THE SHAKSPERIAN READER: a collection &c., by John | been "butchered to make a London holiday." We com W. S. Hows, Professor of Elocution in Columbia Col-mend the encounter to the ingenious person who parodies lege. New York: Appleton & Co. Philadelphia: G. passages of Childe Harold for the Punch, and ask that be S. Appleton. 1839. will give it to us in Spenserian verse, beginning with the stanza, "I see before me the Reviewer lie." But to the article. We have read Mr. Croker's review with some attention, and while we admit that he convicts Mr. Macaulay of oecasional exaggeration, arising out of his antithetical style, we cannot see that he has succeeded in establishing any great fault in the History as a whole. The most remarka wondrous similarity between passages of Mackintosh and ble thing to our mind that Mr. Croker brings forward, is the Macaulay, relating to the same events. This could scarce. This is a very neat little volume, gotten up in the usual good style of these excellent publishers. We have 10 fault to find with type or paper. But we cannot approve the li cense which the compiler has confessedly assumed, of reduIcing his author to his own standard of decorum-substituting his own words for Shakspeare's-and cutting out the passages which are too strong for his taste. Selections are one thing-emasculated plays are another. Think of a man finding "synonymes" for Shakspeare's words! Did Mr. Howe ever hear of "gilding refined gold," or "paint ing the lily?" He evidently believes that he has been sinning. He takes many apologies-says that to "do a great right,” he has "done a little wrong"-admits that hely have been accidental and yet Mr. Macaulay makes no acknowledgment of having borrowed anything from his premay have "cut beyond the wound, to make the cure comdecessor. plete"-and pleads that he has "high medical authority" for such treatment of desperate cases." Who told him that Shakspeare's was a desperate case? His own much more so. He has done a great wrong, without any right at all: so that his Jesuit maxim shall not avail bim. Away with such mutilators! They would mar the Apollo his wholesale accusations of party prejudice and sometimes Mr. Croker quite fails, we think in sustaining "falls on 'tother side" by convicting himself of the bitter. est tory feelings. Some of his verbal objections to the History are altogether below the dignity of criticism and remind us of his complaint many years ago against Lord By. that he called one of his poems," The Bride of Any ron, Belvidere, or the Greek Slave, because ladies and gentle-dos" when in point of fact the heroine was not a bride, but men don't like to study them in company: or perhaps they might encase the one in a sack coat and pantaloons, and surround the other with skirts and stomachers. Again, we say, down with such mutilators! We insist upon the in tegrity of the great masters. only about to be one. Woodhouse, the Richmond agents, at whose store subser- tions will be received. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE and the FOREIGN REVIEWS. CHARACTERISTICS OF LITERATURE, Illustrated by the These sterling publications for the last few months have possessed more than usual interest. Blackwood still harps on the old string of legitimacy, so that its political strain We have before us, collected into a volume, the entire has somewhat jarred upon our ears, but there is no lack of series of Essays on literary characters, which Mr. Tuckstirring music of another character thrown out by master erman has contributed to the Messenger during twelve hands. Part XIII of "The Caxtons" appears in the June months past,-Sir Thomas Browne, John Sterling, Mak number, together with the first of the "Dies Boreales," in Akenside, Lamb and Keats, Channing, Swift, and Burke,which we recognise Christopher North again. The Edin- together with three others, Shenstone, Roscoe, and Macau burgh, for April, contains a noble article on "The Vanity lay, and one written many years since on Charles Lamb as and the Glory of Literature," worthy of its best fame. But a Humorist. To the readers of the Messenger it is scarceperhaps the most striking paper of the day is the slashing ly necessary to say a word in praise of this most excellent .criticism of Croker upon Macaulay, in the last number of the London Quarterly. In former times, we read in Froissart, there was a custom for gentlemen to rig themselves out in vizor and corselet, mount fiery steeds and ride at full speed at each other with lance in rest, for the purpose of amusing “gay ladyes" by tumbling each other in the dust. At a much earlier period, there was even a more naughty practice, among the higher classes, of placing two brave men in the open space of an amphitheatre, and cheering them on to kill each other, amid the waving of scarfs and the pomp of regal festivity. Such things are no longer. The age of chivalry is gone. Gladiatorial exhibitions. do not now delight civilized people. Nous avons changé tout cela. But we have a diversion of a no less cruel character. Two authors, "clad in complete steel," rush on to a conflict more stirring than any ever fought by knight or gladiator, in the lists or the arena. The Review is the field of engagement and the subscribers are the audience, who look on with the most engrossing interest for the result. This is always the same. Both are used up. It