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masterpieces in a living gallery of pictures. The | England-a plastic beauty, of bright color, and aristocratic women of St. Petersburg are re-full in form with a melodious voice. Her eyes markable for beauty. There is a Baroness de express not happiness, but a kind of longing and K., of German descent, who seems formed like melancholy. They look as if accustomed to Galathea out of a block of marble. Never did

shed tears; sometimes suffused as with a mist; which gives her a mysterious charm. Does this charming woman belong to the past with its faded hopes-to the present with its stimulating im pulses or to the future with its uncertain expeetations?-Who dares disclose the secret of the soul—the sanctuary of thought?

One of the most fashionable persons in St. Petersburg is the Princess W., a delicate, graceful little figure, whose almond-shaped eyes show her descended from high Tartarian race. She says every thing she choses, and has truly the face of a Zann. Sometimes she appears grave, moves with princely dignity through the salons, among which her own is by far the most elegant in the city: anon she throws off all regard to appearances and form, races through the wildest dances, offends general opinion and creates numberless jealousies. Another distinguished woman, Princess B., is full of charms and grace. She seems to me like a pocket edition of female beauty. Her eyes are large and enthusiastic, but the little short nose and the elevated cheek bones would indicate an Eastern origin. She was just then busy in preparing to open her house, which in luxurious splendor rivals the residence of kings, and as she is very amiable, she will soon be without doubt the centre of the higher circles at St. Petersburg.

I behold such a figure the neck is perfect, the shoulders, arms and hands are in the purest proportions. The consciousness of her singular beauty is legible on her lofty brow, and in the corner of her mouth, where you perceive a little touch of scorn. Perhaps this is because this magnificent creature knows, that one so richly endowed with charms and intellect is not free from the attacks of Envy's scorpion tongue. The Russian ladies are generally covered with treasures of jewelry; (many of them wear in an evening to the value of a million on head and arms,) but the Baroness de K. is distinguished by her simplicity. I saw her in a black velvet robe; no diamonds sparkled in her hair, which surrounds her head and neck with profusion of light curls. She is superb in the Russian national costume, which is worn on great gala days at the court. It consists in a white satin underdress, with a row of diamonds from the waist to the hem, a colored robe over it, open in front with a long train of velvet, or gold, or silver brocade. The sleeves are long but hanging down open that the whole arm can be seen. On the head is the Russian cap surrounding the face like a glory, in which the ladies display their wealth, covered as it is with diamonds; a veil is attached hanging down in graceful folds, not hiding, but showing the whole form to the best advantage. But as in fireworks what we call the bouquet Figure to yourself in this costume eight hundred is left to the end, so I speak last of the court of women assembled in one room, and you will con- the Grandduke Michael and his Duchess. He fess that neither the elegant, refined little Ger- calls it in his moments of lively humor, “la basse man courts, nor the Tuileries, can boast of such cour, (in France the name for the poultry-yard.) magnificence. But to return once more to the so great is the contrast to the grande cour of his Baroness de K. I must mention an odd fancy Imperial brother; but this basse cour is full of the of hers. This truly delicate creature-delicate rarest and most precious birds, that show the in all she does-delights in nothing so much as true wealth of a house. Youthful, handsome, the pleasures of the chase and killing wolves. and profoundly learned, the Grandduchess HeIt seems singular to hear from such sweet lips lena has early found that life has higher aims an enumeration of the slaughtered animals. She thau the splendor of a court can give. She is might tame them, but to kill scarcely becomes the pearl of Germany's princely daughters, transthese snowy fingers, which should be dipped in planted to this distant northern soil, where she Aurora, not in blood. Another unpleasant habit spends her time not merely in festivals and matof many of these ladies, is the smoking of ci-ters of the toilet, but in assembling around her garrittos. In their intimate circle five or six la- all that St. Petersburg can furnish of intellectual dies are seated at the tea table, the thumb of celebrity. In her palace you will meet every day the right hand often burned brown, and looking a circle of distinguished politicians, literary men like Odalisks of the Turkish harems; their whole and poets. persons have an Asiatic aspect. To what will lead at last this eager stirring after something extraordinary? Besides Madame de K., I would mention the Countess W., whom I often saw in my visits at St. Petersburg. She is the same who caused so much furore some years ago in

