Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

Brother AA'ardhaugh is amusing the play-goers of Bury , in Lancashire , with a new pantomime , written by himself , expressly for his own theatre , and entitled Falenline and Orson , toiih the Tragical History of Homeroo , the Ferdanl Knight of the Magic Shield ; or the Good Fairy Queen of the Silver Wand . The historian in a future age will lack few materials for a

complete history of Britain during- the clays ' ' when George the Third was king . " Amongst the works now preparing for publication is The Autobiography and Journals of Miss Cornelia Kni ght , Lady Companion to the Princess Charlotte of Wales , containing Memoirs of the Court of George the Third and of the Regent . The book is to give original anecdotes of man ; of the most celebrated

personages of the times of Avhich it treats . Richard AA ' estmacott , Esq ., E . A ., is lecturing on Sculpture every Monday evening , at the Royal Academy ; and S . A . Hart , Esq ., Ii . A ., is lecturing on painting every Thursday evening at the same place .

Au examination for two scholarships , of the annual value of £ 30 , and tenable for three years , is to commence on AATednesday , the 27 th inst ., at the University of Durham . The scholarships are open to any one not already a member of the University . Mr . James Blackwood has a work , by the Rov . Dr . Bannister , in the press . It is on a subject of great interest to the Craft , as its

title will show -. —The Temples of the Hebrews—their Courts , Furniture , and Festivals ; and an Epitome of the Religion , Laws , Literature , and Sacred Anbiaidiies of the Jewish Nation . A Memoir of the Rev . John Clay , late Chaplain of Preston Gaol , is in the press , written by his son . Selections from Mr-Clay ' s correspondence and a sketch of prison discipline in

England are promised in the volume . There is no doubt that we are far from perfection , even iu the middle of the nineteenth century , in our mode of dealing with criminals , and the more that public attention is directed to the matter the better . It is in contemplation to raise a statue to Sir James Outram . Dr . Badinel , Avbose retirement from the Bodleian Library Ave recently chronicled , died on Tuesday week . at an sdvanced age .

A course of lectures on the metrical system of iveights and measures is in course of delivery before the Society of Arts . The feeling in favour of decimal weights , measures , and coinage is gaining ground as the subject becomes better understood . The sum of d-1 , 670 thalers has been raised for purchasing the house and garden occupied by the late E . M . Amdt , at Bonn , for

the use of his widow , and for erecting a monument to the poet . Professor Itietscbel is the artist to Avhom has been entrusted the execution of the monument , and he recently visited Bonn to decide on the exact spot for the erection , but on his return to Dresden , we are sorry to learn , was taken dangerously ill . It is said that Germans from all parts of the ivorld have subscribed to this fund .

The entire value of the works of art looted and destroyed at the recent sack of the Emperor of China ' s Summer Palace is estimated at upAvards of six millions of pounds sterling . Such is " glorious Avar ' . "

Lieut . Gun . Outram has accepted the command of the Artists ' A ' olunteer Corps , or BSth Middlesex Rifles . AVe hope their only bnttle-fields ivill be on canvas . Lord Brougham , according to the London correspondent of the Leeds Mercury , is likely soon to favour us with his autobiography . Such a work , from his Lordship ' s powerful pen , would be heartily

welcomed by the public . Mrs . Catherine Grace Gore , the ivell-known novelist , died on Tuesday , the 29 th ult ., at Linwood , Lyndhurst , aged sixtv-one years . The Times says : — " Of her personal history little more is known to the public than that she was the wife of Charles Arthur Gore , of the 1 st Life Guards ; that at the time of her death she had attained the age of Gl ; and that she was one of the most brilliant Avomeu of her time , ivhose talk ovei flowed with epigram and jest ,

and whose most commonplace remarks Avere more AVitty than the best Avit of others . Her literary career is better known , although she departs from among us at the time when it is least appreciated . Her description of fashionable life are not so highly estimated now as they were ivhen that species of novel had a certain amount of originality , nor as they will he hereafter , Avhen ,

through the mere lapse of time , her descriptions will attain somewhat of the dignity of historical pictures . For the moment we are tired of fashionable novels , and inclined perhaps to underrate the great mistress of the art . But if anyone will sit down quietly to consider Avhat Mrs . Gore has done , and how she has done it , he cannot escape having a very exalted opinion of her powers . In the first place , he will be struck

