woman bearing a basket of cucumbers. He asked the largely to those already established, and, literally, price, and, to her surprise and his brother's discomfiture, went forth into the highways and byeways to would know the price of the whole store. It was in vain for his brother to remonstrate; he would buy, and he meet with objects on whom he might exercise his would sell. The old woman finding him really in earnest, mission of charity and mercy. We have no space concluded a bargain, and the cucumbers became his own. for further extracts, but we trust we have said It was not a very likely investment for the capital of a sufficient to interest our readers in the simple school-boy; but his energy made it answer. The cucumannals of this second Man of Ross. We must bers were all sold at, I think, the notable profit of ninepence. not omit mention of Samuel Budgett's singular It requires no prophet to predicate well of the piety. He was a preacher, and an ardent and future career of one who was born a merchant, as enthusiastic member of the Wesleyan community, others are born poets. He never forgot or was and as such-and we say it without offence to that ashamed to allude to his small beginnings, and estimable body-was addicted to what we are invariably encouraged those who evinced the same bound to declare an exuberant display of his qualities to which he owed his rise. Prosperity, religious sentiments. His reading was confined which too often narrows and chills the nobler to the works which have emanated from the folfeelings and qualities of the heart, left his un- lowers of Wesley, works, we consider, to be in scathed; nay, more, this ordeal, so trying, so often very many respects highly objectionable, worksfatal to the best of us, served but to expand and but we must not allow ourselves to enter upon quicken the kindly impulses of his nature. We topics so serious and of such grave importance, as will not follow him in his path to fortune, if not to be totally unsuited to pages such as ours, else to fame, that has now become matter of notoriety. could we say very much as to the value or usefulHis biographer, moreover, does not spare us a ness of literature such as the shelves of Wesleyan single detail of his career. No legislative enact-publishers teem with. In many respects, the last ments were requisite to teach him that property hours of Mr. Budgett were highly touching and has its duties as well as rights. No Government edifying; but let the dispassionate reader consider commissioner or lynx-eyed inspector was needed them well, and he will admit the justice of the to report as to over-hours' toil, or want of facili- defects we have hinted at. ties or opportunity for self-improvement of those in his employ; in him they ever found, not only a master, but an indulgent father and judicious friend. Nor was his kindness unappreciated by the large class towards which it was displayed. That attention to the comfort of his men which was manifested in abridging the hours of labour was not the only token of his interest in their welfare. Every sign of industry and of sincere interest in the establishment gave him pleasure; and he was never slow to meet it with a reward. One, very long in his employment, told me that but a short period before his death he mentioned to him some improvement which had occurred to him for one part of the business; and he immediately thanked him, putting a sovereign into his hand. When a year wound up well, the pleasure was not all with the principals; several of those whose diligence and talent had a share in gaining the result, found also that they had a share in the reward. Stock-taking became to them a matter of personal interest; and they would often inquire, "Hope you find things satisfactory, sir?" Surely, it must be far more cheerful for a master to feel that those around him have some pleasure in his success, than to know that it is indifferent to them, because they are aware that however large the cake may be he will eat it all alone. One, after describing the pains Mr. Budgett had taken to make him master of his own branch of the business, and how, when satisfied with his fitness, he had devolved upon him important responsibilities, said, with a fine feeling which I should love to see masters generally kindle among those in their employment, "And he never had a good year but I was the better for it when stock-taking came! Indeed, I may say he was a father to me in body and soul." Another who gave a similar report of the pains taken to train him said, "At stock-taking he has sometimes given me a hundred pounds at a time." He also mentioned to me that on one occasion he called at his house, and seeing his three children, said he would like to make them a present, and when he went home gave him a ten-pound note for each of them. But not alone to his workmen was such kindness confined. Want and destitution, ignorance and the fearful evils it brings in its train, found ever his saving hand stretched forth to ameliorate their condition. He founded schools, contributed And now to revert to the manner in which Mr. Arthur has executed his task. Had he confined himself to a simple record of the progress and virtues of his hero, we should have had but little fault to find with him; but, as it is, we are