. tle schooner of ninety tons, with a crew | Richardson, and Franklin, or tired by numerous of eighteen men, including captain and voyages in search of whales, form a chosen crew. officers, and sailing on tee-total principles, Mr. John Hepburn, who followed Franklin in his was not very agreeable; "but would it rivers, has arrived in all haste from Van Dieman's examination of the Coppermine and Mackenzie have been possible for a French officer to land, to furnish a fresh proof of his devotion to draw back on account of a few dangers his old captain. Mr. Leask, pilot of the North to be incurred?" Evidently not; the Star, who knows the Baffin and Barrow Straits, honor of the uniform was concerned, and as well as you do your library, is our ice-master. the warmth of the thanks and the sympa- At our head is Captain Kennedy, a captain in thies of which the volunteer was the ob- the Hudson's Company's service, a man of an anject, redoubled his enthusiasm and devo- cient stock; a scion of those Puritans, whose dauntless courage has its source in the most tion to the hallowed enterprise. The so- lively faith; one of those models from whom journ in London during those few days Cooper has taken his Pathfinder.' Alone, in was, in truth, a sort of ovation, in the the midst of these men, tried by incredible suffercourse of which the amiable vanity of the ings, I bring, instead of experience, a boundless young man was fully gratified, and the ardor; but I have confidence. Have we not the gallantry and heartiness of his kindly, justice of our cause to back us up?” happy nature were displayed in all their attractive freshness. "Who is that young officer of the French navy, with an air of such decision, and who wears his precocious decoration so jauntily?" said Jules Janin to somebody. "That is,' replied the person addressed, M. Bellot, the enseigne de vaisseau, who has volunteered to take part in the new expedition which is about to sail in search of Franklin.' Instantly Janin runs up to him, and says: Ma foi, monsieur, I had a great wish to know you; you are a brave man; allow me to clasp your hand.' I loved him at once, the charming lad, whom I saw but for two or three hours, said Janin, in relating the incident." The Prince Albert sailed from Aberdeen on the 22d of May, 1851, and she reëntered that port on the 7th of October, 1852, not having escaped from the ice, in which she was set fast for three hundred and thirty days, until the 6th of August. During the whole of this period, with the exception of a few weeks, Bellot kept a journal, from day to day, which, his biographer has now given to the public, and which can not be read without deep interest. It is true it contains nothing novel in science or in adventure for those versed in Arctic-voyage literature, but as the reflex of a simple, loyal, religious, and brave heart, and as a faithful record of the social life of the little company of true-hearted seamen into which he was adopted, every page of it is a study of the pleasantest side of our common nature. In a letter to M. Marmier, Bellot thus describes his companions: It was truly a strange companionship, as he elsewhere observes in his diary, in which he found himself— "Commanding men of a foreign nation; an officer of a military-marine service among men bound solely by a civil engagement; a Catholic, endeavoring to keep alive in their minds a different religion, in which they have been educated, and the precepts of which I deliver to them in a Nevertheless (he tongue which is not my own. adds) there is not one of these men who does not regard me as a countryman, and obey me as if I were really so." Among the notables of the crew, with whom the journal brings us into close acquaintance, there were, besides these named above, the doctor, Cowie, who seems to have been a special worthy; Mr. Anderson, the second officer; Mr. Smith, the steward; and Mr. Grate, the boatswain. And never, so far as can be learned. from the journal, did a more harmonious or cheerful party dwell together for seventeen months. Their carousals, indeed, were few and far between. At starting, a few bottles of porter, remaining from the last voyage, were consumed, to wet the first watch of the foreign shipmate; a ration of brandy was now and then conceded to the petitions of the forecastle, when teetotalism could no longer be endured; and the birthday of the old Rochefort blacksmith was celebrated by a grand symposium, when the doctor, having casually become acquainted with the circumstances of the anniversary, had a little collation prepared after dinner, and the whole crew drank a glass of grog to the health of the family Bellot. But then, each day brought its festival of prayer and praise. No sooner had Captain Kennedy recovered a little from the sea-sickness, to which the rough seas of the Orkneys consigned almost every one on board, than he mustered all hands to prayers on deck, and this practice was continued morning and evening during the entire voyage. Few narratives we have ever read have seemed to us more touching than the entries in the journal incidentally alluding to these ministrations, and to the part taken in them by the young French Roman Catholic. Of a nature deeply impressed with the religious sentiment, he had manifestly thought but little of these things before chance brought him within the influence of English habits: "On Sunday (he writes to a friend, in reference to his first arrival in London) I went to the Protestant Church. The officer who had goodnaturedly made himself my cicerone, said to me, with so natural an air, What church shall we go to?' that I durst not tell him how long it was since I had left off going to mass; and I went as much to avoid giving him a bad opinion of me as from any real inclination." The first impression was strengthened during his short stay at Stromness, when the following entries were made in his diary: "Sunday, 25th May, 1851.