from the world of letters. Commencing with the which have deprived upwards of twelve thousand visit or visitation of that imperial traveller, who individuals of the ordinary means of sustenance, has obtained throughout Germany the character- The sympathy with these unhappy sufferers is istic surname of The Sudden,' we find the great, and his majesty has humanely withheld his memorable Castel convention for the extradition of annual donation of 100,000 thalers for the Russian prisoners renewed. This is a point on Cologne cathedral for this year, and devoted it to which Germany is the more sensitive, as instead the relief of his afflicted subjects in Silesia. of concessions for so great a boon, four consecutive Ukases have since appeared of a more iso-originally limited to the states belonging to the lating character than ever. Next followed an almost unparalleled crisis in the monetary world, produced by the most unintelligible government measures connected with railway speculation, which had the effect of creating a rise and fall of about twenty per cent. in these securities within the space of a few weeks, and thereby entailing immense losses on a vast number of private individuals who had been tempted to invest their capital in this stock. On the heels of this catastrophe followed the serious disturbances in the manufacturing districts, from the contagion of which even the capital has not been altogether free, and then the insane attempt on the life of the king and queen. And then, to complete the sad catalogue, the frightful inundations in Silesia,

The grand exhibition of German manufactures, customs league, but subsequently made to embrace Germany in general, has now been open for public inspection for some weeks. It is held in a splendid arsenal, and is considered by some as not much inferior to its Parisian rival. There can be no question but it will give a vast impetus to German manufacturing industry, which now, through the recent convention with Belgium, has obtained a well situated port, and, under the auspices of the newly organized Prussian Board of Trade, cannot fail of becoming a still more dangerous rival of England. A slight reduction in the Prussian inland postage, to take effect from the first of October, is stated to be but the prelude of still more extensive reductions.

MISCELLANEOUS LITERARY NOTICES.

DENMARK.

dated July, contain some interesting information relative to M. Botta's recent discoveries at KhorsaA COPENHAGEN journal has published the will bad, near Nineveh. Eugène Flandin, an artist, of the celebrated sculptor Thorwalsden. The has been sent out by the French government for document bears the date of the 5th of December, the purpose of making drawings of the excavations 1838. One of the clauses is as follows:- I be- which are actively going on. Botta has discovered queath to my native city, Copenhagen, all the ob- two doors uniformly adorned with bas-reliefs: on jects of art belonging to me, those in Copenhagen one side is represented a colossal bull, with a huas well as those in Rome, consisting of statues, man head, and on the other a human figure with bas-reliefs, antique vases, prints, &c. It is my an eagle's head and wings. These doors are fifwish that all should be collected together to form teen feet in height, and they open into a hall 120 a museum, which shall bear my name.' Next feet long. The only wall which is yet cleared follow some behests relative to the heirs of the from rubbish (that on the south side), is covered testator. On the 25th of January, 1843, the tes-with a series of bas-reliefs, representing battles, tator modified the first will, bequeathing to the explained by inscriptions. The hill on which this museum all the property he might die possessed building stands is surrounded by a stone wall, with of, except about 4000 rix-thalers to be otherwise bastions. Botta is now actively exploring these disposed of. The works of art are to be placed ruins; he has fifty labourers at work, and it is in the museum (as stated in the first will), and hoped in the space of ten months to lay open the remaining property is to be sold and the capi- the whole. He has ascertained that there is, on tal invested: the interest to be laid out in com- the direct road from Nineveh to Khorsabad, a chain missions to Danish artists, with the view of pro- of hills covered with fragments of brick and marmoting the fine arts in Denmark. The works ble bearing inscriptions. He infers that these hills commissioned are to belong to the museum, and a were formerly the bases of palaces, and that Khorcatalogue of the collection is to be printed. Thor- sabad was a fortress situated at the extremity waldsen directs one of his executors, Professor of the city. The quadrangular space, which is Bissen, of Copenhagen, to complete the works he surrounded by the wall, and which contains the has left unfinished at his death; the expense is to hill of Jonas, has hitherto been supposed to inbe defrayed out of the funds of the museum. clude the whole extent of the city of Nineveh. But M. Botta considers it more probable that this space was only the great court of the palace, whilst the city extended as far as the hill of Khorsabad, Letters received in Paris from Constantinople, a distance of five caravan stages. This conjecture

