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a ladder and makes two chalk marks just above the parlor windows. What the deuce are they about? Two mornings after, on looking out, we find bricklayers busy at work, scaffolding erected, the two parlor windows knocked into one; we rush out, we inquire; No. 94 is to be converted-not into a yes! by all that's low and vulgar, into a shop! and Candlestickmaker Street is ruined for ever! Mr. Maraboo, court plumassier and dresser of ostrich feathers to her serene Highness the reigning Duchess of Saxe Schweinhausen, has taken possession of No. 94, and his example is quickly followed by his brother tradesmen. At first we are common only to the higher ranks of business: Pickolow the pianoforte maker, and Schrouk the upholsterer, set up their Lares and Penates among us; and for a time all vacant tenements are seized upon by rivals in their respective trades. Wondrous cabinets, and carpets, and looking-glasses range themselves in the windows of the furnituredealers; and crowds of enthusiastic boys gather round the doors of the musical warehouses, through the windows of which Herr Kladiespieler can be seen thrumming Mozart and Mendelssohn by the light of the ordinary domestic composite, gas being as yet a luxury unknown. Driven by competition, Pickolow falls slightly from his high estate, surrounds his door with bills of operas, concerts-nay, even of minor theatres; the three linendrapers who have established themselves at the lower end of Candlestickmaker Street, wage a furious internecine war, and use every effort to extinguish each other. Tickets begin to appear in their windows; gloves are labelled "Gents' neat dog-skin;" a printed placard attached to a Turkish dressing-gown, inquires, "Isn't this a stunner?" finally, opposite the most vulgar, stands a degraded being, dressed in a cocked hat, and stiff and impracticable clothing of painted deal board, and hands bills to the passers by.

Who would have believed that there could have been amusements in Candlestickmaker? yet such is now the case! Yes, sir, independently of the gentleman who, on stated days, wheels round that zoological collection, which is always in such a state of brotherly beatitude, we have a fixed and permanent show. Madame Meltzi, the famous wax

modeller from Florence, has taken up her quarters among us, and filled an enormous gallery with her collection of dead and living celebrities. Are you a great general, statesman, or litterateur, Madame Meltzi nails you at once; have you burked your grandmother, or artistically poisoned a rival, or have you been murdered yourself, then you are at the Repository of Crime, Candlestickmaker Street, within a fortnight after the deed has been done! And not only you, but every little adjunct that can stimulate public curiosity, the tooth-brush you last used, the pair of socks in which you walked to execution, together with a small portion of your favorite coin, all neatly labelled, and covered by a glass case! Of course, in these enlightened days, people crowd to see such things. Madame Meltzi has realized a large fortune; and my street, once so quiet and aristocratic, is thronged with dashing cabs and nobby suburban flies.

In the lowest depth there is a deeper still, and we have one greater nuisance even than Madame Meltzi. The agricultural population of England has a yearly gathering, to which it sends all the monsters it has taken the twelve previous months to bring to perfection. Megatherian oxen, elephantine pigs, and Colchian-fleeced sheep, are all swarmed into one building, where they sleep, and snore, and bellow for five days, admired, caressed, felt, punched, and pinched by the bold peasantry, their country's pride. Where is this building. situate? up what street do these rustics throng? Candlestickmaker Street, if you please, erst the home of

never mind. I can write no more. This last scene of torture has just taken place! my roads have been whipped into thick mud, my pavement ground by heavy boots, an extemporary cab-stand established before my door, enormously stout men in wondrous top-coats have lounged against my area railings excluding the blessed light of day; a vermilion-colored boy has been planted at every thirty yards, and a perpetual chorus of "Clean your boots has awoke the slumbering echoes of Blackjob Square. This is the end: my mind is unhinged, my spirit broken, and next quarterday I quit Candlestickmmaker Street-for ever!

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At Herr Kling's Private Subscription Rooms, 454, New Oxford Street.

THE following eight gentlemen have entered the lists in the above tournament, and been paired by lot to play thus:

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three games. Mr. Marett has won two games; Col. Szabo ditto two games.

