satisfaction by the really interesting aquaria when some poor idiot from Chatham Street might be even then upon his way to personate a strange hybrid of man and beast from the African forest? Humbugs and the habit of humbug were overpowering. No wonder the genius loci is fatigued and wings his flight elsewhither. But was there ever such a good-natured throng as the listless loiterers in those absurd old rooms? How they munched and mooned! With what prolonged satisfaction they gazed upon the wax figures and such figures!—of the Queen of England, and the Emperor and Empress of France, and General and Mrs. Tom Thumb and their interesting Thumbling! How gravely they walked round about the giantess or the fat woman, and insatiably surveyed them! The Easy Chair has watched some of these spectators-members of the kitchen cabinet-in their rapt observation of the human monsters, and it was plain enough that, when the enormous woman came out from somewhere, and ascended the little platform and seated herself in a chair to be contemplated, the entranced Cinderellas believed her to be a kind of queen, and envied her that royal pomp and idleness, and fancied the mysterious somewhere whence she emerged to be a suit of splendid apartments where her fat life was all leisure and luxury. But a child was the real interpreter. To him it was a House Beautiful. What restless movement from room to room! What staring at the horrible paintings hung over the staircase, not less earnest than at the unspeakable Gorilla himself! What happy looking through the fascinating glasses of the cosmorama! What pure felicity amidst the chatter and shriek and abominable smells of the happy family! It is sad to think of the children who heard with sorrow of the sudden vanishing of this realm of excitement and delight. But not all is lost. The traditions of the formidable Gorilla and the fluffy-haired beings who came upon you in unexpected places, of the soft-eyed seal and the waxen warriors, these still survive. And, under another name, the Phoenix will rise from these ashes; and other children, in other years, shall look with wonder upon other giantesses, and toss ungrown peanuts to monkeys yet unborn. Literary Notices. History of the Thirty-ninth Congress of the United States. By WILLIAM H. BARNES. This Congress, whose sessions began on the 4th of December, 1865, and closed on the 4th of March, 1867, was one of the most important in the history of the American nation. Its members were mainly elected during the closing months of 1864, when it had become patent to all men who looked below the surface that the existence of the Southern Confederacy was drawing near its close. Long before its first assembling the sword had settled the physical issues involved, and upon this Congress devolved the task of reconstruction, as far as this could be done, or of construction in any event. In many respects this body was singularly constituted. The old party lines which had been strictly drawn for a generation had become almost obliterated. The great Democratic party which had with few intervals governed the country for more than half a century was now in a meagre minority of hardly a quarter in either House. Most of the members were comparatively new men. Few of them had served for more than two terms, and the consequence was that there was no Senator or Representative who could fairly be considered a leader of the party to which he belonged. An unusual proportion of the members were in the prime of life. Of the 260 men who held seats there were hardly a score who had reached the age of sixty; nearly one-half were between forty and fifty; more than two-thirds were between thirty-five and fiftyfive. While there was no single man who had shown claim to be considered a great statesman, in average practical ability, at least as far as the House was concerned, it was probably superior to any previous Congress. The dominant party was thoroughly united upon all great measures. When the members were chosen there was apparently perfect accord between Congress and the Executive; and when the death of Lincoln placed Johnson in the executive chair few men doubted that this accord would continue; or if there was to be any divergence it was taken for granted that the policy favored by the new President in regard to the States lately in insurrection would be more severe than that of Congress. But in the interval between March and December, when Congress was not in session, and the functions of Government devolved upon the President, it became clear that Mr. Johnson had adopted a general line of policy different from that proposed by Congress, and different from what all his antecedents had given reason to expect. Each branch of the Government adhering to its own views, the history of this Congress resolves itself mainly into a narrative of the struggle between Congress and the Executive, culminating at length in that formal impeachment of the President which is now in course of trial. Mr. Barnes has undertaken to narrate this struggle. While it is apparent every where that his own sympathies are fully with Congress, he has performed his task with