cedent in point, it would only apply to three [There is a time, says the wise man, for evtrades, confectioners, comb-makers, and ery thing; and, as Horace truly observes, wax-chandlers; but we go further and say, Dulce est desipere in loco;

non constat, that the bee would not make more honey if it were to make less harmo- but the present is not the time, and England ny, a view confirmed by the apparent etymo- is not the place for the Hullah-baloo speculogy of the latter word, which is quasi harm-lation. "Merry England" belongs to the honey. To this we know it may be replied, history of the past; we might almost say to that melody is derivable from the Latin mel, the days of romance, when Oberon sat on the showing that the humming of the bee was British throne, with Titania his Queen Conanciently considered favorable to the sweet sort, and Puck his Prime Minister. It is manufacture. There is, however, a wide only for flourishing states to practise appodifference between humming a tune and giaturas; and the worst time for a country singing a song; and besides, the bee never is when it is "falling into the cinque-pace hums tunes at all, so that "singing for the [sink-apace] faster and faster," as Beatrice million" cannot be supported by the instance says in the play. of the hive-ites. Indeed, the drone would be an example more in point, for the drone is much noisier than the working-bee, and the perfect type of a worthless warbler.

But to return to the arguments of our classical scholars, they expatiate upon the stories of Arion, Orpheus, Amphion, Timotheus, and the other fiddlers and pipers of antiquity. Now if our modern music-masters, the professors of "singing for the million," insist upon running a parallel with

Let the millions be taught the virtues of the bee, with all our heart; but we protest against teaching them the single vice that the little insect is guilty of. A humming the first of these worthies, we are perfectly cup of ale is a good old English institution; but there cannot be conceived a grosser humbug than a humming nation. We promise Mr. Hullah's bees that we shall keep cells for them at St. Luke's, where they shall sing their madrigals without deafening all England.

ready to gratify them, for the first proceedthe British channel, in order to ascertain ing must be to treat them to a ducking in the British channel, in order to ascertain whether the dolphins of the present day are as musical as the dolphins of ancient Greece. In like manner, when our ears are saluted with the cry of

An Orpheus! an Orpheus!

Another argument is derived from the harmonious propensities of the ancient we invariably wish the performer the same Greeks. Now though it may be wise to do audience that the original Orpheus had, and at Rome what Romans do, it by no means nothing would please us more than to set follows that we ought to do in England the modern to play for the tigers in a jungle, what the Greeks did. The practice of the or for a select party of bears, wolves, panpagan world is a pretty example to hold up thers, and hyenas, in one of the enclosures to Christendom. The reasoning is worthy of the Zoological Gardens. As to Amphiof Martinus Scriblerus, or the classic doc-on, if he built a city with his "do, re, mi, fa, tor in "Peregrine Pickle." The name of sol, la, si," he certainly did a very clever Christendom ought to be changed to Twee-thing; but then we are to recollect that the dledum, if we decide upon resolving our city he built was Thebes! This, however, selves into a nation of fiddlers and ballad- may be the very circumstance that makes singers, because every gamin of the streets the precedent so attractive. Our modern of Athens was taught to troll a catch before Thebans are probably in want of a capital, he had learned his catechism, or knew Jupi-and they are certainly numerous enough to ter from a Hamadryad. Besides, the exam- fill a large one. ple of the Athenians is neutralized by that of the stupid Thebans and asinine Arcadians, who were just as inveterate songsters as their neighbors. Pindar was notoriously a Baotian, and the name of Arcadian was a synonyme for a melodious booby. It ought to be remembered, also, that

As to Timotheus, we marvel they are not ashamed to plead the example of a firebrand, who was the very reverse of Amphion, for he caused the destruction of a metropolis, instead of building one. It is said of Timotheus, that he made Alexander the Great skip up and down the banquet-room, and forget his dinner. No doubt in this way a

Music, heavenly maid, was young, When first in early Greece she sung. * Adam Smith, hearing some educational quack of Music is now, if not an old maid, a lady the day holding forth upon the marvels of his system, of a certain age, and ought to have more by which he affirmed that even tigers might be brought discretion than to caterwaul in the public by observing that, he "should like to see the profesto the highest degree of civilization, interrupted him streets like a cat on a moonlight night.sor in a cage with a couple of his pupils."

MR. EVERETT'S LETTER.

THE letter below is a reply of our minister to a memorial of more than nine hundred holders of American bonds.-ED.

modern Timotheus might do some good; not in making "the great" forget that mo-. mentous meal (for that were an exploit beyond the power of the God of Melody him. self,) but in producing an oblivion of dinner in the minds of those with whom at present with the request contained in the memorial which Mr. Scholefield and Gentlemen-In compliance it is only a pleasure of imagination, or at you have now presented to me, I will avail mybest, one of the pleasures of memory. self of the first opportunity of transmitting it to The system in question is undoubtedly the President of the United States. To avoid classical in one respect-namely, as a revi- misconception it is proper that I should observe, val of the ancient fable of the apple of dis- that, inasmuch as the general government is not cord, as if we were not sufficiently disposed the subject of the memorial does not fall directly a party to the contracts of the separate States, by nature to play our several parts in life in within the President's province, and that I am conflicting keys, without actual instruction myself acting unofficially in forwarding it to him. to "set us by the ears." Perhaps the music-I do it, however, with cheerfulness, out of respect for-the-million-men flatter themselves that to the members of this distinguished deputation. the way to put down party tunes is to strike Nor am I less under the influence of the deepest up national concertos; but there cannot be sympathy with that numerous class whom you a more grievous delusion, for as it has been them I fear ruinously, from the failure (temporepresent, who have suffered severely, some of truly said, that "the death of party is the rary, I trust) of a portion of the American States birth of faction," so the attempt to get up to pay the interest of their public debt. These a millionette will assuredly end in breeding feelings, I am sure, will be shared by the Presia swarm of little vocal factions, the combined effect of whose several pulmonary ex-doctrine that a State, which has pledged its faith I concur with you in protesting against the ertions will be the production of such har and resources, can release itself from the obligamony as was heard some thousand years tion, however burdensome, in any way but that ago in the first music-hall that was ever es- of honorable payment. Fatal delusions, in times tablished, and on the model of which Exeter of great distress, occasionally come over the Hall was undoubtedly instituted--to wit the minds of communities as well as individuals; celebrated Tower of Babel! Why, even in but I rejoice in the belief that the number is exthe political world have we not often seen ceedingly small of those who have, in any form, parties of fifties, and even hundreds, dwin- pudiation." I am convinced that those States, advanced the idea of what has been called "redle down to quartettes, trios, and sometimes which unhappily have failed to make provision even to duets and solos? There was the for the interest due on their bonds, have done so Darby-Dilly party, just numerous enough to under the heavy pressure of adverse circumfill a stage coach. Nay, we have seen two stances, and not with the purpose of giving a worthy senators separate themselves from legislative sanction to a doctrine so pernicious, the common herd of lawgivers, and form a unworthy, and immoral. party of a few days' duration, at the close of which period the party broke up and split into fragments, each worthy senator becoming a faction in himself, and screaming his political solo to his wondering constituents.

ROMAN ANTIQUITIES.-There have lately been discovered near the town of Hyères, in the Var, the remains of an ancient Roman city. Excavations having been made to the extent of between 80 and 100 yards in a line from the sea-shore, there have been opened out a hypocaust of large dimensions, reservoirs, &c, and several walls faced with curious paintings, one of which is semi-circular. These paintings were at first very fresh, but faded on exposure to the light and air. They are composed of arabesques, figures of men and animals, flowers, and other ornaments, fantastically arranged, similar to the most beautiful of those found at Herculaneum and Pompeii. Pottery, vases, medals, coins, &c. have been dug up.—Athenæum.

dent.

for sympathy with their sufferings. There is, The memorialists are pleased to give me credit perhaps, no person, not himself directly a sufferer, who has had so much reason as myself to feel deeply all the evil effects-the sacrifice not merely of material prosperity, but what is of infinitely greater consequence, of public honor-resulting from this disastrous failure. The reproach which it has brought on the American name has been the only circumstance which has prevented a residence in the land of my fathers from being a source of unmingled satisfaction to me. You may well believe, therefore, that if any opinion of mine can have an influence (as you suppose) over any portion of my countrymen, favorable to the great end you have in view, it will be, on all proper occasions, as it has been, most emphatically expressed.

The position, gentlemen, of some at least of the indebted States is as singular as it is deplorable. They have involved themselves most unadvisably in engagements, which would be onerous to much larger and richer communities; and they yet possess, under an almost hopeless present embarrassment, the undoubted means of eventual recovery. I will take the State of Illinois for instance, and what I say of that State

will hold of others, making allowance for differ- of the world, in so short a period, such a transience of local circumstances. The State of Illi- tion has been made from a state of high prosnois undertook a few years since the construc- perity to one of general distress, as in the Unition of a ship canal of about one hundred miles ted States within the last six years. And yet, in length, to unite the waters of Lake Michigan gentlemen, the elasticity and power of recovery with those of the Illinois river; and more recent-in the country are great beyond the conception ly projected and commenced the execution of of those who do not know it from personal obthirteen hundred miles of railway. On these servation. Even within this disastrous period, works she has borrowed and expended above to which I have alluded, a private commercial twenty millions of pounds. The works are in- debt to this country, estimated at twenty-five complete and unproductive. The population of millions of pounds sterling, has been paid by the the State is that of a second-sized English coun- American merchants, with as little loss to the ty, short of half a million. It is what in good creditors as would attend the collection of an times would be considered an eminently pros- equal amount of domestic debt, in this or any perous population; but I am inclined to think other country. that if the English income tax of last year were, But I will not detain you, gentlemen, by enby the legislature of Illinois, laid on that State, larging on these topics. The subject, I need not more than half the population, possessing in the tell you, is one on which, in all respects, it is aggregate that proportion of the taxable prop- proper that I should speak with reserve. I think erty, would, in the present period of general dis- I shall have done my duty, if I have convinced tress, fall below the point of exemption, and that you that I am keenly sensible of the sufferings of the other half a small number only would rise of your constituents, and truly solicitous for their much above that point. And yet the undevel- effectual relief; and that amidst all the unceroped resources of Illinois are almost boundless. tainties and delay, which may attend the meaThe State is larger than England and Wales. sures requisite for that purpose, I still feel confiBy the Mississippi it is connected with the Gulf dent that the time will come when every State of Mexico, by Lake Michigan with the St. Law-in the Union will fulfil its engagement. rence; and it has a most extensive internal navigation by means of several noble rivers. The climate of the State is mild; it contains, I suppose, as large a body of land, not merely cultivable, but highly fertile, as can be found lying together in the United States; it abounds in various kinds of mineral wealth; it is situated about in the centre of a horizontal field of bituminous coal, which Mr. Lyell pronounced the other day to be as large as Great Britain; and it is inhabited by an industrious, frugal, intelligent people, most rapidly increasing in numbers.-That such a people will for any length of time submit to lie under the reproach, and bear the loss incident to a total prostration of public credit, I can

never believe.

I say, gentlemen, the loss as well as the reproach, for wide-spread and severe as has been the suffering in this country, caused by the default of some of the States, our own losses, pub lic and private, I believe to have been greater. The States themselves, as governments, have experienced the greatest embarrassments from the sudden destruction of credit (extending alike to those States which have and those which have not honorably and promptly met their obligations); that credit on which alone, in some instances, they depended for the resources necessary to complete and render productive their public works. The General Government of the United States, after having paid off a public debt of more than two hundred millions of dollars, has found itself unable to negotiate a trifling loan in this great metropolis of the financial world, whose superabundant capital, but for the default of some of the States, would have continued to be for those States themselves, and for individuals, a vast gold mine of unexhausted capacity In addition to these public embarrassments, private fortunes almost without number have been destroyed, in the general wreck of which the failure of the States, as cause or effect, is one of the principal elements. I doubt if, in the history

EDWARD EVERETT. 40 Grosvenor-place, March 31.

LAST OF THE BARONS.
From the Britannia.

The Last of the Barons. By the author of
"Rienzi." Three vols. Saunders and
Ottley.

"THE Last of the Barons" is that great earl-styled by Shakespeare the "mighty Warwick"-who set up and pulled down kings at his pleasure, and whose wonderful feats, varied fortune, and memorable death, filling as they do some of the most striking pages of English history, are (among the earliest of our recollections. Every one will at once be reminded of those passages in Hume, which describe his magnificence and power, and of the closing sentence of that paragraph which details his vast resources, his retainers, his hospitality, and his courage: "He was the greatest, as well as the last, of those mighty barons who formerly overawed the Crown." This is the motto of Sir E. Bulwer's book.

It must be acknowledged that this time, at least, he has been fortunate in a subject which abounds in incidents and characters suitable to a splendid historical romance, and which yet has remained comparatively unhacknied. No period of English history is more crowded with events, exhibits more sudden and startling reverses of fortune, more dazzling successes and deeper wretch

edness, or is filled with more conspicuous popular with the vulgar," caricatured Richactors standing apart from the rest of man-ard as hump-backed, when, in reality, the kind, by their native vigor of character, and only deformity of his person consisted in their supreme pre-eminence in whatever one shoulder being higher than the other. qualities they affected, than that which is Is it possible that Sir Edward really thinks occupied with the wars of the Roses. In that the world, since Shakspeare's death, that stormy time, the natural dispositions has been quite mistaken in its estimate of and passions of men had full scope for their his dramas, and that he at last is born to set exercise; the ordinary restraints even of it right? This offensive arrogance is conimperfectly civilized society were abandon- tinually repeated. He has picked up a few ed, and in the continual tumult of civil strife, phrases of the time, has got two or three the novelist, who delights most in the strange verses of an old ballad, and has dipped into and wild extremes of human life, in battles, Stow and Hall, and in the plenitude of his conspiracies, unnatural cruelty, and broken confidence imagines that he is entitled to faith, may find circumstances to fill his nar- express an authoritative opinion on all rative without the necessity of drawing on points that have perplexed previous writers his imagination. The history of that age and to rate the public soundly for their vulresembles one of those tapestried walls, gar prejudices and blind ignorance. He crowded with figures in every variety of ascertains that Richard was only nineteen action, where, without any intermediate di- when he is first introduced on the scene by vision, the peaceful chamber runs directly Shakspeare, and immediately conceives into a triumphal procession, and a solemn that he has convicted the poet of serious marriage or stately feast is succeeded by a error, and has made a discovery only second field of battle strewed with dying and dead. in magnitude to that of Newton, when he It is unfortunate that in his treatment of revealed the law of gravitation. We have the subject the author could not divest him- no pleasure in making these remarks; they self of those affected mannerisms which are forced from us by the author's absurd never occur but to excite disgust or con- pretensions to merit to which he has no tempt. We read the narratives of Scott claim, and to knowledge which is common with a feeling of their reality; if the por- to every ordinary reader of English history. traits and scenes are highly colored, they If he would be content with plainly issuing are never so exaggerated as to seem unnatu- his romances, as Scott did before him, withral, and the author himself is kept so entire- out vaunting their value as historical comly in the background, that the mind is wholly positions, or pretending to dictate to the engaged with his creations. But Bulwer public the judgment they shall form, he perpetually disturbs the current of his story, would save himself much unnecessary pain. and thrusts himself before us by some antic Whatever may be his own opinion of his of composition. His capitals and small labors, he may rest assured that no person capitals, intended to give greater prominen- desiring accurate information on the events cy to stale or feeble sentiments, and his perpetual jargon of the Ideal and the Actual, have exactly the same effect upon the mind as the clap-traps of a bad actor on the stage. In each case the vanity of the individual destroys the illusion it should be his object to create, and excites anger for his impertinent intrusion, instead of admiration of his mountebank follies. This unfortunate habit has which they consider good, by voluntary subscription. CHINESE PUBLISHING.-The Chinese print books, so grown upon Sir Edward, that he cannot Some persons subscribe, and have a work cut in make the commonest and most obvious re- wood; a few copies are then printed, stating where flection, without a flourish that intimates he the books are deposited, and others are invited to has made a profound discovery. Thus he the public benefit. The invitation is frequently achave additional copies struck off, to be circulated for tells us that during the struggle between cepted. An individual who wishes for fifty or a the houses of York and Lancaster patriot- hundred copies, sends to the warehouse, the number ism was almost wholly unknown, and posi-tered among the subscribers to the object.—Lit. Gaz. desired is then printed off, and his name duly registively seems to suppose that such an idea never occurred to any individual before. superior to all that have hitherto been taken out.WOOD PAVING.-Another patent! and of course He takes on himself the task of lecturing Perring's patent wood paving affords a surface which us in history, and abuses Shakspeare with presents a secure foothold for horses, may be laid out mercy for having "in his fiery tragedy, duced rate. down in the steepest streets in London, and at a reAt least so says the prospectus forwardleast worthy of the poet, and therefore mosted to us.-Ibid. VOL. II. No. I. 7

of the period, will ever think of searching for it in "The Last of the Barons," or that the little foot-notes ostentatiously appended to some of the pages, will give any other impression than that the writer is not more than superficially acquainted with his subject.

Yet reckless mars them both when "valiantly" he hundred thousand men were destroyed; besides five hun