slightest difficulty, either on questions of na-ternal evidence which makes us as sure of its tional policy or individual right. No American purchase as if we had seen the hard dollars citizen has ever had a complaint to make against counted down, and the "head devil" putting his the Russians. No diplomatist in off, in or oi, signature to the receipt. We may allude to the ever gave an American statesman the opportu- readiness with which any print that takes the nity of furnishing a pendant to the Hulsemann side of the Allies is accused of being subsidized letter on the Kosta correspondence. And by the British government, as no insignificant while the Allies have often either threatened collateral proof of our assertion. to come, or actually come, into collision with Finally-and this is, perhaps, the most potent the United States on their own side of the At- of all the motives at work-Russia has with her lantic, Russia has removed all suspicion of such the active sympathies of the slave interest. danger on her part at the only possible point The position of this interest is one of the most of contact, by voluntarily offering to sell her remarkable phenomena in the political world. American territory at no extravagant price. The number of American slaveholders, all told, Nor has the Sclavonic Empire ever interfered is less than three hundred and fifty thousand. with the annexatory tendencies of the Western This oligarchy, placed amid a democracy of Republic. On the contrary, she has rather en- more than twenty millions, has directed and couraged them. Division of the spoils is ex-moulded the whole policy of the country, actly her favorite principle. "You take Egypt, internal and external, for the last half cenand let me take Turkey," was her language to tury. It holds three millions of its countryEngland. "You take Cuba, or whatever else men in abject bondage. It has gathered you like in this hemisphere, and let me take around it twice that number as its accessowhat I like in the other," is her language to ries and abettors. It has almost invariably either bullied or out-manoeuvred the rest of the America. But it is not by absence of offence alone that population (fourteen millions and more!) on all Russia has sought to conciliate the Americans. disputed questions. In everything except the She has made the most positive advances, and one point of admitting slavery into Californiaspared no efforts to flatter and cajole them, na- an absurdity too gross even for them to insist on tionally and individually, in even the most triv--the slaveholders have had their own way. ial details. They have made the Northerners their slaveWhen the late Russian minister at Wash-catchers, by act of Congress. They have alington was about to marry an American lady, tered and re-altered the compromises of their and sent to President Van Buren (pre-own devising, to suit their increasing acquisicisely as he did to his own Sovereign).to ask tiveness. Their policy has constantly become permission, he knew perfectly well-as well as more and more aggressive. Feeling that pubthe President himself that no such permission lic attention has been recently drawn to the was required: it was only a refined artifice to anomaly of so small a body exercising so great put the Americans in good humor with them- an influence in a democracy, their present aim selves. Every American of the least impor- is to increase their numbers. One of the desired tance or ability, that has penetrated into Rus- means to this end, is the acquisition of Cuba, sia, has been received in the most gracious itself only a step towards the re-opening of the manner; and the language of the late Czar was African slave-trade-a measure unblushingly always exactly of the kind that would best bear advocated within the past year by more than the reporting it, was morally certain to experi- one southern newspaper. The Allies, who have ence. "Your government and mine are the abolished slavery throughout their dominions, only possible ones in the world. Yours will do are the natural antagonists of the American for an enlightened people. My people are not slaveholder; and in Russia, with her corresso enlightened, and therefore I have to take ponding institution' of serfage, he finds his care of them;" and so forth, and so forth-an natural support. interminable quantity of that "soft sawder" Such are some of the causes tending to bring which Brother Johathan, like Jacques Bon-about an Americo-Russian alliance, an event the homme, is none the less ready to swallow him- possibility of which we cannot find terms strong self, because he is skilful in administering it to enough to deprecate. The personal disposition others. which any man may entertain to the Americans But this is only a small portion of the oper-is a matter of taste and opinion, but no man of ation. Russian agents, and these agents average capacity and information, can doubt the often American citizens, are scattered all over great resources and straightforward energy of the Union. The venal portion of the American that