GREAT BRITAIN.

way through by land. About 100 men answered | negotiate, he is to endeavor to obtain the following to this call. These were embarked upon the concessions: The old treaties to be renewed and exsteamer Scott, and descended the river with the tended to eight ports instead of five, besides that design of landing at Serapiqui, while the remain- English vessels may put into any port from stress der of the men were placed on board the Rescue, of weather or for repairs; England, like Russia, is to return to Greytown. Just before reaching Ser- to have a college at Pekin, the head of which is to apiqui the boiler of the Scott exploded, destroying be charged with all official relations with the Chithe boat, and killing and wounding some 60 of nese Government; they are to have military posts those on board. This took place on the 1st of in all towns where they shall have consuls or April, and on the 6th the remnant of the force agents; and at Canton and Pekin they are to be reached the mouth of the river. Here, being al- allowed to maintain forts and military establishmost destitute of provisions, they seized what mu- ments.-Lady Franklin has determined to fit out nitions were there, including the steamer Rescue, another Arctic Expedition, the command of which and applied for relief to the commander of the Brit- is proposed to be given to Dr. Rae. The Times ish force in the harbor of Greytown, who finally suggests that the Resolute should be presented for agreed to send them to Aspinwall, retaining all this purpose to Lady Franklin. Dr. Rae's qualifitheir arms and munitions as payment for the pas- cations for such a charge are not unlike those of our sage. The men, to the number of 374, were then own Kane. Born in the Orkney Islands, he early received on board the British vessels and trans- learned the management of a boat; he studied medported to Aspinwall. The Allies, in the mean icine, passed as a surgeon when less than twenty while, came down the river and took possession of years old, and immediately entered the service of its mouth, so that they now hold the entire transit the Hudson's Bay Company, where he had abundline from ocean to ocean.-General Belloso, who ant opportunity of learning the mysteries of Arccommanded the allied forces at Granada at the tic life; he could accomplish forty-five or fifty time when Walker and Henningsen made their miles a day on snow-shoes, and on several occaescape from that city, has been tried by a court- sions performed more than sixty miles. During martial, condemned, and executed upon charges his first Arctic expedition, in 1846-47, he wintered of dereliction of duty in failing to annihilate the with twelve men at Repulse Bay, killing their own enemy upon that occasion. food, and for twelve months never warming themselves at a fire. After having headed several ArcThe elections for members of Parliament have tic expeditions, with the most brilliant results, in resulted very decidedly in favor of the Palmerston 1853 he obtained the first undoubted traces of the administration. The contest was conducted main- fate of Sir John Franklin, for which he and his ly with regard to the conduct of the Chinese affair. party of seven men have received the reward of Lord Palmerston, in his address to the electors of $50,000 offered by the British Government. On Tiverton, thus states the issue: An insolent bar- this expedition they lived all winter without fire, barian wielding authority at Canton had violated in snow-houses; made their own clothing from the the British flag, broken the engagements of treat- skins of the reindeers which they killed for food; ies, offered rewards for the heads of British sub-traveled more than 1100 miles, without dogs, and jects, and planned their destruction by murder, assassination, and poison. The British officers had taken measures to obtain satisfaction and redress; which measures had been approved by her Majesty's Government. A combination of political parties had carried a resolution declaring these measures unjustifiable, and consequently censuring the Government for approving them. If those measures were unjustifiable, the British Government, instead of demanding an apology, ought to make one; and Letter-writers affirm that the devotion of the instead of expecting satisfaction, ought to offer French Emperor has been transferred from Eucompensation to the Chinese Commissioner. And génie to the Countess Castiglione.-Renewed plots if the combined Opposition should succeed in gain- to assassinate Napoleon are said to have been deing office, this was the course which, in consistency, tected.The King of Naples has rewarded with they ought to be prepared to pursue. Mr. Cobden, a cross of honor a police agent named Baiona, who in a speech in London, made the same issue. The has invented a new implement of torture. It is question, he said, was whether the country would called the "Cap of Silence," and consists of a band indorse the violent acts committed in China. En- of steel passing around the head, just above the eye, gland was at war with a feeble nation. Would with a semicircular band passing over the top of the British people, with America, France, Ger- the head. This last is attached to a flexible strap many, and Austria looking on, show a less sense going under the chin; by tightening this the lower of justice than the majority of the House of Com- jaw is closely confined, and the victim is rendered mons? for just in proportion as they showed them- incapable of uttering a cry.-A fearful famine is selves unjust toward the weak, would be their dif- raging in Finland, Lapland, and portions of Northficulties in dealing with the strong. Among the ern Sweden. Opposition members who have lost their seats are Messrs. Bright, Gibson, Cobden, and Layard. There is nothing new of special importance from -The Queen gave birth to a princess-her ninth China. Allum, the Chinese baker charged with child-on the 14th of April.-Extensive prepara-poisoning the foreign residents at Hong Kong, has tions are making for the war in China. Lord Elgin, it is said, is to be clothed with unusual powers. He is to decide upon the time and fitness of all warlike operations, and in case the Chinese should wish to