compelled to quarrel with him for his very diffuse style. He is constantly breaking the threads of his narrative by tedious homilies of his own, or, still more tedious, dwelling upon and expounding facts and circumstances which were so manifest as to require no moral. The memoirs might be reduced two-thirds, and they would gain in interest what they lost in bulk; and, to us, the constant reference to sacred matters, the "improving upon" every incident, whether trivial or important, almost savours of profanity. We doubt not the genuineness, the fervour, of the reverend author's piety, but we do most strongly object to such "vain repetitions." Moreover the rev. gentleman, who we make no doubt has but few sins to his share, possesses at least that of being addicted to fine writing. Much as has been the nonsense written about the Exhibition, we doubt if it have ever received so glowing a description as this:-"The radiant microCosm where his (Mr. Paxton's) genius gathers under its shining wings," &c., &c. Yet, at times, Mr. Arthur writes powerfully and well. Save as aforesaid (to adopt legal phraseology), we highly commend the following graphic account of his hero's character; and with this extract we close our present remarks on a work over which the class to whom it is dedicated will do well to ponder : His character, then, was based on an intellect of uncommen penetration, foresight, and power of systematising; affections warm to domestic claims, eager to communicate on a temperament singularly active and persevering; on happiness, and susceptible of intense emotion; on a natural love of trade, amounting to a passion; on a home where worth nurtured his affections, instruction guided him toward integrity and religion, and exigency called forth his efforts; on a childhood of which the great events were scenes of domestic anxiety that highly excited his feelings, or personal dangers that shook his system; on a school-training imperfect and unfavourable; on religious impressions early, deep, vivid, and influential; finally, on & conflict between two sacred desires-the one to live for his family, the other to live for souls, a conflict in which not so much his will as his self-distrust cast the die and sent him forth to take the lot of an apprentice. The Battles of the Bible. By A CLERGYMAN'S We must give all credit to the "Clergyman's The plan of the work is conversational, being a dialogue between some children and their grandfather, the latter supplying, with exemplary promptitude, a continuous flow of sanguinary engagements, which, from the eagerness of the former, would seem to have been demanded more from curiosity and love of the marvellous than from any view of profiting by the lessons to be drawn from them. There is also a gloominess to be detected here and there, which is distasteful to our notions on religious matters. For example, one of the inquisitive infants causes great mental agony to its venerable relative, and receives a severe lecture in consequence, for having been found "playing on the road-side with some other children," before tea-time on Sunday afternoon! Verily, we tremble to think of this sinful child's condition in a future world! The Lady Felicia. A Novel. By HENRY COCKTON. London: Office of the National Illustrated Library. IF this novel had no greater recommendation than that of being comprised in one handsome volume, instead of being orthodoxically dilute, beat out into the most impalpable tinsel until the requisite number of sheets for "3 vols. post 8vo" were somehow covered, it would be welcome enough. But, luckily for the author's reputation, this is not all. The book is cleverly written; and, despite some extravagances of conception which, it would seem, Mr. Cockton shares in common with more ambitious authors, will be warmly received by that large class of readers which the author's previous works have delighted. Poems, Essays and Opinions. Second Series. By ALFRED BATE RICHARDS, Esq., Barrister-at-law. London: Aylott and Jones, Paternoster-row. THESE works possess one eminent and singular claim to public attention, that persons of every shade of opinion will recognise therein something which chimes in with their own peculiar views of men and things, whilst the general reader will be struck with the genuine spirit of independence and impartiality by which they are so signally characterised. Each topic and current event of the day, every object of our national policy and economy, is vigorously and fearlessly discussed-discussed with so much sincerity as to increase our regret that so able and ready a writer should, in some instances, advocate views diametrically opposed to our own. But such must necessarily be the case with those who tread the thorny path of politics; their friends and foes increase in equal ratio. There are some very pleasing verses interspersed throughout the first volume, which attest the versatility of the author and the variety of his pursuits. ASSURANCE OFFICE S. Liverpool and London Fire Insurance Company. -At the sixteenth annual meeting of this company, lately held, a report was read to the proprietors which, with the remarks it elicited from the chairman and others, sufficiently evidenced the company's prosperous position. Combining transactions in both fire and life