From the games played we have selected the following for the amusement of our readers. First Game of Match between Messrs. Brien and Zytogorski, played 30th April, 1855, at Her Kling's Chess Club Rooms.

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21. Q. R. to Q. Kt. third21. 22. K. R. to Q. third 23. B. to Q. second 24. R. takes R.

25. R. to Q. Kt. third 26. R. to Q. R. third 27. P. to Q. Kt. third 28. B. P. takes P. (ch.) 29. P. takes P. (check) 30. R. takes P.

31. P. takes R.

32. P. to R. fifth

K. R. to Q. Kt. square 22. P. to K. R. fourth 23. P. to Q. R. fourth 24. R. takes R. 25. R. to Q. R. square 26. P. to Q. R. fifth 27. P. to Q. fourth 28. P. takes P. 29. K. takes P. 30. R. takes R. 31. K. to Q. B. fifth 32. K. to Kt. fourth

K. to R. third

34. P. to K. Kt. fifth 35. B. to Q. B. fourth 36. B. to K. Kt. eighth 37. P. takes P. 38. P. takes P. en passant 39. B. to Q. B. fourth 40. B. to K. B. square 41. B. to K. Kt. second 42. P. to Q. B. third 43. B. to K. R. third 44. B. to K. B. square 45. P. to Q. B. fourth 46. K. takes P.

33. P. to Q. R. fourth (ch.)33. 34. K. to B. square 35. K. to K. second 36. P. to B. third 37. P. takes P. 38. P. to K. R. fourth 39. P. takes P. 40. P. to K. R. fourth 41. K. to Q. third 42. K. to K. fourth 43. B. to Q. B. third 44. P. to K. R. fifth 45. K. to K. B. fifth 46. B. takes P. 47. K. to K. Kt. sixth 48. P. to K. R. sixth 49. K. takes B.

47. P. to Q. B. fifth
48. B. takes P.
49. K. takes P.

And the game was drawn.
Duration-Four hours and a half.

Match Game played at Kling's Chess Rooms between Messrs. Green and Zytogorski.

WHITE (MR. G). 1. P. to Q. B. fourth 2. P. takes P. 3. Kt. to Q. B. third 4. P. to K. third 5. P. to K. Kt. third 6. K. Kt. to K. second 7. B. to K. Kt. second 8. Castles

9. P. to Q. fourth 10. P. takes P. 11. Q. to Q. B. second 12. P. to K. B. third 13. P. to K. B. fourth 14. Q. to Q. R. fourth (b) 15. B. to Q. second 16. Kt. to Q. fourth 17. Q. Kt. to K. second 18. Kt. takes B. 19. Q. R. to Q. square 20. Kt. to Q. fourth 21. B. to Q. R. fifth 22. B. takes Kt. 23. R. to. Q. Kt. square 24. R. takes Q. 25. R. takes P. 26. Kt. to K. B. fifth 27. Kt. takes B. 28. R. to Q. Kt. fourth 29. R. to Q. B. fourth 30. B. to Q. Kt. fourth 31. B. takes P. (e) And White resigns.

BLACK (MR. Z).

1. P. to Q. fourth
2. Q. takes P.
3. Q. to Q square
4. P. to K. fourth

5. Kt. to K. B. third
6. B. to K. Kt. fifth
7. P. to Q. B. third
8. B. to Q. third
9. Castles

10. B. takes P.
11. Kt. to Q. R. third
12. B. to K. third (a)
13. Kt. to Q. Kt. fifth
14. B. to Q. third
15. Q. to Q. B. second
16. B. to Q. B. fifth
17. B. takes Kt.
18. Q. to Q. Kt. third
19. Q. Kt. to Q. fourth
20. K. R. to K. square (c)
21. Q. takes P.
22. Kt. takes B.
23. Kt. to Q. B. sixth (d)
24. Kt. takes Q.
25. R. takes P.
26. R. to Q. sixth
27. R. takes Kt.
28. Kt. to Q. B. fourth
29. Kt. to Q. second
30. P. to Q. B. fourth
31. R. to Q. B. third

(a) Better than playing Bishop to K. R. fourth. (b) White ought to have offered the exchange of Queen's, rather than playing her Q. R. fourth. (c) This move gains a Pawn by force.

