under pretence of improving them, we not only deprive them of their liberty by keeping them in solitude and in darkness, but force them to eat their food, and thus bring them to a degree of fatness which Nature never intended. Even the bird which saved the capitol of Rome is treated with still greater indignity,-thrust into warm ovens, and nearly baked alive to produce those beautiful and delicious livers so well known to gourmets."

potato would be worth its weight of the precious metal, a loaf of bread three times as much, and a basin of poor man's soup a guinea instead of a penny as here. Have we not also heard of the great sea serpent, which a very serious American, who appears to have been in company with him, says that he was so tarnation long, that whilst engaged in dining out upon 4000 or 5000 turtles in Honduras, the end of his tail was at the same time hunting the white bear in the crystallized mountains of the North Pole for his supper, being something of an epicure, and consequently fond of a change? These, dearest, are FACTS that no one can deny, 'I guess;' and still

that the innovation of a new mutton chop should emanate from the brain of a simple individual, while, for a century previous, the ancestors of our great grandfathers were, as we were till the present day. often obliged to satisfy their voracious appetites with a fat clumsy mutton chop."

But while M. Soyer is conservative even in his notions of reform, he does not shut his eyes to the great events that are going on in the world around him. While perpetrating a pasty or dress-it was to be among all those marvellous wonders ing a duck, he is observant of the progress of the century in which he lives. Carlyle, nor Lamennais, Proudhon nor George Lippard (we disclaim any meaning by the classification) has not so summed up the wonders of our age as we find them in the Ménagère. Allowances must be made for the awkwardness which our author manifests in managing the idiom of Queen Victoria, and his opinions on certain subjects must be taken, like one of his own omelettes, cum grano salis; with which caution we commend to the reader's attention the following passage. Speaking of a new invention in mutton chops, he says,

M. Soyer then goes on to say that his enthusiasm will perhaps scarcely be comprehended— that he who invents pursues the most difficult of all possible avenues to wealth and fame,—and that innovations are for the most part warily received by mankind and from another passage he would seem to have found encouragement in the reflection which cheered the mind of Lord Bacon, that however misinterpreted he might be by his cotemporaries, a time would come when his benevolent mission would be universally recognised, and his mutton-chop be gratefully remembered and eaten by an admiring posterity. If anything were now wanting to fill up the character of our author as a benign and philo

66

"It was only in an enlightened era of wonders like ours that such a novelty in the culinary department could have been produced; where steam, gas, railways, electric light, suspended bridges, which seem to fly like zephyrs across the bosom of our mighty, wealthy, old Father Thames, and the subterranean promenade under his gutta percha bed, where, as the French say, the fishes from their windows make faces at the English while sophic student, it would be found we are sure, in walking below, as well as (and more wonderful the love of nature which speaks out (under the still) the electric telegraph, which even more free-hypothetical Hortense) in the following apostroly than free-trade itself, carries like lightning the phe. The subject introduces itself— flashes of the genius of a Cobden from our great commercial town of Manchester to Printing-house "Young Green Peas.-Young Green Peas! square and various offices the sparks of a speech, Do not these words sound pleasant to the ear, which, if printers were careless, might set the dearest? I fancy that by merely raising my paper on fire, by acquainting the metropolis not eyes from the paper on which I am writing, I only of his love for freedom, but of his enthusi- shall see all our gardens in buds and blossom; astic action, motion, commotion, and almost his it not only seems to invigorate the sensitive part thoughts; even the cheerings of the convives are of one's appetite, but works upon the mind to actually in print, and read with the greatest anxi- that point that you may actually fancy you are ety by the multitude in town, while the report of breathing in a glowing atmosphere, and that the the last and most powerful line just put to press, pearly dew is gracefully descending in small is still roaring with echo throughout the vast cu- globules from heaven, to fix their sparkling eyes pola of the Free Trade Hall as well as in the on the pinky bloom of myriads of roses. But, ears of thousands of guests present who have alas! how soon this charming illusion has disapbeen favored by partaking of the monster ban-peared since I have left for a moment the sight quet; and as well, but not so wonderful, the in- of my paper to give a peep through the garden vention, insurrection, and demolition of the window, where I perceive that though to-day is Chartists-the last effected by special order and the 17th of April, the serious and uncheerful special constables; the Satanic bottle, double Father Winter has once more monopolized those sight, and ethérienne suspension of the inimita- delightful and variegated nuances of Nature, by ble Robert le Diable, by mistake called Robert laying out his universal snowy tablecloth over Houdin; Bauvard's Yankee cabinet picture, 3000 this for the present ephemeral vision which the miles long, out of which 2999 and three quarters inviting words green peas had produced upon my are out of sight; more so than all, the discovery of senses; no doubt the effect of a good fire in my rocky dust, called gold, in the barbarian land of parlor, where I am now sitting, has had a great California, where the humble and convalescent influence upon me respecting the summery tem

