vestigated. But even this is fruitless criticism in most cases; and never can be satisfactory argument; since it is obvious that he can, if he be foolish enough, retort with a tu quoque. The question has still to be argued; the hostile views have still to be compared; the contrary statements have still to be tried, and sentence to be passed on that which is

untrue.

The charges brought against the works of George Sand are grave, and gravely urged. They are, to the best of our belief, false, and without foundation. But they have the qualities of being direct, and straightforward. George Sand is set forth as an advocate of suicide; an enemy to marriage in every good sense: the defender of vice, and the apologist of the vilest impurities; a Socialist, understanding by this term a plunderer, a sensualist, and an infidel; and to crown the whole she is accused of having reduced her theory to practice. To make out his case the writer gives us his version of her early life, and argues that her literature and life are the natural fruits of infidel teaching, want of womanly resignation, and quiet submission to the foulest wrong which can be inflicted by one being on another-namely, an infamous marriage of convenience. All this may be met by appeal to her books, taken as a whole, and not separately, as it may be shown that, at least, this noblest literary production of the nineteenth century-admitting, without adhesion, yet without question, any causes of its origin which might be assigned by any writer is not what Mr. Duffy's critic represents it to be, and does not teach what he says is therein taught.

Mr. Linton-devoted to the cause of the people, and careless of consequences to himself when the reputation of a popular leader is at staketook up the matter in an earnest spirit, and addressed a long letter to the editor of the Nation which may be described as a remonstrance to the critic himself.

Mr. Duffy's critic appended a reply to Mr. Linton's letter, which, in our opinion, is no reply; because it is founded upon a false principle of criticism that of taking separate works, and extracting isolated sentiments, parading them abroad, and saying, 'Lo this is the moral inculcated by Sand, these are the doctrines she teaches.' The artist does not employ the method of the didactic philosopher. There is a difference between the works of Shakspere and Paley. The one wrote down what humanity did and thought, the other wrote down what, in his opinion, mankind should think and do. In like manner Sand has shown us society as it is; and also drawn characters from the depths of her own imagination. In the former case the critic's verdict should be, Lo these are the morals inculcated by society'-in the latter- these are morals inculcated by George Sand.' We should not fear the result.

Meanwhile the good cause is served, doubtless, by this controversy. We do not forget the result of the Quarterly's brutal onslaught, which heralded the introduction of Sand's works into England; and we entertain hopes that similar consequences will attend the more graceful, as well as more brilliant charge made by the writer in the Nation; and that it will herald the diffusion of these books from one shore of Ireland to the other.

EUGENE.

ANCESTRY AND ANECDOTES OF FRANCES WRIGHT.

Now pass down the Long Wynd until you come to the Nethergate; a little to the west, on the south side, are Miln's Buildings, built in 1793. In 1795 the second flat of the middle tenement was inhabited by an accomplised Dundee merchant of the name of Wright. Mr. Wright was a scholar and a republican. He was connected by marriage with the lettered aristocracy of England, and the late Prof. Mylne, of Glasgow University, was his uncle by the maternal side. His intelligence and gentlemanly character brought him in contact with Dr. Adam Smith, Dr. Cullen, and other men of literary and scientific eminence of his day. Mr. Wright warmly sympathised with the political principles which agitated Europe during the great French Revolution, and was the personal friend of the Dundee liberals who were transported during these stormy times. He was the first person who circulated in Dundee that clever political brochure called the Rights of Man;' and being a superior medalurgist, he struck a republican medal in commemoration of the establishment of his favourite form of government in France, and intended to circulate it in his native town; but about this time he became an object of surveillance to the government, and afraid of the vengeance of the law, he one night, about twelve o'clock, got into a small boat at the harbour, with all his radical medals beside him, crossed about half-way over to Fife, and deposited the suspicious cargo at the bottom of the Tay, after which he returned, burned a large quantity of objectionable papers and books, then retired to bed, and no doubt slept sounder than he did the night before. In 1795 his second daughter was born in this house. She was named Frances Wright, and was the Fanny Wright' who, in 1829, caused such an immense sensation in the United States, as an extreme lecturer on politics and religion. In early life, under the tuition of Professor Mylne, she had obtained a first class education, and at the age of eighteen she wrote a little book called a Few Days in Athens,' the aim of which is to defend the opinions and character of Epicurus. This work, though anti-theistic in its tendency, is a wonderful performanceand, excepting the Queen Mab' of Shelley, it is perhaps questionable if ever another production, written at so early an age, equalled it in literary ability. It is now out of print, and as its author is now convinced that the sentiments contained in it are opposed to the best interests of man, she wisely prohibits its republication. In 1818 she emigrated to America, and early in 1829 appeared as a public lecturer. Her deep soprano-toned voice, her commanding figure, and marvellous eloquence, combined with her furious attacks on slavery and all American abuses, soon made her notorious over that vast continent. Her powers of oratory are spoken of by several travellers as extraordinary, and when she spoke thousands flocked to hear her. Elated by her forensic abilities, she visited all the principal cities of the Union, but unfortunately she too often made the philosophy of her Few Days in Athens' the ground work of her discourses, consequently she aroused the hostility of the press and the clergy, and for two years she single-handed, by her pen and her tongue, battled with her powerful foes, and kept the country ringing with her name. However mistaken Fanny Wright' was, she

