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    females of the poorest condition for the admirable Sment of their duties towards they : families . Intlie merarv department two ladies wer 6 victorious . The Siting was terminated by the reading of the poem which had gained the honours Of the day entitled •^ The Sister of Charity in the Nineteenth Century , " bv Mdle . Ernestine Drouet . m In the Stockholm state library < v number of highly curious MSS . from the hand of Swedenborg have Seen discovered . They are , most of them , diaries or daily records of his inner and outer life . In that referring to the year 1734 , the famous mystic aUeees ^ ery natural , and not altogether delicate reasons as the cause of his visions . Two Edinburgh papers ( the Da dy ^ Express ^ Weekly Herald ) ceased to exist on Saturday—their decaying remains being handed over for interment to their venerable neighbour the Mercury .

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    THE STORY OF ITALY . By the Author ot " Mary I ' owcll . " Kichard Bcntlcy . The late stirring events in Italy have drawn all eyes to that glorious , unhappy , and now hop eful country . Not o ly have the sympathies of every people enjoying the blessings of constitutional o-overnment been enlisted in its behalf , but the great and concentrated interest felt by the literary world in this last memorable struggle for freedom and nationality is sufficiently proved by the piles of thick volumes so suddenly issued from the press , having for their common subject the history and sufferings of the Italians , together with dissertations on the causes of their decline , fall ,

    and subsequent degradation . The authoress of "Mary Powell" has with others entered the field . Her work is a heat little volume , prettily written , and of course well-intentioned . Without aiming at any grand display of rhetorical powers , . which is frequently found to be more tedious than edifying , she approaches her subject with' equal distinctness and brevity . She relates in graceful and fluent language the main historical facts , one by one , as they occurred , studiously avoiding all tendency to lengthy comment , or wordy spinning out of unimportant details . Thus a great deal of information is conveyed in a comparatively small space ; while the incidents are so skilfully arranged as to resemble more the readin < r of a romance than a volume

    of dry historical lore . We can heartily recommend this work to that section of the ^ reading public who seek to combine instruction with amusement . Of the style the following episode in the story of Naples frill afford an appropriate example : — , " While the injured people were ready to burst into maledictions and violence , warning friendly voices from other quarters besought , them to be temperate , to do nothing by their rashness to arrest the otherwise inevitable march of events . They listened , and bade their bursting hearts be still . They held meetings , but not illegal ones , in which they shouted their King ' s name , and , in the same breath , that of the Pope .

    " At length , a petition to the King of Naples , to show mercy , and favour mild reforms , was drawn up and signed by Count Balbo , the Marquis D'Azeglio , Count Cavour , and Silvio Pellico . The answer was highly unfavourable . In consequence , the Sicilians sent the King word that unless liberal institutions were granted them before his birthday , January 12 th , they should take up arms . Which they did . " The King terrified at the magnitude of the insurrection , made some ineffectual concessions ; find then , on hearing that 20 , 000 men were about to march against him , ho suddenly changed his tone to one of entire sympathy with his people , ' and promised them a constitution I . ..

    " It was no fault of the Neapolitans that they believed in him , especially as his new ministryoncluded Bozzelli , a known liberal . In a . few days , tho new constitution , drawn up by Bozzelli , appeared ; but before it could take offoer , events were complicated by tho revolution in Franco , and tho abdication and flight of Louis Philippe . " Three hundred proscribed Italians , including the vonerablo Popo , joyously returned to their native land on hearing of the amnesty . " What news awaited them I On landing at Genoa , they hoard with transport that despotism had boon overthrown in Vienna and Berlin ; that tho Milanese had thrown off their yoke , and , though nlmoat unarmed , had driven out 22 , 000 -Austrians , nnd that Venice was froo 1 It eeomed like a drenm .

