of them. Thus he once more drew round the to win for himself independence, has yet never discourse to anecdotes of travel and art; a sacrificed his soul to the vice of the old and portfolio of curious engravings was brought the successful avarice! Such thoughts as forward, and shown to his appreciating guests; these rushed through Frances Crawford's and the marvellous Cellini cameo was once heart, and seemed well-nigh to deprive her more admired, and the effect of the relievo ex- of speech; all she could utter was, in a tremamined by lamplight. Frances was holding bling voice, this strange rejoinder: "You will it; but after one or two attempts to return it dine with us on Christmas-day, to meet into the artist's own hand, she laid it on the papa ?" table. After a little while, the owner took it up; but he seemed awkward and confused, as if he knew not what to do with it. Presently he stammered out: "If Mrs. Crawford would do me the favor to accept this Minerva's head, as a slight memorial of these sittings, I should be more gratified than I can express."

"So valuable a gift!" exclaimed Frances. "Indeed, you do me too much honor, are too generous; how can I accept it?"

"I must appeal to you, Mr. Crawford," returned the painter, "to use your influence, and not to disappoint me. I know no one else worthy to wear such a gem.'

"It is a magnificent gift," replied Mr. Crawford," and it would be churlish indeed to refuse the acceptance of it. Yet you lay us under deep obligation."

"I am obliged," said Ireton, passing the cameo to Frances. "I can fancy it is sentient enough to know that it has only now found its true mistress."

"If I wear it though," said Frances, holding forth her hand, and grasping that of the artist very warmly, "it must be on a condition."

66

Any that you please."

Only, that you dine with us on Christmasday, to meet dear papa;" and Frances smiled as only the Ida could.

"You are most kind; I shall be proud and happy. But, ah me!" continued the artist, "I had nearly forgotten: you must have the stones that belong to the brooch, in case you prefer the settings; I do not perhaps you will like them, though, for a ring or a clasp, and they are utterly useless to me;" and while he was speaking, the artist pulled out the drawer of a cabinet, in which, among ends of string and sealing-wax, old coins, steel-pens, worn pencils, bits of India-rubber, and heaps of other heterogeneous refuse, there rolled about some twenty or thirty large diamonds of the finest water.

66

O yes, of course, with pleasure," replied the artist; but the changes which passed across the beautiful face he had studied that day for hours could not be unobserved by him, and though without a suspicion of the truth, his curiosity was aroused, and he said smiling: "May I ask who your father is? Perhaps an old acquaintance, or some patron of art, whom I ought to know? I need hardly say, I asked no question of your groom save your name and address."

There was again a pause, the painter wondering what could have occurred to cause the agitation he perceived; yet, amid all, congrat ulating himself at having caught a new expression for his Ida. Pardon me," he continued, "if I have given pain: if this is to be an acted charade, I can await the solution."

"We meant it so," said Frances; "but I find I cannot act out my part. Ah, you have promised, and you will not recant?"

"The name!" asked Ireton, still smiling, for the fancy possessed him that it was some rival painter whom he was to meet, and towards whom rumor had fabricated some story. of jealousy or envy.

66

William Ireton!" said Frances very softly, yet looking, though timidly, at her uncle as she spoke.

His eyes drooped beneath her gaze, and he sank into a chair and buried his face in his hands. The sobs that once before that evening had been stifled, refused again to be driven back, and the large tears dropped through his fingers. Even Edward Crawford's manly spirit was moved, but he felt himself powerless to act in the drama which was going forward. Frances, too, was weeping freely now, but not tears of sorrow. She approached her uncle, and moving his hands from his face, as she stooped over him, printed a gentle, loving kiss upon one of them. Her action broke the spell of coldness and restraint. Pembroke Ireton wound his arms Frances Crawford was used to costly orna- round his young relative, drew her tight to ments and elegant attire, and had diamonds his heart, and kissed her cheek with parental of great price in her jewel-box at home; fondness. All he said was: "And you must therefore, it was not acquisition of the gems be my child henceforth - always." now offered to her that touched her heart or It was enough. Frances laughed amid her affected her to tears. But she instinctively own April tears, and wiped away those of felt that, despite his early errors, this her uncle herself, parting the thin locks which estranged uncle had a fine nature, for no nook had fallen over his forehead, as she might or cranny of it enshrined a meanness. And have done the rich tresses of a pet child. it is surely one test of nobility, when a man Oh, how these gestures of tenderness went to approaches fifty, and having had the discretion the heart of the lonely man, who had once

thought the intellect able to satisfy the mighty
yearnings of humanity! Still holding Frances
by his side, Pembroke Ireton stretched out
his hand to her husband, saying, with a sort
of cheerful happiness: "A trick; but I for-
give you, for it has made me a new man.
Only remember, she is mine as well as yours;
you must let her be my daughter.
"But, Uncle Pembroke," replied Frances,
and the words ran together as if they had
been often coupled - Uncle Pembroke, you
will have to love Bessy and Lotty, and my
tall brother Herbert, and Willy and Little
Charles."

are not alone. If-if-
And then the door opens, and in a few
brief moments the brothers, separated for five-
and-twenty years, are face to face.

"My Ida!" exclaimed the artist almost simultaneously with the other. "Yes, come to us."

The blind father was leaning one elbow on the chimney-piece a favorite and familiar attitude with him—while the other hand rested on his brother's shoulder; for Pembroke had sunk into a chair that stood near. The light of a shaded lamp fell softly on the two countenances, showing them in full relief; and Frances was almost startled at the different expression which shone through features singularly alike in their outline. That placid expression, so often remarked in the blind, seemed ruffled, it is true; but rather as a clear stream is stirred by the summer breeze in the summer sunlight, and so shines the brighter, than by any harsher cause. He looked ten years the younger of

the two.

There were lines of positive anguish on Pembroke Ireton's countenance, for if this meeting brought joy, it also awakened longburied memories, that seemed to stalk abroad like disturbing ghosts. The happiness of the reconciliation itself taught him to measure the loss he had experienced during the estrangement of half his lifetime. He rose as Mrs. Crawford entered the room, and presently she stood between him and her father.

"Uncle Pembroke " threw his arm lightly round her waist, and the blind father, feeling her close presence, did the same; thus again their hands met, and most fitly as it seemed. Frances laughed merrily, but, releasing herself from this somewhat awkward embrace, kept firm hold of a hand of each.

At this instant, there was something curiously" regal" in the deportment of Frances Crawford. The artist's quick appreciation "I see clearly," she exclaimed with mock of her qualities had been true and deep; gravity, "that there is no such thing as conwhenever it seemed to her worth while to tentment in the world; and this, I suppose, lead or to govern, she did so with an authority because the prizes in life are more fairly dithat became her so much, and which she vided than we would have them. Here is assumed so naturally, that no one ever Uncle Pembroke, with a fame not second to thought of disputing it. Accordingly she that of any living painter; that is his prize. passed her arm through that of the tall You, dear papa, have drawn from fortune's brother, and motioning to the younger chil-wheel a wife that dotes upon you, and a quandren to follow, led them out of the room tity of unruly children, that always have their before they had time to question her will.

Now, stay up stairs till you are wanted," she exclaimed with her beautiful smile; "and don't detain me with questions, for they cannot do without me a moment longer. Ah, Edward!" she continued, seeing her husband and her mother close by, "that is right; take dear mamma into the little drawing-room. I know," and this Frances whispered to her husband - "I know mamma is thinking of my namesake, and I give you the charge to melt her to forgiveness." Then retracing her steps, she gently opened the door of the dining-room

66

in."

It is Frances," said her father. "Come

own way, and only pay you back for their indulgences by a vast amount of love. Uncle Pembroke thinks your prize the more precious of the two, and, ridiculous as the idea is, we must humor it, I suppose."

"It is hardly kind to say that he is right," exclaimed the blind man with much feeling. "But it is true," sighed the artist. "Princess! I hear but to obey.'

"Of course. But if I consent to be 'your child,' and papa and Edward give me away to you, it is to be quite understood that the whole family shares in your artist-glory. Henceforth, we are all to walk inches taller, in fact, as if we wore high-heeled shoeswhich our pride in you will constitute."

"I have felt pride in Pembroke's genius all | and Bessy among his "violet-hooded doctors." my life," exclaimed Mr. Ireton, " and I am This, however, is all that he has done for a thus the richer of the two."

"But not the pride, open, joyous, and triumphantly we shall feel now. Half our acquaintances do not know of the relationship; and, by the way, I must now revise my visiting list," and Frances tossed back her head, as if she were rehearsing the part of a newly-made

duchess.