(d) A compelling and good move.

(e) A fatal oversight, which cost him a piece.

LITERARY

MRS. GREEN, one of the most deservedly eminent of our lady historians, has brought to a close her widely popular Lives of the Princesses of England, from the Norman Conquest.* The various fortunes of the ladies whose career is noted in these volumes, and in which the sad and mournful preponderates infinitely over the joyous, teach, in emphatic characters, the lesson that happiness and high station are things not only very different, but most generally very far apart, from each other. Through the long, long vista of six hundred years, we find that trouble, calamity, sadness of heart, the sacrifice of all that is dearest to the heart of woman, would, in general, describe the life and position of those whom happy ignorance is apt to regard with envy. This remark is, indeed, of almost universal application down to a very recent period. The lives of the " Princesses," equally with those of the "Queens," may be profitably

London: Hurst and Blackett.

NOTES.

studied by all who have contracted the habit of sighing for the glitter, the "pomp and circumstance," of high station. Of such aspirations it may, with truth, be said that "all is vanity," delusion, and self-deceit. But, passing from these considerations, it gives us pleasure to bear testimony to the industry, the diligence, the mature and extensive information, ranging over the authorities of various countries and different ages, displayed in this work. It would be untruthful to say that Mrs. Green is without her decided prepossessions-it would be untruthful to say that she keeps them invariably out of sight, or that she abstains in all cases from expressing cathedral opinions upon matters which are notoriously stock subjects of dispute. In fact, we have more than once been struck, whilst examining these volumes, by the naiveté with which the author takes for granted propositions, bearing on personal character as well as on historical fact, which are, and are likely to remain for ever, moot points amongst the

learned. But it would be quite unfair to set up this as an impeachment of her merit, or as an imputation against the general value of the work. The salient energy which the author sometimes displays, on questions apparently near her heart, will tend to set intelligent readers a-thinking, and thus to make the book the means of introducing them to a wider range of study and inquiry than they might otherwise have entered on. The amount of actual learning which was indispensable for the production of a work like this was very considerable, and is one of the oftrecurring rebukes administered to the ridiculous assumption that the organization of women is incapable of putting to effectual use the more solid results of intellectual culture.

ALL who desire to "know everything worth knowing," relative to the antecedents, the services, the personal, professional, and general character and peculiarities of those of our countrymen who have distinguished themselves at the seat of war, or in any way acquired reputation in direct connection with the struggle, will find their wishes gratified by Mr. GEORGE RYAN'S admirable series of sketch-biographies, Our Heroes on the Crime!* Mr. Ryan is facile princeps of biographers in brief. He possesses a rare and happy faculty of grasping the salient points of a subject, rejecting what is idle or irrelevant, and, by a masterly process of condensation, or rather concentration, epitomising, without diminishing, the interest of the narratives and descriptions. Thus it is that he frequently brings together, within the compass of two or three modest pages, every essential and interesting particular of a career over which a less accomplished biographer would have plodded tediously and uninstructively through half a volume. The substance of many of the memoirs has previously appeared in a weekly journal of large circulation, The Dispatch." They have since, we believe, undergone a careful process of revision (and, probably, of expurgation and emendation); and are now published in a neat, compact, and cheap vol

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Having paid a merited tribute to the ability and skill with which the work is executed, it be hoves us to add, that our commendations do not necessarily imply concurrence with all the criticisms and opinions pronounced by the author upon innumerable matters included in the category of vexata questiones. Our commendation is rather bestowed upon the style and spirit with which he addresses himself to matters of fact.