    " This was in March , 1848 . On the 17 th , nowa of the insurrection at Vienna had reached Milan ; It was like a spark to gunpowder : crowds assembled in the squares , shouting " Arms , and a civic guard 1 " and demanding a leader . The podoeta

    put himself at . their head , and led ^ them to the governor ' s palace . Sad to relate , there were wretches among the populace who fell on-the Hungarian sentinels and stabbed them to death . It was a bad

    omen . " The governor saved himself by flight , leaving to supply his place Count O'Ponnel , who cried , " I will do what you wish ! I will do what you wish !" " Down with the police ! A civic guard ! " cried the mob . " Yes , yes , the police shall be set aside for a civic guard— - " " You must give it us in writing !" " He did so trembling ; and in a little time , the decree was published at the municipality . Then they patrolled the streets , crying" Long live Pius the Ninth ! Long live independence and Italy !" ' But the day was not won . The Austrians under General Radetzky yet possessed the castle , the gates , and many strong positions in the city . It remained to be proved , therefore , who should be masters of Milan .

    f Delicate women and tender children were seen tearing up the paving-stones and carrying them into their houses to cast on the heads of their assailants . Some prepared oil , some boiling water , some sharpened their knives , brought forth their fowling pieces , or a stick with an iron point . Hundreds of barricades were constructed in the streets . " ¦ Meanwhile , the cannon boomed heavily from the castle , and were answered by the bells from thirty church-steeples . " Suddenly a strong body of Bohemian infantry dispersed the crowd and carried off many prisoners . Two days the strife continued , and the Milanese obtained and kept possession of the , Duomo the great square , and the viceregal palace . They attacked the police barracks : the contest continued a day and night . ¦ ¦ ¦

    __ . " On the 20 th , the municipality formed themselves into a provisional government and passed several revolutionary decrees . The city was a complete battle-field , where balls , shells , and various missiles fell on both sides . The Milanese felt the want of assistance from other cities , and threw ' urgent appeals to them over the walls . They even sent them up in balloons , some of which fell in the Swiss confines , others reached Sardinia and Piacenza . ¦ " In consequence ^ thousands of volunteers flocked to Milan -, and from the tops of church-steeples they might be seen winding their way among the rice-grounds and now . and then falling on a body of Austrians . Within the city , every one did what

    he could . Astronomers observed the motions of the enemy through their telescopes from churchsteeples ; chemists prepared gunpowder and guncotton ; others melted lead for balls , or prepared cartridges . Ladies fired guns and carbines ; beardless boys wrenched bayonets from surprised soldiers . A citizen whose right hand was disabled , fired his gun with his left , —a dying man wrote on the wall , " Courage , brothers ! " with his blood . " The charity shown during these five days among the Milanese was universal ; In many houses , the wounded were collected and carefully tended . Ladies prepared lint and bandages—the rich gave wine and food .

    " Radetzky ' s palace was taken , his soldiers disarmed but not hurt , his plate and furniture handed over to the provisional government . Towards dusk , on tho fifth day , the humiliated marshal drew off ' his forces from tho city , and , to conceal his departure , had all his artillery , consisting of sixty guns , continually shifted from place to place , and fired from diflerents points , to conceal his whereabouts . A ball , however , discharged from one of these cannons , sot fire to a great mass of straw and hay -, and a glare of light , as brilliant as it was transient , illuminated the retreat of tho discomfited gonerul . . " These five days had cost Itadetzky five thousand men . Ho retreated towards Lodi . Meantime , tho provisional government of Milan took suitable measures for public safety and order . The Lombards were free I '

    It would perhaps have boon well if here and there tho principal events lind been extended and dilated upon , giving tho reader a more enlarged and detailed conception of the motives and springs of conduct which actuated tho loaders of tho more glorious and conflicting periods of Italian history . Tho fact is , so much is given , and with such ovidont skill and ability , that we naturally crnvo for inoro ; though probably for tho general public tho book will Ho more popular in ita present compressed and unassuming form . Wo cannot close our mention of ^ this production without alluding to one remark , worthy of notice , by tho writer . She cannot boliovo tlint nations are either able to appreciate or worthy of tho jenofit of freedom that is achieved ior them

    through the energy and capacity of others , without any exertion of their own . This is a proposition in which we believe our readers will readily acquiesce . Napoleon the First gave a semblance of liberty to the Italians ; great was their joy at being restored to liberty . But , " mind you , " adds our authoress , " they had not restored themselves , and were unworthy of it . What we don ' t earn , we don't value , or at any rate we don ' t deserve . Nothing improves our characters but that for which we have striven ; and that improves us most for which we strive with blood , and tears , and prayers . They did not deserve liberty ; neither did they have it . " Another opportunity is now given to them ; and there is reason to hope that they will uso it better .

