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International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, by Various

V >> Various >> International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1,




* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT OF PERU has issued a decree, appointing the Minister of the
Home Department, Don Lucas Fonceas, Don Nicolas Pierola, and Don Nicolas
Rodrigo, a commission to select and take charge of articles intended to
be sent to England for exhibition next year.

* * * * *

MR. GLIDDON'S MUMMY.--We find in the _Boston Transcript_ a long letter
from Mr. Gliddon, telling the whole story, which the latest and complete
examinations of papyrus, straps, bandages, &c. have unfolded about his
mummy early this summer in Boston. It seems the said mummy was all right,
in the right coffin duly embalmed; the body being that of a priest who
died about B. C. 900. The Theban undertakers, in this particular _case_,
were honest; and all suspicion of fraud on their part is unnecessary and
unfair. Mr. Gliddon made a slight mistake, before the opening of the
coffin, in reading the fragments of the inscription; and so got the
notion that the contents were a female body. The frank, manly,
good-natured, and generous manner in which Mr. G. explains the whole
affair and owns his error, should now stop the laugh, and satisfy
everybody.

* * * * *

RACHEL is making a lucrative professional tour in Germany. The last
accounts leave her in Berlin. She has lately had built in Paris, not far
in the rear of the Madelaine, a hotel for her private residence. It is
not large, but is a perfect gem of taste, (as the French understand it)
and luxury. She receives there a choice circle of gentlemen of all
professions. The ladies who frequent her _salons_ are rarer, if not more
select. Of course none but ladies of the same profession, or of equivocal
reputation, would enjoy the elegant hospitality of the illustrious
_tragedienne_.

* * * * *

INDIA RUBBER is now so cheap and common, that the following reference to
it in the "New Monthly Review" for February, 1772, sent to "_Notes and
Queries_" by a correspondent, may cause a smile: "I have seen," says Dr.
Priestly, "a substance, excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from
paper the marks of a black lead pencil. It must, therefore, be of
singular use to those who practice drawing. It is sold by Mr. Nairne,
mathematical instrument-maker, opposite the Royal Exchange. He sells a
cubical piece, of about _half an inch_, for _three shillings_; and, he
says, it will last several years."

* * * * *

CONVENIENT UMBRELLA.-A gentleman residing at Taunton has constructed an
umbrella on a novel principle, the main feature of which is that it can
be carried in the pocket with ease. He intends sending it to the great
Exhibition of next year.

* * * * *

THE CORRESPONDENT OF THE DAILY NEWS at Constantinople; writing on the
25th ult., says: "Yesterday, the 15th of Ramazan, witnessed a famous
ceremony, which consists in adoring the _shirt_ of the prophet, preserved
in an apartment of the old Seraglio at Topkapon (Cannon-gate). The
Sultan, ministers, and high dignitaries, were admitted to kiss this
sacred relic, which will remain exposed during some days for the
veneration of the faithful."

* * * * *

THE CONTINUED EMIGRATION OF THE IRISH is one of the most remarkable
points of contemporary history. Subsequent to, or in consequence of, the
great failure of the potato crop in 1846--that calamity which
revolutionized Ireland--not less than a million of people must have left
its shores to try their fortunes this side the Atlantic. Between
emigration and the ravages of famine and pestilence, we may calculate
that the population of Ireland has diminished by at least a million and a
half or two millions since the autumn of 1846. How long the emigration
will continue, it is, of course, impossible to predict, as every new
settler in America who prospers, is the agent by which a fresh demand is
made upon the old country. It is one of the best features in the Irish
character, that, in the new land to which they flock, they do not forget
the friends or relatives that they have left behind them, and that every
packet carries money from America for the relief of people in Ireland, or
to pay their passage out to the forests or prairies of a world where
there is elbow-room for all, and where a willing heart and a stout pair
of hands are the surest passports to independence and a competency.


* * * * *


DWARKANTH TAGORE was a marvelously intelligent man, greatly in advance of
his countrymen--a man who could discern the value of European
civilization, and who devoted his energies and his means to the duty of
grafting them on Hindu society. His riches were, like all merchants', in
supposition. He had argosies, and lands, and merchandise; but what with
land rats and water rats, and mortgages, glutted markets, and
competitions of all kinds, that which had an untellable value to-day, was
at a discount to-morrow. His influence in the southern provinces of India
maintained the credit of his house while he lived; he died bequeathing no
atom of his commanding spirit and exquisite tact, and the house which he
had created, together with the Bank he had sustained, fell in the general
commercial wreck which afflicted all Calcutta three years ago. Thus much
of admirable Dwarkanth Tagore.


* * * * *


MADAME BOULANGER--the Mrs. Glover of the Paris _Opera Comique_, has a
Conspicuous place in the recent foreign obituaries. The French, in their
musical comedies, cherish _dramatis personae_ of a maturity not known on
any other musical stage, save among the background figures. "So often as
we think of the good lady in question, with hardly a note of voice left,
but overflowing with quaint humor, and willingly turning her years and
ill looks to the utmost account, with a readiness to be absurd, if the
part needed, which even a Lablache could not outdo,--so often as we
recollect her _Madame Barnek_, in 'L'Ambassadrice,' and her _La
Bocchetta_ in 'Polichinelle, some of our most comic operatic impressions
will be revived. Madame Boulanger was buried in the church of Notre
Dame."


* * * * *


TRAVELING, in France, like everything else there, has been reduced to
science, or rather to art. Companies are now formed at Paris which convey
passengers to London and back at an expense of only thirty francs--about
six dollars. They will pay all your expenses for this sum, and give you
four days in London to see all the lions. It took more time and more
money a few years ago to journey from Paris to Rouen, which is only a
few miles off. These pleasure trains, as they are called, quit Paris on
Saturday, cross the channel in a good steamer on Sunday, reaching London
in the afternoon, give the voyagers Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday in the city, leaving in time to get back to Paris by Friday
night.


* * * * *


FOUR courses of lectures will be delivered the coming season before the
Lowell Institute, Boston. One is to be on Political Economy, by Prof.
Bowen, of Cambridge; another course on Natural Religion, by Rev. Dr.
Blagden, of Boston; another by Prof. Agassiz, subject not known; and the
fourth, on the Comparative Physical Geography of the United States, and
the race that will shortly inhabit these States, by Prof. Guyot.


* * * * *


The _Gazette des Tribunaux_ announces that M. Libri has ceased to be a
member of the Legion of Honor, in virtue of the sentence of the Assize
Court of Paris, pronounced on the demand of the Grand Chancellor of the
order. Since his flight to England, some two years and a half since, he
has married there. Madame Libri is now in Paris, attempting to recover
possession of the furniture, and other personal effects, which M. Libri
was compelled to leave behind him in his flight.


* * * * *


The _Opinion Publique_ has the following:--"Is it known who at this
moment inhabits the small house at Brompton, occupied some few months
since by M. Guizof? It is M. Ledru-Rollin. Thus, M. Ledru-Rollin, an
exile, succeeds at Brompton in his house of exile, M. Guizot, whom he
succeeded at Paris in the Government."


* * * * *


The Committee of the Associate Institution for Improving and Enforcing
the Laws for the Protection of Women, intends to offer a prize of 100
guineas for the best Essay on the Laws for the Protection of Women.


* * * * *


DR. T. SOUTHWOOD SMITH, who was the medical member of the General Board
of Health during the period of the Orders in Council, has been appointed
the second member of the Board provided by the English Metropolitan
Interment Act.


* * * * *


The _Gazette_ of Rome, of the 9th, contains the nomination of the Abbe
Talbot, son of Lord Talbot of Malahide, and lately priest of St.
George's, Westminster-bridge-road, to the office of _camereire secreto._


* * * * *

[Illustration: JENNY LIND AT THE CASTLE AMPHITHEATER.]

The arrival of JENNY LIND is the most memorable event thus far in our
musical history. The note of preparation had been sounding for half a
year; her name, through all the country, had become a household word;
and every incident in her life, and every judgment of her capacities, had
been made familiar, by the admirable tactician who had hazarded so much
of his fortune in her engagement. The general interest was increased by
the accounts in the chief foreign journals of her triumphal progress
through England, and when at length she reached New-York, her reception
resembled the ovations that are offered to heroes. Her first concert was
given at the Castle Amphitheater, on the 11th September, to the largest
audience ever assembled for any such occasion in America. There was an
apprehension among the more judicious that the performances would fall
below the common expectations; but the most sanguine were surprised by
the completeness of her triumph. She surpassed all that they had ever
heard, or dreamed, or imagined. It was, as the _Christian Inquirer_
happily observes, as if all the birds of Eden had melted their voices
into one, to rise in gushing song upon the streaming light to salute the
sun. Her later concerts have increased rather than diminished the
enthusiasm produced by her first appearance. Mlle. Lind is accompanied
by M. Benedict, the well known composer, and by Signer Belletti, whose
voice is the finest _baritone_ probably ever heard in New York, and whose
style is described by the _Albion_ as "near perfection." The orchestral
arrangements for her concerts have never been surpassed here. Many were
deterred from being present at her first appearance by a fear of crowds
and tumults, but so perfect were Mr. Barnum's appointments that all the
vast assemblies at the Castle have been as orderly as the most quiet
evening parties in private houses.

The personal interest in Mlle. Lind is almost as great as the interest in
the singer. Her charities in New York have already reached more than
$15,000. and it is understood that all the profits of her engagement in
America, not thus dispensed here, are appropriated by her for the
establishment of free schools in Sweden.

Mlle. Lind has given to the Fire Department Fund, $3,000; Musical Fund
Society, $2,000; Home for the Friendless, Society for the Relief of
Indigent Females, Dramatic Fund Association, Home for Colored and Aged
Persons, Colored and Orphan Association, Lying-in Asylum for Destitute
Females, New York Orphan Asylum, Protestant Half-Orphan Asylum, Roman
Catholic Half-Orphan Asylum, and Old Ladies Asylum, each $500. Total,
$10,000. The lives of Mr. Barnum, Jenny Lind, M. Benedict, and Signor
Belletti, with all the details of the concerts, have been issued in a
pamphlet displaying the usual tyographical richness and elegance of Van
Norden & Leslie, Fulton-street.

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