without encumbering themselves with tents. He has sailed more than 6000 miles along the Arctic coasts; has walked on snow-shoes nearly the same distance; and has surveyed nearly 2000 miles of unexplored coast. In all these expeditions he has usually been the sole officer in command, and has himself shot nearly two-fifths of the food consumed by his party.

THE CONTINENT.

THE EAST.

been tried and acquitted, it having been found impossible to show that the arsenic which was undoubtedly mixed with his bread was placed there with his knowledge.

Literary Notices.

Boat-Life in Egypt and Nubia, by W. C. PRIME. | revealed." The three days of creation which espe(Published by Harper and Brothers.) The author of this volume left America for Egypt in the summer of 1855, with the view of prosecuting certain favorite studies in the land of the East. His work, however, for the most part, consists of a record of his travels, without reference to the peculiar object by which they were prompted. The voyage up the Nile presents the usual variety of incidents, which have now become familiar from the picturMr. esque descriptions of previous travelers. Prime colors them with the vivid hues of his own fancy, imparting to them an air of originality by his quaint and highly characteristic modes of expression and illustration. Egypt appears to have left a singularly agreeable impression upon his mind. Travel in that romantic and beautiful land For the he regards as the very perfection of life. invalid, especially, Egypt surpasses any country in the world. The climate is serene and uniform. Day and night the atmosphere is the same. There are no changes from heat to cold, or from cold to heat. As your boat floats along on the ancient Nile, opening successive glimpses of temple and palace, pyramid and tomb, the day becomes one long dream of enchantment, and the delight thereIf the glowing of never fades from the memory. pictures which the author has drawn of the attractions of an Egyptian tour should tempt any American traveler to turn his face in that direction, he will find many valuable practical suggestions with regard to the journey in the appendix to this vol

ume.

cially fall within the sphere of geology, namely, the third, fifth, and sixth, may be held to have extended over those carboniferous periods during which the great plants were created-over those oolic and cretacious periods during which the great sea-monsters and birds were created-and over those tertiary periods during which the great terrestrial mammals were created. For the intervening fourth day, we have the wide space represented by the periods which were marked by the decline and ultimate extinction of the paleozoic forms, and For the first and second days there the first partially developed beginnings of the secondary ones. remains the great azoic period, during which the primary clay slates were deposited, and the two extended periods represented by the Silurian and Old Red Sandstone Systems. With regard to the periods designated by the term "days," Mr. Miller argues that they must have been prophetic days, symbolic of that series of successive periods, each characterized by its own productions and events, in which creation itself was comprised. It is probable, however, that Moses was not aware of the extent of the periods represented in the vision, and he may even have been ignorant of the actual extent of the seeming days by which they were symbolized. The "days of creation," in relation to Mr. Miller, acwhat they typify, seem to have been "the mere modules of a graduated scale." cordingly, concludes "that for many long ages ere man was ushered into being, not a few of his humbler contemporaries of the fields and woods enThe Testimony of the Rocks. By HUGH MIL-joyed life in their present haunts, and that for LER. (Published by Gould and Lincoln.) The purpose of this work is to show the bearings of geological science on natural and revealed religion. Apart from the intrinsic importance of its contents, it derives a mournful interest from its connection with the untimely and lamented death of its eminent author. It was the work to which he had almost exclusively devoted the latter portion of his life, and the preface was completed only the day before its termination. According to the views set forth by Mr. Miller in this volume, the leading characteristic of geologic history, or, in other words, of the history of creation, is progress. In both alike there is a gradual transition from dead matter to the humblest forms of vitality, and thence onward to the highest. Inanimate plants, sea-monsters, and moving creatures with life, are succeeded by the cattle and beasts of the earth. Previous to his Man next enters upon the scene. appearance upon the earth, each step in the series had been the result of creation. The process, as described in Genesis, was revealed by a vision. "It seems at least eminently probable that such was the mode or form of the revelation in this case, and that he who saw by vision on the Mount the pattern of the Tabernacle and its sacred furniture, and in the wilderness of Horeb the bush burning but not consumed, saw also by vision the pattern of those successive pre-Adamic creations, animal and vegetable, through which our world was fitted up as a place of human habitation. The reason why the drama of creation has been optically described seems to be that it was in reality visionally

thousands of years anterior even to their appear-
The day during which the present creation
ance many of the existing molluscs lived in our
seas."
came into being, and in which God, when he had
made "the beast of the earth after his kind, and
the cattle after their kind," at length terminated
the work by moulding a creature in his own image,
was not a brief period of a few hours' duration, but
extended perhaps over millenniums of centuries.
It was not a natural day, but a prophetic day,
stretching far back into the by-gone eternity. In
the support of his scientific convictions Mr. Miller
employs great fertility of illustration, the fruits of
extensive personal research, and masculine energy
of argument. His style is too diffuse for the high-
est effect of didactic composition, and by a more
severe compression would have gained both in
clearness and point. In spite of the interest of the
subject, his volume is not easy reading. We do
not, indeed, demand a popular character in discus-
sions like those to which this work is devoted, but
the most profound reasonings may be set forth with
lucidity of arrangement, simplicity of expression,
and a smooth and graceful flow of language. The
want of these qualities greatly impairs the excel-
lence which, in many respects, characterizes Hugh
Miller's writings. He often, also, attempts too
much. With the consciousness of a defective early
education, he indulges in an elaborate, scholastic
style, in which he is evidently ill at ease, and which
The eloquent flights in which he loves to
is far less forcible than the unaffected simplicity of
nature.
try his wing are not seldom grandiloquent. The

value of the work is greatly enhanced to students | pied nearly a twelvemonth of time, extended over by its copious illustrations of fossil remains.

Annals of Southern Methodism in 1856, by the Rev. CHARLES F. DEEMS, D.D. (Published by Stevenson and Owen.) An extended account of the condition and operations of the Methodist denomination in the Southern States during the past year is presented in this comprehensive volume. It not only contains a variety of statistical inform-ity of this city, of which he has been a resident for ation for general reference, but a great amount of personal anecdote and illustration.

Explorations and Adventures in Honduras, by WILLIAM V. WELLS. (Published by Harper and Brothers.) The extensive travels in Central America, of which an account is given in this volume, were undertaken with a view to the reconnoissance of the gold regions in Olancho, which were supposed to rival California in deposits of the precious metal, In the course of his wanderings, the author became deeply interested in the romantic country of which so few authentic reports have been given to the public. His tour, which occu-prieties of Western taste.

Editor's Cable.

OW OUGHT AMERICAN MIND TO BE purpose, an end in every thing. The first tree

instincts, traditions, and sentiments. Whatever may be its share in the common life of the world, there is always a point at which its peculiar characteristics begin. Not more distinctly are the geographical latitudes of the earth marked than its national divisions, each having the elements of an individual history within itself, each fulfilling its purpose in the grand economy of Providence. The interests of the race require this diversity, and hence the hand of creative wisdom has not only mapped out the globe for the different tribes of mankind, but it has ordained that language, institutions, and pursuits should contribute to the same end. Men are not left in doubt as to the unity of their origin and nature. Sufficient proof of this fact having been presented both to the eye and to the mind, a wide scope has been given for various forms of national development.

the the

erected, the first church dedicated to worship, belonged to a plan. Puritan, Cavalier, Huguenot, Quaker, each and all had an object standing boldly out before the eye. And this was ever present with them. It went into all their efforts. It was in their sufferings, defeats, triumphs. It attended them through the Revolution. It converted men of peace into men of war, and tender women into noble heroines. Out of this same high consciousness grew the Confederacy, then the Federal Government; men all the while feeling that they were executing a great task, not, indeed, fully revealed, but clearly enough to inspire their confidence and challenge their devotion. Our later history has abounded in illustrations of the same fact. There is scarcely a school-book in the land that does not advert to it, and all our popular oratory gives it prominence. Indeed, it is the most general, pervasive, ineradicable feeling in the hearts of our countrymen. Demagogues and patriots render it homage. Statesmen and divines derive the materials for their best eloquence from its inspiring truths. It is sometimes shamefully abused; its significance perverted; its import falsified in the language of lust and licentiousness; its benevolence sacrificed to intensify a plea for piracy; its religion degraded into a superstition that talks of destiny as a Turk talks of fate or a Hindoo of relentless sovereignty, and whets a filibustering appetite for carnage and conquest. And yet, amidst these violations of its sanctity, we see the tremendous power it exerts over our national mind by the facility with which it is used for evil. Yes! 'destiny" is a word of mighty magic, but let the heart of truth and love sway its potent enchantment. Yes! "destiny" is a prophetic sound, trembling with the burden of a strange meaning, but let God's providence evolve its mystery and fulfill its decree.

Such views have a practical value. If we are indebted to the instructions of abstract philosophy for their introduction into the social science of the age, let us not forget that Christianity first taught these truths. But for it men could never have generalized with any satisfactory results. It alone has lifted them above the narrow horizon of the senses, and, by faith, extended their intellectual vision over the whole human family. There is, consequently, a moral power in these principles that appeals to industry and commerce as well as to statesmanship. Nor is any one of their aspects more interesting and important than the bearing which they have on the formation of national character. If every nation has a separate existence, and, at the same time, is vitally related to the other portions of the vast social fabric; if it is to be faithful to its own instinctive laws, and yet equally loyal to the divine brotherhood of race; if it is to cherish this two-fold reverence, and never sacrifice the dictates of sympathy to the tyrannical demands of selfishness; if it is to yield full liberty to its own genius, make the utmost of its opportunities, and enjoy the revenue of its resources, while, with just and generous feelings, it recognizes every obliga-Christian idea that is worthy of philosophic reflection to the world, there is certainly a profoundly practical meaning in national character that ought to be studied, and to which we ought to conform in our ideas of growth and means of progress. It is not, then, a mere beautiful ideal. It is not a topic for splendid declamation—a pompous nothing for rhetorical show, but a living truth to affect judgment and action-a reality of providential law, speaking to the conscience by the authority of God. It addresses all of us. It addresses the farmer, the mechanic, the merchant, the lawyer, the divine. Every plow, every work-shop, every steamengine and factory, every party movement, is something more than a private national interest. It is a part of the great system which binds us all to gether, and, after executing its province in this connection, it spreads its influence abroad, and acts on every tie that unites mankind.

Our national mind has not been insensible to the force of these sentiments. Thanks to the wis dom of our fathers, following the guidance of Providence, we had no chance-work in the original colonization of the country. There was a motive, a

The "mission" of our country-disgusting as the word sometimes becomes by the cant that uses it-the "mission" of our country is a patriotic,

tion and earnest sympathy. It is no idle phrase. One of those words that are most eloquent to the imagination when the imagination is most alive to images of sublimity and grandeur; one of those words that stir the heart after it has mused over the martyrdom of virtue or the fall of freedom; it can not do more than outline its import among the shadows that curtain futurity. Nor can we adopt it into our logic-a weighed and measured thing, that stands for so much sense and soul. Words are sometimes more than dictionary terms, transcending science with its nice, exact limitations, and escaping from lips not fully conscious of the messages they bear to such as are ready to receive them. And yet, in the light of its meaning, we can see both our duty and policy; see the great principles that ought to direct our expansion and regulate our prosperity; see where ambition is a crime and a curse, and where it is an honor and a glory; see how self-love and home love are to be harmonized with universal love, and patriotism and philanthropy, baptized into the same spirit, are to go forth side by side and step with step, to

be mutual helpers in advancing the welfare of men. Providence teaches nations as well as individuals. Revelation is both a rule for sovereigns and subjects; and hence we are as fully informed as to the means and manner of making our country a blessing to ourselves and the world as we are instructed in the art of subduing our passions and acquiring the rewards of virtue. It is in view of these responsibilities that we have asked, "How ought American mind to be cultivated ?"

and the glory of Providence, she has multiplied here these majestic evidences of her kindly forethought and provident love, and placed us in the presence of a "cloud of witnesses," that bear testimony to the tasks we have to perform, to the achievements to be won, to the sovereignty we have been called to attain. "Have dominion over the earth and subdue it," is God's command: "have dominion," and receive a full, ready, abounding obedience in return; "have dominion,' until all the necessities and all the luxuries of life are secured in rich utility and rare enjoyment; "have dominion," until body, soul, and spirit are served to the extent of natural resources, until creation teaches you all its wisdom, clothes you with all its power, and honors you in all its offices; "have dominion," until the destiny of labor is accomplished, and the whole material world is recovered to the moral interests of mankind.

