to the Constitution; and that those who persist in propagating destructive heresies, may be marked for such distinctions as sometimes confer notoriety with very little honor.

It is gratifying to reflect that the hearts of the people are essentially true to the Constitution; that while a few discordant spirits, like restless breakers, tumble to their own destruction upon the firm bulwarks that gird the domain of an overwhelming power, the great heart of the nation heaves placidly beneath a propitious sky, fulfilling the grand purpose of its existence.

without fretting after dreams of utopian bliss. A want of this philosophic temper lies at the bottom of much of the discontent that furnishes occasion for such letters as that of Mr. Dallas, and presents to the monarchies of Europe a spectacle encouraging to the longings of absolutism.

Some consider the Union in danger of nothing so much as gasconade. They have accordingly combined in an effort for its repression, and, with more heroism than prudence, have attempted to seat themselves upon the safety-valve, thinking that by repressing the blustering element they effectually extinguish it. Fortunately, there are not enough of them to close all the orifices by which their volatile enemy finds way into the atmosphere, and we may hope that, notwithstanding their well-intended labors, we shall not all come to be by the ears from an explosion. Such volcanic agencies had better be left alone. We have just experienced a slight "trembler," and must not be

So long as the hearts of the people are right, there is little to fear from their tongues. There never was, and probably there never will be, an age free from a certain degree of tendency to gasconade. It is vain to attempt its annihilation. There is too much sensitiveness now-a-days in regard to it. We have it among us under various titles, in considerable quantities. Here it flourishes under the euphonious title of fillibustering, there as quat-alarmed if the Etnas are somewhat active. tlebumming, and under many other names and types; but withal it is no very terrible matter. But though innocent enough when let free into the atmosphere, it may, like most other gases, become a formidable power if unduly confined. Those who unwisely suffer themselves to become irritated by bluster and braggadocio, should reflect upon the innocence of the thing if left to itself, as well as to the effects of forcible repression applied even to so vapory a substance.

These worthy gentlemen would do well to experiment with the King of Naples upon the possibility of extinguishing Vesuvius, before they venture to subject our happy nation to such convulsions as they may not dream of.

There is a view of this subject fraught with the most serious considerations, which may well be approached with an earnest, thoughtful spirit. Motives for such reflection may be found in what has been said of the combined effects of the intense sensitiveness of some and the imprudent zeal of others. We must not enter the sanctuary of the heart, and dictate emotions to it; but we may raise a warning cry against interference with such things as we have been taught to call sacred, and leave it to the circumstances of each to suggest the moral.

Exciting political discussions produce a vast deal of this commodity, and with it what is often mistaken for it-an over-ardent expression of honestly entertained opinions, feelings or prejudices. If repression of the former should be possible, there is danger that it may act with more or less injustice upon the latter. Of this let us beware; for although no empire has ever been There is a method of not only preserving overthrown by the abuse of freedom of the Union, but of rendering it a beneficent speech, there have been notable instances of boon to oppressed humanity; if the knowdynasties crushed for the love man bears it. ledge of that concealed treasure is sought It is a cardinal article of our republican faith, for, let the earnest searcher apply his enerand we must hold to it under all circum-gies to establish the policy, internal and exstances, though at times we may be irritated by its undue license.

ternal, which the Whig party has committed itself to maintain; and after the field has We must strive to cultivate a temper in- been well ploughed, the treasure will be found. capable of being disturbed by the sallies of As for such issues as the fecundity of poliintemperate zeal, and content ourselves with tical ingenuity yearly hatches for ends of enjoying so much of tranquillity as the ex-personal and party aggrandizement, they isting condition of human society permits, are a mere delusion, more ephemeral than

the reputation of their authors. Those who ful disguise which for a time served to conturn aside from the grand current of events ceal its hostility to popular liberty, by repreto undertake the salvation or the destruc-senting the design of European politics to be tion of the country by the propagation of startling issues, will continue to be cast up, from time to time, high and dry upon the beach, to learn at their leisure, that those who would lead public opinion must be content to go with it until they are not only assured of the superior wisdom of their own foresight, but that they have force enough to divert it into a new channel.

The surest method of promoting union is to fix the attention upon some prospective good, and to labor to reach it. It has been wisely said, that the principle of friendly cooperation lies in a common interest in the pursuit of a common good. It is well enough to probe a wound to ascertain its nature and extent, but the probing is no part of the cure, and if unskilfully attempted, may serve to make the bad still worse.

