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isting circumstances? There is a great deal, we admit, in the past conduct of the Prince of Carignan, of which we disapprove, at least as much as those can do who seek to use it for the purpose of embarrassing by far the wisest course which is at present open to Italy to pursue. We must add, however, that he has given so many proofs of repentance for the past, and so many securities for the future, that if a man can ever win back his way to forgiveness in private life, and confidence in public, Charles Albert has entitled himself to the benefit of these presumptions. For ourselves, if once the foundation is laid of a good government in the north of Italy, we are satisfied that the happiness of future generations will be a very sufficient apology-and that as such history will accept it for our having made use of the best instruments which were at hand at the present moment. It is undeniable, that an old, royal, and now constitutional kingdom in Piedmont, with a flourishing exchequer, a happy and contented population, and a brave army, affords the nucleus round which a powerful state can be concentrated in the north of Italy. To bring accusations of ambition and perfidy against Charles Albert-himself an Italian prince because he has assisted his countrymen in getting rid of their foreign oppressors, is to make an unfair and cruel use of the contradictory, and so far unfortunate, position in which he stood. His alleged ambition principally affects Italy. If Italy adopts it, that fact should remove our fears for it, supposing the charge to be true. Besides, his alleged perfidy may, after all, have been a choice of evils, and the least; for what was the alternative? An Italian prince ought to be ambitious of freeing Italy from a foreign yoke imposed upon his countrymen by force of arms. It was force, and force only, which first made and has since kept the Italians subject to Austria;

and force delivers them. As M. Prandi says, undoubtedly expressing the feelings of all his countrymen, who have cherished them for years: "the Italians have every reason to detest the treaty of Vienna, as well as those who made it; and they will certainly not neglect the opportunity which Providence has at last granted them, of trampling it in the dust.”

The king of Sardinia does not possess his kingdom by the right of the strongest, but by the free will of his subjects, the Genoese included, whose conduct has of late been admirable, in spite of many mischievous attempts to make them swerve from their loyal and patriotic path. These eminently shrewd and practical men are well aware that it is more for their interest as Genoese and as Italians, to form part of a kingdom, along with Venice, than to constitute a republic at Genoa,―rivalling Venice, tearing Italy to pieces, and leaving it at the mercy of any foreigner who may be tempted to interfere in its unnatural hostilities. Thus much history has taught them for the rest they must trust to Providence, to their own wisdom, their own courage. Suppose Charles Albert to be raised by the political necessities of to-day to the throne of the united kingdom of Lombardy and Piedmont, neither he nor his successors can hope to reign there long, unless what may be necessity to-day, shall have become by to-morrow choice. On his part there must be firmness, and justice, and liberal opinions, and government by law: on the part of his subjects, there must be union among themselves, confidence in their new institutions, moderation in the use of their new franchises, and a loyal attachment to the sovereign under whom they are beginning one of the noblest of all experiments-the object of so many hopes, so many fears-a free Italian state.-Edinburgh Review.

THE FRENCH INSURRECTIONS.

To attempt any analysis of the evidence relating to the insurrections in Paris, would be a very vain undertaking. It is a huge jumble of confusion, contradiction and inconsistencies; and in these respects it seems a faithful representation of the facts, for the Provisional Government appears to have been a complete anarchy, every functionary acting according to his own separate views and purposes;-no concert amongst them, no control, no obedience. If the business of the administration had been

charity, its golden rule would have been observed to perfection; for the right hand never knew what the left was doing, nor the left what the right was about. The most import ant orders were issued, but not obeyed; and no notice was ever taken of the disobedience, no explanation demanded, no enforcement of the neglected mandate attempted. M. Arago quietly says, with reference to an instance of disobedience attended with grave consequences, "Few of our orders were ever obeyed."