is an affair like the feline skirmish of Kilkenny, where nothing remains to mark the spot of the action. Such has been the case with Croker and Macaulay. In the pages of the Edinburgh and the Quarterly, both these accomplished litterateurs have book. We regard Mr. Tuckerman as one of the most thoughtful and philosophical writers of our acquaintance, and we do not remember to have seen any book from la pen, that is not to be considered as a valuable acquisitio to a library. There is a certain finish to his style that showe the true scholar,-a finish derived from wide and intimate knowledge of books imparting a charm to every sentence while the reflections in which he indulges betray a habi attentively observing the springs of human action. Mr Tuckerman does not write books to order, as many of our modern author-craft do, and in his composition he has geterally acted in accordance with a good old maxim touching conversation, long since obsolete,-be sure you have some thing to say before you open your mouth. The present volume is very handsomely printed and is for sale by A. Morris. We are indebted to Messrs. Robert Carter & Co. of New York for some of their recent publications which shall take an early opportunity of noticing. This firm ha become famous for the number of theological and derental works which they send forth constantly from the press PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM-JNO. R. THOMPSON, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. VOL. XV. RICHMOND, AUGUST, 1849. NO. 8. the agent of the Company which had been formed in England upon the faith of Moro's survey; The Panama Rail-Way and the Gulf of from this agent they were borrowed by Commo Mexico. 1. Carta del Istmo de Tehuantepec, copied by order of Commodore M. C. Perry, Commanding U. S. Home Squadron, Mexico 1847, by Wm. May, Lieutenant U. S. N. 2. Plan de la Boca del Rio Coatzacoalcos, copied by order of Commodore M. C. Perry, Commanding Home Squadron, Mexico 1847; by Lieut. Wm. May, U. S. N, 3. Sketch from the Mouth of the Coatzacoalcos River, to the town of Mina-Titlan made by order of Commodore M. C. Perry, Commanding Home Squadron, 1847, by Lieuts. Alden, Blunt and May, U. S. N. 4. Mouth of the Coatzacoalcos River, Surveyed, WM. LEIGH, Lieut. Commanding, The con The continent must be cut in two. venience of the world requires that the two great oceans should be joined together. The subject is attracting a large share of publie attention. Two propositions were submitted to Congress, at the last session, for opening a way for commerce across the Isthmus. The rontes proposed were, one via Panama, the other via Tehuantepec. dore Perry; they were copied by his order, and the copies sent to the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography. By authority of the Bureau, these with the two other charts named above, were engraved and published at the National Observa tory. The surveys of Moro have been widely circulated both in this country and in Europe. They have produced a general impression, both here and there, that this Tehuantepec route is very favorable, if not the most favorable that has been proposed across the continent either for railroad and ship canal. Moro's Survey cannot be relied on. He gives twenty feet water on the bar of the Coatzacoalcos. The survey, both of Lieut. Leigh, and of Lieuts. Alden, Blunt and May, agree in giving not more than twelve and a half feet there. Com modore Perry states further that he had, in 1847 and '48, three several surveys made of the mouth of that river; that he had himself been in and out of it several times, sounding both ways; and that his own observations, as well as the three surveys, all by different officers, agree; and that they show that more than twelve and a half feet cannot be carried into that river. These are vital Misled by this survey, Messrs. Hargous & Co., in their memorial, last winter to Congress, state that "thirty miles of the river Coatzacoalcos is navigable for ships of the largest class." Our officers followed Moro only fifteen or twenty miles up the river (they went up as far as Mina-Titlan;) they give twelve feet only that far; he gives thirty-three-a difference of twenty-one feet. What difference they would have made for the thirty miles, we cannot say. points; points upon which the merit of the route It will be recollected that Mexico granted, depends, and which form serious objections to it. a few years ago, to Don José Garay and others, Moreover, there is reason to believe that Moextraordinary privileges for constructing a rail-ro took his soundings in the rainy season, when road or ship canal across the Isthmus of Tehu- the river was swollen with a flood from the antepec. Under this grant, Cayetano Moro, an mountains. Yet, no mention is made of this Italian engineer, was employed to survey the fact. Now, what would be thought of an Enroute. The map of Tehuantepec and the plan gineer with us, who should be employed to of the Coatzacoalcos, mentioned as 1 and 2, at examine the navigability of one of our rivers for he head of this article, are the results of that the purpose of giving the public correct information as to its depth of water, with the view of They were found by Commander McKenzie, connecting some internal improvement with it, U.S. N., at Mina-Titlan, 1847, in the hands of and with the view of getting