assurance, each branch of business seems to have been conducted with great success during the past year; the results contrasting very favourably with the past experience of the company. As regards the fire department, it was announced that there had been an increase of 25 per cent. on the amount of premiums; and that in connexion with this increase of insurance on commercial property, there had also been a large addition to the "life business," to an amount approaching 60 per cent. The transactions in the life-department comprised the issue of 231 policies, insuring 152,7551., and We have repeatedly urged the great public importance of those principles which are embodied in the system of life-assurance-principles which, when adequately developed (and they are fast becoming so), must effect a vast if unobtrusive improvement in the habits and morals of the nation; and we are the more inclined to urge the advantages which are offered because, professional men being by this time sufficiently impressed with them, large efforts are now being made to induce the humbler classes to share the benefits of the system, instead of casting their savings into the coffers of benefit-societies, to be expended in masonic trumpery and convivial beer, and finally to explode altogether. Warning the public, however, that the generally-increasing confidence may induce the promotion of bubble companies, and venturing to hint to even the best-regulated institutions that this same confidence, competition, the magnificence and success of the irtransac-producing in premiums 5,8327. 14s. 11d. Twelve annuitytions, may not impossibly lull them into error, without a continuance of the caution which has mainly induced that success-we will continue to lay before the public abridgements of reports or other information of those societies whose stability or constitutional excellence render them worthy of notice. bonds had also been issued for the payment of 5067. 11s. per annum; while out of 1400 insured, only twenty-three or twenty-four lives had lapsed during the year. In addition, a transfer had been obtained of the business of the Australasian Life Assurance and Annuity Company, a small concern, whose individual expenditure proved too great for the extent of its transactions, though these were 1851, cause to be made and estimated a full account and unquestionably good. By this arrangement, which took statement of the value of the several outstanding and exeffect from the 1st September last, the Liverpool and Lon-pectant liabilities of the company, together with the amount don Company's income from life-premiums is made upwards of all assets, with the view of ascertaining the profits and of 45,000l. a-year; besides which, the company will be accumulations of the several branches of the business of the favourably introduced into our Australian colonies and company within the preceding six years, and that they shall eastern possessions. On the other hand, the increase of cause a full report thereof to be submitted to the society." expenditure caused by the annexation of the Australasian Accordingly, an investigation into the assets and liabilities Company, was stated to be little more than that incurred of the company, is, we understand, now in progress, and by the keeping a single additional clerk. It is obvious that will shortly be laid before an extraordinary meeting of such transactions as the above transfer, if accomplished at shareholders, to be convened for the occasion; but the moderate cost, must be very advantageous to both parties. result of the analysis may be pretty safely anticipated from We also learn from the report, that the premiums received the statements we have above given. The Directors, it on the shares issued during the year had been carried appears, have under consideration a new combination of to the credit of the Reserve Fund, which now amounts to life-interests, and have recently published the particulars 138,6377. 10s.; and the Directors declared a dividend of of their novel scheme of " Self-Protecting Policies," by 10s. per share, less income-tax, and five per cent. on the which are secured in one policy, and at one rate of preuncalled capital in the case of those shares on which 27. 10s. mium, the payment of a principal sum at a specified age, had not been received. This brief matter-of-fact statement an annuity to commence at that period; relief from all will be received with great satisfaction by all interested in future premiums; an assurance in the event of death before the affairs of the association. attaining such age; and the benefit of all sums paid, although the premiums should be discontinued at any time. There is a straightforward tone in the present report, a lack of that frothy post-prandial (and post brandial ?) clap-trap too frequent on such occasions, which gives one a very favourable impression. United Kingdom Life Assurance Association.The accounts published at a recent meeting of this society are also additional proofs of the steadily increasing importance attached by the public to the principles of lifeassurance, to say nothing of the confidence which seems to be reposed on the stability and general management of this individual company. It appears that at the last annual meeting, 4,866 policies had been issued, assuring the sum of 650,1991., and yielding an annual revenue of 21,2951. 