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said of us we must remark, and quote this spicy treat from the Times;-it will come into our country readers' hands on the week of the Fourth of July; and while they brush up their memory of what once happened on that anniversary, they may enjoy this running glimpse of the old spirit rekindled:

If the Americans do excite a smile, it is by their pretensions. Whenever they come out of their own province of rugged utility, and enter into competition with European elegance, they certainly do make themselves ridiculous. Their furniture is grotesque; their carriages and harness are gingerbread; their carpets are tawdry; their patchwork quilts surpass even the invariable ugliness of this fabric; their cut glass is clumsy; their pianos sound of nothing but iron and wood; their bookbinding is that of a journeyman working on his own account in an English market-town; their daguerreotypes are the sternest and gloomiest of all daguerreotypes; their printed calicoes are such as our housemaids would not think it respectable to wear. Even their ingenuity, great as it is, becomes ridiculous when it attempts competition with Europe. Double pianos, a combination of a piano and a violin, a chair with a cigar-case in its back, and other mongrel constructions belong to a people that would be centaurs and mermen if they could, and are always rebelling against the trammels of unity. But why should the Americans take it so much to heart if they cannot be all things at once? Would it be reasonable that Paris should envy them the possession of a continent? Then why should they envy Paris, or any other city, its natural aptitude for art? The Americans cannot be all things at once. In some things they claim to surpass the whole world, and expect their supremacy to be allowed as a matter of course. In other respects they are as plainly behindhand, and must remain so for ages. The Americans have really no occasion to fret at the homely and even uncouth figure they cut by the side of their neighbors. Even supposing they heard a few sneers,' they may say, with the wealthy man :

'Populus mihi, sibilat, at mihi plaudo
Ipse domi.'

"A nation with a continent in its pocket can afford to be laughed at. After all, the American section is the fittest possible pic ture of the geographical part, not merely as fastidious Europeans might describe it, but even as it would strike an American himself in his progress from the Broadway to the Missouri or the Rio Grande. Is America not content with being America, but does it

to ascertain their own place and keep to it than to be many nations in one. They will see that, as Europe cannot be America, so America cannot be Europe."

The Art Journal continues its beautiful illustrations of the showy objects at the Fair, and the picture papers of the metropolis give us shows of every circumstance of importance that transpires within the walls of the palace,

A fancy-ball which was to be given by the Queen, was creating the usual amount of talk in London circles; report said that it would as much surpass any previous ball of the kind, as the exhibition surpassed all former exhibitions. Americans were to be present; but only such as claimed the privilege in virtue of diplomatic position. The following names appear in the list of the invited :—

"Hon. Abbott Lawrence, U. S. Minister; Hon. Mr. Van Alen, late U. S. Charge d'Affaires to Ecuador; Mr. Bancroft Davis, Secretary to the Legation; T. B. Lawrence, Attaché to the Legation. Mr. Lawrence was to appear as Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts; Mr. Van Alen as Governor Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch Governors of New York; Mr. Davis as William Penn; and Col. Lawrence as Lord Baltimore.”

Upon the continent of Europe, since our chronicle has wandered thither, there

has been increasing agitations. France, in the opinion of nearly all of the foreign letterwriters, seems on the eve of some decided change of administration, if not of positive revolution. This imminence of change is asserted no less strongly by the Red Republicans than by the monarchists; the first counting, with their usual breadth of faith, upon a return to the days and privileges of the Provisional Government and national

workshops; and the last reckoning no less surely upon the reinstation of that old limb of the monarchy, which can alone, in their judgment, give any permanence to the French state.

As for Louis Napoleon, (whom they call more and more "le Prince,") he appears just now to be occupying ground by himself. A recent speech of his at Dijon in the eastern quarter of France, is very much commented upon; and his announcements on that occasion seem to have been so in

want to be Europe also? Let it beware inflammatory, that his cabinet were obliged

time of that fatal ambition. If the United to issue in the columns of the Moniteur an States are wise they will be more anxious amended edition. However the truth may

be in regard to the speech in question, he is now at issue with the Orleanists, by open hostility; with the Legitimists, by hostility, still more decided;-with the Red Republicans, by decided remuneration on their part; and with the Moderates and the Assembly as a body, by lack of confidence, and (if his speech is not belied) by open defiance. The President then stands on his name, and his vigor; we shall see how they will sustain him.

