France has a representative government, but it seems as if she were doomed to experience all the evils and none of the blessings of the representative system. And why? Because, from the nature of parties in the Chamber of Deputies, ministers can at no time be said to represent what is sound, and control what is unsound, in the opinions of the nation. The patching up and party concession system is in full vigour in France, and as regards the means of keeping a cabinet together for a short period, it is found to answer; but how does it answer as regards the country? Ministers are unable to carry any measure upon principle; they have one day to conciliate one party, another day the opposite party must be conciliated. The foreign policy of France is weak, because foreign powers know that the elements of strength are wanting, and the domestic policy scarcely admits of improvement; for no ministry has sufficient

represent the country, and were consequently without power over parties in the House of Commons; they had not the confidence of the House of Commons, and they were therefore powerless over the country. Is this the case with the Conservatives? We think not. Do the men in power, we care not a rush what they be called, form what may be fairly called a National Government? We think they do. They are strong in themselves, and the strength of the nation lies with them. So long as their conduct shall be proper, the Parliament and the country will be identified with them. If they should betray their trust, they cannot be driven from office too soon. A government without the confidence of parliament and of the country can only be a dead weight upon the country. When it has that confidence, it is capable of any effort for the welfare and prosperity of the nation.

THESE two volumes form a continuation of the same author's work on the development of the national literature of the Germans, in three volumes. Many of the views and opinions which Professor Gervinus holds are opposed to the

Con

when a writer lived, but we are sure to be entertained by much ingenious speculation concerning his writings, and the prevailing tone and colour of the times in which he lived. These speculations and a too great love of antithesis sometimes degenerate into mannerism. But although his work will be useless to fine ladies

ably give an article shortly, since the national MSS. on which they are based are most important,) which, although very interesting, are less calculated for the general reader, we will confine our observations to the two last, which very properly form a complete work of themselves. They embrace the period from Gottsched to the deliverance of Germany from the French yoke. The author closes his work without bringing it down to the present time, for reasons not very flattering to his contemporaries.

More recently our literature has become a stagnant marsh filled with such noxious matter that we

must wish for some hurricane from without. Our literature has had its time; and if German life is not to stand still, we must decoy the talents which have now no object, to real life and to politics, where a new spirit may be cast into new matter. As far as my powers permit, I follow this warning of the time."

His scorn of the present writers warms hím into a multitude of expressive epithets which almost defy translation in our colder language. In conclusion he calls up Harry Hotspur.

"Shall I quote his catechism? I find it exceedingly beautiful: those who know nothing may call me a barbarian if they please.

'I had rather be a kitten and cry -- mew

Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers."

We have no very great affection for many of the writers of the new school, nevertheless we think this somewhat hard measure.

In a work which consists principally in reasoning and reflections, it is difficult in a limited space to find passages which will convey a just idea of the merits and peculiarities of the writer. Perhaps the following remarks, which form but small part of his observations on Wieland, will show how far superior he is to the majority of writers on similar subjects.

"Wieland defended himself (1775) in The Conversations with the Vicar of***, and confessed that he had gone too far; though with his usual halfness he tried a hundred excuses, none of which were very happy, whilst the objections against which he advances no answer remain in their full force. He comforts himself for the evils which his tales may have caused by the good they may likewise have produced. Moreover, he says that if he had foreseen such a result, that he would not have written them, although he declares that caution in a poet in a moment of genius is a weakness. He soothes himself with Pope's maxim-'Whatever is, is right; and 'as Ariosto and Boccaccio already existed, his pro

ductions would not make the world much worse!' He will not be responsible for the accidental evil which he had produced, but he is silent respecting the necessary evil, which was easily to be foreseen. He would not put his Idris into the hands of his own daughter, but he intended to educate her so that it would do her no harm if she read it. This is in connection with the aristocratical maxim of Shaftesbury, that the heart must be in unison with the head -that the virtue and goodness of man were dependent upon wisdom, true enlightenment the only means of true amelioration; and that a fundamental morality must supply the place of a superstitious religion.

"Naif sentiments and innocence exist in Wieland's personal and moral character. In the honey

moon (since 1765), which extended to honey years, he published his joys in his different writings with antique naïveté, but in these writings themselves there is nothing of innocence or of naïveté. False guides had corrupted his taste and style, although they could not corrupt his life. Here lies the contradiction in Wicland's conscience the contradiction between his pure consciousness in his course of life, and the voice of the time the difference of judgment between his domestic character and his works. Wieland is always full of moral tendencies even in those licentious tales; and he afterwards brought his poetry into still closer connection with history and philosophy than he had formerly done with religion. But and this is the grand point-his grace was not

real, his art not beautiful; it offended against the nature of the new principle; for, independently of moral allusions, all the above tales, considered as works of art, are thoroughly insipid and contrary to sound taste. Some extreme or caricature, in the beginning of this new direction, would have done no harm, if Göethe's assertion were but true, that they were daring attempts at genius, in which he had tried to

compete with Aristophanes!! or if Wieland had had a genius for poetry. But how little this is the case he himself shows in his Excuses to the Vicar of * * *. He expressly opposed his inventions and men to the romances and characters of Richardson; saturated with the nothingness of these figures, which stood in no relation to human nature, he would describe men as they are; he again forgot that the object of art is the Beautiful. He did not even oppose real men to those virtue-heroes of Richardson, but caricatures, if we consider them materially, or beings who, in their ideal and real relations, partook of human nature in his own too peculiar manner. His celebrated knowledge of mankind is far removed from Lessing's knowledge of mankind and of life; it is often derived from the suspicious sources of Rousseau and Voltaire; it is, where it is real nature and experience, only knowledge of himself, and this is the reason why Wieland's personality is a much more interesting subject than his works in themselves."-vol. i., pp. 286-290.

In this tone of philosophic chit-chat our author continues to dilate on Wieland for some thirty pages; but although long, we seldom find him tedious. Although German literature has not till now been treated in this manner, it cannot be denied that it is peculiarly calculated to throw light upon, and, by exciting opposition, to promote a deeper study of, the different writers and their times. For German literature, by which we mean its developments in the last hundred years, has this peculiarity, that it has within a short period gone through those phases which with us extend through a much longer period of time. Contemporary with a rising spirit of criticism and reflection, almost all the writers of note had promulgated their own peculiar philosophical system; and thus acting, as it were, under a double principle, the creative power does not soar so unimpeded; and a striving of the mind after some particular aim diminishes the freshness and singlemindedness (if we may be allowed the expression) which we find in the works of a vigorous but less reflecting and philosophical period. The rapid change of systems, too, in Germany has essentially contributed to lessen the duration of their influence; and of all the elder writers so loudly bepraised in the last century, Lessing is perhaps the only one who still retains a hold on the national affection; and to this he is indebted to the manly vigour of

1. A miniature of Pisa, of unquestionably 1242, A. D.

2. Bas Relief of Niccola Pisano. 3. The Christ of Giunta Pisano.

4. The Virgin of Guido da Siena of 1221; Virgin of Cimabue, painted about 1276.

By this our readers will be enabled to gather the scope of the work, and the beneficial influence such a production must have on the arts in general, in which exactness of detail is combined

booksellers, who ruin the sale of their works in this country by sending them over when all interest has waned as to their contents. We also intreat the distinguished Professors at the various Italian universities to bestow some pains on expediting the passage of their numerous valuable scientific and classical researches to England. The very life of this publication, in which they are all interested, consists in a vigorous and faithful picture of collective science throughout all parts of the globe. To no portion do we feel

AUSTRIA.

POPULATION.

IN 1840 the births were 837,040, the deaths 659,840; exhibiting an increase of 177,200 inhabitants,-9491 more than the increase in 1839. The greatest mortality was in children of the first year, 212,462-and in old men from 60 to 80, 106,246. 475 persons attained the age of 100; 8403 died of epidemic disorders; there were 861 cases of suicide, 53 of hydrophobia (these three last numbers are greater than in the preceding year.) There were 473 cases of murder; 5369 died of various accidents; and 28 were executed:

in 1839 there were 39 executions. We are un

able to account for the discrepancy between the number of executions and the alleged cases of murder.

FRANCE.

A collection of the letters of Henry IV. is about to be published, under the auspices of the Minister of public instruction. The number of original letters of this Sovereign (who carried on a most extensive correspondence) which have been found in the French archives and in those of other nations, amounts to 2,500, of which more than 1,500 have never been printed. M. Villemain has intrusted this publication to M. Berger de Xivrey, whose work is to be laid before Messrs. Mignet and Monmerqué. The letters are addressed to persons in different countries, and represent this distinguished monarch as warrior and statesman, in retirement as well as in the different periods of his eventful life. Besides possessing all the advantages of authentic memoirs, they will be considered of additional value as an interesting monument of the language of the period.

The public attention has been drawn to an important work now in course of publication at Paris, under the auspices of the Government, "The History of Dumont d'Urville's Expedition to the South Pole, undertaken by command of his Majesty Louis Philip, in the vessels L'Astrolabe and Zélée, during the years 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1840." It will extend to fourteen volumes, which are divided into six sections, -viz.

1. History of the Voyage, in 5 vols., illustrated with 200 lithographic engravings.

2. Zoology, in 3 vols., illustrated by 150 coloured engravings.

3. Botany, in 2 vols., illustrated by 80 engravings.

4. Anthropology, or Human Physiology, in 1 vol., illustrated by 50 lithographic engravings. 5. Mineralogy and Geology, in 1 vol., 20 plates. 6. Philology, in 2 vols., with comparative tables.

at a reduced price, is also preparing for publication.

Kant's Philosophy has found another opponent in the person of Professor Steininger of Tréves, who has lately published a work in French, entitled Examen Critique de la Philosophie Allemande depuis Kant jusqu'à nos Jours. He gives only a short sketch of Fichte's System and of Hegel and Schelling, partly because he has treated of them in reviewing Kant, partly, he affirms, because Fichte and Schelling have abandoned their own systems. The immediate cause of the essay was the prize offered by the French Academy in 1840, which directed attention to the subject in France.

GERMANY.

Several of Schiller's and Goethe's dramas have lately been published on the continent translated into English. Mary Stuart has been translated by Mr. Peter; the Maid of Orleans by Mr. Lucas, and Goethe's Iphigenia by Dr. Hartwig.

Prince Maximilian's Travels in the interior of North America is proceeding rapidly through the press. The second volume and eighteen numbers of the Atlas have already appeared.

BONN.-Welker has left this town for Greece, where he is to continue the researches that the unexpected death of Carl Ottfried Müller put a stop to for a time. He has, previous to departure, superintended the publication of a volume of Philological Writings by Nacke, which hardly needed his recommendation to commend them to all scholars.

A new translation of Spinoza's works is about to be published at Stuttgart by Berthold Auerbach.

Schoell, the companion of K. O. Müller during his last journey to Greece, is going to publish a diary from the journals of his friend, in which are collected the memoranda of all his latest discoveries; and we hear that his brother Dr. Ed. Müller has just published the History of Greek Literature, which was published some years ago in an English translation, by G. C. Lewis, Esq., in the Library of Useful Knowledge.

The Michaelmas fair Catalogue of books, just published, contains many that will be highly interesting to the learned in every civilized nation, and do honour to the enterprise of the Germans. Pertz has published the sixth folio volume of his "Monumenta Germaniæ Historicæ," which contains the fourth volume of the ScripA splendid work is also appearing by subscription on the Costumes of the Christian Middle Ages; the editor is Heffner, assisted by numerous contributors, among whom we notice Passavant, Ph. Veit and Count Pocci. Jahn is bringing out in numbers a new series of Orna

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