was painfully conscious, had evidently been uppermost in his mind, and upon this subject he began to question me, or rather to discourse to me on the occasion referred to. He spoke of the views of Sir Charles Bell and of other modern physiologists, and referred to a paper in one of the older scientific academies-Belgian-according to my recollection, in which was enumerated the connexion of the ninth pair of nerves with movements of the tongue-a subject on which he had himself written."

The "Life and Letters of Faraday, by Dr. Bence Jones," is just the sort of book we like to have for the commemoration of such a man as Faraday, one whose childlike simplicity fitted him to be the follower of that great philosopher who, at the end of his days, said he could only think of his career on earth as that of a man "picking up a few pebbles on the sea-shore." We therefore hold Dr. Jones to be deserving of high commendation as the biographer of Faraday's private life, which is only less, if at all less, interesting than the account by Professor Tyndall, of Faraday's public career. Faraday was the son of very humble parents, and his father pursued the business of a blacksmith: he came originally from Clapham, near Ingleborough, and settled in Gilbert-street, Newington, where his son was born Sept. 22, 1791. He was the third child and second son. As might be expected, his parents had but little over, to enable them to give him any instruction; and we may believe the truth of his own words when he says, "My education was of the most ordinary description, consisting of little more than the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic, at a common dayschool. My hours out of school were passed at home and in the streets." When twelve years of age, he became an errand boy to a Mr. Riebau, a bookbinder, who, after a year's probation, took him as an apprentice, his indenture stating that "in consideration of his faithful services no premium is given." Here he obtained what he had long in vain sought, an opportunity of studying a variety of scientific books, a taste his master wisely encouraged. Faraday himself says, "I loved to read the scientific books which were under my hands, and among them delighted in Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry and the electrical treatises in the Encyclopædia Britannica. I made such simple experiments in chemistry as could be defrayed by the expense of a few pence a week, and, also, constructed an electrical machine, first, with a glass phial, and afterwards with a real cylinder, as well as other electrical apparatus of a corresponding kind.”

His love for science was still further stimulated by the opportunity of reading the article on electricity in an Encyclopædia he was employed to bind. Shortly afterwards, having had the chance of hearing a course of lectures by Sir Humphrey Davy, he took the bold step of writing to the great philosopher and of enclosing to him a short abstract of his lectures. Sir Humphrey was much struck by the talent of the young man, and, though he dissuaded him from the pursuit of science as a means of livelihood, not long afterwards obtained for him his appointment to the Royal Institution, with a salary of 25s. per week, as an assistant in the laboratory, with the use of two rooms at the top of the house. Nor was his place there either a sinecure or free from danger; on the contrary, he was nearly blown to pieces by an explosion of detonating powder. As he says himself, "Of these the most terrible was when I was holding between my finger and thumb a small tube, containing about 7 grains of it. My face was within twelve inches of the tube, but fortunately I had on a glass mask. It exploded by the slight heat of a small piece of cement, that touched the glass about half-an-inch from the substance, and on the outside. The explosion was

so rapid, as to blow my hand open, tear off part of the nail, and has made my fingers so sore that I cannot yet use them easily. The pieces of tube were projected with such force as to cut the glass face of the mask I had on." In the autumn of the same year, he accompanied Sir Humphrey Davy on a tour of a year and a half on the Continent-a record of which he has left in a long series of letters which Dr. Jones has published. They are valuable chiefly as showing what a warm heart throbbed in Faraday's bosom. On his return he was promoted to a higher step in the Royal Institution, and, in the following year, gave his first set of public lectures, at the City Philosophical Institution. In 1821 he married; and, in 1824, was elected F.R.S. In 1831, he began to make known his greatest discoveries-the induction of the electric currents-which Dr. Bence Jones has well summarized-" Then," says he, " they (the discoveries) were continued with terrestrial magnets-electric induction; then the nature of the electric force or forces, and its character in the gymnotus; then the source of power in the voltaic pile; then the electricity evolved by the friction of steam; then the magnetization of light and the illumination of the magnetic lines of force; then new magnetic actions, and the magnetic condition of all matter; then the crystal line, polarity of bismuth, and its relation to the magnetic form of force; then the possible relation of gravity to electricity; then the magnetic and diamagnetic condition of bodies, including hydrogen and nitrogen; then atmospheric magnetism; then the lines of magnetic force and the employment of induced magnets-electric currents as their test and measure; and lastly, the constancy of differential magne-crystalline force in different media, the action of heat on magne-crystals, and the effect of heat on the absolute magnetic force of bodies." No doubt the great charm of Faraday was his child-like simplicity of character, which led him to be beloved by every one with whom he came in contact, and which secured for him the affection of children, to whom he never tired to make known, so far he could in the simplest language, the hidden mysteries of science, no less than the reverence of his brother men of science. One only dispute was he ever involved in, and that was when, in publishing the results of experiments in electro-magnetic rotation, he was accused of stealing the views and suggestions of Dr. Wollaston. Though it was soon proved that the charge arose from the confusion of two experiments, and, though he was warmly defended by Sir Humphrey Davy, he felt deeply hurt at it; and the sting of the accusation remained for some time. Let us thank Dr. Bence Jones for the good service he has done his friend, in thus making known the inner and private life of a man who was, assuredly, one of the greatest philosophers of this century.

