dren starve, and the poor mother follows them to the grave shortly after. Poets, of course, have a right to exercise their imagination in any direction they choose; but we do not see the use of representing as facts of home-growth things which, by the constitution of our laws, never can happen. There is some powerful verse in parts of this little drama, but the major portion of it is not above mediocrity. "Aspiranda" consists of a series of short pieces of various merit, and all upon Welsh subjects. To these are added Miscellaneous Poems, which form the bulk of the volume. The best of these is a piece bearing the motto, "Ohne Hast, ohne Rast," from which we extract the following verses: "Never hasting, never resting," With a firm and joyous heart, With his highest end in view. To perform thy part in life. Legend fine, and quaint and olden, Should be writ in letters golden. There is a genial humanity breathing through all Mr. Langford's effusions, which, more than his poetry, claims our good word. English Alice. A Poem in Five Cantos. By ALEXANDER JOHN EVELYN, Esq. London: William Pickering. 1852. THE story told in these five cantos is based upon the fact of Cromwell's rescuing a British subject from the fangs of the Inquisition. The lover of English Alice is denounced by a priest, and awaits in a dungeon of his prison the infliction of the torture. Unknown to him, Alice bribes his keeper and procures his release, upon the condition, however, of occupying his place. The youth escapes, and she next day is on the point of being haled to the rack, when the British Consul interferes and restores her to liberty. These are but slender materials for a poem of several cantos; but the author has made the most of them. His versification is occasionally too negligent, and harsh to the ear from a redundance of consonants which might be weeded out by a little careful revision. The story, upon the whole, is interesting, and there is no want of poetic imagery in the writer's manner of dealing with it. Buds and Blossoms, and Stories for Summer Days and Winter Nights. London: Groombridge and Sons. 1852. THESE are two series of cheap children's books, well adapted for their instruction, and, if we are to judge by the best of all tests, the attention afforded them by children into whose hands we have put them, equally so for their amusement. Bren Tange, or Mercantile Mysteries, being the Confessions of a Confidential Clerk. Part II London Groombridge and Sons. THE second number of "Bren Tange" records the failure of a merchant through indulgence in gambling, and a practical joke upon a tailor who, according to immemorial justice, deserves abusing, and gets abuse, instead of payment. The reader is introduced to a new character in the merchant's uncle, an old gentleman with the surroundings of a virtuoso, but with no salient points about him to enable us to distinguish him from others of his age and class. The author must wake up and bring something striking upon the stage, or he will find his audience diminishing instead of increasing. Practical jokes won't do, they have been cashiered these fifty years. Reality; or, Life's Inner Circle. By Mrs. SAVILE SHEPHERD. London: John Farquhar Shaw. Edinburgh: J. Menzies. Dublin: J. Robertson. 1852. THE object of this little work is professedly to impress on the youthful mind the importance of sincerity and uprightness, more especially in relation to religious character and sentiment. The term "reality" is chosen for a title in opposition to pretension and seeming, or, to use a harsh word, "hypocrisy." In the prosecution of her object. the authoress says she has availed herself of such resources as are supplied by the every-day scenes and occurrences of life, and that she has recorded little or nothing the prototype of which has not come under her own observation. We are bound to believe this statement; but when viewed in connexion with the revelations made in this volume. it must be regarded as anything but complimentary to the mass of religious professors of our day. We certainly never imagined that the class of which the Frogmores are the prototype-the class whose purses support, and whose presence so frequently patronises the philanthropic and religious movements of the age, were at bottom such heartless and consummate hypocrites as these people are represented; and we would fain hope that the writer's experience in this respect has been peculiar and unfortunate. Perhaps, too, her opinions on the subject of female education might undergo a little modification without any damage to herself or her pupils. It is possible there may be no sin in a merry dance round the family piano, even though it be followed by a prayer round the family altar; and it may be less dangerous to allow and and to encourage the innocent amusements of youth than it is to inculcate the practice of religious