temper, as he had expected me the day before; and| matters were not mended when I mentioned frankly some misgivings I had on the score of domestic happiness.

"Is it possible? That is not a great while ago.' "Greater than you perhaps suppose; for a sound constitution and salubrious air are very deceitful. Would you take me to be well on to thirtyfive?'

"What became of your child?' cried I sud

Domestic fiddlestick!' cried he. What more would you have than a good estate and a good wife -and a healthy woman to boot, come of a long-denly. winded race, and as likely as not to lay you beside my old friend Hook? She is a grandmother already: does not that look well!' I laughed nervously. "You do not think her too young?' and the old gentleman grinned. Another spasmodic cachinna

666

MY DEAR SIR-I am told that your nephew has arrived; and as he has been reported upon favorably by one who saw him yesterday, and on whose taste and judgment I can rely, I am tempted to say, with the frankness of my character, that I shall be happy to make his acquaintance. I am truly grateful for the many obliging things I am told he said of me; and I hope one day or other he will find them all realized. My dearest grandchild sends a pretty little kiss to you both; and, with best regards, I remain as usual,

GRANDMOTHER HOOK.' “There!' cried the old gentleman with odious triumph- there is a spirit for you! Why, you dog, you will be as happy as the day is long!'

"We all marry young in our family,' replied the widow, hanging her head. It was my daughter's infant,' she continued, looking up at me with the most beautiful blush that ever lit the cheek of a girl, which you gathered yesterday from among the daisies and buttercups; and I am GRANDMOTHER Hook!""

"Well, I declare," said Miss Jemima, as the lion finished, "that is as like a romance as any real story I ever heard! Only an author would never make his heroine a horrid old thing of thirty-five."

"I am glad, for the sake of morality," remarked the old maid, " that she turned out to be Mrs. Hook after all: only I cannot help thinking it a shocking example for girls to be grandmothers.'

From the Spectator.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF VARNHAGEN VON ENSE.

VARNHAGEN VON ENSE is a German author, sol|dier, and diplomatist, who was born at Dusseldorf in 1785, and just remembers the outbreak of the French revolution, and the hopes it excited in the minds of men. Soon afterwards he had some of its consequences imprinted on his memory; for his father was then a liberal, and with his young son was for a time driven about from place to place in "I scarcely heard him, for my thoughts were consequence of his opinions. In 1800, Varnhagen brooding bitterly over the treachery of the beautiful Von Ense entered the medical college at Berlin; widow. She had. broken her promise, and she had in less than three years he was expelled " for some rendered my position a thousand times more embar- trifling cause;" and then supported himself as a rassing, by persuading the wretched grandmother tutor. The battle of Jena found him at Berlin: that I had been such an ass as to say complimentary and he gives a graphic picture of the bragging conthings about her age, ugliness, and infirmities! It fidence of the Prussians before the action, and of was clear that she was a jilt; that she had only the total want of conduct and capacity in the public been laughing at my admiration; and that she was authorities afterwards; as well as of the manner now determined to extract further amusement from in which society was left to maintain itself-for my calamities. I resolved, however, to die game; there does not seem to have been much of anarchy. and telling my uncle that, although well acquainted | He subsequently served at Aspern and Wagram as with Mrs. Hook from report, I desired to see her an officer in the Austrian army; and was at Paris personally before coming to a final decision, I threw soon after Napoleon's marriage with Maria Louisa. myself on horseback, and galloped straightway to On the failure of the Russian campaign and the uprising of Germany Von Ense was again in action under Tettenborn; whom he appears to have followed from the defence of Hamburg to the first capitulation of Paris. He attended the Congress of Vienna as secretary of Prince Hardenberg, the Prussian minister; and afterwards went as Prussian chargé d'affaires to Carlsruhe. Since 1819 he seems to have lived at Berlin, occupied in literary pursuits.

the court.

"It was my intention to have asked for Mrs. Hook; but the wily widow was on her guard, for as the door opened, I heard her call to the servant, in her silveriest tones, 'Show the gentleman here;' and in another minute I stood once more in the presence of the unknown of the forest. I found her more beautiful-better dressed-younger than the day before; and as I saw, with keener appreciation, the treasure I was about to lose forever, my resentment died away, and deep choking grief took its place. "You forgot your promise,' said I: 'you make a sport of my misery!'

