heroism of Florence Nightingale. Let Norwich treasure the memory of her Sarah Lanman Smith.

"Neither does the name of this gifted lady stand alone as a herald of salvation to the distant heathen. There is a long and bright catalogue of faithful men and women who have gone out from your midst to proclaim among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. To enumerate them all would be scarce practicable; to discriminate among them would be unjust. Some are still bearing the burden and heat of the day, spending their energies and lives in this glorious work. A larger number, perhaps, rest from their labors. The heads of some lie low beneath the Syrian palm tree. The graves of others are washed by the surges of the Pacific. In Ceylon and India; in torrid Africa; in the islands of the Southern Sea; among the native tribes of America; they have unfurled the banner of Jesus. Their precious dust is garnered in either hemisphere until the resurrection of the just. A town is rich that has nourished such children. A town is richer still that has given them up to the service of the Lord of the harvest. May we not trust that the blessing of God will never be withdrawn from her." pp. 135, 136.

From the address of Mr. Mitchell, which seems even to have surpassed the usual eloquent efforts of that gentleman, we must be content to cite but two passages. In speaking of the chivalric but frivolous Marquis of Lauzun, who was entertained at Lebanon by Governor Trumbull, he says:

"And what a contrast it is, this gay nobleman, carved out, as it were, from the dissolute age of Louis XV, who had sauntered under the colonnades of the Trianon, and had kissed the hand of the Pompadour, now strutting among the staid dames of Norwich and of Lebanon! How they must have looked at him and his fine troopers, from under their knitted hoods! You know, I suppose, his after history; how he went back to Paris, and among the wits there was wont to mimic the way in which the stiff old Connecticut Governor had said grace at his table. Ah, he did not know that in Governor Trumbull, and all such men, is the material to found an enduring state; and in himself, and all such men, only the inflammable material to burn one down. There is a life written of Governor Trumbull, and there is a life written of the Marquis of Lauzun. The first is full of deeds of quiet heroism, ending with a tranquil and triumphant death; the other is full of rankest gallantries, and ends with a little spurt of blood under the knife of the guillotine upon the gay Place de la Concorde." p. 183.

In the following he gives a well merited tribute to the Norwich of the present day :

"But this is a festal day; we are crowning the good year '59 with rejoicing; and in this time, is our town of Norwich doing nothing? Are the good things, and the brave things, all past things? Is it nothing, the hum of a myriad spindles along all your water-courses, singing of industry and enterprise? Is it nothing to inaugurate the century with such temples of learning as stand yonder, the monument of your private munificence? Is it nothing to show such phalanx of men as I see about me, all of whom by nativity, or citizenship, or near ties of

blood, give honor to your town, and take honor? Is it nothing to have given a half score of the best, and worthiest, and weightiest names to the commercial exchange of our metropolis? Is it nothing to have furnished the empire state a presiding head for her great central thoroughfare; nothing to have provided them in the person of our venerable friend, with a man who honored their high office of chancellor? Is it nothing to be represented in our national senate by a man whom you delight to honor at home? Is it nothing to have given to the world a songstress, whose melody charms, and whose virtues allure and instruct the growing mind of the whole country? Is it nothing to have loaned our little commonwealth of Connecticut-what is so rare in politics-a thoroughly upright man for Governor?" pp. 184, 185.

The original nine miles square, deeded by the "Sachems of Monheag," included, besides the present Norwich, some other towns, Franklin, Bozrah, and others. The inhabitants of these towns, linked as they are by ties of interest and a common esprit du corps with Norwich, joined in the celebration with great enthusiasm. Chancelor Walworth, "a chiel among them, taking notes" in the most indefatigable manner, was ready to prove them all cousins to each other, and to himself, as the reader may see by referring to the account of his dinner speech, (more of which of course appears in the record than was really given at the dinner,) and if he failed in any case, Dr. Woodward of Franklin, another lover of genealogies, stood ready to supply the wanting link.

Such celebrations as this, which is chronicled in the volume before us, are peculiar to our country. The circumstances which give them their main interest cannot be found elsewhere. Nowhere else has so much been done in two hundred years. The rise of this new nation under circumstances wholly unique, and its separation from the mother country by a long and severe struggle, have made every spot, which was peopled by the first settlers, full to overflowing of the most interesting reminiscences; and so in all our oldest towns there is abundant material for the historian on the occasion of an anniversary Jubilee. We hope, therefore, to hear of many similar celebrations in other towns around us. With such an origin as Puritanism has given us, and with such varied influences for good as have come down to us from our fathers, it is well occasionally to connect in the minds of the people the past with the present, with all the distinctness which accompanies a public demonstration. There is danger that amid all the abounding enterprise and improvement of the present, the past shall not be duly estimated. Beautiful and grand superstructures are building now, but they are only superstructures. Our fathers laid the foundations. Let us give them due honor, and, above all, let us not suffer their foundations to be in any way undermined or destroyed.

THE HISTORICAL MAGAZINE.-The Historical Magazine; or, American Notes and Queries, published in New York by C. B. Richardson, has reached the commencement of its Fourth Volume. It has become an indispensable guide to all who are interested in the progress of historical research respecting this country. Each number contains several extended papers, including the publication of rare manuscripts or reprints of early printed documents, a brief report of the proceedings of the various Historical Societies of this country, "Notes and Queries " on topics of interest to antiquaries, (which rival in interest, by the way, the English "Notes and Queries ;") short notices of lately printed historical and genealogical books; and select intelligence, including obituaries of eminent men. The comprehensive character of the work, its freshness, and the general accuracy of its details, indicates the careful revision of a scholarly editor, and the manifold contributions of an able corps of correspondents.

