*felt inclined to ask how this disclosure of the mysteries, is from the bosom of this life that some of the noblest and mummeries, and nonsenses of their Student-life, will poets, the profoundest philosophers, and the most devoted be relished by the Germans themselves? they being, as patriots WHICH (whom) the world ever saw, have gone Mr. Howitt in his preface remarks, "jealous of the laws forth." And again, in the last sentence of the book :— and customs of their ancient Burschendom being laid "Illustrious learned men and authors, wHICH (who) open to the public." How did the English stomach quench their thirst of knowledge," &c.* Prince Puckler Muskau's exhibition of their social foibles Notwithstanding these defects, which are of secondary and peccadilloes in his Travels through this country? importance, though still such as no acknowledged memWe should imagine, unless the Germans are a much less ber of the republic of letters has any right to be guilty of, sensitive people than ourselves, William Howitt by this we cannot say but that we have been much gratified by publication will not experience an increase of that favour the perusal of this volume. Under cover of much that is and good-will they appear hitherto to have manifested | ridiculous and puerile in the exterior phases of Burschen towards him. And the more so, inasmuch as the better life, there repose such joyousness and goodness of heart, features of the German character, as exhibited in col- and such frank, generous, buoyant, elasticity of spirit, lege life, are not sufficiently brought out in this work; that well retrieve its grosser extravagances; we therefore but all the tomfooleries, the swagger and slang, the beer perfectly agree with the translator in his remark that," amid swilling and smoking, are most prominently delineated; all the follies, and mad frolics, and nonsense of German so that, judged of by this production, at least as you go Student-life-of which God knows there is plenty-he along with it piecemeal, the Student-life of Fatherland must be destitute of poetry himself who does not feel it would seem to the English reader little better than a here." We admit that the whole interior of that whose mixture of low breeding and blackguardism, whereas it surface is so strange and picturesque is pervaded by a is happily becoming a much more rational mode of high and beautiful sentiment, a profound love of nature, existence than the tales and descriptions of the roistering and a glorious love of country; and, moreover, that the and extravagant customs here given would lead him to depths of Burschen life are here penetrated; the neversuppose; many of these usages properly appertain to the comprehended chaos, as alleged by Hauff, is here traMiddle Ages, and some of them have been long ago, and | versed; and that the "music of its most hidden halls is others are nearly, exploded. Hence, these to us tedious made audible and intelligible to all ears." We must and obsolete matters, if understood as now in vogue, are read the whole book to arrive at just appreciation of calculated to give a picture of German university life, its merits: the charm lies not in its separate parts, but such as the actual truth will not authorize. in the tout ensemble; and the translator has truly remarked, that, "taken as a whole, this volume will be found to contain more that is entirely new and curious, than any one which has issued from the press for years.” With the moral purpose hoped to be served by this publication, we cannot have any fault to find; on the contrary, there is just reason to wish its full realization. If the perusal of this volume," says William Howitt, "should have the good effect of lessening, amongst the German youth, the tendency to the beer, or the sword duel, and of inspiring our English youth with a more intellectual and poetical taste in their pleasures, certainly we may say, in the style of all good old prefaces, that it will not have been written in vain.'

With regard to the character of the translation we have no means of judging, except in the songs where the originals are also given. Having seen some of them before in the admirable versions of certain of our ablest poets, and particularly the sword song of Körner, by Professor Blackie, Mrs. Hemans, and others, we are not disposed to say that the performances of these writers have been superseded by the versions of Mr. Howitt; though we think his translation of some of these beautiful effusions marked by considerable vigour and fidelity. Of one or two passages we have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Howitt has mistaken their meaning; and there are not wanting some instances of his turning the original into absolute burlesque; of the former we adduce as a specimen his version of two lines from the sword song :

"Doch an die rechte traut

Gott sichtbarlich die braut." "But on the right the bride

Trusts God in all her pride."

