The International Monthly Magazine Volume V to No II

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From Austria we learn the partial amelioration in private business of the
financial difficulties. The Emperor published, on the 1st of January,
decrees, that whereas the provisions of the constitution were cancelled by
the imperial edict of August 20, 1851, the last principles of political
right conceded by the constitution are now disavowed. There now exists no
political right in the empire. The Austrian government continues to watch
with the keenest anxiety the proceedings of the exiled Italians and
Hungarians, and by very stringent arrangements in regard to the press, and
the interdiction of most foreign journals, keeps the "dangerous classes"
in ignorance of the sympathy with which they are regarded from abroad.

The Queen of Spain, by a spontaneous act of her royal clemency, granted a
pardon to all such prisoners, made in the last expedition against the Isle
of Cuba, as are citizens of the United States, whether they be already in
Spain, undergoing the punishments they have incurred, or whether they be
still in Cuba. The queen on the 20th of December gave birth to a princess,
who is heir to the throne.

From China there are reports that the Emperor has been compelled to resign
in favor of the revolutionary general, whose triumphant march through many
revolted provinces has, from time to time, been noticed in the last half
year. The statement, however, does not appear to be credited by some of
the best informed London journals.

The Queen of Madagascar is bent on exterminating Christianity in her
dominions, and has long mercilessly persecuted those who prefer the "new
religion." In the last outburst of this protracted persecution, four
persons were burnt alive; fourteen precipitated from a high rock and
crushed to death; a hundred and seventeen persons condemned to work in
chains as long as they live; twenty persons cruelly flogged with rods,
besides 1,748 other persons mulcted in heavy penalties, reduced into
slavery, and compelled to buy themselves back, or deprived of their wives
and families. Persons of rank have been degraded, and sent as forced
laborers to carry stone for twelve months together to build houses; and,
in an endless variety of other ways have the maddened passions of one
wicked woman been permitted now for years past to plunge a great country
in ruin.

There has been a serious Mussulman riot at Bombay, occasioned by the
Parsee editor of an illustrated newspaper, in each number of which is
given a life and portrait of some remarkable historical character, having
published--in the series (next to one of Benjamin Franklin)--a life and
portrait of Mahomet. Both are said to have been unexceptionable according
to European ideas, but the whole Mussulman population (145,000 in number)
considered their faith insulted and outraged by the publication, holding
it sacrilege and idolatry to imagine and print any likeness whatever of so
sacred a personage.

The Wahabees, who inhabit the interior and highland portion of Arabia,
have pillaged the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, destroying the mosques,
sacking the cities, and carrying off numbers of women and children into
the desert. It is supposed to be in revenge for the punishment inflicted
on them thirty years ago, when they had conquered the same cities.

The Turkish government has introduced the culture of cotton in the
vicinity of Damascus, with seed procured from the United States. It is
successful.

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES AND PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

In London, among the scientific questions of a practical kind much
discussed, is that of a patent process for contracting the fibres of
calico, and of obtaining on calico thus prepared colors of much
brilliancy. It is regarded by chemists as likely to lead to valuable
results. In the British Association, it was described as the discovery
that a solution of cold but caustic soda acts peculiarly on cotton fibre,
immediately causing it to contract; and although the soda can be readily
washed out, yet the fibre has undergone a change. Thus, taking a coarse
cotton fabric, and acting upon it by the proper solution of caustic soda,
this could be made much finer in appearance; and if the finest calico made
in England--known as one hundred and eighty picks to the web--be thus acted
on, it immediately appears as fine as two hundred and sixty picks.
Stockings of open weaving assume a much finer texture by the condensation
process; but the effect of the alteration is most strikingly shown by
colors: the tint of pink cotton velvet becomes deepened to an intense
degree; and printed calicoes, especially with colors hitherto applied with
little satisfaction--such as lilac--come out with strength and brilliancy,
besides producing fabrics finer than could be possibly woven by hand. The
strength, too, is increased by this process; for a string of calico which
breaks with a weight of thirteen ounces when not soaked, will bear twenty
ounces when half condensed by the caustic soda.