commendable fairness and impartiality. He has allowed each party to present its case in the words of its own advocates. His work is therefore one of not only great interest, but also of high historical value. (Published by Harper and Brothers.) Italian Journeys. By W. D. HOWELLS. Mr. Howells's first volume, "Venetian Life," is one of the most delightful and satisfactory studies of travel that we have. There is no book upon Venice which tells its story in so comprehensive and characteristic a manner, and which so wonderfully renews to every lover of that most weird of cities its peculiar and romantic charm. But besides the insight of the poet and the knowledge of the scholar the book revealed a singular grace of literary art. Its touches were so felicitous, its humor so sweet and airy, its delicacy and elegance so evident, that the reader knew at once that he had made the acquaintance not of a diarist or pleasant traveler whose journal would be forgotten next year, but of a new author whose name must grow to honor in our literature, of a man who had not merely the literary talent but the literary instinct, in whose work there were gleams of the soft auroral light of something more than talent. The present book is evidently a rose from the same tree. Necessarily more desultory, and lacking that unity of theme which is so essential to a thoroughly successful work, the "Italian Journeys" yet shows the same fine perception, the same exquisite humor, the same freshness of feeling, the same refinement and delicacy of treatment. We turn from its pages, in which we are once more Arcadians, to the "Letters from Italy," by Samuel Sharp, Esq., London, a hundred years ago, and we ask whether the wonderful difference of actual knowledge derived from the two books is owing merely to our greater sympathy with the manner of our own time. But a very little reflection assures us that, if the man who stays at home would really know something about St. Peter's and the Campagna, he must listen to some poet who has been there, and who has seen what it is that makes St. Peter's St. Peter's, and is able to convey it. This is what Mr. Howells does, and this makes his books as valuable as beautiful pictures of beloved scenes. (Published by Hurd and Houghton.) Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. By S. BARING GOULD, M. A. This is a handsome reprint of a very useful little book, which in a very popular manner conveys the result of a great deal of curious scholarship upon such topics as the Wandering Jew, Prester John, The Dog Gellert, Pope Joan, The Mountain of Venus, The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, and William Tell. Mr. Gould shows very conclusively that the story of William Tell is an ancient legend in many literatures; and is of opinion that "the coincidence of finding so many versions of the same story scattered through countries as remote as Persia and Iceland, Switzerland and Denmark, proves that it can in no way be regarded as history, but is rather one of the numerous household myths common to the whole stock of Aryan nations." This really fascinating little book has been published for some time, and has a companion which has not been reprinted in this country; but this one is complete in itself and is of permanent interest and value. (Published by Roberts Brothers.) The Massacre of St. Bartholomew. By HENRY WHITE. This tragedy, commencing in Paris on St. Bartholomew's day-being Sunday, August 24, 1572—and continuing throughout France during September and October, stands, in many respects, almost alone in history. So closely is it interwoven with the religious and political questions of the day, that it is not to be wondered at that historians of acknowledged ability have taken widely different views of its nature and character. On one side the theory has been advanced, and ably supported, that it was but the culmination of a plot deliberately formed by the Catholics to extirpate the whole body of Huguenots, and that the marriage of Henry of Navarre with Margaret of Anjou was projected solely to draw to Paris the leaders of the Huguenots, and thus bring them as a body within striking distance. On the other hand, it has been held, with not less ability, that the massacre was a sudden and unpremeditated result of the terror and alarm occasioned by the unsuccessful attempt, made two days before, to assassinate Admiral Coligny, the great Huguenot leader. Mr. White advocates the latter theory, and, we think, fully sustains his opinion. We think he fairly makes out his case, and that this great massacre is to be compared with the fearful New York riots of the summer of 1863, when all the rascality of the city broke out into an onslaught upon the unoffending negroes. While the author does not consider this crime as originally a religious massacre, he can not resist the evidence, of which the annals of the time are full, that the cry of heresy was, during its course, raised as an incentive to urge it forward. Nor does he attempt to vindicate the leaders of the Catholic Church from the charge of having afterward sanctioned it, and rejoiced at it as a triumph of religion over