"What could I say when questioned?' replied she sweetly. But what misery do you allude to? -the misery of marrying a grandmother?'

"When my heart is devoted to another. But it is needless to talk to you, for you are as incapable of passion as a statue. You could never have loved even your husband.'

"You are in some degree wrong; yet I was so young when I was married-only sixteen-that I looked upon my husband more as a guardian than as a lover. I was not quite seventeen when I became a mother.'

In 1843-46, Varnhagen Von Ense published his Memorabilia, in four volumes octavo, consisting of his autobiography and reminiscences. From this work Alexander Duff Gordon has arranged and translated the volume before us; selecting such passages as either for their intrinsic character or the events they commemorated were most likely to interest the English reader. In this task he has displayed great tact and judgment. The matter is throughout curious and entertaining; the translation easy and spirited, retaining the German manner without any German idioms. There are occasional skips, by the omission of incidents and matters that have no immediate English attraction; which give a fragmentary air to the places where they occur; we jump over something, without

knowing what. A few connecting notes would ob- | planted; French courts of law were established,

viate this.

before which Germans were forcibly dragged The autobiography is not without interest; for whenever the French had any complaint to make Von Ense is a remarkable man, who has mixed a against them. All civil order was at an end; good deal with society and authors, and who con- men's homes were invaded; young nobles quartered veys shrewd and critical observations in a terse and themselves wherever a pretty woman struck their lively style. The great value of the book, how-fancy; their gallantry took the coarsest form, and ever, consists in the writer's observations upon the grossest immorality prevailed. The inhabitants public opinion, and his reminiscences of the events complained to the elector; and when he expressed and men with which he was connected. Considered his inability to assist them in their necessities, they in this point of view, the volume is a valuable con- asked his permission to drive the foreigners out of tribution to the history of the period; sometimes, their country, he begged them for God's sake to we think, new; always strengthening those opin- have a little patience. This was a terrible predicions which exhibit the true causes of the success ament for any German prince, and one not likely to of the French revolution and the empire, and of make him respected by his own people. The only Napoleon's subsequent downfall. The hopes from hope was, that war would soon break out, wherethe outbreak in France of the professional and trad-upon their troublesome guests would be forced to ing (burgher) classes of Germany, insulted if not pass the frontier. The emigrants themselves looked oppressed by the governments and the aristocracy upon the triumphant march into France as so cer-the manner in which this sentiment was strength-tain, the acquisition of power and wealth as so infalened by the insolence of the French emigrants-lible, that they did not think of husbanding their and the gradual way in which the license of the resources; on the contrary, they threw away republicans and the oppressions of the imperialists their money in the most reckless manner, as if they substituted for this favorable feeling one of intense wanted to get rid of it, so as to have more room for national hatred to the French-are continually in- what they were so sure to obtain. I saw gold dicated in the earlier narrative. The hollow na-pieces, which had been used as marks for pistolture of Napoleon's power-the real dissatisfaction shooting, thrown among the people to be scrambled among many of his old soldiers at his assumption for. A peasant girl, who was selling flowers, had of the imperial crown and his connection with the old French aristocracy and the crowned heads of Europe the theatrical character of his so-called court, and the strong smack of the actor, if not of the charlatan, in himself-the unsettled, uneasy state of Parisian society from the highest to the lowest, and the total want of public honor or principle which the revolution had left behind it-are well indicated by anecdotes, description, or remark. The accounts of the national war in Germany exhibit to us a new phase of military action. The narrative of the regular campaign has little novelty beyond what arises from the German character; but we have a scholarly and critical mind in the descriptions, as well as that of the mere military man; so that principles-the essential causes of success or failure-are suggested to the reader, if not always expressed by the writer. The sketches of.the Congress of Vienna and anecdotes of the leading men are both interesting and politically useful, but perhaps have not so much of novelty and raciness as the other parts. An allowance is of course to be made for the nationality of the author-we get a German view of things; but we think this obtains more in politics than in war, and it is never extreme.

A full idea of the value and use of the book will only be obtained by a rather careful perusal; but a few extracts will show the sort of reading it furnishes.

FRENCH EMIGRANTS: THE OLD REGIME.