subscriptions to the survey. VOL. XV-56 stock upon the faith of that report; what, we ists have not by 7 or 8 feet as much water on repeat, would be thought of the Engineer sent for instance to ascertain the navigability for ships, of the Illinois river, with the view of connecting the Mississippi through it by ship canal with the Lakes, and who should take his soundings when there was a fresh in the river, and report the depths thus obtained as the true depth? the bar, and not as much by 21 feet in the riveras their Engineer reported, and consequently, that they cannot have their "30 miles of river navigation for ships of the largest class." A rail-road, if a rail-road be ever built there, must go from sea to sea; and, allowing for detour, its length would probably not fall short of 150 Before the Tehuantepec route can be consider- miles, which, at 10 cents per ton, per mile, would ed, it is incumbent upon those who advocate it give 15 dollars as the cost of transporting a ton as the best, to show how, and at what cost, the bar of merchandise from one end of this road to the at the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos can be deep- other. Fifteen dollars per ton is what shippers ened, and also to show how a harbour can be usually pay to send their goods from New York constructed on the Pacific side of that Isthmus; around Cape Horn, to Chili and Peru. This and how it can be kept open after it is construc-route then could not at present compete with ted. Cape Horn for the carrying trade between the two Oceans: for the expense of the sea voyage to and from Tehuantepec must still be added to the 15 dollars of rail-way transportation. The coast there resembles very much our own Southern coast; like it, it is skirted with a chain of low and narrow islands, separated by inlets or bars. Let those who think it an easy matter to The distance across the Isthmus of Panama make a harbor there, recollect the difficulty of is but one third as great as the distance across forming harbors on our own shores, where they Tehuantepec; consequently, giving each route have been either closed or obstructed by the for- the same rate of tolls, the freight over the Panama, compared with that over the Tehuantepec, This chart has been suppressed at the Hydro-road, would be as 5 dollars to 15 dollars, per graphical office on account of its gross errors ton. For 15 dollars the ton, goods are taken and absurdities, and therefore it is needless to from New York around Cape Horn and landed say more about it. mation of bars. in the ports of Chili and Peru, 13,000 miles off; and yet Tehuantepec, it is alleged, offers the more eligible route than Darien, because it cuts off 2,000 miles of the sea voyage to California. As far as California is concerned, this would be But, while it lessens the distance 2,000 miles more than the route via Panama does, it increases the expense nearly at the rate of 10 dollars more the ton on merchandize. Will our shipping merchants say it is worth 10 dollars a ton on freight to lessen a sea voyage miles? It is true, as stated by Hargous & Co., in their memorial to Congress that the distance of the sea voyage, from New Orleans via. Tehuantepec to San Francisco is about 2000 miles less than it is by Panama. But the expense of transportation a great advantage, if there were no offsets to it. by land exceeds, per mile, that by sea some 30 or 40 times. The freight, per ton, per sea mile, on long voyages, is seldom more than at the rate of two mills per ton, and is often less. Over the rail roads of the United States it is about 5 cents, per ton per mile. These facts show that it costs no more to send a ton of merchandise 25 miles by sea than it does to send the same one The mere statement of the distance to be mile by rail road in the United States. At saved does not enable one to judge correctly as least double the rates in the United States, to the relative merits of the two routes. Time where there are opposition lines, shops, mechan- and expense are the true arguments to consider. ics and facilities for supplies of all sorts, should be allowed for the Tehuantepec rail-road, which is far away from shops, mechanics, supplies, &c., and which would have no opposition. 2.000 Time to California, and only time to California, alone is in favor of Tehuantepec; but expense in every direction, and time to all places, except California and the North, are in favor of Panama; and the gain in time to California is not sufficient to compensate shippers for the increase of expense which the Tehuantepec road would According to this, and taking the length of the Tehuantepec route at 115 miles, as stated in the memorial, it would be as cheap, as to money, to send a cargo 5,750 miles by sea as it would require. be to send it over the 115 miles of Tehuantepec rail-road. But a rail-road across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec must be longer than 115 miles. In a straight line across the Isthmus, the distance from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific is 140 miles; and we have shown that the memorial, The time may come when a communication across Tehuantepec would be used for transport ing certain articles of commerce; but before we can form any idea as to when that time will be, we require to have of the route an examination that is worthy of confidence. We are of opiaion