Here we apprehend it is "God who trusts, or rather betroths, or marries the bride," and not the "bride who trusts God." The word trauen signifies to perform the marriage ceremony." Of the latter we give as an example the soldier addressing his sword, which William Howitt thus renders:

"Wait in thy chamber narrow,

What wouldst thou here, my marrow?" &c.

In this place, the words mein liebchen are translated my marrow, which we cannot help thinking is something like a burlesque on the original.

Moreover, there exist some most unaccountable blunders n the diction and phraseology, which (if they are not misprints,) indicate great carelessness, we will not say ignorance; for surely, both Dr. Cornelius and his translator must know better than to write such phrases as "ancienne régime for "ancien régime," (p. 278) &c.; and the relative" which," instead of "who" and "whom," as in page 9 of the preface, where Mr. Howitt says:-" It

Dr. Cornelius, the author of the work, is a name hitherto unknown in this country. We are therefore entirely indebted for our acquaintance with him to this introduction of Mr. Howitt, by whom he is described as a "young and learned author, who has recently passed, by a splendid examination, out of this Student-life, without ever having fought a single duel, or very probably got half or even quarter seas over;" yet, in other places, he is represented to us as having passed through all the mysteries of this singular life; and hence, with the assistance of friends of the like experience, eminently qualified to depict it with that peculiar feeling and appre ciation which a German only can possess.

But we are detaining the reader too long from the

While we thus freely express our opinion on certain alleged inaccuracies, more particularly of translation, in this work, we beg that it may be understood only as an opinion. Some of the expressions in the original of the sword song are equivocal; and, though Mr. Howitt may have mistaken the meaning in the few instances alluded to, we wish by no means to detract from the general merit of his translations of the songs, which in the main are remarkably correct and spirited. Our sole object, as the reader will perceive, is justice and fairness; and hence the reckless abuse with which this work of its ingenious author has been assailed by some writers, must incur our unqualified condemnation, as well as, doubtless, of every advocate of candid and impartial criticism.

contents of the book. The first four chapters describe the general plan, offices, and courts, of a German university; a general view of Student life; the chores or unions; and the Burschenschaft. We extract a passage tending to show that no German, however exalted in rank, can hold a high position in society, without making himself master of the knowledge thus opened to the people:

"It is only by merit that a German can now acquire an honourable position in society; nay, the rich and the noble feel a pride in showing the world that in them these merits are not wanting. Here is an example of this honourable

sentiment:

Shall you soon depart to your estate?' inquired a foreigner, of the Graf von Sch -, one of the richest nobles of Germany, who studied jurisprudence in Heidelberg.

No,' replied the Graf,' I shall first submit myself to a state's examination.'

'Indeed!' replied the foreigner, will you then really become a legal practitioner?'

'No; but I will show to the world, that without my possessions I could have made my way by my acquirements.'

And to this diffusion and recognition of the claims of knowledge, to the scattering abroad of science amongst the people, what has more contributed than the foundation of our universities? Out of them go forth the distinguished men who guide the helin of the state with circumspection;-out of them the teachers of the pulpit, and the folk's schools,-to diffuse light and improvement throughout society."

:

Carieties.

Zoological Sule.-Mr. Batty's collection of animals was sold by auction a few days since, when the undermentioned animals fetched the prices annexed: a large red-faced monkey, clever, 17. 10s.; a fine coati-mundi, 17. 48.; a mandril, or slate-faced satyr, the only one in England, 17. 178.; a pair of handsome Java hares, 17. 9s.; a puma, 147.; a handsome Senegal lioness, 91.; a hyæna, 71.; a splendid Barbary lioness, 241.; a handsome Bengal tigress, 901.; a brown bear, 61.; the largest Polar bear in Europe, 371.; a pair of Esquimaux sledge-dogs, 31. 78. ; a pair of golden pheasants, 31. 10s.; a blue and buff macaw, a clever talker, 21. 10s.; a horned owl, from North America, 31. 10s.; a magnificent Barbary lion, trained for performance, 105 guineas; a lioness, similarly trained, ninety guineas; a handsome Senegal performing 66 Victoria leopard, thirty-four guineas; two others, and "Albert," fifty guineas; an ursine sloth, twelve guineas; an Indian buffalo, ten guineas; a sagacious male elephant, trained for theatrical performance, 350 guineas. The above was stated to be the first sale of the kind by public auction, in this country.

