The agents of the Birmingham house, who had gone to see about their advances to Odessa, wondered how I could have gotten anything from such a nest of robbers.
I next went to the police for my passport, but was informed that it had been sent to St. Petersburg, and that I must wait three months in Odessa for its return or else take a Russian pass. As this would have been useless beyond the frontier, I called on Prince Woronzow to whom Mr. Poel had introduced me, and begged his help; and he gave me a written order to the police for a search after my passport, which was found at last in a chest. Ordinarily they are not returned from St. Petersburg for three months.
General Woronzow, commanding the army of the Caucasus, was now in his sixty-fourth year. I called to thank him. He spoke English as well as if he had studied it at Oxford, and had married his first wife, Lady Pembroke, in England. On my introduction he had invited me to a soiree at his palace at the end of the Boulevard de Paris; and now to another at his hermitage near Sevastopol. At this time the Grand Duchess Helena, daughter of Prince Paul of Wurtemburg, lately deceased in Paris, and wife of the Grand Duke Michael, was in Odessa on her way to some baths in the Crimea. The princess wanted to get a whole-
sale idea of the commerce of Odessa, and ordered all the wheat-laden wagons to be drawn up side by side in the main street. Thus several thousand had collected, waiting for the arrival of the lady. All the water carts also, which supplied drinking water to the city, were ordered to occupy themselves in laying the dust. It was of no importance that the market was in want of wheat, and the citizens in want of water; they had to wait five days, and then the princess arrived. On the next day she went on board the fleet, and the wagons were then ordered to come in and unload, and the water carts to return to their usual business. When the owners asked for compensation for their six days' loss, they were sent to the devil, and told to hold their tongues, and this is Russian justice.
The vessel that carried the princess, brought back, on its return, a young American named Codman, in charge of the police. He was from Marblehead, Mass., and had come out as supercargo. He had excited the attention of the police by his habit of asking questions and popping the answers down in a note-book, etc.; and they were ordered to bring him before the Emperor. He was a right inquisitive Yankee. The Czar asked the object of his visit, and his intentions, when his business was ended. He replied that he wanted to see Russia for himself that he might tell his countrymen the truth about it. The naivete of the young man pleased the Czar, who the Marquis de Custine has shown, is very anxious to hide Russian tyranny and slavery from foreigners, and to cause a belief in advanced civilization. Here was an opportunity to get the Americans. " So," said the Czar, " You want to see and learn all about Russia 1 Well, you shall, and at my expense. I will give you letters and see that you are everywhere well received. Where do you want to go first V " To Moscow." "When?" "The day after to-morrow, at 6 o'clock." " Good! the day after to morrow, at 6 o'clock, I will send for you ; be ready."
This narrative I got from Codman himself. The next morning appeared at the Yankee's door a very handsome drosky and horses, with an imperial coachman and two adjutants. Servants in imperial livery loaded another drosky w r ith his baggage ; the
adjutants got into a third, and he was whirled off to Moscow and put into a second rate hotel. He had scarcely arrived when the Governor and all his staff appeared and offered to do the honors of the city. When he had seen all the lions he asked to go tc the Crimea and visit the camp of the army of the Caucasus. He was sent there by the Governor, and so brought to Sevastopol by the flag-ship of the Russian Admiral. Here he wanted to go to headquarters to " see the fun." The Admiral, named, I think, Etschernicheff, who had been a midshipman of Nelson at Trafalgar, and who saw nothing in his passenger but an uneducated curious individual, got rid of him at Sevastopol. But he had nothing to do there and asked to see the camps. He was told that the commandant, Goloff kin, had refused entrance to strangers, etc., but he did not care. The Czar had promised him admission everywhere and he would complain to him if the field-marshal refused. He grew more and more insolent every day, and was so overbearing that there came a sudden order from imperial headquarters to send him to Odessa, and thence over the frontiers, with some money for his expenses, and the wish for a pleasant journey to him. How he got to Trieste, I did not learn, but he told me his story there, and proved that favors do not always come to intelligent men, since this crazy pate had met with such attention. He did not feel a bit grateful nor did he make any attempt at procuring useful information. All that he talked about was his personal intercourse with Nicholas and the fact that his Majesty had been kinder to him than to any other traveller.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE RETURN TO TRIESTE—
Departure from Odessa—The Bosphorus—Constantinople and the Golden Horn—The Turkish fleet—Smyrna—Three weeks' quarantine at Malta— Sicily—Naples—Comparison of the impression produced by the Bay of Naples with that I felt at my first sight of New York Bay—Continuation of my return-journey to Trieste, by way of Leghorn, Genoa, and Venice— Trieste—The house of J. C. Ritter & Co.—My position in it—The district-governor, Count Stadion-—Some characteristic sketches of him.
1 started from Odessa for Constantinople in a Russian steamer, officered by Englishmen, and in forty-four hours reached the Bosphorus. Here we were detained by a fog, which cleared off at sunset and showed, by the high hills upon the left, to be near Ungiar-Skelessi, where the famous peace was made between Turkey and Russia, and Field-Marshal Diebitch obtained the object of his march across the Balkan. This treaty forbid to French and English vessels entrance to the Black Sea or passage through the Bosphorus, a measure which remained for some years incomprehensible to those two nations.
I had heard so much of the wondrous beauty of the Bosphorus that I was prepared to be disappointed, but what I now saw surpassed every account. A Russian officer, a fellow passenger, gazed at the lovely shores and only spoke to say, " It is too beautiful! We must have that." It was the hidden but long cherished wish of his government. The windings of the Bosphorus showed us many a glorious sight. The northeast wind that had blown for five days and that had helped us through the Black Sea, had prevented the shipping from going up the Dardanelles, and there lay before us two hundred and thirty vessels. Scarcely had we entered the strait which separates Europe from Asia
when a light south wind came up and permitted the various sels to m&ke sail. And the flitting of the white sails among the exquisite scenery had a magical effect. I do not feel called upon to describe what so many better pens have done, but I ought to speak of the effect upon myself. The fairy-like view of the panorama that unrolled before us was greatest as we neared Bujukdere and Therapia on the right, and Scutari on the left or Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, towards which we looked, over Pera Galata and Constantinople. Over the hundreds and hundreds of great and small dwellings, mosques, minarets, kiosks, and cypresses which cover the hill tops near Therapia and the shores below, we saw the new palace of the Sultan, built by English architects, and of which the white walls and delicate fretwork made it look as if built of cards.
From the entrance to the Golden Horn, a bay that separates Constantinople from old Stamboul, to the palace in Therapia, lay twenty-two ships-of-the-lin<e, just come from Mehemet Ali, most prominent among them the flag-ship Mahomet, commanded by the Admiral, an Englishman named Walker. From every mast swung flags, an hundred cannons roared salutes, and the bay was covered with thousands of caiques, as is the case whenever the Sultan goes to Mosque by water, furnishing a spectacle that far surpasses the famed Venetian regatta.
I found several young Englishmen in the Hotel d'Angleterre, upon the heights of Pera, near the new, gorgeous palace of the Russian Embassy. Among them was the son of my London solicitor, Mr. Landford, a well educated, clever young man, who was going with several other Englishmen from Scutari by land along the shores of the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. I went with them to the heights of Ungiar-Skelessi, on one of which is the grave of the prophet Jonah, measuring eight feet by five, and suggesting vast dimensions for the whale that swallowed him.