must have been animated by benevolent motives, as she subsequently purchased 2000 acres of land in the south-western quarter of the States, with a view of purchasing slaves, educating and improving them, and thereby showing their adaptability for equal rights and freedom with the other citizens of the States. Ill health compelled her to leave her estate and come to Europe, where a few years' residence seems to have cooled her enthusiasm, and modified her opinions, and now she lives in privacy in the Rue de Clichy, Paris, having long ago ceased to be Frances Wright, and become Madame D'Arusmont. This remarkable woman has mentally run a course that many a warm-hearted, generous, and clever enthusiast has done before her. Endowed by nature with a keen feeling for suffering, a detestation of wrong, and love of liberty, they, with a confused conception of the world and a limited knowledge of human nature, commence a crusade against all the established principles of society, and fondly think they will reform mankind. They turn against every man, and every man turns against them; and nothing but experience will convince them that they are fighting to no purpose, and that in a few years the effects of their labours will pass away like a 'tale that has been told.' The character of Madame D'Arusmont's mind is now greatly altered. The writer has for a number of years been her personal friend, and the last time she visited Dundee, which was shortly after the late French Revolution, he recollects, while in conversation with her one day, of her uttering the following remarks-Depend upon it, sir, I did wrong in attacking religion. Religion has a deep seat in the heart of humanity; and he is no friend to his kind who opposes it. In fact, those who try to lower it in the estimation of the community are, as Macaulay says, "guilty of high treason against the civilisation of man." I was likewise wrong in bestowing so much praise on Republicanism; I suspect that a mixed Monarchy is the best form of government yet devised.'

We take this from Sketches about Town,' in the Dundee Courier. We recognise in the writer Mr. Myles, whose remarks on a previous occasion we had to combat. We will only add on this occasion, that there is one little circumstance which diminishes the force of that seeming recantation which the writer will force upon this lady, that is that she has not herself published a single argument against her former opinions.-ED.]

A DANISH SUNDAY.

A SUNDAY evening which I spent in Copenhagen, on my return from the north, afforded me additional insight into the habits of the Danes in this respect. Sunday, it must be premised, is held all over Scandinavia much less strictly than in England, and its religious character is considered as terminating at six in the evening. What I had seen in Norway made me not quite unprepared for what I found at Copenhagen; nevertheless it was somewhat startling. The evening being fine, the whole of the broad shady walk between the west gate of the city and the palace of Fredericksberg, two miles off, were crowded with groups of people in their best clothes; not merely peasants and artisans, or even shopkeepers, but persons of superior condition. The peasant women, with their gaudy

