mot, Rector of Barton-on-the-Heath, in Warwick- | Duke of Cumberland, with the ultimate object of shire. His wife, the mother of this Olive Wilmot, proving her son's title to the honor and dignity of was a Polish princess. How much interesting mat- the dukedom of Cumberland, and her own right to ter it will be necessary to disclose, for the purposes the title of Princess of Cumberland. of this suit, respecting the private relations existing between the Prince and Olive Wilmot prior to the alleged marriage it is impossible to say at present; but, as the whole suit hinges upon this point, everything incidental to the intimacy of Prince Frederick and Dr. Wilmot and his family will no doubt be thoroughly canvassed.

The case was introduced to the notice of Parliament by Sir Gerard Noel nearly half a century ago. He moved for a Select Committee to inquire into the truth of statements made in her petition, which he had presented three months before. It seems he was very earnest in her cause, thoroughly believed in the genuineness of her case, and persisted in anBut whether this marriage can be proved or not, nouncing that he "had it in command from this it is quite certain that it was acknowledged at the royal personage" to do so and so; "for royal pertime, for the gossips of the period seem to have sonage he would continue to believe her" until she made it one of their stock subjects, and the daugh- was proved and declared to be an impostor by a ter born of the marriage was also publicly recog- Select Committee of the House of Commons. The nized. It seems, however, that in the course of petition of that day seemed to aim not only at the time the Prince got into a scrape with Mrs. Horton, declaration of Mrs. Ryves's legitimacy and royal a sister to the Colonel Luttrell who was afterwards descent, but also to the acquisition of a grant from returned member of Parliament by Court influence the Civil List. Sir Gerard Noel declared that he in place of "Demagogue Wilkes." The Prince" had always believed that every member of the eventually married Mrs. Horton, and it became royal family was upon the Civil List; but here necessary that something should be done to hush was a member of the royal family quite unprovided up the scandal. The histories referring to the for." period show that the King about this time would The present petition was filed in the Court of Dinot receive his brother at Court, and it is conjec-vorce, under the Legitimacy Declaration Act, in tured, with some show of reason, that the prohibi- August last, and the case has been set down for tion arose out of the disagreement between them hearing by a special jury; but a series of delays consequent upon this bigamous marriage. The have caused it to be put off for another three months. Prince, accordingly, unwilling or unable to deny An application for an adjournment was made on himself the pleasure of Mrs. Horton's society, and Tuesday, the 27th of February, by Mr. Bourke, on equally loath to be denied the Court, neglected his behalf of the Attorney-General, and opposed by Dr. first wife, who afterwards died in France. He also J. W. Smith and Mr. D. M. Thomas on the part of consented to a proposal that his daughter should be the petitioner. The Attorney-General desired debrought up in ignorance of her parentage until the lay because he had just come into possession of a scandal had died a natural death, and certain dis-number of documents which could not be arranged tinguished personages had died too.

When this had been settled to the satisfaction of all concerned, save those who, if the story be true, had been most grievously wronged, the marriage of the Prince with Mrs. Horton was allowed to pass without interference, and it is this Mrs. Horton who has continued to be acknowledged as the only and childless wife of Prince Frederick, Duke of Cumberland. It is easily conceived, that an arrangement such as that which, it is said, was come to between the Prince and the King was not concluded without some writing, and it is asserted that several documents were signed touching the legitimacy of the daughter of the Prince and his wife, née Olive Wilmot. These documents, it is further asserted, were witnessed by more than one minister of state of the period, and carefully preserved at the King's request. They were ultimately committed to the care of certain eminent persons, upon whom a solemn obligation of secrecy was laid, until the happening of certain events, which have long since occurred. The names of all these persons will, we have no doubt, be made known, in the course of the proceedings before Sir J. P. Wilde.

The case has already been before the public, not only in courts of justice, but also in Parliament and by petition to the Royal Family. The first petition to the Crown was made in 1819, and the last in 1858. In 1861 Mrs. Ryves, then sixty-four years of age, obtained a decree against the AttorneyGeneral establishing the marriage of her father to the lady to whom we have already referred as the daughter of the Duke's first marriage, and the chief object of the present petition is, as we have already stated, to establish Mrs. Ryves's descent through this lady from Prince Henry Frederick,

in time for the trial. These papers, the petitioner asserts, are simply copies of certificates furnished by her or her mother to the Sovereign, in company with petitions concerning the claims we have referred to. A significant observation was made by Sir J. P. Wilde on Tuesday, when he granted the application for postponement. He remarked that it was an important case, an important public case, - and all information bearing upon it that could reasonably be obtained should be produced in court, and, when tried, it should be tried once for all.