people. Their party earnestness, which in press was made sure of from the beginning. time of peace occasionally verges on a grotesque Such bargains are not easy to expose with ferocity, becomes in time of war a terrific engine mathematical certainty, being in their very of destruction to whatever stands in its way. nature deeds of darkness; but the columns of Undignified as the conduct of their politicians the New York Herald, for instance, contain in-Imay sometimes appear, it must be owned that they are men thoroughly in earnest. They do terial interests, for some years at least, that innot make a joke of public affairs, nor calculate jury would be comparatively trifling to the the national interests as they would the chances moral consequences, which may be summed up of a horse-race. The internal divisions of in a single phrase-the supremacy of the slavethe United States are often relied on as holding interest immovably established, and the source of weakness, but the immediate country barbarized in consequence. a effect of any strong external pressure al-| We have drawn a gloomy picture. It is now ways has been, and always will be, the tempo- our more pleasing duty to cast a glance at the rary cessation of those differences. The Mexi- bright side of the canvas. can war was a case in point. We have often First, and above all, we have great confidence thought that this war did not receive its due in the more intelligent, the more right-minded, share of attention and reputation on the Eastern the more moral and religious section of the side of the Atlantic. There were certainly American public. Let it be admitted that this some note-worthy features exhibited during its section is in the minority; it is not therefore progress; the rapidity with which twice the powerless. Much error has been propagated by number of volunteers demanded by Government copyists of De Tocqueville, about the tyranny sprang up, out of the earth as it were, like and despotism of American majorities. What hosts of ancient fable; the courage and obsti- writers of this class love to repeat, may be true nacy which these volunteers evinced in battle of very small minorities in confined localities; against regular troops; the promptness with but the regular American minority, the "Oppowhich the invaders swarmed over and through sition" as we might call it, is very much the the country to the destined point of attack, reverse of helpless. It has a constant source of without pausing to deliberate on the amount of strength in the possibility that it may become reinforcements it was necessary to wait for, or the majority, a possibility which temporary and giving the enemy time to concentrate his resources. local triumphs ever and anon raise to the rank of But the circumstance to which we would partic- a probability. The so-called Democratic party, ularly call attention, is this-that the war, though which claims to be the legitimate descendant of very unpopular with a large and respectable the Jeffersonian, usually holds the reins of the minority, was unanimously supported from the federal government, but it is not retained in moment it was fairly begun. It will be recol- power by any overwhelming preponderance of lected that the value of California was an after the popular voice. Even when it can enumerdiscovery, which had occurred to no one at that ate a long list of States that have sustained it, a time. The war was regarded as a measure comparatively small difference in the vote of tending directly to the aggrandizement of the each individual State would have produced an slaveholding power, and was therefore disliked opposite result. And scarcely is the new presiin the North. It was regarded as a personal dent settled in his place, when the mass of his device of Mr. Polk to make himself the name supporters begin to split and throw off fragwhich most of his predecessors had already ments. Every office filled leaves ninety-nine possessed when elevated to the presidential disappointed applicants for the one fortunate chair, and it was therefore opposed by all his po- suitor, and thus one of the administration's prinlitical opponents, that is to say, by the entire cipal reliances becomes itself a cause of weakstrength of the Whig party. Yet when once ness. Moreover, even with all the earnestness the sword was drawn, the whole country, with- of American politics, there will always be a out distinction of party or section, rose as one number of doubtful voters and adiaphorists who man to carry on the contest. A single states- are inclined from one side to the other, and reman of reputation, (Mr. Corwin, of Ohio) re- quire to be looked after with continual vigilance. mained consistent in his opposition-and there- The democratic tenure of power is in truth no by committed political suicide. sinecure. "Our party," observed a distinguished Those who are accustomed to measure strength democratic politician to the writer of this artionly by the muster-rolls of standing armies, cle," is often beaten in the intermediate conwill naturally despise the small