It was quite a matter of choice with subordi- | responsibility, for want of due preparation, nates, whether they would carry instructions from their shoulders to General Cavaignac, into effect or not; but, more than that, subor- who has risen upon their ruins; but the Gendinates usurped the functions of their superi- eral, in his own evidence, corroborates the repors, made use of their authority, committed resentations we have quoted : them to responsibilities of the most serious nature, and the chiefs so compromised, tamely and patiently submitted, dismayed but acquiescent, or, at least, quiescent.

M. Ledru Rollin, for example, declares that the addresses to the electoral departments, that created so much disgust and alarm, were the unauthorized work of M. Jules Favre. For a parallel, let us imagine Sir G. Grey protesting that circulars issued from the Home Office, preaching Chartism and Socialism, and decrying property and intellect, were the productions of Mr. Lewis. The obvious question is, why were they not disavowed; why was not the officer so abusing his post of trust removed; why were the opportunities of more acts of mischief and perfidy left open to him? But no; in France it is not thought necessary to ask or to answer these questions. They act there as the characters do in pantomimes, who take all things as they come, however irregular, or however marvellous, without the slightest surprise or questioning. No matter what happens, the "how is it?" is never asked. And the French public is in the same nil admirari mood as the principal actors on its political stage. The oddest rules of conduct are avowed, and pass without a comment.

M Lamartine charges General Cavaignac with having omitted to make the necessary military precautions against the insurrection in June, and with having suffered the insurgents to proceed, without hindrance or interruption, with the erection of the barricades for two entire days. M. Ledru Rollin deposes to the same effect; and adds, moreover, that the General avowed the resolution not to expose the regular troops to any of the chances of war, saying:

1848, made him feel the necessity of not engaging The experience of July, 1830, and February, the military in the streets, but to keep them together in a body strong enough to enable them to make the insurgents give way before them. The slightest check to an army is fatal in cases of this description; notwithstanding the most formal orders, a battalion was placed at great risk on the which incurred a severe reprimand from the MinPlace des Vosges, in a compromising position, ister of War, notwithstanding the incontestable bravery of the commander and men of that battalion.

So that the honor of the French army in General Cavaignac's keeping, is to be saved by not exposing it to the risks of civil war. Its honor lies in safety; its honor keeps in barracks, while the enemy occupies the streets. In a city in revolt, then, it comes to this: that the honor of the army renders the army, as far as all effects are concerned, the same as nonexistent. Citizens, in such case, should pray either to be relieved from the expense of maintaining an army which keeps its honor safe somewhere in a sheathed sword, or to have an army without an honor to take care of, in preference to all other objects and duties.

But the example of the honor to be kept safe, is dangerous; for the national guard and garde mobile may set up an honor too, and decline having anything to do with barricades, as perilous to their honor. Will they patiently submit to the monopoly of honor and safety by the line? Will they not, too, claim a position of honorable distance from the enemy's entrenchments? Will they consent to throw away their lives with heroism and devotion, because they have no honor to be endangered in the risks and hazards of war? Should such an emergency as that of the four days occur again, would not the rappel be rather 66 We awkwardly answered by the avowal, would rather enlist in the line, with its honor under the care of General Cavaignac and its troops out of fire, than have our lives recklessBut would the émeute have been complai-ly thrown at the barricades"? According to ant enough to go forth to the plains of St. Denis to give battle to the army? Would they have responded to the invitation,

The honor of the army requires me to persist in my system. If only one of my companies were disarmed, I would shoot myself. Let the national guard attack the barricades. If it is beaten, I would rather retreat into the plain of St. Denis. and there give battle to the émeute.

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General Cavaignac, when impious men wage war, the post of honor is a backward station. But if all should covet a share of the honor kept in safety, what a fine field will be open to insurgents! and what is to become of the deserted public? Certainly rebels must rejoice in having to do with troops which have an honor to preserve out of gun-shot range from windows or barricades.