Then I went to Bourgurloo, from whence can be seen the southern entrance to the Bosphorus, both shores of the Golden Horn, the Prince Islands, the Tower of Leander, the sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. With me was the third son of Mehemet Ali an odd informed young man, with a streak of French
20
politeness about him towards us, although he was haughty and peremptory towards the Turks.
After a three weeks' stay I left Constantinople, to which the palm must be given over all European or American scenery known to me. A French steamer took me to Smyrna, and soon to Malta, where we passed twenty-two days in the Lazaretto. In Smyrna we had taken another passenger, the son of Lord So-mers, who succeeded to that earldom before we reached Malta. He was a young, cultivated man, who had thoroughly travelled Asia Minor, discovered mines and cities, to which Fellowes and other travellers had gone, and had filled his portfolios with admirable views and sketches. We were very good friends in the Lazaretto. At the end of our quarantine he set out for England, to be present at the opening of Parliament, but determined to visit Asia Minor as soon as the ceremony was over. Next year I met with him in Trieste, on his road to the East. I was glad to leave the hot, dry climate of Malta, where there is scarcely any vegetation, and where all the drinking water comes from Africa, and to take the Neapolitan steamer for Messina.
As we neared the Sicilian coast, we saw Etna in eruption. We stayed long enough in Syracuse to see the ruins of the Roman amphitheatre, the gallery called the " ©ar of Dionysius," the subterranean baths, and the theatre. The next morning at ten we reached Messina, the loveliness of which I will not attempt to describe. Another boat took us to Naples, and had any view succeeded the Bay of Naples as it did Messina, I think my delight would have driven me crazy. Fortunately my recollections of the Golden Horn sufficed to calm me. I knew characteristics of the bay from pictures in my father's possession, painted by the brothers Hackert, court painters in Naples ; so that I somewhat knew the place. Furthermore, the impression of New York Bay was ineffaceably stamped on my memory, although it must yield the palm to Naples, for it lacks the haughty head of Vesuvius towering on high; it lacks the countless monuments of twent}' centuries of old civilization and the gorgeous palaces of the new; but then it shows a spectacle that the indolent Neapolitan can scarce imagine; that wondrous active life where every intelligence
speaks ; that magnificent shipping, that mingling of the two vast rivers, the fresh and blooming vegetation on the shores. I went to private lodgings at the foot of the Castel del Ovo, where I had a view of the Bay, Vesuvius. But here where I had hoped to find that world-renowned sunshine, the cloudless moonlit nights, and the light Mediterranean airs, the equinoctial storm came on, and tossed the American fleet then cruising in the bay, sent cold rough winds to destroy the genial atmosphere, clouded the azure sky, and poured down chilly rains. Even Vesuvius would not break out for me. In vain my servant told me that an eruption must take place, for the hermit and all other weather prophets had foretold it; the mountain fires lay still. On the 3d, a fine clear day, I went to Capri, reaching it too late to see the grotto, and the next two days the storm renewed its violence, and made the visit impossible. In spite of this I visited the whole island, and on the evening of the third day gave a ball at the inn, that I might see the Tarantella danced in this, its native land. For two scudi my landlord promised to provide a dozen pretty peasants and the requisite cavaliers, with pipers, wine, fruit, bread and cheese, and my ball went finely off. I then gave up the grotto and went to Sorrento, and thence by Castelamare and Portici back to Naples. Busy as I was with the present, I found time for a glance at the past. I had seen in the yellow fever year, 1822, a mighty city, (New York,) rendered desolate; its houses forsaken and its commerce stayed. I had gone down into the city to look at it. The watchman at the Park looked at me in amazement, as did those in Broadway, Wall, and Pearl-streets, who usually sat upon chairs in the middle of the streets smoking cigars. I soon got enough of my lonely walk. My walk in Pompeii was different. Fifteen centuries had gone since this city had been inhabited, and there were no ties to the present. That ancient civilization suggested other ideas and bore another look than that of modern days. Comparison between these civilizations is natural and interesting, but not very instructive, and the only result is, that now man gives to practical industry the energy that then was consecrated to art. Pompeii must be leisurely seen, and will reward the antiquarian. Most of its treasures are in
the Museo Borbonico. The collection is already immense, and new buildings must be prepared if the disinterments go on as fast as they did in the days of Queen Caroline (Murat).
I felt a different interest in the hotel, from the window of which poor Nourrit, once the first Parisian opera singer, had thrown himself in despair, when Duprez was preferred to him. " I was king," he wrote; " I governed the opera at my will—there I reigned ; now I will never govern more." Thus applying Thiers' words about Louis Philippe to himself. He could not bear to see his rival preferred. Whoever has seen Nourrit in the first act of Auber's Gustave ou le Bal Masque, will remember with what a solemn gravity and feeling of superiority he used to strut about and strive to imitate the majesty of kings. Poor fellow he was deposed by Duprez, ut de poitrine, which he could never reach.
I left Naples without having seen its sky, and the next day I started by Civita Vecchia for Leghorn. The elder Mr. Grant was nearly blind and deaf, and quite retired from business; Mr. John Grant had gone to the baths, so I went to Trieste. The Hamburg Consul there, Mr. Joseph Prey, informed me that the very respectable house of J. C. Ritter and Co. wanted my help in their German, French, and English correspondences. The duty was an easy one for me, if we should mutually please each other. I was invited for Sunday to the house of Mr. Boeckman, the head of the firm. On Saturday Mr. Meticke pointed him out to me on the exchange, and I saw a person who never stood still for a moment, holding a cane in his hands crossed behind his back. He moved as if he were full of quicksilver, and I could not get a sight of his profile. I found him on Sunday however, friendly and polite, and soon came to an understanding with him. I found also " good nature" to be the characteristic of the whole firm. I remained in charge of the correspondence of this firm for two years, and quitted it because of difference of character and mercantile views. All commentaries on our separation were prevented by the Messrs. Rftter giving me an entire year's salary, and by the continuation of our friendly intercourse.
I had now time to look about me, at the manners and customs of the mixed population of Trieste, which consists principally of
Italians and Germans, plenty of Greeks, and a few English and French. The natives are Sclavic in origin, and the sailors and fishermen from Dalmatia.
Trieste is both the only free German port in the south and an Austrian city. As free port, it belongs to Germany; in everything else it is part of the Austrian Empire; and the hearts of the people beat only for Germany when it accords with Austria. This was clearly shown in the Frankfort National Assembly of 1848, in the choice of the Trieste deputies, who were Herr Von Bruck and Dr. F. M. Burger, now Governor of Steinmark. Still I must say that the population of Trieste is mercantile, and when I speak of their heart-beatings, I must add, that the hearts are situated in their pockets. But in all commercial places— Trieste, or Hamburg, or Bremen, or anywhere else—commercial interest is the first principle, and patriotism merely secondary. Thus the tendencies of public officers and merchants are different. Once, when Count Stadion, Governor of Trieste, and myself differed about some measure, he frankly—for he was a noble, open-hearted man—remarked, that it was impossible to please everybody. Where the interest of the city was so much in question, as in the case referred to, I thought there could be no difficulty. The Count replied: " Yes, but I look to Vienna, not Trieste; they must be pleased there; the rest follows naturally, or must follow." The reconciliation of these two interests is the greatest task of a governor of Trieste, if he wishes the welfare of the city, as Count Stadion unquestionably did. But his cleverness, sometimes over-praised, was not equal to all emergencies. He sometimes showed weakness, especially in political matters. " It is my custom," he said to me, " to stand behind the curtain, and hold the thread in my own hands, and let others do what is to be done." He, being legally bred, was somewhat pedantic. I never saw him smile; and even the smoking, which he permitted after his dinner-parties, never brought an expression of ease, much less of merriment, to his face. The man was cold as the statue of the Commander in Don Juan ; and the politeness of the entertainer and the respect of the entertained were equally cold. He was esteemed, like, many others, because talent, which he did not possess
was attributed to him; and for the same reason, he was made minister.