FOREIGN NOTES.

MADAME DE CASTELNAU requests the French Academy to direct its commissioners to examine with the aid of the solar microscope the animalcules to which she attributes the development of cholera, and specimens of which she offers to place at their disposal.

MESSRS. CASSELL'S subscription list for the English edition of Gustave Doré's famous Bible illustrations has been an extraordinay one. The first impression has been almost entirely absorbed, and the booksellers of London alone put down their names for nearly 30,000 copies.

A SHORT time since, a little brochure was issued in Paris, price fifty centimes, giving a history of the popular subscription in Paris to the Lincoln Medal. From this we learn that it is intended to present the Medal to Mrs. Lincoln on the 14th of next April, the anniversary of the assassination. The brochure is entitled "La Medaille de la Liberté," and contains, besides the narrative and correspondence in relation to the medal, a biography of the late President.

THE original manuscript of Humboldt's "Cosmos" has just been presented to the Emperor Napoleon by M. Buschmann, Royal Librarian, and member of the Berlin Scientific Academy. This very valuable collection consisted of five immense volumes in quarto, containing the corrected sheets from which the first edition of the work was struck at Baron Georges de Colla's printing-office at Stuttgard. The Emperor has sent the MS. to the Imperial Library, as he conceives that so valuable a gift ought not to remain in any private collection.

GALIGNANI mentions that a bottle was fished up

out of the Seine at Paris a few days since. It was lying in contact with the side of a steamer engaged in conveying goods between Paris and London, and contained a narrative, written in English, signed J. Griffith, of Manchester, of a shipwreck said to have taken place on the coast of Iceland. The bottle is supposed to have attached itself to the packet during a passage across the Channel.

MR. FREDERICK HUTH, the well-known London book-collector, who purchased at the sale of the late Mr. George Daniel's library the celebrated unique collection of seventy black-letter ballads, printed between the years 1559 and 1597, for £750, is about to reprint them in a single volume, as his contribution to the members of the Philobiblon Society, and that the impression will be very limited, and only for private distribution. A more important addition to our collection of old English poetry can scarcely be imagined, whilst to the student of English philology the book will have a value beyond all price.

the charge; and some of Mr. Thackeray's readers, justly or unjustly, are ready to point out the originals of plenty of his characters. The temptation to sketch a living subject is undoubtedly strong; and perhaps no writer of fiction, unless he is content to construct characters on abstract principles, can altogether avoid it. But think of paying for this luxury at the rate of 1,000 francs a man! exclaims the Pall Mall Gazette. Fancy Mr. Disraeli compounding at that rate for the Rigbys, the Vivian Greys, and Sibyls of his salad days of literary fame! profitable; but it could hardly be expected to bear Successful novel-writing is generally believed to be

that.

THE only deficiency Mr. Gladstone has shown as leader of the House of Commons, is a deficiency of memory. On Thursday week he spoke of the Princess Helena as having been the "eldest unmarried daughter of the Queen" at the time of the Prince Consort's death, though all the gossip of the time was of the comfort given to her mother by the Prinlater. And on the same night he forgot Sir Robert cess Alice, who was not married till many months Peel, in enumerating the Prime Ministers to whom a statue had been erected in Westminster Abbey. He repaired one slip on the same evening, and one of memory, and there would be even more reason on the following evening. But both were odd slips for forgetting who is the present Prime Minister than either of them, though the mistake would be

more serious.