At a recent meeting of the Paris _Academy of Sciences_, M. YVART read an
important practical Memoir on the production of Wool, in the Merino race.
He teaches that the only means of obtaining fine wool--taking into account
the weight of the sheep's body,--is the employment of races of small size.
When the skin is very delicate, it secretes less of wool than when it is
otherwise;--the fineness of the wool is proportioned to that of the skin.
Those countries in which the winter is long or cold, or where the sheep
remains in the fold the greater part of the year, and does not lie on
ploughed lands, are especially suited to the production of the finest and
most elastic wools, those chiefly sought after for manufacture of cloth.

Experiments on the application of electro-magnetism as a motive power,
have been made with some striking results in Paris, as well as in this
country. M. Dumont, in a paper on the subject submitted to the _Female
Academy_, states, "that if in the production of great power the
electro-magnetic force is inferior to that of steam, it becomes equal to
it, and perhaps superior in the production of small power, which may be
subdivided, varied, and introduced into employments or trades requiring
but little capital, and where the absolute value of the mechanical power
is less essential than the facility of producing instantaneously and at
pleasure the power itself. In this point of view electro-magnetic power
comes to complete, not to supersede, that of steam."

In the papers of the celebrated Lalande, recently presented to the Paris
_Academy of Sciences_, by M. Arago, there is a note to the effect that so
far back as the 25th of October, 1800, he and Burckhardt were of opinion,
from calculations, that there must be a planet beyond Uranus, and they
occupied themselves for some time in trying to discover its precise
position. This is a very curious fact for astronomers.

RECENT DEATHS.

JOEL R. POINSETT, LL.D., long distinguished in society and in affairs,
died at his residence in Statesburg, South Carolina, on the 12th of
December. The first American ancestor of Mr. Poinsett came to this country
from Soubisi, near Rochelle, in France, soon after the revocation of the
edict of Nantz. His father was a physician, and served in the Revolution
under Count Pulaski. He himself was born at Charleston on the second of
March, 1779, and, after having passed some time at the school of the Rev.
Timothy Dwight (afterward President of Yale College), at Greenfield,
Connecticut, he was sent, at the close of the Revolution, to England, to
complete his studies, and for the advantages of foreign travel. Returning
in 1800, when he was twenty-one years of age, he commenced the study of
law in the office of Mr. Desaussure, afterwards Chancellor of South
Carolina, Before his admission to the bar, he again embarked for Europe,
extending his travels to Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, and the northern
countries of the continent. At St. Petersburg he became acquainted with
the Emperor Alexander, soon after his accession, and was received by him
with marked partiality, and often questioned respecting the peculiar
institutions of this country. On one occasion, after he had been
expatiating at large on the advantages of America, the Czar exclaimed,
"Were I not an emperor, I would be a republican." Declining the offer of a
place in the service of the Emperor, he commenced a tour into the East,
travelling through Persia and Armenia, and, returning to Europe, resided
for some time in its principal capitals. On the breaking out of
difficulties between the United States and Great Britain, in 1808, he
returned to his own country, and applied to Mr. Madison for a commission
in the army. Owing to some objections by the Secretary of War, he did not
obtain the commission, but was sent by the President to South America, to
ascertain the result of the revolutions which had recently occurred in
that quarter. While in Chili, he heard of the declaration of war between
England and America. Embarking in the frigate Essex, to return to this
country, with a view to enter the army, he was made a prisoner on the
surrender of that vessel to the British by Commodore Porter. The British
Commander refused to allow his return home with the rest of the prisoners,
regarding him as a dangerous enemy of England, and he therefore determined
to cross the continent to the Atlantic. He passed the Andes in the month
of April, when they were covered with snow, and, after great difficulties,
reached Buenos Ayres. He succeeded, in a Portuguese vessel, in reaching
Madeira, where, on his arrival, he learned that a treaty of peace had been
concluded. Soon after he reached South Carolina, he was elected to the
Legislature of that State, in which he devoted himself chiefly to the
establishment of a system of internal improvements. In 1821 he was elected
to Congress, from the Charleston District, and was twice re-elected to
that body. In 1822, he was sent to Mexico, by President Monroe, to obtain
information with regard to the government under Iturbide. He performed
this mission with signal success. Foreseeing the speedy downfall of the
imperial administration, he gave his advice against all connection with
it, on the part of this country. He had scarcely returned home, when
Iturbide abdicated the throne. Soon after the election of Mr. Adams, which
he had strongly opposed, Mr. Poinsett was again appointed Minister to
Mexico, whore he remained until the summer of 1829. His important services
in this period are amply detailed in a memoir of his political life, in
the first volume of the _Democratic Review_, and were warmly approved in
the first annual message of President Jackson. On returning to the United
States, he devoted himself to the pursuits of private life, in South
Carolina. When the States Rights controversy broke out, he again engaged
in political affairs, and became a prominent advocate of the principles of
the Union party, as opposed to Nullification. In 1836, he was nominated by
his friends as a candidate for the State Senate, and was elected with but
little opposition. On the formation of Mr. Van Buren's cabinet, Mr.
Poinsett accepted the office of Secretary of War. On the election of Gen.
Harrison he retired to his home in South Carolina, where he devoted
himself to those literary pursuits which formed the pleasure of his life;
and thence he issued, only two years ago, those stirring appeals against
secession, which were among the most powerful influences for the
preservation of the endangered peace of the Union at that period. Mr.
Poinsett received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Columbia College in
this city, and he was a member of many learned societies in this country,
and in Europe. Besides his _Notes on Mexico_, written soon after his last
return from that country, he published several addresses, was a large
contributor to the _Southern Quarterly Review_ and other periodicals, and
furnished some important papers to the Paris Geographical Society, and
other learned associations abroad and at home.