Leaving the Messrs. Ritter, I of course had to look for other employment. The secretaryship of the Austrian " Lloyds" was vacant, having been resigned by Mr. J. Hagenauer, and I went directly to M. von Bruck, who was the most influential man in the affair. He came and gave no positive answer, but promised me all his interest. I passed the time in paying a visit to my brother at Florence, and then returned to Trieste, where I found that the post had been given to a person who not only had faithfully served " Lloyds" in the Levant, but had also private influence. An article, the last of a series written for amusement, on the characteristics of the port of Fiume, and its advantages as a to-be rival of Trieste, made a great noise in the city, and even procured me a request from the Governor to answer it. I did so, to prove to him that I could write German quite as well as French or English. This answer, which was intended for the Journal of " Lloyds," pleased the people of Trieste so much, that they had it inserted in the Allgemeine Zeitung.
His Excellency observing that I could write German, requested me to write an article for "Lloyds" Journal on the Vienna and Trieste railway, comparing the two routes from Laybach through the Karst and the other along the Isonzo. The governor preferred the first, but the most important men of Trieste, among them Herr von Bruck, disagreed with him. I wrote the article, and gave it to him. It was written rather polemical, and touched upon one or two foreign topics. The governor read it at table to Messrs. Gio di P. Sartorio, C. Regensdorff, of the firm of Reyers, and another gentleman whose name I have forgotten. His excellency read so badly that the article was condemned, and Mr. Regensdorff requested to furnish a better one as soon as possible. The printers already had a copy of mine, and I was promised a proof on the third day. But the next day I heard that Mr. Regensdorft's was to be printed first. I complained, but Mr. Papsch, the foreman, had received his orders from his excellency in person. I took my article back, and had it published in the Algemeine Zeitung two days before Mr. Regensdorft's appeared in Trieste.
It provoked a reply in the Augsburger Zeitung, an honor not conferred upon my worthy rival. I would not have spoken of this, except to give an instance of the frequent double-dealing and unworthiness of Count Stadion.
My friends then advised me to write something that would prove to the governor my commercial cleverness, and I published with Faverge my " Glance at the position of Commerce at the close of the year 1843, with especial reference to Trieste and the future of Austrian Commerce." Count Stadion was pleased with the pamphlet. I obtained first the imprimatur of the censor of the press in Vienna, and then asked for the count's permission to print, which he gave on condition of my altering one paragraph of twenty-eight words. I expressed the same idea in twenty eight other words, and his ^excellency was satisfied.
The governor had no further doubts of my capability, but he objected to my age. " In Austria," he said, " we prefer only men who have served thirty years under our eyes." And I already counted sixty-five! The affairs of the Exchange, and its correspondence with government, were usually written in Italian, and the secretary was generally an old man. These writings were suffered to accumulate in Vienna, simply because they were not written in German, and the Council there did not always know Italian. It had long appeared necessary to conduct the correspondence in German, and it was proposed to give the Italian secretary a German assistant. Dr. F. M. Burger, then actuary of the Exchange, whose confidence I had won, did all he could for me ; the rest of the authorities were in my favor; but the Italian secretary and the governor were against me. The governor had nothing to say against me, but he knew that I understood him, and that I doubted his infallibility. Therefore if I were appointed by the Board, I must expect his veto.
CHAPTER XXX.
TRIESTE.
Visit of the Emperor Ferdinand, in the company of his -wife and minister— The Baron Von Kiiebec—His invitation to persevere in the examination of Peel's Bank Bill, of 1844, which I first bring to his notice—He permits me to dedicate my " Condition and Prospects of the World's Commerce in the early months of the year 1845," to him—Count Stadion's great egg, the Austrian East India Company—Mission of Mr. P. Erichsen—The article of the Augsburgh " Algemeine Zeitung," of August 9th, 1845, in relation to the population of Trieste, &c. —A reference to Mr. Von Brack, the true lucky star that has risen over Trieste—Closer acquaintanceship with him—The blind traveller, Lieutenant Holman—The Scotchman, Keith, with his collection of daguerreotypes—Completion of a work on freedom of Trieste as a commercial port—Count Stadion lays his veto upon it—A project touching me, devised by Mr. Von Bruck, takes me to Vienna, and thence to Paris.
This was the condition of affairs early in 1844, when Baron Von Gehringer, private secretary of Baron Von Kiiebec, came to Trieste, on his way from Constantinople. I had written to him in Vienna, about my just-mentioned pamphlet, and had thanked him for procuring its appearance, when I met him in Venice. He had also read something of mine on the corn trade, and he now told me that the Emperor and his cabinet would visit Trieste in the autumn, ;ind that Baron Von Kiiebec who had read some writings of mine, had expressed a wish to know me. The Emperor came accompanied by Prince Metternich, Count Kollowrath, Baron Von Kiiebec, and other notable persons. I called on the Baron, and was requested to call the next day at 2 o'clock. I had hardly reached there, when Count Stadion entered, and saw me with surprise. After waiting a quarter of an hour, I was received, and found him a polite and clever man. The topics of the day were
discussed, and then I expressed my desire for the post as assistant Secretary of the Exchange. He promised to speak to Count Sta-dion about it, and I know he did so, though in vain. He asked what I was doing now, and I told him that I was examining Sir Robert Peel's Bank Bill, with reference to the renewal of the Act of Incorporation of the Bank of England, in order to see its influence upon the English and the general money market. " If you do that, Mr. Nolte," he said, " you will give me great pleasure. We in Austria are rather behindhand in such matters, and require help." " Excellenza," I replied, " that is sufficient to set me at work, but I cannot pass through the hands of Count Stadion, whose grasp is not a friendly one for me." He laughed, and told me to send the work directly to him. Four months afterwards I sent it to Baron Von Gehringer, with a request to give it to M. de Kuebec. This brought me in answer the minister's approval, and a request to publish.
On the 4th of May, 1845, Count Stadion sent the following rescript:—
" Well-born Lord :
" The inclosed MSS., entitled " Examination of the new reform in the English bank and money-market, with their influence on commerce, and its effect upon prices," which your excellency has sent to the President of the Royal Imperial Court, I send back, with this remark, that his excellency the president has read it, with all the interest that its great information, clearness, and precision deserve.
" With greatest esteem, etc.
"STADION."
I recognized the hand of Baron Von Kuebec in this, and determined to dedicate the work to him. I therefore wrote to him, and received the answer on the 27th May, containing his acceptance of the dedication, and his thanks for the compliment.
