WEEKLY GOSSIP OF THE ATHENÆUM. land." This part of Dr. Kane's explorations, as described in the above extract, is not clear. THE return of Dr. Kane's Arctic Expedition to We apprehend that by the Atlantic is meant a New York may be said to close the eventful Polar sea, which is claimed as the great dishistory of modern Arctic exploration, commenced covery of the Expedition. "The channel leadby the despatch of Sir John Franklin's Ex-ing to those waters was entirely free from ice, pedition in 1845. It is true that we have yet to and this feature was rendered more remarkable learn the results of the Expedition despatched by the existence of a zone, or solid belt of ice, this summer by the Hudson's Bay Company to extending more than 125 miles to the southsearch for the traces of Franklin and his party ward." The lashing of the surf against this which are said to exist near the mouth of the frozen beach is stated as having been most imFish River; but it is not probable that this pressive. The land attached to Greenland by Expedition will add to our geographical know-ice has been named Washington, and that to the ledge of the Arctic regions. The accounts of Dr. north and west of the channel leading out of Kane's proceedings, published in the New York Smith's Sound, Grinnell. The second winter papers, enable us to arrive at the conclusion that was one of great suffering,-scurvy attacked he has accomplished a very daring and ad- the party, and at one time every man of the venturous voyage, which will add to his already Expedition except Dr. Kane and Mr. Bonsell high reputation as an Arctic navigator. The were laid up by this disease. To aggravate their Expedition of which he had the command was misfortunes there was a deficiency of fuel, and equipped in the early part of 1858, and sailed on they were even obliged to adopt the habits of the 21st of May in that year from New York. the Esquimaux, and live upon raw walrus flesh. It consisted of the brig Advance, which carried As it was impossible to disengage the ship from seventeen persons, including the officers, and her icebound position, it was resolved to abandon provisions for three years. The ostensible object her, and on the 17th of May, 1855, the party was to search for Sir John Franklin by a new commenced their journey to the south in boats route along the west coast of Greenland, passing and sledges, and finally arrived on the 6th of through Smith's Sound, and, if possible, into a August at the North Danish settlements in Polar Sea, which was supposed to exist to the Greenland, having travelled 1,300 miles. Here north. Great success attended the Expedition they were rescued by the American Government during the first summer. The party reached Expedition, despatched this year in search of the headland of Smith's Sound as early as the them. The Expedition had the misfortune to 6th of August, 1853, when further progress lose three men, two from tetanus, and one from became difficult on account of the great accu- abscess following frost bites. With these exmulation of ice. The vessel was however warped ceptions, the party have returned in good health, through the pack, and the Expedition finally and Dr. Kane is reported to be even improved gained the northern face of Greenland at a point in personal appearance by his hardships. never before reached. "Here," says the aocount published in the New York papers, "the young ice froze around the vessel, and compelled them to seek a winter asylum, in which they experienced a degree of cold much below any previous registration. Whiskey froze in November, and for four months in the year the mercury was solid daily. The mean annual temperature was five degrees below zero. This is the greatest degree of cold ever experienced by man." This last assertion is not correct. The scurvy now broke out, but was controlled by judicious treatment. A more terrible enemy, and one novel in Aretic adventure, was tetanus, or lock-jaw, which killed fifty-seven of their sledge dogs. In the ensuing Spring the search was commenced, Dr. Kane heading a party in March, along the north coast of Greenland, which was followed until progress became arrested by a stupendous glacier. This mass of ice rose in lofty grandeur to a height of 500 feet, abutting into the sea. It undoubtedly is the only obstacle to the insularity of Greenland, or in other words, the only barrier between Greenland and the Atlantic. It is, however, an effectual barrier to all future explorations. This glacier, in spite of the difficulties of falling bergs, was followed out to sea, the party rafting themselves across open water spaces upon masses of ice. In this way they succeeded in travelling eighty miles along its base, and traced it into a new northern

AN interesting manuscript copy of Leonardo da Vinci's celebrated work on Painting has recently been discovered at Brussels. It is the same copy which, two centuries ago, was illustrated by Poussin with a series of original drawings, and from which the first edition of Da Vinci's work, edited by Raphael Du Fresne, and embellished with engravings after the very drawings now discovered, was printed, at Paris, in 1651. The MS., according to an autograph memorandum on one of the fly-leaves by a M. Chantelou, steward to the household of Louis the Fourteenth, was brought from Rome to Paris in 1640. Not having been heard of since 1651, it has now turned up in a second-hand furniture sale, where M. Heussner, a bookseller at Brussels, — the present happy possessor, — bought it.