heresy. "When the news of the massacre reached Rome,' he says, "the exultation among the clergy knew no bounds. The Cardinal of Lorraine rewarded the messenger with a thousand crowns, the cannon of Saint Angelo thundered forth a joyous salute, the bells rang out from every steeple; bonfires turned night into day, and Pope Gregory XIII., attended by the cardinals and other dignitaries, went in long procession to the Church of St. Louis, where the Cardinal of Lorraine chanted a Te Deum; an inscription over the door described Charles IX. as an avenging angel sent from heaven to sweep the kingdom from heretics." A medal was struck to commemorate the massacre; the Pope sent the golden rose to the King; and even now upon the walls of the Vatican may be seen three pictures setting forth scenes in the fearful transaction. Months after, when humaner feelings might have been supposed to have resumed their sway, the Pope listened complacently to a sermon by a French priest, in which he spoke "of that day so full of happiness and joy when the Most Holy Father went in solemn state to render thanks to God and Saint Louis," and declared that "on that night the stars shone with greater lustre, and the Seine rolled her waters more proudly to cast into the sea the corpses of those unholy men," who had been thus done to death. The number of victims has been very differently put down at from 1000 to 10,000 in Paris, and from 2000 to 100,000 in all France. All statements upon this point must be mainly estimates; that of Mr. White is, that probably about 6000 were killed in Paris, and about 20,000 in all France. sides the special subject of the massacre, the work embodies a most valuable account of the persecutions to which the Huguenots had for the preceding half-century been subjected in France. He would not have it supposed, he says, "that he has written those chapters with any desire to rekindle the dying embers of religious strife. On that portion of his work he dwells with pain and regret; but," he adds, "such pages of history contain warnings that it may be well to repeat from time to time. Though there may be little danger of our drifting back to the atrocities of the sixteenth century, and though we no longer burn men, mob-law and other forms of terrorism are still employed to stifle free discussion and check individual liberty. From this to the prison, the rack, and the stake, the interval is not so wide as it appears." A people and a generation Be in whose memories are still fresh the atrocities | spoken by more human lips and expressed the of the New York "negro riots," and of the An- emotions of more human hearts than those of any dersonville prison-pen, is not beyond learning other mere man that ever lived. If we except lessons from these dark pages of the history of Him "who spake as never man spake," and pospast generations. The work in matter and man- sibly the great Apostle to the Gentiles, no other ner is excellent, and may well be studied in con-person that ever walked upon earth has exercised nection with Mr. Smiles's admirable "History of the Huguenots." (Published by Harper and Brothers.) so wide a sway over the very inmost heart of humanity as has been exercised by "David, the King of Israel." (Published by Harper and Brothers.) David, the King of Israel. BY FREDERICK WILLIAM KRUMMACHER. Of all German relig- Norwood. By HENRY WARD BEECHER. TO ious writers there is no other one whose name the first work by which he fairly won a foremost has become so thoroughly a household word in place in literature, Thackeray prefixed the secAmerica as that of the venerable preacher at ondary title of "A Novel without a Hero." Had Potsdam. We can well understand the feeling Mr. Beecher, when he undertook to write a novel, which prompted him to address the translation known what the result would be, he might very of this his latest, and we venture to say his best properly have entitled it "A Novel without a work, to his American friends. "Across the Story." For surely nothing which ever took this Atlantic Ocean," he says, “I send to my fellow- ostensible shape was ever so wholly lacking in soldiers of the cross in America greeting and this one respect-unless we may except some of blessing, and extend to them-so far away and Jean Paul's so-called novels. One can hardly yet so near-with faithful affection, the hand of help imagining that Mr. Beecher, by the time he brotherhood......David, the King, will not, I had got three-quarters through with the book, think, be unwelcome to the Republic of the Unit- discovered or was told of this deficiency; othered States." A single line upon the title-page wise it is hard to account for the perfect "loosesets forth the scope and purpose of the book: it ness" with which, toward the close, he hurries is "A Portrait drawn from Bible History and his personages off to the war. With the exthe Book of Psalms." Now that the work has ception of a few who die or are exempt from been performed one may well wonder that it has service by reason of age, almost every man and not been done before. No reader of the Psalms | woman finds a place in the army, either as solcan have