"Lives of the Lord Chancellors, &c., of Ireland, by J. Roderick O'Flanagan," is a work of much interest, though not equal in point of execution to the more celebrated lives of the English Lord Chancellors, by the late Lord Campbell. We think, however, that Mr. O'Flanagan's labours show far greater impartiality than those of Lord Campbell, who, but too frequently, shows that, off the Bench, he could not preserve the impartiality of a Judge. The "Lives of the Irish Lord Chancellors" was begun five-and-twenty years ago, but abandoned, it would seem, from the belief that Lord Campbell had contemplated doing the same work on the completion of his English "Lives." The two best, as they would, from the period they embrace, be the most important, are those of Lord Clare and of Lord Plunket. We have, however, only room here for the short summary Mr. O'Flanagan gives of the character of Lord Clare, which we insert, as a good

specimen of the writer's style, and to show how fairly he can write of one, who, more than any one else, has been bespattered by the mire of mere writers for party. "The habits of labour and application to business," says he, “which he acquired in his school days, remained with Lord Clare through life. They shone conspicuously at the bar, where he never was found unprepared; they accompanied him to the House of Commons, where he was always ready to discuss the question of the day; and he practised them on the Bench when he sat as Lord Chancellor. He did much to establish equity practice in Ireland on a solid basis; he reformed abuses with no niggard hand, and purged the Court of much that called for Reform. Fraud fled before him; for, when grasped, he punished it with relentless vigour. The decisions of Lord Clare were not regularly reported, but... . . sufficient appears to display his great legal mind, and, I must

add, despotic disposition."

"Life of Henry John Temple Viscount Palmerston, with Selections from his Diaries and Correspondence. By the Right Hon. Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer.” The work before us, of which we have only the commencement, in two volumes, is interesting from the manifest air of truth which breathes through all its pages, and also because, so far as it has yet gone, we have the story of Lord Palmerston's life almost entirely told by himself, with but very few notes and comments from the pen of Sir Henry Bulwer. And the impression left on our minds is that, which was the judgment also of most of those who knew him best, that Palmerston was neither a very clever nor a very brilliant person, but rather a man of strong natural common sense, who had carefully trained himself in each position in which he was placed, till, at length, by the force of circumstances, not by any scheming or plotting on his own part, he found himself in the highest position to which a subject can in England attain. Educated in early life at Harrow, where he had as his contemporaries Peel and Byron, and subsequently at Cambridge, where he left behind him, if report speaks truly, the reputation of having been a sound mathematician, Palmerston was, almost as soon as he could be, in the arena of public life, continuing, as we all know he did, to wear the harness of office with only one long interval till the day of his death. It is remarkable how unwilling he showed himself to be put forward by his own party, even when there could be no doubt of his fitness for the proposed office; thus, when he was only twenty-five, he refused the grand position of Chancellor of the Exchequer, with a seat in the Cabinet, for the far humbler post of Secretary at War; and, so late as 1827, declined the offer of the Leadership of the House, for which he was, unquestionably, by that time well fitted. The best parts in the two volumes are those portions of his correspondence in which he gives his judgment, often one amusingly satirical, of the people-English or foreign-with whom he happened to be thrown in contact, judgments not always, perhaps, perfectly just, but very characteristic of the man.

Thus speaking of a famous Westminster Election, he says, 'Sheridan and Hood stood upon Government interest against Paull . . . . . Paull, being the greatest blackguard of the two, quite supplanted him (Sheridan) in the affections of the Covent Garden electors." Again, speaking of his own election at Cambridge in 1825 when what were called "Catholic Claims" was the chief subject of the day, he writes, "I am going on as well as I could expect, in fact, as well as possible; I think I shall have all the Johnsons and most of the Trinity men. The Protestants will support me as a Tory; and the Whigs as a Catholic." Again, writing to King William the Fourth, Palmerston says, "The truth is,

however reluctantly one may avow the conviction, that Louis Philippe is a man in whom no solid trust can be reposed. However, there he is, and we call him our ally; only we ought to be enlightened by experience and not to attach to his assertions or professions any greater value than really belongs to them, more especially, when, as in the case of Egypt, his words are not only at variance with his conduct, but even inconsistent with each other." Some of his remarks about the French character and the mode in which English people ought to deal with the French are singularly pertinent. Thus, writing against Talleyrand's plan of bullying the Dutch in order to support the Belgians, he says, "The French Government are perpetually telling us that certain things must or must not be done, in order to satisfy public opinion in France; but they must remember that there is a public feeling in England as well as in France; and that, although that feeling is not as excitable upon small matters as the public mind in France, yet there are points (and Belgium is one) upon which it is keenly sensitive, and upon which, if once aroused, it would not easily be appeased." He further ordered the English Ambassador to use the following language: "It may not be amiss," he says, "for you to hint, upon any fitting occasion, that although we are anxious to cultivate the best understanding with France, and to be on the terms of the most intimate friendship with her, yet that it is only on the supposition that she contents herself with the finest territory in Europe, and does not mean to open a new chapter of encroachment and conquest." It is very curious to read many of Palmerston's letters written years ago—and to note how, by just transposing a few names, they might have as well been written during the present year. Thus, speaking of the French in 1831, he observes, "They miscalculate their chances however, I think; and they will find that a war with all the rest of the world, brought upon them by a violation of their word, will not turn to their advantage or redound to their honour. . ... The Chambers will soon be sick of barren glory, if they succeed, or of defeats brought needlessly upon them if they fail; the Ministry will be turned out and the kings may go with them." Is not this a good deal like prophecy? Might it not have been aptly penned during the June or July of the present year?