We have as a nation a work to accomplish, to which if we bend all our energies, there need be no fear of discord among us. Unity of heart and mind is requisite to the accomplishment of the task, which is no less than the renovation of the condition of human society.

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the preservation of an equipoise of power, is now thrown off, and open and avowed war is waged upon all constitutional limitations of royal power. Poland is absorbed; Hungary is stripped of its constitution; Prussia has the alternative of revolution or despotism; Germany is kept in a state of fermentation, as ignorant as the rest of the world of what are her constitutional rights, and who are her real masters. Even Turkeyalas for Europe!-has too much humanity for the oppressed, for the security of the European powers. Italy-softly Italy has departed; resurrection, not revolution, is the only hope for her. What shall be said of France? She presents the paradox of elective absolutism arm in arm with rampant democracy. Some dreary night, one or the other will be found strangled. When that day comes, the guillotine or the bayonet will have prevailed.

But there is hope that her mighty arm will be lifted over the lofty crests of the oppressors, for her true-hearted people have received with sympathy and fellowship a noble exile.

There remains one other European power, seated upon what must one day have been the easternmost projection of the American continent, but, by some hankering after the society of royalty, betrayed into bad comEurope is in a sad state. Absolutism is pany, which entertains manly ideas of popumore terrible to-day than ever before; while, lar liberty. That great power has until just on the other hand, liberty is more indispen- now been altogether taken up with the exsable for man. The ambition of crowned hibition of a gigantic Punch, and with the heads is less carefully disguised by the vacant-practical philosophy of the Hong merchants. featured mask of diplomacy, and looks directly to its mark. A czar or an emperor may well burn with ambitious desire to add to his dominions such slaves as the men who wield the intellectual and moral power of the age. The pride of a Corsican soldier took fire at such a thought, and well nigh accomplished its most ambitious aspirations. It was vastly easier, centuries ago, to wrest power from the hands of kings, than at the present day. Until royalty learned what a Cromwell could do, it treated popular tumult with contempt, though with severity. But that notable example, followed by still more instructive lessons, has taught absolutism that there is no sympathy between it and the ideas of popular liberty. The art

That exile will soon be in our midst, and will be received as an ambassador, not from the oppressed of Hungary alone, but of all Europe. What may be the issue of the future is with Heaven alone to know; but the aspects of the present forebode the advent of events that will demand of us perfect and indissoluble unity, nerve and patriotism. For the rest, with the power and security which these will bring us, we may rest hopeful and assured of the triumph of right in whatever struggle gathers in the eventful future.

MODERN ENGLISH POETS.*

assertion:

"Behold with throe on throe,

How wasted, by this woe,
I wrestle down the myriad years of Time!
Behold how fast around me

bound me!

The New King of the happy ones sublime
Has flung the chain he forged, has shamed and
Woe, woe, to-day's woe, and the coming morrow's,
I cover with one groan. And where is found me

MR. AND MRS. BROWNING are psycholo- | but also by reason of its force and point. gical curiosities. Independently of the sin- We merely give one specimen to prove our gular fact of two of the greatest poetical minds of the day being "united in the holy bonds of matrimony," there are many peculiar traits connected with their history which render them possibly the most interesting married couple on record. Both shrouded as it were from the world, and dedicated to the service of Apollo almost from their very cradle, they, like young Hannibal, have given themselves up to that worship which, though requiring a native genius, is yet more generally determined by some particular accident. In order to render their idiosyncrasy the more intelligible, we shall briefly allude to their personal history, and as a matter of course commence with the lady.

Miss Elizabeth Barrett Barrett is the daughter of a gentleman of moderate fortune, and was born in London in 1812.

Being of fragile health and slender frame, she was unable to partake of those amusements to which young ladies of her class in life are predisposed. While her friends sought the ball and the concert-room, the youthful poetess retired to her chamber, and studied Greek, Latin, and other Lady Jane Grey accomplishments. As early as her tenth year, she had written some verses of singular merit, even at that age displaying that peculiar style of thought and expression which have made her the most original poetess in the English language. Her first attempts at verse were given to the Athenæum without any signature, or indeed even initial, and excited great curiosity from their remarkable phraseology. We question if any poet of so youthful an age ever so completely exhibited the complete Minervaism as the youthful Elizabeth. A few years afterwards appeared her translation of Eschylus's "Prometheus Vinctus," which may challenge comparison with any translation of the day indeed it may be pronounced unique, not only on account of its fidelity,

A limit to these sorrows!
Clearly all things that should be; nothing done
And yet what word do I say? I have foreknown
Comes sudden to my soul; and I must bear
What is ordained with patience, being aware
Necessity doth front the universe
With an invincible gesture."

for which we must, with Mr. Willis's per-
The two last lines are certainly of an order
mission, invent a word, and call Browning-
esque; for we question if, till Miss Barrett
wrote, so singular a position were ever put,
like a straight waistcoat, upon the universe.

