From the Examiner, 10th Aug. DENMARK AND THE LONDON CONFERENCE. THE recent Conference of London held upon Danish affairs, with the Protocol and the final Treaty, in which the labors of the Conference have ended, proves to be something of a riddle to the greater part of the world. It is a riddle, moreover, which the press seems to have tasked itself to obscure rather than to explain. The whole secret of it is briefly this. The Germans took advantage of the movement of 1848 to make their country a maritime power. They ordered a fleet, and claimed Holstein and Schleswig, with some reason, as part of their Confederation. This gave them both banks of the Elbe, and it gave them Kiel. But now the four great maritime powers of Europe-France, Russia, England, and Denmark-have come together to declare, through their plenipotentiaries, that Germany shall not be a naval power. And that Germany shall not have the means to become so, they propose to effect by their united arrangement that Holstein shall appertain in future, and at present, to the King of Denmark. Thus one bank of the navi Denmark in full possession of the Duchies, although even this is not so clear. But that it will finally and permanently preserve them to him, must depend upon his mode of governing them, and attaching their populations to him. As a despot, ruling by the sword, and guided in his policy by the orders or councils of Russia, the sway of the King of Denmark over the German Duchies will not be worth an old song. But, although the maritime powers have had a common object in driving away the Germans from the sea, and restraining them from grasping any fork of Neptune's trident, they each have other and more peculiar views in the matter. Russia wants to keep the Danish empire in its integrity, together with the guardianship of the Sound, for the Duke of Oldenberg, relative of the emperor. England, whose interests are obstructed and menaced by the extension of the too prohibitive Zolverein, had seen with distaste this Zolverein not only spreading into Holstein, but swallowing up Hamburg and Mecklenburg; and by this treaty it secures at least Holstein, while it renders the adhesion of Hamburg to the fiscal system of Russia doubtful. France dreads not merely the maritime gable Elbe remains anti-German; whilst the Ey-development of Germany, but its territorial unity; der, and every port and passage of that important and would prefer seeing the Germans crippled by peninsula which separates the Baltic from the being thrust into the narrow cage of their old ocean, is equally declared Danish. Germany, its Diet and Constitution. powers, and its Confederation, are forbidden to meddle with it. Germans are not to pretend to become a naval power. Unfortunately, however, the surest mode of directing all the jealousies and energies of a great country in the direction of one object, is to insult and pique it by the declaration that it shall not be allowed to obtain that object. The result of the prohibition of the London Conference can only be to grave deeper into the German heart the desire to get possession of the mouth and the course of the Elbe, and to command that part of the Chersonesus which is, by the race and tongue of its inhabitants, as well as by the old law and demarcation of Europe, German. If ever a German king wants to be popular, if ever a German patriot desires to kindle and inflame the national enthusiasm, they will point to Holstein, and say, "There is a German country, wrung from Germany by the dictation of foreign powers. Let us march to retake our own at any risk." Should this be the case, England, France, and Russia are now bound to go to war with Germany to prevent it. But each or all of these countries would go to war for such a purpose only so far as suited their own convenience at the time. France would at any time sell its protection of Denmark for one Rhenish town. And England-what English minister dare ask its people to go to war in order to give Holstein to Denmark? What do the people of England care for Danifying Holstein? The treaty concluded last week in London, therefore, we consider to be an utter nullity, and of nothing more than momentary force or efficacy. It may perhaps, for the present, put the King of Whether these petty reasons have speciousness and strength enough to eke out the insufficiency of the principal motive remains for every one to judge. What we have principally to mark is, that the treaty is unjust. It runs not only counter to the old law of Europe and the rights of the Duchies, but to the clauses and arrangement of the treaty of Vienna. As to the peace of the north, and the integrity of the Danish dominions, both might have been most satisfactorily provided for by the King of Denmark granting representative institutions to the Duchies, and acceding to their moderate demands. Instead of this, the subjugation of 'them by the sword, without a single fair or honest offer to conciliate or appease them, cannot but convert Holstein into a very focus of discontent and rebellion, which nothing will be able to keep down but a large and permanent army, like that which occupies Hungary. France and Austria are expiring under the weight and expense of military