failed to notice from the titles prefixed dier, teamster, chaplain, or nurse. We can not to them how many of these poems were inspired help wishing that Mr. Beecher had adhered to by some special circumstances in the life of the what appears to have been his original idea of Psalmist. We may almost regret that these presenting a series of pictures of New England titles had not been preserved in the Psalter of life and character. For in this respect, at least, the Episcopal Church, so that those who twelve his book is really admirable. The characters are, times a year read these wonderful poems might from first to last, sketched with the most absosee how, while they give voice to their own feel- lute fidelity to nature. They are representatives ings and desires, they grew up in the mind of of those men and women who have made New the writer. If any man ever looked into his England what it is. If Mr. Beecher has failed heart and wrote, it was the royal Hebrew. The in producing a good novel, according to the strict plan of Dr. Krummacher's work is quite simple. definition of the word, he has, at all events, proTo each chapter is prefixed, by way of text, a duced a good book. If there is hardly a chapter verse or two of the history which stands as motto. which would not read just as well without any Then the context is given in paraphrase, and into regard to what precedes or follows, there is hardly it are interwoven citations from the Psalms in- one which is not in and by itself well worth the spired by the occasion. Besides those formally reading. And, above all, every page abounds noted in the titles as composed on special occa- with those large utterances of truth and duty, sions, Krummacher, we think upon good grounds, those touches of humor and pathos, and that keen identifies many others as having like immediate appreciation of the beautiful in art and nature, origin. By this means, it seems to us that we which have won for the Pastor of the Plymouth are brought far more nearly than ever before into Church the place which he so worthily holds in personal communion with the great Hebrew public esteem. (Published by Charles Scribner king and poet, whose words have probably been and Company.) Monthly Record of Current Events. UNITED STATES. an impeachment, was a Court presided over by wholly upon by Court. the oth the UR Record closes on the 28th of March. the Chief Justice, and that all orders and rules the preliminary proceedings in the trial of the President. Of these we give a brief summary: On the 4th of March the Senate notified the House that they were ready to receive the Managers of the Impeachment. They appeared, and the articles were formally read. The Senate had meanwhile adopted the rules of procedure. Chief Justice Chase sent a communication to the Senate to the effect that this body, when acting upon Court was formally organized. An exception was taken to the eligibility of Mr. Wade as a member of the Court, on the ground that he was a party interested, since in the event of the impeachment being sustained he, as President of the Senate, would become Acting President of the United States; this objection was withdrawn and Mr. Wade was sworn as a member of the Court. On the 7th the summons for the Presi As to the tenth article, the first of the supple dent, while admitting that he made certain public speeches at the times and places specified, does not admit that the passages cited are fair reports of his remarks; denies that he has ever been unmindful of the courtesies which ought to be maintained between the executive and legislative departments; but he claims the perfect right at all times to express his views as to all public matters. The reply to the eleventh article, the second supplementary one, is to the same general purport, denying that he ever affirmed that the Thirty-ninth Congress was not a valid Congress of the United States, and its acts obligatory only as they were approved by him; and denying that he had, as charged in the article, contrived unlawful means for preventing Mr. Stanton from resuming the functions of Secretary of War, or for preventing the execution of the Act making appropriations for the support of the army, or that to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States. In his answer to this article the President refers to his reply to the first article, in which he sets forth at length all the steps, and the reasons therefor, relating to the removal of Mr. Stanton.