The wild-celery seed growing upon the waters of the Chesapeake, where alone the canvass-back is found, it was said, would achieve this result. One obstacle prevented the experiment. The seed was obtained, but unfortunately the domes

perature; but as a few weeks longer will realize | some good though less constitutional way of my wishes, I shall here content myself by giving making it might have been furnished. As for the you the receipt how they ought to be cooked last of these omissions-the canvass-back duck— when you can get them." is it not a thing to be proud of? Does it not efThanks, charming Hortense, for your receipt, fectually establish our superiority over the other which has struck a chord in our bosom or our or- nations of the world, in the kitchen as in the gans of digestion, calling up from the dark domain cabinet and in the council? We recollect the of the inexorable past, a thousand pleasing rem-sensation produced some years since by the aniniscences of unsophisticated boyhood, when nouncement that this fowl was about to become green peas in Spring constituted our chiefest hap- extinct. Expedients were devised to give the piness! The old-field school far from turmoil of domestic duck the flavour of the canvass-back. city, around which blossomed the pea-vine whose tendrils fastened upon our sunniest affections, is even now before us. The companions of our early lucubrations-the Domine who taught us the mystery of the dual number which has since been realized in the editorial "we"-the county tic ducklings would not eat it. We are happy Court-house with its monthly court-day activity to say, however, that no such disaster as the exand its occasional attraction of peripatetic circus- tinction of the canvass-back is to be apprehended, company, all pass, like present realities, in the at least for some time to come. And until that changing diorama of memory! And now as we disaster comes upon us, let us no longer admit treasure up the earliest violets, they exhale a sweet- the supremacy of French cuisine. The morbid er fragrance as they remind us of the approach of epicure may indeed sigh for the land of effempeas, tender esculents of May-Day. A few weeks inate gourmandise, since it was our good fortune to dine with a poetone whose verses have found readers wherever the English language is spoken and in several other places—a man whose views of life are orthodox and whose sherry is unexceptionable-and on the table, with truffles and a capon, there were green peas, yes, veritable green peas, the products

Where so ready all nature its cookery yields,
Macaroni au parmesan grows in the fields;
where the

-birds fly about with the true pheasant taint
And the geese are all born with a liver complaint—

of 1849, in capital preservation from jars, her- but all patriotic and reasonable men, living in tidemetically sealed. We enjoyed them, as we hope water Virginia, will feel a sense of satisfaction to enjoy the upper notes of Jenny Lind, and in being able to serve up, at their homes, a viand were grateful. We congratulate our friend, the that can not be furnished amid the splendour of poet, on the recurrence of the pea season, and the Trois Fréres Provencaux. say to him with all our heart, Pax vobiscum, peas be with you!

But revenons à nos moutons, let us get back not to our mutton chops, but to our book. For a short space we must be critical. Our objections, however, will be directed rather against our American Housekeeper than M. Soyer himself, for they treat of omissions of American dishes which for the credit of the country ought to have been supplied by the Editor. What will be thought of a new work on Cookery, edited by an American, in which neither chowder nor gumbo is mentioned, and which completely ignores terrapins and canvass-back ducks? Of the first of these substantial articles of food, we would fain learn something. Mr. Webster, who alone knows the true mode of preparing it, has declared (we learn upon excellent authority) that he would as soon undertake to teach how an epic poem may be constructed as to teach the correct method of its composition, and that he fears" the secret will die with him" for sheer inability to impart it. In the absence of such reliable information, surely

Apropos of tide-water Virginia, we are sorry to see so little notice taken by M. Soyer of the oyster. This testaceous delicacy is our greatest product, and we hazard nothing in saying that it attains a perfection in the tributaries of the Chesapeake that has never been reached in any other portion of the globe. It is indeed to be lamented that even the oyster has degenerated from its pristine greatness in the days of Captaine Iohne Smith, for we read in one of the chroniclers of that palmy period a marvellous account of the Virginia beds

Oysters," says he, "there be in whole bancks and bedds, and those of the best: I have seen some thirteen inches long."*

It would be worth the while of the Virginia Historical Society to investigate the reasons which have led to the alarming diminution in size presented by the oyster of our day when compared with these patriarchal bivalves, and

Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia. By William Strachey, Gent. Publications of the Hakluyt Society, vol. 6, p. 127.