4s. 9d.; and in the course of the last year, notwithstanding that, as we have good reason to suppose, the attention of all classes was unusually diverted from the ordinary course of business by the Great Exhibition, 731 policies were issued, assuring 130,2601., and yielding an annual revenue of 4,2461. Os. 6d. The deaths in the past year have been twenty-three, and the claims 4,0901. It further appears that the receipts of premiums and interest to the 20th of November, 1851, amounted to 22,6777. 4s.6d., being 2,180l. 14s. 3d. more than in the previous year; the balance in favour of the institution at the same date was 57,050l. 10s. 3d., showing an increase from the year's business of 12,827 15s. A more general idea of the progress of this institution may be gathered from the fact that since 1841, the year of the Society's foundation, the number of policies issued has increased from 255 to 5,597; and the sum thus assured from 31,185 to 780,4591. The company is formed entirely on the mutual principle, and possesses the advantage of being enrolled under the provisions of the Acts of Parliament relating to Friendly Societies, whereby the sums assured to the widow, widower, or children of deceased members, are payable to them free from legacy or probate-duty. City of London Life Assurance Society. From the report we have received of the progress of this society, it would seem to have been hitherto as steady and satisfactory as, under careful administration, it could hardly fail to be. The total sum now assured by the society is 258,9791. 8s. 1d., and its annual income, 9,5631. 8s. 3d.; 153 proposals during the past year, amounting to the sum of 40,8777. 17s., have been accepted and completed; forty-five proposals for additional assurances, amounting to 24,7001. have been considered and declined; and since the 31st of October last, the close of the society's financial year, further assurances, to the amount of 6,350%., have been accepted. The sum of 12,4317. 12s. 4d. has been advanced by the society, for which it holds securities, independent of temporary investments, amounting to 3,1197. 4s. 5d. We observe that the assets of the society have been increased during the past year to the extent of 5000. On the other hand, the demands on the society's funds, arising from claims by death, seem to be considerably less than the amount which they might have attained according to the law of mortality assumed as the basis of the rates of the society, and provided for by its tables. The deed of constitution of this society declares, "That the Directors shall on and to the 31st day of December, Maritime Passengers' Assurance Company.— Starting from the fundamental principle of life-assuranceprovision against the uncertainties which, at all times and in all circumstances, beset human existence-it is somewhat surprising that this principle was not first called into operation particularly against those more obvious and sudden examples comprised in accident by flood and field. This, however, was not the case; and not till recently, and after years of experience had shown the value of the principle generally, did any association offer the advantages of life-assurance to those whom calling, or the dangers of travel, rendered peculiarly liable to loss of life or limb. That these associations, however, while conferring a positive public benefit, have been abundantly successful is known to all; and no prudent passenger now travels by railroad without his assurance-ticket. The Railway Passengers' Assurance Company, while paying a rich dividend to its shareholders, has published a long list of casualties which is only rendered less melancholy by the attendant fact that in each case compensation has been made, in some degree, for loss of life or less important injuries. The operations of the Accidental Death Assurance Company are, we are informed, becoming widely extended among those whose avocations place them in situations of peril, as also amongst those who fear lest "a tile should fall." To complete the chain of assurance against accidental death, an association has lately commenced operations under most favourable auspices, and with the suggestive title of the Maritime Passengers' Assurance Company. It proposes to undertake every kind of risk by water, from the capsizing of a wherry to the foundering of a man-of-war, by which the loss of life or personal injury may be sustained; and as far as we can gather from the prospectus before us, its subscribed capital seems ample enough to meet contingencies, its scales of premium moderate and carefully compiled, and its plan of operation sound and business-like. The owner underwrites his ship at Lloyd's, the merchant insures the goods he intrusts to the frail bark, and the passenger may now assure himself against the "dangers of the seas." Of the necessity, or, at any rate, of the wisdom of availing oneself of the opportunity, we have a recent and fearful proof in the fate of the crew and passengers of the Amazon, or rather of their surviving families, many of whom are thus added to the long category of those who, by similar calamities, have been suddenly plunged into pecuniary as well as mental distress. Since this shocking