One number of the magazine, last year, was devoted to the memory of the Historian Prescott. Mr. Richardson has just published a similar commemorative volume in honor of Washington Irving, entitled "Irvingiana." Fuller biographies of that gifted man will of course appear at a later day; but to meet the immediate wants of his friends and admirers, nothing could be more satisfactory than this modest collection of the many eulogies, spoken and written, which the death and burial of Irving have recently called forth. A biographical sketch, by E. A. Duyckinck, Esq., prepared with excellent discrimination, introduces the volume which is illustrated by a portrait sketch of the subject, from Darley's pencil, and a facsimile of a page of the author's manuscript of the Sketch-Book.

TRAVELS.

SIR JOHN BOWRING'S KINGDOM AND PEOPLE OF SIAM.*-Sir John Bowring has been for a long time before the public in various ways, not only in authorship, but, of late, also in diplomacy and statesmanship. The poetical translations from the Russian, Polish and other European languages, with which he has enriched our English literature, are

* The Kingdom and People of Siam; with a narrative of the mission to that country in 1855. By Sir JOHN BOWRING, F. R. S., Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China. Two volumes, 8vo. London: John W. Parker & Son, West

Strand. 1857.

widely known. Even more widely known and valued are his "Matins and Vespers," among which are to be found some charming devotional lyrics for which the gratitude of all religious hearts is due to him. Such hymns as that commencing

"Watchman, tell us of the night,"

must be always favorites with all who believe in Christ and love his appearing. And many a worshiping soul has been refreshed and animated by the delightful stanzas which describe

"How sweetly flowed the gospel sound,

From lips of gentleness and grace,"

without knowing that they were from the pen of this same Sir John Bowring, the man who has been eminent as philologist, as Benthamite philosopher, as politician, as Westminster reviewer, the man who, by his pugnacious diplomacy as Governor of Hong Kong, worried the dignity and wrought the downfall of "YEH, Governor of the two Kwangs," and who was, in his turn, soundly rebuked by Mr. Cobden and his party when they defeated the Palmerston ministry in the House of Commons. We had for a while lost sight of Sir John, in the quiet which succeeded the downfall of Canton, but we read of him only a few months ago, as having been wrecked on his voyage home from China, and losing by that misfortune the store of manuscripts, many of them, no doubt, of much value, which had been accumulating during the years of his residence in the East.

In the two handsome volumes before us, Sir John Bowring appears in authorship, but this time in the new character of writer of travels. When he went to China in 1855, to assume his office as Governor of the little colony of Hong Kong, he was also instructed with the duty of negotiating a treaty with the kingdom of Siam. That duty he successfully performed; and he has found time, since then, to give the public this record of his own observations and experiences, and such historical, geographical, and other facts as he could compile from divers sources.

No author had ever a more inviting opportunity to make a valuable and fascinating book. The kingdom of Siam, in its natural resources one of the richest of all the kingdoms of the Orient, had been almost overlooked by travelers. The splendid empire of India was more directly in the way of all explorers and voyagers who came Eastward from the Christian world, and by its geographical position, its political importance, and its venerable history, offered to them superior attractions and demanded the first attention. And after this great land had been

explored, there was the vast and populous empire of China which must next be visited. A visit to Siam would involve a direct deviation from the route between India and China, and a voyage up a broad gulf in which there was little commerce and where the conveniences of travel were few and uncertain. Very few, therefore, even of those most familiar with the countries east of the Cape of Good Hope, knew more about Siam than the fact that there was such a kingdom bordering upon such a gulf. The only reliable information that we possessed in regard to this country, was in the very interesting and accurate but disconnected letters of the American missionaries, and in the work of Bishop Pallegoix, which was never translated from the French, and was consequently little known to English or American readers. Within two or three years the commercial relations which have been formed between Siam and the western powers, have given to us glimpses of a land vast in its resources, rich in its mineral wealth, and governed by kings whose court was distinguished by a splendid and half barbaric pomp and magnificence. We have heard, too, of a marvelous spirit. of progress which has begun to prevail, even among a people which had been well-nigh forgotten or ignored by the more enlightened nations, and our curiosity has been awakened to learn more about this strange old kingdom of the white elephant.

With such material, and such opportunities as a personal visit to Siam afforded him, we candidly think that Sir John Bowring ought to have made a more interesting and a more valuable book. It ought to be said, no doubt, in extenuation of its defects, that the manuscript of the work was prepared thousands of miles away from the place where it was published, and at a time when the author was busy with the duties of his new office in China. But, even when we have made these allowances, we have a right to complain that the style is dull and heavy, that the matter is ill-arranged, that a great part of it is taken directly from the work of Bishop Pallegoix above referred to. These volumes are valuable, no doubt, because, however inadeqately they meet a want which nothing else supplies; but they can never be popular. We think that the public will not be satisfied until they have received from the pen of some such man as Sir R. H Schomburgk, (who is well known as an author and traveler,-whose name is famous in connection with the discovery of the "Victoria Regia," and who now represents the British government in Siam,) a carefully prepared history and narrative, and one that shall worthily describe this interesting country and its people.