When I asked permission to print it, of Count Stadion, he replied, " Certainly not." But when I remarked that it was to be dedicated, by permission, to Baron Von Kuebec, he said " So." Then I recognized that position, not merit, was what he looked at
20*
in a man. It was not very difficult to see the reason of the importance of Trieste, since it is the exit point of all German and Austrian industry by the Mediterranean sea to all regions, and is the first point of j unction between the Levant and the North. Count Stadion did not understand the future importance of Trieste. He felt it as any half-observing person with cosmopolitan ideas would feel it; but the manner of increasing its importance was utterly hidden from him. The overland voyage of Mr. P. Erichsen, now Secretary of the Vienna and Danube Steamship Company, to India and China, with a view of promoting an East India trade with Trieste, was, of course, in these days of free-trade, useless. The Vienna bankers cared little for these extended operations, and would take no shares in the proposed association, not seeing the source from which profit was to flow; the treasury was not rich enough to support this monopoly, and there was not sufficient surplus capital in Trieste. The true means of bringing Levant commerce to Austria would be the improvement of the postal-system, the roads, and communications generally. Then a company could be found without aid, as indeed took place later. This East India project is the most important that ever got into Count Stadion's head. He had no vitality, however, and soon disappeared. The reader will get a glance of the present and proper leader of Trieste from the following article, published in the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, August 9, 1845.
"POPULATION OF TRIESTE AND ITS DUTY IN THE FUTURE.
" In this age of universal progress, when the strength of every intellect, high or low, is needed, the idea of coming perfection wars with the love of custom. The more we believe that standing still is retrogression, so much the greater must the union of thought and power appear, without which there can be no progress nor result. Where this union does not exist men should never rest. No enchanter's wand can create it; no law call it into life; it is the result of long vigilance. The necessity which every one feels to contribute his mite towards the common perfection creates the duty of ceasing to be mere spectators of the conflict, and of becoming active participants in it. With such ideas and
with opened eyes it is easy to see by the constitution and organization of our city, by the nature of its manners and customs, what is necessary to produce that common spirit which alone can secure for Trieste the attainment of her object. Thinkers and nonthinkers love her ; but inactive love is useless.
" Trieste is the only Mediterranean seaport in which all this can be clearly shown. Genoa and Leghorn are not representatives of a mighty empire; the gate to vast provinces. And yet, though this is undeniable, the voice that should urge the improvement of our civil, moral and physical condition is silent—the promise of the future is not whispered. And why this apathy that clogs and retards progress 1 The cause is in our origin, in the mixture of our population, in the variety of private interests among which public interests are lost; in the want of energy, in the fetters of custom. Our government is paternal, but its wisdom has not yet discovered the means of improvement. There are few examples of active help, and many of the slumberers complain about the evil condition of things. There is here no intention of denying the willingness of our fellow-citizens—most of them do not know their wills, nor discover what they have to do or to let alone, what is their duty towards their government, their fellow-citizens and themselves. They lack union, which alone can lead to improvement. As before said, the history of our position explains this.
" At the fall of the French Empire this port first perceived its future; comparison of Trieste now with Trieste in 1814 will prove the march of progress. Its port-freedom and its position with reference to the East showed the source of its coming rise. But other countries discovered this before the Fatherland, which was just recovering from the long war, and in which commerce was yet in its infancy. Glance at our Exchange. It counts fifty-four great enregistered firms, of which only fifteen are established since 1814-15, and of which only seven are from the German part of the Empire. At the head of these, however, stand Messrs. Reyer & Schlik, a firm ever ready to do all for the common good, and already the pointer out of the road to progress, for instance, by tho founding of the Austrian Lloyds. Not profit, but the
common weal, has been their object. But our population consists of Bavarians, Swabians, Rhine!anders, Saxons, of Swiss, of French and English, of Romans, of Neapolitans and Greeks, all whom have the protection of the government, and find here a common home. Gain was the motive of their settling here, the weightiest, the first motive ; and that love for the Austian Empire was only a slowly ripened feeling. Of course, you find here much egotistic indifference and apathy. Therefore we miss that feeling of their own political worth in the grown-up generation born here, of those foreign settlers, which should have raised them to high rank and influence. The more the government shows a tendency to progress, the more it becomes the duty of individuals to give their influence and power to help that progress on—to love the old only when it contains the seed of advance, and not to hate blindly whatsoever is new, but to prove it, and if it be found good, to accept it. Unfortunately this is just the spirit that we lack.
" The fear that the new will not prove so good as it appears; a disposition to suspect it as a result of private interests, the excellence of which is doubted because unknown or because it comes from a disapproved source—this is the reigning disposition here and prevents the spread of true philanthropy and patriotism. Among those who have ever honorably striven for the independence which every well organized man desires, there is one who has never stood still, who has seen the mighty future of Trieste and urged the city on towards it, whose works are visible to every eye that looks from the heights of Opschina upon the steamers, or lands from one of them here. He is to be found by the stranger at early morning, noon or evening, in the Halls of the Tergesteum or before the Chancery of Lloyds. He is a man of the greatest simplicity of manners, with the forehead of the weariless thinker. Every one listens to him with attention, every one gets a kind, intelligent answer from him. This man, whose sharpness in detecting merit in others is only equalled by his modesty in doubting his own, was born on the Rhine, and has won the veneration of Trieste by introducing steamers and founding the Austrian Lloyds. But he was not always rightly judged nor properly
esteemed; nor was his zeal for public good unsuspected to be zeal for his own interest—nor were his clear insight into the future, his clearness of method and judicious selection of means always appreciated. Yet in his noble example men should have heard a voice saying, ' Go thou and do likewise.'
" Many Germans have discovered new helps to trade and in dustry in Trieste, opened new ways, and helped the spread and perfectioning of our commerce ; for instance, in opening trade with Hungary. Private interest, people say—and the glorious example stands alone: but the impulse is given, and the next generation will profit by it, and work for the public good. Fortunately Trieste possesses in her governor an earnest man, who, if he do not always find the way of doing a thing, still has the good of the city at heart, sees the greatness of her future, and desires to promote it as now, by the establishment of an East India Co. This proposition has not yet been received by the Vienna bankers with the warmth that it merits, but that will come in time. For men cannot long remain blind to the exhaustless treasury of Indian and Chinese commerce, of the countless purchasers that those wares will bring to Trieste, who will find new necessities and new tastes. But the foundation must be laid, and patience must be exercised and means furnished, before this splendid project can go on. One day Trieste will understand this."
The man of whom I have spoken above is Freiherr Von Bruck. The morning after the arrival of this article in Trieste, I was sur rounded by anxious people, inquiring if I had read it. When I said " Yes," they asked " How could you write it 1 " " But, how do you know I wrote it 1 ?" "There is no one else here who could have done it." " Well," I said, " I did write it; and what then 1 What have you to blame in it 1 Is it not all true % " " Yes ; but we cannot bear that a stranger should receive such extraordinary praise." " W^ell," I said, " you can prevent the recurrence of this by doing as he has done." Another highly estimable and worthy friend of mine said, " Mr. Nolte, I am sorry that you wrote that article, for I have liked your other writings much." I asked his reasons; but he would only say, " The article does not
please me." The cause, however, was plain : they were unwilling to give the position to Herr Von Bruck, which his undeniable worth deserved from this his second fatherland. Yet my friend abovementioned, became, a few years later, one of the most devoted followers of Von Bruck.