government. Such a system would utterly ruin Denmark. Yet such is the necessity and such the prospects to which its allies now consign it. From the Examiner, Aug. 10th. AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA. THE state of Germany at the present moment is so critical that it well deserves the attention of every one interested in the fate of Europe. The Austrian and Prussian difference is coming to a crisis. These governments have so long been trifling with the real wishes of the German people, and have so often used the watchwords, "German Union," and "German Power," as blinds to their | tion, notwithstanding the interest it had excited own struggle for supremacy, that no one now thinks among the German governments, as well as among of trusting their most solemn assurances. They the German public and the German press. In are universally discredited and disbelieved. A answer to the first note of Austria, the Prussian hidden purpose is suspected in their most simple government had indeed intimated a consent to treat, doings. on condition that Prussia should appear in the name of the Union, and Austria in that of the rest of Germany. But Prince Schwartzenberg, with considerable show of dignity, declines this dictatorial assumption of power; maintains the old German Confederation as the proper organ for such arrangements; declares the impossibility even of any preliminary discussions, without the presence of such powers as Bavaria, Saxony, and Wurtemburg, as well as eventually Hanover, and, at least, one of the other states unconnected with the Verein; and, in short, presents a case of haughty pretensions on the part of the upstart, grasping Prussia, and of well-effected humility from the ancient head of the empire, such as can hardly fail of the effect sought to be produced. The war has been carried on diplomatically for some time. Each party, however, having meanwhile published its case, and courted the concurrence of public opinion, they are at last arrived at a point when one or other must retreat, or the sword decide where the pen has failed. Austria has for several months past been gaining on Prussia with rapid strides. The proposals of the Austrian minister for a commercial union of all Germany and Austria with her non-German states, to which we lately adverted, have produced their effect. Prussia has met with so strong an opposition in the Zolverein Congress at Cassel, that she has been forced to withdraw her proposition for changes in the tariff. Several members in the Congress, and these the most powerful, The Congress of Cassel, proceeds the Austrian have demanded that the Austrian proposals should minister, might naturally have afforded an opporbe taken into consideration in preference to a con- tunity for introducing these proposals to the states tinuance of the present Verein. Nor has Austria of the Verein. Such, indeed, is well known to failed to take advantage of this manifestation in have been the wish of the most influential of her favor. On the 21st of July she addressed a them. But, instead of that, Prussia had proposed note of remonstrance to the court of Prussia, a number of changes in the tariff, uncalled for by which, as it appears to have failed in producing any effect in the quarter to which it was formally sent, has been handed over for publication to the Vienna journals, that it may at least act on the German public, for whom in reality it was doubtless written. In this note Prince Schwartzenberg complains bitterly of the neglect with which his proposals for an Austrian-German constitution have been met by Prussia. Twice already, on the 30th of December, 1849, and again on the 30th May, 1850, has the 1. R. Austrian government applied to all the States of Germany, and in particular to the R. Prussian government, and expressed in detailed memoranda its wishes for the conclusion of an Austro-German Customs Union! the interests of commerce, and directed only to the injury of Austria. The linens of Bohemia were no longer to enjoy the advantages hitherto granted them; the duties on shawls and other articles of Austrian manufacture were to be increased; and although the duties on raw produce in general were diminished, those on raw silk, which is almost entirely procured from Austria, were naturally augmented. The same spirit had been manifested in the Prussian treatment of the Elbe dues, whereas those of Austria had been in the highest degree liberal. The Austrian government can with the greatest confidence leave these proceedings to be estimated as they deserve by the other governments of Germany, and by public opinion. we Such is the tenor of Prince Schwartzenberg's He protests, in continuation, there could be no memorable note. It should be added that it condoubt of the sincerity of his government in this tains no mention of the political union of the nonstep; and that this may be tested by the extensive German provinces of Austria, which, as commercial reforms, on a similar principle already formerly showed, would furnish an insurmountable introduced in the states of Austria. In corrobora- difficulty to the acceptance of the Austrian propotion of his statement, he instances the revision of sals by the rest of Germany. It is generally the tariff, the removal of the Elbe dues, and the understood, however, that the government has abolition of the line of customs between Hungary, given up the idea of ruling Hungary as a part of Transylvania, and Croatia, and the rest of Austria. Austria; and that the old constitution, modified He then insists on the advantage to be derived and reformed, will be restored. This guaranteed, from setting commerce free from all restraint over to the commercial union of Hungary with Gera space of 22,000 German square miles, including many there could be little objection. It would a population of 70,000,000, bounded by three of certainly be received as a boon by that country; the most frequented seas, and watered by three if not as all they could have wished, ye as much of the largest rivers in Europe. No one, he ob- more than they have yet enjoyed. Thus one great serves, can question such an advantage. For the objection to an Austro-German Customs Union removing of any difficulties in this plan, he con- would be certainly done away with. To say tinues, a manifest way was open; and Prussia the truth, there is altogether such an air of sinhad not thought it deserving even her considera-cerity in the note, that we are half inclined to believe that the Austrian minister is persuaded of The Schleswig-Holstein treaty has meanwhile enabled her to aim another blow at Prussia. Encouraged in their revolt so long by Prussia, the Duchies have been deserted by her to curry favor with Russia. But now all the German princes, although satisfied to see revolt in misfortune, refuse to ratify the treaty; and Austria throws the blame on Prussia, who, she says, by obstinate refusal to unite with the rest of Germany on terms of equality, prevents the formation of a central German power capable of protecting German in terests. ON Sunday, 11th August, the Rev. George Cornelius Gorham was inducted to the living of Brampford Speke. The Rev. Mr. Howard, of St. Thomas, officiated on the occasion, in the place of gentleman preached an excellent sermon to a numerous congregation.—Devonshire paper. the Archdeacon Moore Stevens. The reverend THERE are 14,000 enrolled friendly societies in this country, having 1,600,000 members, an annual revenue amounting to £2,800,000, and an accumulated capital of £6,400,000. A still greater number of minor friendly societies are not enrolled, and do not therefore possess the privileges and means of self-protection enjoyed by the former. It is estimated that there are 33,223 societies in this having 3,052,000 members, an annual revenue of position in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland; £4,980,000, and with funds amounting to so large a sum as £11,360,000, the praiseworthy accumulations of the purely industrial classes. Indeed, half of the laboring male adult population are members of benefit societies.-The Reporter. THE Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge are about making a grant of £3,000 to the Bishop of Toronto, towards securing the endowment of a the Church in his diocese. college of a permanent character in connection with Nor does her well-managed game end here. While thus fishing for popularity in Germany, she has been strengthening herself still more by a change in her domestic policy. Extensive amnesties, including many hundred persons who took part in the revolution in Hungary, as well as in A CORRESPONDENT of the Times furnishes to that the October revolt in Vienna, have been granted. journal an abstract of the testamentary dispositions "In consequence," it is expressly stated, "of made by Sir Robert Peel. They consist of a will the milder policy which his majesty has deter than fifty sheets of brief-paper, and of three codicils, dated the 8th of March, 1842, extending over more mined to pursue," all extra-legal commissions are dated in 1842, 1844, and March, 1849. The disdissolved, and all prosecutions removed to the ordi- positions of the property are the usual ones for nary courts of law. Refugees, who are not deeply entailing on the eldest living branch of his family compromised, are invited to return. Vienna is to great landed estates, and for dividing equally among be relieved from the state of siege. At the same the junior branches the remainder of his property time important reductions have been made in the already personalty or to be converted into it by the army; and, in consequence of these acts and their gives a great number of legacies to his stewards The first codicil, in very great detail, effect on public opinion, the Austrian funds have and servants; generally proportioning them in risen, and the price of gold and silver has materi-amount to the length of service. The last codicil ally decreased. If Austria continues to pursue this policy, and to strengthen her power at home and abroad by such acts, it is well. But if all is done merely to gain a momentary advantage over a rival, she will not escape the defeat and disappointment, sure and speedy, which treachery so infamous would merit. FOREIGN MISCELLANY. THE papers have published a note by Chevalier Bunsen to Lord Palmerston, on the SchleswigHolstein affair, in which he communicates the entire approbation by his government