MOSES STUART, D.D., of the Theological Seminary at Andover, died at his
residence in that town on the 4th of January, in the seventy-second year
of his age. He was born in Wilton, Conn., March 16, 1780; was graduated at
Yale College in 1799; and was a tutor in that institution from 1802 to
1804. After having studied the profession of the law, he turned his
attention to theology, and in 1806 was ordained pastor of the Central
Congregational church in New Haven. He was called to the Professorship of
Sacred Literature in Andover Theological Seminary in 1810, and continued
for nearly forty years to discharge its important duties. Professor Stuart
was a man of great natural abilities, honorable principles, and a strong
will; for a long period he occupied the first place among cultivators of
sacred learning in this country; and though younger men, with larger
opportunities, have recently attained to greater eminence, no one in the
same field has ever exercised a more important and advantageous influence.
His first considerable work was a _Hebrew Grammar_, published in 1823. It
scarcely deserves comparison with the more celebrated performance of
Gesenius, of which Professor Stuart himself gave to the public a
translation, more than twenty years after the publication of his own work;
but for some time after its original appearance it was the best Hebrew
Grammar in the English language. In 1825 he was associated with Professor
Robinson in the production of a _Greek Grammar of the New Testament_; in
1827 he published his _Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews_; in 1829
his _Hebrew Chrestomathy_, and in 1830 his _Course of Hebrew Study_. His
Commentary on the Hebrews, was received as an accession to the body of
permanent theological literature. It was spoken of in England as "the most
valuable philological aid" that had been published "for the critical study
of that important, and in many respects difficult book;" and the late Dr.
Pye Smith, one of the first biblical, theological, and classical scholars
in Great Britain, stated, that he felt it to be his duty to describe it as
"the most important present to the cause of sound biblical interpretation
that had ever been made in the English language." In Germany also it
secured for Professor Stuart the highest consideration; and it continues
in all countries to be regarded as one of the noblest examples of
philological theology and exegetical criticism. In 1832 Professor Stuart
published another great work of a similar character: his _Commentary on
the Epistle to the Romans_. It was distinguished for a profoundness of
research, for an intensity and minuteness of philological labor, and a
singleness of purpose to arrive at the meaning of the apostle, without
regard to any preconceived or partisan opinions, which obtained for it a
regard as an authority equal to that awarded to its predecessor. In 1845
he published a _Commentary on the Apocalypse_; a profoundly learned and
critical work, in which the interpretation of this difficult book varies
much from that which has been most generally received. In the same year he
also gave to the church a _Critical History and Defence of the Old
Testament Canon_. His devotion to biblical criticism continued to the
close of his life, and we believe, his last use of the pen was in the
correction of the concluding sheets of a volume of Commentaries.