In 1798," says he, "I was at Versailles in

we commend the subject to the attention of our fore the pièce de resistance is touched. We inexcellent friend, Mr. Maxwell, who, we doubt stance an anecdote from Brillat Savarin, (an exnot, in experimental research, would do full jus-treme case truly,) to show this cruelty to animals tice to it. He might at the same time prepare as practised by the French. We may remark for the archives of the society a faithful narrative that it is highly probable the oysters were not so of the oyster-war of Accomac, which occurred large as those mentioned by Stracheyin 1848, and concerning which a poem in hexameter has already been produced. So inter- the capacity of Commissaire of the Directory, esting an episode in our State history should not and I had frequent communications with the be suffered to pass into oblivion. Shortly after Sieur Laperte, Register of the tribunal of the this event, the oyster was brought before the department; he was a great lover of oysters and Legislature of Virginia and laid upon the table it distressed him that he could never get enough more majorum. We exerted ourselves at the of them, or, as he expressed it-his fill. time to effect some conservative measures for its relief and wrote to a friend in the Lower House, calling for his assistance; with what success let the following extract from his letter in reply set forth

"I resolved to procure for him that satisfaction, and for this purpose I invited him to dine with me the following day.

"He came; I kept him company to the third dozen, after which I let him go it alone, (je le laissai aller seul.) He went on to the thirty-second, that is to say for more than an hour, for the opener was not very expert.

We should like to pursue the subject of oysters farther, but we fear that our readers, unlike the Sieur Laperte, have already had enough of them, and we are apprehensive that if we descended to the kitchen we should burn our fingers; in

"The oyster will no doubt appreciate the sympathy which your letter manifests. He has been, according to the poet, crossed in love and latterly dreadfully crossed in legislation. He is now in "All this time I was in a state of inaction, and the deep bosom of the ocean buried, where he as this at table is truly painful, I stopped my has heretofore considered himself safe. Alas! guest at the very moment when he was at his The statutory ægis has been withdrawn. The best speed, (plus en train.) My dear sir,' said Legislature, after deep and prolonged consulta- I to him, it is not ordained that you should eat tion, have determined that the oyster is what Col. your fill of oysters to-day, let us dine.' We Ward calls "feræ naturæ”—that he belongs to dined, and he bore himself with the vigor and the Commonwealth, and that any citizen of the appetite of a man who had been fasting.' Commonwealth from Princess Aune to Pocahontas can enter and take, whilst the outer barbarians of the North are to be held according to the immutable principles of the Declaration of Independence, 'enemies in war, in peace friends.' The capture of the oyster is henceforth to be that apartment causa belli. Thus you may expect to hear of a battle of Oyster-litz, wherein the descendants of Penn will bewail their Penates relictos, and instead of walking into the shellfish of the indomitable old Commonwealth will be escorted into We dismiss them therefore with the remark, (and the Penetralia of the Drummondtown Tolbooth. we hope Messrs. Coleman & Stetson will give The common-law being the perfection of reason, us credit for it,) that he who would eat them out the law-oyster is the perfection of the statute. of Virginia will find them most agreeably cooked Meantime that most interesting mollusc may ex- at the Astor House. claim with the prophet, The zeal of thy House We might here indeed close our observations hath eaten me up,' and like the Hare of many on the whole subject, but that we have not yet friends will find the nominal and numerical de-arrived at the moral we had designed to deduce votion of his supporters an unstable reliance in the hour of invasion. But Apollo vellit aurem, and the oyster admonishes me to be mum."

-incedimus per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso.

from the Ménagère, and we cannot profitably conclude before doing so. Another extract from the work will enable us to accomplish our purPoor, persecuted oyster, thy sufferings is in- pose with sufficient directness and precision. tolerable! and yet it is creditable to the humani- This extract is from the last letter of the touching ty of our cuisine that the oyster is treated with correspondence between Hortense and Eloise. far greater leniency with us than with Euro- The former is speculating on the monstrous quanpeans. A war of extermination, a war to the tity of food consumed by a bon vivant during sixty knife, is carried on against them in France which years of a lifetime, that is, between his tenth and is strange to the good people of Virginia. Under seventy-first years, supposing him to live so long. pretence of whetting the appetite for dinner,

vast numbers of these shellfish are devoured be- * Physiologie du Gout. Meditation VI.