-In brief, the answer of the President to the articles of impeachment is a general denial of each and every criminal act charged in the articles of impeachment. dent to appear was formally served upon him. | denies all such intent, and calls attention to the On the 13th the Court was again formally re- fact that while for urgent reasons he signed the opened. The President appeared by his counsel, bill prescribing that orders to the army should be who asked for forty days to prepare an answer issued only through the General, he at the same to the indictment. This was refused, and ten time declared it to be, in his judgment, uncondays granted; it being ordered that the proceed- stitutional, and affirms that in his interview with ings should reopen on the 23d. Upon that day General Emory he said no more than he had bethe President appeared by his counsel and pre- fore officially said to Congress-that is, that the sented his answer to the articles of impeachment. law was unconstitutional. This reply was in substance as follows: The first eight articles in the Bill of Impeach-mentary ones noted in our last Record, the Presiment, as briefly summed up in our last Record, are based upon the action of the President in ordering the removal of Mr. Stanton, and the temporary appointment of General Thomas as Secretary of War. The gist of them is contained in the first article, charging the unlawful removal of Mr. Stanton; for, this failing, the others would fail also. To this article a considerable part of the President's answer is devoted. It is mainly an amplification of the points put forth in the Message of February 24, in which he gave his reasons for his orders. The President cites the laws by which this department of the administration was created, and the rules laid down for the duties pertaining to it; prominent among which are: that the Secretary shall "conduct the business of the department in such manner as the President of the United States shall from time to time order and instruct;" and that he should "hold the office during the pleasure of the President,' and that Congress had no legal right to deprive the President of the power to remove the Secretary. He was, however, aware that the design of the Tenure-of-Office Bill was to vest this power of removal in certain cases jointly in the Executive and the Senate; and that, while believing this act to be unconstitutional, yet it having been passed over his veto by the requisite majority of two-thirds, he considered it to be his duty to ascertain in how far the case of Mr. Stanton came within the provisions of this law; after consider-Managers of the Impeachment should have been ation, he came to the conclusion that the case did not come within the prohibitions of the law, and that by that law he still had the right of removing Mr. Stanton; but that, wishing to have the case decided by the Supreme Court, he on the 12th of August issued the order merely suspending, not removing, Mr. Stanton, a power expressly granted by the Tenure-of-Office Act, and appointed General Grant Secretary of War ad interim. The President then recites the subsequent action in the case of Mr. Stanton; and, as he avers, still believing that he had the constitutional power to remove him from office, issued the order of February 21 for such removal, designing to thus bring the matter before the Supreme Court. He then proceeds formally to deny that at this time Mr. Stanton was in lawful possession of the office of Secretary of War; and that, consequently, the order for his removal was in violation of the Tenure-of-Office Act; and that it was issued in violation of the Constitution or of any law; or that it constituted any official crime or misde meanor. The counsel for the President then asked for a delay of thirty days after the replication of the rendered, before the trial should formally proceed. This was refused, and the Managers of the Impeachment stated that their replication would be presented the next day: it was that, "The Senate will commence the trial of the President upon the articles of impeachment exhibited against him on Monday the 30th day of March, and the Senate, sitting upon the trial of an impeachment." proceed therein with all dispatch under the rules of The replication of the House of Representatives was a simple denial of each and every averment in the answer of the President, closing thus: said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, "The House of Representatives....do say that the is guilty of the high crimes and misdemeanors mentioned in the said articles, and that the said House of Representatives are ready to prove the same." The most important financial measure in regard to which any definite action has been reached is a bill abolishing in many cases, and reducing in others, the taxes upon manufactures. It is estimated that the entire reductions made by this bill will involve a diminution in the revenue of about In regard to the seven succeeding articles of $60,000,000. The bill passed the House; the impeachment the President, while admitting the Senate made sundry amendments; some of these facts of the order appointing General Thomas as were accepted and others rejected by the House. Secretary of War ad interim, denies all and every-An Act limiting the appellate jurisdiction of of the criminal charges therein set forth. So of the ninth article, charging an effort to induce General Emory to violate the law, the President the Supreme Court was passed by both Houses. This was vetoed by the President, but has been re-enacted by both Houses over the veto. WITH ITH the present Number closes the EIGHTEENTH YEAR of the publication of this Magazine. Before us, as the result, stand sixand-thirty goodly volumes, containing as varied, as instructive, as entertaining, and as enjoyable an aggregate of reading as have been presented in the pages of any magazine published in our language. Its aim from the first has been to hit and to elevate the popular mind; to make itself every where welcome; and, in this particular department, to give some idea of the floating wit and humor of the country, as it comes to us daily, in letters numberless, from all quarters of the land. And if the general sanatory effect of these jocularities is to be judged of by the effect upon ourselves, it has been most satisfactory; for of those who, as publishers or editors, assisted in launching it upon the sea of public favor in eighteen hundred and fifty, all, by the blessing of God, are now alive and in health. Therefore is laughter a good medicament. For, as quaint Hobbes saith: "There is a passion that hath no name; but the sign of it is that distortion of the countenance which we call laughter, which is always joy; but what joy, what we think, and wherein we triumph when we laugh, is not hitherto declared by any. Men laugh at jests, the wit whereof always consisteth in the elegant discovering and conveying to our minds some absurdity of another; and in this case also the passion of laughter proceeded from the sudden imagination of our own odds and eminency. We may therefore conclude that the passion of laughter is nothing else but sudden glory, arising from a sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly. Laughing without offense must be at absurdities and infirmities abstracted from persons, and when all the company may laugh together; for laughing to one's self putteth all the rest into jealousy and examination of themselves." "Fairer and brighter spreads the reign of May; The tresses of the woods With the light dallying of the west wind play; THE readiness of the Hebrew race in finding specious answers to the complaints of those who deal with them was never better exemplified than in a recent instance where an eating-house keeper of that persuasion sold soup at two cents a basin. A customer having consumed his basinful complained that he had not had his money'sworth-the soup was bad, and he had found in it a piece of worsted stocking. Isaac retorted: "D'ye think we can put bits of silk stocking in soup at two cents a basin?" COINING jokes is a common and very legitimate figure of speech as applied to the labors of burlesque writers and contributors to comic periodicals; but here is an instance in which a joke was actually coined, struck from a graven die, and issued from a legal mint. The fact is historical, and is as follows: In the year 1679 the Danes advanced with a large force upon Hamburg, but after a siege of considerable duration, seeing little hope of ultimate success, they finally withdrew and marched back. Thereupon the Hamburgers caused a medal to be struck in commemoration of the event. On one side of this numismatic curiosity was this inscription: "The King of Denmark came before Hamburg. What he gained by it will be seen on the other side." On the other side was a total blank! LEGISLATIVE oratory is sure to gush on the occasion of the decease of some member of the Legislative body; though the speeches, as Byron says, may be said to present "A fine sample, on the whole, Of rhetoric, which the learn'd call 'rigmarole.'" As a superior specimen of this "studied im APROPOS of this most delightful of the months, propriety of speech," we have been favored by a how exquisite this from Milton: "Now the bright morning-star, day's harbinger, Hail, bounteous MAY! that dost inspire Or this, from Percival: "I feel a newer life in every gale, The winds, that fan the flowers, And with their welcome breathings fill the sail, Of hours that glide unfelt away "The spirit of the gentle south wind calls And where his whispering voice in music falls, The bright vines of the valley break "The waving verdure rolls along the plain, To welcome back its playful mates again, And from its darkening shadow floats friend with the following tribute to the memory of the late Colonel Yell, of Texas, delivered by a distinguished colleague from one of the border districts of that State. For freedom and breadth of style it can hardly be surpassed: "Mr. Speaker,-It becomes my melancholy duty to announce to the members of this yer body that Andrew Jackson Yell, of Yellville, a member of this house, is no more. He has fell a victim to the grim and destroying tyrant, Death, who yesterday evening put an end to his mortal career; and he now lies lifeless at the pleasant boarding-house of Mrs. Jones, on the hill, where he and many other members of this yer House has boarded session after session-and where, throughout his lengthy and consequently protracted typhus-fever he received every care and attention which that ar kind-hearted woman and her numerous and attentive help could bestow. But, alas! all her care and kindness was of no avail. Colonel Yell is gone from among us, and it has become my melanchorly duty to offer the customary resolutions on this occasion, which I hev taken the opportunity to draft out last night, while settin' up with the body. It ain't with no or'nary feelin's af grief, Mr. Speaker, that I make |