We will quote only one more verse of this really marvellous translation:

"I know that Zeus is stern;

I know he metes his justice by his will;
And yet I also know his soul shall learn
More softness when once broken by this ill!
That, curbing his unconquerable wrath,
He shall rush on in fear, to meet with me,
Who rush to meet with him in agony,
To issues of harmonious covenant.”

We have in this the germ of much of Mrs.
Browning's poetry; for, without harping too
much upon one string-for her lyre is fully
strung-we may yet observe that
very much
of her music is set in one key, which at
times gives a monotony to her verse which
really belongs more to its sound than its
sense. In the latter point of view, she is
undoubtedly the most peculiar of all the
female poets of England. But her manner-
ism is in word, not thought. There is also
a provoking fact about her, which lends her
the less excuse for the tortuous style of her

* Sordello, Bells and Pomegranates, &c. By Robert Browning.
Casa Guidi's Windows. By Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

།

Saxon.

expression, viz., that she can, if she pleases, tics. After a short time the happy couple clothe her meaning in the very simplest started for Florence, where they have resided ever since. Their sentiments are thoroughly To this translation succeeded a volume Italian and republican, and the fondest wish of entitled "The Seraphim and other Poems," both their hearts is "to live and die in sunny which, although not exhibiting the lofty Italy." To those who are conversant with flights she has since reached, was yet ample Browning's poems, this will be readily beto convince the world that a spirit of won-lieved; but we confess this Italianism surderful intellect was speaking. prised us in his wife's, as she is more of an After this she collected her translations intellectual Englishwoman than any we have and poems in two volumes, prefixing thereto read her conversation even more so than her Drama of Exile," in which she turned her writings. Since their marriage they Adam and Eve into a pair of the most ex- have had two children, one of whom died traordinary mystics ever created. There is ere it had reached its second year. Her this one fatal defect in this otherwise grand lament is perhaps one of the most singular song, that beings constituted as Mrs. Brown- dirges ever written by a woman's hand, ing makes our first parents never could more especially a mother's. As it is too have fallen from the Paradise of the Bible. long to quote entire, we must content ourNotwithstanding this want of dramatic vrai-selves with a few verses:

66

semblance, there is no drama ever written by

a woman that can stand a minute's comparison with it. It is in the ideal, what Joanna Baillie's tragic plays are in the romantic. These volumes contain, among many other new poems, "A Vision of Poets," which is composed in the triplet. Here she runs riot, and indulges in almost every freak of accentuation. Her last production is the volume at the head of this article, and displays more maturity and power, with less of the elements of popularity, than any of her other productions.

We shall now turn to the prominent fact of her life, her marriage, in November, 1846, with Robert Browning, author of "Sordello," "Bells and Pomegranates," &c. Their courtship was singular-indeed almost as unintelligible as some of their verses. In 1845, Mr. Browning sent to Miss Barrett one of his plays, which the fair recipient acknowledged in a Greek letter. This brought a reply from the dramatist in the same language, and, as the poet says,

"When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of love,"

a lengthy correspondence in the language of Homer followed, till it led to an interview, which ended in marriage. Miss Barrett had been so long secluded from the world, in consequence of her delicate state of health, that her union was considered, when first announced by their friends, as a mere rumor, partaking very much of the hoax; but the tangible witnesses of wedding cards and cake carried conviction to the minds of the skep

"A Tuscan lily-only white,

As Dante, in abhorrence
Of red corruption, wished aright

The lilies of his Florence."

The next verse contains one of those tender felicities of thought and expression, which is worthy of the daughter of Shakspeare:

"We could not wish her whiter-her

Who perfumed with pure blossom The house-a lovely thing to wear Upon a mother's bosom.

"This July creature thought perhaps

Our speech not worth assuming;
She sate upon her parents' laps,
And mimicked the gnat's humming.

Even in this short specimen our readers can discern the singularly shaping power of Mrs. Browning's imagination. Not a thought or image is rendered as another woman would; and we really question if ever before those feelings were so presented to a female mind. But we will give our poetess in another aspect, for the edification of our lady readers. It purports to be translated from the Portu-Than be. You shrink!-nay, touch them and be guese, but the fair translator's own nature is unmistakably revealed: