court and Guizot ministry, on the proceedings of | per day. But the quantity of plate offered implies the Bank of France and the fiscal devices of the a sad stagnation in sale and value of other pergovernment, betray the cloven foot; they tend to sonal goods. impair confidence on the very topic of highest Each morning, as we open the official Monidifficulty and pressure. Specie enough remains teur, we expect to be startled by some new edicts in Paris for all ordinary purposes-more than of the government. This day there is none of enough in the provinces; the French are not at moment. A statue, on the spot on which he was all accustomed to paper-money; the remembrance shot, is decreed to Marshal Ney; and a new of the assignants is lively; hence, chiefly, distrust prefect of police for the department of the Seine and general eagerness to secure and retain specie. is appointed. Yesterday, in a discourse to the The London editors advise their countrymen to club of the national guard, Lamartine reminded send gold hither for profitable exchange, and to them that under the republic the government pay their French debts with the notes purchased. belonged not to the comparatively small number This has been commenced. Living has become who had achieved the revolution, or to the few dearer, not, probably, from a depreciated currency, individuals placed accidentally at the head of afbut from the apprehension that popular disorders fairs, but to the thirty-five millions of French; and may prevent the usual supply of provisions. It that unless their rights were observed, and propis announced to-day that business grows worse, erty, life and order held inviolate, the term rein consequence of many fresh failures of mer- public would dismay, instead of consoling, anichants and manufacturers, which must induce a mating, and regenerating the world. An official suspension of labor in a number of considerable despatch from Berlin brings the declaration of establishments. In my walks, an hour ago, I Russia, that she will abstain from all interference was accosted by more beggars, chiefly wretched in the affairs of France, as long as the latter does women and children, than I had seen in all my not assail foreign countries. Yesterday, the Britperambulations in any month before the revolu- ish ambassador inquired, amicably, of the ministion. It must be acknowledged that, in the jour-ter of foreign affairs, what was meant by the formal nals the most democratic, and among the masses, reception at the Hotel de Ville, of the Irish flag. there is an almost universal profession and a gen- Lamartine replied that France acknowledged no eral sense of the paramount importance of order other national flag than that of the three united -of respect for person and property. It seems kingdoms; nothing contrary had been done, to me, besides, that the prolétaires who cover the though French sympathies for Ireland, religious pavements are less rough and rude than under the and liberal, were emphatically expressed. The late régime;-studied civility towards the well-proclamations of the new governor-general of Aldressed pedestrians is frequent. One of the new geria promise all sorts of republican benefits to oracles-La Liberté, observes, "We deal with the army and the inhabitants. We may hope a serious problem-' dégager du suffrage uni- some share for the Arabs and some generosity to vérsel une terrible inconnue.'" Abd-el-Kader. The National, of this day, says :"We conOur foreign mails teem with interest, with huge cede-let there be no alarm-that our revolution facts. Repeal is accomplished in Sicily; the is a social one, it is a pledge of future security-island holds as a dependency on the crown of a guarantee of all interests. Europe must under- Naples; we may fear that it will be, in reality, go the same reform. In Great Britain accounts a British possession; the most eloquent of the must be settled with the starving people." The Italian preachers, Father Ventura proposes, in an National proceeds to argue soundly that France able pamphlet, that the college of cardinals should is more auspiciously circumstanced for the mighty be organized into a Roman senate correlative to process and final equity of adjustment and distri- the legislative assembly to be elected by the peobution than Great Britain, whose oligarchy and ple. You will see a cogent demand made on Pius finances must break down under the pauperism of IX. for a constitution, and his beautiful answer in Ireland and her own island. This journal pleads the affirmative. Holland is at once converted again for an entire "radical republican reform" in into a constitutional monarchy, with a substitution the French army, and a familiar, close contact and of liberal for conservative ministers. All the intercourse of the troops with the people. It re- princes of Germany are compounding with their ports that the government commission for national old, much neglected, and much injured creditors, defence against any foreign aggression has labored the masses of town and country. The royalties indefatigably, and resolved on various measures and aristocratic orders will have to pay dearly for likely to satisfy all patriotic wishes. It tells us, the abjection of their subjects. Formidable riots also, that the bureau opened at the mint for re- in Flanders. The misery of the lower classes in ceiving gold and silver utensils to be exchanged Belgium has been extreme for many years. Serifor hard-money, is "encumbered" with appli- ous, even sanguinary, tumults in Berlin. The