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    THE ITALIAN WAR , ' 1848-1 ) . AND THK LAST ITALIAN POET . Three-Essays . By the late Honry Lushiugton , Chief Secretary to the Government of y Malta . With a Biographicairreface , by George Stovin Vehables-. — Maemillan and Co . Thc deceased author of this work has been compared , and justly , with the son of Mr . Hallam , in whose honour Mr . Tennyson composed Ins In Memariain . Henry . Inishington was also the son of a distinguished father , and the friend both of the poet and of the friend whose life he had so memorialised . The biography before us is admirably written . Our essayist numbered forty-three years of a life usefully and honourably spent . He was born in 1812 , and died in 1855 . The son of an eminent barrister , the parental example beneficially

    influenced his character in its early formation . He was educated at the Charterhouse School , whither he was sent with his elder brother , Edmund Law Lushing'ton , now Professor of Greek in the University of Glasgow . His friend and biographer bears testimony to liis instinctive love of verbal truth , and his single-minded directness in all things . " The purity and simplicity of liis nature repelled every form of vice without any apparent effort . " Henry Lushington became a student of Trinity College , Cambridge , in 1829 , at the early age of seventeen ; but his progress was stayed in 1830 by an attack o internal inflammation , which left him weak in constitution , and so produced a permanently deleterious effect on his health and strength . " He never recovered his appetite or liis bodily vigour . " The whole of his future life was modified by this accident .

    Henry Lushington was nursed for two years at hom e , in the vain hope of restoring his former energies , and returned to Cambridge in the autumn of 1832 . He resumed his social -habits , but no longer took any active interest in the objects of University ambition . Yet in that year , and again in 1833 , he obtained the I ' orson University Prize for Greek Iambics ; in 1834 , graduated as Senior Optimo , with a first class in the classical Tripos ; and in 1836 was elected a Follow of Trinity . In 1837 he finally censed to reside at

    Cambridge , nnd shortly afterwards- he entered himself at tho Inner Temple , where he wan culled _ ( . o the bar in 1840 . Previously to that he had distinguished himself by tho composition of . some essnys , and of a pamphlet against " Fellow Commoners and Honorary Degrees , " and otherwise showed a disposition to literary , production . His studies were desultory , and his habits irregular , but his memory was wonderfully retentive ami liis taste fine . He preferred Sholloy , Keats , Coleridge , and Tennyson to tho followers of Dryden and 1 op <» , and the artificial school of poetry . He wns nlso an

    admirer of Thomas Carlyle and Mrs . Austen , and preferred tho Odyssey to the Iliad . SiiakospoaU ' and Milton ho knew by heart . Ilis associates were likominded with himself , one of his most valued bcin" Mr . Monckton Milnos , whoso testimonial to his memory follows the biography . lennypon dedicated tho " I ' rincoss " to him , in ' commemoration of { ho cordial intimacy which followed the matrimonial connexion of the families .

    Mr . Luuhinffton ' s conversational powuw were extensive , and he was fond of society . Ills talk was on politics , public eaonomy , literature , art , mesmerism , and Kgvptiun rna ^ ic . Ho contributed to a volume of " Joint Compositions by hnneolf and Mr . Venables somo poems on domestic politics , entitled " Swing , " " Tho Coronation , " ami " Col ) bett ;" ' —versos which they wore in tho habit of making together as they rodo or walked out . With East Indian politics ho was also familiar , his family having boon closely connected with tho

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    An . 495 . OEi'T . o , xo ^ . j - » - ^ - ~ — ^ - ^ - — — — __ - "

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 3, 1859, page 1013, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2310/page/17/