WE read in the Karlsruher Zeitung, that Dr. Fredegar Mone, of the University of Heidelberg, has discovered, in the Convent of St. Paul's, Carinthia, a codex of Pliny the Elder, containing about the seventh part of the Natural History (Libri XI. to xv.), being the largest of the palimpsests hitherto discovered.

THE Dutch schooner Atalante has sailed, on the 17th of October, from Nieuwe Diep, for the Arctic Seas, in order to take a part in the investigations into the nature of the oceanic currents, after the system of Lieut. Maury.

MR. BENJAMIN THORPE is about to publish a translation of Dr. Lappenberg's "History of England under the Norman Kings, or to the Accession of the House of Plantagenet. To which is prefixed an Epitome of the Early History of Normandy." The translator, we hear, proposes to make considerable additions to Dr. Lappenberg's original work.

THE German edition of Dr. Barth's "Travels

THE correspondence of Silvio Pellico is about to be published at Turin. Persons who have any letters from him in their possession are invited to send them to M. G. Stefani, in that city.

A CORRESPONDENT, who is interested in auto-be well were the trade generally, on moral graphs, sends us, by way of warning to our grounds, to respect each other's rights — when celebrities, and in illustration of our own re- these rights are legitimately acquired by purmarks, an account of a curious case of autograph chase from the author, so as not to provoke collecting, which occurred in France some little these perpetual lawsuits and conflicting decisions. time ago, although only recently brought to Mr. Bentley, we have reason to know, has a light. An ingenious rogue, being rather badly legitimate property in the works of Mr. Prescott, off, as rogues often are, hit upon a mode of and an interest in the sale which is shared by replenishing his exchequer by means of a novel the distinguished American historian. description of begging letter. Feigning himself to be in the deepest mental distress, overwhelmed with an accumulation of agonizing miseries, which had driven him to absolute despair, he professed himself to be utterly disgusted with life, and on the point of terminating his troubles by committing suicide. In this state of mind, he pathetically entreated the person addressed to inform him confidentially what he really thought of the right of the overburdened wretch to "shuffle off this mortal coil." Having crowded in Africa" will be published, we read in the into his letter all the touching and miserable German papers, by Herr Justus Perthes, of words at his command, he wrote copies of it to Gotha. Dr. Barth has repaired to Gotha, in many of the most distinguished persons in order to superintend in person the publication of Europe. In due time answers came crowding his work. in. Espartero replied laconically, "Sir, I do not advise you to kill yourself. Death is a bullet which we must all encounter, sooner or later, in the battle of life; and it is our part to wait for it patiently." Others—good-natured men-filled the four sides of their sheet of paper MADAME and Herr Goldschmidt are expected with the high teachings of lofty philosophy or to arrive shortly in England, for the purpose of with sound religious advice-replete with giving concerts. The Art-Journal states that studied argument and amiable eloquence. The Madame Goldschmidt has expressed her intention answer of Lacordaire was a masterpiece of evan- of devoting the profits of one of the series to the gelical persuasion. He offered to confer with the Nightingale Testimonial Fund. poor despairing wretch, and entreated him, with the warmest sympathy, to dismiss forever from his mind all thoughts of his meditated crime. Such letters were the very things which the impudent rascal wanted. As soon as received, they were taken off to a dealer in autographs, who purchased them at prices proportioned to the notoriety of the writer and the length of his effusion-5, 10, 20, and even 50 francs apiece. The trick was brought to light by a collector chancing to buy three of the answers. Finding them all upon one theme, his curiosity was excited; he called upon the dealer to inquire their history, and found that he had in his collection - all purchased, within a few days, from one person five-and-forty similar letters. The whole were secured at the price of 600 francs. Amongst them are what the collectors call "admirable specimens" of Montalembert, Cardinal Antonelli, Fenimore Cooper, Xavier de Maistre, Sophie Gay, Abdel-Kader, Armand Marrast, Alexander Humboldt, Tony Johannot, Taglioni, Henri Heine, Alfred de Vigny, Rachel, Sontag, Charles Dickens, Emilie Souvestre, George Sand, Jules Lacroix, and many others.