Her mind is so thoroughly cultivated, and her eagerness after improvementin knowledge of the sciences and arts is so great, that she takes an interest in everything; and in the rapid flight of her thoughts, she sounds the depths and seam amid the heights of learning. Besides, she bestowa the greatest attention upon the education of her

three daughters, and devotes her utmost care to the administration of the immense property and revenues of her husband, the Grandduke Michael. He is altogether the soldier, being at- Of the now living Poets, prince W. is perhaps tached to the profession heart and soul with a not the most gifted, but to me he is the most sort of fanaticism; but his character is amiable. agreeable. He is in deep affliction on account Many elevating traits of him are known to the of the death of two lovely young daughters, and public, and he is winning enough in his manners the only one left to him is married, he calls her to be popular, even if he were not Grandduke. in jest, “la jolie laide," because she looks like He, as well as his brother, the Emperor, often him. His description of the great fire of the visits private houses, converses, and sometimes palace some years ago is a masterpiece, and dances with the ladies. A truly chivalric feeling does him the more credit, as he, though a Rusis implanted by nature within him, and his whole sian, wrote it in French. deportment shows the descendant of the great Peter.

which enables it to take with unfettered wings its flight heavenward. Oppressed with sordid cares, it dies with vexation on the ground it scorns.

I have given you slight notices of individuals at the court and in society; but have said nothAmong the politicians, Prince L., former min- ing of the whole, of the general movement, of ister of the finances in the kingdom of Poland, the cheerful sociability in the streets, in the occupies the most distinguished place. He is a salons; of the continual opening and closing member of the States Council, and in several of doors, the bell-ringing of the Portiers, of the crises of the finances his advice was found ne- noise without interruption! I feel sometimes cessary. His speculative mind and his rich ex-frightened at the everlasting excitement. I visit perience render him remarkable. In that bloody daily at four or five houses, go to dinner-parties, struggle, when two closely allied nations strove, balls, and soirees. I talk, I listen; but after all and unsuccessfully, to separate from each other, hear no conversation; at least none that does the luxuriant crown of his tree of life was bro-me good. The exterior appearance is every ken. It stands there still, but the leaves are thing here, thought has little place. The diawithered, the stem is bent. Who would wish to mond is there but it wants the polish. Every live after such changes in human destiny, were thing appears in the beginning; the bud begins it not for the pure and pious belief, that out of to be formed ere the breath of spring has kissed those clouds shall rise the rainbow of heavenly away the masses of snow. If that will take glory. place in ten or in fifty years, or in a century; An interesting man replied to my remark, that who knows? It takes a long while before a in Russia every one of the nobility was obliged higher tendency, an aim at true cultivation suto enter the service of the state: "il est terrible pervenes in society. Art is sometimes at home qu'il faille étre quelque chose et qu'on ne puisse pas in their saloons, but it is according to nature? être quelqu'un.” This may be true; but for some I wish to end with praise, and lo! I am finding time past the dignity which high rank used to some cause for blame! Yet what I say is not command in Russia has been bestowed upon blame, but the result of comparisons between personal merit. There are men who are not in what is and what will be. I know Germany; office, who wear no uniform of the government, I know France and the intellectual improvewho yet possess the greatest influence. ments of these countries, and this elevates my hopes for Russia. I think her not at present what she might be, but she has a future before her promising happiness not yet in her posses

sion.

To go a little farther in my knowledge; Important characters have more than one predominant quality; sometimes we find contradictions in them which seem unaccountable, but are understood after long observation.

The house of the interesting poet Karamsin, who died several years ago, is still an Asylum for the most distinguished literary characters in St. Petersburg. His widow is a kind and gentle person; her eldest daughter, who is still unmarried, possesses with a strong masculine mind and a keen wit, the most attractive feminine manners and virtues. The memory of the deceased poet is honored by the literary circle that meets daily with his family. The large pension So there are two principles in the Emperor; one Madame Karamsin receives from Government that of strength, which sometimes degenerates enables her to see much company. Her sons into harshness; the other softness and kindness. are in office; one of them possesses great intel- Beside the Empress, who possesses a truly femieet and talent. I think those happy whose tal-nine influence over him, and is his wife in the nts are aided by external circumstances, which higher sense of the word, surrounded by his chiloster their development and improvement. Poe-dren who love him passionately, the mild traits ry is of too noble a nature to prosper in the school of of his character, his generosity, his affection dversity: it can only be nourished by that liberty shine forth. But in public, particularly when