cants and articles. It rejoices, because more king of Prussia trembles, and yields much; the specie will be coined for circulation; a million of answer which he delivered on the 14th inst., to pieces with the republican stamp, may be furnished the municipal council of Berlin, is a curiosity. A LETTER from Naples states that Mehemet Ali had arrived there on the 7th inst., and taken up his residence in one of the royal palaces. He came ashore from the steamer in the English admiral's barge, and was warmly received by the people. The Superb, the Trafalgar, the Hibernia, and some large steamers belonging to the English fleet were in the harbor, and the city is represented as being in consequence unusually gay. Vesuvius," says the letter, "is now in a very eruptive state, and presents a magnificent appearance. It is worth while coming here for the sole purpose of beholding the mountain for a single night." 66 THERE have been some disturbances at Saint Malo and Granville, the people having opposed the embarkation of cattle for England. At Saint Malo, the freedom of trade was maintained; but at Granville, part of the national guard made common cause with the disturbers, and the embarkation was prevented. general will be appointed in Sicily by the king, either from among the princes of the blood, or the distinguished personages of the island. THE King of Prussia has issued a decree, convoking the united diet of the kingdom at Berlin on the 27th of April. The grave and difficult circumstances in which the kingdom is at present placed, and the necessity of leading to a real regeneration of the Germanic confederation, and enabling Germany to resume the rank belonging to her in Europe, are alleged as the reasons for this step. A MEETING of masters and chiefs of industry took place yesterday at the Luxembourg under the presidency of M. Louis Blanc. In a speech with which he commenced the business of the day, M. Blanc, after having reminded his hearers that the men who a month ago were the objects of persecution or ridicule, had sat in the palace of one of the fallen powers, said that the peril would be great for the holders of capital and the instruments of labor, if they longer refused the concessions which the natural progress of ideas, and the great act of emancipation just accomplished, commanded. In the course of his speech M. Blanc said that all ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.-Sitting of March 13. oppressions were odious to him, and that he would -A report was read on a communication by M. no more accept that of the workman over the masPicquot, relative to an alimentary plant from South ter, than of the master over the workman. This America, to which he proposes to give the name was warmly applauded. The assembly then proof Picquotiane. The root of this plant yields a ceeded to elect a permanent committee of ten memflour which is stated to have highly nutritive prop-bers, who, with the ten permanent delegates chosen erties. Several communications, without striking among the workmen, will have to assist the cominterest, were received respecting comets.-A pa- mission of the Luxembourg in all its studies and per was received from M. Martins on the temper-investigations. ature of the sea at great depths near Spitzberg. At a depth of 780 metres the temperature is stated to be always above zero of the centigrade scale.A letter was read from M. Poggiale, professor of the Val de Grâce, on the effects of the preparation called aldehyde in producing insensibility to pain. M. Poggiale gives an account of some experiments, tending to show that the aldehyde is equal in effect to sulphuric ether, and free from the dangers attending that preparation-M. Poggiale even gives it a preference over chloroform.-The other communications in this sitting were without further interest. THE following proclamation of the Emperor of Austria was posted up at Vienna on the 15th: and of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, King We, Ferdinand I., by the grace of God, Emperor of Lombardy, Venice, etc., etc., have adopted measures which we have recognized as necessary to meet the wishes of our faithful people. The liberty of the press is accorded in virtue of our declaration abolishing the censorship. A national guard, estabalready renders excellent service. Arrangements lished on the bases of property and intelligence, have been made to convoke, with the shortest delay possible, deputies from all the provincial states, from the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, with a more THE Piedmontese Gazette of the 13th announces with proper regard to the existing provincial constinumerous representation of the burgess order, and the settlement of the differences between Sicily and tutions, in order to submit to them the constitution Naples. The king, adhering to the demands of which we have resolved to give to the country. In his subjects beyond the Faro, has published several consequence, we firmly expect that men's minds decrees, sanctioning the following measures:-A will calm down; that artisans will return peaceably minister, secretary of state for the affairs of Sicily, to their occupations; and that studies will be rewill reside with the king at Naples, when the lat-sumed. We indulge the more in this hope, that ter does not reside in Sicily. Don Gaetano Sco-emotion, when in the midst of you, that the senti we have been able this day to convince ourselves with vazzo is named forthwith to this post. A general parliament is convoked in Sicily to adapt the constitution of 1812 to the present times, and to provide for the wants of Sicily; the dependence from the same king being admitted for the integrity of the A VIENNA letter states that Prince Metternich monarchy. The chamber of peers and commons will has taken refuge on the Rhine, and the princess in meet at Palermo on the 25th inst. A lieutenant- Silesia. ments of fidelity and attachment which for centuries you have not ceased to testify to our ancestors, and which you have on all occasions evinced towards us, continue still to animate you as before. ROSPECTUS.