taken have alarmed the jealousy of Austria -the watch-dog of despotism in Europe; and it is by no means improbable that he may come to an open rupture with that

court.

A very heated and intemperate discussion has been started between the French and English journals, concerning the discovery of the new planet. It is not dehied, we believe, in any quarter, that M. Leverrier is entitled to the transcendent honor of having accurately demonstrated its existence and calcluated its position, before any similar calculations had been published. But it is claimed by the English that Mr. Adams, of the Greenwich Observatory, had also calculated the place of the planet, and furnished to Mr. Challis the means of securing two observations of the planet, before any announcement was made by M. Leverrier. To prove that the object observed was a planet, the observations of different days should have been compared. This essential point, however, Mr. Challis neglected; and without laying any claim to the discovery, he simply says, that "the planet was virtually secured, and its place determined, six weeks previously to any recorded observation of it elsewhere." These allegations are supported by the testimony of Sir John Herschel, and will be, it is said, substantiated by the records of the observatory. The claim, however, has excited the anger of the French, and even in the debates of the National Academy, the most violent language has been applied to the English savans who have in any way given their countenance to it. The King of Prussia, meantime, anxious to signalize the slight connection of his own country with this astronomical event, has conferred the cross of the Red Eagle of the fourth class upon M. Galle, the Berlin astronomer,

who first directed his telescope to the new planet, following the directions of M. Leverrier.

The literary and general intelligence of the month has but little interest. A young astronomer of Rome, M. Alberi, has discovered a MS. of Galileo, concerning the satellites of Jupiter, which was supposed to be lost; it was found in a private library. Mr. Richardson, the celebrated traveler, has returned to London, after a journey of three months directly through the heart of the Sahara desert. He is about to publish the results of his inquiries, which have mainly related to the slave trade. The Leipsic catalogue announces that 5,283 books have been published in Germany since the Easter fair of the present year. In various parts of France, a disease has manifested itself in the beet root, similar to that which has proved so generally destructive to the potatoe. The corner stone of a monument to Columbus was laid at Genoa on the 28th of September. An immense concourse was present, and the ceremonies of the occasion were highly imposing. The Congress of Italian savans have decided to hold their meeting of 1848 at Bologna. This is the first time such an event has ever occurred within the limits of the Papal States; and it is feared that the Pope, with all his liberality, will regard the step as premature. The Germanic Diet has awarded the sum of 100,000 florins to Prof. Schonbein, on condition that his newly discovered gun-cotton shall be proved able advantageously to supercede the use of gunpowder. The Sardinian government has opened negotiations with Spain for the recovery of the remains of Columbus, which are now at Havana. A weekly journal called the Contemporaneo, is announced as about to appear at Rome, under the auspices of the Pope.

SIVORI, THE VIOLINIST.-This is a progressive era; ours is a progressive nation; the city of Gotham-wherein we more immediately exist-is a progressive city; and, undoubtedly, our readers are progressive characters, or ought to be such, only taking excellent care that they are "right before they start." Amid the perpetual motion of our unquiet time, Art, Science, and Taste, it must also be presumed, are moving onward; and in no department of these is there more evidence of movement, and of movement too in the right direction, than in what relates to the "divine science" of Music.

Although much of the apparent enthusiasm now so widely fashionable, upon the subject of music, is probably neither deep nor genuine; though too many of those who crowd the concert-room are probably attracted thither by motives somewhat foreign to music and the love of it; yet we think it cannot be denied that a truer appreciation and a warmer love of this beautiful art is really spreading among the community. That this is the case is evidenced by the cordial welcome which has greeted the few great musicians of the Old World who have already visited us; by the improved character of, and sustained attend

ance upon our public concerts, and by the increase of facilities within reach of students of the art. Among the distinguished artists to whom we have alluded, and whose genius has done so much toward raising our perceptions of the possible in musical art-Ole Bull, Vieuxtemps, and De Meyer have stood pre-eminent-but to these names must now be added that of Sivori, the pupil and friend of Paganini, and upon whom the mantle of the "weird Master" may almost be said to have fallen.