THE facts adduced and proved in a curious pamphlet, entitled, An Inquiry into the Truth of the Accusations made against the Marquis of Clanricarde,† in connection with the circumstances preceding the celebrated trial" Handcock v. Delacour," furnish a somewhat painful, but by no means uninstructive illustration, of the grievous hardship often produced by the abuse of privilege by counsel, followed up by precipitate conclusions and hasty commentary from the public press. In the course of the trial in question, insinuation, imputation, and accusation, woven together with the utmost subtlety of forensic

*London: G. Routledge and Co,

† London: W. II. Dalton.

VOL. VI. N. S.

ingenuity, were, in order to "make an impression," and gain a point, uttered with consummate audacity and recklessness. And the mischief did not stop here. The legal calunnies were uttered for the purpose of gaining an end within the walls of the law court; but, inconsiderately taken for granted and enlarged upon by certain newspapers, they threatened to produce an effect on the public mind most cruel and unjust to Lord Clanricarde. All the while (as is rendered simply self-evident by the "chapter and verse" proofs contained in the pamphlet before us), there was absolutely not a tittle of substantial truth in the charges. The refutation does not rest on mere probabilities - it is absolute, complete-totus, teres, atque rotundus. The whole tissue of impeachment is distinctly shown to have no foundation better than the powers of phantasmagorical distortion possessed by interested pleaders. It is fortunate for his own sake, and for that of justice and fair play, that Lord Clanricarde happened to have the means of effecting this thorough process of self-vindication; but many persons equally innocent, and with hands really as clean as his, have been the victims of forensic slanders, because they did not possess the opportunity of explanation and refutation. Thus it might have been with him. Really the gentlemen of the long robe, and our brethren of the newspaper press, ought to be more careful in the exercise of the privileges which custom accords to them.

THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM has completed his most interesting and important work, Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third, from Original and Family Documents.* The last volumes, just published, comprise the period from 1800 to 1810-a period during which Great Britain was passing through one of the most perilous crises in her history. It was a time when Europe trembled and tottered before the crushing blows and astonishing fortune of one gigantic will, which seemed destined to overshadow the whole earth with its all-absorbing success. Some idea will be formed of the nature of the contents of these volumes, when it is stated that the distinguished names figuring in them comprehend those of the great majority of contemporaneous personages of firstrate note in our own country, and of a vast number of the pre-eminent celebrities of foreign cour tries. The Grenville correspondence is itself a perfect magazine of information, of a kind the most interesting (and in many respects most novel) to those who love to penetrate below the surface, and trace the deep motive-causes of great events. It is impossible to conceive a more valuable addition to genuine pbilosophic history, or one in which secret transactions of state, which have long puzzled the cogitations of the uninitiated, are rendered more intelligible. Though probably not so intended by the noble author, the work is in many parts an embodied reflection on the system of bureaucracy, the merits and demerits of which have of late been the subject of so much controversy. The individualities of eminent men are brought forward in daguerreotype lines of their own drawing, and curious examples everywhere abound of the extent to which trifles, seemingly

* London: Hurst and Blackett.

light as air, affect the most grave and momentous issues, on which the fate of nations depends. Without alluding to the circumstances which caused the noble editor's retirement from the stage of public life, we feel bound to say that they have procured one important advantage for the publicthat of affording him the leisure which led to the publication of these volumes, and enabled him to acquit himself, so industriously as he has done, of his editorial duties.

