the host, that two or three days had already been lost in the primary assembly in tumult and disorder, no one knowing what to do or what to propose; and that there was no prospect of their ever coming to shape and order. In a mirthful moment, the thought seized them of making themselves legislators of Montreuil. Pen and paper were called for, and amid peals of laugh. ter a code of procedure was drawn up for the good people of that place, in town-meeting assembled, as we should say. What was done by them in a frolic was taken by their host in sober earnest. Armed with the instructions which his guests had drawn up, he proceeded to the place of meeting, and soon arranged its chaotic elements into an orderly system. To complete the joke, the travellers had the satisfaction of reading in the public prints of Paris, on their return, that the assembly of Montreuil had been the very first in the kingdom to complete their elections, and had earned great commendation on account of the order which had marked their proceedings.

The rules and orders of the English parliament form the basis of those by which all deliberative assemblies in the United States are governed. These are characterized by that wisdom and sagacity which form such prominent traits in the character of the Anglo-Saxon mind, and are so strongly reflected in the history and politics of Great Britain. They are admirably calculated to insure the despatch of business; and though some of them may seem arbitrary and unreasonable, yet, on experience, all will be found to rest upon sound reason. No man can study the history of the English House of Commons, without a deep sense of the wisdom which at all times has marked its proceedings, and which shines no less conspicuously in its rules and orders, than in its debates and enactments.

Mr. Jefferson's "Manual" has long been the standard authority on this subject in the United States, and deservedly so. It is a work of great merit. It is full, clear, and exact. Every thing necessary or desirable may be found somewhere in its pages. As a manual of reference, to lie on the table of a presiding officer, its merits can hardly be surpassed. For this purpose, indeed,to serve as a guide to the author in his duties as presiding officer of the Senate, the work was originally compiled. Consequently, the practical element was kept paramount, and no particular care was taken to insure a natural and methodical arrangement. Distinct reference was had in every case to the exigencies and necessities of Congress, and no other assembly was present in the compiler's mind.

The object of Judge Cushing has been to consider the rules for the governing of deliberative assemblies in their most compre

hensive aspect, and to throw them, as far as possible, into a general formula. In his preface, he states that his treatise "is intended as a manual for deliberative assemblies of every description, but more especially for those which are not legislative in their character; though, with the exception of the principal points in which legislative bodies differ from others, namely, the several different stages or readings of a bill, and conferences and amendments between the two branches, this work will be found equally useful in legislative assemblies as in others."

Judge Cushing has uncommon qualifications for such a work. For many years he discharged the duties of clerk of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts with great fidelity and skill, and became practically familiar, in that capacity, with parliamentary law and practice. The clerk of the House is called upon to preside in the brief interval which elapses between his own election and that of a speaker. This is usually but a few moments; but in the stormy session of 1843, owing to peculiar circumstances, this short space was expanded into several days, during which Judge Cushing won golden opinions from men of all parties by the firmness, dignity, impartiality, and knowledge with which he presided over the angry debates of the House. He sat, day after day, like another Eolus, calm amidst the warring winds of party strife, always vigilant in observation, courteous in manner, and prompt in decision. He guided the House in safety through the mazes of a most intricate and impassioned discussion, which no one could have done who had not at his fingers' ends the details of parliamentary proceeding.

As might have been expected from the character of Judge Cushing's mind, and from the extent of his experience, the treatise which he has compiled is one of peculiar value. It is at once philosophical and practical. The regular distribution of its materials, its luminous method, and the natural order in which the topics are treated, will commend it to those who look upon a book as a work of art, and are not satisfied with the best of matter, unless it be arranged with a master's hand. Minds of this class will also be attracted by the admirable precision and accuracy of the style. It has been the writer's aim, also, wherever practicable, to give the reason of established usages, to trace them back to their origin, and to show the ground on which they were originally made to rest.

The practical value of the treatise also is not less conspicuous. The plan of the work, of course, excludes the consideration of those special rules which each deliberative assembly adopts for its own guidance and government. Its subject is what may be called the common law of deliberative assemblies; those ele

mentary and essential principles, which regulate the organization and procedure of the town-meeting as well as of the legislature. It gives to the presiding officer an outline of his rights and duties, sufficient in ordinary cases to enable him fully to maintain the former and discharge the latter, and in every case requiring no other filling up than that furnished by the body itself over which he presides.

6.- Letters from a Landscape Painter. By the Author of Essays for Summer Hours." Boston: James Munroe

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pp. 265.

THESE Letters have many graphic touches, which show the artist eye of their ingenious author. They contain lively sketches of natural scenery, and amusing narratives of travelling incidents. At times, a striking poetical expression flashes upon us, illuminating the page like a gleam of light, as when the clouds that encompass the rising sun, as seen from a mountain-top, are said to be "like a band of cavaliers, preparing to accompany their leader on a journey. Out of the Atlantic have they just risen; at noon, they will have pitched their tents in the cerulean plains of heaven; and when the hours of the day are numbered, the far-off waters of the Pacific will again receive them in its cool embrace." And again, the magnificent view from the summit of Mount Washington is most happily hit off by the bold expression, an epic landscape." We might make out a long list of similar poetic felicities of phrase.