MRS. M. MIGGS, of Bouverie Street, writes to the Times correcting Mr. Gladstone upon a question of In a paper lately published in the Archives des historical accuracy. Mrs. Miggs says: "Being mySciences, Professor Leuckart states that the bril-self a mother, although I do not wish to speak severe of Mr. Gladstone, as would be ungrateful in one of still, truth is truth, and having read in the Times a class has to thank him in regard of tea and sugar, Helena were the eldest unmarried daughter at the daily newspaper to-day that he should say Princess time of the demise of the great and good Prince Consort, beg to say that if you will look in Peerage,' which one of my lodgers have left here, but not the rent, will see that the late prince's loss occurred the 14th of December, 1861, and that the the time were generally spoke of with admiration dear Princess Alice Maud Mary, whose conduct at and love, were married 1st of July, 1862, and I think that right is right."

liant spots grouped with more or less regularity upon certain fish of the group Scopelinido are really accessory eyes. The existence of more than a thousand such eyes in a vertebrate animal is quite unexpected. They are distributed over the hyoid apparatus, and on the head and belly, where they form two rows, which are parallel. Herr Leuckart bases his opinion upon the anatomical structure of the organs known as spots, these having really the form of little cylinders, the anterior part of which is occupied by a spherical body like a crystalline lens, behind which is a sort of vitreous humor.

THE London Review says: The very curious library of the late Edward Higgs, Esq., which Messrs. Sotheby have just sold, contained some exceedingly rare books. Amongst them was a copy of that all but unique volume, "Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain," written and printed by Benjamin Franklin, when a journeyman in London, in 1725. The book was somewhat atheistical, and, although the author issued it privately, he was ashamed of his performance directly he had completed it, and resolved forthwith to destroy the edition. It is supposed that not more than two copies are in existence.

A TERRIBLE story reaches us from France of an unfortunate writer in fiction- M. Ponson du Terrail—who has been condemned to pay a fine of 1,000 francs for having made his landlord figure in one of his works under the name of Grapillard. What would English novelists think of this? There is hardly one who is not popularly believed to have indulged in sketching off the peculiarities of friends. Mr. Dickens has indeed in one instance admitted

'Dod's

A

IN France, a dead body must be buried within twenty-four hours of decease, and a petition has recently been presented to the Senate praying that the time should be enlarged to forty-eight hours. several cases of premature interment, and related a Cardinal Donnet supported the petition, mentioned story which produced a profound sensation. young priest, in the summer of 1826, fainted in the pulpit, and was given up for dead. He was laid out, examined, and pronounced dead, the bishop reciting the De Profundis, while the coffin was preparing for the body. All this while, and deep into the night, the "body," though motionless, heard all that was going on in an agony of mind impossible to describe. At last a friend, known to the "deceased from infancy, came in, his voice aroused some dormant power, and next day the corpse was again preaching from the same pulpit. The sufferer was the venerable cardinal then telling the tale, and, in spite of official resistance, the Senate voted that the petition should be referred to the Minister of

norant of the cause of her agitation, hangs over her knees and clings to her waist. She wears the turban which was used when at work. Around her wrists are the half-broken manacles, and the chain lies on the ground still attached to a large ball.

the Interior for action. The idea of the French | authorities is, that, as the living and the dead are among the poor forced to remain in the same room, interment cannot be delayed; but twenty-four hours is a horribly short space of time in a country where it is not sufficient to produce any symptom of cor-Yes,' she observed, 'so was my race treated in the ruption.

market and elsewhere.' It tells, with much eloquence, a painful story.”

MR. J. PARNELL sends the Reader the following observations touching Chinese mirrors: "A Chinese mirror consists, as many of your readers doubtless know, of a plate of white metal, polished on one

with representations of birds and trees, on the other.
Some, but only a few, of these mirrors possess this
property: if a beam of strong light, such as that of
the sun or of the electric or oxyhydrogen lamp, be
allowed to impinge upon the polished surface of the
mirror, and to be reflected upon a screen, a bright
image of one or other of the raised letters upon the
back of the mirror can be seen in the patch of light
produced. A short time ago my attention was
drawn to this fact, and I was informed that the cause
of this phenomenon was not known.
I beg your
permission to lay the results of my investigation of
the subject before your readers.