regular force of gressional and State elections; but when it the United States. But the people are not una- comes to the end of the four years, and the presware of their deficiency in this respect, nor un-idential campaign, we generally contrive to be prepared for the consequences. During the all right." The remark was true enough, but difficulty with France in 1836, it was a common it involved more, perhaps, than the speaker remark among the masses, "for the first two thought of at the moment, the fact that the years we shall be awfully whipped, but after democratic party, in order to be "all right at that-" and with a similar tenacity of spirit the end of the four years," was obliged meanwould the Americans of to-day brave with their while to modify its policy, and make concessions lilliputian army and scanty marine the combined to the enlightened public opinion and good sense forces of Western Europe. As to the effects of of the country. Thus it was that President the supposed alliance on the Americans them- Polk laid down an ultimatum in his inaugural selves, great as the shock would be to their ma-message, which, if insisted on, must have ren dered a war with England inevitable; and after-Cuba, and the unlimited extension of slave terwards admitted important modifications of the ritory. "indisputable" right. Thus too, President And this opposition will find a powerful supPierce has already been compelled to cut down port in the commercial interest. The magnitude materially the original programme of his foreign of the commercial connexion between the Amerpolicy, to make a scape-goat of one unlucky en- ican Republic and the nations of Western voy, and to throw off sundry disagreeable re- Europe, is so well known, that it would be susponsibilities upon some others. And at pres- perfluous to enlarge upon it. True, if the naent we may be confident that any formal propo- tional honor were at stake, this consideration sition, tending to a Russian alliance, would would have little weight; but since the honor unite all the materials of an opposition, no less and reputation of the country lie so obviously numerous or formidable because the old Whig the other way, we may reasonably hope that party is disorganized. All the opponents of the claims of the mercantile interest will be the President (no inconsiderable number of heard and felt in their fullest extent, and will whom may now be found among his fellow dem- have no small share in persuading America to ocrats) will assail a measure which has received preserve a safe, honest, and profitable neutrality. the stamp of his approbation. All the newly The limits of our allotted space are already developed and widely extended party of the reached, but we shall take an early opportunity Know-Nothings will remember the farewell of returning to the subject, chiefly for the purcounsels of Washington, and protest against pose of developing a supplemental branch of it, being entangled in a foreign alliance. All the and examining the influence of the English freesoilism of the north will strain its every press on the American public, and its true polnerve to resist a policy which has for one of its icy and duty in reference to American affairs. leading motives and objects the annexation of C. A. B. BOBOLINK. Bobolink! that in the meadow, When the ides of May are past, Thou dost fill each heart with pleasure, Single note, so sweet and low, Visions of that dream-built land Bobolink! still may thy gladness COLORS MOST FREQUENTLY HIT DURING BATTLE.-It would appear, from numerous observations, that soldiers are hit during battle according to the color of their dress, in the following order :-Red is the most fatal color; the least fatal, Austrian grey. The proportions are red, twelve; rifle green, seven; brown, six; Austrian bluish-grey, five. PHARAOH'S BATH.-"The Arabs tell a thousand stories of certain hot waters in a grotto, which they call Pharaoh's Bath; among others, that if you put four eggs in it, you can take out but three, the devil always keeping one for himself."-Thevenot. From the New Monthly Magazine. |nation of Goethe, who was present when it fell, THERE is nothing prepossessing in the exter- and by whom the fragments had been reunited nal appearance of the "Athens of Germany." and carefully preserved. tre - Till the new palace was erected, Saxe Weimar Of his MSS. I was shown the original Gr had scarcely a single handsome building. The schichte Gottfriedens von Berlichingen, written in Ritter Straße, the largest street within the city, the German character, in 1774; and "Erotica Rois little better than a lane; and the streets which mana," written in the "Italian hand," and dated have been built in the neighborhood of the 1778. My companion told me that while sit cemetery, are only handsome as compared with ting with him in 1816, the servant having negthe meanness which preceded them. The thea- lected to supply them with wood, Goethe had for the opening of which Schiller wrote told him to feed the stove with the manuscript his beautiful prologue to Wallenstein-is