conversation at all hours, and the obtrusion of religious phraseology in the daily concerns of life. Reality, which in the sense of our author is but another word for sincerity, is stifled, not fed, by the perpetual iteration of serious terms and serious subjects. This overloading of pious parlance is the The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte. By WILLIAM fault of the book; and it is almost as offensive in arguments of Mr. Webb carry weight, and will the excellent family of the Nugents as it is in the not be thrown away. polite and pretentious circle of the Frogmores. With this one drawback the volume has considerable merit. The various characters are characters. The contented, tranquil and passive Mrs. Nugent, the lively and gossiping Alice, the intellectual Edith St. Clair, the pensive and unstable Isabella, THIS third volume of Hazlitt's admirable bicgrathe manoeuvring Mrs. Frogmore and her daughters, phy (we have not seen the second) embraces the the languishing Julia and sprightly Euphemia, the most eventful and interesting portion of the life honest Hazlewoods-all are distinctly individual- of Napoleon. Commencing with the establishised, and talk and act as persons of their class in- ment of the Empire in 1804, it recounts the vicvariably do. Ashley, the widow's son, and the tories of Austerlitz, Jena, and Eylau, together hope of the family, is the only failure. The plot with the war in Spain, the divorce from Joseof the story is the simplest imaginable; and the phine, the Expedition to Russia, with the burning catastrophe which unmasks the duplicity of the of Moscow, and the tremendous reverses which Frogmores is the old stereotyped machine of a followed; and the campaign in Saxony, down to rich and aged uncle, who marries instead of dying, the Battle of Leipsic. This, in the compass of and thus ruins the expectations of the Nugents. four hundred pages, and in the language of HazThere is a good deal said about the establishment litt, makes up a volume almost unique in spiritof a Miss Shamwell, who presides over an academy stirring interest. conducted strictly on evangelical principles, and who, we are led to conclude, though it is not stated, takes in young ladies, and does for them, washing and conversion included, at so many guineas a year. The Miss Frogmores were her pupils, and delectable specimens they are of what may be accomplished by the Shamwell superintendence. We do not consider "Reality" to be the best of Mrs. Shepherd's productions. She can write more to the purpose on matters less exclusively religious. Suggestions on the present Condition of Ireland, and on Government Aid for carrying out an Efficient Railway System. By C. LOCOCK WEBB, Esq London: Smith, Elder, and Co. Dublin: Hodges and Smith. BOOKS RECEIVED.-NOTICES DEFERRED. Voices for Progress, and other Poems. By Thomas Forster Ker. London: Houlston and Stoneman. ManA Narrative of the Kaffir War of 1850-51-52. Part IV. London: Pelham Richardson. 1852. chester: Beresford and Galt. The Poetry of Childhood. A Poem. By Goodwyn Hundred Illustrative Drawings and Diagrams. Strand. Six Songs, the Words taken from the Holy Scripture. Composed by Henry Lahee. London: C. Lonsdale, 26, Old Bond-street. 1852. Emigration: Where to Go, and Who should Go. New Zealand and Australia (as Emigration Fields) in contrast with the United States and Canada. Canterbury and the Diggings. By Charles Hursthouse, Jun. London: Trelawny Saunders. 1852. MR. WEBB is a careful and industrious statist; and he has in this pamphlet shown the past and present condition of Ireland with considerable fidelity. His plan to promote the prosperity of that country, by enlisting Government aid in the formation of railways, has many features commending it to the notice of the authorities; at the Picturesque Sketches of London Past and Present. By Thomas Miller. With Numerous Engravings. London: same time, it is open to objections which the au-Office of the National Illustrated Library. thor has not anticipated. The subject is one demanding the exercise of much caution; but the The Illustrated London Geography. By Joseph Guy, Jun. LIFE ASSURANCE The General Life and Fire Assurance Company. -At the thirteenth annual general meeting of the proprietors of this company, a report was made, from which we take the following particulars:-The directors have prosecuted the inquiries alluded to in their last report respecting guaranteeships, and have come to the conclusion that it is not at present advisable to endeavour to engraft on their existing business the transactions of a guarantee-office. The duty paid to Government on the fire-business of the company in 1851 was £10,942 6s. 3d., and the premiums received were £10,343 15s. 6d. The sums paid in discharge of fire-claims are only £5,303 4s., or £3,569 18s. 5d. below 1850. 