Beneath her playful manner she had spoken truths, which brought a host of healing influences with them—truths, too, which bridged over all the rough places in the reconciliation.

long time, for the entreaties of affection have prevailed, and he spares his eyes as much as possible, and follows the instructions of his medical advisers, who give him more hope than he before entertained of preserving the blessing of sight. Once more the brothers are fondly united; and the past is not always a prohibited subject. Pembroke Ireton confesses his belief, that, with the fulcrum of domestic happiness, he should have achieved even greater things in Art than he has done; that, as the heart withers, the intellect contracts; and that no belief in a vocation is any It was said that Frances Crawford had real excuse for the omission of one near human never acquired a nick-name; but it is the case duty moreover, that the Human Life is the no longer, for her husband and her uncle at fountain of inspiration to poets and painters, least commonly call her "Ida," and in their and that to act poetry, is far nobler than to merriest moods, address her as " Your High- write or paint it. Long years of loneliness ness." This is not to be wondered at, seeing were the penalty of his former fatal mistake; that Pembroke Ireton has already painted but through his brother's family the artist at three pictures of the "Princess," contriving, last experiences very many of the blessings of by the way, to introduce the heads of Lotty domestic life.

From the Critic.

his Indian illustrations, and Lang, once of the Mofussilite, and noted in connection with Iotee Persaud, has begun a trashy Indian tale, The Wetherbys, Father and Son, appearing in Fraser's Magazine. From Fraser, also, Kingsley is reprinting his Hypatia, the worst of all his novels; for though he can copy and color, he cannot create, and if he wish to be effective, he must return to the men and to the scenery. of contemporary England. A new fiction approaches Sir Frederick Derwent - by the author of Smugglers and Foresters, and of Fabian's Tower, who needs only care and cultivation to rise considerably above his present element of the Minerva Press.

SIR ROBERT PEEL's speeches are in course of republication, pure and simple, from Hansard's melancholy pages, and a reprint of the Iron Duke's parliamentary oratory is also under way. A likely enough biographico-historical monograph is a talked-of life of Queen Christina of Sweden, which might well in due time be followed by one of a very different female sovereign, Catherine of Russia. The judicial Grote is on the eve of an eleventh volume of his History of Greece; and a fourth volume of his History of Greek Literature is perhaps already due to the perseverance of Colonel Mure, of Caldwell, the representative of one of From the correspondence of Jeffrey and Moore, the oldest of Scottish families, and who the other published in the memoirs of the latter, it would day moved for and obtained still another select appear that five-and-thirty years ago the circucommittee on the National Gallery. Dr. Layard lation of the Edinburgh Review was 13,000 per has just published more Discoveries in the number; is it half as much now-now that the Ruins of Nineveh, and already, no doubt, has reading world has so vastly augmented in wealth received a commission for another one; for the and population? Our so-called "higher" periDr., without vacating his seat for Aylesbury, is odical press is sinking to zero in matter, manner, off again to the East to assist Lord Strafford de and motive. The last number of the WestminRedclyffe in soothing the dying moments of the ster had actually in it articles from two Yankees, Turkish Empire; and before he left for that one of them on Daniel Webster, by a person who, pious work, did not the London corporation instead of being thankful that he was printed at bestow on him the freedom of the city in a gold all, is complaining on the other side of the box? The Sacred East, if but tolerably handled, Atlantic that his precious lucubration was altered always commands attention from the English and abridged! Alison, the historian and chief reading public, and Dr. Lepsius' Egyptian political contributor to Blackwood, was made a Letters are aeady at their second edition. But baronet by the last administration, and Croker the East has its modern political interest as well of the Quarterly has always been looked on as the as its ancient sacred one; and if a hundred and stanchest of Tories. Yet each, in his several pubfifty millions of Hindoos are under the sway of lication, smiles on the coalition-ministry! You England, why should not Mr. George Campbell, want to know the reason why?" Because Mr. related to my lord the Chief Justice of that name, Disraeli gibbeted Croker as Mr. Rigby, and follow up his former book with an India as it laughed at Alison as Mr. Wordy. Alas! sarmay be? Even in our light literature, Hin-casms, like the "curses" and "chickens" of dostan is making itself felt:- Mr. Punch has the proverb, always at last "return home."

CCCCLXX. LIVING AGE.

VOL. I. 31

From Chambers' Journal. THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.

March, 1853.

reservoir of nitrogen — the main desideratum for the worn-out fields of Europe cannot long be left within a few miles of the sea, passed almost in sight by our steamers, yet still nearly inaccessible, at the foot of the Andes." A company to work the Peruvian nitrate might be formed, with much better hope of success than in prospecting for Australian nuggets.

the hands of Greek merchants established in England. It gives us an additional reason for preserving amicable relations with the east, and explains why the Turks do not wish to give up Kleik and Sutorina to Austria.

THE sudden arrival of winter with a low temperature, has again verified the registrargeneral's statement, that a fall of the thermometer to freezing-point never fails to raise by some hundreds the weekly return of mortality in the metropolis. The mean tem- Connected with this subject is a result of perature of the second week in January was "unrestricted competition," which is re45 degrees, and the deaths were 1001; in garded with some interest-the Levant is the second week in February it had sunk to becoming our chief source of corn-supply. 29 degrees, and the deaths numbered 1328. We had so long been accustomed to look to a remarkable and seriously suggestive increase. the United States and the shores of the Baltic "It appears," says the registrar, "that for surplus grain, that few persons thought of while persons of all ages have suffered, the the course of trade taking a new direction. In severity of the weather has been most fatal to 1841, we imported 230,000 quarters from the persons in advanced life. Well-heated apart- Russian ports on the Black Sea, and the ments, warm clothing, and comfortable fodg- Turkish and other ports on the Mediterranean. ing at night, at all times necessary in this In 1852, the quantity from the same places climate, are indispensable at this season was 1,700,000 quarters; shipped chiefly at to the aged, who find it difficult to support Galatz, Ibrail, and other Turkish marts, life when the temperature has fallen below which serve as outlets for the superabundant a certain point." For the moment, the sub-produce of Hungary and the Danubean provject is exciting attention; and well it may, inces. Egypt, also, sent us last year 276,000 for it is too certain that we have habituated quarters. Nearly the whole of this trade is in ourselves to neglect the precautions which winter always necessitates, even in our, of late, mild climate. Of all preservative agents, caloric is the most potent, and yet the fact is too commonly ignored. It will have to become one of the dogmas of public-health doctrine. Another indication of social advancement is From all accounts, great exertions are seen in the Excise returns just published; being made to improve agricultural operations. Paper, for instance. the quantity charged A digging-machine has just been invented in with duty in 1851, was 150,903,5431.; in Oxfordshire, which is said to do its work far 1852, it was 154,469,2117. There is a great more thoroughly than the plough, and far increase, too, in the article of soap-from more in accordance with the needs of modern | 205,199,3217. in 1851, to 224,059,7007. in husbandry. And the Agricultural Society 1852. What would it not be with the duty having offered a prize for a manure equal to off? An improvement has lately been introguano, at a cost of 51. a ton, Mr. Pusey has duced in the manufacture of paper from straw; shown that the conditions are satisfied by and at a mill near Dublin a kind is now made nitrate of soda, and at a charge less than that which is white, smooth, and suitable for specified. He says, in illustration, that forty- writing-paper. Ireland is advancing also in six acres of land, if cropped with barley, and another branch of industry - the manufacture dressed with seventeen hundred weights of of beet-root sugar. The produce of last year nitrate, would yield an increase of eighty sacks amounted to 142 bags, containing from three beyond the quantity usually obtained. A cargo to four hundredweights each; these have just of this fertilizer was brought to England in been sold; and it is now contemplated to 1820, but for want of a purchaser, was thrown start two other establishments, on which overboard; a second importation took place in 40,000 tons of the root may be produced in a 1830; and from that date up to 1850, the quan- year. At present, 230 persons are employed tity brought from Peru, where the supply is in- in the manufacture; but if the project be carexhaustible, was 239,860 tons; value, 5,000,- ried out, this number will be largely increased, 0007. With the price reduced to 87. a ton Mr. and a great addition made to Ireland's inPusey observes, our farmers might obtain dustrial resources. The Irish farmers might from their own farms the whole foreign supply also turn their attention to the growing of of wheat, without labor, and with but a few chicory, with good assurance of a market, months' outlay of capital. I do not mean to since government have rescinded their order say, that no failures will yet occur before we concerning the adulteration of coffee, and now obtain a complete mastery over this powerful the retailers are left free to mix at their own substance; but I am confident that, as Cali-discretion.

fornia has been explored in our day, so a vast Captain Penny is trying to get up an