General Cavaignac's extraordinary explana- | the other has been brought by the Assembly tion has passed, like every thing else of the itself under the cognizance of a court martial, same kind, without comment; but we cannot is another of the inconsistencies or caprices of but apprehend that it must have its effect upon the present juncture. For what has Paris the minds of the national guard and garde mo- been declared in a state of siege, and martial bile, and that it will put an extinguisher on law been established, if the very worst offenders their zeal and ardor for the future, or induce are not to be subjected to it? The petty crimthem to care for their honor in the same com- inals, the mere instruments of the mischief plotfortable way as the line. "Nothing venture, ted by double-dyed traitors, are not spared the nothing have," says the old proverb; but rigor of the court martial; and what a monsnothing venture, and have all honor, is the al- trous injustice is this virtual and partial amnestered maxim of present French chivalry. We ty to the great culprits! are great admirers of General Cavaignac, but we confess our inability to follow his views of military honor, and our wonder at his avowal of them, considering the jealousy which already exists between the bourgeois forces and the regular troops.

If he had merely declared that he held the regulars in reserve, there would have been no offence in it, as it would simply have been a strategic disposition; but to turn the arrangement on the point of honor, engrossing it, together with safety, all for the line, appears to us to the last degree indiscreet.

The resolution of the Assembly to prosecute M. Caussidière and Louis Blanc for their part in the outbreak of May, and not for their complicity in the more serious insurrection of June, merely because the first offence falls within the jurisdiction of a civil tribunal, while

While the Assembly was deciding how the two criminals should be dealt with, one of them quietly took himself off, and is now amusing himself, or doing his best to amuse himself, and truth to say, it is not easy, — in London. The French procedure against criminals who are members of the Legislature, is obviously a copy of that curious old method of catching birds, by putting a grain of salt on their tails.

The question which the Assembly should frankly have proposed is, which was the best way of not finding out too much of the guilt of MM. Caussidière and Louis Blanc, or which was the best way of not punishing the worst criminals in the worse of two insurrections? Their decision is, practically, a very effective answer to that inquiry. — Examiner.

THE FIRST ICE CREAM.

COLLECTANEA.

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an' what nots at the windows. An' then thar war signs with goold letters on to them, hangin' round the door, tellin' how they sold Soda, Mead, an' Ice Cream thar. I says to myself, I have heern a good deal about this 'ere ice cream, an' now if I don't see what they's made of.

So I puts my hands into my pockets, an' walked in kinder careless, an' says to a chap standin' behind the counter

"Do you keep any ice creams here?"

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'Yes, sir," says he, "how much 'll have?" I considered a minit, says I-" a pint, sir." The young feller's face swelled out, an' he liked to have laughed right out, but arter a while he asked

"Did you say a pint, sir?"

"Sartin," says I, "but p'raps you don't retail, so I don't mind takin' a quart.'

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'Wall, I'd bin down thar two or three days, pokin' in every hole, an' tho't I'd seed every thing thar was to be seen. But one day Wall, don't you think the feller snorted right towars' sun down I was goin' by a shop in out. Tell yer what, it made me feel sort a Middle street that looked wonderfully slick- pison, an' I gave him a look that made him there was all manner of candy an' peppermints | look sober in about a minit; an' when I clinch'd

my fist and looked so at him, (here Mr. Spike favored us with a most diabolical expression), he hauled in his horns about the quickest, an' handed me a pint o' the stuff as perlite as could be. Wall, I tasted a mouthful of it, an' found it cool as the north side o' Bethel hill in January. I'd half a mind to spit it out, but jest then I seed the confectioner chap grinnin' behind the door, which riz my spunk. Gall smash it all, thinks I, I'll not let that white liver'd monkey think I'm afeard-I'll eat the plaguey stuff if it freezes my inards. I tell yer what, I'd rather skinn'd a bear or whipp'd a wild cat, but I went it. I eat the whole in about a minit.

