commission for St. Petersburg, and General Todtleben of
that for Moscow.

A letter from Hamburg, in the Moniteur of the 7th,
says: "According to accounts from St. Petersburg, the
new levy which is now in course of execution throughout
almost the whole empire meets with considerable
difficulties. In the parts of the empire bordering on
Prussia, for instance, the greatest discontent is expressed.
Every proprietor who is called on to furnish seventy men
is subjected by that proceeding—as each man is
estimated to be worth 1000 silver roubles—to a tribute of
70,000 roubles (the rouble is worth nearly 4fr.), and to
this must be added about 7000 more in money, for the
expense of the first equipment. An idea may be formed
from this fact of the charges imposed on the country by
this war. Desertions are frequent, and the misery must
be very severe to force men to adopt a step which is
attended with such danger. The imperial bank of
Odessa is not the only one that has suspended payments.
The same has taken place in other government
establishments of the same kind. When persons present
themselves to demand cash for notes, the clerk
enquires their object for so doing, as paper money will
answer their purpose as well. If the person persists, he
is then told that his application must be made known to
the superior authorities before it can be complied with.
This announcement, the meaning of which, in a country
like Russia, is well known, is more than sufficient to
dissuade even the most daring from making any further
demand.

The Prussian Chambers were opened by the King on
the 29th ult. The following is an extract from his
Majesty's speech:—"Gentlemen,—The conflict between
several European powers is not yet at an end.
Our fatherland, however, continues to be the abode of
peace. I trust in God that it will remain so, and that
I shall succeed in preserving the honour and standing of
Prussia without inflicting upon our country the heavy
sacrifices of war. I am proud to say that I know of no
people so well prepared for war, or more ready for sacrifices
than my own, whenever its honour or interests are
really in danger. This proud consciousness, however,
imposes upon me the duty, while abiding faithfully by
obligations already contracted, not to enter into further
engagements, the political and military liabilities of
which are not to be estimated beforehand. In the
attitude assumed by Prussia, Austria and Germany
behold a valid security for the further maintenance of
that independent position which is equally conducive
to the attainment of an equitable and lasting peace and
compatible with sincere good wishes for all."
Accounts from Berlin state, that the pacific propositions
of Austria have been communicated to the
Prussian government by Prince Esterhazy, Austrian
minister to the court of Berlin—a relation of the Count
Esterhazy, who is ambassador from the court of Vienna
at St. Petersburgh. The Prussian government (it is
added) will use its influence with the Czar in support of
the propositions.

The intelligence from the United States relates
chiefly to party struggles for preponderance in the
elections. There was an immense Know-Nothing torch-
light demonstration at Washington on the 23rd ult.,
when six hundred delegates from Baltimore were
present. A grand Know-Nothing mass meeting was held
at Louisville, Kentucky, on the 27th ult., in which
delegates from Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Mississippi, Illinois, and Kentucky took part. A series
of resolutions, reaffirming the principles of the party as
enunciated by the Philadelphia convention, was adopted.
A bill has been introduced into the legislature of Georgia
proposing to confiscate, for the benefit of owners of
fugitive slaves, the debts due by citizens of Georgia to
citizens of the state to which slaves may have escaped,
if the authorities of that state refuse to deliver up the
slaves upon claim of their rightful owners.

All apprehension of a rupture between England and
the United States is at an end.

NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART.

AN important item in the literature of the past month
has been furnished by books adapted to the season, and
of such illustrated gift-volumes the principal have been
an edition of Longfellow's Poems, with a very rich
collection of woodcuts after drawings by Mr. Gilbert; a
volume on the Campaign in the Crimea, by Mr.
Brackenbury, with forty plates from the drawings of
Mr. Simpson; a collection of poems about the Sabbath,
with landscape views by Mr. Birket Foster printed in
colours, entitled Sabbath Bells Chimed by the Poets; an
edition of Goldsmith's Traveller, with many fine etchings
by the same artist; a little book of The Christmas-
Tree and Other Tales, adapted from the German by
Mrs. Fanny Kemble; a splendidly illustrated Moore's
Irish Melodies, with drawings by the most celebrated of
modern artists and academicians; a cheap republication
of Otto Speckter's Puss in Boots; and a volume of
Greek Fairy Tales, written by Mr. Kingsley for his
children, and illustrated by himself, called The Heroes.
To these we may add another book remarkable for its
wealth of illustration, but belonging to more permanent
literature. Mr. Ferguson has published an Illustrated
Handbook of Architecture, in two volumes, containing
850 woodcuts very beautifully executed.

Mr. Macaulay's third and fourth volumes of the
History of England claim of course our first mention
among the important publications of the past month;
and other works of some interest have followed
in their wake. Lord Brougham has collected his
Contributions to the Edinburgh Review. Dean Liddell, of
Christchurch, has published in two octavos a History of
Rome, from the earliest times to the establishment of
the Empire. Mr. N. A. Woods, the special correspondent
of the Morning Herald at the seat of war, has
written an historical sketch of The Past Campaign,
with very interesting extracts from the private journal
of Major Butler of Silistria. Mrs. Henry Duberley has
published A Journal kept during the Russian War by
herself. A second volume of Mr. Thackeray's Miscellanies
has been issued. Mr. Poulton has written in a
single stout octavo A New History of England, which
deals almost exclusively with the development of
opinion in each reign. A translation has been made
of the chief letters in The Confidential Correspondence
of Napoleon Bonaparte with his brother Joseph. The
eighth volume has been issued of the Works of Dugald
Stewart, containing the first volume of his Treatise
on Political Economy. And Dean Milman has issued
the fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes of his History
of Latin Christianity, carrying the subject down to
the Pontificate of Nicolas V., in the middle of the
fifteenth century.

Among works of a more miscellaneous kind may be
mentioned two octavo volumes of Essays on Principles
of Government, being the Meditations in Exile of Mr.
William Smith O'Brien; a full and detailed account of
Five Years in Damascus, by the Rev. J. L. Porter, a
highly intelligent observer; a little volume, by Mr.
Max Müller, on The Languages of the Seat of War in
the East; a translation, from Madame Ida Pfeiffer, of
A Lady's Second Journey Round the World; a fanciful
biography, by Mr. Henry Mayhew, of the Youth of
Humphry Davy, entitled The Wonders of Science;
a new and cheap edition of The Vision and Creed of
Piers Ploughman, by Mr. Thomas Wright, being the
first published of a proposed Library of Old Authors, to
be issued by Mr. Russell Smith; two volumes of
Eastern Travel, called The Wanderer in Arabia, by
Mr. Geo. T. Lowth; a collection of original Eastern
Stories, forming an Arabian Entertainment, by Mr.
George Meredith, with the title of The Shaving of
Shagpat; and three romances, The House of Elmore,
Mrs. Margaret Oliphant's Zaidee, and Miss Kavanagh's
Rachel Gray.