"Arctic Company" for the establishment of | in the Journal. He was seized with fever at a whaling station in Northumberland Inlet, Kuka, and removed for change of air to a Davis' Strait; screw-steamers to be used to favorite woody spot about ten miles from Lake fish between Greenland and Nova Zembla; Tchad, where he died on the 20th September while the mineral deposits on the shores of last. Fortunately, his companion, Dr. Barth, the inlet, among which plumbago is said to retains his health and energy, and being well be comprised, are to be worked as an addi- provided with servants and animals, will tional source of profit. Supplementary arctic pursue his travels; when last heard of, he was expeditions are again to be sent out; the about to set out for Timbuctoo. The map of Rattlesnake has sailed with supplies for the the discoveries already made embraces a vast Behring-Strait parties; Lady Franklin is going interior region heretofore unknown. Dr. to send the Isabel steamer, uselessly, it may Vogel, another young German, is now on his be said, to the same region; and Captain way with stores and scientific instruments, and Inglefield is to go out to Beechey Island, at accompanied by two sappers and miners, to the entrance of Wellington Channel, in the join Dr. Barth; and, if they do not fall victims Phænir steamer, to inquire the news respect to the climate, we may expect news of further ing Sir Edward Belcher. Dr. Rae will do explorations before many months are over. what he can in another overland journey; and Lieutenant Kane, with his American explorers, will again join the search, resolved to find the pole if they can find nothing else. The prodigious cost of these expeditions makes one regret that more pains had not been taken to give them a systematic character and purpose; we should not then have had so many desultory and fruitless attempts as have been made since 1848 to discover the long-lost Franklin party.

Our Asiatic Society have had an interesting communication from Colonel Rawlinson, who writes that he has found a large number of Scythian inscriptions, which are allied to the Median dialects, and of an age prior to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Taking the term Scythic in its widest sense, he considers the Hamite nations - Cush, Misraim, Nimrud, and Canaan to be Scythian, but partially intermixed in course of time with the Shemite races. This discovery is said to clear up difficulties which have long existed in the patriarchal genealogies, and in the traditions of Grecian history, and it will help to a better knowledge generally of the period in question. The colonel adds that he finds much in the Talmud to aid his researches, and he has been enabled to fix the geography of certain doubtful places; among these, it appears that Birs is the ancient Sepharvaim. Another illustration of Scripture was found by the Turks in a search at Nebbi Yunus-a bronze statue, with the name of Esarhaddon, in the ancient character, on the breast.

Captain Allen is so desirous to convert the greater part of the Holy Land into a great sea by his project for a canal from the Red Sea, across the sandy tract at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, that he has offered to go out and survey the spot if properly supported. It is a scheme we may very safely leave to future generations. The exploration of Africa is more to our present purpose, but its accomplishment is not easy. News has just come to hand of the death of Dr. Overweg, whose valuable labors have been frequently mentioned

A debate which our Civil Engineers have had about heated air as a motive-power, took, on the whole, an unfavorable view of the caloric question; they will, however, wait the result of further inquiry and experiment. In another quarter, we hear of attempts to render electromagnetism available as a locomotive power, and with greater assurance of success than any hitherto attempted. We shall see. A plan is being tried for converting the muddy deposit at the bottom of the Thames into a potent and inodorous manure, to which we may devoutly wish success, as it will remove a cause of pollution from our river and atmosphere, and save dishonest people the trouble of pounding red sandstone to sell as guano. Hollow glass-walls are coming more into use in gardens, and some attempts have been made at roofing with transparent tiles. In Prussia, green glass-tiles, a quarter-inch thick, have been introduced with entire success. An important subject has come before the Society of Arts - namely "On uniformity in weights, measures, and moneys;" it is one which must be daily talked about if it is ever to be adopted. That it ought to be, no one doubts who is able to form an opinion thereupon. Our "Department of Practical Art" is about to establish district schools of art and elementary drawing; and the Museum of Economic Geology is to be renamed College of Practical Science, and to cooperate with two other industrial institutions in Dublin, under control of the Board of Trade. This is a preliminary step to the grand central college at Kensington, into which it is ultimately to merge. Art and science are thus to be brought together; and as we have an inspector for the former, so are we to have one for the latter; and thus we may consider that the first step is taken in the scheme for giving the best effect to the art and science of the country at large. A new application of photography is talked about; it is to make light available for calico-printing. The time required for the process is said to be from two to twenty minutes, and it can be made use of for silk,