The "Confidential Letters of the Right Honourable John Wickham," though rather dry, and sometimes too verbose, will be useful as filling up some gaps in that interesting portion of "Modern History" which extends from 1794 to about 1800. Mr. Wickham, after an education at Harrow and Oxford, where he made the acquaintance of Lord Grenville, was Minister Plenipotentiary to the Swiss Cantons in 1795-subsequently, for a short time, in 1798, Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department-and then, again, at his post in Switzerland in 1799. Among the miscellaneous correspondence will be found many interesting letters between him and MM. Mounier, De Précy, and Pichegru, from Lords Grenville and Auckland, from the unfortunate Duc D'Enghien begging for a salary, and many important notices of the state of parties both abroad and at home, during that eventful period, with a notice of General Hoche's project for a descent upon England and Ireland, and a very curious account of the famous Suwarrow.

In "Macmillan's Magazine" for April, those-and their names are legion-who were either personally acquainted with or have taken an interest in the career of the late Sir George Cornewall Lewis, will find a short but admirable memoir of that distinguished scholar from the pen of Mr. J. H. Fyfe. The world knew that, during a political career of about thirty-five years, there was no one who had

filled, and filled with credit, so many of the highest offices under the Crown, but the world probably did not know, that from the time he obtained at Oxford a first class in Classics and a second in Mathematics (in the year 1828) to his death Sir Cornewall Lewis was engaged in literary labours which would alone have made the fortune of more than one scholar. The translation from the German of C. O. Müller's "Dorians" in conjunction with his friend Mr. Tufnell, his admirable Essay on the "Romance Languages," his edition of "Babrius," his essays on the "Administration of Great Britain from 1782 to 1830," his last great work on the "Astronomy of the Ancients" with other and various papers on Roman and International Law," on methods of political reasoning and on forms of Government, were nearly all worked out during periods when he was supposed by most people to be altogether engrossed with affairs of State. The fact was, as has been well said of him, "he worked with the coldness and precision of machinery," and it was just testimony to him when Dean Milman said of him, that he was not only eminent as a statesman, and one of the most profound scholars of his day, but, further, that he might "have done honour as Professor of Greek to the most learned University in Europe." In hours snatched from public business, he performed "feats of scholarship which would try the erudition and the research of the most mature student." We should add that many of his letters have been recently published by his brother, and have been of great value to Mr. Fyfe in the general sketch he has given of his public character.

"The Life and Writings of Joseph Mazzini,” vol. vi., will, we believe, surprise not a few readers who have probably judged of Mazzini as an impracticable Republican, who, when more than two-thirds of the objects to which he had devoted his life have been accomplished far more completely than he could ever have dreamt of in his wildest hours of imagination, such as the emancipation of all Italy from Austrian rule, the downfall of the Neapolitan Bourbons, and the ensuring Rome as the capital of an united Italy, yet still absolutely refuses to recognize these goods without adding to them the illusory nonsense of a Republic for a race who are even less fitted for such a thing than the French or the Spaniards. Yet those who take up these volumes will find that Mazzini is deserving far more commendation than that of a mere hopeless dreamer; and that, on the contrary, he possesses in him some of the highest qualities of a critic. Turn to his papers on Goethe, Byron, and Lamennais, and no one can doubt that, had he devoted himself to literature with the zeal he has to politics, Mazzini would have been among the highest critics of his day. "Motion," Lamennais once observed, “is the soul of literary style "-" Discouragement is but disenchanted egotism," adds Mazzini, both sentences serving well to portray the similarity, as well as the remarkable energy, characteristic of these two men. Doubtless they were, in more than one way, kindred spirits; neither would admit faintheartedness in any thing-neither could have slumbered at what they regarded as their watches. It is curious to find Mazzini writing in the rapturous style he does of Georges Sand, and placing her above even Byron and Goethe for her first work, the "Letters of a Traveller." We rejoice, however, to find that with her later productions he has no sympathy-that he reproves Goethe for his selfish doctrines, and Byron for his immoralities.

"A Book of Memories," by Mr. S. C. Hall, is sure to be well done by a man who been, perhaps, more closely and longer associated with literary men than any living person, and who therefore comes to the task he has set himself with