FRANCE.

accords with the possibility of the prophet Jonas of interest in the musical circles of Paris. It was having wandered for three days about the city, not a religious ceremony, but the event was celewhich would be incomprehensible if the limited brated by a genuine concert spirituel.' The space of the quadrangle on the Tigris be supposed organ is not a new one; on the contrary, it is to have been the whole extent of the city. supposed to be as old as the church itself, the building of which was begun in 1532, and finish

It is proposed to erect a bronze statue of the celebrated mathematician Laplace, at his birth-ed in 1642. It is a noble instrument, and has place, Beaumont en Auge, near Caen.

Letters have been received at Munich, announcing the death of the celebrated traveller, Dr. Koch. After ten years passed in visiting various The Paris papers record the death of the archi- parts of Egypt, Dr. Koch penetrated into the intetect Lepère, who accompanied Napoleon's expedi-rior of Africa. He accompanied the Duke de Ration to Egypt, and who, in conjunction with Gon- gusa and Prince Puckler Muskau in their respecdouin, erected the column on the Place Vendôme. tive journeys in the East. His death took place at Paris is indebted to Lepère for several other archi- Kartum, on the 6th of June, in the thirty-sixth tectural ornaments. The church of St. Vincent year of his age, just as he was preparing to unde Paule was his last work. He died on the 18th dertake a new journey into Sudan. of July.

intention of remaining at that university, a circumstance which occasions no little regret in Heidelberg.

The German papers record the recent death of Professor Beneke, of Göttingen, in his eighty-third year. He was a distinguished philologist, and his lectures on the German and English languages and literature were highly and deservedly admired. The fiftieth year of his professorship at Göttingen was celebrated in August, 1842. He was librarian to the university.

On the 25th of August, festivals were held in most of the principal cities of Germany, in honour of the hundredth anniversary of the birthday of Herder. In Munich, Herder's native city, the day was celebrated with marked honour.

GREECE.

We learn that a Greek gentleman, M. Neroutsos, now residing in London, is engaged in translating into Romaic, Mr. St. John's elaborate work, The History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece. No undertaking could be more worthy of receiving support in regenerated Hellas, since the best way to incite a people to perform great actions is to set before them the example of their ancestors. We may take this opportunity of announcing that a society, to be called The Hellenic Association,' is about to be formed in London under the auspices of several noblemen and gentlemen, English and Greek. Its object will be to promote education in Greece.

ITALY.

The sculptor, Mathiä, of Berlin, who is at present in Rome, is engaged on a work which attracts the admiration of all lovers of art. It is called Cupid and the Dog; and all who have seen it concur in eulogising the beauty and the graceful grouping of the figures. The winged god is represented sleeping, his head pillowed on his left arm, which rests on the back of a watchdog, the emblem of fidelity. The group is executed in Carrara marble of the purest white. It is for the Duchess of Leuchtenburg.

An important artistical work is about to appear at Parma, under the auspices of the Duchess Maria Louisa (formerly Empress of France). The duchess has ordered correct copies to be made of the fresco paintings of Correggio, which adorn various places in the city of Parma, and also of some pictures of Parmigiano, which are nearly destroyed. From these drawings engravings are to be executed by Toschi, the celebrated copperplate engraver. The work is to appear in nuinbers, each number to be accompanied by some pages of explanatory text. It is expected that ten years will be required for the completion of the undertaking.

A somewhat curious work appeared lately at Messina, consisting of a History of celebrated Trees,' by the Abbate Carmelo Allegra. The author treats of the Chestnut Trees of Etna' (Castagno dei cento cavalli); of Hagedorus and Klopstock's Lindens;' of the Cedars of Lebanon ;' of Rousseau's Tree, at Montmorency;' &c.