-We moored in the morning in Stromness roads. At two o'clock we go on shore with the crew, and repair to the Free Church. Prayers are said for us, and the congregation are called upon to put up vows for our prosperous voyage. "1st June. As usual, Sabbath day. This time I go not to the Free Church, but to the United Presbyterian. At Stromness, a town of twelve hundred inhabitants, there is also a third church. The apparent unity which subsists among us proceeds, after all, only from the indifference which Lamennais speaks of. If our ministers are charged with being declaimers and actors, the contrary reproach may be addressed to the ministers here. The minister who officiated to-day is a radical, Miss C. tells me, for he says that Jesus Christ owed his sanctity to his labor. After church I take a walk with the ladies. Sup with Mr. B.; Bible reading and family prayer-the domestics are present at it." "Several American officers" [of whalers], he writes, "came to divine service on board us this morning, with some of their men. Poor Captain God for the safety of those from whom we are Kennedy was quite affected when he prayed to about to part, perhaps for ever. Is not this one of the good sides of their religion, that every man of character may officiate without having taken holy orders?" Again: "As always, on Sunday we have divine service, and, as usual, I read the sermon. It seems I do not pronounce ill, and especially that my accent is psalms, a chapter of the Bible, and prayers, mornnot too bad. The service consists in reading some ing and evening. On Sunday there is, in addition, the reading of a sermon, and then of fragments of numerous works which have been given to us. If the piety of our men is not very enlightened, at least it appears sincere; and even were it but a matter of habit with them, the influence of that habit upon them is excellent. I know no spectacle more suggestive of thought than the sight of those few men singing the praises of the Lord amidst the solitude of the vast ocean; I think of the convents of the East, lying like a point amidst the desert. What, in fact, is our life on board, with its regularity, but the convent minus inactivity, and minus the selfishness of the man who seeks in prayer only his own salvation? Oh yes! the exercise of prayer is salutary; it is, above all, useful and indispensable to one who is animated by true piety. I used to think myself religious when I contented myself with recognizing the existence of a God; I now understand how much this exercise of prayer facilitates for us the accomplishment of duties, which without it we are disposed to pass over very lightly." It is not to be supposed, however, that this tolerance in practice covered any latitudinarianism of doctrine or indifference to the questions of dogmatic theology. Many sharp religious discussions took place, when the disputants plied each other so hard, that they ended in very bad humor, for the moment; and the solemn hours of the night-watch were occasionally passed in disquisitions worthy of the Byzantine schoolmen. Thus: "Mr. Grate [the boatswain] comes to me," writes Bellot, "during my watch, and confides to me his doubts as to the scorn with which Judas From a hearer, Bellot soon became a Iscariot is regarded; since Jesus Christ was to be minister of the word; and as he does not betrayed by somebody, it was God's will! Oh!' seem to have ever formally abandoned the says he, formerly people were not educated as creed in which he was educated, the pro- they are now. I should like to know two langress of his views, and the mutual toler-guages, French and Hebrew.' When I ask him ance with which he and his companions why the latter, In order to make a new translamerged the peculiarities of their respective tion of the Bible,' he replies; a cable, and not a opinions in a common practical Christian- camel, to pass through the eye of a needle.'" ity, are real curiosities of polemical literature. Neither had the religion of the crew of the Prince Albert any thing ascetic in its nature. Captain Kennedy himself sang sweet French-Canadian chansons; and reading, dancing, Mr. Smith's violin, and the organ given by Prince Albert, constituted the evening amusements. Notwith standing tee-total principles, also, high days and holidays were, as we have seen, celebrated with a cheerful glass, and it was "pleasant to see what a degree o merriment could be produced so easily." The result of the whole system seems to have been a very high state of discipline, the most perfect mutual confidence between officers and men, the truest and loyalest comradeship among all, and a general tenderness and affection for the foreign youth who had fallen into their company-instances of which it is scarcely possible to read with a dry eye. In crises of extreme peril, the crew were mustered and taken into council, "not so much to cover responsibility, as to see if any one man could suggest any thing better than what was proposed;" and this confidence seems never to have been abused. Under the most trying circumstances, the opinion of each man was pronounced honestly, and with a single view to the common good; and when a plan of action was determined upon by the proper authority, every one put forth his best energies to carry it into execution. When a boat containing the captain and four men was separated from the ship, it was boldly resolved to adopt a course which would take them away forty miles farther from their friends, and the resolution, as promising the greatest benefit to the greatest number, was manfully acquiesced in by the whole crew, including "poor Mr. Smith," the steward, whose brother was in the boat. When the doctor wished to accompany a party dispatched in search of their missing companions, although his assistance would have been of great value, he was refused, "considering that his cares might be more precious on