A word here of my connection with the Freiherr. I had only known him by sight before my application for the secretaryship of Lloyds; and the character given to me of him, on my first arrival, was that of a clever but crotchetty man. " He tries everything," they said—" starts a hundred schemes, gets sharers, and when a scheme threatens badly, backs out of it, and leaves the others to bear the loss." But it was impossible to pass a few weeks in Trieste, without seeing his footsteps in every direction, without recognizing his systematic and well-ordered mind, and seeing in him an extraordinary and thoughtful man—no dreamer —but a clear-sighted, practical man. This belief grew with my knowledge of him, and was proven at my return from Florence. He had a daughter there at a seminary for noble young ladies, and had requested me to visit her and bring him letters. This began a more intimate acquaintance, which increased in the summer, by our frequently dining together on Sundays, at the Hotel Metternich. I gratefully remember his good-will towards me.
Shortly after the Emperor's visit, the people of Trieste became intensely anxious about the continuation of their harbor freedom. In the Vienna and Pesth journals, constant attempts were made to close the port, because of the lack of funds in the Austrian customhouse. These articles were known to be from the pen of Ministerial Councillor Von Hock, who had long been controller in Trieste, and who probably expressed the views of the Cabinet. Trieste was disturbed, and the exchange deputation requested me to write a work on free ports in general, and Trieste in particular, in order to distribute it among the high placemen at Vienna, particularly the court councillors, and to get their influence. I undertook the work, finished it in about six months, and laid it before the committee, among whom were Herr Constantin Von Reyer, Herr Von Renner, and other principal men, and they determined to print it, and to have it also translated by me into
French. But Governor Stadion's approval must be had, and he greatly liked the work on the whole, but disliked certain occasional free-thinking tendencies, and thought that the public was not ready to receive it. The committee, like all the public bodies in Trieste, had to bow to the nod of his excellency. I had been paid a good price for the work, and owned the manuscript and copyright. But the governor wanted the committee to buy the copyright, with which I was very ill content.
In the summer of 1844, many strangers had come to Trieste in expectation of a visit from the court, and also for sea bathing. One of these could enjoy but little of the festivities, for he was blind. He had, by his eccentricity and wandering through the world, won a certain celebrity, but had no merit as an intelligent person. He was an English naval lieutenant, by name, James Holman, who had lost his sight by the sudden change from a three years' cruise off the coast of Labrador to the West India station. He was thus obliged to quit the service, at the age of 28, and to retire on lieutenant's half pay. But William IV., himself a sailor, made him a knight of Windsor, which entitled him to a house in Windsor Park, and this house he rented for some £80 or £100. He lived for some years in the country with his brother, a married but childless preacher. But the difference of circumstances and dispositions made the time pass heavily, and Holman determined to wander about the world. Though he had means enough to employ a good servant, he determined to travel alone, and depend upon the help of his chance companions, in hopes thus to secure more admiration and sympathy. This resolve was the more remarkable from the fact that he spoke only English. Thus, for twenty-seven years, he wandered about through Norway and Sweden, Russia to Siberia, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Asia Minor, Egypt, and the Mediterranean African coast, Italy, Spain, France, and part of South America. The only difficulty that he met was in Cracow, Poland, where, in spite of his blindness, he was seized as a spy. thrown for nine months into prison, and only released by an English lady of rank, who heard of him while at her hotel in Cracow. He had published eight 8vo. vols, of his travels, but being all hearsay they were worth-
less; as when he describes the city of Nizza as very small, because, being invited to take a walk, his guide brought him back in half an hour.
He came to Trieste from Greece, and was brought to the Hotel Metternich by a waiter, hoping to find there some one who could speak English. One day, the host came to me and told me that a blind Englishman desired to sit where he could hear his mother tongue, and asked if he might come to my table. I said yes, and he brought Lieutenant Holman forward. He was a good looking man of sixty, with a long, white, silken beard, which he arranged with a pocket-comb every fifteen minutes. I knew him for twenty days, but never heard him utter a thoughtful phrase. He was a dry narrator, and a most vain man. I asked him one day to let me sketch him, as he was a very patriarchal-looking person. I surprised him when half dressed the next morning, and begged hirn to sit still; but he would not until he had made a careful toilette, when he said, "I've done, if you think I am looking well enough." I finished my sketch in twenty minutes, and, after many copies had been asked for, had it lithographed. I wrote the following lines under it:—
Though Providence's stern decree
Forever closed thy mortal eye, Her own is watchful over thee,
And her protection ever nigh.
Thy ways are safe I The torrid zone,
Siberia's snows and barrenness, All climes where'er thou stepst alone,
To thee are harm—and dangerless.
Then travel on until that bourne,
Where thou wilt reach thy journey's end;
"Where all thy vision will return, Aud Heaven's light on thee descend.
These verses gave extraordinary delight to all the English in Trieste, and the English preacher there paid rather a doubtful compliment, by saying, " I did not give you credit for so much religious sense." I met him once more, seven years later, but only to see him pass by me with rapid step.
Another odd acquaintance, who also sought for English intercourse in the Hotel Metternich, was a Scotchman named Keith. He had travelled through Asia Minor, discovered some ancient cities and mines, and published his travels. His predecessor Fellowes, and other travellers, doubted the existence of these mines, since they had not themselves been able to find them. Therefore Keith resolved on another voyage, in which he determined to daguerreotype the scenes. He was now returning to England with full and incontestible proofs of his truthfulness; and he gloried in his anticipated victory.
After completing my work on free ports, I published the second volume of " View of the Commercial World in 1846," and closed my literary career in Trieste by a humorous article on the Dalmatian coast, which by Freiherr Von Bruck's desire I published in the Leipziger Illustrirte Zeitung in 1846. It attracted attention to the Lloyds' steamers. It contained a sketch of a good natured wine-traveller, who when he read it exclaimed, " Only that confounded Nolte could have sketched me so well."
The bread won by literature in Trieste was very uncertain. The few readers in Trieste had no particular taste for statistics or national economy. To have attended industriously to anything else would soon have used up what means I possessed. Mr. Von Bruck now spoke to me of an agency in London for Austrian commerce. It was in the hands of Baron Rothschild, a man who cared only for title, and who wanted to establish a general consulate office in London. He had expressed these desires in Vienna, and had designated me as a proper person for Vice Consul. A correspondence with Mr. Moritz Goldschmidt, partner and agent of the Rothschilds in Vienna, would settle the matter. 1 felt sure of Baron Von Kiiebec's help, and on him the nomination depended. So in my sixty-seventh year I left Trieste for the capital.
Here I first called upon Mr. Goldschmidt, where I was well received, but learned that all depended upon Herr Von Kuebeck. 1 at once called upon him, and received a request to wait upon him the day after, at 2 o'clock. When I saw him he received me as an old acquaintance, told me of the condition of the London
consulate, as well as of that in Paris, and said that a vice consulate was to be formed in each city. That four candidates would be named and presented to him. He then requested me to arrange the matter with the Rothschilds, get my name inscribed, and " when they are presented," said he, " I will choose yours."
When I told this to Mr. Goldschmidt, he said that the salary was now reckoned at £600; but he would know better after seeing Mr. Solomon Rothschild at Paris. He would give me a letter to Baron James, who would introduce me to his father-in-law, Solomon. After eight days' delay I started for Stuttgard, via Ischl, Munich, and Augsburg. Dr. Gustav Kolb, editor of the Allgemeine Zeitung, was my companion part of the way, and accompanied me to visit Mr. Cotta in Stuttgard. I agreed to become the regular correspondent of these gentlemen from Paris, where they had ten correspondents, among others, Mr. Mohl,— this arrangement being made in case I should miss the London appointment; for I had begun to distrust my fate, and to tolerate misfortune. But a good price was offered me for financial letters, and I left Stuttgard and went by Manheim, Frankfort, Cologne, and Brussels to Paris, where I saw my family after a six years' absence. My two daughters had been well educated, and were now pleasant and amiable girls with robust health, such as their poor mother had not had for a long while. I soon saw that there was no hope of the London position, by the politely managed delay of the Rothschilds, and at last a letter from Moritz Goldschmidt informed me that I had better waste no more time with the Rothschilds, as they had requested that some imperial civil officer might be appointed, and that it was therefore beyond Baron Von Kuebec's power to appoint me.
Such are diplomatic promises, but Solomon Rothschild told me that my name headed the list of candidates presented to Herr Von Kiiebec. By this time I saw that it had been settled to give the post to a civil officer, if one could be found, before anything had been said to me. But he was not found, and the post was vacant for five years, until Von Bruck's successor, Herr Von Baumgarten, gave it to Mr. Schwartz, the Austrian secretary of the London Crystal Palace, a very worthy man. Most of the
Austrian consuls-general in the Levant are very clever men, as, for instance, Mr. de Laurie in Bucharest, Dr. Gode in Bayreuth, and Mr. Huber in Alexandria. All these were Austrian civil officers, and therefore did not possess the necessary general knowledge of the commercial world. In England too, a consul particularly needs a knowledge of the language, a very rare accomplishment in an Austrian of rank; for I once heard Count Stadion, at a dinner given to the engineer, Lieut. Waghorn, propose his health, and make a speech in English which nobody could understand. This the more astonished me from the fact, that the count had been in England and admired it.
CHAPTER XXXI.
PARIS, HAMBURGH—VAIN HOPE IN PARIS.
Remarks upon the condition of public affairs there in the years 1847 and 1848— False policy of Louis Philippe—Guizot—Negotiations with the publishing house of Messrs. Perthes, Besser, aud Mauke in Hamburgh, in relation to a revision of William Benecke's work on tbe " System of Insurauce and Bottomry" —Another visit to Hamburgh in 1848—The February Revolution at Paris —Its consequences in Germany—Feverish state of things at Hamburgh— The Hamburgh free-trade paper called the " Deutscher Freihafen"—After the withdrawal of its first leading editor, the management of the concern falls into my hands—The sheet christened the " Deutsche Handel's Zei-tung" (German Commercial Journal) in the beginning of 1849—Dictatorial conduct of the directing committee of shareholders—Exhaustion of the small capital set apart for the support of free-trade principles—The paper dies—The committee set their faces against all explanation of the causes of the paper's decease, aud step in violently—My farewell words to the readers at the close of the paper are despotically suppressed and taken out of the compositor's hands—The revision of W. Benecke's work on " Insu ranee," and the completion of it in the month of April, 1852.
I expected to better my circumstances in Paris by writing, but was disappointed, and so half of 1847 passed away. I had hitherto visited my family in Paris but seldom, and had no opportunity of hearing popular ideas nor public sentiment. But now, after a residence of some months, I began to understand more than appeared in the journals. I had passed the first five years of Louis Philippe's reign in Paris, and the other ten abroad, so that the change of public sentiment came suddenly before me. Louis Philippe owed his crown to a mercantile combination, under the direction of Lafayette; and that he pleased the bourgeois well enough, and the nation had taken him as they would anybody else,
yet he had no hold upon the national affection. He based himself only on his goodness as a father, and the remarkable virtues of his family. But he soon showed that he had no interest at heart but the private interests of his family. The costly festivities in Paris, and the search for kingly alliances, proved his present views, and the hidden conflict between the bourgeoisie and his monarchical principles must soon leak out. As the princes became popular, they lost favor with him. His ideal was Louis XIV.; and he gave as his reason for this, that the less indubitable the authority, the easier it would be to rule the people. The venality of Teste, his minister, and the therewith connected plans of Cubieres and others, were well known to him ; and when Teste was exposed by his colleagues, Louis Philippe made him seal-bearer and grand cross of the legion of honor. Any person in Paris could see how slight was the tie between ruler and people. To this was added Guizot's unpopularity. This man so praised abroad, so hated at home, with indubitable first-rate talent, never could win public confidence nor remove suspicion; and yet believed that a minister must be useful in proportion to his lack of popularity. In such a state of affairs, intrigues were, of course, successful. The letters found in the king's portfolio from De Joinville and D'Aumale, prove that they understood the state of things, and had vainly endeavored to change his measures with reference to the banquets and other assemblages. Many a time have I said to friends, that if the king allowed his ministers to have their way, he was playing with his crown. The people knew that he had lost, in 1847, his best counsellor, his sister, the Princess Adelaide, and had now no guide but that false one Guizot.
Letters from Messrs. Perthes, Besser, & Mauke called me back to Hamburgh in February of the next year. These gentlemen had long wanted to publish a new edition of William Benecke's " System of Assurance and Bottomry," which should show the progress of this system during the last forty years, and its picsent position. They asked me to point out the best man in Trieste for this. Now the best men in Trieste for this were Italians, and could not write German. I told them so, and recommended them to ask Mr. C. Regensdorif, the well instructed business man of
Messrs. Reyer & Schlik. His answer was that since I had left Trieste, there was no one left worth mentioning. Therefore commenced the correspondence which took me to Hamburgh.
The changes that had followed the great conflagration made me a stranger to everything but the basin of the Alster. My last visit had been in 1830, and I found a new exchange, but in it no faces of my youthful friends, but plenty of antiquated behind-the-age people. As I never liked these in my youth, I cared not for their acquaintance now. Forty-five years were between those days and these, and I expected to see some trace of progress in those faces ; but no ! I can write it as truth, they are to-day what they ever were.
As a proof of what I could do, I wrote a treatise on Bottomry, quite departing from Benecke's ideas, and simplifying the matter. This work greatly pleased one high exchange authority, and displeased another less instructed ; but I succeeded at last in explaining matters to him, and then began my task.
Scarcely had I commenced when the news of the French Revo lution, of February 24th, reached Hamburgh, during exchange hours, on the 27th. It was unexpected all over Europe; but it fell like a thunderbolt on Hamburgh. Later news threw some light on the matter, but people were watching the shaking of the first throne in Germany. When the Berlin revolution of March took place, and was followed by that of Vienna, the faces of the Hamburghers waxed very sad, and every man of property looked about sadly, to see how he might preserve it. When Cassar and king knew no longer wherein their safety lay ; when one fled from his throne and capital, and another, as they say, lurked for days in his chamber, how could the Hamburgh Senate, like the walls of Jericho, not fall at the first trumpet blast, and make promises that they never could keep. The so-called leaders of the people from Wiirtemburg, Hungary, the Rhine, and other parts of Germany, came to Hamburgh, and required the Senate to promise what they called an amelioration of the condition of the people. Constitutionality was talked about, the red flag hoisted, and Hamburgh greatly frightened. At this time, a journal belonging to the free-trade class, and called " German Free Ports," which had been
founded six months before, was deserted by its editor, Dr. Scherer, and his place was offered to me. I took it the more readily that my employers in the " Assurance " work were too much occupied with politics to go on with it.
I was to have been presented to my collaborateurs on Monday, May 22, but this was put off. The close of the week approached, and as the paper must appear on Saturday, I started with directions or instructions, and got out the No. for May 28th, alone.
Eleven more numbers appeared under my editorship. The first stone of stumbling was the news of Radetzky's victory at Custozza, of the probable effect of which on Italy's political independence I spoke in the number for August 13. 1 uttered sentiments natural to one who was born an Italian, and who had adopted the United States, and learned there the love of unchecked liberty. But Hamburghers could only see that a German army had conquered an Italian one, and over this they rejoiced. As I defended my position, it produced a noise. There were in Hamburgh plenty of zealots for Prussia and its king. I was accused of positive untruthfulness in many of my statements, particularly the cruelties of General Wrangel, and I was reduced to dismiss my Berlin correspondent. But I could not get another without going to Berlin, and therefore I went. There I found that all that he had written about Wrangel was very positively true, and that that general had forcibly entered and searched the houses of merchants Heil in the Leipzig street, Krebs in the Jerusalem street, Burgher Otto at the ship-yards, Counsellor of Justice Lindau, and Mr. Hilden-dagen under the Lindens, and that he had destroyed the machinery in the printery of Mr. Krause. I knew many friends of free trade in Berlin, but none would now take the correspondentship, and 1 had nothing left but to thank the former correspondent, T. M., for what he had done. When I came back, I simply said that I had engaged a good correspondent, and when the new letters appeared people were delighted with them. A year later, I informed them that the new correspondent was the original T. M.
The idea of a Red Republic filled all heads, and men tried to prove its existence. Our Frankfort correspondent was suspected of misrepresenting matters. I told their committee that the oor-
respondent was my predecessor, Dr. Scherer, and that his letters appeared to me to be the best that I had seen. But the committee had other views, and I was required on June 2, 1849, to promise that no further letters should be received from Dr. Scherer; that from the beginning of the third quarter no more political correspondence should appear, and that the Berlin, Frankfort, and other correspondents, should be notified by me to cease; and that instead of correspondence the leading article should be a weekly review of politics and news.
I was astonished at this, that a committee of merchants should thus interfere with an editor's business. But the paper was governed by a committee consisting of the editor and four merchants. The secret of the whole difficulty probably was that I, as citizen of the United States, was a republican, and they knew no difference between the American and the Red Republicans.
Finally, for want of means and subscribers, I laid down my editorial dignity on the 29th September, 1849. I had written a farewell article, which was at the printer's. A member of the committee heard of it, went to the office, and ordered it to be left out. In the last number I read as follows:
" Although to-day's is the last number of the German Commercial Journal, yet the desire of furthering free trade by means of the press is not resigned, and there will shortly appear a weekly paper called the ' Borsenhalle (Exchange) Times,' in which the reader will find all necessary information on the views and principles of the friends of free frade."
This paper, edited by Carl Roback, of Berlin, was found not to pay, and was abandoned after three months' publication.
During my editorship, I was often told to attend to. the views of the " Hamburgh Exchange," but never could find out where they were expressed. Every man had his own ideas; and the political ideas of merchants are of but little value, as they result not from a cosmopolitan way of thinking, but simply from the consideration of private interests, and it is very seldom that a merchant's opinions are founded upon the general well being of the mass.
I now returned to my " System of Assurance and Bottomry ;"
begun on October 2, 1849, given up until January, 1852, and then finished in three months. I had begun this work in my seventieth year, and finished it in my seventy-third. Its reception by the public has proven its usefulness, and therefore I may be allowed here to repeat the closing words:
" My greatest desire in publishing a work, the difficulties of which no man can comprehend, is to free myself from all illusions about my own force, and to prove that I have not over estimated my capabilities. If it be true, I shall enjoy the pleasing consciousness that my life, so full of action, has left behind it some traces of usefulness."
The close of my life is probably not far off, and in writing the last lines of this volume I would say a word about these sketches from life. For the great mass of readers they will possess but little interest, but for those who have known me, this work may awaken a fresh interest in the past, nor will it be unacceptable to them to walk with me along that varied way which I have travelled for so many years. This I deemed their due and mine, and for it I hope that this work will not be quite overlooked.
VINCENT NOLTE. Hamburgh, May, 1853.
THE END.
21
APPENDIX.
The reader must bear in mind that this work is a translation, and that the free use of personalities is indulged in by a foreigner, and a man who has evidently formed hasty conclusions.
The financial allusions to Edward Livingston and Mr. Davezac are upon matters not thoroughly understood by Mr. Nolte. They belong to the political animosities of the past, and would have been suppressed were it not considered that the duty of a translator is faithfulness to his text.
The allusions to ^General Scott's appearance in Paris, after the battle of Waterloo (page &&), were no doubt occasioned by ill-feeling for some fancied slight, growing out of the circumstances described below—which has been furnished, from recollection, by a gentleman who was in Paris at the time, and was personally cognizant of what he states.
General Scott, soon after the battle of "Waterloo, was in Paris: France, then occupied by more than half a million of hostile troops, did not belong to Frenchmen. Some of the British regiments which had been with General Ross and Admiral Cockburn, at Washington, were now quartered in Paris, and, as a pleasant conceit, got up a dinner in that capital, to celebrate the anniversary of the burning of the national buildings [civil], the archives and library, in the capital of another hemisphere. Hundreds of other British officers, of high rank, were present, as approving guests. This continued want of shame on the part of the Vandals, fired General S. with indignation, and he employed months in arranging a retaliatory celebration. Receiving the hearty support of the American officers, and many other citizens, then in Paris—Mr. Jackson, Charge dAffaires; Colonels Drayton, M'Ree, Thayer and Archer; his aid-de-camp, Major Mercer, his companion, H. Leathenworth, Esquire, of New York, <fcc. <fec. &c. &c. —General S., passing by the war events in which he himself had participated, fixed upon the 8th of January—the first anniversary of the battle of New Orleans—when some ninety Americans met, to give vent to their feelings. It is possible that Mr. Nolte, as a resident of New Orleans, may have been called upon to subscribe ; but if not, he, certainly, being on the spot, learned the whole history of this dinner. General S. presided. The leading or retaliatory toast, was, of course, General Jackson and his glorious defence of New Orleans! given by Scott with warmth, and all the circumstances which enhanced the victory and
deepened the shame of the defeated; together with a severe animadversion on the recent celebration of the barbarian acts perpetrated at Washington. Nothing was neglected that could give publicity and eclat to the retaliation, The elaborate preparations were mentioned in the highest French, Russian, and German circles, with which Gen. Scott and his American friends were on the most amicable terms. The Hotel Robert was the place selected for meeting, where the allied sovereigns, when in Paris, had habitually dined, and where the elite of the British empire were daily to be seen, in January, 1816—(Parliament met a month later)—Lord Hill's head-quarters, with a battalion of household troops, was within half pistol shot; all the American officers were in full costume, <fcc. <fec. (fee. <fec. General S. drew up a full account of the dinner, which The Constitutionel, though a liberal paper, did not dare to publish (being under censorship) till the name of Sir Edward Pakenham (he being the brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington) was expunged, as well as the relative numbers engaged at New Orleans—because of the great excess on the British side. Gen. S., however, at the expense of some guineas, caused the full account to be published, as an advertisement, in one of the London journals. Such, no doubt, were the grounds of Mr. Nolte's sneers at the American major general (low rank certainly), in a crowd of field marshals, full generals, and lieutenant generals—many of whom, nevertheless, stood towards him as attentive friends.