roused, you may see his other characteristic, that and to make all classes participate in the proof strength most prominent. His melodious gress of civilization. It is really astonishing to voice is then piercing, he speaks loud and quick; observe what has been done under his reign! his majestic form has something awful. His The establishment of a complete code of laws is room is like that of a private person; there are one great step towards the civilization of the books, military maps, models of cannon and Russian Empire. A university of which St. other warlike implements, with a fieldbed, on Wladimor is the patron-the astronomical obser which is nothing but a straw mattress-furniture vatory, various manufactories, institutions for the which shows the strong man, the industrious culture of the forests, splendid botanic gardensself-denying chief. Early in the morning he all these have been created by him in a few visits his brother, the Grand Duke Michael, who years. Even a rail-road is begun; the streets of accompanies him to the parade, or to the impe- St. Petersburg are lighted with gas; the electrorial council. He is often seen in the streets; type has been introduced-the city, the habits crowds of people around him, with many of are changing every day—and all has been acwhom he converses. It is said that during a complished more or less by one will-by the one severe sickness of his eldest Grandduke, an old command: "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" Russian, with a long beard, approached him and said, "father, thy son is sick; how is he to day?" "He is better," replied the sovereign. "Well! may God bless and preserve him;" added the old man.

M. H.

NOTICES OF NEW WORKS.

Sometimes he appears inclined to fatalism, for he believes in predestination. In all important crises he manifests a religious feeling, which explains many of his actions. What else when he NARRATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES' EXPEDITION TO

ascended his throne would have given him that calm and high courage in the midst of rebellion, and in times of cholera when he cried with a voice of thunder to the people, " on your knees, fall down, pray for pardon, not of the Emperor, but of God, whom you offend by your murmurings."

THE RIVER JORDAN AND THE DEAD SEA. By W. P
Lynch, U. S. N. Commander of the Expedition. With
Maps and Numerous Illustrations. Philadelphia: Lea &
Blanchard.

1849.

We have risen from the perusal of this volume with an excusable feeling of pride that it has been reserved for så officer of the United States' Navy and a Virginian, to furnish the first authentic account, drawn from a personal ex·

It seems as if the conviction that he is an in-ploration, of that distant and mysterious sea, whose acrid ind strument in the hands of the Most High and as pestilential vapors have hitherto thwarted the efforts of 13such protected by Him, is deeply grounded in vidual enthusiasm and even the well-directed schemes of his breast! Sentiments of this kind are the more national enterprise. This gallant officer, who shows himtouching when thus united with energy of evil self a man of science and seamanship, seems to have cãtered con amore upon the labors of his difficult mission, and with the power of an absolute sovereign, with a full consciousness of the perils and annoyances What heart would not be moved at the sight of that he would have to encounter. No whisperings of fevera Monarch who, on solemn occasions, dismounts ed sentimentalism, no motives of mere idle curiosity urged from his horse to utter upon his knees his morn-him onward. He sought not the Holy Land like Lamar ing prayer in company with his soldiers! Envy his name on the cedars of Lebanon. Nor was he impeled tine, to cast tattered couplets into "Siloa's brook" or curve will say these are forms;" but I say, these by the same desire with the pilgrims from Threadneedle forms are expressions of faith, of truth, which Street, who go in crowds

no man can feign; it is the necessity of a great soul, to trust in Fate and to acknowledge a higher power than his own.

To gape at things in foreign lands
No soul among them understands.

He has made every effort to abolish abuses His purpose was well enough set forth in his letter to the

Secretary of the Navy, asking leave to undertake the Ex ploration. "The proposition," says he, "pertains to a sabe * Our readers will scarcely recognise in the portrait here ject maritime in its nature, and therefore peculiarly appro given, the ambitious Czar, whose unscrupulous designs priate to your office; and it is involved in mystery, the s upon Hungary the lover of republican government every lution of which will advance the cause of science and ratwhere now watches with the deepest interest. Some alify the whole Christian world. So far as this mystery lowance must be made, however, for the "stand-point," as be solved by careful and accurate observations of the pho the Germans say, from which this view of the Emperor is nomena of the sea, Lieut. Lynch's wishes have been taken. To the accomplished Baronesse de Bacharach, amid the splendors of his court, we do not doubt he was complaisant in the extreme and exhibited to advantage that "softness" of demeanor, which she tells us is one side of his character.-[Ed. Sou. Lit. Mess.

tained.