Those whose hearts have thrilled to the wild melody, the deep pathos, and the impassioned fervor of the poetic Northman, have never withdrawn from their remembrances of him the meed of affectionate admiration which they had accorded to him; while the admirers of Vieuxtemps, his high artistic skill, his great science, and the finished carrectness of his play, still recall his performances with delight. But the young artist who has won the suffrage of all Europe, is now by his rich and diversified imagination, and an almost superhuman mastery over his instrument, holding in suspension the judgment of the critics, as to whether he may not be entitled to take precedence of all our former

favorites.

We have not space to enter into a minute account of the varied beauties of Sivori's play, of the profusion of exquisite and admirable effects which he draws from his instrument, until one becomes almost sceptical as to the catgut and horsehair, or of the ease with which he overcomes the greatest difficulties, performing on a single chord the wonders of four"With wanton heed and giddy cunning, The melting sound through mazes running,

Untwisting all the strings that tie
The hidden soul of harmony."

We have only space to express our cordial hope that this truly classic Artist may be the means of awaking in all parts of our country which he may visit during his stay among us, a deeper and purer love for this noble art, to which he is consecrated.

LECTURES OF MR. HENRY GILES.We are glad to be able to speak of the Literary Discourses of this gentleman, in view of their being soon delivered in this city. Mr. Giles has, in different places and for several years, delivered lectures on various subjects of high interest in literature and social life. His style, in those which we have heard, is earnest and impassionedtwo of the chief elements in oratory--and the fullness of his mind, by the aid especially of a fine analytical power and a fervid fancy, supplies his audience at all times with many desirable treasures of thought, feeling and excellent language. We sincerely trust that he may not lack hearers in any

quarter. Lectures, when presented by an orator-in other words, public orations on noble subjects by an eloquent man-are of great value in a community, where large portions of the people have so little time to read and study books.

The Sacred Mountains: By J. T. HEADLEY, New York, BAKER & SCRIBNER.

This volume was laid upon our table at so late a date that we are unable to give any extended notice of its qualities. In mechanical execution no more beautiful

As a

book has been issued this season. gift book it has a high recommendation in its subject. The idea of making the "Sacred Mountains" of the Bible a series of solemn and majestic pictures, as the old Italian Painters chose their touching and impressive subjects from the various characters of Scripture, was a happy one, and, we believe, original. Of each Mountain and its surrounding scenery there is an engraving on steel. They are mostly very beautiful; we notice, however, a singular mistake in the first-Mount Ararat. A rainbow is represented as bending over the plain in front of the Mountain, while the trees still more in front of the rainbow have shadows on the near side. Now to make a rainbow at all the sun must be behind the looker-on, in which case, of course, there could be no shadows on the near side of the trees. But the picture is beautiful, notwithstanding. As to the sketches by Mr. Headley, they are principally groupings of the incidents that took place upon and around them. They have many of the characteristics of the author's style, placing the scenes distinctly before the mind. But quite too many passages are loosely written, with false imagery and strained language. As an interesting gift however, to the imaginative, and the lovers of Scripture scenes, we would suggest "the Sacred Mountains."

Moore's Poetical Works, complete in one volume. Illustrated with ten Engravings. G. APPLETON & Co. N. Y. 1846.

A splendid edition of the poems of this most melodious of versifiers, with Engravings of admirable elegance, and appropri ateness-one a very excellent and spirited likeness of the poet, in the style of Sir T. Lawrence's heads. Among the Engravings the most remarkable are a Psyche opening a casket,-a composition of landscape and figures of Landseer,-a Peri, by K. Meadows, (which is a Peri,)—all in the richest style of modern soft engraving, suitable to the elegance of the volume and the mellifluous smoothness of its contents.

It is clearly impossible for the art of engraving or the art of versifying to go any farther than they have already gone in this direction. The production of soft effects has been carried to its limit. Excessive elegance and sweetness in letters, has prepared us to enjoy the rude periods and violent contrasts of Carlyle and his imitators, as the epicure is tempted to a coarse and bitter diet, after a surfeit of sweets. The excessive and somewhat weak refinement at which this art of engraving has arrived, seems to promise already a revolution in taste. We have seen some works, lately executed in Paris, which show a wonderful purity of line, and a force of shadow not unworthy of the old masters in this art. Since Wordsworth and the German poets, between whom there is a close though unacknowledged affinity, have possessed us with sentiments to the neglect of melody and passion, Moore and Byron with Rossini, who represents them in Music, have fallen not a little in estimation, though they are still extremely popular in despite of moral criticism. Be it there is no deeper moral in a song of Moore, or a stanza of Childe Harold, than in one of Rossini's delicious and inexhaustible cavatinas, or in a group of Bacchanals from Poussin, they are none the less excellent, nay, unapproachable in their kind, rich flowers of genius, full of melody, and the most perfect sensuous beauty. They must remain, too, as the types of perfection for the musical qualities of our tongues, and must continue to give pleasure long after the present fashion of sentimentalism has ceased even from history.

Memoirs of the Life of Addison: By MISS AIKIN, complete in one volume. CAREY & HART, Philadelphia, 1846.

A life of Addison by one of the most elegant of the female writers of England, composed in the subdued and classic manner of that school of English prose, of which Addison himself, unless Cowley be prefer. red to him, may be taken as the source and the model. The memoir itself is not remarkable for any marked or brilliant qualities of wit or sentiment, but chiefly for the sweetness of its periods and the mild enthusiasm with which it follows the illustrious moralist through all the progress of his dispassionate but not uneventful life.

The other remarkable characters of that age, particularly Swift and Pope, are treat ed with much severity by the Biographer, who ascribed to them a degree of inveterate and ungenerous malice toward their rivals, which their admirers will disclaim. The author discovers but little respect for those great names, and strikes the balance against them by an excusable degree of admiration for the accomplished Addison; a

man of a noble but somewhat timid and exclusive nature, who carried the idea of taste and classic reserve from letters into the conduct of life, and who is marked, like all great moralists, with the excess of the qualities which his writings have stamped upon the literature and manners of his nation.

Essays on the Progress of Nations in Productive Industry, Civilization, Population, and Wealth,-illustrated by Statistics of Mining, Agriculture, Manufacture, &c.: By EZRA C. SEAMAN. Detroit, M. GIEGER & Co. New York, BAKER & SCRIBNER.

great value of Mr. Seaman's book entitled, We cheerfully express our opinion of the sides the amount of exceedingly valuable "Essays on the Progress of Nations." Bestatistical information which it contains,

and which alone should ensure to it a most

extensive circulation, it has high merits in a political and philosophical point of view. The author evidently views the Tariff and kindred subjects from a position higher than that from which they are or dinarily contemplated. The reader will these are not questions merely of temporary prices, or market fluctuations, but that they have a permanent bearing on the highdemonstrates that the encouragement of a est well-being of the nation. The author national industry, in its various branches, is far more than a mere nominal matter of cheap buying, (although even here its advantages are in the end more clearly shown,) but that it is more intimately connected perity of a country. with the moral welfare and highest pros

find on the examination of this work, that

Destiny: a Poem: By E. DELAFIELD SMITH.

