AMERICAN YOUNG LADYISM. women remain industrious and keep up the manners and customs of their fathers, for they can always lead their husbands back gently to the right path. But woe to the nation where, as in America, the weak sex has become weaker still. Through their rapidly growing love of luxury and increasing effeminacy they are losing more and more the requisite strength to bring healthy children into the world. Though they still like to adhere to the English system of suckling their own children, the source of nourishment is being gradually dried up, and strong healthy nurses to act as substitutes are not to be met with in their country. Mental activity is equally decaying in them: they no longer possess the earnestness and firmness of will and principles which render a mother capable of rearing and educating her children in a healthy and vigorous manner. In the same way as they are pampered by their husbands, they spoil their children by constant excesses, from the cradle upwards, and in their hands they degenerate into self-willed, unbridled, and naughty creatures. But this subject would demand a separate chapter: hence I will confine myself to my present critical remarks, which are solely intended to draw my readers' attention to certain general tendencies to which American ladies I need give way. I have mainly kept in sight the upper strata of society, which, however, sink very deep, as will have been seen, in America. hardly add that in this great land, though it is extremely uniform, there are many shades of character among rich and poor, in towns and in the country, into which I cannot enter so fully as I might wish. There are entire districts-as, for instance, in the smaller towns of New England— where the female population, although somewhat infected by the general Moreover, this taint, is most respectable, pious, and domesticated. pampering of the women, which I have criticised, has its good side, as, for instance, this: that American men, who display so little innate reverence for old age or for talent, or for other things elsewhere highly esteemed, have in their wives at least something they venerate, and which, under given circumstances, may hold them in check. [We have printed this paper of our esteemed contributor without alteration, but must confess that it only represents the darker side of the female character in America, and that it would only have been just had Mr. Kohl noticed their good qualities, among which heroism takes the first place. An American wife follows her husband bravely into the fever-laden backwoods; and admirable is the equanimity with which she will endure there the only too frequent changes of fortune and financial catastrophes. After all, it is difficult to be just to foreign relations of life; for what opinion would educated Muhammadans form of our women; or, in fact, how strangely have they already expressed their judgment ?-Ed. Bentley's Miscellany.] VOL. L. U CHEVALIER BUNSEN. CHRISTIAN CARL JOSIAS BUNSEN was born on August 25, 1791, at Korbach, in the principality of Waldeck, a little country in the west of Germany, which has produced many distinguished men besides the subject of our memoir. Bunsen's father was quartermaster of a Waldeck regiment in the Dutch service, which he left because the promised promotion was not given him. A widower with three daughters, he married again, on his retirement with the rank of ensign and a small pension, and had a son born to him in second wedlock. The father was a man of honour, and educated the lad strictly, generally employing terse proverbs to convey his meaning, among them being one worthy of quotation: "Whatever you set about in life never cringe to the nobility." In 1808, Bunsen, after receiving a careful home-education, quitted his home for the first time and proceeded to the university of Marbach, to study theology. His father gave him one hundred dollars, saved up with great difficulty, which was all the inheritance he ever received, and he was compelled to gain a livelihood by private tuition. In the following year he removed to Göttingen, where he became tutor to Mr. Astor, son of the great American fur-dealer and traveller among the Indians, and ere long he exchanged theology for philosophy, though he never quite gave up his fancy for the former. We find that while studying hard and gaining a prize for a treatise on the "Hereditary law of the Athenians," Bunsen was the acknowledged leader of all the ardent young men then residing at Göttingen. In 1813, arrangements were made with Mr. Astor for a journey to the East and India, but circumstances prevented it by calling the young American home, and we find Bunsen, after a pleasant trip through Holland, settling in Berlin, where he formed the acquaintance of several distinguished men, but, before all, of Niebuhr. In 1816, he proceeded to Paris to join Astor and begin the long meditated tour; but as the latter had gone in the interim to Spain and Italy, leaving word for Bunsen to join him at Florence during the summer, the time thus gained was devoted by Bunsen to the study of Oriental languages under Sylvestre de Sacy. He also formed in Paris the acquaintance of Alexander von Humboldt, who showed him great attention. In the following July he reached Florence, after undergoing an adventure in Southern France, to which, in later years, he was fond of alluding. He bore some likeness to the Bonaparte family, and was consequently arrested in a