that the want of a harbour on the Pacific even if there were a rail-road already acrosswould render the communication unavailable for commerce. The "harbour" to which the proposed route is to run, is no harbour at all. It is blocked up by a bar of not more than 6 or 8 feet water-that bar and coast are Carolina like, and therefore it will be a difficult matter to deepen the bar and to keep it open. Our people, states and government have never been able to do as much with one of our own Southern bars. A line from the Delta of the Orinoco to the east end of Cuba, is but a thousand miles long; and yet to the west of it, lies this magnificent basin of water locked in by a continent that has on its shores the most fertile valleys of the earth; in the midst of these valleys ships may sail thousands of miles on the largest rivers that bring tribute to the Ocean. They contain the elements of dormant wealth, of national power and greatness, which it requires facility of communication with When the rail-road that is to run from the the Pacific to begin to develope, and which, Mississippi valley to California is built, and built when fully developed, will astonish the world. it certainly will be, the most direct route, the An era and an epoch in the affairs of nations shortest, in time and money, for travellers from will date from the opening of this communicaPeru and other South American States to Cali- tion. All and more too, that the Mediterranean fornia, China, &c., will be via Panama, New is to Europe, Africa and Asia, this sea is to Orleans, and the California rail-road. A rail- America and the world. road across the Isthmus of Panama would be A sea is important for commerce in proporbut a continuance of the Mississippi and Cali- tion to the length of the rivers that empty fornia line to South America. At present the into it, and to the extent and fertility of the stream of travel sets from the United States river-basins that are drained by it. The across Panama; but, when the road to Califor- quantity and value of the staples that are nia is completed, the stream will be turned the brought down to market depend upon these. other way, and the tide of travel from South The Red Sea is in a riverless district; few are America to the above named places will proba- the people and small the towns along its coast. bly flow through the United States.* Its shores are without valleys; not a river empTherefore we say the Panama rail-road must ties into it; for there is no basin for it to drain. be built. The present generation wants it, and posterity will have it. We propose to view this measure in some of those manifold lights in which the wants of commerce and the great interest of the county hold it up before the world. Rightly to consider it and the effects which are to arise from uniting the two oceans. it is neCommercial cities have never existed on the cessary to take in review the position in respect shores of the Red Sea. Commerce loves the both to the Old World and the New, of our sea, but it depends for life and health on the Mediterranean, which consists of the Gulf of land. It derives its sustenance from the rivers Mexico, with its Archipelago, the Carribean sea. The geographical position of this sea and its shores, the size of the rivers which flow into it, the elimates and the soils of their valleys, and the hand with which nature has strewed the elements of commerce among them, all conspire to make it the most useful to the greatest numbers of men and therefore the most interesting sea in the world. It is situated midway between the two Americas. Rivers whose head waters reach back north and south into the very heart of the country, run into it. Commercially speaking, what are its staples in comparison with those of the Mediterranean which gives outlet to rivers that drain and fertilize basins containing not less than one million and a quarter of square sea miles of fruitful lands? and the basins which they drain-and increases the opulence of nations in proportion to the facilities of intercourse which these nations have with the outlets of such basins. The river basins drained into the Gulf and Carribean Sea, greatly exceed in extent of area and capacity of production the river basins of the Mediterranean. The countries in Africa, Asia and Europe which comprise the river basins of the Mediterranean are in superficial extent but little more than one fourth the size of those which are drained by this sea in our midst. It is the Mediterranean of the New World, and *For a full discussion as to a rail-road from the Valley nature has laid it out on a scale for commerce of the Mississippi to California, see a letter addressed by far more grand than its type in the Old: that is Lt. M. F. Maury, U. S. N. to Hon. T. Butler King of Georgia. Ho. Doc. No. 596, 30th Congress, 1st Session. about 45° of longitude in length, by an average Also a letter trom the same to Hon. Solon Borland, pub- of 70 of latitude in breadth. Ours is broader lished in the Southern Literary Messenger for May, 1849. but not so long; it is therefore more compact; These two papers show in detail the difficulties in the way ships can sail to and fro across it in much less of Tehuantepec, and the importance of a rail-road to Cali- time, and gather its articles of commerce at ornia. They are recommended to the attention of all our readers