"The people of Mayence had a much stronger dislike to the emigrants than those of Manheim, and we heard them spoken of on our way to Coblentz with perfect hatred. Hundreds of stories were told of their pride, their extravagance, their violence, and their laughable vanity. Coblentz was overrun with them; they had there established their head-quarters, and played the part of lords and masters. The Elector of Treves, who had received them into his territory, had not a word to say in the matter; his magistrates were treated with contempt by these strangers, his troops sup

gold showered into her hands because she was pretty. The most luxurious feasts took place; it was an amusement to make every one, even the school-boys, drunk, and to send them reeling to their homes. But nothing excited greater disgust than the contempt with which the emigrants treated the rye bread; they took out the crumb, and kneaded it into pellets, with which they pelted passers-by or broke windows; they hollowed out the crusts, which the young viscounts or abbés put upon their feet, and danced about in the streets amidst loud laughter until the bread was broken by the stones and lost in the mud. The manner in which they treated God's gift was the one sin which the Germans would least forgive, and upon which they called down the vengeance of the Lord."

REPUBLICAN FEELING IN THE FRENCH ARMY.

"My daily intercourse with these people [French officers after the battle of Wagram, where he was wounded] soon inspired them with such confidence as to induce them to lay aside all restraint; and I heard with secret joy that general discontent prevailed in the army, together with a liberal tone that alarmed the emperor. The complaint of the deterioration of the army was universal; which these men attributed entirely to that love of court display which had led Napoleon to forget the main consideration that he was their general and emperor, and that to recognize and reward merit was better than to dispense favors. It was asserted as beyond question that one regiment of Bonaparte's, Moreau's, or Jourdan's republican soldiers, was as good as three or four of the emperor's present troops. I also heard remarkable confessions of which no mention was made in Napoleon's bulletins ; here a superior force of French cuirassiers had been beaten by Blankenstein's Austrian hussars, or the infantry had not done their duty; there some particular general had committed some egregious blunder. Napoleon himself was not spared; they did not scruple to call him a rogue; but were ready nevertheless to do his bidding at a moment's notice."

the continent, and strive to exclude rivals from the market. This prejudice, however, does not seem to be very powerful; and the trade which can repay the toilsome transit across the continent by land is sure to remunerate traders who come by the comparatively short and easy path of the river.

ture something might be discovered there. In this | Arab dealers who come to them in caravans across manner many hours elapsed, during which we got nothing but good words; and when, after waiting a long time, no provision or fodder made their appearance, the soldiers, who ran the risk of losing their hour of rest and refreshment, and naturally became impatient, searched for themselves, and found in most cases a superfluity of all they wanted. This conduct of the authorities made our men take matters with a high hand; and in a spirit of revenge they seized upon whatever they could find in the people's kitchens and cellars, where with different treatment they would have been content with a crust of bread. If a Cossack took up a bundle of straw, there were loud screams of plunder; if he asked for a kettle for the camp, there were noisy complaints of personal violence, until at length plundering and personal violence became very general, caused entirely by such conduct. The guides were often led by the army with a rope round their necks; but this precaution, which the Moniteur described as degrading to humanity, was adopted in consequence of the guides so frequently running away, and had been taught to the Cossacks by the French in Russia.

PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY IN CENTRAL

AFRICA.

The requisites for a successful trade with the inhabitants of the Niger are now well ascertained by the experiences of Mr. Becroft and his fellow-voyagers in the Ethiope steamer. First you want iron steamers of less draught and greater enginepower; for by such vessels not only the Niger but its Tshaddah branch might be navigated at almost all seasons of the year. You want officers like Mr. Becroft, of hardy constitutions, inured to the climate, of brave spirit, discreet, and shrewd. You want trading managers capable of accommodating their manners to the wayward dealings of a rude people, and able to estimate the value of produce little known. You want crews mostly of African blood, and at all events of sufficient stamina to bear the climate. It is obvious that efficiency of navigation, the power to move rapidly, and tact in dealing with the natives, are requisites far more important than mere armed force. Ivory, vegetable tallow, peppers, indigo, cotton wool, palm oil, a sort of caravances or haricot beans, dye woods, timber woods, skins, and a great variety of produce that is but slightly known, invite the trader. The sole desideratum is thorough efficiency in the means of navigating the river; and it is evident that a commerce of indefinite extension will repay any sums laid out in thoroughly establishing that efficiency of navigation.