-This work is conducted in the spirit cf | tell's Museum of Foreign Literature, (which was favorably received by the public for twenty years,) but as it is twice as large, and appears so often, we not only give spirit and freshness to it by many things which were excluded by a month's delay, but while thus extending our scope and gathering a greater and more attractive variety, are able so to increase the solid and substantial part of our literary, historical, and political harvest, as fully to satisfy the wants of the American reader. The elaborate and stately Essays of the Edinburgh, Quarterly, and other Reviews; and Blackwood's noble criticisms on Poetry, his keen political Commentaries, highly wrought Tales, and vivid descriptions of rural and mountain Scenery; and the contributions to Literature, History, and Common Life, by the sagacious Spectator, the sparkling Examiner, the judicious Athenæum, the busy and industrious Literary Gazette, the sensible and comprehensive Britannia, the sober and respectable Christian Observer; these are intermixed with the Military and Naval reminiscences of the United Service, and with the best articles of the Dublin University, New Monthly, Fraser's, Tail's, Ainsworth's, Hond's, and Sporting Magazines, and of Chambers' admirable Journal. We do not consider it beneath our dignity to borrow wit and wisdom from Punch; and, when we think it good enough, make use of the thunder of The Times. We shall increase our variety by importations from the continent of Europe, and from the new growth of the British colonies. The steamship has brought Europe, Asia, and Africa, into our neighborhood; and will greatly multiply our connections, as Merchants, Travellers, and Politicians, with all parts of the world; so that much more than ever it now becomes everv intelligent American to be informe a of the condition and changes of foreign countries. And this not only because of their nearer connection with or selves, but because the nations seem to be hastening, through a rapid process of change, to some new state of things, which the merely political prophet cannot compute or foresee. Geographical Discoveries, the progress of Colonization, (which is extending over the whole world,) and Voyages and Travels, will be favorite matter for our selections; and, in general, we shall systematically and very uliv acquaint our readers with the great department of Foreign affairs, without entirely neglecting our own. While we aspire to make the Living Age desirable to all who wish to keep themselves informed of the rapid progress of the movement-to Statesmen, Divines, Lawyers, and Physicians-to men of business and men of leisure-it is still a stronger object to make it attractive and useful to their Wives and Children. We believe that we can thus do some good in our day and generation; and hope to make the work indispensable in every well-informed family. We say indispensable, because in this day of cheap literature it is not possible to guard against the influx of what is bad in taste and vicious in morals, in any other way than by furnishing a sufficient supply of a healthy character. The mental and moral appetite must be gratified. We hope that, by "winnowing the wheat from the chaff" by providing abundantly for the imagination, and by a large collection of Biography, Voyages and Travels, History, and more solid matter, we may produce a work which shall be popular, while at the same time it will aspire to raise the standard of public taste. Agencies. We are desirous of making arrangements in all parts of North America, for increasing the circula tion of this work-and for doing this a liberal commission will be allowed to gentlemen who will interest themselves in the business. And we will gladly correspond on this subject with any agent who will send us undoubted refer ences. Postage. When sent with the cover on, the Living Age consists of three sheets, and is rated as a pamphlet, at 4 cents. But when sent without the cover, it comes within the definition of a newspaper given in the law, and cannot legally be charged with more than newspaper postage, (14 cts.) We add the definition alluded to: A newspaper is "any printed publication, issued in numbers, consisting of not more than two sheets, and published at short, stated intervals of not more than one month, conveying intelligence of passing events." Monthly parts. For such as prefer it in that form, the Living Age is put up in monthly parts, containing four or five weekly numbers. In this shape it shows to great advantage in comparison with other works, containing in each part double the matter of any of the quarterlies. But we recommend the weekly numbers, as fresher and fuller of life. Postage on the monthly parts is about 14 cents. The volumes are published quarterly, each volume containing as much matter as a quarterly review gives in eighteen months. WASHINGTON, 27 DEC., 1845. Of all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe and in this country, this has appeared to me to be the most useful. It contains indeed the exposition only of the current literature of the English language, but this by its immense extent and comprehension includes a portraiture of the human mind in the utmost expansion of the present age. J. Q. ADAMS. LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 207.