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On the other hand, the style of this writer is often incorrect; his pleasantry and smartness are too studied, and often do not "voluntary move." The interjections and exclamations, with which the Letters are studded over, run quite too often into a flat key; for instance, it makes one shiver to read, at the close of a description of some fine scenery in Vermont, such a lackadaisical platitude as this: "O, the dear, dear women, I verily believe they will be the ruin of me!" The letter-writer should also have been cautious of slandering the memory of a departed poet, by imagining and imagining such a murder of the king's English is as bad as imagining the king's own death, for which terrible penalties are enacted in the law of treason - by imagining, we repeat, the possibility of Coleridge's perpetrating such a shocking vulgarity as to say, we laid down in our loneliness." The volume, however, is very readable and pleasant; but the writer can do much better, if he will think a little more of style, and be a little more select in the thoughts which he presents to the public.

VOL. LX. - - No. 127.

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7.- Life of Godfrey William von Leibnitz, on the Basis of the German Work of Dr. G. E. Guhrauer. By JOHN M. MACKIE. Boston: Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln. 1845.

12mo. pp. 288. H. Bowen.

THE remark may be applied in its full force to Leibnitz, which was first uttered, we believe, in regard to a distinguished person of very versatile talents in our own day, that "science was his forte, and omniscience his foible." Most readers have some idea of the extent of his researches in mathematics and physics, of the vast stores of his erudition, both classical and scholastic, of his manifold contributions to the sciences of German antiquities and Roman jurisprudence, and of his profound and original, but vague and speculative, system of general philosophy. He attempted every thing, accomplished much, but perfected nothing. The universality of his aims constantly interfered with the thoroughness of his work in any one department of discovery or invention; and he may be said to have sacrificed the stable reputation of the founder or improver of a particular science, in his pursuit of the glittering, but evanescent, fame of a universal genius. He was often on the verge of making important discoveries, but was stopped on the threshold by his multifarious occupations; and he consequently had frequent occasion to quarrel with the more patient laborers, who obtained all the glory of success by taking up his vague hints and imperfect sketches, and carrying the investigation resolutely to the end.

Mr. Mackie has rendered good service by giving the English reader a succinct and perspicuous account of the life and writings of Leibnitz. The basis of the book is the biography of him recently published in Germany by Dr. Guhrauer. This work is abridged, divested of its German peculiarities and of much irrelevant matter, and adapted with tact and skill to the wants of students in this country and in England. The translation of the selected parts is remarkably well done; the language being clear, flowing, and correct, and the version sufficiently faithful. To modify the work of a learned German, and thus to adapt it to English use, is a far more valuable service to our countrymen than to give an exact and entire transcript of the original. Few of the ponderous exhibitions of Teutonic industry and learning will bear a faithful version into English with any advantage. Cumbrous alike in form and matter, laden with pedantry, obscure and far-fetched in allusions and illustrations, when imported whole, they are as unpalatable as sour-krout to an Anglo-Saxon taste. The example which Mr. Mackie has set we commend to

the attention of all neophyte translators from the German, of whom we have such a swarm in our climate. We commend his work, also, both to the student of philosophy, and to the general reader who may wish to form some clear notion of the life and services of that great man, who was at once the fellow-laborer of Arnauld and Spinoza, the rival of Newton and Locke, and the progenitor of Kant and Schelling.

8.

lla

Thirteenth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind to the Corporation. Boston. 1845. 8vo. pp. 78.

No institution has done more honor to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, than the asylum for the blind, at South Boston. It has been fortunate in its inception, fortunate in its progress, fortunate in its results: but it has been thrice fortunate in having enjoyed from the beginning the services of the distinguished gentleman who has superintended its affairs. Dr. Howe's achievements in the cause of humanity it would be idle and almost presumptuous to praise; but we may be allowed to say, and we are sure the whole world will respond to the assertion, that the education of a mind from which all knowledge was quite shut out, save by a single avenue, and that the narrowest of all, is a grand result of the application of genius, and patient thought, and disinterested devotion to the relief of suffering humanity, which has for the first time been exhibited to the admiring contemplation of mankind. It is a deed that will make the doer's name dear to the coming ages; it is one in whose great light the ordinary results of human intellect and industry shrink into comparative insignificance.

The Report of the last year is one of the most interesting that have yet been made. After an exposition of the state of the institution, follows an Appendix, containing a series of communications from Dr. Howe, which will be read with the liveliest curiosity. The first is a continuation of the history of Laura Bridgman, and embodies some particulars in the development of her moral and intellectual nature, which will be likely to attract the closest attention of philosophical minds. The religious public have looked with profound interest to her case, hoping to draw from it some light to clear up the dark questions of specu lative faith; and the injudicious ardor of some religious zealots has led them, as it appears by this paper, to thwart, to a cer