At last I thought I'd go to the theatre, but afore I got there, the gripes got so strong that I had to go behind a meetin' house and lay down and holler. Arter a while I got up an' went into a shop an' eat half a dollar's wuth of biled isters with four pickled cowcumbers, and wound up with a glass of brandy. Then I went into the theatre an' seed the plays, but I felt so, that I couldn't see any fun in 'em, for I don't think the isters and the cowcumbers done me any good. I sot down, laid down, and stood up, but still it went on, gripe, gripe. I groan'd all the time, an' once in a while I was obliged to screech kinder easy. Every body stared at me, and somebody called out, "turn him out!" once or twice. But at last just as the nigger Orthello was going to put the piller on his wife's face to smother her, there cum such a twinge through me, that I really thought I wus burstin' up, an' I yelled out-" Oh dear! Oh scissors!" so loud that the old theatre rung again. Such a row you never seed: the nigger dropped the piller, and Deuteronomy-or what you call her there-his wife, jumped off the bed and run, while every body in the the

“Wall, in about a quarter of an hour I began to feel kinder gripy about here," continued Ethan, pointing to the lower parts of his stomach, "an' kept on feelin' no better very fast, till at last it seemed as though I'd got a steam ingen sawin' shingles in me. I sot down on a cheer, and bent myself up like a nut-cracker, thinkin' I'd grin an' bear it; but I couldn't set still-I twisted and squirmed about like an angle worm on a hook, till at last the chap as gin me the cream, who had been look-atre was all up in a muss, some larfin,' some in' on snickerin', says he to me,

"Mister," says he, "what ails ?" yer

swearin'. The upshot of it was, the perlice carried me out of the theatre, and told me to

"Ails me!" says I, "that ere stuff o' your'n make myself scarce. is freezin' up my daylights," says I. "You eat too much," says he.

"I tell yer I didn't," screamed I; "I know what's a nuf an' what's too much without askin' you, an' if you don't leave off snickerin' I'll spile your face."

He cottened right down, an' said he didn't mean any hurt, an' asked me if I hadn't better take some gin. I told him I would. So I took a purty good horn, an' left the shop.

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I

"Arter I got out," continued Ethan, felt better for a minit or so, but I hadn't gone fur afore the gripes took me again; so I went into another shop, an' took some more gin; then I sot down on the State House steps, an' there I sot an' sot, but didn't feel a mite better. I begun to think I was goin' to kick the bucket, and then I thought of father an' mother and of old Spanker-that's father's hoss --and when I thought that I should never see 'em again, I fairly blubbered. But then I happened to look up, an' see a dozen boys. grinnin' and larfin' at me, I tell yer what, it riz my dander, that had got down below nero -rite up again. I sprung at 'em like a wild cat, hollerin' out I'd shake their tarnal gizzards out, an' the way the little devils scampered was a caution to nobody. But after the 'citement of the race was over, I felt wus agin, and I couldn't help groanin' and screechin' as I went along.

Wall, as I didn't feel any better, I went into a shop close by, an' called for two glasses of brandy; arter swallerin' it, I went hum to the tavern. I sot down by the winder, an' tried to think I felt better, but 'twas no go; that blessed old ingine was still wallerin' away inside; so I went out and eat a quarter's worth of isters an' a piece of mince pie. Then I went back an' told the tavern keeper I felt kinder sick, and thought I'd take some Caster ile, a mouthful of cold meat, and a strong glass of whisky punch, and then go to bed. He got the fixins, which I took an' went to bed.

But, tell yer what, I had a rather poor night. Sometimes I was awake groanin', an' when I was asleep I'd better bin awake, for I had such powerful dreams. Sometimes I thought I wus skinnin' a bear, and then by some hocus pocus 'twould all change t'other side to, and the tarnal critter would be a skinnin' me.

Then, again, I'd dream that I was rollin logs with the boys, an' jest as I'd be a shoutin out "now then!-here she goes!" every thing would get reversed agin-I was a log, an' the boys wore pryin' me up with their handspikes. Then I'd wake up an' screech and roar-then off to sleep again-to dream that Spanker had run away with me, or that father was whopping me, or some other plaguey thing, till mornin'.

When I got up, I hadn't any appetite for breakfast, and the tavern keeper told me that if I was goin' to carry on, screamin' and groanin' as I had the night afore, my room was better than my company.