AA-ith the mass of her writings . She has written from sixty to seventy different Avorks , extending to nearly 200 volumes . It is a little library in itself . Her various publications folloived one another Avith inconceivable rapidity ; sometimes at the rate of a a volume a month . A catalogue of her books—most of them written at utmost speed—Avould fill this column . But the most remarkable point of all this fertility is , that in the 200 volumes there is scarcely to he found one dull page . Mrs . Gore ' s -wit Avas inexhaustible . It might not alivays be wit of the highest order , but

it was certainly not that cheap wit which is obtained in any quantity from the torture of words . Por the most part- it took the form of simile ; but her comparisons were so subtle and her allusions so swift , that she kept the reader ' s attention at a very high level of activity . Whether she AA-rote a poem or a play , a novel or a sketch , the composition Avas alivays above mediocrity . And then for the matter—it was interesting while it was neiv , and it Avill be interesting again when it is old . Some future Macaulay will turn to

betpages for a perfect picture of life as we find it in the upper crust- of society . Every phase of which it was possible for a Avoman to handle , she has depicted ivith a minute fidelity which has all the merit of a first-rate collection of photographs . AAliat can be more lifelike and true , not to speak of brilliancy , than such novels as Cecil and The Hamillons , in which she displays to the height all her happy art of portraying character and describing manners ? Such tales as these will always find readers ; butthough we

, mention them as among her masterpieces , one may take at random any of her works , from her first , Theresa Marehmont , published in 1823 , to her last , which , Ave believe , -was The Two Aristocracies , with the certainty of finding in them clear-cut portraiture , the most lively narrative , and wit in profusion . " In the recent , volume of M . A . Thiers' Uistoru of the Consulate

and the Empire of France under Napoleon , we have the following : — " Prom that , moment the gauntlet was thrown down between the ivarrior who represented , in his own person , the French Revolution , aud the English people , whose jealousy had not been sufficiently soothed . Only a few days and Malta would have been evacuated , but , by a singular fatality , it happened that at this moment , when all the British passions were excited , the First Consul , exercising in Switzerland his dictatorial beneficencesent an army to Berne . A

, weak-minded minister , pandering to British passions , found in this act a pretext for suspending the evacuation of Malta . If the First Consul had bad patience ; if he had insisted firmly , but gently , the frivolity of the motive would not have long opposed a hindrance to the solemnly-promised evacuation of the great Mediterranean fortress . But the First Consul , influenced not alone by a feeling of wounded pride , but of resentment for outraged justice , demanded

the execution of treaties ; 'for , ' ho said , ' no power shall , with impunity , fail in a promise made to France or to me . ' Everybody remembers the sadly-heroic scene with Lord Whitworth , and the rupture of the Peace of Amiens . The First Consul vowed from that moment to perish , or to punish England . Fatal VOAV ! The emigrants , we mean those that were irreconcileable , did not limit themselves to Avriting , they conspired . The First Consul , discovering with bis penetrating glance lots that the police were unable

p to detect , pounced upon tho conspirators , and , believing that he discovered princes amongst them , and not being able to seize those whom he considered the real criminals , he ivent into the heart of Germany , caring little for the rights " of nations , to arrest the descendant of the Condes . He ordered him to be shot without pity , and he , the severe reprover of the 20 th January , equalled as far as he could the crime of regicide , and seemed to experience a kind

of satisfaction in committing the crime in the face of Europe , in contempt and defiance of public opinion . The prudent Consul had become suddenly a madman , labouring under two species of mania : the anger of the offended man , who only breathes vengeance , and the anger of the conqueror , voluntarily braving enemies that is he certain to conquer . Afterwards , in order to brave his enemies more effectually , and satisfy bis ambition at the same time as his anger , he placed the imperial croivn on his head . Europe , at once offended