MR. BENTLEY, we see, is to produce three different editions of Mr. Prescott's "History of Philip the Second" (reviewed in another column), so as to meet the demand from all classes of purchasers. The law of copyright in England is very uncertain, as our publishers have found to their cost: and we think it would

MR. BRISTOW's "Rip van Winkle," the first opera by an American composer on an American legend in our recollection, has been produced in New York successfully, with Miss Louisa and Miss Pyne, Messrs. Harrison, Horncastle, and Stretton, in the principal parts. Of the merits of the composition it is impossible to form any opinion. The Musical Review and Gazette describes Mr. Bristow's music in language which may be submitted to those who can understand it: "This is not dramatic music which Mr. Bristow gives us," says the critic; "it is rather a sort of subjective musical expansion of different matters."

Have we all eaten nightshade? asks Somebody, in some play, of some unexpected event falling out. In the -on the occasion world gone mad about music?" When we read same strain we may inquire, "Has the whole of the honors, presents, and compliments paid, in "foreign parts," to to's caltissimo- of silver locks engraven -'s pair of hands, or with Scripture text prepared for a Nightingale's chamber-door,- of a regiment of Russian soldiers placed under the colonelcy of Rubini,- we stand in need of a "Latter-day Prophet" to explain to us how such things can be. But among all odd homages, the oddest homage of modern times offered to exhibiting artist is that which (if newspaper report may be trusted) has been offered in the Brazils to that most quiet, most orderly, least eccentric of "lions" M.

circumstance justified piracy. Our own artists, tion of this French license to the copying of we believe, will seriously object to any applicatheir works, to be followed by photographic pub

Thalberg. We read that a quemada was got up the photographic reproduction of a painting is for his delectation, otherwise, that a forest calculated, by making the work widely known, was set on fire-the first step towards clearing to benefit the artist, declared the demand unnew ground for cultivation-in his honor:- founded, and dismissed it, with costs.-A more strange substitute this for the torch procession extraordinary verdict is probably not on record. with which the fickle enthusiasts of Germany treat The reason is as strange as the decision, and will one year a Mendelssohn-another a Wagner! apply, as it seems to us, to the engraver as What will be done for any artist succeeding M. clearly as to the photographer. The engraver Thalberg, who may be thought to excel him? makes the picture more widely known; the liteWill the Americans burn a city? rary pirate also makes a book more widely THE Winter Exhibition of the Works of Mod-known. But we never heard before that this ern British Artists will open for the private view next week in Pall Mall. Besides the pictures usually seen at the Winter Exhibition, we understand there will be a complete series of the en-lication in Paris. gravings of the works of Sir Edwin Landseer collected by Mr. Charles Lewis the engraver, and THE DRAINAGE OF THE LAKE OF HAARLEM. numbering more than three hundred plates. M. Endegeest, President of the Commission for Some of these are etchings by amateur artists the Drainage of the Haarlem Lake, has recently which have never been exhibited before in public. published a final report on the condition of the A TRIAL took place in the French courts last enterprise, which the Commission expect to terweek which has its interest for many of our minate at the close of this year. The total exreaders, and the result of which should set such pense of the undertaking, from 1839 to 1855 inof our artists as have pictures in Paris in the clusive, has been 8,981,344 florins, the revenue Universal Exhibition on the watch. To our as- proceeding from the land redeemed and sold is tonishment, it was decided (if we truly compre-estimated at 8,000,000 florins. The land was at hend the bearing of the decision pronounced) that a man may photograph any picture on the walls of the Exhibition with or without the consent of the painter! Here is the case, as reported in the papers:-M. Müller, the artist, brought an action against M. Disderi, Director of the Photographic Society of Paris, to obtain payment of 500 francs for having published a photographic production of his large painting in the Exhibition entitled "Vive l'Empereur! 30 Mars, 1814!" The photograph is not only taken, but is published. Where is the substantial difference between such a violation of M. Müller's copyright, and the theft of an engraver? We see none. The Court, however, thought otherwise. M. Disderi objected to the claim, on the ground that he had made no promise to pay anything, and that the most eminent artists who exhibit had allowed him to produce photographs of their works without payment. The tribunal, finding that M. Müller could not prove that any promise of payment had been made, and considering that

first valued at 200 florins per hectare (2,471 English acres). But subsequent examination proved that the soil laid bare by the draining operations was of far greater value than was originally supposed. Thus in 1853, 784 hectares brought 575,000 florins, or 733 florins per hectare, and though subsequent sales have not realized such large prices, yet the land commanded a much higher price than the first valuation. "This result," says M. D'Endegeest, "surpassed all expectation, inasmuch as the grand object of the drainage was rather to put an end to the encroachments of the lake, than to make a lucrative speculation of it." It is stated that a great number of farms are springing up on all sides, and that the cultivation of the rich land is affording employment to many hundreds of laborers. The total amount of land available for agriculture is estimated at 18,000 hectares, and by proper care and supervision it is confidently expected that no water overflows will take place.

A HANDBOOK TO THE MARINE AQUARIAN: containing practical Instructions for constructing, stocking, and maintaining a Tank, and for collecting Plants and Animals. By Philip Henry Gosse, A. L. S.

THIS book is founded on the concluding chapter in Mr. Gosse's Aquarium, with additional information acquired since the publication of that book. Its object is to give practical hints and directions for the formation and management of a private aquarium, in which the ob

server may find a continual source of amusement and instruction, watching the growth of the plants, the action of the fishes, and procuring a "light employment" for himself by the necessary attendance upon them. If the fact has not escaped us, the book would be improved by some indication of the extremes of temperature beyond which the water should not be allowed to rise or fall-unless no other direction is needed than not to let it get tepid in a hot summer's day. — Spectator.

From the Athenæum.
LETTER OF BISHOP BONNER

SUPPOSED TO BE UNPUBLISHED.

in books against Bonner were exaggerated; he dwelt at length upon the pleasant features of his character; but he was unable to remove one atom of the weight of that tradiIn the whole range of English historical tional odium which justly rests upon him as characters, no one stands out more distinctly a willing minister in the perpetration of the most atrocious barbarities.

than Bishop Bonner. Everybody who knows anything of the period of our Reformation, A letter of Bonner's which I met with a and many who do not, are as intimately ac- little while ago illustrates this part of his quainted with his person as with his deeds. character. It is preserved in one of the His rubicund, fat, comely, jolly-looking pres- invaluable volumes of State Papers bequeathed ence, which was the occasion of so many by William Petyt, the Keeper of the Records jokes amongst his contemporaries, his in the Tower, to the Library of the Inner smooth, round, florid, pleasant-looking coun- Temple. I have never seen it in print or tenance, his courtly manners, his speech ordi-referred to. I believe its existence to be narily mild and placid, but conjoined to a generally unknown. If it be so, you will do temper which was easily ruffled, and, when service to historical inquirers by directing that chanced to be the case, bursting forth in attention to it. It is apparently addressed words not seemly in any man and extremely to Cardinal Pole, and treats of three subjects. the reverse in a Bishop - these are peculiar-The first paragraph relates to one Stephen ities with which we are all familiar from Cotton"; but this part of the letter is so infancy. To his friends he probably seemed damaged by time, and perhaps by some want very much of a gentleman, courteous, gen- of care in its keeping in past time, that I tle, and pleasant-speaking in the highest find it impossible to make anything out of it. degree, probably a little over-polite; but The next subject runs through several para an extremely complaisant and agreeable per- graphs. It would seem that during the son. To those who judged him merely by Protectorate of Somerset, Bonner had relinhis looks and personal appearance, it must have been a mystery how it came to pass that the common people held him in such utter abhorrence, and applied to him a repulsive 'epithet which to this day he continues to share with his mistress, Queen Mary. It is obvious, even in the most partial accounts of the treatment of the people who were brought before him upon grounds of religion, that he behaved to most of them at first not merely with good temper, but with a great deal of seeming kindness. He tried to smooth down The third subject treated of in this letter is their ruffled feelings, to win upon their regard, the one to which I principally wish to direct to coax them into relinquishing their peculiar attention. Early in the morning of May-day opinions. Over and over again we find him in 1558, a company of men and women, about appealing to them so kindly and forcibly as forty in number, assembled secretly, in a to draw thanks and tears from bystanders back close in a field by the town of Isling interested in their fate. Yet this same man, ton" (Foxe, viii. 468), then a long way out with all his external kindliness and pity, was of town, for the purpose of religious worship. capable of perpetrating the most monstrous They there engaged in prayer and the readcruelties with absolute heedlessness and sang-ing of the Bible. After a time, a person froid. An attempt was made a few years approached and saluted them. One of the ago to show that the popular judgment re- company asked him, amongst other things, specting him was in part erroneous. The "Whether they might be so bold as there to writer was a gentleman who loves truth above sit." "Yea," said he, "for that ye seem everything, and has done a great deal to pro- unto me such persons as intend no harm." mote the cause of historical accuracy. He He then left them. A quarter of an hour proved indisputably that many things alleged afterwards, the constable of Islington, with a

quished some lands which were in the possession of "his church." These lands were then in the possession of Lord Darcy, a wellknown nobleman of that period. Bonner desired to be allowed, by the Queen's favor, to resume the lands he had relinquished. Probably the circumstances of this transaction might be recovered; but as it does not seem to connect itself very nearly with my present purpose, I have not investigated the facts, and pass them over at this time.

66

party of seven assistants, one armed with a suggests in the most careless off-hand way bow, another with a bill, and the rest with imaginable, as if he were proposing some other unnamed weapons, came suddenly upon arrangement connected with a party of the little flock of worshippers. The constable pleasure, that he should have authority to approached first and demanded their books, get rid of the poor wretches, consigning them which, having learnt that he really was the to the flames at Hammersmith, a little secludconstable, they delivered up to him. He ed village a mile from his house at Fulham, then brought up his body of assistants. Some" for then," he says, "I can give sentence of the party fled; but, out of the forty, against them here in the parish church very seven-and-twenty were arrested. The justice quietly and without tumult, and having the of the peace for Islington not being at home, Sheriff present-as I can have him- he, the prisoners were marched off to the Old without business or stir, can put them to Bailey, to the house of Sir Roger Cholmley, execution in the said place." The reason he who was or had been Chief Justice of the assigns why he should be allowed to have King's Bench. Sir Roger having sent for this private burning of half-a-dozen of his the assistance of the Recorder of the City of fellow-creatures is, that "otherwise the London, committed two-and-twenty of the thing [] will need a day in Paul's, and persons apprehended to Newgate, where they with more cumbrance than now it needeth." lay unnoticed for about six weeks. Two of The Bishop did not exactly obtain his rethese unfortunates died in their wretched quest: - perhaps Gardiner, the Lord Chanprison. On the 14th of June seven others cellor, espied a too barc-faced illegality in his of them were brought before Bonner, and friend's request - but Bonner was allowed to after several examinations were consigned to go as near to his suggested course as possible. the stake, and were all burnt in Smithfield The six prisoners were duly taken to St. on the 27th of June. They were the last of Paul's, on the 11th of July. Sentence of the noble band who there gave their solemn condemnation was there given against them and unflinching testimony during the reign of in the presence of Sir Edward Hastings and Mary. Thirteen out of the twenty-two still Sir Thomas Cornwallis, two officers of the remained in Newgate. Six more of them were selected for prosecution as soon as the batch of seven had been disposed of. After examination before the Bishop's Chancellor, the proceedings against the six were adjourned until the 11th of July, when their sentence was to be pronounced. It would seem that after examination they were confined first in The whole letter, in its original uncouth Bonner's coal-house, attached to his residence orthography, stands as follows. I have conat St. Paul's a miserable shed, commonly jecturally supplied several passages, of little used as a place of confinement for ecclesias importance, now decayed, but have placed all tical prisoners and afterwards at his palace my additions within brackets. I have also at Fulham. Whilst in Bonner's custody-extended the contracted words.—

if there is any faith to be put in their tostimony he himself personally chastised them. Stephen Cotton, whose name appears in the first imperfect paragraph of this letter, distinctly states in a letter of his published elsewhere, "I have been twice beaten, and threatened to be beaten again by the Bishop himself." (Foxe, viii. 525.) It was whilst the six were still in Bonner's palace that he wrote the letter to which I have already alluded, the third paragraph of which clearly relates to these six persons. He says, they are still in his house, " pestering the same and doing much hurt many ways"; and he

Queen's household. On the day following, the Lord Chancellor sent his writ to the Sheriff of Middlesex, to burn them — not at Hammersmith, but almost as near the Bishop's Palace- at Brentford-where the holocaust was accomplished on the 14th of July, 1558.

ut of h

our flock Stephen Cotton

commissioners yesterday advertised you per, by whom also I made a sute to be of may doo me much good, but never to my churche [1] take myself indeed for one almost spent, and woold be glad [if seeing I] some wayes hurted my churche in the tyme of the worship[full Duke] of Somersette, I might by the good helpe of your grace onto the [Queen's] maiestie, do it some good again, and my sute is soo consonont to lawe subiecte beyng faythfull is suffered, that is to [and] iustice that if I may be soo suffered as eny saye to sue, and be sued, I nothing dowte I shall