Colonization.-The following fact shows the difficulties which, at an early period, beset our North American Colonies. One of the witnesses examined by the Land Commission appointed by the late Earl of Durham, deposed that upon one occasion, he met a settler with a wagon and three horses, in the midst of a trackless wilderness, returning to his home,

or three quarters of wheat, which he had taken to the nearest mill to be ground.

New Zealand Wine.-The vine has been cultivated for ages, by the natives, in New Zealand. The northern island has a rich volcanic soil, composed of tufa, or pumice-stone, admirably adapted for vines or hops. We gather these facts from a MS. account of a residence in New Zealand, in 1834. They remind us of the soil of Italy: and doubtless, wines closely resembling the famous Lacryma Christi grown near Vesuvius, as well as other wines of the south of Europe, might easily be produced in New Zealand.

Birth of the Prince of Wales.-A few evenings since, Sir Robert Peel felicitously observed in Parliament: "If this event has completed the domestic happiness of Her Majesty and of her illustrious consort, it has equally added to the private and domestic happiness of almost every family in the country."

As a fitting sequel to the above, we give another short after a journey of five or six days, with the proceeds of two passage on the equality which reigns among the German students, and to which law the foreigner must conform :"Nor let any one, especially the foreigner, imagine that he may claim distinction on account of his wealth, or his high birth; or that he may expect, from his university-acquaintance, particular homage on that account; thereby would he certainly expose himself to ridicule and annoyances. Nobility holds in Germany no longer such absurd estimation; few Germans seek a man's acquaintance exclusively on account of its possession, and those few are despised. This is a necessary consequence of the constitutional structure of our German states; and hence are the Germans freer than the English, who pride themselves so much on their political liberty, and yet are such slaves to the nobility. This singularity of the English often becomes very ludicrously conspicuous in constitutional Baden, to whose cities they so numerously resort; and the students of Heidelberg have often made themselves merry over it, especially when the English families in a neighbouring city have, each term, picked out of the address calendar of the university, a list of the students published each half-year, those names which had any mark of nobility about them, and invited those élite to their entertainments. If this is a prominent feeling throughout Germany, it is in the universities, at least in the majority of them, the ruling one; and to make clear what I have here said, I may quote the following words from Lichtenberg: An equality like that of the French people exists amongst the students of the universities. The poorest thinks himself as good as the graf, and stoops not to him, though he freely leaves him to enjoy any advantages that he may possess. Should he set up haughty pretensions, that were the very way effectually to insure a denial of any claim. They are only proud assumptions, that are intolerable to the free man; for the rest he is thoroughly disposed to allow to him every distinction that he deserves, and what these distinctions are, he has generally correct means of determining.'' We shall return to this curious work in our next Journal.

The Charter-book of the Royal Society is the most interesting autographic treasure in this kingdom: it contains the signatures of all the Fellows of the Society, from its incorporation in 1663, to the present time. Upon the same page with the signatures of the Queen and Prince Albert, the King of Prussia signed his name a few days since. At the same time also, Baron von Humboldt also signed his name in the Charter-book.

Puff Elaborate.-A celebrated pianist advertises that the King of Prussia having, upon a stated occasion, "requested" him to perform, His Majesty placed himself behind the chair of the artist, "who, thus inspired, extemporised, and hit most happily upon subjects which elicited from the august hearer his loud approbation." Surely, such inspiration is the puff direct.