Here, then, is a magnificent field for the cultivation of our national mind. Man's relation to physical nature; man's agricultural, mining, mechanical skill; man's science and art for enriching his circumstances, elevating his condition, augmenting his strength-these are studies to engage deep thought, and enterprises to arouse a mighty activity. It is industry in its simplicity and grandeur; more than this, it is philosophy in its profound applications to practical ends. Whoever thinks that a bare utilitarianism is the sum and substance of all this close contact with material agencies, reads only the surface, and loses the truth dwelling in the heart of things around him. Men sometimes argue that this devotion to physical science and pursuits tends necessarily to lower the tone of the mind, and finally, to enslave it to the senses. The world is kindly put on its guard against steamengines and factory-machines. But facts dissipate this elegant sophistry. Society was much more gross and beastly, more cruel and vindictive, when they were unknown; and though the improvement is not abstractly due to them, yet the spirit of a Christian civilization, operating through them, has advanced all social interests. It may do for Hindoos to believe that spirit is defiled and degraded by connection with the "world of Sansard"-the bonds of matter; or for dirty, unwashed disciples of the old Gnosticism to assail the earth as the main cause of all corruption; but St. Paul warns us against those who "have a show of wisdom in neglecting the body," and his idea, fairly interpreted, teaches us to appreciate these material re

The first point worthy of notice is, that our physical position suggests an idea of culture corresponding with its facts and circumstances. If the reader will open a map of the Western Hemisphere he will observe that it has certain peculiarities of form, and that these contrast strikingly with the figure of the Eastern Continent. Availing himself of the aid of physical geography in the prosecution of this train of thought, he will learn that while the Old World is marked by variety in the disposition of its surface, by dryness of climate and adaptation to animal life, the New World is characterized by much greater simplicity of form, by moistness of climate and prevalence of vegetation. He will see how our mountain chains follow the oceanic line, opening the country north and south, allowing a free circulation of wind and vapor, and inviting emigration, elsewhere impeded by natural barriers, to expand itself in easy channels of movement. Starting, in imagination, at Mackenzie's River and moving southwardly, he may trace on a landscape of about twenty-five hundred miles in extent, as on a vast dial-plate, all the wonders of vegetation in a beautiful order of succession. The changing features of the scenery, like the shadows marking the hours, would indicate his progress toward the Gulf of Mexico; and passing through the regions of mosses and lichens; of the forests of Lake Superior; of the oaklands of Wisconsin; of the walnut, chestnut, and hickory of Kentucky; of the magnolia and water-oaks farther south, he would travel for months along a panorama that in the Eastern Hemisphere is often unrolled on the gigantic side of a mountain-chain. Resting on two immense oceans, that form its eastern and western boundaries, with the Gulf of the Tropic on its southern border, and a far-stretching line of lakes on the north, he would behold his country occupying a position singularly favorable to domestic and foreign commerce. If to these facts he added the fertility of the soil and the natural facilities for internal communication; if he studied the geology and mineralogy of its vari-lations as designed by God to discipline both intelous sections; he pursued his investigations far enough to comprehend what a scope industry here had, what a premium was put on inventive skill and intelligent art, what a continental garden lay outspread over some twenty degrees of latitude, what a more than variegated and epitomized world was contained in the Valley of the Mississippi alone, he would then be amply furnished with data on which to found a judgment as to the relations subsisting between American mind and its material connections. Taken in its simplest aspects, in its means of physical civilization, where shall we find any thing approaching a parallel on the globe? If nature ever puts a prophecy in rivers, plains, and mountains; if her mighty chemistry works on through silent centuries for the future uses of man; if she does stamp the rock with the symbols of a language that the science of distant years may converse and write in for the good of the world

|

lect and heart. Literature has enervated and corrupted far more men than physical science. Where shall we search for nobler examples of a truthful spirit, of heroic perseverance, of greater reverence and lofty devotion than one finds in the history of Palissy the potter, in Columbus, in Newton, in Ledyard, and Davy, and Bowditch? And if the materialism of this age is censured and condemned as so fraught with evils, where shall we look for so many illustrations of the honorable and praiseworthy use of money in all the enterprises of a humane and spiritual philanthropy? Never would a benevolent Creator have given matter so many available and useful forms, such variety of shape, color, and position, such minuteness and magnitude, such subtlety and tangibleness, so many attractive and commanding features, if it had not been capable of furnishing man with a most suitable and efficient instrument for the development of