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" When we say that the book before us is calm in style as it is forcible in matter, we nave indicated a sufficiency of good qualities to secure the attention of the reader, who would extend his sympathies and secure himself a due degree of amusement, without —what is not uncommon in books with similar titles—a shock to his taste, or insult to his judgment. There is nothing equal to them in the book illustrations of the day. A special paragraph should be given to the illustrations by Darley."— Literary World
*k
A THANKSGIVING STORY.
Chanticleer: A Story of the Peabody Family. By Cornelius Mathews. With Illustrations by Darley, Walcutt, and Dallas. 12 mo. 75 cents.
••Its success is already a fixed fact in our literature. 'Chanticleer' is one of those simple and interesting tales which, like the ' Vicar of Wakefield' and Zchokke's ' Poor Pastor,' win their way to the reader's heart and dwell there. It is full of sunshine: a hearty and a genial book."— New York Daily Times.
" ' Chanticleer' is scarcely inferior In a literary point of view to any of the Christmas stories of Charles Dickens, and is more interesting to Americans because of its allusions to the peculiar customs of this country."— N. Y. Com. Advertiser.
••• Chanticleer* has won the public heart, both by the felicity of its subject, and thb grace, wit, and goodness, displayed in its execution."— Southern Literary Gazette.
"It possesses literary merit of the highest order, and will live in the affections of afl readers of good taste and good morals, not only while Thanksgiving dinners are remf m bered, but while genius is appreciated."— Morning Ncvos, Savannah.
REDFIELD'S NEW AND P0PU11R PUBLICATIONS.
CLOVERNOOK;
Or, Recollections of our Neighborhood in the West. By Alicr Caret. Illustrated by Darley. One vol., 12mo., price $1.00. (Fourth edition.)
" In this volume there is a freshnees which perpetually charms the reader. You seem ta be made free of western homes at once."— Old Colony Memorial.
" They bear the true stamp of genius—simple, natural, truthful—and evince a keen •ense of the humor and pathos, of the comedy and tragedy, of life in the country.''— 2 Q Wh.iU.ier.
TF*.
DREAM-LAND BY DAY-LIGHT:
A Panorama of Romance. By Caroline Chesebho'. Illustrated t>y Darley. One vol., 12mo., price $1.25. (Second edition.)
" These simple and beautiful stories are all highly endued with an exquisite perception of natural beauty, with which is combined an appreciative sense of its relation to the highest moral emotions."— Albany State Register.
" Gladly do we greet this floweret in the field of our literature, for it is fragrant with sweet and bright with hues that mark it to be of Heaven's own planting."— Courier and Enquirer.
" There is a depth of sentiment and feeling not ordinarily met with, and some of the noblest faculties and affections of man's nature are depicted and illustrated by the aktt-ful pen of the authoress."— Churchman.
*
LAYS OF THE SCOTTISH CAVALIERS.
By William E. Aytoun, Professor of Literature and Belles-Let
tres in the University of Edinburgh and Editor of Blackwood's Magazine. One vol., 12mo. cloth, price $1.00.
" Since Lockhart and Macaulay's ballads, we have had no metrical work to be compared in spirit, vigor, and rhythm with this. These ballads knbedy and embalm the chief historical incidents of Scottish history—literally in 'thoughts that breathe and words that burn.' They are full of lyric energy, graphic description, and genuine feel mg."— Home Journal.
" The fine ballad of • Montrose' in this collection is alone worth the price of the book,' Soston Transcript.
<5/^
THE BOOK OF BALLADS. By Bon Gaultier. One volume, 12rao., cloth, price 75 cents.
" Here is a book for everybody who loves classic fun. It is made up of ballads o* 11 sorts, each a capital parody upon the style of some one of the best lyric writers of Ihe time, from the thundering versification of Lockhart and Macaulay to the sweetest and simplest strains of Wordsworth and Tennyson. The author is one of the first •cholars, and one of the most finished writers of the day, and this production is but the frolic of his genius in play-time■"— Courier and Enquirer.
" We do not know to whom belongs this nom de plume, but he is certainly a humeri*! af no wimracn powrr."— Providence Journal.
REDFIELDS NEW AND POPULAR PUBLICATIONS.
LEE'S TALES OF LAB OB.
SUMMERFIELD;
Or, Life on a Farm. By Day Kellogg Lee. One vol., 12mo; price $1.00.
" We hare read it with lively and satisfied interest. The scenes are natural, the characters homely and life-like, and the narrative replete with passages of the profoundest pathos, and incidents of almost painful interest. Above all, ' Summerfield' is in the deepest sense religious, and calculated to exert a strong and wholesome moral influence on its readers, who we trust will be many."— Horace Greeley.
" It aims to teach the lesson of contentment, and the rural picture which it draws, and the scenes of home happiness with which it makes us acquainted, are well calculated to enforce it."— Atlas.
" There is a great deal of life and nature in the story, and in some of the scenes there is a rich display of wit."— Albany Argus.
" It has a flavor of originality, and the descriptions are generally excellent; and, what is something of a peculiarity at present in writing of this kind, not overburdened with words."— Literary World.
«i
THE MASTER BUILDER;
Or, Life at a Trade. By Day Kellogg Lee. One vol., 12mo; price $1.00.
" He is a powerful and graphic writer, and from what we have seen in the pages of the ' Master Builder,' it is a romance of excellent aim and success."— State Register.
" The ' Master Builder* is the master production. It is romance into which is instilled the realities of life; and incentives are put forth to noble exertion and virtue. The story is pleasing—almost fascinating; the moral is pure and undefiled."— Daily Times.
" Its descriptions are, many of them, strikingly beautiful; commingling in good pro-portions, the witty, the grotesque, the pathetic, and the heroic. It may be read with profit as well as pleasure."— Argus.
" The work before us will commend itself to the masses, depicting as it does mosf graphically the struggles and privations which await the unknown and uncared-foi Mechanic in his journey through life. It is what might be called a romance, but not of love, jealousy, and revenge order."— Lockport Courier.
1 The whole scheme of the story is well worked up and very instructive."— Albany
A
MERRIMAC;
Or, Life at the Loom. By Day Kellogg Lee. One vol., 12mo; price $1.00.
" A new volume of the series of popular stories which have already gained a well-deserved reputation for the author. As a picture of an important and unique phase of New England life, the work is very interesting, and can scarcely fail of popularity among the million."— Harper's Magazine.
" The work is extremely well written. It is as interesting as a novel, while it is natural as every-day life."— Boston Traveller.
* Merrimac is a story which, by its simple pathos, and truthfulness to nature, will touch the heart of every reader. It is free from the least tinge of that odious stilted style of thought and diction characteristic of the majority of the novels with which the reading public are deluged."— N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.
" Another plain, straightforward, absorbing work from a pen which before has added riches to our literature, and honor to him who wielded it."— Buffalo Express.
" It is written in a genial spirit and abounds in humor."— N. Y. Courier and Enquirer.
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY