all who hear my voice will join with me in the tribute I desire to pay to the genius of Longfellow." In our admiration for his original poems, we must not omit to mention the many masterly translations which Mr. Longfellow has executed. His first published work was a translation of Don Jorge Manrique's fine ode on the death of his father. His latest is an admirable selection, entitled "Poems of Places." The two volumes devoted to England and Wales take a very wide range, and form as pleasant reading as can well-nigh be conceived. Mr. Longfellow states that this collection has been made partly for the pleasure of making it, and partly for the pleasure he hopes it may give to those who shall read its pages. "It is the voice of the poets expressing their delight in the scenes of nature, and, like the song of the birds, surrounding the earth with music. For myself, I confess that these poems have an indescribable charm, as showing how the affections of men have gone forth to their favourite haunts, and consecrated them for ever." The collection teems with descriptions of the natural beauties of the mother country.

The editions of his works are multiform, and we could not pretend even to enumerate them. They have followed each other in quick succession, both in England and America. An edition is now in course of issue which promises to give a worthy artistic setting to poems enjoying a world-wide celebrity. Many of Mr. Longfellow's works have been translated into continental languages. Mr. J. T. Fields, an intimate friend of the poet, furnishes some interesting details respecting his methods of composition. The famous lyric, "Excelsior," was written late

one autumn evening, in 1841, when the word happened to catch his eye upon a torn piece of newspaper. Longfellow's imagination was at once kindled; he seized the first scrap of paper at hand, and immediately penned the stanzas which have since become "familiar in our mouths as household words." The "Psalm of Life" sprang into being one bright summer morning in Cambridge, as the writer sat between two windows at the small table in the corner of his chamber. Several of his poems were composed at one sitting, and in a brief period, his inspiration coming not by single lines but by whole stanzas. That powerful ballad, "The Wreck of the Hesperus," was written during one night after a very violent storm, and the clock was striking three as he finished the last stanza. His writings have not been the productions of protracted labour. It may be mentioned here that a short time ago the "spreading chestnut tree," immortalised in the "Village Blacksmith," was cut down, and that the children of Cambridge subscribed to have an arm-chair made from it, which in due course was presented to Mr. Longfellow. He returned his thanks for the well-timed present in a beautiful and touching poem.

It has sometimes been objected that in the higher range of original thought America is still far behind England. In many respects this is no doubt true, for the intellectual life of a nation can no more be forced that can its social growth. But just as America possesses physical treasures as yet unexplored and unconceived, so also she has slumbering intellectual forces, which must one day give her high rank amongst the nations of the world. Even now she may be said to have removed much of the charge of deficiency and barrenness as regards her poetic genius; for a people is certainly entitled to honour and respect in this regard which has produced such contemporary singers as Longfellow, Bryant, Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell. We have in these names almost every quality of poetic thought represented, and represented with a very considerable amount of force, strength, and originality.

Some years ago Mr. Longfellow had the misfortune to lose his second wife by a very painful death. A muslin dress which she was wearing having accidentally caught fire, the flames could not be extinguished until she had sustained fatal injuries. Universal sympathy was manifested with Mr. Longfellow in his affliction. The poet has a family of three sons and two daughters.

One of his sons, Mr. Ernest Longfellow, who is an artist of repute, has recently made the tour of Europe.

Ten years ago Mr. Longfellow once more visited England, when the honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford. This was in July, 1869, and a few years later he was elected a member of the Russian Academy of Science. In 1874 he was nominated to the Lord Rectorship of the University of Edinburgh, and although he was defeated by Mr. Disraeli, the large number of votes he received attested his popularity in the Modern Athens. It is stated that Mr. Longfellow, in his personal appearance, frank, graceful manners, fortune, and mode of life, reflects or anticipates the elegance of his writings. "In a home surrounded by every refinement of art and cultivated intercourse, in the midst of his family and friends," he enjoys a retired leisure. He is, however, most accessible to visitors, and numerous anecdotes are recorded of his kindness and hospitality. In religion he is a Unitarian, but he delights in a high liturgical form of worship. As may be gathered from his writings, he is a passionate admirer of art, and of the beautiful in every shape.

[The Portrait accompanying this Biography is copied from a Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Company.]

THE GRAND DUKE NICHOLAS.

HEN the Treaty of Paris had been concluded by the plenipotentiaries of the great Powers, in March, 1856, Europe was naturally led to expect that both Russia and Turkey had learned a lesson which neither was likely to forget. France had entered upon the Crimean War mainly for the purpose of gaining Napoleon III. an established position in the country whose liberties he had crushed, and a respectable connection with more solid states of Europe. Napoleon attained his object, and his army gained much distinction. Sardinia also gained in respectability by the Crimean War. Turkey gained a new lease of a bad life, and England, as a set-off to the loss of twenty-two thousand soldiers and fifty millions of money, gained an extensive knowledge of Eastern geography. A successful siege, a brilliant charge, and a few hotly-contested battles, manifested once more that courage which has never been denied to the British soldier; and England, after a decent period of mourning for her brave sons, dried her eyes, paid her debts, and proceeded to set her house in order. Turkey, the cause of all this loss and bloodshed, although supported in her attempted reforms by strong and wealthy neighbours-from motives which were anything but disinterested—proved herself utterly incapable of making any progress, except from bad to worse. In this direction she advanced with accuracy and with the rapidity of geometrical progression. Her glaring iniquities in the administration of her own empire would probably have passed without much comment for many years to come; but in an evil moment she managed to combine the massacre of her subjects in Bulgaria with the repudiation of her debt to England. Very shortly after the holders of Turkish bonds had discovered that those bonds were not as valuable as could be desired, energetic correspondents for English newspapers discovered, and doubtless amplified, all the disgusting details of Turkish brutality. The atrocities in Bulgaria led to another invasion of the Turkish dominions by the great Northern Power, and in developing our sketch of the illustrious personage who was appointed leader of the European army of invasion, it is necessary to recapitulate the events which led to the war of 1877-8.

An insurrection in the Turkish tributary states of Herzegovina and Bosnia assumed serious proportions in July, 1875, and led, in the following month, to a Consular Commission, appointed by the great Powers, to inquire into the causes of the disturbance. Turkey was profuse in the admission of her shortcomings and in promises of reform. The revolted provinces were much too familiar with such shortcomings and promises to attach any importance to the latter, and the Governments of Austria, Germany, and Russia, agreed in declaring that the internal disorder of Turkey formed a permanent source of danger to Europe. The deliberations of those Powers led to the preparation of a letter to the Porte-afterwards well known as the Andrassy Note, in which the reforms rendered necessary by the condition of European Turkey were set forth in full. The principal demands made in this document were the establishment of complete religious liberty, the abolition of the system of farming the taxes, the granting of facilities to Christian agriculturists to acquire