In his later years Professor Stuart entered into political controversies,
and was particularly distinguished for his defence of the policy of Mr.
Webster, in a pamphlet entitled _Conscience and the Constitution_. He also
ventured very injudiciously into the field of classical criticism, in an
edition of _Cicero_, which was sharply reviewed by Professor Kingsley of
Yale College; and he lost reputation in his more legitimate sphere by a
controversy with Professor Conant, of Madison University, growing out of
his translation of the _Hebrew Grammar of Gesenius_. It is not to be
denied that in measuring his strength against that of these accomplished
scholars, he was signally unfortunate.

In his personal character he was simple, sincere, enthusiastic, brave, and
religious. He was well entitled to the great respect in which he was held
by the church. He had been ordained for high services, and he had
accomplished them. Every duty of which he was capable was finished, and he
could have added nothing to his good reputation if his years had been
prolonged.

WILLIAM GRIMSHAW, born in Ireland in 1781, but nearly all his life a
resident of this country, where he was for many years well known as a
writer, died near Philadelphia on the 8th of January. Besides editing and
rewriting a considerable portion of Baine's _History of the Wars growing
out of the French Revolution_, he was the author of Histories of Great
Britain, France, and several other countries, which for a long time were
very generally used as text-books in schools, and he also wrote _The
American Chesterfield_, _The Ladies' Lexicon_, and numerous smaller
volumes, which were creditable to his abilities. His reading was
extensive, and his knowledge of events during his lifetime, particularly
in British affairs, was minute and accurate. His mind lost none of its
vigor with the approach of age, and in his fine countenance, and imposing
figure, there were no appearances of decay. His love of reading continued
to the last, and within a year he frequently employed his pen on such
subjects as he took an especial interest in.