Professor Foggi, of the University of Pisa, is preparing for publication, in Italian, an important work upon the poetry of the Bible, upon which he has been engaged for several years. It presents a complete development of the metrical system of Hebrew poetry, as well as of the poetical nomenclature which was employed by the ancient rhetoricans of the people of Israel.

FLORENCE. The body of Joseph Buonaparte was deposited, on the third of August, in the vault of the church of Santa Cruz, the temple of honour of the great men of Italy. He is said to have left a fortune of 600,000l. to his widow and daughter, who is married to her cousin, the Prince de Marignano, son of Lucien.

A commission was some time ago established in Rome, for the purpose of collecting such old pictures, prints, drawings, and descriptions, as might afford assistance in the projected restoration of the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle. Herr von Quast, who is at the head of the commission, wished to compare a print given by Pistolesi, in the Vaticano descritto, with an oil painting, of the interior of the cathedral, which he himself had seen in the Vatican a few years ago. However the picture was A curious instance of Austrian intolerance and not to be found, and for a considerable time fruit- Tuscan subservience has just occurred here. A less inquiries respecting it were set on foot by Herr noble Florentine, Count Masetti, anxious to save von Buch, the Prussian envoy to the Papal See. it from the ravages of time and the vandalism of At length Dr. Dressel was so fortunate as to dis- speculators, purchased the house, on the Lung' cover it in a private gallery, and it was immediately Arno, in which Alfieri lived and died, and placed purchased by Herr von Buch. As a work of art over the gate, on a white marble slab, the followthe picture is but of mediocre value; but it will be ing inscription: Vittorio Alfieri, Principe dell' of important assistance to the object the com- Italiana Tragedia, per la gloria e regenerazione mission has in view. It represents, with the ut-d' Italia qui detto e qui mori.' (Here Vicmost fidelity of detail, the interior of the cathedral tor Alfieri, the Prince of Italian Tragedy, for as it was before the mutilation of the edifice by the the glory and regeneration of Italy, wrote and French about the end of the last century. They broke up and partially carried away the costly columns of porphyry and marble, brought by Charlemagne from San Vitale, in Ravenna. The peace of Paris, in 1814, restored them, at least in part, to Aix. The painting recently discovered in Rome, represents the coloured columns; but whether it will be possible to restore them all is a doubtful question. Pistolesi's plate is faulty in perspective as well as incorrect and defective in the representation of the architectural ornaments.

died.') There was nothing very alarming in this monumental record; the censorship gave its visa and the prefect of police his exequatur. The inscription had been open to public view for several days, when, all at once, the Austrian chargé d'affaires at Florence took exception to it, in the name of his imperial master. At first, it was very naturally believed by the Tuscan government that he could not be serious; but despatches from Vienna came which fully proved that the chargé d'affaires perfectly represented the imbecility as well as the

power of the Austrian emperor. Protest was in lien, member of the Institute, and professor of vain; lampoon, pasquinade, epigram, all was in Ancient Chinese in the College of France :vain. The authorities were obliged to yield-and the inscription was removed in the name of Austria. Povera Italia!

NORWAY.

