engagement. A plan of our line and of the action | Sophia Dorothea left Hanover to return to her pahas been promised me; which you also shall one day see. Our barbarous enemies loaded their guns with nails.* We can, as yet, think of nothing else. From the Britannia. rents, but they sent her back to her husband again. Recriminations became sharper than ever; and, after some months of wrangle, the princess determined to escape, and make Königsmark the companion of her flight. On the evening previous to the day fixed for her departure, she had a long Memoirs of Sophia Dorothea, Consort of George I. interview with him. On leaving her presence he 2 vols. Colburn. UNDOUBTEDLY we should find these volumes very amusing if we could persuade ourselves to take an interest in the wretched intrigues of the petty and corrupt courts of Germany a century and a half ago. We have here full details of shameless vice, and infamous characters, and horrible scandal, of which our knowledge, we must confess, was previously very imperfect. We freely give the author credit for industry; but we must wonder at the taste which could delight in collecting the materials out of which this work has been formed. was arrested by four guards, but resisting, and drawing his sword, a scuffle ensued in which he was slain. Subsequently the Crown Prince obtained a divorce from the princess, she being a willing party to the separation. The rank of the parties rendered it undesirable that any scandalous matter should come before the court, and the divorce was granted on the ground of mutual disinclination. The princess was conveyed to the castle of Ahlden, in the duchy of Zelle, where she was allowed to rule the province at her pleasure, and to retain the semblance of royal state; but precautions were taken to prevent her escape. Thus she passed the last thirty-two years of her life, neither her parents, nor her daughter, the Queen of Prussia, appearing to sympathize with her complaints, or to have any wish to see her at liberty. It pleases the author of this book to make her the heroine of a romance. We have her beauty, her talents, and her virtue celebrated in florid terms; and we are favored with a kind of diary which she kept of the chief events of her life, thrown into the form of dramatic dialogue, together with the narrative of one of her attached attend It is known that Sophia Dorothea, the consort of George I. when Crown Prince of Hanover, was divorced from him before he succeeded to the crown of Great Britain, and was confined for thirty-two years in the province of Ahlden. It is affirmed on one side that she was guilty of adultery, and on the other that the charge was only brought forward by the mistresses and creatures of her husband to excuse his brutality towards her. The point has been warmly contested between Jacobites and Hanoverians, and all the circumstances connected with the divorce have been so exagge-ants, Madame Knesebeck. The latter is instrucrated that it is now difficult, if not impossible, to arrive at the truth. The author of this book, like most others who have written on the subject, is a violent partisan, and without, in the least, assisting us to facts that might lead to a correct conclusion, launches out into unbounded panegyric of the princess and unbounded abuse of the elector. Sophia Dorothea was the daughter of the Duke of Zelle, by a left-handed marriage with Eleanore Marquise d'Olbruese. These German left-handed marriages are convenient. They satisfy the scruples of conscience without entailing any legal consequences. They are good in the eye of the church, but they are nothing in the eye of the law. The duke was, however, so well pleased with his wife, that after some years he married her legally as well as ecclesiastically; and the only surviving child by this union, Sophia Dorothea, became heiress to her father's dominions. tive, though not pleasing, and enables us to form a shrewd guess of the relations that subsisted between the princess and the Count Königsmark. This count was the brother of that Charles John Königsmark who was tried at the Old Bailey for the murder of Mr. Thomas Thynn, and who owed his escape rather to his rank and family than to any doubt that could be entertained of his guilt. Philip seems to have been as dissolute and as adventurous as his brother. When at the court of Hanover he had an intrigue with the Countess Platen, a lady high in favor; and the contest between this dame and Princess Sophia Dorothea for his heart-the term is profaned in speaking of such intercourse; we should say for his attentions -was at last the cause of his death. Madame Knesebeck frankly lets us observe the relations between these parties in her narrative :— ticular. She did not hesitate to go up to him before all present, and to pay him the highest compliments on his performance, declaring that she was surprised and fascinated, and begging him, when the assembly was over, to call upon her. "One