NICHOLAS GRAN DE DIEU SOULT, Marshal General of France, Duke of Dalmatia,
&c., died on the 26th of December, at his chateau of Soult Berg, near the
place where he was born. We have given in another part of this magazine an
estimate of his character. The Paris _Pays_ furnishes us a brief abstract
of his history. He was born at St. Amand (Tarn), March 29, 1769. His
father, who was a notary, seeing that he had no taste for his own
profession, allowed him to enter the army. The future Marshal of France
entered the Royal Regiment of Infantry in 1785, where he was soon remarked
by his aptitude for the functions of instructor. He was made
non-commissioned officer in 1790, and then passed rapidly through the
intermediate grades, until he reached that of Adjutant-General of the
Staff, when General Lefebvre attached him to his own service with the
grade of Chief of Brigade. In that quality he went through the campaigns
of 1794 and 1795 with the army of the Moselle, and owed to his talents, as
well as to his republican principles, a rapid promotion. Successively
raised to the rank of General of Brigade, and then to that of General of
Division, he took part in all the campaigns of Germany until 1799, when he
followed Massena into Switzerland, and thence to Genoa, where he was
wounded and taken prisoner. Set at liberty after the battle of Marengo,
and raised to the command of Piedmont, he returned to France at the peace
of Amiens, and was named one of the four Colonels of the Guard of the
Consuls. When the Empire was proclaimed, in 1804, he was nominated Marshal
of France, and during the campaign which terminated in Austerlitz, held
the command of the fourth corps of the grand army. After the conquest of
Prussia and the battle of Eylau, Marshal Soult solicited and obtained the
command of the second corps of the army of Spain, with which he overran
Galicia and the Austrians, and passed into Portugal, where he fought the
memorable battle of Oporto. Forced to abandon that city, when delivered up
by treason to the English, he effected into Galicia a bold and perilous
retreat, which did the greatest honor to his energy and presence of mind.
Being named Commander-in-Chief of the army of Spain, he marched to the
succor of Madrid, menaced by the Anglo-Spanish army, and his movement was
crowned with full success. He continued in this command until March, 1813,
when he was appointed in Saxony to the command-in-chief of the Imperial
Guard. The disasters of Vittoria decided Napoleon to again confer on
Marshal Soult the command of the French troops in Spain. The point then
was to defend the menaced frontier of France. Forced to fall back on
Toulouse, he there terminated by a brilliant engagement, due to most able
strategic arrangements, the fatal campaign of 1814. On the announcement of
the event at Paris he signed a suspension of arms, and adhered to the
reestablishment of Louis XVIII., who presented him with the Cross of St.
Louis, and called him to the command of the 13th military division, and
then to the Ministry of War (Dec. 3, 1814). On March 8th, learning the
landing from Elba, he published the order of the day which is so well
known, and in which Napoleon is treated more than severely. On March 11th
he resigned his portfolio as Minister of War, and declared for the
Emperor, who, passing over the famous proclamation, raised him to the
dignity of Peer of France and Major General of the Army. After Waterloo,
where he fought most energetically, the Marshal took refuge at Malzieu
(Lozere) with General Brun de Villeret, his former aid-de-camp. Being set
down on the list of the proscribed, he withdrew to Dusseldorf on the banks
of the Rhine, until 1819, when a Royal ordinance allowed him to return to
France. He then went to live with his family at St. Amand, his native
place, and on his reiterated representations his marshal's baton, which
had been withdrawn from him, was restored. Charles X. treated Marshal
Soult with favor, creating him knight of his orders, and afterward making
him Peer of France. After the revolution of July, 1830, the declaration of
the Chamber of Deputies of August 9th excluded him from that rank, but he
was restored to it four days later by a special nomination of Louis
Philippe, who soon after appointed him Minister of War. We shall not
follow Marshal Soult through the acts of his administrative career. He
always showed himself devoted to the constitutive principles of the
Government of July. He was twice named President of the Council of King
Louis Philippe, who elevated him to the dignity of Marshal General, of
which Turenne had been the last possessor. Since the revolution of
February, Marshal Soult has lived on his estate, in the midst of his
family, and almost forgotten in our present political agitations.

KARL FRIEDERICH RUNGENHAGEN, late Royal Director of Music at Berlin, was
born in that city on September 27, 1778. His father was a merchant. In
1801 he became member of the Singing Academy, and studied under Zetter. In
1814 he wrote the songs for a melo-drama, which was not successful. In
1815 he became director of the Singing Academy, with Zetter; most of his
religious music was composed after this time. In 1825 he was appointed to
the post of Royal Music Director, and in 1833, after Zetter's death, he
became sole conductor of the Singing Academy. His influence has been
considerable upon the culture of music in Germany. Carl Maria Von Weber
was his friend, and Lortzing was one of his pupils. He died at Berlin on
the 22d of last December.

The journals of Moscow announce the death of the Armenian Archbishop,
MICHAEL SALLANTIAN, the most distinguished writer of Armenia at the
present day. He was born at Constantinople in 1782, and educated at the
Armenian monastery at Venice. He died at the age of sixty-nine at Moscow,
where he had been professor of theology and literature for sixteen years
before his elevation to the Archbishopric.

DR. GRAEFE, one of the most eminent veterans of European philology, died
suddenly at St Petersburg on November 30th. He was born at Chemnitz, in
Saxony, in July, 1780, but went to Russia in 1810, to assume the
professorship of Greek at the Academy of St. Petersburg.

The Russian General, Kiel, has died in Paris. He was employed by the
Emperor Nicholas in directing works of art in the Russian empire.

HERR MEINHOLD, author of the _Amber Witch_, died in Germany in December.