of his refusal to join in the European protocol to which the other great powers have become parties. He dwells on a phrase in that protocol, new to the international law of Germany-" the original integrity of the Danish monarchy" that expression, he says, "is neither more exact in point of international law, nor less politically threatening towards Germany, than would be the expression, the integrity of the Dutch monarchy,' in a sense implying that the Duchie of Luxemburg was considered to form, in conjunction with Holland, the Dutch monarchy." trustees. relates solely to Sir Robert Peel's "literary possessions," and is framed to this effect He bequeaths all his manuscripts and correspondvalue, as showing the character of great men of his ence, which he states he presumes to be of great age, unto Lord Mahon and Mr. Cardwell, with the fullest power to destroy such as they think fit; and he directs that his correspondence with her majesty and her consort shall not be published during their lives without their express consent first had and obtained; for them (the trustees) to make arrangements for the safe custody and for the publication of such of them as they may think fit, and to give all or any of them to public institutions; and the codicil contains general directions for the custody of such as shall not be disposed of in such manner. Bequeaths to Lord Mahon and Mr. Cardwell 1,000l. upon trust, to invest and to apply the income, and the principal if required, in the execution of his wishes; as also a recompense to each for their trouble and pains. Probate of the documents was passed; and the duty paid was for personal assets under 500,000l. THE French council of state has just decided that the Standish Gallery and the Spanish Museum in the Louvre, are the personal property of the exKing Louis Philippe. Spectacles: their Uses and Abuses in Long and The contents of this volume, translated from the French of Sichel, by Dr. Williams, of this city, first appeared in the Annales d'Oculistique, of Brussels, in 1845. We believe that they traverse a scientific field hitherto almost unoccupied, and they were translated as an authority for those medical practitioners whose attention has not been particularly called to the topics discussed, but whose advice. is often requested in ordinary practice. "The Use and Abuse of Spectacles" may not appear to be a very weighty subject to the general reader; but if one half that is stated by Dr. Sichel be correct, the comfort of middle-aged and old people would be more largely increased by the perusal of his volume, than by a settlement of all the vexed questions of the day in politics if not in religion. The evils resulting from a use of improper spectacles are set forth at length, and are enough to frighten any victim of presbyopia or myopia. Phillips, Sampson & Co. have published the book in their usual elegant style. The print is quite large and very clear-as it ought to be, indeed, in a work intended to benefit users of spectacles. Post. Sleep psychologically considered, with reference to A very valuable manual of European Geography and History, under the title of Europe, Past and Present, has just been published by Mr. Putnam, in a thick, neatly printed duodecimo volume. It is by Dr. Ungewitter, a German scholar of ability and extensive information, who is now a resident of this country and is well known in his own land by several geographical works which he has written and which have obtained a good deal of celebrity. The work contains a full description of each state of Europe, with the leading incidents of its history, statistics of its population, commerce, &c., and thus embodies an immense amount of very useful and interesting information. It merits a high degree of public favor. N. Y. Courier. The Last Enemy Conquering and Conquered, by of" Y Detholydd," a Welsh newspaper just started at A New Paper. We have received "Cyf 1, Rhyf 1," George Burgess, D. D., Bishop of the P. E. Remsen in this state. There is a profound article on Church in Maine. Philadelphia: H. Hooker." Hen ddyddiau a hen bodi," and a dialogue entitled 1850. This volume is replete with beautiful thoughts and beautifully expressed; it is written with great judgment and in a solemn strain which befits the awful subject. The dark and gloomy views of life and death held by the benighted pagans and heathens, are admirably contrasted with the glorious hopes and pleasing promises made to the faithful believer in his divine Lord. The arrange. ment, in short chapters, each illustrating some particular subject, is very happy, and well adapted to secure the attention of the reader and suggest a suitable train of reflection without weariness. Our friend, the Banner of the Cross, says "We esteem this one of the most useful practical works which have lately issued from the press, and it is well fitted to guide the living by its wise instructions, and to sustain the dying with blessed hopes, so that they may 'walk through the valley of the shadow of death fearing no evil.'"