board in case they return by sea;" and the doctor at once gave way. In this very expedition Bellot alone added a little biscuit to his meal of pemmican, the men having slipped a few pieces into the provision-bag, in spite of his prohibition, because they thought that, not being accustomed to an exclusively meat diet, it might disagree with him: the voyage of the Prince Albert has added And so it was throughout. Truly, even if no new fact to science, and although it failed to accomplish the objects of its promoters, it yet opened springs of human feeling, whose merciful streams, blessing will surely, in their further course, fertilize as they did those among whom they rose, many a withered heart. "On their return," says M. de la Roquette, in a memoir read before the Geographical Society of Paris, "Captain Kennedy, as well as all the crew of the Prince Albert, spoke with so much admiration of the services rendered by Bellot, and of his exemplary conduct during the whole course of the expedition, that he was everywhere received in England with genuine enthusiasm. The British France how well satisfied it was with the zealous Government made known officially to that of and intelligent cooperation of the young officer, and Lady Franklin personally expressed her grat itude to him in the most touching terms. The Geographical Society of London, an illustrious body, which has already rendered so many services to science, conferred on him the title of Foreign still more value in his eyes from the flattering Corresponding Member-a favor which acquired words of the President, Sir Roderick Murchison, and from the presence and approbation of the most distinguished personages of England." In his own country, too, he was not unhonored. He had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant during his absence; the time he had passed on board the British private ship was counted to him as service at sea, and, in order to give him time for repose, and the arrangement of his papers, he was placed on the footing of being called on duty to Paris, from the date of his return to France. This dignified ease did not, however, long continue to content his adventurous spirit. Shortly after his return, he began to press upon the attention of the ministry of marine a proposal for a French expedition in search of Sir John Franklin; and while this application was pending, he refused an offer made to him by Captain Kane, of the post of second in command of an American expedition with the same object. He also declined the still more flattering tender of the command and ownership of the Isabella steamer, which Lady Franklin was preparing specially for an expedition to Behring's Straits, and in which Captain Kennedy, his former commander, was willing towards mid-channel. Bellot shouted to let go the serve under his orders. "You know," rope-an effort was yet to be made, a hope re-. wrote Lady Franklin, when making this mains; but the motion of the ice is so rapid, that, before any measure can be taken, it is already at generous proposal, "that the crew of the an enormous distance from the shore. I then Prince Albert are ready to go with you went to the top of a hill to watch them,' says wherever you choose to lead them. How- Madden, in his deposition, and saw them swept ever, you shall be free to choose your own away from land towards mid-channel. I watched men; and even, if you like, to take with from that spot for six hours, but lost sight of them you in this expedition two or three of two. When they passed out of sight, the men your own countrymen in whom you have confidence." The ground of Bellot's refusal was no less noble and touching than the motive of the offer: "He was afraid lest this extreme confidence should produce a bad effect in England, and weaken the sympathy with which Lady Franklin inspired her countrymen." were standing near the sledge, M. Bellot on the top of the hummock. They seemed to be on a very solid piece of ice. At that moment the and it was snowing. That moving mass of ice, wind was blowing strongly from the south-east, thus driven northward by a furious gale, carried away the unfortunate Bellot and two sailors with him, William Johnson and David Hook. After vainly endeavoring to shelter themselves under the tent with which their sledge was loaded, the three men began to cut a house for themselves in the ice with their knives. But let Johnson speak; his deposition is precise, and, nevertheless, very touch ing: At length, finding that he could not communicate his own enthusiasm to the Minister of Marine, and resolved not to let a season pass by without making another visit to the Arctic regions, Bellot asked "M. Bellot,' he says, 'sat for half an hour in and received permission to embark in conversation with us, talking on the danger of our H. M. S. Phoenix, Captain Inglefield, and position. I told him I was not afraid, and that upon the 10th of May, 1853, he was rethe American expedition were drawn up and ceived on board that vessel as a volunteer down this channel by the ice. He replied: "I know for the expedition she was then about to hair of our head shall be touched!" I then asked they were; and when the Lord protects us, not a proceed on. This was the young seaman's M. Bellot what time it was. He said, "About a last voyage, and the closing scene of it we quarter past eight, A.M." (Thursday, the 18th), and shall relate in the words of his country- then lashed up his books, and said he would go man, M. Lemer. On the 12th of August and see how the ice was driving. He had only he left the Phoenix and her companion, gone about four minutes, when I went round the the North Star, in Erebus and Terror Bay, look for him, but could not see him; and on reaccompanied by the quarter-master of the turning to our shelter saw his stick on the oppoNorth Star and three sailors, and bear-site side of a creek, about five fathoms wide, and ing