Of the twenty or thirty poetical addresses on public occasions, large and small, sent to us within the last eight months, this is a fair sample. It is legitimate, at such times, to deliver moderate verse, and the present seems to be no infringement of the rule. The laying out of its subject is better than the execution. The design is to show that all nations, from the Hindoo and the Parsee to the Gipsies and Lord Byron, are imbued with a dark belief in Fate. This undoubtedly laid the ground-work for some swelling and powerful poetry; but the piece, though with some good passages, is very loosely written. Among other faults the writer will have so short a thing in eight or ten kinds of metre-a ridiculous and fatal conceit, which we have condemned half a dozen times already in similar productions. A dozen lines, or so―a new fancy comes up-and, presto, the measure is changed! Thus walking, limping, and

swinging along, it is impossible to produce any body of impression. As to the writer's idea of Fate, it may be taken as a poetical feeling; but such lines as these, at this age, are either blasphemy or idiotcy: Eternal Powers! as on life's ocean dark Years hang more deeply o'er my humble bark, I feel that God, permitting Fate's decree, Divides his radiant throne with Destiny."

Some clever lines might be quoted in the course of the poem, but we were fated not to have room.

The Addresses and Messages of the Presidents of the United States, Inaugural, Annual, and Special, from 1789 to 1846, with a Memoir of each of the Presidents, and a History of their Administrations, compiled from official sources by EDWIN WILLIAMS. In two volumes. New York, Edward Walker.

Of the real value of this work to the people of this country, too high an estimate can hardly be formed. Whatever may be the feelings of any foreign nation towards us, there can be no citizens of another country who will not acknowledge that ours has been a wonderful career. In so few years to have swept the vast wilderness away; to have erected towns and cities in every direction, populous and powerful; to have covered our hills and valleys with cultivated fields, crowded a thousand great rivers with steam-vessels, and dotted the innumerable inland streams with busy manufactories; to have achieved so much of physical triumph over a region twothirds as large as all Europe-and, in addition, to have established, on the broadest base, new forms of government, new institutions, new laws and elements of social life, so that we rank, beyond any question, as one of the first four nations of the earth is a result which must always be considered among the most extraordinary that can be recorded. But in the history of these things, our physical progress has been noted much more than the formation of our political, moral and social institutions. Among other disadvantages, this has been the cause of the chief misunderstandings abroad respecting our character, and of the equal misconceptions at home, as to the true elements to be regarded and hoped for in our future growth. We have been looked upon by others as a young overgrown giant, impetuous, awkward, and something dangerous. We have looked upon ourselves as

vigorous, progressive, and destined to an extraordinary future of wealth and strength. It is time we should view ourselves, and be viewed, in a nobler and more trying light. In this relation, as clearing up, in a more thorough and impartial manner than had before been done or attempted, that part of our history which embraces all past political movements, this work of Mr. Williams is invaluable. That our politics, so far, make up the most important portion of our history, both to ourselves and to other nations, will not readily be questioned. But no work, till the publication of this, had presented any sufficient body of their annals and statistics. The Presidential Messages and Addresses would, of themselves, be valuable enough to commend the compilation to every one's use; but in addition to those, the author has added a sketch of the life of every President, and a history of his administration; amounting, in all, to nearly 500 out of the 1700 pages comprised in the two octavo volumes. These portions of original matter are full of information; and it is worthy of a distinct and emphatic tribute, that they are written in the most sober and impartial spirit. The writer seems to be of a serious and conservative turn of mind, as he could hardly have failed to be, after surveying our politics from Washington to Polk; but there is no quality of the partisan in him. The book is a thoroughly impartial one, and will, therefore, be of infinitely wider usefulness. Every person should possess a copy.

One thing only, in these volumes, strikes us as worthy of censure: and that is utterly wretched. We refer to the engraved heads of the Presidents, placed as frontispieces. We have never seen anything more absurd and abominable. They look as if they had been etched on clay and moulded of cast iron; and even in that case, they must have been badly done. By the way they look, the cares of State must have made terrible inroads upon them. We should think the old bald eagle at the top would scream over them worse than he appears to be doing; and we only wish the blaze of glory around him would consume the whole infamous combination together. Seriously, it is unjust, and altogether unprofitable, in an age so accustomed to good engravings, to put out such miserable caricatures of our most eminent men; and we frankly advise the publisher to change the plates as soon as possible.