who take an interest,-and which of them do not ake a lively interest-in the subject? much less cost. The two seas cover each about the same su perficial extent, but from one extreme to the the foundations of commerce can be laid. The other of that of the Old World, the route is tor-character and extent of the back country which tuous and the voyage long; it cannot be accom-supplies such outlets, are the true exponents of plished without sailing a distance quite equal to the commercial prosperity of the cities, and of that between Europe and America. Whereas, the condition of the people who dwell there. from the most remote point in the Carribean The closer these outlets are together, and the Sea to the farthest port in the Gulf, a straight greater the diversity of the climates drained by line may be drawn on the water, and the dis-them, the more numerous are their products, and tance from one extremity to the other of it will the more active is their commerce. Hence the be but little more than 2000 miles. From the ports of the Levant and Black Sea to the ocean, a vessel under canvass requires a month or more, but from any point on the coast of this central sea of America, a vessel may be out upon the broad ocean in a few days. Winds and currents, with all the adjuvants of navigation, are here much more propitious to the mariner than they are in any other part of the world. There is a system of perpetual currents running from the ocean into this sea, and from this sea back into the ocean. They are literally rivers in the sea, for they are as constant, and almost as well marked, as rivers on the land. Had it been left to man to plan the form of a basin for commerce on a large scale,-a basin for the waters of our rivers and the products of our lands, he could not have drawn the figure of one better adapted for it than that of the Gulf, nor placed it in a position half so admirable. The shores of the Mediterranean are indented by deep bays and projecting points of land which greatly lengthen the sailing distance from port to port. The sinuosities of shore lines add to the expenses of commercial intercourse. By land the distance from Genoa to Venice is that only of a few hours travel, but by water they are more than a thousand miles apart. There are no such commercial importance of every bay, gulf and sea of the ocean may be considered as in direct relation to the extent, variety and fertility of their river basins. Because the Red Sea is in a riverless region it has no markets. Consequently it has, in the eye of commerce, ever been regarded as valueless in comparison to the Bay of Bengal, and the Mediterranean Sea, with their broad basins and beautiful tributaries. Every one who takes the trouble to examine, is struck with the fact that the greatest commercial cities of the world, are and ever have been those whose merchants have been most advantageously situated with regard to the outlets, natural or artificial of great river basins and producing regions. Rightly to perceive how admirably located and arranged for the purposes of commerce, are the the advantages arising therefrom, let us, before Gulf and Carribean Sea, and duly to appreciate comparing the river basins of America with those the effects which the course of the rivers of a of Europe and Asia, or before tracing further country, has upon its commerce, take a glance at the geographical position of this our central sea. interruptions to navigation in the Gulf of Mexico. Curtained on the east by a chain of fruitful is lands stretching from Trinidad to Cuba, it is on the north and the south and the west, landlocked by the continent which has bent and twisted around this sea, so as to fold it within its bosom and hold it midway between the two semi The shortest distance from port to port there, as from New Orleans to the ports of Texas and Mexico, to Pensacola, Havana and the like, is by water. The windings of the Mediterranean shore line, exclusive of its islands, measure 12,000 miles in length; whereas those of the Gulf and Carribean Sea do not mete out half that distance. continents of the New World. In this favored position it receives on one side the mountain streamlets of a sea of islands; on another, all the great rivers of North America: and on the others the inter-tropical drainage of the entire continent. Ships therefore which go into the Mediterranean, have, to gather the produce which is brought down from its river basins containing less than two millions of square miles, to wind along a The Atlantic Ocean circulates through this coast line 12,000 miles in length; whereas those our Mediterranean. Its office in the econ which go into the Gulf of Mexico may by sail-my of the world, is most important. It not only ing 5000 miles reach the mouths of rivers that affords an outlet for the great American riv drain of water and surplus produce, more than ers, but it makes their basins habitable by giving four millions of square miles of fruitful plains them drainage and sending off far away into the and fertile valleys. ocean the drift and the over-heated waters which Easy access by sea to the mouths of rivers the rivers bring down. It also, through its sy which drain extensive basins of rich land has al-tem of cold and warm currents, makes its o ways been regarded as the best basis upon which shores habitable to man, tempers the climate of |