Admiralty dispatches for Sir Edward Belcher: same hummock under which we were sheltered to the ice all breaking up. I then called out, "Mr. Bellot!" but no answer (at this time blowing very heavy). After this I again searched round, but could see nothing of him. I believe that when he got from the shelter, the wind blew him into the creek, and his sou'-wester being tied down he could not rise.' nel, Bellot, hearing these words, replied, that Captian Pullen's orders were to keep along the coast to the right, within about two miles of it. "It was supposed that Sir Edward was in Wellington Channel, in the neighborhood of Cape Belcher. In that direction, therefore, the little troop set out, marching close along the eastern shore of the channel. After encamp- "David Hook, Bellot's other companion, deposing the first day three miles from Cape Innis, ed, that before the breach in the ice, and the atthe five men halted next day, on detached tempt to land, some one having said that it would blocks of ice, about three miles from Cape Bow-be more prudent to keep the middle of the chanden. On the night of the 14th, on quitting that cape, they had to cross a cleft in the ice, four feet wide, which they effected prosperously enough. They were three miles off land when Bellot proposed to encamp, and he tried to reach it in the India-rubber canoe; but being twice driven back by a violent gale from the south-east, he determined to have an attempt made by two of his companions, Harvey, the quarter-master of the North Star, and Madden. The attempt succeeded, and once on shore, the two men fixed a pass-rope between the sledge and the coast, by means of which three objects could be transported. A fourth trip was about to be undertaken, when Madden, who was up to his middle in the water, perceived that the ice was setting itself in motion off shore and to "This last trait, and the whole of this scene, complete the moral portraiture of Bellot, a slave to duty, sacrificing his own safety to it, and incessantly disposed to devote his life, confronting death like a man full of that sublime confidence, that holy faith, which keeps the soul always in readiness to appear before its Creator and its Judge; that faith which inspired the navigator of the sixteenth century to utter the fine saying: 'Heaven is as near by water as by land.'" So ended the short career of Lieutenant Bellot; and seldom, perhaps, has a human life been more replete with the ele- | loring in which the generous enthusiasm ments of genuine happiness than his. of youth depicted the future. Being dead "Whom the gods love, die young." Bel- he yet speaketh, teaching, by his own stolot lived long enough to win, by honest ry, the uses, personal and social, of legitimeans, the respect of two great nations, mate and honorable ambition; and, by the and, better still, to earn and secure the manner of his death, uniting France and esteem and love of many friends. He England in a common desire to do honor died before the experience of manhood to the memory of one of the truest and had cast its shadow over the brilliant co- loyalest of Frenchmen. From Dickens' Household Words. RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN PARIS. THE citizens of London and the citizens of Paris can be compared and contrasted in almost the same terms as the cities themselves; the one sombre, heavy, large, continually expanding, seldom changing; the other bright, compact, open, lively, and ever improving. The pace of London improvement is that of the overgrown alderman, or of his own beloved turtle. It takes a lustre to pull down and re-build a house or two in Chancery Lane, a decade to re-construct Cannon street, and a lifetime to open out an entirely new thoroughfare. In our youth, a nest of rookeries was demolished on the Clerkenwell side of Holborn Bridge, under pretense of continuing Farringdon street to be an open route for the Northern and Western Railways: we are now more than middleaged, our second son has attained his majority, and Farringdon street still stands where it did. It is neither longer nor broader than it was when Fleet Ditch ceased to be navigable for merchant ships, and when Fleet Market afterwards flourished above that covered estuary. It is not a foot nearer to Bath, nor Liverpool, nor Berwick-upon-Tweed. The loose bricks; the unconsidered tiles; the rusty, dinted fragments of pots and kettles; the rugged mounds of filth; the slimy holes and puddles; the jagged profiles of tenements half torn down, half standing; the arches of empty coal-cellars; the carcases of dead domestic animals; the bones of others whose death and skeletonhood dates three reigns back; the "temporary" posts and barriers now decayed with age; and the stenches from Cow Cross; all continue to seethe and breed pestilence in the hideous gap dug out of the centre of this metropolis nearly a quarter of a century ago. Yet, during that time, there has been activity of another kind close by. Hundreds of dinners have been eaten; thousands of turtle have been slain and washed down with oceans of cold punch; millions of money in coal-dues and corndues have been squandered, and diverted from their legal purposes, into ever-running channels of gormandizing and jobbery. Farther off in the world a vast amount of work has been done, of precisely the same sort as that which our citizens have wretchedly shirked. Within the territories of the United States, whole cities have been built, peopled, and organized, of not much smaller extent than the city of London proper. Miles and miles of ground have been covered with habitations in other parts of the globe, and called San Francisco, Melbourne, Port Philip, what you will. Even while the wise men of the east have been haggling about one little piece of open ground called St. Paul's Cathedral, a considerable portion of the capital of the great French empire has been not only razed, but re |