216

She imagines the young epicure, a Cambaceres | or a Talleyrand, at the tender age of ten, standing on the summit of Primrose Hill, surrounded by the future victims of his merciless palate, and presents the following frightful array of statis

tics:

Like one who, on a lonesome road,
Doth walk with fear and dread,
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread,-

if he gets up calling out for hock and soda-if his next day's labors show his want of attention-then has he been excessive both in his "By closely calculating he would be surroundcourses and in his champagne. Be temperate ! ed and gazed at by the following number of quadrupeds, birds, fishes, &c. :-By no less than 30 Let your dinners be reasonable, but, at the same oxeu, 200 sheep, 100 calves. 200 lambs, 50 pigs; time, let them be well-arranged, and to this end in poultry, 1200 fowls, 300 turkeys, 150 geese, 400 procure the Ménagère-read, mark, learn and ducklings, 263 pigeons; 1400 partridges, pheas- inwardly digest!

ants, and grouse; 600 woodcocks and snipes; 600 wild ducks, widgeon and teal; 450 plovers, ruffes, and reeves; 800 quails, ortolans, and dotterels, and a few guillemôts and other foreign birds; also 500 hares and rabbits, 40 deer, 120 Guinea fowl, 10 peacocks, and 360 wild fowl. In the way of fish, 120 turbot, 140 salmon, 120 cod, 260 trout, 400 mackerel, 300 whitings, 800 soles and slips, 400 flounders, 400 red mullet, 200

LINES,

By a Gentleman of that place.

I would not that the flame were quench'd,
Tho' vain its fervor all;

For while its potent influence lives

I CANNOT fall.

eels, 150 haddocks, 400 herrings, 5000 smelts, Addressed to a Lady of Norfolk, Va., 14th February, 1850. and some hundred thousand of those delicious silvery whitebait, besides a few hundred species of fresh-water fishes. In shell-fish, 20 turtle, 30,000 oysters, 1500 lobsters or crabs, 300,000 prawns, shrimps, sardines and anchovies. In the way of fruit, about 500 lbs. of grapes, 360 lbs. of pine-apples, 600 peaches, 1400 apricots, 240 melons, and some hundred thousand plums, greengages, apples, pears, and some millions of cherries, strawberries, raspberries, currants, mulberries, and an abundance of other small fruit, viz, walnuts, chestnuts, dry figs and plums. In vegetables of all kinds, 5475 pounds weight, and about 2434 pounds of butter, 684 pounds of cheese, 21,000 eggs, 800 do. plovers'.. Of bread, 4 tons, half a ton of salt and pepper, near 21 tons of sugar, &c."

We forbear giving the enormous estimates for beverages, lest we may shock our total abstinence friends too painfully.

And now for our moral. It is that, duly considering the incredible waste presented in the foregoing statement, it becomes us to make a temperate use of the bounties that are provided for us; in which temperance alone consists mental and bodily health. Indeed if we would heed the suggestions of nature herself, we might know If after a dinner exactly wherein is excess. party one feels like a gentleman-if he has within him the mens conscia sibi recti-if the morrow brings with it no torturing headache—if his perceptions are undimmed and he goes to his daily toil with a light heart-then has he been indubitably temperate in his indulgences; but if, on the other hand, he feels the harrowing accusations of an outraged self-respect-if he tosses on a restless couch, pursued in slumber by imaginary wild animals, conscious that they are unreal and yet unwilling to awake,

No thoughts deprav'd or groveling
Can dwell within the breast
Whereon the image of thyself
Is deep impress'd.

ILLUSIVE tho' the hopes may be
That linger yet in view,

I would not for all India's wealth
Bid them adieu!

Such hopes, 'tis said, will serve at least
(And why should I have doubts?)
To lead me to my journey's end
By pleasant routes.

Yet when I calmly view the road
Before my vision spread,

I grieve that I am doom'd, UNLOVED
Its paths to tread.

'Tis true I sought another's smiles,
'Tis true those smiles were won ;
Yet even then-my constant heart
Was thine alone.