year, during the carnival, among other In her childhood she was intimate with the cel- diversions, there was given a ball, which was atebrated Count Königsmark, and report affirmed tended by the court. On this occasion young Köthat when of a proper age they would most proba-nigsmark exhibited such astonishing skill and exbly be united. But more ambitious views for his pertness in dancing, that he excited the admiration daughter opened to the duke, and she was ulti- of everybody, and of the Countess Platen in parmately wedded to George Lewis, then Crown Prince of Hanover. The union took place in 1682, and for some years the royal pair lived quietly together, if not happily, their children forming, probably, a bond of union much more potent than mutual affection. The court of Hanover seems to have been corrupt enough, but the curtain that time has cast over its disreputable intrigues shall be sacred to us. The differences between the prince and his princess came to an open rupture in 1694, the latter having recourse to a sharp tongue and the former to a strong arm. *This calumny, and what is said of Nelson's undignified behavior, &c., may be accounted for (and forgiven) from the natural irritation of the moment.-Translator. "This her command was more agreeable, because he hoped in the house of Countess Platen to pick up something with which he could afterwards entertain and divert our princess. When the Countess Platen found herself alone with him in her house, she revealed her passion to him without reserve, and at the same time employed such allurements that he, a young man, fond of pleasure, and not scrupling to enjoy it, was ready in all things to comply with her wishes. "He made no secret of this to the princess when reached the ears of the Elector of Hanover and the he next came to see her, and, as she was no friend Duke of Zelle. His arrest was determined on, to Countess Platen, it amused her to converse about and the count, from what motive it is not difficult her vicious courses with Königsmark and me. He to say, was desperate. As little stir was made was required to relate to her circumstantially all about his death, it may be assumed that the cirthat afterwards passed between him and Platen; cumstances under which it took place seemed to and it is very possible, as this gave Königsmark | justify it. Among his papers were found some letfrequent occasion to be with my princess, that he sometimes added fictitious circumstances which had never happened, that he might miss no opportunity of being in her company. "The beautiful Countess Platen, closely watching the movements of her new paramour, discovered his frequent visits to the princess, and soon betrayed symptoms of jealousy to Königsmark, and ordered him to discontinue his calls on the princess. When he informed the princess of this, it suggested to her the advice that, in order to escape the persecution of the countess, Königsmark should obey her, and abstain from frequenting the society of the princess. "Hard as this course appeared to him, it was found to be absolutely necessary. But in order not to be entirely deprived of this agreeable conversation, which could not now be carried on verbally, it was transformed into a written one, so that scarcely a day passed without letters from Königsmark, or from the princess to him; and I was obliged to serve for the channel through which they were transmitted." ters of the princess, the discovery of which, says her confidant, Madame Knesebeck, "overwhelmed her with mortal terror." In this correspondence she had used such expressions towards Königsmark that whoever was disposed to expound them to her disadvantage might easily excite suspicion of an illicit love for that young count." Her behavior on hearing of the count's death was, it appears, equally open to suspicion. "She complained bitterly, and several times wished that, now Königsmark had died on her account, she could die too; and, as I have said, she thereby excited suspicion that she had been on terms of more than ordinary friendship with the deceased count.' Out of these circumstances the author has contrived to weave a narrative very exaggerated, but not very clear or attractive. We are told of the schemes of the Countess Platen to ruin the princess-of her conspiracy relating to an embroidered glove-of her plot to assassinate Königsmark—of her forged letter to lure him to the princess' apartments on the night of his death-and of her cruelty and treachery in trampling on his mouth in his dying agonies, that he might not avow her guilt and the princess' innocence. All these stories are so plainly fabrications that they are not worth the trouble of investigating. The princess' intimacy with so confirmed a libertine as this Königsmark, and her taste for the details of his amours, are hardly consistent with the idea of her purity. We pass over notices of some disgusting conversations between Königs- In her confinement-if the princess' residence mark and the Countess Platen. Fearing their in- at Ahlden can be so called-she had certainly no trigue might be discovered, she proposed to him reason to complain of severity. She was allowed to marry her daughter, but this the count refused, to manage the affairs of the province as she pleasand thus, it is said, incurred her hatred. Mad-ed-to maintain an extensive correspondence—to ame Knesebeck's friendly narrative is equally ex- enjoy her personal liberty within the limits of the plicit concerning the conduct of the princess on domain-and to keep up a large establishment. her return to Hanover, after fruitless appeal to her father, and on her preparations for flight with Königsmark: "As this disconsolate princess was not sufficiently cautious, and did not find in correspondence with Königsmark so much comfort as in conversation, he was summoned through my means to come to her quite privately; and, as on her side despair, so on his side ardent passion, suggested that the princess should leave Hanover, to escape from the tyranny which she would have to endure, and seek protection from the Duke of Wolfenbüttel, who, as she believed, would not hesitate to receive her, as he had always manifested extraordinary friendship for her. "Count Königsmark was to attend her in this journey; he was also to furnish for the purpose the necessary funds, of which the princess was exceedingly deficient." Previous to the arrangements made for their departure, Königsmark, it seems, went to Saxony, and openly boasted there of the favor he was in with both the princess and the Countess Platen. On his return the princess was so far from being displeased with his impudence, that she highly relished his accounts of what had passed. On the evening previous to the day fixed for flight he stayed with the princess longer, says this candid narrative," than was prudent." The pair parted affectionately, and, while the princess was packing up her jewels in her chamber, the count was slain in an ante-room. Intelligence of his boastings had Her suite, we learn from the author, consisted of a governor, a gentleman in waiting, and two or three ladies. Her household was composed of two pages, two valets, three cooks, a baker, a butler, a confectioner, a head groom with several subordinates, a coachman, fourteen footmen, and a proportionate number of female domestics. Of her manner of life we are told :— "The Duchess of Ahlden, as she was now styled, endeavored to occupy her mind with every kind of employment that presented itself. Among these were the administration of the estates that produced her income, her correspondence, her diary, to which we shall presently allude more at length, and the direction of her household. The instructions for her head cook and butler, her daily bills of fare for her meals, were all written by herself; and she concluded all contracts. But a great part of her time was passed in a course of active benevolence, and in the most zealous attention to her religious duties. She proved herself a blessing to the whole neighborhood-improved their dwellings, interested herself in the instruction of the children of the poor laborers, and sought to ameliorate their condition by every means in her power.' If this account be true, it must be matter of satisfaction that so bright a career of usefulness was opened to a lady whose conduct showed that, whatever might be her good qualities, discretion was not among the number. As she lived to a ripe age, it is fair to assume that her treatment did not injuriously affect either her health or her spirits. Of the inflated style in which the book is written, the following remarks on the princess' death afford an amusing specimen : "There is no record of so abominable a wrong ever having been committed even by the worst of despots. The Neros and the Caligulas were careless of human life; the monsters of the Inquisition were regardless of human suffering; the Marats and Robespierres shed seas of human blood; but, incarnate demons as they were, they tortured and they killed, and all was over. We have heard of slow fires for the victims of intolerance, and prolonged torments for criminals of state, but what executioner ever before presided over a torture that was to last for the best part of half a century? This cold-blooded atrocity, too, to be inflicted on a delicate female-a princess by birth, a wife, and a mother! "Yet an executioner was found who went through this unparalleled cruelty with a stern determination that the most unfeeling inquisitors, and the worst of revolutionary miscreants might have envied; and he was the man whose dull heart had been warmed by the affections of his victim, who was the father of her children, and by the laws of God and man the conservator of her happiness and the guardian of her honor. "We have had pretty specimens of royal tyranny in our Richard the Third and Henry the Eighth. Both monarchs were remarkable for their want of sympathy for their own flesh and blood. Yet their murders were, comparatively speaking, humane. The slow assassination of his wife by George the First, in infamy, stands alone and unrivalled." 