A criminal trial which, at the last

advices, was in progress at Mons, in Belgium, has excited a very large share of attention throughout Europe. Those implicated hold high stations, and the alleged crime is of a most revolting kind-viz., the murder of a brother at the table of his own sister! We speak of the trial of the Count and Countess of Becarmé; an infirm brother of the latter paid them a visit at their chateau; he was reputed very rich, and had announced to them his intention of speedily marrying: on a certain day he dined with them, when (contrary to custom) the children and servants were excluded from the saloon. After dessert was served some ten minutes elapsed, when there was heard a cry for help-in the tones of the brother of the countess. Upon the entrance of the servants the man was dying; the poison supposed to be used was nicotine, an extract of tobacco. From the testimony we have seen thus far, (reported in the Courrier des Etats Unis,) it appears that the husband accuses the wife, and the wife the husband. There was undoubted collusion in the matter of the murder, and the probability is that both will meet con

demnation.

The proposal to buy up the Crystal Palace for a perinanent exhibition has been much bruited; but it would seem without a due consideration of the immense stake involved. In relation to it we quote the following very sensible remarks from the London Athenæum.

"To pay the entire expenses of the Exhibition, and to buy the building as a perpetual palace for the people, will require about £300,000. Towards this sum £65,000 have been raised by subscription, £65,486 have been received for the sale of season tickets, and up to Thursday night the amount received at the doors for admission was £37, 702; making altogether, at the end of only three weeks, a total of £168,188. As the

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masses have yet to come in at the reduced rates, the receipts at the doors will probably for the next hundred days; and if so, we not fall below the average of £1500 a day may add to the present total a prospect of £150,000. There have been divers hints of buying up, not only the Crystal Palace, but all that it contains. Nothing seems impossible in face of the huge facts before them-and even figures would seem to have acquired a new power as applicable to the Great Exhibition. We are sorry to interfere with this calenture of the imagination-but Cocker must have his rights even in the Palace of Glass. The value of its contents has been variously estimated; but we heard no one appraise them at less than twelve millions, and some calculations go up as high as thirty. Let us assume the lowest figure to be correct, for the sake of a sum to be worked after the fashion of the venerable shade whom we have invoked. How soon could the Royal Commission raise twelve millions of money, even were they certain to receive from the public at the doors £2,000 daily, over and above all the expenses of management? In just 6,000 days; after deducting Sundays and other religious days, when the palace must of course be closed, in exactly 20 years! Look at the question in another point of view. At £5 per cent. per annum, the interest on twelve millions is £600,000 a year; or, leaving out Sundays and a few other non-productive days, just £2,000 a day! If the contents of the Exhibition be really worth twenty millions, a daily income of £3,300 would not discharge the mere interest on the capital lying dead in the Crystal Palace. The suggestions, therefore, of purchasing the Exhibition, in order to keep its contents together, is one which merely shows to what wild poetic heights the imagination may climb up to the wonderful shafts of the Palace of Glass.

"The world once possessed of an encyclopædia of knowledge like this, who can bear to think that the volume shall ever be closed, and its pages scattered to the distant corners of the earth. The workers in silk, wool, worstand other woods-the makers of musical and ed, gold, silver, iron, and copper, mahogany, scientific instruments, watches, chronometers, carriages, agricultural machines, and fountains: the producers of flowers and plants, decorators and stained-glass makers, sculptors and carvers in wood and ivory, printers and hand-workers of most kinds, would in all probability be glad to have such a universal and permanent exhibition-room for their wares, works, and discoveries. Many things of more curiosity and rarity would no doubt be removed; but the absence of the Koh-inoor, the Spanish jewels, the Indian diamonds, and similar articles, if it should be proved to lessen the mere splendor of the exhibition, would not materially detract

either from its moral interest or its practical usefulness. The earnest seeker after knowledge is more attracted by a collection of minerals and metallic ores than by the Russian or the Portuguese diamonds valued at millions. "Specimens of the jewelry, which borrow their highest value from the genius of the artist, would probably be left as examples and advertisements. We do not doubt that it would be worth the while of our most eminent goldsmiths to maintain a show-room in the Great Exhibition, to be from time to time supplied with whatever is new and excellent in their current manufactures. The same may be surmised of our great drapery and silk mercers. What artist would not be glad to have a certain space assigned to him on the walls of the National Gallery on the easy condition of always having a picture hung there! In the Crystal Palace, the artist and artisan in silk, cotton, wool, metal, and so forth, might, under some such arrangement as we are proposing, obtain their National Gallery and Academy. Even in the series of costly and complicated machines in motion, we imagine that not a few of the most beautiful and interesting would be willingly allowed to remain. Most of these machines, we believe, are made in model. They can not be sold or used in actual factories. If taken away, they will be either broken up or buried in local museums. Their proprietors would naturally prefer that they should remain as their advertisements and representatives in the great centre of observation. There is plenty of room, besides, for a winter garden. Indeed, the place is a garden now; and its beauty,-in that respect would increase with every year. The contributions of industry leave plenty of space for trees, and shrubs, and flowers. The elm and the palm tree here grow side by side; and there will be room abundant for exotic plant and indigenous parterre. The works of mind and the works of nature already blend here with a harmony of tints and tones beyond the power of imagination to have conceived. There never was an epic thought or an epic poem at once so vast and so full of beauty. The infinite multiplication of the varieties have produced the first great unity, The place is even now all that the heart, the senses, and the imagina

tion can desire."

THE BOOK WORLD.

and reflects very much credit upon Mr. Gutierrez who has had the care of both letter-press and engravings. As for the designs, some are exceedingly effective, some are tame, and some, though effective-are of highly questionable taste; we allude particularly to the Beauty and Death, in illustration of a few lines by Mrs. SIGOURNEY. If we are not greatly mistaken in the character of the poetess, Mrs. S. will be sadly shocked by such a horrible exaggeration of her meaning. The literary execution of No. 1 is by no means equal to the mechanical nicety of the book; and the articles scarce rise above, if indeed they equal, the ordinary contents of the "Lady Magazines." It is an ambitious, but a worthy project, and we hope for it all success.

Mr. HART, of Philadelphia, has recently published, in his usual, neat, and eminently readable manner, a new tale by Mrs. LEE HENTZ. The success of her other writings will secure for the present issue, we cannot doubt, a rapid sale.

Among the Philadelphia magazines, for the month, that of SARTAIN distinguishes itself the present month by an increased quantity of matter, and by a great variety of engravings. GRAHAM has, however, the gem of the July engravings, in a stipple by MOTE, after one of HAYTER'S drawings. We had supposed, however, that GRAHAM WAS strictly an American affair;-how is it then, that we find in it an engraving by MOTE?

The British monthlies for June, which came to hand at an unusually late date, have their usual variety. "My Novel," and

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Maurice Tiernay" are continued in the columns of Blackwood, and of the Dublin University Magazines; and Fraser has a new installment of Mr. BRISTED'S "Sketches by a New Yorker." We have marked a portion of the paper for insertion, and by way of contrast with his sketch of Long Island Trotting, we shall publish in the next issue, a glimpse of an English Raceground, from Household Words.

Among recent issues which are specially noticeable in England, the last month, are

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The Parthenon is the title of a new work to be published in serial parts by Messrs. Loomis & Griswold, and to contain characteristic original productions of the best The Kaleidoscope of Anecdotes and Apho authors in the country, elegantly illustrated. risms," by MISS SINCLAIR, author of " Modern The authors named are among the best Accomplishments; “The Attaché in Spain,” known of the country, and the artists are by an American; "Second Love," by Mrs. DARLEY, BILLINGS, WALLEN, &c. TROLLOPE; Bulwer's New Play; and Mrs. The first number is exquisitely printed, BROWNING's " Casa Guidi Windows.”

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THE Mansion House, at the corner of Walbrook and King William-strect, is the official residence of the Lord Mayor, the chief magistrate of London, who is renewed annually. The building occupies the site of a market, and was begun in 1739, by the elder Dance. The façade, which is crowded and overloaded without being rich, has allegorical sculpture in the pediment, designed by Sir Robert Taylor, which, like the only other ornament of the kind, that of the East India House, being turned to the north, is not intelligible; yet its contrast with that lately executed upon the Royal Exchange is not flattering

VOL II.-31

to our progress in sculpture between 1745 and 1845. A long narrow attic which originally ran across the centre of the roof, and was called the Mayor's (mare's) nest, has been removed. The Mansion House contains some handsome rooms, of which the principal is called the Egyptian Hall, being an imitation of what Vitruvius describes under that name. The Mayor here gives a splendid private entertainment on Easter Monday, and is always expected to spend during the year, on other festivities and for public purposes, at least the £8000 which he receives as salary, and much more is usually spent.

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We give here a representation of two of | one best known to Americans. Members of the famous Club-Houses of London; and our diplomatic corps are not unfrequently we open with the Travellers', since it is the guests at its tables.

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