A CORRESPONDENT of The Athenæum, writing from Rome, says: -"An interesting novelty has sprung up amongst us, in a city where all our surroundings are of the olden time. Miss Edmonia Lewis, a lady of color, has taken a studio in Rome, and works as a sculptress in one of the rooms for-side, and embossed, sometimes with letters, always merly occupied by the great master Canova. She is the only lady of her race in the United States who has thus applied herself to the study and practice of sculptural art, and the fact is so remarkable and unique that a brief sketch of her life, given afmost in her own words, will, I am sure, be acceptable to the wide circle of your readers. My mother,' she says, 'was a wild Indian, and was born in Albany, of copper color, and with straight black hair. There she made and sold moccasins. My father, who was a negro, and a gentleman's servant, saw her and married her. I was born at Greenhigh, in Ohio. Mother often left her home, and wandered with her people, whose habits she could not forget, and thus we her children were brought up in the same wild manner. Until I was twelve years old I led this wandering life, fishing and swimming,' she added with great glee, and making moccasins. I was then sent to school for three years in McGraw, but was declared to be wild, they could do nothing with me. Often they said to me, 'Here is your book, the book of Nature; come and study it.' From this school I was sent to another, at Oblin, in Ohio, where I remained four years, and then I thought of returning to wild life again; but my love of sculpture forbade it. Some friends recommended me to go to England, but I thought it better first to study in Rome."

"I obtained the use of one of these mirrors, which possessed the property in question, in order that I might examine it. The polished surface was not plane, but very slightly convex. On observing the image of the glass globe of a gas-burner, as the mirror was slowly moved so that the reflected beam came to the eye from that part of the mirror on the back of which there was a raised letter, I saw first a depression on the edge of the image, followed by an excrescence which lasted for a short time only, and then another depression which gradually disappeared. Now these effects would be produced by, first, an increased curvature, then a plane surface, followed by another increased curvature, and ultimately the ordinary convexity of the mirror.

"And here she is, the descendant and member "This observation, combined with the fact that the of a much-injured race, struggling against ignorant appearance of the image of the letter upon the prejudice, but with genius enough to prove that she screen is bright, suggested at once the solution of the bears the image of Him who made all nations under problem. Those parts of the mirror which are immethe sun. Whilst her youth and her color claim our diately in front of the raised letters do not possess warmest sympathies, Miss Edmonia Lewis has a the same convexity as the rest of the surface, but very engaging appearance and manners. Her eyes are more or less plane. It would seem as if the mirand the upper part of her face are fine; the crisp ror, in cooling, had warped into a convex form, with hair and thick lips, on the other hand, bespeak her the exception of those parts in front of the raised negro paternity. Naïve in manner, happy and letters, which, by pressure, in all probability, had cheerful, and all-unconscious of difficulty, because been forced to retain a plane surface. As a further obeying a great impulse, she prattles like a child, proof of the truth of this explanation, I may menand with much simplicity and spirit pours forth all tion this fact. A few days ago, I went to an antiher aspirations. At present, she has little to show; quarian shop in Piccadilly, opposite St. James's she appeals to the patronage and protection of the Church, and inquired for a Chinese mirror. I was civilized and the Christian world. There is the shown four, all of them being so tarnished that, incast of a bust of Colonel Shaw, who commanded the dependently of the dulness of the afternoon, I could first colored regiment that was ever formed, and not examine them directly for this particular propwho died a leader for all time in Freedom's Chiv-erty. Two of them appeared to be plane mirrors, alry.' The bust was executed from a photograph, these I at once rejected; of the remaining two, one and now, as a commission from the sister of Colonel appeared to be more convex than the other, and Shaw, is being transferred to marble. Another this I examined by cleaning the surface over one of commission is a bust of Mr. Dio Lewis, I believe of the raised letters, and observing the image of an New York. Her first ideal group was to be exe- object, as seen by reflection in the mirror; distorcuted under promise for some gentlemen in Boston, tions, similar to those which I have described, were and, in the true spirit of a heroine, she has selected plainly visible, and I at once purchased the mirror. for her subject The Freedwoman on first hearing On subsequently trying the effect of a beam of of her Liberty.' She has thrown herself on her powerful light, reflected from it upon a screen, knees, and, with clasped hands and uplifted eyes, the image of one of the letters became distinctly she blesses God for her redemption. Her boy, ig- | visible."

"EVERY one," says a foreign journal, which by | in the State of Nicaragua, the present president of accident I have just laid hands on," knows that the which is Don Thomas Martinez, a descendant of the famous Nelson was blind of one eye. Few, however, heroine. Doña Rafaela behaved like a soldier: she know, we believe, the cause of this misfortune and received a soldier's reward. A royal decree named the place of the accident. Moreover, biographers her captain on active service, and conferred upon and encyclopædists differ on the subject. The her the right to wear a uniform and insignia. An Biographie des Contemporains and the Dictionnaire annual pension was also granted her." de la Conversation assure us that it was before Calvi, in the Island of Corsica, when he commanded the Agamemnon, which formed part of the squadron of Sir Charles Stuart, that Nelson was struck by sand and gravel in the eye. The American Cyclopædia and Appleton's Cyclopædia declare that the accident took place in the waters of Bastia. They both advance an error which we are happy to have it in our power to rectify, at the same time bringing to light an act of courage and boldness altogether unknown on this side the Atlantic.