We are glad that this contribution to learning comes fros the American Navy, for it furnishes a gratifying assum:tr that our officers are very different characters from the oce heroes of Smollett und Marryat, who swore roundly and

drank deeply, and filled the quarter-deck with the fumes of tobacco and the staves of coarse ballads. We are pleased to know that our vessels of war are commanded by men of refinement and general intelligence, as distinguished for their attainments in the arts of peace as for their gallant bearing in the hour of naval battle.

The public has already been made acquainted with the outline history of Lieut. Lynch's labors, by means of the article on the Dead Sea Expedition, published in this magazine in September. 1848, and extensively copied by the periodical and newspaper press of the country. The officers of the Expedition, leaving the ship Supply at Smyrna, first visited Constantinople for the purpose of obtaining a firman from the Sultan to allow them to prosecute their investigations. Lieut. Lynch gives an interesting description of this oriental metropolis, which he saw under very favorable circumstances. Since Lady Montagu's time, however, we have had so many accounts of "the Asian pomp of Ottoman parade," that we know it all by heart, and we should not have learned any thing from this portion of the book, had not Lieut. Lynch seen a very rare curiosity-the Sultan himself. We quote the entire passage relating to the interview.

"We were led to the entrance of the southern wing, (of the palace of Cherighan on the Bosphorus,) and again throwing off our overshoes, entered a lofty and spacious hall, matted throughout, with two broad flights of stairs ascending from the far extreme to an elevated platform or landing, whence, uniting in one, they issued upon the floor above.

"On the right and left of the ball were doors opening into various apartments, and there were a number of officers and attendants on either side and stationed at intervals along the stairway, all preserving a silence the most profound.

"The Secretary, who had gone before, now approached and beckoned to us to follow. But here an unexpected difficulty was presented. The Chamberlain in waiting objected to my sword, and required that I should lay it aside. I replied that the audience was given to me as an officer of the United States; and that the sword was part of my uniform, and that I could not dispense with it. My refusal was met with the assurance that the etiquette of the court peremptorily required it. I asked if the custom had been Invariably complied with, and inquired of the dragoman whether Mr. Carr, our minister, had, in conformity with it, ever attended an audience without his sword, but even as 1 spoke, my mind, without regard to precedent, had come to the alternative, no sword, no audience.

man countenance. He seemed to hold his breath, and his step was so soft and stealthy that once or twice I stopped, under the impression that I had left him behind, but found him ever beside me. There were three of us in close proximity, and the stairway was lined with officers and attendants, but such was the death-like stillness that I could distinctly hear my own footfall, which, unaccustomed to palace regulations, fell with untutored republican firmness upon the royal floor. If it had been a wild beast slumbering in his lair that we were about to visit, there could not have been a silence more deeply hushed.

"Fretted at such abject servility, I quickened my pace towards the curtain, when Sheffie Bey, rather gliding than stepping before me, cautiously and slowly raised a corner for me to pass. Wondering at his subdued and terrorstricken attitude, I stepped across the threshold, and felt, without yet perceiving it, that I was in the presence of the Sultan.

"The heavy folds of the window curtains so obscured the light, that it seemed as if the day were dawning to a close, instead of being at its high meridian.

"As with the expanding pupil the eye took in surrounding objects, the apartment, its furniture and its royal tenant, presented a different scene from what, if left to itself, the imagination would have drawn.

"The room, less spacious, but as lofty as the adjoining one, was furnished in the modern European style, and like a familiar thing, a stove stood nearly in the centre. On a sofa by a window, through which he might have looked upon us as we crossed the court, with a crimson tarbouch, its gold button and blue silk tassel on his head, a black kerchief around his neck, attired in a blue military frock and pantaloons, and polished French boots upon his feet, sat the monarch, without any of the attributes of sovereignty about him.