WHILE more than one state government is blundering away at measures of proved uselessness to mitigate the horrors of barbarity on the seaboard of Western Africa, a Liverpool merchant and a sea captain have penetrated to the interior, and have surveyed the highway not only to that inner region, but to the civilization of Africa. Mr. Robert Of course the free blacks educated in the West Jamieson of Liverpool has collected the means and Indian trade will become useful workmen in peneplanned the enterprise, with a disinterested perse-trating the native land of their race. We must verance and zeal for discovery far above the mere depend, at least for generations to come, on the trading spirit of the time. Mr. Becroft has im- black race to supply the bulk of the crews. mortalized himself as one of the most daring, most It is, however, doubtful how far these legitimate discreet, and most intelligent of English discover-trading measures can be carried on conjointly with In spite of the obstacles aggravated rather than removed by the proceedings of the English government-in spite of the most disastrous mischances, Mr.. Becroft has succeeded in establishing the fact that the interior is accessible for navigation and trade; he has thrown light on the interior navigation up to Timbuctoo, insomuch that only forty miles of the river remains to be explored-the part between Lever, his highest point, and Boussah, Park's lowest; the great water-way being the key to several regions of beautiful and fertile country, peopled by divers races, and affording opportunities for legitimate commerce of indef-commerce would soon instil ideas into their minds inite extension.

ers.

The lower Niger and its branches permeate an immense delta, containing thousands of miles of richly fertile and wooded country. The unhealthy climate extends only for a limited space inwards; and as you ascend the river the healthiness becomes equal to that of the tropics generally. This region is inhabited by negro races, warlike, rude, yet not destitute of civilization, and eager for trade. On the middle Niger, above Iddah, the inhabitants assume more of the Arab aspect, are more civilized, congregate in towns so large that one is mentioned which is computed to contain 20,000 inhabitants, but the people are less eager for trade. They are prejudiced against strangers from the West by the

the armed measures on the coast. The cruising system not only keeps up the jealousy and shyness of the native tribes, but fosters all sorts of jealousy among the rival cruisers. Mr. Becroft encountered some impediments to his exploration of the Gaboon river from a French commandant, who suspected him of territorial objects, and had been making "treaties" with the native chiefs conferring some kind of territorial right on the French. All this is very idle. The natives are too rude to make treaties worth any European consideration; but they have a productive country, and perfect freedom of

which they never can derive from treaty-making mummeries or forcible interference with their free trade in slaves.—Spectator.

TALKING of companionship, do not you think there is often a peculiar feeling of home where age and infirmity is? The arm-chair, of the sick, or the old, is the centre of the house. They think, perhaps, that they are unimportant; but all the household hopes and cares flow to them and from them.

I quite agree with you. What you have just depicted is a beautiful sight, especially when, as you often see, the age of infirmity is not in the least selfish or exacting.

From the Westminster Review.

The Trial of the Earl of Somerset for the Poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury. By ANDREW AMOS, Esq. Bentley.

elegance. Besides a poem called the "Wife," and some minor pieces, he published "Characters," prose essays, in the manner afterwards so successfully adopted by Dr. Earle. Mr. Amos gives some specimens of his style. They are much deformed by the vice of the age, a tendency to fantastic conceits and strained antithesis; but contain many happy turns, are always curt and energetic, sometimes humorous, and indicate a lively and cheerful tone of mind.