"About the year 1780, Nelson cruised in the waters of Spanish America, with the official object of taking soundings in this part of the New World, but really for the purpose of opening up in the country new channels for English commerce, then under a ban, and to do the Spanish colonies all the possible injury he could. In the execution of this duty, Nelson arrived at the mouth of San Juan de Nicaragua, mounted the stream in flat-bottomed boats filled with sailors and marines, and came within sight of the fort San Carlos, the goal of the expedition. With an energy and activity which were salient points in his character, he took the necessary dispositions to carry the place by storm. Spanish garrison, trembling with fear, even before the first shot was fired, refused to fight and abandoned the defences, resolved to evacuate the fortress. The governor, seriously ill, was unable to offer the least resistance to this cowardly determination. Fortunately, the governor had a daughter in whose breast beat the heart of the immortal heroines of Saguntum and Numantia.

The

"Doña Rafaela Mora rushed to the ramparts; at a glance, and with a clearness of comprehension worthy a consummate soldier, she surveyed the situation. She saw the guns pointed and charged, but without any one to serve them, the wall dismantled by their defenders, and the English flotilla, at some cable's length, advancing resolutely. Her decision was taken in an instant. Seizing one of the lighted matches which had fallen from the trembling hands of the fugitives, she applied the torch to all the cannons pointed towards the stream. Her success surpassed all expectation. One of the balls struck the boat in which was the commander, who, wounded in the left eye by a fragment, fell back into the arms of the sailors. The flotilla, deprived of its chief, descended the stream as fast as oars could impel it, and regained the ships, which immediately after quitted those coasts. The Fort San Carlos thus escaped certain capture; Doña Rafaela covered herself with glory, having saved the honor of her father, as well as that of the Spanish arms; and Nelson was blinded.

"The narrative of this deed, perfectly authentic, is preserved in the archives of the town of Granada,

PIO'S NO-NO!

"Travellers visiting the Pope's dominions should be very careful not to bring forbidden books or Colt's revolvers with them, the custom-house officers having strict orders to confiscate them, and it is not always possible to recover them after the owners have left the Roman States. Forbidden books are those condemned by the Congregation of the Index, books on religion or morality in general, political and philosophical works of every description, and more especially Italian religious tracts published in London. But, above all, travellers should be careful not to bring English, Italian, or other Bibles with them, the Bible being strictly prohibited." — MR. ODO RUSSELL to LORD CLARENDON.

"FROM Our dominions we exclude
(Urbis et orbis Papa vindex) —
All Colt's revolvers, and that brood

Of Satan-books named in the Index.

"Books on the Church (St. Peter's mystery),
The State (St. Peter's principality);
Books upon politics and history,
Books on religion and morality.

"Tracts, one and all, but chief therein
Such as are in Italian written,
And printed in that seat of sin

And hold of heresy, Great Britain.

"Above all, ye, of every nation

Who seek the sacred soil of Rome,
Be warned, if ye'd 'scape confiscation,
Your Bibles must be left at home.

"No matter what the tongue or text is,
By whom translated, when, or where;
The Bible upon no pretext is

Allowed to pass St. Peter's Chair.”

Wise Pope that Peter's seat guard'st well,
'Gainst heretics' invasion free-
With the dove's innocence how well

The serpent's wisdom shows in thee!

While Popes remain doubt's sole resolvers,
Sole founts of truth, sole whips of sin,
What use in keeping out revolvers,
If Revolution's self 's let in?

What all the Colts that e'er exploded,

All Garibaldi's guns and swords,
To the live shells, time-fused and loaded,
Between the plainest Bible boards?

What Revolution into ruins

So like to hurl St. Peter's Dome,
As God's word gauged with Papal doings,
The Bible face to face with Rome?

A Journal of Choice Reading,

SELECTED FROM FOREIGN CURRENT LITERATURE.

SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1866.