cause he regards them as proofs of his superior wit and talent for business. Cautions though he be, he is expeditious in his affairs, because he knows the value of time. His house is a sanctuary which is seldom violated by the stranger. He is not hospitable; or rather, he rarely dispenses his hospitality; but when he does entertain, he does it well, and liberally. He speaks without effort, and is a close logician, but not a brilliant orator.

"If, however, he is not a great statesman, he is a skilful manager, and a wonderful man of busi ness. If he cannot control men, he is without his equal in the management of details; in their arrangement and placing them in train.

"There are no merchants more skilful than those of Boston. But it is as colonist that the Yankee is admirable above all others. Fatigue or hardship cannot conquer him. He has not, to so great a degree as the Spaniard, the power of enduring hunger or thirst; but he possesses a faculty which is far superior; that of providing in any place, and at all times, food and raiment; and of guarding against the cold, first his wife and children, and afterward himself. He lays siege to nature herself, and notwithstanding her resistance, brings her into subjection, and forces her to surrender at discretion."

Now any one at all acquainted with the provincial characteristics of our countrymen, would instantly set this picture down, as exaggerated and absurd; and we are quite sure that every liberal man among the great multitude of our southern brethren would stamp it as such at once, without hesitation. We are perfectly willing to consider that 'the honors are equal' between the two sections of the Union, with respect to sporting, speculating, and gambling, (as M. CHEVALIER chooses to call it ;) and in the latter respect, we are sure we concede rather too much. However, we are willing to let that pass. There may be there undoubtedly is - a floating class of yankees to be found in various quarters- pedlars of tin-ware, 'notions,' nutmegs, maps, books, flints, cum multis aliis, in various quarters of the country; and they are stigmatized by HALLECK, in his poem of Connecticut, as men on whom the Virginians look

With some such favorable eyes

As Gabriel on the Devil in Paradise.'

But let the substantial people of New-England be seen at home. They are cautious, it is true, but hospitable, and warm-hearted; faithful to death in friendship, and chivalrous in war; (witness! ye fields of Concord, thou, Bunker Hill, and you, ensanguined Lexington, whose soil drank in the most devoted rain of blood that was ever showered for the salvation of a continent, and the welfare of millions yet to live!) Let the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers be seen and known, and we fear not the verdict which will assign them a place, superior we will not urge, but equal, to that of any province or commonwealth on the globe.

We should be pleased, did our limits allow, to translate sundry quotations which we have marked among others a truly idiomatic and amusing sketch of Crockett's appearance and phraseology - and which we are sure would afford pleasure to our readers; but they will doubtless soon meet with the volumes, entirely rendered. The indiscriminate re-publication of foreign matter from the English press, and the avidity in Great-Britain for French comments upon the political and social condition of the United States, render such a result highly probable.

CORPOREAL PUNISHMENT. — In another department of this Magazine, will be found an article descriptive of the Russian mode of inflicting corporeal punishment upon criminals. We are indebted for it to a gentlemen recently from England, who informs us that 'it was written for a Scottish annual, which was attempted at Glasgow, and which promised well, but was subsequently given up.' It will have the effect, we hope, to convince the advocates of whipping in the prisons of the United States - which is, after all, but a variety of the knout - that the practice is a species of barbarism, and that, possibly, there may be some punishment devised, a little less cruel, and more effective, than lacerating the human body by scourging. We are no advocates of a blind philanthropy; but this subject is one which has excited the attention of some of the wisest and best men of the age.