The sacred flame cannot expire
Tho' vain its warmth may be;
My heart unchill'd-unchanged by time
WILL turn to thee.

Spurn not this tribute of my love,

A love sincere and pure;

Which, tho' thy smiles are not for me-
Doth still endure.

THE BROTHERS.

A VERSION FROM THE GERMAN OF TIECK.

proposed to give him a sum out of his commerce, and to set him up in a shop situated in a quarter of the city quite advantageous for business.

Omar, again embarked in the chances of traffic, began to trade with silk wares and dresses for women; and it soon appeared that fate was going to be more propitious to him in Bagdad, than she had shown herself in other places. His brother had presented him with the sum of money, and he had therefore no occasion to vex himself on account of the repayment. In all enterprises he was more intrepid than his brother, and for that reason more fortunate.

I cannot tell how many years ago it was, but there once lived in the neighborhood of the famous city of Bagdad, a family of honest, though humble report. There were only two children, Omar and Machmud. When their parents died, they came into possession of but a small patrimouy, and each of them resolved to venture forth into the competition of trade, and to try Machmud now thought proper to follow the how far he could succeed with his part. Omar usual course of humanity, and took to himself a went forth in order to see a little of the great consort. Unfortunately she did not prove to be world, and to find the place where he would set- exactly such a choice as a prudent merchant tle himself. Machmud betook himself to Bag-should make; she induced her husband to go into dad, where he opened a shop, furnished with many expenses, which till then he had never small wares, and throve in business so well that, thought of indulging in. By degrees he found in a short time, he increased his fortune to a considerable amount. He lived very sparingly, kept himself aloof from the assemblies of his own age and pursuit, and carefully laid away every zechin bis goods brought him, in order to undertake some new enterprize therewith. By this means he obtained credit with several rich merchants, who sometimes entrusted to him the sale of part of their freight, and tried speculation in announced himself, who asked urgently the paycompany with him. Machmud became bolder by repeated good fortune, he ventured larger sums, and every time they brought to him richer interest.

himself obliged to take in sums loaned to his acquaintances, in order to pay extravagant debts. Other money's which he had expected failed to come in. His credit began to sink, and he was on the borders of despair, when he received the news that one of his ships had been cast away, and that everything on board had been lost. As soon as this intelligence got abroad, a creditor

ment of his debt. Machmud saw that his whole remaining fortune was dependent upon this payment; he resolved, therefore, to ask his brother to assist him in this difficulty. He hastened to him, and found him very much chagrined, because he had just suffered a slight loss.

66

Brother," Machmud began, “I come to thee with a request, in the extremest embarrassment.” It concerns me greatly to hear thee so speak," replied Omar.

By and by he became more known, his business increased to a greater extent, he had sums standing with many people, as he had also in his hands the money of many others, and fortune appeared to smile on him continually. Omar, on the contrary, had been unfortunate. He had tried many plans to secure wealth, but none of them accomplished his desires. He now became quite poor, and, one evening, in ragged apparel, he arrived in Bagdad. He got intelligence of his brother, aud went to him to ask his assistance. “Ten thousand zechins! Do you not make a The business and bustle of the day over, Mach-mistake, brother!" exclaimed the other lifting up mud was reclining on a rich mat in his apart- both hands. ment, solacing himself with pleasurable reflec

"My ship is wrecked-all my creditors press me, and will admit of no delay; my whole fortune depends upon this day; lend me, only for a short time, ten thousand zechins."

66

No, Omar," continued Machmud. "I know tions, and puffing the aromatic fumes of his pipe. the sum quite well, which I ask, and only exactHe arose to meet the stranger, and when he re-ly so much, not one zechin less, can save me from cognized in him his long lost brother, he embra- the most degrading poverty."

ced him tenderly, after the eastern custom. "Ten thousand zechins!" said the calculating Machmud was rejoiced to see his early compa- Omar, partly to himself, and partly to let his nion and brother again; but when he learned brother understand that the sum rather staggered from him his impoverished circumstances, his him." heart was touched with sorrow. As he had been a very good-natured and mild man towards others in his transactions, he was ready now to show his sympathy for a brother who was suffering from the frowns of a malignant fortune. He have not come in to me.

VOL. XVI-28

"Lend them to me, brother," resumed Machmud, in a beseeching manner; "I will do my best to repay them to thee in a short time." "If I had the amount! Debts, long due, I know not myself,