occurrence, however, the Maritime Assurance Company has opened its doors, and those who choose may avail themselves of the advantages it offers. To all who go down to the sea in ships the existence of the association must be a boon. LONDON: SALISBURY AND CO., PRINTERS, BOUVERIE-STREET AND PRIMROSE-HILL, FLEET-STREET. TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. APRIL, 1852. THE GOVERNMENTS OF CONTINENTAL EUROPE. AUSTRIA AND ROME. Is the beginning of the year 1848, every state | period of thirty-three years, the people generally in Europe enjoyed domestic tranquillity, and at applied their labour and skill to peaceful and inthe same time endured the affliction of a general dustrial pursuits. The captains and soldiers of crisis in commerce-the sufferings caused by the the last general war had either died or had become stagnation of industry, which followed bad har-superannuated and unfit for active services. Even vests-and the losses of railway-speculations un- in France it had become a remarkable fact, that precedented in the amount of capital risked and invested. military service became so repugnant to the citizens, especially to the rural population, as to render A Pope remarkable for inactivity and for resist- it nearly impossible, even for high rewards, to preing the progress of intellectual freedom had lately vail on any of those who had previously served died. He was succeeded by an ecclesiastic who, under the conscription to become a substitute for like Thomas à Beckett, had once been a soldier, any other citizen who became a conscript. The and who was seated in the pontifical chair by the distress occasioned by deficient harvests and comsuperior influence acquired, at the time, over the mercial embarrassments was considered only temcardinals by Louis Philippe. The sagacity of the Citi-porary, and far greater calamities had often occurred zen-King foresaw not any one of the consequences: before without causing any disturbance of either historically he knew that the Most Christian Kings the internal or external peace of any state in of France held it as a political maxim, "to bind Europe. the Pope's hands, and at the same time to kiss his feet;" but he knew also that from the day that Louis XIV. fell into decrepitude, the House of Hapsburg alone, and not that of Bourbon, fettered the temporal authority, and used for its own purposes the spiritual power of the Bishop of Rome. At no former period did there appear greater security for thrones and governments, nor less of the spirit of political turbulence. The new Pope, it is true, astonished Christendom by conceding to his temporal subjects a plenary extension of political liberty; and although Austria, Prussia, Russia, and some other states, continued obstinately to resist constitutional reforms, yet generally the civilisation of Europe seemed to have advanced gradually, but with insignificant clamour from the people for their natural rights, and without any apparent danger to the power and dignity of their sovereigns. With the exception of the kingdom of the Netherlands and the small state of Cracow, the territorial statu quo of each European Government remained almost precisely the same as that which was fixed by the Congress of Vienna. During a The whole superficial aspect of Christendom seemed as if all European nations reposed in security-as if the people were satisfied with their material, political, and moral condition-as if monarchs were safe on their thrones, and Governments firm in their institutions and administrations. But sagacious men perceived that elements of a dangerous character reposed under the moral, physical, and political surface of European society. Disguised below the authority of centralised administrations and bureaucratic routine, explosive combustibles had accumulated, unobserved except by the few who are acute observers and profound thinkers-except by those who judge of the probabilities of the future by their comprehension of past events. To such observers and thinkers it was evident, that when monarchs and ministers have allowed the deception of historical rights and hereditary prerogatives to obstruct the progress of intelligence, and to resist the necessities which new circumstances develope, they peril the authority by which they hold their diguities. Such especially was the condition of the Austrian empire. Historical prerogative, not constitutional power, was the maxim of Francis the First-a sovereign whose ideas and intellect fitted him, not for the nineteenth century, but for the age which preceded that in which his grandmother, Maria Theresa, | sions produced by the murder of the fairest was born. princess of his family on a Parisian scaffold, to To other nations the Austrian Government has glut the ferocity of the monsters of the first always constituted a mystery, which few have French Revolution, haunted him during life; and been able to unveil. The whole reign of Maria the recollection of Napoleon having twice occuTheresa was a period of national calamity and pied Schönbrün, and his soldiers Vienna, and financial embarrassment. Joseph the Second-that he was compelled to give his beloved daughter who expelled the Jesuits, abolished half of the in marriage to the conqueror, stood constantly bemonasteries and