66 After such passages as these, the most amusing portions of the work are the descriptions of George I. and his ugly harem," which are drawn with some humor and much bitterness. If the king had possessed the discrimination of Charles II. in the choice of his mistresses, the author could have forgiven him; but that he should have remained faithful in his attachments to the corpulent Countess of Darlington, whose bulk procured her the cognomen of the Elephant and Castle," and the shrivelled Duchess of Kendal, whose lank height gained her the title of "the Maypole," is regarded as utterly disgraceful to his taste, and wholly unpardonable. 66 The book has little pretensions to an historical character. The best that can be said of it is, that the author has been diligent in collecting materials which, not very engaging in themselves, have been but indifferently employed. From the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. On the Rock-Nose of the Whaler, a variety of the Balena Mysticetus. By ALEXANDER H. GUERIN of Geneva, Surgeon of the Ship Supérieur. Communicated by the Author." It seems somewhat remarkable that an animal, apparently so very different, in many points, from the common whale, as to have deserved from the whaler a distinct name, should have escaped the notice of the many intelligent and active naturalists who have visited the Arctic Regions. We do not find it mentioned anywhere; and although Scoresby, the highest authority on the subject, tells us that the Mysticetus is met with in the bays *Mr. Guerin visited Greenland in the year 1844. and inlets of Davis' Straits, and that there are some differences observed in different animals which might be considered as constituting them varieties, he gives no notice of any difference in their habits (Arc. Reg. vol. i., p. 469.) It does not appear that any other writer had even a suspicion of the Rock-nose, as it is called, being a variety. The true Mysticetus is often found in the Straits, though not generally near the coast, but at a distance from the land ice, and among the heavy floating ice, known as the middle ice. It is not till towards the latter part of the fishing season that this whale is seen along the shore, which it then approaches on its way to the south; though some years it goes south along the edge of the middle ice, without coming near the land. The Rocknose on the contrary, never leaves the coast, and though often, when crossing a bay, it goes from point to point or cape to cape, it as often takes a more circuitous route, and follows the shore, the whole way round the inside of the bay. In its passage south, the last mentioned whale goes either in shoals, single, or, as I have seen occasionally, in pairs, when the two seem to act in concert, coming to the surface of the water and sinking at the same instant. There is a strange peculiarity in the habits of the Rock-nose, from which it has received its rather curious, though very expressive and appropriate name. It frequently places the extremity of its head, or nose as the whalers call it, close to the shore, upon a rock, or on the steep and stony bottom, with its spiracles, and part of its head and body above the surface of the water, and there remains perfectly motionless for several minutes. I have seen several of them in that position; and on one occasion, a pair of them, within a few feet of each other, remained as just described, for more than ten minutes. Though they were within a hundred yards of the ship, the breathing was so slow and easy, as neither to be perceived nor heard. All our boats, except the stern boat, were away; this last was immediately lowered, brought alongside, manned, and sent in chase; but still, after all these preparations, which took a long time, it was not till the harpooner stood up, with harpoon in hand, ready to strike, that the whales began to move; which they did so swiftly as to be out of sight in an instant, and were not seen again. This happened at the beginning of our long stay in Cape Searl Sound. It is the opinion of the whalers that when in this position, the Rock-nose is feeding. This, however, I can scarcely believe, as I never perceived the slightest motion of the jaws or the head of the animal; on the contrary, the whole frame, as far as could be judged by the parts above water, was perfectly motionless. I therefore think it more probable that the Rock-nose is then resting itself, being enabled by its position, to breathe more at ease, with less effort, and, consequently, be the more ready to renew its exertions either to feed or proceed farther to the south. I have also to remark that the period of the emigration of the Rock-nose seems somewhat different from that of the true Mysticetus; the lastmentioned, setting out on its way south during the first fortnight of September; whilst the former does not generally appear in the lat. 66° to 69°, in any considerable numbers, till the last fortnight of the same month, and often is seen there, as late as the 8th or 10th of October. The state of the ice and weather, and the age of the individual, have, shore and goes to roam at 30 or 40 leagues from the coast, and that under the same latitude, the same climate, and under similar external circumstances. I therefore conclude that the Rock-nose is a distinct variety, if not a distinct species. There is no doubt that the Middle ice whale is the true Balæna Mysticetus; but whether or not the Rocknose is the same species as the Mysticetus of the South Sea, is a question I am not able to decide. as is generally believed, considerable influence over | habits, confining themselves to the bays and inlets; the period of emigration of whales in general. whilst the other portion, at the same period of Having described the habits of these animals, life, changing its instinct and shape, leaves the which remain in large shoals in the bays and inlets of lat. 71° to 74°, I shall now proceed to show that there is also a considerable difference in shape between the Rock-nose and the true Mysticetus." In pursuing this inquiry, I experienced considerable difficulty. It is of such importance to have the whale flenched immediately after it has been towed alongside, that it is almost impossible to allow time for actual measurement; besides, the men are generally tired, and require rest and refreshment, so that none could be found to assist in measuring, an operation which no one could possibly carry on by himself. I shall, therefore, mention the differences which struck my eye, and which, upon inquiry, I found to be the general characters by which the Rock-nose is distinguished by the whaler. The most important point is the comparative size of the head and body. A Rock-nose of 10 feet whalebone, is, taking the extreme length of the animal, from 8 to 10 feet shorter than a true Mysticetus having the same length of whalebone, as it seldom reaches above 40 or 42 feet. Of this extreme length the head is always considerably more than a third; whilst, in the true Mysticetus, it is, as stated by Scoresby, as 16 to 51, consequently less than the third. The whalebone is longer in comparison to the length of the animal, but the lamina are thin for their length. The body is broader and terminates more abruptly. The tail seems equal in length and breadth to that of the true Mysticetus of the same size. The color of the skin is a dark velvet brown, and has fewer white spots than that of the other species or variety. The Rock-nose yields less oil, compared to the length of whalebone, than the true Mysticetus. The above comparison of the two animals induces me to believe them distinct from each other; although the whalers in general seem to think that it is merely a difference of age that causes this difference in their external characters. This, however, appears to me very improbable. If we take a glance at zoology in general, we find that animals of about the same age are about the same size, when under similar circumstances. I would, therefore, be inclined to believe that two whales of the same species, of the same length of whalebone, would be of about the same age, and would present nearly the same external characters; but when we find a constant and considerable difference both in habits and form, we may, with reason, infer that the two individuals are marked varieties at least, if not different species. Besides, we generally find, among animals, that those that are fit for reproduction, or have already given birth to one or two individuals, have attained the regular proportions and the instincts belonging to that particular species. Now, as cubs or suckers are as often found among the Rock-noses as among the Middle ice whale, the former must have attained the age of maturity; as we cannot suppose that the Greenland whale can be an exception to the general rule: I cannot believe, therefore, that a number of these animals, after they have arrived at maturity, should still retain a difference in shape and PERSEVERANCE. AT one of the recent anniversaries in New York, a speaker concluded his exhortation to perseverance, by reciting the following verses: A swallow in the Spring, Came to our granary, and 'neath the eaves Day after day she toiled, She found the ruin wrought, And built her nest anew. But scarcely had she placed The last soft feather on its ample floor, But still her heart she kept, What truth is here, O Man! THIRLWALL'S HISTORY OF GREECE, published during the last spring in numbers, makes, since it has been completed, two very compact octavo volumes of over 500 pages each. The value of this history is well established-we rank it among the very noblest contributions to a knowledge of antiquity which England has produced. Its reverend author, since the lamented death of Arnold and Mitchell, is the most distinguished of the new and liberal school of English scholarship, a school which profiting by the unbounded activity of German research bids fair to arrive at results even as yet undreamed of. To those who are unacquainted with the vast discoveries made in a region so long known, we would merely commend a comparison of this work so varied in learning, so comprehensive in philosophy, and so nice in critical inquiry, with the crudities of Gillies and Goldsmith, books which still linger in many of our schools and seminaries.—Churchman. LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 79.-15 NOVEMBER, 1845. POETRY AND SCRAPS.-The Autumn Leaf; Live to do Good, 319-The Woman of Three Cows, 342-Gille Machree, 343-Entente Cordiale, 344. PAGE. 297 299 320 327 329 343 344 CORRESPONDENCE. OUR observations would lead us to the conclusion that in fact, if not in profession, the whig party is more unfriendly to the United States than the tories, who are a more practical and practica-ington, Jefferson, Madison, Jay, Hamilton, the ble race of statesmen. The contrary opinion seems to be held by the writer of the following article from the Boston Daily Advertiser. CHARACTERISTIC IGNORANCE OF AMERICAN STATES MEN. We are not much surprised to find the violent tory, or, as they call themselves, conservative writers of Europe habitually assailing the institutions and national character of this country with a sort of fury. Our success is the strongest argument against the truth of their system. But we must own that we are surprised-and that not very agreeably-to see, as we often do, the liberal journals adopting the same tone, and thus playing into the hands of their and our worst political opponents. Even the Edinburgh Review; which has long been regarded as the ablest and most judicious, as well as the most brilliant and popular publication of its class, is far from being entirely exempt from the reproach of indulging in this wretched jargon. We find it for example, gravely stated in a late article in that journal on the Oregon question, written with remarkable ability, and attributed to Mr. Senior, that "ignorance of international law is the leading defect of American statesmen." It seems to have escaped the recollection of Mr. Senior that the only works in the English language of any value on international law are from the pen of an American statesman-our distinguished minister at the Court of Berlin ;and this defect of memory is the less excusable inasmuch as Mr. Senior himself is understood to have written the highly laudatory notice of the last of those works which appeared in the Edinburgh Review. Without entering into any general defence of the character of American statesmen, which speaks for itself in the practical re sults of their labors, it may be sufficient to remark that the principal contributors to the mass of diplomatic correspondence by the character of which their pretensions on the score of learning in international law must be tried, are such men as WashMorrises, the Adamses, the Pinckneys, Gallatin, Marshall, Monroe, Rush, Rives, Livingston, McLane, Van Buren, Webster, Clay, and others of the same order of intellect. Occasional errors may perhaps be detected in the writings of these distinguished persons, but they cannot, with propriety, be charged, as a class, with" ignorance of international law," and Mr. Senior, in making this charge upon them, without affecting their reputation, only diminishes the weight of his own authority and that of the journal, in which he writes, with all impartial and right-minded men. We doubt, in fact, whether any existing government can exhibit a body of state papers, on the whole more creditable to the learning and talent of its agents than the United States. Mr. Senior will, perhaps, find it difficult to put his finger in the collections of any other country, upon abler discussions of great principles in national law than are contained in the correspondence between Jefferson and Genet, on neutral rights, Adams' letter to Erving in defence of the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister by General Jackson, or the despatches of the commissioners at Ghent. These last elicited, as is well known, from Sir James Mackintosh, at least as high an authority as Mr. Senior, a free confession, in a speech in the house of commons, of the "astonishing superiority" displayed on the American side of the argument, although the British commissioners had the advantage of constant consultation with their superiors in Downing street, while the Americans acted under general instructions upon their own immediate responsibility. Comparisons are proverbially odious, and we will therefore merely hint, without enlarging on the subject, at the singular fact that our British friends, after a thousand years of national existence, have not yet, with all their literary activity, produced a single work of the least authority or |