1,369 policies, insuring £1,303,708, have been issued on colleges, chapels, and school-rooms, belonging to various bodies of Dissenters; and 935, covering COMPANIES. £277,436, on the residences and furniture of their ministers. In the life-department of the company, the premiums received during the past year were £21,157 2s. 3d., and the sums paid on account of deaths £8,640. The lifepolicies issued have been 152 in number, of which 89 are on the participating, and 63 on the non-participating scale. Twelve of these policies, assuring £5000, are on the lives of ministers; and the gross amount of such assurances up to the 31st of last December was £155,342. The assets of the company at the close of 1851 were £176,309 Os. 3d. The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor and James Pilkington, Esq., M.P., were elected directors. London Mutual Life and Guarantee Society.The second annual meeting of this society was held on Wednesday, the 7th of July, at the society's offices, 63, Moorgate-street. Its success proves to us that the public | held on Wednesday the 30th of June, at the office in are becoming alive to the fact, that they may with security Surrey-street, the secretary read the Directors' Report, obtain the advantages of life-assurance, and yet reap the from which we gather the following important items:-It profits arising from association. The proprietary system has been ascertained that the present available surplus is rapidly going out of favour, and will soon be numbered amounts to the large sum of £195,028 3s. 8d., whereof among the things that were. The London Mutual origi- (after deducting one-fifth, in accordance with the provisions nated with prosperous tradesmen, who having, by skill and of the deed of settlement) the sum of £156.022 16s. 11d., industry, realised a competency in their own business, being equivalent in reversion to above £250,000, will remain have applied the same qualities in the conduct of a life- to be allotted to the insurers, in proportion to the preassurance office. The application of business-like qualities miums they have severally contributed. This appropria has produced surprising results, as will be evident from tion the directors now recommend to the general meeting, the following facts:-It was stated that a bonus might be and in doing so they would call attention to the fact, that added to the policies of those entitled to participation in whilst an addition (amounting to from 10 to 86 per cent. profits, of 10 per cent. on policies existing two years, of 5 per upon the premiums paid since the last bonus was declared) cent. on those existing one year, and of 24 per cent, on those will be thus made to the sums assured, the full value of of six months, if the profits were to be divided now. This this addition can only be adequately appreciated when statement was backed by the authority of that most com- regard is had to the comparatively low rates of premium petent actuary, Mr. G. P. Neison. The original guaranteed charged by this society. The directors beg also to call capital of £50,000, which was all subscribed before the attention to the further fact, that in the mode of valuation company commenced their business, is kept intact, and adopted by them, the interests of the younger members is not likely to be needed much longer-the claims which are effectually provided for, inasmuch as the future bonuses have occurred, and which are all satisfied, having reached of the society are rendered secure, independently of the only £350. accession of a single additional policy hereafter. At the same time the directors remark that the business of the society has been fully sustained by the influx of new members during the past year; no less than 609 policies having been issued, insuring to the aggregate amount of £235,880 (exclusive of special contracts and annuity transactions); being an extent of new business equalled by few life-offices, and those only of the very first class. The Report of the Directors was followed by one from the Actuary (J. M. Rainbow, Esq.), which was equally satisfactory. After which, W. J. N. Browne, Esq., moved "That the society possessing an available surplus of £136,022 10s, Id., which, in reversionary payments, will be equal to £250,000, it is advisable that a bonus should now be declared, conformably to the provisions of the deed of settlement." The motion was seconded by II. S. Patteson, Esq., and carried unanimously. The Oak Mutual Life Assurance and Loan Company, 49, Moorgate-street, London.