per-" Erotica." He managed, however, to concea. fectly plain without, and I was told that the in- and preserve it, and evidently felt proud at havterior was equally simple; but there was no ing saved a relic from the flames. performance the night I was at Saxe Weimar, In one part of the room were materials for and when I called at the theatre in the morning some of the experiments connected with his jarneither money nor entreaties could procure me benlehre; and in the cover of a letter, near one a moment's admission beyond the stage-door. of his windows, were some fragments of colorDuring rehearsals it is strictly prohibited; and ed silk, which had an interest of a different deit was in this instance the more disappointing, scription when I heard for what purpose they as the piece they were reciting was the Wallen- had been employed. It appeared that his grandftein's Lager, and on the spot where the author child had been in the habit of visiting him in his had himself assisted at its first performance. study. He was too kind-hearted to repel her; To tread the same ground, and look upon the and when he did not wish to be interrupted he same objects, associates us more spiritually with placed her by his side, and offered some small the recollections of an eminent man than the sight new coin as a reward for unravelling one of the of relics deposited in glass cases, or chambers silken shreds, an occupation that generally kept that have been deserted or changed: and there her quiet. I thought more of Goethe after are numberless recollections at Saxe Weimar hearing this trifling anecdote than after reading which makes us forget its architectural poverty. even his "Faust." A mere heartless man of The houses of Herder, Schiller, Wieland and talent must be little better than a MephistopheGoethe, and the associations connected with les. them, give its streets a higher interest than if Adjoining the study was the poet's bedroom; every building was a palace. a small narrow closet with a single window look I spent an hour in the rooms, still remaining ing into the garden; much the same in size and as he left them and amongst the relics of appearance as I have seen occupied by a FranGoethe, under the guidance of one of his friends ciscan friar in his convent. In a corner, the and worshippers; for admirers is too feeble a wall of which was tapestried with a piece of term for those who have felt deeply the powers common black-and-green carpeting, stood his of his genius, or the influence of his personal bed, small and uncurtained, and by its side the acquaintance. There was nothing of splendor, chair in which he died. A clock that had marknothing even of a scholar's luxuries. The hand-ed the hours both of his birth and death was some copy of "Sardanapalus, Foscari, and Cain," placed in an ante-room, where there were also presented by Lord Byron, was carefully folded, his collection of minerals and a few of his books. as it had been by Goethe himself, in a silk pocket These were the private apartments, the rehandkerchief, and placed with a few other vol- tirement of the scholar and man of genius; but umes in a drawer apart; but the generality of the principal suite of rooms had scarcely an inhis books had the plain air of actual service, and ferior interest. Here, deposited in glazed pressmost of them had been the companions of his es, were the objects which had gratified his long life. They were arranged on shelves of taste or awakened his recollections of the past. unpainted wood, in a small chamber adjoining Antiquities and medals, the skull of Vandyke, his study, which was itself as plainly furnished. bronzes, arms and all the anticaglie that a poet A common table, a deal writing desk, a few or painter loves to possess. In one of them shelves and one or two cabinets of the simplest was a letter addressed to him by Sir Walter workmanship, were all I noticed. Near his Scott, with his usual beauty of style and kinddesk was hung a plaster medallion, encircled by ness of heart. Its commencement alone is a himself with an inscription in ink-Scilicet im- lesson to the vanity of impertinence that so ofmenso superest ex nomine multum. It was a ten obtrudes itself upon the privicy of an emiprofile of Napoleon, which had fallen from the nent man. Venerable and much respected Sir, wall and been broken into fragments on the day are the words with which Scott - his equal in of the battle of Leipsic, almost at the moment talent and fame-thinks it right to preface his it was lost. The coincidence seems to have homage to the genius of Goethe. How many made considerable impression upon the imagi-lof the small-fry of literature have approached the author of "Waverley" himself with less of cation, the amount of his actual manual labor, reverence! or fancied, in the abundance of their as I had previously been by the splendor of his self-esteem, that to have addressed any one as talents. Goethe's correspondence alone, deposit"venerable and much-respected sir" would have ed in one of the closets of the book-room, filled been lessening of their own consideration. The two hundred and twent-three MS. volumes; and, contents of the letter I cannot pretend to re- in the midst of his multifarious labors, he kept member, but I recollect that its effect, as that a diary, or Tagebuch, that would itself form an of the most of his other writings, was to make extensive work. The last of the volumes which me think better of human nature. There was contain it, commences January, 1831, with some a private letter in French, from the Duke of observations on Scott's Demonology, and ends Wellington to the Duke of Saxe Weimar, in- the 15th May, 1832, with a memorandum of troducing to him a son of Lord Mansfield; and his physician Professor Vogel's account of a rea whole portfolio of despatches (addressed to cent excursion to Jena with which Goethe exGeneral Rapp) by the most distinguished of Na- presses himself well pleased. On the 22d he polcon's officers. died. Then there was the volume which Goethe The visit I have just attempted to describe was used to call his "Album" a collection of the por- but the commencement of my literary pilgrimtraits of his friends; and when I had looked age through Weimar. There were still to be over these more hastily than I could have wished, seen the houses of Schiller, of Wieland, and of I had still to see a treasury of the rich offerings Herder; and the places of their sepulture. which, at various times, had been made to him To reach the last resting-place of Schiller and by his countrymen and admirers. They were of Goethe, it was necessary to take a rather long deposited, as from their value and interest they walk to the Gottesader, or cemetery; an estabdeserved to bc, in an iron chest secured by many lishment of modern date, where the arrangecuriously constructed locks, and some of them ment for the prevention of premature interment were precious as works of art. There was a are said to have been the model for those crown of laurel, the leaves of gold, the berries adopted at Frankfort. of emerald, sent from Frankfort in 1819 or Near its centre rises a Doric chapel, sur1820; and worthy, for its beauty alone, to be mounted by a cupola, which forms the mauplaced among the regalia of an Emperor. It soleum of the sovereigns of Saxe Weimar, their was accompanied by a detatched leaf of the coffinied remains being deposited in its vault. same workmanship, with an intimation that as a It was here the Grand-Duke Carl desired that year had elapsed since the wreath was ordered, the bodies of his friends, the poets whom he and as every year of his life added a fresh leaf to had loved and honored, should be placed beside the laurels of Goethe, his admirers had felt that his own; but his wishes have been neglected their offering would be incomplete without a or found incompatable with etiqutte, for, though type of the year that had passed. This was admitted to the same chamber of the dead, the not the only present he had received from his remains of Goethe and of Schiller are placed native town: there was also a silver drinking- in a corner apart, and at a very respectful discup which had been sent to him with some choice tance from those of grand-dukes and duchesses. hock, and bore an inscription to the effect that This-to use the words of Her von Raumer, on "the mind was invigorated by wine, and there a different occasion-is kleinlich und nicht würdig would be no fire without fuel." Mr. Gough would It a wrong done to the dead and living. be of a different opinion. seems like carrying the formalities of a court into A handsome seal of enamelled gold, the offer- the solemnities of another world. ing of fifteen of the great poet's British admirers We returned through the park- one of the (including Scott, Moore, Carlyle, etc.), was en- most beautiful in Germany, as it has always graved with the motto Ohne hast aber ohne rast-been described and passed near the small which has more meaning (said one of my Ger- white cottage that generally, for six or eight man friends) than the mere words import; it re-weeks, was the summer residence of Goethe, and fers not exactly to "the spur that the clear spir- is mentioned by him with pleasant remembranit doth raise" ces in his verses on the Garthenaus am Park. It has no pretension, but is precisely the To scorn delights, and live laborious days; but to some inward impulse to "continued, though not headlong, progress" or it might be rendered by the Latin festina lente. These are but a small part of the costly gifts which I might notice, were I writing a guide-book or a catalogue. Humble shed, Where roses breathing, And woodbines wreathing, Around the windows their tendrils spread; which Moore describes as the abode of loveTheodore Hook calls a dampery; and those "in smoky cities pent" pause to look at in their evening walks, and envy. I have never appreciated the private life of a man of genius-and it has not always been as a stranger without being as much struck by From this I went with my companion to the the discovery of his habits of unwearied appli-Grand Ducal Library -a collection of about |