-29 APRIL, 1848. From Blackwood's Magazine. SIR SIDNEY SMITH.* A GLANCE at the history of European fleets would give, perhaps, the highest conception of human powers in the whole progress of mankind. Philosophy, literature, and legislation, of course, have attained illustrious distinctions. But the naval service combines everything: personal intrepidity, the strongest demand upon personal resources, the quickest decision, the most vigorous exertion of manual and mechanical skill, the sternest hardihood, and the most practical and continual application of science. The unrivalled triumph of human invention is the instrument by which all those powerful qualities are brought into play a ship of the line, with all its stores, its crew, and its guns on board, is the wonder of the world. What must be the dexterity of the arrangement by which a thousand men can be victualled, at the rate of three meals a day, for four months; a thousand men housed, bedded, clothed, and accoutred; a battery of a hundred and twenty guns the complement of an army of fifty thousand men, and two or three times the weight of field-guns-fought; this mighty vessel navigated through every weather, and the profoundest practical science applied to her management, through night and day, for years together? No combination of human force and intellectual power can contest the palm with one of those floating castles, of all fortresses the most magnificent, the most effective, and the most astonishing. The history of the British navy, in its present form, begins with that vigorous and sagacious prince, Henry VII., who was the first builder of ships, calculated not merely for the defence of the coast, but as an establishment of national warfare. The strong common-sense of his rough, but clearheaded son, Henry VIII., saw the necessity for introducing order into the navy; and he became the legislator of the new establishment. He first constructed an admiralty, a trinity-board for the furtherance of scientific navigation; appointed Woolwich, Deptford, and Portsmouth as dockyards, and declared the naval service a profession. month. in that spirit of wise generosity, which always marked her sense of public service, she doubled the pay of the sailor, making it ten shillings a The defeat of the Armada gave a still stronger impulse to the popular feeling for the sea; signals were formed into a kind of system, and all the adventurous spirits of her chivalric court sought fame in naval enterprise. From that period a powerful fleet became an essential of British supremacy; and the well-known struggle of parties, in the time of the unfortunate Charles, began in the refusal of a tax to build a fleet. In the early part of his reign, Charles had built the largest ship of his time, "The Sovereign of the Seas," carrying one hundred guns. The civil war ruined everything, and the navy Cromwell found it dilapiwas the first to suffer. dated, but his energy was employed to restore it. Blake, by his victories, immortalized himself, and raised the name of the British fleet to the highest point of renown; and Cromwell, at his death, left it amounting to one hundred and fifty-four sail, of which one third were of the line. The protector was the first who proposed naval estimates, and procured a regular sum for the annual support of the fleet. The revolt of the American colonies stimulated the French government to join the rebels. The hope of doing evil to England has always beer enough to excite the hostility of foreigners. France was in alliance with us; but what was Elizabeth, who had all the sagacity of Henry good faith to the temptation of inflicting an injury VII., and all the determination of his successor, on England? An act of intolerable treachery was paid especial attention to the navy; and the na-committed; France, unprovoked, suddenly sent a tional interest was the more strongly turned to its fleet and army to the aid of America, and the efficacy by the preparations of Spain, which was French war began, to the utter astonishment of then the paramount power of Europe. When the Europe. Armada approached the English shores, she met But there is sometimes a palpable retributior it with a navy of one hundred and seventy-six even here. In that war, which was wholly naval ships, manned with fourteen thousand men. And on the part of France, her fleets were constantly beaten; and the defeat of De Grasse, in the West. *The Life and Correspondence of Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith, G. C. B. By T. BARROW, Esq., F. R. S. Indies, finished the naval contest by the most brilliant victory of the period. Another vengeance Two vols. Bentley, London. VOL. XVII. 13 was leser red for England in Europe. The siege had reached the prodigious number of five hunof Gibraltar, if not undertaken directly at the sug- dred pennants, of which one hundred were of the gestion of France, at least a favorite project of line, with one hundred and forty five thousand hers, and attended by French officers and princes, seamen and marines. became one of the most gallant and glorious defences on record; the besiegers were defeated with frightful loss, and the war closed in a European acknowledgment of English superiority. But the retribution had not yet wrought its whole work. Rebellion broke out in France. The French troops returning from America had brought back with them republican views and vices. The treaty-breaking court was destroyed at the first explosion; the treaty-breaking ministers were either slain, or forced to take refuge in England; the treaty-breaking king was sent to the scaffold; and the treaty-breaking nation was shattered by civil and foreign war; until, after a quarter of a century of fruitless blood, of temporary successes, and of permanent defeats, the empire was torn in pieces; France was conquered, Paris was twice seized by the allies, and Napoleon died a prisoner in English hands. The naval combats of the American war had a remarkable result. They formed a preparation for the still more desperate combats of the French naval war. They trained the English officers to effective discipline; they accustomed the English sailors to victory, and the French to defeat; and the consequence was, a succession of English triumphs and French defeats in the war of 1793, to which history affords no parallel. The French republican declaration of war was issued on the memorable first of February, 1793. Orders were instantly sent to the ports for the fleet to put to sea. Such was its high state of preparation, that almost immediately fifty-four sail of the line, and a hundred and forty-six smaller vessels, were ready for sea. The republican activity of France had already determined on contending for naval empire; and a fleet of eighty-two sail of the dine were under orders, besides nearly as many more on the stocks. But all was unavailing. The defeats suffered in the ten years previous to the peace of Amiens in 1803, stripped France of no less than thirty-two ships of the line captured, and eleven destroyed; and her allies, Holland, Spain, and Denmark, of twenty-six of the line, with five hundred and nineteen smaller ships of war taken or destroyed, besides eight hundred and seven French privateers also taken or destroyed. The French had become builders for the English. Of their ships of the line fifty were added to the English navy. On the recommencement of the war in 1804, the British fleet numbered nearly double that of the enemy; but the French ships were generally larger and finer vessels. It is difficult to understand from what circumstance the French, and even the Americans, seem always to have the superiority in ship-building. Our mechanical skill seems always to desert us in the dockyard. During the war, our naval armament continued to increase from year to year, until, in 1810, it Since the peace, a good deal of attention has been paid to the construction of ships of war. But it appears to have been more successful in the economical arrangement of the interior than in the figure, which is the essential point for sailing. The names of Seppings, Symonds, Hayes, Inman, and others, have attained some distinction; but we have not yet obtained any certain model of a good sailing ship. Some vessels have succeeded tolerably, and others have been total failures, though built on the same stocks and by the same surveyor. Yet the strength, the stowage, and the safety, have been improved. It is rather extraor dinary that government has never offered a handsome reward for the invention of the best sailing model; as was done so long since, and with such effect, in the instance of the time-keepers. Five thousand pounds for a certain approach to the object, and five thousand more for complete success, would set all the private builders on the pursuit ; and it can scarcely be doubted that they would ultimately succeed. Even now, the private yachtbuilders produce some of the fastest sailing vessels in the world; the merchant shipbuilders send out fine ships, of the frigate size, and the private steam-ship builders are unrivalled; while we have continual complaints of the deficiencies of the ves sels built in the royal dockyards. Some of those complaints may be fictitious, and some ignorant; but the constant changes in their structure, and their perpetual repairs, impy inferiority in our naval schools of architecture. The chief attention of the royal dockyards, within these few years, has been turned to the building of large steam-ships, armed with guns of the heaviest calibre. But the attempt is evidently in a wrong direction. The effort to make fighting ships of steamers, ruins them in both capacities. It destroys their great quality, speed; and it exposes them with an inadequate power to the line-of-battle ship. They are incomparable as tugs to a fleet, as conveying troops, as outlying vessels, as everything but men-of-war. A shot would break up their whole machinery, and leave them at the mercy of the first frigate that brought its broadside to bear upon them in their helpless condition. In all the trials of the fleet during the last two years, the heavy armed steamers were invariably left behind in a gale, while one of the light steamers ran before every frigate. We have now two fleets on service, one in the Tagus, and another at Malta; but both are weak in point of numbers, though in a high state of equipment. A few razee guardships are scattered round the coast. Some large steamers remain at Portsmouth and Plymouth ready for service; but, from all accounts, there is nothing of that active and vigorous preparation which ought to be the essential object of the country, while France is menacing us from day to day, while she has an |