-This company undertakes all transactions involving the contingencies of human life, whether they relate to the upper or middle classes, which are now almost peculiarly the objects of life assurance, or to those in a humbler sphere-the industrious labourer, mechanic, or artisan. The constitution of the office is upon the mutual principle, and embraces assurances upon single or joint lives and survivorships, endowments, and the granting of immediate or deferred annuities. Another important feature of this office is, that after the 31st December, 1859, the bonuses will be declared annually; while for the convenience of those assurers who do not seek a participation of profits, a table of premiums has been expressly prepared. Great care has also been taken in the construction of tables for the use of the work ing-classes, upon strictly economical principles. Loans of £20 and upwards are granted to assurers on approved personal security; but the borrower must, in every case, as a condition to the transaction, have effected a policy upon his own life with the company. The following features of this office are worthy of notice:-All policies indisputable, except in cases of fraud. The age of the assured, on reasonable proof, admitted in the policy. If the policy be effected within three months after the last birthday of the assured, the age is taken as of that date. No extra premius for residence in any part of Europe, the North American Colonies, the United States of America, not further west than the River Missisippi, nor further south than the latitude of Washington, New Zealand, Australia, Bourbon, the Mauritius, or the Cape. No entrance-fees charged to assurers, and the stamp-duty on policies paid by the office. Transfers of policies registered without charge. The medical referees of proposed assurers in all cases remu. nerated by the office. Assurances effected daily, and policies may be completed on the day of proposal. The office will purchase or make advances on life-policies on which three annual premiums have been paid, and will, in special cases, where the assurer is unable to continue the payment of the premiums, maintain the policy for the benefit of the family of the assured, all advances so made by the office being a debt upon the policy, upon which £5 per cent. interest will be charged. This company further grants assurances securing annuities to widows and endowments to orphans; and devotes particular attention to that department, with a view of rendering their scheme of life assurance as complete as possible. Norwich Union Life-Insurance Society. — At the annual general meeting of this society, which was City of London Life Assurance Society.—At an extraordinary general meeting of this society, held at the offices, 2, Royal Exchange-buildings, London, on Wednesday, the 16th of June, the Actuary (Mr. Farrance) read the report, stating, among other things, that the society had been in existence six years—the period which was fixed by the Deed of Settlement as the time for the first declaration and distribution of the profits of the society. From the commencement of the society to the 31st December last there were issued 1,041 policies, covering assurances to the extent of £383,578 17s. 4d.; and upon discontinued policies there had been received premiums to the amount of £7,063 18s. 9d.; which sum is to be set off against the sum of £9,849 paid on the fifteen claims arisen. For further details the directors referred to the abstracts and accounts printed and laid before the public. The directors called the attention of the Proprietors to the principles upon which the distribution of the profits of this society is based, in accordance with which they felt themselves authorised to declare the following as the distributable profits, viz. :— 1. On the Mutual Branch-A sum equivalent to a cash bonus of 20 per cent. on premiums paid on policies of five years' standing and upwards, to be appropriated at the option of the parties beneficially interested either in diminution of premiums for the next three years, or as a permanent addition to the policies, giving, on an average, a bonus of six guineas per cent, as an addition to such policies. 2. On the Proprietary Branch-An addition of £6 5s. per cent. to the capital stock of the society. The repert was unanimously adopted. LONDON: SALISBURY AND CO., PRINTERS, POUVERIE-STREET AND PRIMROSE-RILL, FLEET-STREET. Holland affords an example, above all other states, of the power and importance attained by a united and intelligent population inhabiting a very small territory. The peninsula of Spain and Portugal is, by geographical position, and by natural conformation, soil and climate, at least as far adapted for being powerful as France; yet all the superior advantages of the peninsula are cast into comparative insignificance where the people have no traditional bonds of union, where they are thinly scattered over the surface, and where they have for centuries been unjustly governed-have had their education neglected, and their morals debased by superstition and intolerance-by contraband trade, by fiscal dishonesty, and by national insolvency. THE dawn of civilisation in Russia, or, rather, the formation, resources and geographical position the