nunneries, attempted several fore his imagination as calamities which might excellent reforms for which his subjects were again befal him. The French Revolution of neither educated for nor fit to enjoy, and who 1830 rendered all his nights sleepless; and the introduced that fallacious commercial leg slation Polish and Belgian Revolutions which followed, which has ever since afflicted the Austrian after driving him to despair, rendered him quite Government with a bankrupt treasury-revoked incapable of judging or acting with good sense or all his reforms in his last days, and restored the administrative wisdom. The power which he inprelates and priests to their former power and trusted to his chief Minister, Prince Metternich, wealth. It was, however, under the Emperor was on all occasions conditional; and that graceful Francis the First, that an inexorable, darkening, statesman was denied any authority in regard to bureaucratic system of centralised despotism the police, the prisons, or the internal laws of the was completely organised. It spread its myste- Empire. The new system of espionage, and of rious and awful authority like a huge and crushing political imprisonment, was presided over by the nightmare over the whole length and breadth of the monarch himself, with the assistance of his Empire. Each central bureau at Vienua was Minister of Police, a Silesian, named Sedelnitzky. independent of all the others; they all centered But the penetration of Prince Metternich had in the Council of State and Conference, at which long foreseen that, unless the institutions of the the Emperor presided. From that centre, each, empire were brought into harmony with the prowhether of police, war, espionage or taxation,gress of civilisation, the existing though smothered sent forth its ramifications from the Alps to the Mediterranean and Danube, from the Lake of Constance to Wallachia. Each worked respectively in a dark and impenetrable secrecy. Within this bureaucratic tyranny were absorbed all the old municipal and provincial institutions; and yet so quiet was its apparent working that, while it seemed conducted with gentleness and without bluster, it meddled heavily and inquisitorially with every public and private affair, with all occupations and professions. elements of discontent would at no distant day overwhelm the Government. In a despatch addressed more than thirty years ago to the Minister of Baden, Baron Von Berstett, he said, "Le temps avance au milieu des orages; vouloir arrêter son impétuosité, ce serait un vain effort"-meaning that the progress of mankind would advance, even through the midst of tempests, and that to attempt to retard that progress would be a vain effort. It would have been fortunate if the Emperor had profited by the sagacity of his Ministers. Joseph the Second was born and died too early The position of Prince Metternich in Austria had for the benefit of his hereditary states and the never been understood in England-it will herehappiness of his people Francis the First of after. On his decease, Francis the First left be Austria was born and died too late for the spirit hind him several members of the Imperial family, and intelligence of the age. The despotism of especially the Archduke Louis, who resisted all holding a people in terror of the power of the attempts to re-invigorate and reform the GovernCrown and the rigour of the bureaucracy was that ment, the laws, and the institutions of Austria. which had, historically and executively, been in- The ex-Emperor Ferdinand was an idiot, and the stituted, not only by the Emperors, but by every Archduke Louis and the Archduchess Sophia sovereign, great or petty, in Germany. Of this effectually baffled even the moderate improvedespotism of fear Francis of Austria was the ments attempted by Metternich, who only oblast monarchical type. Before his departure from tained by stratagem the general amnesty pubamid the sovereigns of the earth, he shuddered lished at Milan during the ceremony of the in the belief of the fulfilment of the dictum ex-Emperor's coronation at that city; nor was he of Louis the Fourteenth, "Après moi le déluge," otherwise enabled to carry out those improvements and exclaimed in the bitterness of his anguish, "Alles ist verloren! alles ist verloren!"-" All is lost! all is lost!") He lived in terror, and he died without hope. If it could have been possible, he would have politically, commercially, and aggressively walled the Austrian empire against the ideas, the commodities and the people, of every other country in the world. He had experienced greater adversity than most sovereigns. The misfortunes of Maria Theresa, and the melancholy last days of Joseph the Second, were deeply impressed on his mind. The sad impres in the commercial and quarantine system of Austria which have been found, as far as they extended, very advantageous to the interests of commerce, as well as to that of the Imperial Treasury. The amiable manners and the domestic virtues of Francis the First reconciled, in a remarkable degree, the Austrians to his person and government, and to the enslavement of his subjects. We cannot, in order to account for the abortive termination of the Revolution of 1848, separate Francis from the effects of his ill-starred policy. The atmo |