"The Bibliothèque Royale has just had transmitted to it from Canton a work, which, if we are not mistaken, bids fair to open up China to us in a way far more efficacious than even the force of arms has done; and this, by enabling the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire to acquaint themJacob Aall, the wealthy owner of the iron mines selves, without any other assistance than that of Naes, and a man distinguished for learning and which itself affords, with the ideas and scientific literary talent, died at Christiania, on the 4th of attainments which prevail in Europe. The work August. Many years ago he consigned the active alluded to is a Chinese and English Vocabulary, superintendence of his lucrative property to his published for the use of the Chinese. It is son, and devoted himself to literary pursuits; he headed by a preface in Chinese, written in a studied profoundly the history, language, and anmoderate and conciliatory tone, which the Emperor tiquities of Norway. A great portion of his must have read with no less interest than satisliterary labours were contributions to periodical faction, should it have been brought under his publications. His principal works are a German notice. The last-named circumstance is by no translation of Snorro Sturleson's Chronicle of the means improbable, as, according to the Hongkong Northern Monarchs' (which he published at his Gazette,' of the 26th October, 1843, a considerable own cost), and his Recollections for an Appendix number of copies had been forwarded to the Court to the History of Norway, from 1800 to 1815. of Pekin; and as information has been received, He subscribed the sum of 20,000 thalers towards since their arrival, of many of the high functionthe foundation of the University of Christiania. aries of that capital having read and having The union of Scandinavian naturalists, recently been delighted with the work. Hitherto, the assembled at Christiania, concluded their scientific almost exclusive object of Sinologues has been to conferences about the end of July. Copenhagen compile dictionaries for the service of Europeans, is the place fixed upon for the meeting of next year. birth to new wants, and, among its other conbut the opening of four new ports has given sequences, has created a sort of necessity for the publication of the vocabulary which we have now the pleasure of announcing. It was The public libraries which were first called into an idea at once happy and bold to aim at existence by permission of the emperor, in 1836, furnishing the Chinese with the opportunity of and are now established in forty-two towns of the acquiring, through the medium of their own lanempire, must necessarily operate beneficially on the guage, an acquaintance with that of England. civilisation of the people. Most of these contain But an immense difficulty had to be encountered from 1500 to 2000 volumes, and the collections in attempting to set forth to the eye the sounds of are continually increasing by important contribu- a foreign tongue, the pronunciation of which is so tions from the public. The libraries of Odessa arbitrary, by employing for that purpose the signs and Tamboff contain from 10,000 to 12,000 vol- of a language which has no alphabet. To triumph umes each. Complete editions are now published over this obstacle, and others which need not be of those works which may be called the classics enumerated, nothing less was required than the of Russian literature, viz., the writings of Push- learning and experience of a man who has had his kin, Shukovski, and Bestushev; the latter is abode in China for the last ten years, and to whom known in Russian literature only by the name of the spoken language of the Chinese is as familiar Marlinsky. An Indian tale, in verse, from the as his vernacular tongue. The author is Mr. pen of Shukovski, has recently been published at Robert Thom, whose abilities are well known St. Petersbusg. It is entitled Nal and Damayante.'

RUSSIA.

CHINA.

throughout Europe, the gentleman who, in connection with the younger Morrison, acted as interpreter to Sir Henry Pottinger during his negoti ations with the Chinese Plenipotentaries; and this not only in arranging the terms of the recent peace, Through the kindness of the Rev. Mr. Thom, but likewise in since discussing and settling the of Liverpool, we have been put in possession of articles of that commercial treaty which now a Chinese and English Vocabulary,' published throws China open to European enterprise and last year at Canton by our correspondent's brother. activity. To him the public was previously inAt the risk of compromising our editorial preroga- debted for his edition of Esop's Fables in Chinese tive of literary omniscience, we must confess our and English, and for an interesting tale translated incompetence to pronounce judgment upon Mr. from the Chinese. We may add that Thom's labours: but, as everything which leads Mr. Thom has published this work at his own exto facilitate a kindly, and mutually serviceable in- pense; and that he has distributed copies gratuitercourse between our countrymen and the Chinese tously to foreigners who reside in China, as well is deserving of all encouragement, we have great as to the native merchants of the new ports, hencepleasure in quoting from the Journal des Debats,' forward to be brought into constant intercourse June 24, 1844, the following notice of the Voca- with Europeans, and requiring the assistance which bulary.' It is from the pen of M. Stanislas Ju- such a work affords."

LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL NEW PUBLICATIONS

ON THE CONTINENT.

FROM JULY TO SEPTEMBER, 1844, INCLUSIVE.