Unlucky Devil.-A certain Pascalus, from playing the part of The Devil in a Mystery, at Meaux, had the name affixed to him as surname. In 1562, he delivered the town to the Hugonots, and the year after the Catholics hung him, partly because he had delivered up the town, partly because he was called Le Diable.-Victor Hugo.

Advertisement Oddities.-One often finds droll information in the newspaper advertisements. Thus, Madame Tussaud gravely tells us, "The Prince of Wales is added ;” also, just added, the Princess Royal in her splendid Cot, with the gorgeous robes of George the Fourth," &c.

London. It is a fact, shown by the returns of the Registrar General, that while the mean annual mortality in England is one in forty-five, the mortality of the Whitechapel district is one in twenty-eight. A tax of threepence in the pound on the rental of London, it is estimated, will produce nearly £100,000 per annum.

Odd Music.-Curran and his friend B. were walking through the Borough one day, when a cart-load of bar-iron passing in the road interrupted the conversation with its metallic clatter: "That's pretty music," said B. "Yes," replied Curran, "ironically speaking."

Education. Dr. Cooke Taylor has said as truly as wittily, that a knowledge of reading and writing is no more education than the possession of a knife and fork is a good dinner. What to Teach, and How to Teach it. Again: "Language is of use solely as a means of communicating thought. The communication of thought is a process nearly allied to Mrs. Glasse's method of cooking a hare. The first and chief requisite is, to get the article itself. My receipt for education isfirst, get the thought, and then add as many ways of dressing it as you please.”—Ibid.

Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.-In the Times, we find thus sketched, the happy auspices under which the Prince of Wales has been baptized: "Our First Edward ravaged Scotland and Wales; our Third Edward, and his son, the gallant Black Prince, carried desolation into France. But Scotland and Wales belong to this Edward, and he to Scotland and Wales; and France is the nearest and most bonoured ally of his mother's crown. May it be his office to consolidate good-will and unity throughout the world, and may war never be heard of in his time! Nor is the aspect of affairs at home, and the temper of the national mind, less promising. Edward the Second had to struggle, and struggled in vain, against the disloyal turbulence of a feudal aristocracy; Edward the Fourth had to fight his way to the throne against an adverse possession and a disputed right; Edward the Sixth was at the mercy of rival oligarchical factions during the whole of his eventful minority. But feudalism is now extinct; the aristocracy of the 19th century is blended with the rest of our institutions in harmonious subjection to the supremacy of the law; oligarchical government is a thing impossible with a free press and an independent House of Commons; the right to the throne is clear and indisputable, and, if assailed, the whole nation would be its defenders."

Refined Sugar has been used in England for four centuries; since we find Margaret Paston writing to her husband from Norwich, thus I pray that ye will vouchsafe to send me another sugar-loaf, for my old one is done." Pewter vessels of all kinds, too, were fashionable at this time.

1

Punch's Valentines." The Literary Gentleman."
Illustrious scribe! whose vivid genius strays
'Mid Drury's stews to incubate her lays,
And in St. Giles's slang conveys her tropes,
Wreathing the poet's lines with hangmen's ropes.
You who conceive 'tis poetry to teach
The sad bravado of a dying speech;
Or, when possess'd with a sublimer mood,
Show “ Jack o' dandies” dancing upon blood !*
Crush bones-bruise flesh-recount each festering sore-
Rake up the plague pit-write-and write in gore!
Or, when inspired to humanize mankind,
Where doth your soaring soul its subjects find?
Not 'mid the scenes that simple Goldsmith sought,
And found a theme to elevate his thought;
But you, great scribe, more greedy of renown,
From Hounslow's gibbet drag a hero down.
Imbue his mind with virtue; make him quote
Some moral truth, before he cuts a throat.
Then wash his hands, and—soaring o'er your craft,—
Refresh the hero with the bloody draught:
And, fearing less the world should miss the act,
With noble zeal italicize the fact.