J. W. M. TURNER, the greatest of English artists, and the hero of Mr.
Ruskin's brilliant book entitled _The Modern Painters_, died in London on
the 20th of December, at the age of 77. He had always a reluctance to have
his portrait taken, but the engraving accompanying this article--from a
sketch made without his knowledge--is said, by the _Illustrated London
News_ to be remarkably like him. It is understood that by his will he has
left a million dollars (L200,000) for the purpose of founding an
institution for the relief of of decayed artists, and has given it also
the chief part of his pictures, to adorn the building which is to be
occupied by it. The _Times_ says, "although it would be out of place to
revive the discussions occasioned by the peculiarities of Mr. Turner's
style in his later years, he has left behind him sufficient proofs of the
variety and fertility of his genius to establish an undoubted claim to a
prominent rank among the painters of England. His life had been extended
to the verge of human existence; for although he was fond of throwing a
mystery over his precise age, we believe that he was born in Maiden-lane,
Covent-garden, in the year 1775, and was, consequently, in his 76th or
77th year. Of humble origin (he was the son of a barber), he enjoyed the
advantages of an accurate rather than a liberal education. His first
studies, some of which are still in existence, were in architectural
design; and few of those who have been astonished or enchanted by the
profusion and caprice of form and color in his mature pictures, would have
guessed the minute and scientific precision with which he had cultivated
the arts of linear drawing and perspective. His early manhood was spent
partly on the coast, where he imbibed his inexhaustible attachment for
marine scenery and his acquaintance with the wild and varied aspect of the
ocean. Somewhat later he repaired to Oxford, where he contributed for
several years the drawing to the _University Almanac_. But his genius was
rapidly breaking through all obstacles, and even the repugnance of public
opinion; for before he had completed his 30th year he was on the high road
to fame. As early as 1790 he exhibited his first work, a water-colored
drawing of the entrance to Lambeth, at the exhibition of the Academy, and
in 1793 his first oil painting. In November, 1799, he was elected an
associate, and in February, 1802, he attained the rank of a Royal
Academician. We shall not here attempt to trace the vast series of his
paintings from his earlier productions, such as the "Wreck," in Lord
Yarborough's collection, the "Italian Landscape," in the same gallery, the
_pendant_ to Lord Ellesmere's "Vanderwelde," or Mr. Munro's "Venus and
Adonis," in the Titianesque manner, to the more obscure, original, and, as
some think, unapproachable productions of his later years, such as the
"Rome," the "Venice," the "Golden Bough," the "Temeraire," and the
"Tusculum." But while these great works proceeded rapidly from his
palette, his powers of design were no less actively engaged in the
exquisite water-colored drawings that have formed the basis of the modern
school of "illustration." The "Liber studiorum" had been commenced in
1807, in imitation of Claude's "Liber veritatis," and was etched, if we
are not mistaken, by Turner's own hand. The title-page was engraved and
altered half-a-dozen times, from his singular and even nervous attention
to the most trifling details. But this volume was only the precursor of an
immense series of drawings and sketches, embracing the topography of this
country in the "River Scenery" and the "Southern Coast"--the scenery of the
Alps, of Italy, and great part of Europe--and the ideal creations of our
greatest poets, from Milton to Scott and Rogers, all imbued with the
brilliancy of a genius which seemed to address itself more peculiarly to
the world at large when it adopted the popular form of engraving. These
drawings are now widely diffused in England, and form the basis of several
important collections, such as those of Petworth, of Mr. Windus, Mr.
Fawkes, and Mr. Munro. So great is the value of them that 120 guineas have
not unfrequently been paid for a small sketch in water-colors; and a
sketch-book, containing chalk-drawings of one of Turner's river tours on
the continent, has lately fetched the enormous sum of 600 guineas. The
prices of his more finished oil paintings have ranged in the last few
years from 700 to 1,200 or 1,400 guineas. All his works may now be said to
have acquired triple or quadruple the value originally paid for them. Mr.
Turner undoubtedly realized a very large fortune, and great curiosity will
be felt to ascertain the posthumous use he has made of it. His personal
habits were peculiar, and even penurious, but in all that related to his
art he was generous to munificence; and we are not without hope that his
last intentions were for the benefit of the nation, and the preservation
of his own fame. He was never married, he was not known to have any
relations, and his wants were limited to the strictest simplicity. The
only ornaments of his house in Queen Anne-street were the pictures by his
own hand, which he had constantly refused to part with at any price, among
which the "Rise and Fall of Carthage" and the "Crossing the Brook," rank
among the choicest specimens of his finest manner.

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