AMONGST American litterateurs, even the names of Washington Irving and of J. F. Cooper are scarcely more familiar to us here in England, than that of Mr. N. P. WILLIS. Very early in his career, when visitors from the Western shores of the Atlantic were few and far between, Mr. Willis committed a grave error-an error, however, which brought him into immediate and prominent notice. His "Pencillings by the Way" would never have become so famous-nay, notwithstanding its many exquisite touches of humor and pathos, and accurate sketches of persons and places, it might haply have passed into oblivion long ere now--but for the hardihood) (arising perhaps from thoughtlessness, or ignorance of our British notions in this respect) with which the young author laid bare the secrets of the penetralia to which our national hospitality had gained him admittance. In fact, portions of conversations meant to be "strictly confidential," were retailed by him with a freedom which nothing but the allowance due to inexperience, and to the free-and-easy conventionalities of a republican education, could excuse. We have all learned to forgive Mr. Willis for that early error, and to recognize his claim to an eminent place amongst the gifted men and women who sustain the growing literary repute of our American cousins. His last work, Out-doors at Idlewild; or, The Shaping of a Home on the Banks of the Hudson,* is one of his characteristic performances. It describes, with the elegance of thought and polish of diction in which he has no superior, the sort of life our author leads amid the sunny scenery which he has chosen for his (we suspect somewhat Sybaritic) abode. In the hands of most writers, the minutia treated of in these sketches-light and airy as they are- would become impertinent and tedious; Mr. Willis makes them not only endurable, but interesting-not only pretty, but fascinating. We believe it is out of Mr. Willis's line-out of his power-to write what Mr. Carlyle would call a "muscular" book; a book of great concentrated force, embodying strong passion and deep thought. He will be, as he has been, sketchy. If he attempted to be anything else, he would, we think, commit a mistake. Let him only continue to be so charming a sketcher, and (even though he persist in being so extravagantly complimentary to his compatriots) he will be read and admired; and people in both hemispheres will unite in wishing that the day may be distant on which he carries out his threat of ceasing to write books.

THE author of " Uncle Tom's Cabin" appears determined not to rest until she has retrieved, as much as possible, the reputation which she so grievously impaired by that most nonsensical of

* London: Trübner and Co.

maudlin concoctions, the absurd "Sunny Memories." She has just written a series of genuine Yankee home-pictures-Tales and Sketches of New England Life.* It is, of course, not to be expected that they will have such a "run" as her first work, which owed its success as much to its subject as to the peculiar ability displayed in it. But it will be read with anxious interest by thousands of those who, having admired Mrs. STOWE's masterpiece, were so "astonied" by the imbecile trashiness of its successor, as to question the possibility of her having had even a leading part in the composition of the former. Without instituting any examination into the degree of credit attributable to the rumors that the great anti-slavery tale was the work of many hands-rumors which, by the by, have received no tangible confirmation-we are happy to say that the New England sketches must remove all doubt as to Mrs. Stowe being (independently of collateral aid) an able, graceful, and gifted writer. Unfriendly criticism might object to various passages of strained or mistaken sentiment, as where she introduces a devoted and heroic missionary, who has done glorious work in the propagation of scriptural truth, and who is fully aware of the greatness of that work, yet repining, at intervals, because he had not adopted the worldly pursuits which lead to wealth and ease. Why, a man of the stamp represented would not, for a single instant, have felt discontent at the part he had chosen. His consciousness of its superior happiness and dignity would have been present always and everywhere. But aliquando dormitat, &c. The book is a capital one, and will, on many accounts, be hailed joyfully by the author's numerous admirers.

WE fear the Society of Antiquaries are quarrelling among themselves-that there is a "divided interest" in their councils, boding no good to the prosperity of the institution, or to the value of the investigations carried on, collectively or individually, by the learned members. We by no means concur with the ridicule and sarcasm in which it is the very usual custom to indulge when alluding to antiquaries. Without speculating on the probability whether that custom be chiefly referable to the least respectable "points" developed in Sir Walter Scott's celebrated character, we are prepared to declare our belief that the vastly larger proportion of their labors is useful and honorable, and that the majority of them are gentlemen of good sense as well as of erudition. It does not follow that, because here and there a false cry of "Eureka" is raised about some mare's nest, or an occasional mistake is made by a delver amongst the relics of the past, all is barAchieved results have proved that it is not The Rev. HENRY CHRISTMAS has addressed to Lord Stanhope, the President of the Society, a letter On its Present Condition and Future Prospects, in which a number of complaints is brought against its present system of management, and many important changes, elective and otherwise, proposed, as a means of imparting vigor, influence, and efficiency to its operations. It is impossible for us to pronounce an opinion on the merits of the reverend gentleman's recommendations. They may or may not be founded on a

ren.

SO.

*London: Sampson Low and Son. † London: Partridge and Oakey.

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