small frontier town as a runaway Napoleonide. With some difficulty, however, he managed to obtain his liberty. At Florence he at length met Astor, but it was only to part. The young man was ordered home by his father, and must obey; but he proposed that Bunsen should accompany him to America, when he felt assured that his father would supply the young German with the funds for his meditated journey. But this Bunsen declined: he hoped yet that the Prussian government would support him, and he therefore parted with his old pupil on friendly terms, and remained in Florence alone. While here, Niebuhr, who was proceeding as ambassador to Rome, met him, and, by his advice, he followed him to the Eternal City with a worthy Scotchman of the name of Cathcart, who had engaged him as tutor. His new pupil proposed to take him with him to England, and procure him the funds for his Indian journey; but again Bunsen declined, and preferred remaining at Rome under the wing of Niebuhr, who had gained great influence over him. While in Rome, Bunsen formed the acquaintance of Mr. Waddington, with whose daughter he fell in love, and on Niebuhr's testimony that "Bunsen's talent, mind, and character were a capital surpassing any secure investment," the father not only gave his consent to the marriage, but supplied the young couple with means to remain in Rome. The marriage took place on July 1, 1817. What Bunsen's wife, the mother of thirteen children, ten of whom are still living, was to him during forty-three years of married life, and how materially she helped to form his character, is proved by the words he addressed to her on his dying bed: "In thee I loved the Eternal." The establishment of a new household necessarily prevented the journey to India, but it led to his object in a different way. He was eminently religious, as his letters of the period prove, and it is a characteristic circumstance that, at the jubilee of the Reformation, held at Rome in 1817, Bunsen made his début as an evangelical preacher in Niebuhr's house. Two years later, Brandis, the secretary of legation, was invited by the Academy of Sciences at Berlin to undertake a new edition of Aristotle. This rendered his return home necessary, and Bunsen was recommended to fill his post. The new secretary performed his duties so satisfactorily, that when Niebuhr also left Rome in 1823, Bunsen was definitively appointed his successor. This was in great measure owing to the strong friendship which had grown up between Frederick William III., during his visit to Rome in 1822, and the young secretary. Both were sincerely religious men, and consulted frequently about the changes necessary to introduce into the constitution of the Evangelical Church. Attached to the king's person was Alexander von Humboldt, and Bunsen's acquaintance with him, commenced at Paris, soon ripened into a life-lasting friendship beneath the genial sky of the Eternal City. The ten years Bunsen passed in Rome were among the happiest of his life, for they brought him into contact with all the eminent men of the world. For Rome was not only the city of the dead: it was also the house of call of the universe. Bunsen was enabled to form the friendship of the best English families that visited Rome during the winter, for in those pre-railway days the city of the popes knew but little of vulgar foxhunters desecrating the capital with their tawdry scarlet. The summer Bunsen regularly spent at Frascati, below the ancient Tusculum, whither he fled, like Horace, from the "fumum et opes strepitumque Romæ." But wherever he might reside his time was not cut to waste, for he was constantly engaged in literary pursuits. His first work was the continuation of the "Description of the City of Rome," originally commenced by Platner in 1817, by the advice of Niebuhr, and which Cotta, the great publisher, was so delighted with, that he at once brought it out, and engaged Bunsen and his friend Gerhard to complete it. Bunsen also produced an "Evangelical Hymn-book for all Nations," which is still used in the chapel of the Prussian Embassy at Rome. This collection, published by Perthes, at Hamburg, in 1833, first introduced Bunsen, who was then upwards of forty years of age, to the notice of his countrymen. Another work of this epoch was a liturgy, to which the king himself wrote a preface, during a visit Bunsen paid, at his request, to Berlin, in 1827. But there was an unexpected result from these religious labours: Bunsen was descried as an anti-liberal and sycophant of the king and crown-prince, and some persons went so far as to see in him a disguised Catholic, who wished to restore the Church to its mediæval supremacy. We need not say how unfounded these charges were, but they adhered to Bunsen for a lengthened period. Our space will not allow us to describe interesting personal events of Bunsen's life in Rome. He was an indefatigable antiquarian, and every excursion he made procured him some new treasure. In 1826, Champollion, the eminent discoverer of hieroglyphic secrets, visited Rome, and Bunsen became one of his most earnest followers, though it was not till many years later that he devoted all his energies to this interesting study. Another great epoch in Bunsen's life was the visit of the crown-prince of Prussia to Rome in 1828. During his excursions, in which Bunsen generally accompanied him, a close personal friendship sprang up between prince and servant, which existed, in spite of all