"A man, young in years, but evidently of impaired and delicate constitution, his wearied and spiritless air was unrelieved by any indication of intellectual energy. He eyed me fixedly as I advanced, and on him my attention was no less intently riveted. As he smiled I stopped, expecting that he was about to speak, but he motioned gently with his hand for me to approach yet nearer. Through the interpreter, he then bade me welcome, for which I expressed my acknowledgments.

"The interview was not a protracted one. In the course of it, as requested by Mr. Carr, I presented him, in the name of the President of the United States, with some biographies and prints, illustrative of the character and habits of our North American Indians, the work of American artists. He looked at some of them, which were placed "Whether the Secretary had, during the discussion, re- before him by an attendant, and said that he considered ferred the matter to a higher quarter, I could not tell, for them as evidences of the advancement of the United States my attention had been so engrossed for some minutes, that in civilization, and would treasure them as a souvenir of I had not noticed him. He now came forward, however, the good feeling of its government towards him. At the and decided that I should retain the sword. At this I truly word civilization, pronounced in French, I started; for it rejoiced, for it would have been unpleasant to retire after seemed singular, coming from the lips of a Turk and aphaving gone so far. It is due to Mr. Brown, the dragoman, to say that he sustained me.

plied to our country. I have since learned that he is but a student in French, and presume, that, by the word 'civili

"When about to take my leave, he renewed the welcome, and said that I had his full authority to see anything in Stambohl I might desire.

"The discussion at an end, we ascended the stairway,zation,' he meant the arts and sciences. which was covered with a good and comfortable, but not a costly carpet, and passed into a room more handsomely furnished and more lofty, but in every other respect of the same dimensions as the one immediately below it. A rich "While in his presence, I could not refrain from drawing carpet was on the floor, a magnificent chandelier, all crys- comparisons and moralizing on fate. There was the Sultal and gold, was suspended from the ceiling, and costly di- tan, an Eastern despot, the ruler of mighty kingdoms and vans and tables, with other articles of furniture, were in- the arbiter of the fate of millions of his fellow-creatures; terspersed about the room; but I had not time to note them, and, face to face, a few feet distant, one, in rank and confor on the left hung a gorgeous crimson velvet curtain em-dition, among the humblest servants of a far-distant repubbroidered and fringed with gold and towards it the Secre- lic; and yet little as life has to cheer, I would not change mary led the way. His countenance and his manner ex- positions with him, unless I could carry with me my faith, ibited more awe than I had ever seen depicted in the hu-'my friendships, and my aspirations.

VOL. XV-55

"My feelings saddened as I looked upon the monarch, and I thought of Montezuma. Evidently, like a Northern clime, his year of life had known two seasons only, and he had leaped at once from youth to imbecility. His smile was one of the sweetest I ever looked upon,-his voice almost the most melodious I had ever heard; his manner was gentleness itself, and every thing about him bespoke a kind and amiable disposition. He is said to be very affectionate, to his mother in especial, and is generous to the extreme of prodigality. But there is that indescribably sad expression in his countenance, which is thought to indicate an early death. A presentiment of the kind, mingled perhaps with a boding fear of the overthrow of his country, seems to pervade and depress his spirits. In truth, like Damocles, this descendant of the Caliphs sits beneath a suspended fate. Through him, the soul of the mighty monarchs who have gone before, seem to brood over the impending fate of an empire which once extended from the Atlantic to the Ganges, from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean."

'Steel amid the din of arms
And wax when with the fair.'"

Of Sherif Hazza, our author says,

"He was about fifty years of age, of a dark Egyptian complexion, small stature, and intelligent features. His father and elder brother had been sherifs, or governors of Mecca until the latter was deposed by Mehemet Ali. He was dressed in a spencer and capacions trousers of fine olive cloth. His appearance was very prepossessing, and he evinced much enlightened curiosity with regard to our country and its institutions. We were told that from his descent he was held in great veneration by the Arabs; and I observed that every Mahommedan who came in, first approached him and kissed his hand with an air of profound respect."

Sherif Hazza accompanied the party throughout the whole exploration, and proved of great service in conciliating the natives.

The firman having been obtained, the officers at once re- The features of the country around them are depicted in joined the ship, and proceeded to St. Jean D'Acre in Sy- this volume in the happiest manner. Gainsborough, could ria. Here they landed, and after some delay in making the he teach his pencil to forget the verdant slopes of the Engnecessary preparations for their toilsome overland journey, lish landscape, or Durand, could he leave the gnarled oaks they took up the line of march for the Sea of Galilee.' We of the North American forest, might transfer to canvas the cannot follow them in their subsequent movements, (which scenery of the Holy Land from these animated descriphave already been traced in brief in the article before men- tions. Witness the following, of the descent of the Jertioned)-the visit to Tiberias--the perilous navigation danthrough the sinuosities and fearful rapids of the Jordanthe arrival at the Dead Sea-the storm, the calm and the sirocco. These undoubtedly form the most valuable and interesting portion of the volume which we commend to the attention of the reader. It would be injustice to Lieut. Lynch, even had we the space here, to draw so largely upon his pages. We shall be content to quote a few passages, descriptive of scenery, incident or character, to be taken as specimens of his whole production.

"The boats had little need of oars to propel them, for the current carried us along at the rate of from four to six knots an hour, the river, from its eccentric course, scarcely permitting a correct sketch of its topography to be taken. It curved and twisted north, south, east, and west, turning, in the short space of half an hour, to every quarter of the compass,-seeming as if desirous to prolong its luxuriant meanderings in the calm and silent valley, and reluctant to pour its sweet and sacred waters into the accursed bosom of the bitter sea.

"For hours of their swift descent the boats floated down

were spots of solemn beauty. The numerous birds sung with a music strange and manifold; the willow branches were spread upon the stream like tresses, and creeping mosses and clambering weeds, with a multitude of white and silvery little flowers, looked out from among them; and the cliff swallow wheeled over the falls, or went at his own wild will darting through the arched vistas, shadowed and shaped by the meeting foliage on the banks; and above all, yet attuned to all, was the music of the river, gushing with a sound like that of shawms and cymbals."

At St. Jean D'Acre they received an important acces sion to their party in the persons of 'Akil Aga el Hasseé, a great Sheikh of one of the border tribes, and Sherif Hazza of Mecca, the thirty-third lineal descendant of the proph-in silence, the silence of the wilderness. Here and there et. The former had signalized himself in former years in carrying on a predatory warfare against the government, plundering whom he pleased, and had finally been bought off with a commission, like many a more enlightened man before him. Junius, who still remains the shadow of a name, surrendered his pen as 'Akil did his sword, for a consideration. But our Sheikh was a dashing fellow, and if he sometimes disregarded the rights of property, it was in a way to be admired-the very poetry of pillage; and his fidelity in friendships made some atonement for his offences in this respect. Lieut. Lynch acknowledges the important services he rendered the Expedition, and we must look upon him as an Admirable Crichton of Arabs, if the following description does not make him out a sort of Mussulman Murat. He was, says Lieut. Lynch,

"The birds were numerous, and at times, when we is sued from the shadow and silence of a narrow and verdure-tinted part of the stream into an open bend, where the rapids rattled and the light burst in, and the birds sang their wildwood song, it was, to use a simile of Mr. Bedlow,

Here is a scene, farther down the river, of a very differ ent kind

"a magnificent savage, enveloped in a scarlet cloth pe- like a sudden transition from the cold, dull-lighted tall lisse, richly embroidered with gold. He was the hand-where gentlemen hang their hats, into the white and golden somest, and I soon thought also, the most graceful being saloon, where the music rings and the dance goes on.” had ever seen. His complexion was of a rich, mellow, indescribable olive tint, with glossy black hair; his teeth were regular, and of the whitest ivory; and the glance of his eye was keen at times, but generally soft and lustrous. With the tarbouch upon his head, which he seemed to wear "HENRY BEDLOW, Esq. and HENRY J. ANDERSON, uneasily, he reclined, rather than sat, upon the opposite M. D., were associated with the Expedition as volunteer side of the divan, while his hand played in unconscious fa- after its original organization,-the first at Constantinspir. miliarity with the hilt of his yataghan. He looked like one and the other at Beïrût. More zealous, efficient, and bonwho would be orable associates could not have been desired."-Prefe

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