gold-laced caps and ribbons, gave a striking character to the scene. There were no drunk or disorderly people-all perfectly quiet and wellbehaved. Along the side of the road are numerous tea-gardens, some of them having little theatres, others merry-go-rounds and nine-pins, and so forth. These were all in full operation. It was astounding to see old women, identical in aspect with those who in Scotland sit on pulpit-stairs, and spend the Sunday evening over Boston's Fourfold State' and 'Crook in the Lot,' here swimming along in the circular railway to the music of a band. I tell, however, but a simple fact when I say that such was the case. Scores of little parties were enjoying themselves in the recesses along the walks. I observed that many of these were family parties, whose potations consisted only of tea. As the only variation to a laborious life for a whole week, it must have been intensely enjoyed. In one garden connected with a third-rate tavern there was a dancing saloon, with a clarionet, two fiddles, and a bass, to which a few lads and lasses were waltzing; and this seemed no solitary case. There was evidence of enjoyment everywhere, but not the slightest symptom of a sense that there was anything wrong in it. All seemed to be done openly and in good faith. I could not help contrasting the scene with the Sunday evenings of my own country. There the middle-classes spend the time at least quietly, if not religiously, at home; and having the power, use it, to forbid all public or acknowledged means of amusement to their inferiors. It is well known, however, that the taverns frequented by the common people are very busy that evening. It has been stated that in Glasgow, on the evening of the Sunday on which the Communion was administered last winter, one thousand and eighty public-houses were found in full business. The difference, therefore, between Denmark and Britain is mainly this-that in one country amusements of a comparatively innocent nature are partaken of without a sense of guilt, while in the other enjoyments of a degrading kind are enjoyed clandestinely, and with the feeling of a reprobation hanging over them which must add to their anti-moral tendency. We must pause, then, I conceive, before we express the feelings which are most apt to arise in our minds regarding the Scandinavian mode of spending the Sunday evening.-R. C., Chambers's Journal, No. 306.

LITERARY GIFTS TO THE REASONER' FUND. SOME time ago we announced that copies of a work on 'Mineral Poisons,' etc., by Dr. Prater, was given for the benefit of the 'Carlile Monument.' The copies were bought up and read with great satisfaction. We have now to announce that a limited number of the same work has been given for the benefit of the Reasoner Fund, by the same generous hand. This work, which is price 1s. 6d., consists of the essay on the Injurious Effects of Mineral Poisons in the Practice of Medicines,' with very curious observations on their applications. F. V. Raspail, so celebrated in France, some time ago proposed a new system of medicine,' to which the Montyon Prize of 10,000 francs was awarded. This remarkable system is not only explained in this work, but the reader is informed how to give it a fair trial. Raspail proposes to enable

every man to be his own physician. Much has been said of Luigi Cornaro, who attained such an extraordinary age. This work contains an analysis of Cornaro's own book detailing how he lived. Besides there is an essay on Sir J. Sinclair's Examples of Longevity,' with celebrated receipts.

To the same friend we are further indebted for copies of a work, cloth lettered, to be sold at 1s. 6d. Thoughts of Great Men and Remarkable Subjects.' The essays on Sterne, Petrarch, and Byron include the examination of unique topics. Besides others there is one on Utilitarian Ethics, including an interesting analysis of Jeremy Bentham's opinions. The essays are enriched by curious notes. The proceeds of this work will be applied to the Reasoner. Both can be had through Mr.

Watson.

OBJECTS AND RULES OF THE ASSOCIATION OF FRATERNAL DEMOCRATS.

Equality-Liberty-Fraternity.

OBJECTS. This Association is established to promote

The fraternity of nations, and especially the brotherly union of the proletarians of all countries.

The abolition of the penny stamp, and all other fiscal and oppressive restrictions of the freedom of the press.

The political emancipation of the working classes of this country, by the legislative establishment of the principles of the People's Charter.

The diffusion of sound knowledge on political and social questions by means of the distribution of tracts, addresses in the public journals, lectures, public meetings, &c., with the view of preparing the proletarian classes for the achievement of their deliverance from the oppression of irresponsible capital, and usurping feudalism.

RULES.-1. All who desire the progress of democratic and social reform, wherever residing, may become members of this Association by contributing to the society's funds a sum of at least one shilling annually, to be paid in advance.

2. In addition to the General Fund, there shall be established a Fraternal Fund, to be solely applied to the aiding of brethren (British and Continental) suffering from persecution. To this fund the members of the Association shall be invited to contribute voluntarily, according to their means.

3. The Association shall be conducted by a committee of nine members, including the Treasurer and Secretary, elected annually. An annual statement of the receipts and disbursements of the general and fraternal funds shall be laid before the members.

The appointment of the existing committee is only provisional. It is intended to hold a general meeting of members within the first week in January 1850, to elect the regular committee for twelve months.