'UNEASY LIES THE HEAD THAT WEARS A CROWN.'- This sentence is true of crowned heads generally, yet it is most particularly applicable to the citizen-king of the French, whose every movement appears to be watched by some lurking assassin. But the printed reports of the attacks on the life of LoUIS PHILIPPE have always struck us as laughable in the extreme. The minuteness of detail, the far-fetched inferences, and the tortuous ramifications of suspicion, are peculiarly French, and tend to distract sympa. thy from the grand monarque, whose life has just been placed in imminent peril. The following is something after the common formula: 'Last evening, at seven o'clock, another attempt was made upon the life of our beloved king, by a man named FRANCOIS SPRIGGINS. He had for some days attracted the attention of a police agent of the third division, and the inspector-general of the interior of the chateau, by a certain daring cock of his eye, whenever any of the National Guard passed near him, and by the contemptuous manner in which his hat was placed upon the side of his head. At the moment the king passed, in his carriage, the criminal was observed to thrust his right hand into the left hand pocket of his surtout, and draw from thence a pistol, which, before it was possible for any of the by-standers to arrest his arm, he presented and fired. The ball entered the middle of the carriage window, and narrowly missed the very head of the king, who was fortunately at the moment seized with a violent attack of sternutation, which threw it downward with great suddenness. Instantly, persons from all sides rushed upon the culprit, and, to use an expressive English term, before he had time to vociferate 'Jacobus Robinson,' he was firmly secured, and not a little maltreated by the crowd. He was perfectly cool and self-possessed - so much so, that, turning to the first indignant citizens who had grasped his arms and legs, in the attempt to secure him, he exclaimed, 'Well? — what of it?' His eye, as he uttered these words, beamed with much intensity. The assassin was immediately taken to the Tuilleries, and placed in one of the lower cells, under a tripple guard of twenty-four soldiers. His clothes were at once removed from his person. They consisted of a dark-brown surtout, quite passé, one of the elbows of which, in particular, was very much dilapidated, as if worn by constant friction. This circumstance was noted by an officer, and may lead to a disclosure of the nature of the culprit's calling, and to the discovery of his accomplices. He had, beside, a pair of gray cloth pantaloons, much worn, with a small fissure or hole in the lower region of the backward portion, through which, previous to his being undressed, it was remarked by several persons that a dingy fragment of linen hung suspended, like a pocket-handkerchief. His waistcoat was of faded black, and exceedingly tattered, and in one of the pockets was found a single franc. In the pocket of his bodycoat, the least valuable of all his garments, was found a discolored pipe, from which arose an effluvia very offensive to the examining functionary. He had four shirts upon his body, varying in hue and cleanliness, downward to the first in which he had encased himself. A pair of old boots were taken from his feet, on one of which was a blue, and on the other a white, stocking — both in very bad condition. The pistol which the culprit used, was of a medium size, with a screw rifle barrel: it was a very common weapon, with a damaged stock, and had been very slightly charged, although it made a very loud report. In the hat which he wore, and which was not found until some time after his arrest, was the name of the maker, in the Rue St. Martin. An officer immediately went to this address, when it was found that the artizan, a tall, one-eyed man, very fond of snuff, and well known to the police, had been absent from Paris for three months, but that it would be very easy to find him out. The criminal has been removed to the Conceirgerie, under a strong escort. Other important particulars will be given in the

bulletin at noon. A public affiche may be seen at the Bourse.'

Such is a fair sample of the gossip which attends a shot at that animated target whose misfortune it is to be Monarch of the French. But, poor man! he cannot help it. As Byron would say, 'it is all owing to his bitch of a star.' He was born to trouble' when he was born to be a king.

'SPRING-TIME OF THE YEAR IS COMING! We had newly nibbed our gray goosequill, to say a few words upon the season - which, as we write, is breaking upon us in the song of birds, and the glow of unclouded skies - when, in glancing over our latest London periodicals, we chanced upon the annexed, from a work in press by 'THOMAS MILLER, Basket-maker,' the delightful prose-poet of 'A Day in the Woods.' Truly, it cannot be improved; and desiring the reader to make the slight changes necessary to give the descriptions an American 'keeping,' we commend it to his affections. Spring,' says he, 'is come at last! There is a primrose color on the sky-there is a voice of singing in the woods, and a smell of flowers in the green lanes. Call her fickle April, if you choose; I have always found her constant as an attentive gardener. Who would wish to see her slumbering away in sunshine, when the daisies are opening their pearly mouths for showers? Her very constancy is visible in her changes: if she veils her head for a time, or retires, it is but to return with new proofs of her faithfulness, to make herself more lovable, to put on an attire of richer green, or deck her young brows with more beautiful blossoms. Call her not fickle, but modest - an abashed maiden, whose love is as faithful as the flaunting May or passionate June. Robed in green, with the tint of apple-blossoms upon her cheek, holding in her hands primroses and violets, she stands beneath the budding hawthorn, her young eyes fixed upon the tender grass, or glancing sideways at the daisies, as if afraid of looking upon the sun, of whom she is enamoured. Day after day she wears some additional charm, and the sky-god bends down his golden eyes in delight at her beauty; and if he withdraws his shining countenance, she is all tears, weeping in an April shower for his loss. Fickle Sun! He, too, soon forgets the tender maiden, clothed in her simple robes, and decorated with tender buds, and, like a rake, hurries over his blue pathway, and pines for the full-bosomed May, or the voluptuous June, forgetting April, and her sighs and tears.

'Oh! how delightful is it now to wander forth into the sweet-smelling fields; to set one's foot upon nine daisies - a sure test that spring is come; to see meadows lighted with the white flowers; to watch the sky-lark winging his way to his blue temple in the skies,

Singing above, a voice of light;

to hear the blackbird's mellow, flute-like voice ringing from some distant covert, among the young beauties of the wood, who are robing themselves for the masque of Summer.'

MOTTOS. We have somewhere seen the quotation which SCOTT appended to his acknowledgment of the authorship of the Waverly novels, cited as a happy specimen of an appropriate motto:

And must I then

This lengthened skein unravel?"

But it seems to us scarcely more felicitous than the lines selected by the clever author of 'The Fidget Papers,' to preface the history of the 'reduced fashionable,' whose history he records in the present number of this Magazine. Let the reader remark, after perusing the article, with what entire aptitude every word of the quotation may be applied to the events narrated. Appropos of the 'Fidget Papers.' The author says, in a private note: "They came to us with the effects of FRANCIS FIDGET, Esq., a gentleman recently deceased, who was an old bachelor, had seen much of the world, and recorded every thing which he deemed worthy of preservation. He was frequently solicited, during his life-time, to publish a portion of his papers; but being totally destitute of literary ambition, he refused to comply with the request of his friends. A large portion of the Mss. relate to the fortunes of a family by the name of MORTHAM, whose country villa was not far from the humble residence of Mr. Fidget. This family consisted of Col. Mortham, and a lady who was his second wife, two sons, and a daughter. Of the two

sons, Albert, the elder, was an ambitious lawyer, not very generally beloved, while Walter is represented by Mr. Fidget as very amiable, and a universal favorite. Of the charms of the daughter, Emily, Mr. Fidget often spoke with a warmth unusual in an old bachelor, and many passages in his papers are devoted to her. He cannot, however, be suspected of having entertained more than a friendly affection for the beautiful girl. This explanation may prove useful to the proper understanding of some of our extracts.'

INDIAN PORTRAIT GALLERY. - We have heretofore alluded to this great national work, now in progress of publication in Philadelphia, under the pictorial charge of eminent artists, and the literary supervision of Col. M'KENNEY, and Hon. JAMES HALL, of Cincinnati. The portraits, twenty in number, are from the well-known Indian Gallery in the Department of War, at Washington; and nothing can exceed the beauty of the execution and coloring of those which have been issued. In England, whither an agent for the work has gone, it is in such request, that it is found impossible to supply the demand. The subscription in London was opened by the king himself, who gave his own signature at the head of the list. In this country, it has already been taken by great numbers, and in this city, it ranks among its subscribers many of our most distinguished citizens. The price of the work - which, considering its great excellence in every department, must be deemed exceedingly small is but six dollars a number. It will be delivered to none but those who subscribe; and the names of these, in fac simile, will be engraved and bound up with the Gallery,' when it shall be completed. Mr. FULLER, the accredited and gentlemanly agent for this publication, will remain for a limited period at the Astor-House, where subscriptions may be registered.

THE DRAMA. We have little in the way of novelty to chronicle in this department. POWER, as welcome as ever, has been through with his usual round of characters at the PARK, delighting crowded audiences with acting so true to nature that it can never pall upon the beholder. At the AMERICAN THEATRE, within the month, in addition to the gorgeous spectacle of 'MAZEPPA,' which has had a triumphant career, a 'young lady,' Mrs. GEORGE JONES, has made her début in the character of Bianca, in MILMAN'S 'Fazio,' with entire success. On every hand, her performance, for one so new to the stage, is pronounced unexampled. The inclement weather, which prevented our attendance, we are glad to learn had little effect upon the house, which was, as usual, brimming. The NATIONAL THEATRE has passed under the direction of Mr. HACKETT, whose inimitable personations, notwithstanding other attractions, have formed the most inviting feature in the management, thus far. New and interesting pieces, however, are in preparation, in which Mr. COOKE's well known equestrian troupe are to be conspicuous.

DUTIES OF AMERICAN CITIZENS. We have derived much satisfaction from the perusal of a sensible and occasionally eloquent 'Address on the Duties of American Citizens, delivered before the Franklin Society of Saint Louis, on its second anniversary, January 7th, 1837, by CHARLES D. DRAKE.' The topics upon which it touches are, love of country, the necessity of home education, and a knowledge of the principles of a republic; the influence of demagoguism; the bad effects of a superabundant and blind national vanity, and wide-spread love of office; and the importance of a universal knowledge of the constitution. These subjects are so well reasoned, and in a style so terse and emphatic, that we doubly regret the necessity which compels us, at the late hour at which we receive the pamphlet, to limit ourselves to this brief notice of its contents, without fortifying our favorable opinions by extracts.

'SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of CHARLES BALL, a Black Man, who lived forty years in Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia, as a Slave, under various Masters.' Such is the title of a book of more than five hundred pages, from the press of Mr. JOHN S. TAYLOR. Some very clever writer, who has read Robinson Crusoe, and caught, in no small degree, the spirit of that unsurpassed narrative, has wrought the stories of a garrulous and highly imaginative old colored man into a large volume, in which it must be admitted there is no lack of interest. Credulity, however, will be sadly tried, in various parts of this 'authentic history;' but there will be none left of consequence, we apprehend, after the reader shall have arrived at the 'full and particular account' of a horrid execution which was done upon two black men, in South Carolina, by fastening them down with their backs to the ground, in a desolate spot, where the turkey-buzzards were suffered to eat them away piecemeal! That due horrific effect may be given to this story, the amanuensis of the narrator assists the imagination of the reader, by informing him that 'buzzards and carrion-crows always attack dead bodies by pulling out and consuming the eyes first; they then tear open the bowels, and feed upon the intestines!'

THE 'NEW-YORKER.' - We take pleasure in calling public attention to the new quarto volume of this excellent journal, which has just commenced. We have perused the work from its beginning, and appreciated, we think, the great industry, talent, and good taste, which have marked its course. While it has avoided all noisy and lying boastings of its merit and success- the surest criteria of a lack of both - it has worthily obtained a strong hold upon the popular favor - a reputation, indeed, equal to that of any similar periodical in the country. The 'New-Yorker' is executed with much typographical neatness, and published by the proprietors and editors, Messrs. H. GREELEY and E. B. FISHER, at 127 Nassau-street.

'THE YOUTHFUL IMPOSTOR.' — This is a novel in two volumes, just re-published by Messrs. CAREY AND HART, Philadelphia. It is from the pen of Mr. GEORGE W. M. REYNOLDS, a new candidate for literary honors. He is evidently an unpractised writer; but he understands dramatic effect, and is very expert in the effective grouping of scenes and incidents. He has so much to do with low life in London, as to induce the reader to believe that he might have passed his early years in the very heart of Alsatia. He describes well, however, and has the power of taking the reader along with him, whether he approve or condemn, as he journeys. New-York: WILEY AND PUTNAM, and G. AND C. CARVILL AND COMPANY.

ESSAYS OF ELIA. - A neatly-printed volume of some hundred and thirty pages, ina firm and tasteful paper cover, from the press of GEORGE DEARBORN, Contains the essays of our beloved 'Elia.' Perfect creator of rich conceits- charming architect of periods! What an essayist is he! How shrewd in observation - how discriminative of the burlesque-how quaint yet melodious in diction - in expression how varied! Who ever rose from his pages without brighter thoughts and softer feelings! But we have said all this before, and would not iterate. The writings of CHARLES LAMB need no eulogist.

HIESTAND'S TRAVELS. - 'Travels in Germany, Prussia, and Switzerland, by Rev. HENRY HIESTAND: including some Account of his Early Life, Conversion, and Ministerial Labors in the United States.' Thus is denominated a volume of some two hundred open pages, 'edited by a minister of the gospel in New-York,' and recently published by Mr. JOHN S. TAYLOR. We can do little more than announce the work; since candor compels us to say, that after entering upon its perusal, we found it not suffi ciently inviting to induce us to accompany the author in his various journeyings.