introduction of Russia into the European of her home dominions; to her free institutions system of commercial official intercourse, formed and to the enterprise of her people. In respect to an important epoch in the progress of the world. traditionary sympathies, and the nationality of the The recent alliance between the Czar and the Em- inhabitants, we must admit that France has the peror of Austria, the invasion of Hungary by the advantage over the United Kingdom. army of the former, demand a more particular inquiry regarding the condition and power of Russia than would otherwise appertain to this empire in reviewing the Governments of continental Europe. The growth of that power has not only astonished the people, but it has engaged the earnest and constant attention of the statesmen and diplomatists of other nations. The acquisition of territory by negotiation, by conquest, or by treaty, since the accession as Czar of a semibarbarian, Peter the Great, has been far more extensive than that of any previous European empire. But vast territories do not constitute strength or power. A population of 30,000,000, with remunerative employment, in a productive, compact territory, is far more powerful than a population of 60,000,000 settled over regions ten times as extensive as that occupied by half that number of inhabitants. The 60,000,000 of people are not only rendered less powerful by their scattered position, but they are also in a further degree weakened if they consist of different races, who have neither traditional sympathies for, nor existing interests with, each other. Nor ought we, in appreciating the force of a nation, to overlook the difference between serfs and freemen. The states of the Germanic Union of Customs and the Russian Empire stand with respect to each other very nearly in the above position. France is a country which possesses nearly all the advantages of a great population, with abundant means of productive employment, within a territory compactly formed, and with a people who feel and know that they are, for all purposes of good or of evil to themselves or to their neighbours, one nation. Hence has arisen the great power of France, and the rapid renovation of prosperity and energy, after disasters, in that really great country. Great Britain owes her prosperity and power to VOL. XIX.-NO. CCXXV, Though not included within the governmental policy of European states-though as a state unnoticed in the system called, after the ratification of the treaty of Westphalia, in 1648, the balance. of the powers of European states-yet Muscovy appears to have been, long before the age of Peter the Great, a country of considerable power, abun dant resources, and, within her dominions, of important trade. The latter consisted chiefly of the commerce of interchange at the fairs, especially at Novogorod, and in a periodical transit trade to and from oriental countries. Puffendorff, in his "Introduction to the History of Europe," written a short time before the Revolution of 1688 in England, devotes in the octavo edition only five pages to Muscovy, while a full proportion of his book is devoted to an account of Poland. He informs us that the first origin of Muscovy and the achievements of her princes were uncertain and obscure, but that the country was formerly divided into a great many petty lordships, which were afterwards united in one body; and that the Muscovites in 989 embraced Christianity on the marriage of their Prince 2 L Feodor died young, and without issue by either his first or second marriage: and as his brother Ivan was incapable of ruling from his imbecility, his palsied speech, weak sight, and epileptic fits, he left the succession on his death, in 1682, to his young half-brother, Peter, then only ten years old Woldomir to Anne, sister of the Greek Emperor | of the Czar John Basilowitz. Between 1653 and Basilius Porphyrogenitus. In 1237 the Muscovites 1658, Alexis, the son of Michael, conquered were subdued by the Tartars, who slew the Czar Smolensko and Keov, devastated Lithuania, took George. In 1450, under John, son of blind Dorpt, and other places in Livonia. Sweden, Basilius, they became independent of the Tartars. however, compelled him to relinquish his conquests This prince also subdued the Dukes of Great in Livonia. In 1686 the Cossacks of the Ukraine Novogorod and Tiver, and in the city of Novo- acknowledged the sovereignty of Russia. gorod took a booty in gold and silver which, The reign of Alexis was distinguished for peraccording to history, loaded 300 carts. His suc-petual disturbances and bloody conflicts. By his cessor conquered Smolensko from the Poles, but he first wife, the daughter of a Boyard, he had two was soon after defeated by the Astracan Tartars, who sons: Feodor, who succeeded him in 1677, and ransacked Moscow. Basilowitz the Tyrant con- Ivan, or John; and six