chances and changes, until death. Although the king might not always follow the path which his faithful friend and adviser thought the best, the prince's confidence and the servant's devotion remained to the last unshaken. It is a characteristic and rare fact that Bunsen stood on the closest terms of intimacy with three Prussian kings (with the latter, however, only during his regency)-three kings, all equally noble and elevated as men, but very different in manner and temperament-that he maintained the same perfect devotion to all three, though without sinking in his own selfesteem, and was honoured by each with his confidence, kindness, and personal affection. The immediate advantage of the crown-prince's visit to Rome fell to the lot of antiquarianism, and the Institute for Archæological Correspondence was founded, which occupies a great place in Bunsen's life. Every corresponding member, as well as every German savant, who visited Rome, was sure of a kindly reception from Bunsen; and he gave the institute a permanent residence, first in the embassy, and then in a mansion, expressly built for it, on the Tarpeian rock. During thirty years the institute has existed and prospered, in spite of great hostility, and through most difficult times; and Bunsen had the happiness of living to see the king complete the work which he had begun as crown-prince, by giving it a large sum of money, and providing scholarships for Prussian art students. One of the first objects to which Bunsen directed the attention of the institute was the study of Egyptian antiquities, to which the presence in Rome of Prokesch-Osten, the Nubian traveller, imparted increased interest. Bunsen invited Lepsius to Rome, who had already distinguished himself in Paris by his works on comparative philology. With him Bunsen set to work indefatigably, and the result of their joint labours was evidenced several years later in the Anglo-German work, "Egypt's Position in Universal History." At the same time, Bunsen laid before the crown-prince the plan for a grand scientific expedition, which CHEVALIER BUNSEN. Lepsius carried out eventually, under the auspices of the Prussian govern- Before we pass from Bunsen's scientific exertions to his political career, we must mention another institution he called into life-the Evangelical Hospital at Rome. By voluntary subscriptions, which he raised chiefly among his English friends, and an advance from the Prussian government, he was enabled to purchase the house since called the Casa Tarpea, and which is permanently attached to the Prussian embassy. In this building, and in the institute, German savans visiting Rome are provided with comfortable quarters, while the sick receive immediate attention. It was Bunsen's object gradually to convert this hospital into a German community, by collecting all the Germans in Rome; but he soon saw that it was impossible to effect it with such conflicting elements. The events that followed the French revolution of 1830 in Italy first The envoys of the four great drew Bunsen into a political career. powers at Rome established a conference, and the result was Bunsen's drawing up the memorable conference of May 21, 1831, in which reforms were recommended to the Pope which could alone prevent the recurrence of excesses. Of course these were not carried out; the conference was broken up when the Pope declared that secret letters from the Emperor of Austria had prevented him making the desired concessions, and Bunsen remained in Rome as a passive observer, until he was called upon to settle the far more awkward question of mixed marriages in Prussia. Bunsen succumbed in the struggle with Cardinal Lambruschini, and his position in Rome became henceforth untenable. On April 28, 1838, he finally quitted the city where he had dwelt so long, his last words being, "Come, let us seek another Capitol!" He set out for Berlin, but he received an intimation not to continue his journey, and he consequently remained at Munich, where he was delighted to meet with his old Roman friends, such as Cornelius and Schnorr. Towards the close of the same year, private affairs called him to England, where he met with a reception which surprised him. In 1839, Oxford made him an honorary D.C.L. simultaneously with Wordsworth; but his greatest pleasure was the revival of his intimacy with Dr. Arnold, whom he had learned to Nor must we forget to mention Philip know and respect at Rome. Pusey, with whom Bunsen had read Plato in times gone by, and who afterwards gave his eldest son a living. Although Bunsen's political sympathies were with the Tories, he was a decided antagonist of the High Church party, the leaders of which he had met at Rome and penetrated their plans. Above all was he opposed to the doctrine of the Apostolic succession, although he has been accused of being a partaker of those views by the extreme members of his own Church. From his quiet Welsh home at his mother-in-law's house, Bunsen was recalled to official activity by his king. In the autumn of 1839 he was appointed ambassador to Switzerland. As he had but little to do at his new post, he devoted himself once more to literature, his most noteworthy production being "Elizabeth Fry to German Wives and Daughters," in which he sought to arouse his countrywomen to similar exertions. His stay, however, at the foot of the Alps was not destined to be long. Frederick William III. died on June 7, 1840, and his successor summoned |