THE interest which the story of the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury has always excited in the student of English history cannot be ascribed to any great sympathy either with the victim or the reputed criminals-profligate favorites in a corrupt and abandoned court-but must be traced principally to That, however, which was the making of Overthe mystery that overhangs the transaction, and its bury's fortunes was his introduction to the notice supposed connection with still darker secrets. This and friendship of Robert Carr, afterwards Viscount murder was generally believed, at the time, to be Rochester and Earl of Somerset. This young connected with the death of Prince Henry, the gentleman, coming up from Scotland in the stream hope and darling of the nation, and with a plot of fortune-seekers, had, by a lucky accident, atmore extensive and more horrible than that of Guy tracted the notice of the king; and his personal Faux; the character of James I. was supposed to beauty and gracefulness of demeanor at once made be deeply implicated; and many thought that by their way to James' capricious favor. Carr was his direction the public mind was set on a wrong illiterate, idle, and by no means gifted with ability. scent at the trial of the delinquents. Later re- But his influence over the king admitted him into searches, whilst partly proving these suspicions to all the secrets of state; placed at his disposal all be unfounded, have by no means cleared up the gifts and promotions; gave him a voice in all quesmatter. Mr. Hallam, who seems to have studied tions of foreign and domestic polity; and thus, the subject very attentively, and gone to all the while it overwhelmed him with wealth and court sources of information then within reach, says, after friends, overwhelmed him likewise with duties, detailing one or two points which he considers set- cares, and responsibilities which he must have tled, "Upon the whole, I cannot satisfy myself as found irksome enough. In a country where all to this mystery." He also says, "The circum- was strange to him, and whose very language he stances connected with the murder of Sir Thomas could scarce speak intelligibly, a guide and counOverbury might furnish materials for a separate dissertation, had I leisure to stray into these bypaths."

sellor must have been of the last necessity to him; and such an one he found in Sir Thomas Overbury. Overbury was received into his patron's inmost confidence; all affairs of state were made known to him; despatches, petitions, in a word the secret history of the nation, all was open to both alike ; till at last, as Bacon tells us, they two knew more of what was passing in the country than did the council itself. In all things Carr made Overbury his oracle; and, indeed, if we are to believe the vaunt of the latter, owed to him all his fortunes, reputation, and understanding. Thus it came to pass that the servant, an able unscrupulous man, began at length to look upon the master as a mere tool. Overbury may have known, perhaps, more fully than we can know, the nature and causes of Carr's extraordinary influence over the king. Or it may be that he had gained too much insight into the secrets of state. At all events, it is certain that Overbury believed he had the favorite in his power; and, use what insolence he might, he could not now be shaken off. His patron was soon to learn that bad men must endure with patience the tyranny of their confidential servants.

The task here suggested has been undertaken by Mr. Amos, who has not only collected together, we believe, all the information on the subject that was previously open to the public, but has added various documents, yet unpublished, from the State Paper Office, and manuscripts in the British Museum. Of this new matter the most valuable portion is the written examinations of prisoners and witnesses, taken privately by Sir Edward Coke, who was employed to collect the evidence for the prosecution. These place the transaction in a very different light from that in which it has been commonly viewed. If they may be depended on, they tend greatly to diminish the criminality of Somerset; and they likewise serve to explain what has been hitherto so unaccountable-the difficulty that was found in putting Overbury to death. The work before us, therefore, must be acknowledged as a valuable accession to English historical literature. At the same time, it unfortunately happens that the materials so diligently accumulated have been so unartfully put together, with so perverse a Carr, created Viscount Rochester, had not long disregard of method and chronology, and are so enjoyed his new rank, and the courtly society which much overlaid with general commentary, that they was now open to him, before he was captivated by not only fail of producing their due effect, but are the charms of the young Countess of Essex, then utterly unintelligible to the hasty reader. What in attendance on the queen. Lady Frances Howthe book wants is some kind of introductory narra-ard had been married, at the unripe age of thirteen, tive or summary of the results, that might serve as to a boy of fourteen, who had immediately been index and key to its very heterogeneous con- forced to leave her, to complete his education on the continent. She was yet a girl when she was Thomas, son of Sir Nicholas Overbury, one of initiated into the pleasures and temptations of a the judges of the Marches, was born at Boston-on-court, of which, for her rare beauty, she was looked the-Hill, in Gloucestershire. He studied at Oxford, upon as one of the brightest ornaments. A cotemand coming up to London, resided for some time porary writer, who bore her no good-will, declares in the Middle Temple. Finding the law not to his of her that "Those who saw her face might chaltaste, he soon after "cast anchor at court,' "the lenge nature of hypocrisy, for harboring so wicked then haven of hope," says his biographer, Win- a heart under so sweet and bewitching a countestanley, "for all aspiring spirits." Here he be-nance. ." Her beauty was a fatal gift. Surrounded came distinguished for his rare accomplishments. by flatterers, separated from her natural protectors, He wrote, both in verse and prose, with ease and with the liberty of a widow and the suscepti VOL. XIV. 27

tents.

CLXXII.

LIVING AGE.