Mountain Tribes, from Personal Intercourse with their Chiefs and other Authentic Sources. By COLONEL 1. Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters. By the Right Honorable the EARL OF CARLISLE. 1. Deutsche Geschichte von den Aeltesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart. Von ADAM PFAFF. (German His- tory from the Earliest to the Present Times.) 2. Geschichte des Deutschen Volkes. Von JACOB VEREDEY. (History of the German People.) VII. THE PERSISTENCE OF PHYSICAL LAWS 1. The Elements of Intellectual Philosophy. By FRAN- CIS WAYLAND, President of Brown University, and Pro- fessor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy. 2. Philosophy of the Mechanics of Nature, and the 1. Travels in Europe and the East: a Year in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Belgium, Holland, Ger- many, Austria, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. By SAMUEL IRENEUS PRIME. 2. Visits to European Celebrities. By WILLIAM B. 3. Letters Esthetic, Social, and Moral, written from Europe, Egypt, and Palestine. By THOMAS C. UPHAM, Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Bowdoin IX. ART, ITS MEANING AND METHOD: ESSAYS OF HOR- Scenery and Philosophy in Europe. Being Fragments Learning and Working. Six Lectures, delivered in Willis's Rooms, London, in June and July, 1854. The Religion of Rome, and its Influence on Modern Civiliza- tion. Four Lectures delivered in the Philosophical In- Westward Ho! The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of her Most Glorious Majesty, Queen Eliza- beth. Rendered into Modern English by CHARLES II GENIUS AND WRITINGS OF VICTOR HUGO 1. Euvres Complètes de VICTOR HUGO. The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the Su- 289 324 346 1. Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen oder die Kir- chengeschichte in Biographieen. Durch FRIEDRICH 2. Thesaurus Hymnologicus sive Hymnorum Canticorum sequentiarum circa Annum MD. Usitatarum Collectio Amplissima. HERM. ADALBERT DANIEL, Ph. Dr. Halis. 3. Die heilige Psalmodie oder der psalmodirende König David und die singende Urkirche mit Rücksicht auf den Ambrosianischen und Gregorianischen Gesang. Von FRIEDRICH ARMKNECHT. (Sacred Psalmody, or the Psalmist King David and the Song of the Primitive Church, 1. A Short Historical Account of the Crimea. By 2. The Crimea and Odessa. By Dr. CHARLES KOCH. Translated by JOANNA B. HORNER. 3. A Visit to the Camp before Sevastopol. By RICH- ARD C. MCCORMICK, JR., of New York. 4. The Russian Shores of the Black Sea. By Lau- RENCE OLIPHANT. IX. DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF THE WAR IN THE EAST. 3. Diplomatic Circulars of the European Cabinets in 4. Papers relating to the Negotiations at Vienna on the Eastern Question. Presented to Parliament, May, 1855. Extracts from the Diary and Correspondence of the late AMOS LAWRENCE; with a brief Account of some Inci- dents in his Life. Edited by his Son, WILLIAM R. LAW- XI. THE OPENING OF THE GANGES CANAL 1. Short Account of the Ganges Canal. 477 514 . 560 . 565 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CLXVIII. JULY, 1855. ART. 1. The London Clubs; their Anecdotes and History, Private Rules and Regulations. London. 1853. It is not a little singular that Englishmen, who are so generally reproached by other nations for their want of sociality, should yet have originated clubs, the very object of which is the promotion of good-fellowship. Such, however, seems to be the case, the two earliest we have on record being one which celebrated its symposia at the Mermaid Tavern in Friday Street, and Ben Jonson's Club, which met at the old Devil Tavern, between Temple Gates and Temple Bar. The club at the Mermaid was, according to all accounts, the first established, and owed its origin to Sir Walter Raleigh, who had here instituted a meeting of men of wit and genius, previously to his engagement with the unfortunate Cobham. This society comprised all that the age held most distiguished for learning and talent; numbering amongst its members Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Selden, Sir Walter Raleigh, Donne, Cotton, Carew, Martin, and many others who were inferior in reputation to none except those master spirits, and well worthy to sit at the same table, although at a lower seat. There it was that occurred the "wit-combats" between Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, which have so often excited the regretful curiosity of antiquarians, VOL. LXXXI. -NO. 168. 1 and to which, probably, Beaumont alludes with so much affection, in his letter to the old poet, written from the country: "What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been So nimble and so full of subtle flame, As if that every one from whom they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest." It is greatly to be regretted that not a fragmentary record of those meetings has come down to us; a few scattered allusions amongst the old dramatists, or their panegyrists, alone attest that such things did exist; but the wit, and the lively fancies, — the gay bubbles, as it were, of the most fervid imaginations brightened by wine and social emulation,— all these have passed away with the moment that gave rise to them. What would we now give to recall even the slightest portion of those days, and thus enjoy but a single hour in the society of such men as Shakespeare and his brother dramatists, their conversation varied and tempered by the world-knowledge of Raleigh and the profound learning of Selden! One man, and one only, could, by the magic of his pen, have called up the images of such a time; but the Great Unknown - the name must never leave him-sleeps the last sleep in Dryburgh Abbey, and who is there that can hope to succeed him? Nay, we almost regret having thrown out such a hint, lest some of our popular writers Heaven save the mark! should catch at the idea, and, having dressed up a set of fantoccini puppets, should endeavor to impose them upon the world as the legitimate representatives of the Mermaid Tavern. Ben Jonson's Club was held in a room of the old Devil Tavern, which probably from this circumstance acquired the distinguishing name of the "Apollo." A print of this room, published in 1774, appears to have been seen by Gifford, who describes it as "a handsome room, large and lofty, and furnished with a gallery for music." Over the door of it was placed a bust of the poet, underneath which were inscribed, in golden letters upon a black ground, his own verses of welcome to the comer: |