"I hain't," said Mr. Spike, in conclusion, "I hain't bin to Portland since, but if I live to be as old as Methusalem, I shall never forget that all-fired Ice Cream."

cient here to record that they exhausted a constitution to which sixteen hours of daily labor had been but as support and refreshment, and that he died ere he could return to his Phoenician manuscripts, amid the duties of a far other field than that which, though a soldier, he had chosen for his field of fame.

BACTRAIN COIN.-We have lately seen in the possession of an individual in this neighLITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTEL- small silver coin of Eucratides I., one of the borhood (Rev. Mr. Smith, Monquhitter), a

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LIGENCE.

The Scottish papers record the death in Glasgow of Mr. David Buchanan, for upwards of twenty years editor of the Edinburgh Evening Courant, and a large contributor, it is stated, to the Encyclopædia Britannica.” Political economy and the study of geography were the two departments of literature to which he was principally devoted. The English journals announce the death of Miss Abigail Lindo, the authoress of a Hebrew and English and English and Hebrew Lexicon-at the age of forty-five.

The Journal des Débats says that M. Thiers, desiring to co-operate in the efforts making by the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences for the defence of social principles, and on the appeal of that body, has suspended his labors on the " History of the Consulate and the Empire" for the purpose of putting the finishing hand to a work which he has entitled De la Propriété: and with a view to extending its benefits he has presented his manuscript as a gift to the Society formed for the publication of his history of the Consulate and Empire, with a charge that the copies shall be widely circulated.

The French journals have given some interesting biographical details respecting the late General Duvivier, one of the gallant men who have been lost to France amid the recent troubled times. When the Revolution of February broke out, the General was about putting the finishing hand to a work on "Phoenician Antiquities" which had occupied him for the previous five years, and to which his literary friends attached great value. He was, it is said, well versed in the modern Oriental dialects, profoundly acquainted with ancient languages, and a learned student in archæology and hieroglyphics. Interrupted in his labors by the demands of the Republic, he assumed the functions of General-Commandant of Paris and General-in-Chief of the Garde Mobile toiling for eighteen hours a-day during three terrible months to meet the exigencies of his position. An account of his services throughout that feverish time is given; but it is suffi

Ob.

Greek Bactrian kings. It agrees exactly with the description given in the "Penny Cyclopædia," vol. iii., p. 254, of a rare coin of the same monarch, in the British Museum. profile of Eucratides looking to the right, with à curious helmet and plume. Rev. two caps, or turbans, with two palm branches, and close beside them a monogram, Basileos Eucratidou. Eucratides reigned 181 B.C. These Bactrian coins were first brought under the notice of the learned by the late Sir Alexander Burns, and created at the time a great sensation among the students of numismatology. The ancient Bactria corresponded, speaking in general terms, to the modern Bokhara, to which the attention of this country has of late been so unpleasantly directed. It is not probable that an example of the coin to which we are alluding is to be found in many, even of the most valuable and extensive cabinets. The one which has given occasion to these remarks was purchased in Bombay, along with twelve other silver coins, some of which are also rare and curious, from a Persian, who said that he had collected them in the interior of his native country. - Banffshire Journal.

THE PATENT DOMESTIC TELEGRAPH.-Since our notice of the application of the principle of the electric telegraph to domestic purposes, by Mr. Reid, of Birmingham, he has made some improvements, and extended the use of the instrument in hotels, taverns, tea-gardens, coffee and chop-houses, public companies and private houses, and even in mines. The alteration is confined to the dial-plate, on which the specific questions and demands are disposed in due order.- Builder.

THE MOST AGReeable Man.—"The most agreeable of all companions is a simple, frank man, without any pretensions to an offensive greatness; one who loves life and understands the use of it; obliging alike at all hours; above all, of a golden temper and stedfast as an anchor. For such a one we gladly exchange the greatest genius, the most brilliant wit, the profoundest thinker."-Lessing.

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