Or would you picture woman meek and pure,
By love and virtue tutor❜d to endure,
With cunning skill you take a felon's trull,
Stuff her with sentiment, and scrunch her skull!
Ob! would your crashing, smashing, mashing pen were mine,
That I could" scorch your eye-balls" with my words,
MY VALENTINE.

Servants' Wages-Regularity in settlements with servants is
important; for a shrewd writer has well observed: "
"if the
master take no account of his servants, they will make small
account of him, and care not what they spend, who are never
brought to an audit."

This is one of twelve smart Valentines, forming No. 31 of that witty and humorous melange, Punch, or the London Charivari :-Each Valentine bears a large engraving, most characteristically designed, and cut in a broad, telling style of the art. The designers are Kenny Meadows, Phiz, Leech, Crowquill, Hemmings and Newman; so that in this sheet we have specimens of the finest graphic humorists of the day, or rather of every first-rate artist in this line, except Cruik shank. middle-aged person, with such long hair as would have in"The Literary Gentleman" is represented by a censed the Apostle Paul in no small degree: he is seated at a table, whereon are a gibbet, an executed criminal, “last dying speech," &c. ; and upon the frame of the pictures are inscribed "Gallows heroism," 99 66 Gallus literature," " MurBulwer's" Zanoni," just published.- der," "Robbery," and "Burglary." The Valentine itself has in it a spice of Churchill's muse; and it needs no finger to tell where its withering satire is pointed.

Gems from Sir E. L.

O shallow and mean heart of man! dost thou conceive so little of love as not to know that it sacrifices all-love itselffor the happiness of the thing it loves?- -Paying your debts is a good doctrine in money matters; as to revenge it is not so moral, and certainly not so wise.Are there no errors and no fallacies, in the chronicles of our own day, as absurd as those of the alchemists of old? Our very newspapers may seem to our posterity as full of delusions as the books of the alchemists do to us;-not but what the Press is the air we breathe,and uncommonly foggy the air is too!-Oh! long and sweet recompense of toil! Where is on earth the rapture like that which is known to genius, when at last it bursts from its hidden cavern into light and fame! -There are always in every theatre many rivals to a new author, and a new performer-a party impotent while all goes well-but a dangerous ambush the instant some accident throws into confusion the march to success.-Antiquated superstitions are out of fashion; nothing now goes down but scepticism and philosophy.Gather that wild flower: the Golden House is vanished-but the wild flower may have kin to those which the stranger's hand scattered over the tyrant's grave;-see, over this soil, the grave of Rome, nature strews the wild flowers still!Thought can meet thought, and spirit spirit, though oceans divide the forms. Death itself divides not the wise. Thou meetest Plato when thine eyes moisten over the Phædo. May Homer live with all men for ever! He who believes in other worlds can accustom himself to look on this as the naturalist on the revolutions of an ant-hill or of a leaf. What is the earth to Infinity-what its duration to the Eternal! Oh, how much greater is the soul of one man than the vicissitudes of the whole globe!

THE

LONDON SATURDAY JOURNAL.

CONDUCTED BY JOHN TIMBS, THIRTEEN YEARS EDITOR OF "THE MIRROR," AND "LITERARY WORLD."

No. 63. NEW SERIES.]

SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1842.

[PRICE TWOPENCE.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

124

Catlin's North American Indian Gallery. II.-Mandan The Armourer of Paris. A Romance of the Fifteenth

Chief.

Pet Animals

PAGE

122 Century. Chap. III.-How Perinet started on the

Queen's Mission

126

Assassination of Gustavus III. King of Sweden, March

16, 1792 ..

124

Hogarth's Painting of Rosamund's Pond.
Earthquakes in London

CHIEF OF THE MANDANS.
(From Catlin's North American Indian Gallery.)

The Literary World. Zanoni. By the Author of Night

and Morning, &c. .

Varieties

130

132