-Churchman." This work is remarkable for the practical and attractive style in which it exhibits and illustrates a solemn subject. It will be read with interest and advantage hy many who would shrink from treatises of a more abstract character. And by bringing many readers to serious considerations, which they will find less forbidding than they anticipated, it will doubtless be productive of much good. The work is worthy, in all respects, of the position and reputation of the author.-South. Church. The Literary Reader, consisting of selections in prose and verse from American and foreign writers, by Miss A. Hall, author of the "Manual of Morals." 12mo. 408 pages. Published by J. P. Jewett & Co., Cornhill. "Cyd-Ymddyddan." We trust the editors will conduct this paper in the spirit of their motto: "Profweh bob peth; deliwch yr hyn sydd dda.”—Tribune. "De Norskes Ven," is the title of a new Norwegian paper, started on the 19th ult. at Madison, Wisconsin, by Ole Togerson. It is a neat little sheet, issued at $1.50 per annum, in advance, and will doubtless be extensively patronized by the Scandinavians of the western country. We presume it takes the place of the "Nordlyset," which was suspended some time ago.-Tribune. Irving's Conquest of Grenada is republished by G. P. Putnam, as a part of the handsome edition of Irving's Works, now issued by that publisher. The work is too well known to need our commendation. The annals of a romantic age, and the fate of a people of peculiar char acter, are gracefully related.-N. Y. Ev. Post. Ticknor, Reed & Fields have just issued an elegant edition of a work which has long been out of print in this country, "The Confessions of an English OpiumEater." This famous book has passed through numberless editions, gaining, in the process, a world-wide reputation. It may be doubted, however, whether it would make so noticeable an impression upon the world, if published to-day for the first time. Still, it is almost, if not quite, a unique in literature, and is a very interesting and powerful production. Ticknor & Co. intend to publish the other productions of De Quincey, uniform with this present volume.- Boston Post. Leigh Hunt's Autobiography is republished by the Harpers in two duodecimo volumes. It is a delightful book; delightful in what relates to the author, and no less so in what relates to the men of letters who were his contemporaries and friends. Few writers of the time have that charm of pleasant and amiable companionship which belongs to all Hunt's prose writings. In one part of the work he complains that, large as has been the circulation of his writings in America, he never received a doit for them from this country. We sincerely hope the present republication is an exception to this remark. We are most favorably impressed with the plan and execution of this new school Reader. It contains selections from a large number of ancient as well as modern writers (some 125) of celebrity, including such men as Sir Thomas More, A. D. 1480-1535; Hugh Latimer, 1555; George Cavendish, Edmund Spencer, Richard Hall, Isaac Walton, John Milton, Jeremy Taylor, &c. The book will be found very useful to teachers in connection with the study of rhetoric, furnishing, as it does, N. Y. Ev. Post. examples of all the various styles of composition prevalent at different periods and in different countries. One of its peculiarities consists in a concise but comprehen- lished by the brothers Harper, has reached its fifth numLossing's Picture Field Book of the Revolution, pubsive biographical notice of each author from whom selec-ber. Several extremely well executed portraits in wood, with fac similes of the hand-writing of men distinguished in American history, add to the interest of the work. Mr. Lossing is performing a valuable service by these gleanings of local history. tions are made. [This notice of a book we have not read is copied from the Traveller. Our knowledge of the compiler enables us to recommend any work prepared by her.] TO THE BINDER.-Title and Index of Vol. XXVI are in the middle of this number. POETRY.-All's Well, 593.-The Step-daughter, 597.-Christ in the Tempest; Behold the Opening Clouds, 604. SHORT ARTICLES.-Scottish Independence, 593. PROSPECTUS.-The ork is conducted in the spirit of ittell's Museum of Foreign Literature, (which was favor ably 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, Tait's, Ainsworth's, Hood'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 TERMS.-The LIVING AGE is published every Saturday, by E. LITTELL & Co., corner of Tremont and Bromfield sts., Boston; Price 12 cents a number, or six dollars a year in advance. Remittances for any period will be thankfully received and promptly attended to. To insure regularity in mailing the work, orders should be addressed to the office of publication, as above. Clubs, paying a year in advance, will be supplied as follows. 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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. E. LITTELL & CO., BOSTON. WASHINGTON, 27 Dec. 1845. Or all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe and in this country, this has appeared to me the most useful. It contains indeed the exposition only of the current literature of the Englis language, but this, by its mense extent and comprehension, includes a portraiture of the human mind in the utmos expansion of the present age. J. Q. ADAMS. |