals with the subject on new grounds in his Modern Mysteries Explained."+ Dividing his work into several sections, one of which purports to treat of the "clairvoyant revelations" of a certain

• London: D. Bogue. London: Trubner and Co.

A. Davis; he admits the genuineness of the motions, noises, &c., and then goes on roundly to ascribe all to the power of mesmerism, or, as some of the disciples of that system prefer to designate it, "Spiritualism." The reverend gentleman supports his opinions by a variety of illus trations and anecdotes, which, we suppose, are abundantly satisfactory to himself, and will probably prove equally so to his co-thinkers.

The

THE name of the Panama Railway is probably familiar to our readers, though few of them, perhaps, have realized to themselves the great ulterior importance of the object contemplated by that work, as well as by the project (for the present a failure) for cutting a ship-canal across the narrow part of the isthmus. The Americans, with their characteristic "smartness," have made their railway-such as it is. But in its present state it is deplorably inadequate to the accommodation of such a traffic as would flow towards it if certain natural and artificial drawbacks were removed. Mr. Robert Tomes, one of a body of shareholders who attended the festivities which inaugurated the opening, has written a volume, which he terms "Panama in 1855: an Account of the Cities of Panama and Aspinwall, with Sketches of Life and Character in the Isthmus."* It is impossible that a book on such a subject should not possess interest, though that of Mr. Tomes is disfigured by many gross faults of style, taste, and sense. story of the construction of the railway contains some fearful details, amongst which is the almost total extinction of eight hundred miserable Chinese, recklessly imported, and most of whom perished in a few weeks of disease and suicide, to which desperate alternative they were driven by the horrors of the situation into which they had been betrayed. It is not the first time that this neighbourbood has been the scene of the lingering death of unfortunate people tempted thither by the hope of gain. Every one remembers the fate of the Scottish colony at Darien, literally murdered-deliberately committed to starvation and death by King William III. Through that iniquity, we lost a noble opportunity of national aggrandizement. With respect to the failure of Dr. Cullen's plan for a ship canal, we are aware of the many important mistakes of detail committed by that gentleman in his representations. Nevertheless, we gravely doubt whether the verdict of "utter impossibility" will not in the long run be reversed. In this age, there are no such things as engineering impossibilities. As a Stephenson would say, the question of possibility or impossibility resolves itself into a matter of pounds, shillings, and pence. The most formidable difficulty is the pestilential climate; and even this may in course of time be mitigated, or defied, as the magnitude of the object-nothing less than a revolution in the whole course of the ocean commerce of two hemispheres becomes universally understood.

The circumstances attending the death of Lieutenant Bellot, the young French officer who died whilst engaged in one of the many searches for Sir John Franklin, created much sympathy at the time. Two volumes are now published under

London: Low and Co

the title of "Memoirs of Joseph Réné Bellot, with his Journal of a Voyage in the Polar Seas in search of Sir John Franklin."* The main facts connected with the short and meritorious career of Lieutenant Bellot are well known; the principal facts relating to him are not uninteresting, but the work would have attracted more attention if it had been published much earlier. Now that the immediate interest connected with him has lost its freshness, and been overwhelmed by the absorbing topic of the war, the materials seem scarcely sufficient to call for a two-volume biography, eked out, though it be, by the "Journal." Many passages in the latter, are, however, eminently worthy of preservation in a permanent form. They show not only a brave and adventurous spirit, but a mind inspired by noble aud humane emotions. Much has been said and written in anticipation of the lasting friendship which it is hoped the present war will prove the means of producing between this country and France. We need not say how earnest is our wish that the expectation may be realized. But those who talk about such friendship being secured by the fact of its having been "cemented in the blood" of the two nations poured out fighting shoulder to shoulder, exhibit a singular forgetfulness of historical facts. If spilling of blood for a common object could be accepted as a guarantee of friendship, how comes it that our relations with Prussia are so cool, and those with Russia so hostile ? British and Prussian soldiers have, over and over again, fought side by side against the French-then, according to vulgar belief, the " common enemies" of Europe, and the "natural enemies" of Great Britain. With the Russians, too, we have been more than once engaged in a life-and-death struggle against "French principles." The truth is that, however necessary war may sometimes become, the works of peace are those which alone can strengthen national friendships.

The world is indebted to the Camden Society for the publication of many reliable records which might otherwise have lain for ever in the obscurity of moth-eaten manuscript. The "Camden Miscellany" is a peculiarly interesting repertory of matter of the kind which students of history, for the sake of its suggestive and illustrative lessons, as well as for dry "facts," most delight in. The third volume of the collection is before us. Part of it is occupied with "Inventories of the Wardrobe Roll of the Duke of Richmond and Katharine of Arragon." The Duke of Richmond alluded to was the illegitimate son of the uxurious king Henry VIII., by one of the numerous victims of that monster's unbridled passions. The inventory of the young man's wardrobe is a somewhat astounding document, and gives a fair idea of the "fashions" prevalent during a period when outlay on men's dress not unfrequently absorbed a fair knightly or baronial patrimony. It seems probable that the king had at one time contemplated

London: Hurst and Blackett.

foisting the young Duke on the country as the heir to the throne of the Tudors. The tyrant's whole character makes it certain enough that he would not have withdrawn from any plan conducive to his personal gratification through consideration of the disastrous consequences to which it might have ultimately led. However, the project never became ripe, for the Duke died in his youth. Mr. J. G. Nicholls, who edits the papers relating to him, gives some very readable and entertaining particulars of his bearing and education, and of his course of life as manhood approached. It is amusing enough to hear of a lad of quality, eight or ten generations back, quarrelling with his tutor for wishing him to write a round fair hand, instead of the crabbed and illegible "fashionable" scrawl of the time. The familiar, uncomplimentary invitation to "go to Jericho," is said to have taken its origin from the name of the country-house in which the Duke was born. It was one of the favourite scenes of Henry's orgies, and oft-times, when pressing public affairs were on hand, they had to be postponed because the king was "gone to Jericho." His mode of occupying himself whilst there, was pretty well known to the court circles, and was commemorated after his death in the phrase just quoted. There are several other papers of interest in the volume; amongst them a pleasing notice of the Elizabethan poet, Thomas Brampton, by Mr. J. Payne Collier, the wellknown Shaksperian critic.

WHO has not dwelt with spell-bound interest over the narrative of those "moving incidents" with which the life of a hunter in the "Wildernesses of the Far West" abounds, and which have been so eloquently described by Fenimore Cooper in his novels, and by a host of other fiction writers, of varying degrees of celebrity, as well as by some whose stories bear the stamp of personal identity and reality. Amongst books of the latter class, we give a cordial welcome to "The Far Hunters of the West: a Narrative of Adventures in Oregon and the Rocky Mountains." By Alexander Ross. The book is in some respects one of the best we have met with, and contains a great deal of interesting matter, in addition to that which treats of hair-breadth escapes amongst bears, and panthers, and fiercer Indians, in the woodland wild. The pictures of life and manners in the British North American settlements in the antediluvian ages, when separation from the mother-country was a thing undreamed of, are drawn with skill and effect; so much so, that we can sympathize even with the solicitude of the worthy old colonial governor, who, when "the ship from England" was a long time on its voyage, applied to a "knowing" Indian to learn what had become of her, and when she would arrive, and so forth, and received correct information from the copper-skinned seer. The "Adventures" themselves, are stirring and entertaining, and we do not doubt that the book will find a host of readers in this country.

* London: Smith, Elder, and Co.