daughters. One of these, quered Astracan and Kazcan, and united those Sophia, became famous by her great abilities, her kingdoms in 1533 to Muscovy. His barbarities in intrigues, and the atrocity of her crimes. By his Livonia caused the inhabitants of Revel and Let- second marriage with another of his subjects he land to place themselves and their city and country had a son, afterwards Peter the Great, born in under Sweden. The remaining part of Livonia 1672. Feodor, though weak in constitution, apjoined Poland. The Poles defeated the tyrant and pears to have been a meritorious prince. The captured Plotskow and several other places. In Czars at all times exercised the prerogative of marthe beginning of the 17th century a pretender rying whom they pleased, and of bequeathing the to Muscovy appeared as a Demetrius, who was succession to the sovereignty. murdered, and who was the son of the Czar John Basilowitz. The pretender Demetrius, who was a young Polish monk, obtained the Czarship, but his government became odious; and on the celebration of his nuptials with a Polish bride, the daughter of the Vaivode of Sendemir, he was surprised by a strong body of Muscovites and murdered. Others say that he escaped and reappeared. The Demetrius who reappeared has generally been considered a second impostor; but whether he was the first, or another pretender, he succeeded in raising a large army, recaptured the Polish bride, who acknowledged him for her husband, and if the real heir, Basilius Zuisky, had not been succoured by a strong force sent by the King of Sweden, Demetrius would probably have secured the throne of the Czars to his own family. Zuisky was successful, and consequently proclaimed Czar; but Sweden in return secured to herself the possession of Ingermanland, the country south and west of where St. Petersburgh now stands, and east of the Lake of Ladoga. The Poles at the same time reconquered their province of Smolensko, and all Muscovy was only prevented from becoming a Polish province, according to Puffendorff, by the Muscovites deposing Zuisky, and offering the crown to Vladislaus, Prince of Poland, which caused some delay on the part of the Poles; and by Demetrius having been strangled by his own Tartar guards, who immediately attacked the Polish garrison of 7000 men in the city of MosCOW. The Poles defended themselves with great bravery, and when compelled to abandon Moscow, set the city on fire, which consumed about 180,000 houses and buildings, many of the inhabitants perishing in the flames. The Polish soldiers fought their way back to Poland; and the irresolution of the Polish king, Sigismund, occasioned the loss of Muscovy to the Poles. At this time, the citizens of Novogorod having favoured the Poles, the Czar Ivan ordered the principal inhabitants to be hewn into small pieces in his presence. After these disasters, the succession to the Czarship was established in the person of Michael Federowitz, son of the Greek patriarch, who had married a daughter Sophia, however, resolved to seize on the sovereignty. By intriguing with the Strelitz, a body. guard instituted like the Janizaries, she formed a conspiracy in favour of Ivan, and proclaimed him and Peter joint sovereigns under herself as the ruling co-regent. It was seldom that the daughters of the Czar married, they were usually devoted to the obscurity of convents. She was far more ambitious: and the numerous crimes to which she, by her false accusations against all who stood in her way, instigated the Strelitz, are not exceeded in atrocity and cruelty, in the annals of the Prætorian Guard or of the Janizaries. She at length, after a reign of seven years, formed a conspiracy with her Minister, Galitzin, to remove Peter out of her way by assassination. This conspiracy was disco. vered by Peter, who was then only seventeen years of age. Sophia was arrested and confined for life in a convent. This year, 1689, may be considered as the real commencement of the reign of Peter. Ivan lived in a state of helplessness until 1696, from which time the name of Peter alone is recorded in the ukases. In that year he laboured as a carpenter at Saardam. In 1697 he built a frigate and despatched it to Archangel. In 1698, he worked as a carpenter at Deptford. This extraordinary man, although certainly in manners and in the violence of his passions a semibarbarian, was a remarkable genius. He gave Russia a navy, arsenals, seaports on the Baltic: conquered the Baltic provinces of Livonia and Esthonia, Ingermanland to Carelia, and introduced arts, sciences, literature, and civilisation from the south and west of Europe, into his new but most inconveniently situated capital.* In many respects there is a striking resemblance Deptford, whom he carried with him, and who established the *He met Ferguson, the astronomer and mathematician, at Marine School of Russia. |
