tions; while the "moral course" is stretched to include every kind of performance from a patter monologue interspered with comic songs to a regular stage play, with changes of costume, wigs, false noses, and other theatrical accessories. Many good people are thus enabled to indulge in dramatic dissipation with an easy conscience, just as others justify their forenoon "nips" or "nightcap" potations on a theory of medicinal restoration. Drinking is a vice, but everybody is bound to take care of his health. The entertainments at the Mechanics' Institutes and similar places throughout the country are now, to all intents and purposes, of just the same character as those of the music hall, which in its turn apes the theatre as nearly as the law allows, the only distinction being that the former may perhaps be allowed to carry off the palm for silliness and imbecility. The useful" penny readings" in country districts have, of course, a raison d'être of their own, which places them in a different category. The American lyceums seem to be pursued by a similar fate to that which has overtaken the kindred establishments in this country. The practical manager whom we quoted above asserts that people do not want to be instructed. They want to be amused; and it is quite clear that it is the sort of amusement that is derived from his. trionic exercises for which they chiefly crave. "We want more," the same authority observes, "from a man or woman than books can give-the living voice, at least electric with enthusiasm or earnestness; we want speakers, not lecture-readers." But it is evident that a man who delivers the same lecture over and over again is not a speaker, but an actor. There is nothing an American relishes so much as a good, rousing speech. It does not much matter what it is about, or whether the speaker understands his subject, as long as he stirs up the audience with a perfervid rush of words. There is a curious contrast between the calm, careful judgment of Americans in all practical matters and their proneness to this kind of excitement. The fact is that they enjoy the excitement as a thing by itself. They do not go to a lecture or public meeting to be instructed or to form their opinions, but to be thrilled by a screaming oration, with plenty of hot, strong language in it. The negro described his love of liquor as "drinky for drinky, not drinky for dry." Americans are addicted to oratorical stimulants in the same way. It is simply a form of dissipation, and it is dissipation of exactly the same kind as that of the theatre. Wendell Phillips or "Josh Billings" is expected to play a part as if it were Macbeth or Falstaff On the whole it is a wholesome sign that the Americans are gradually deserting the lyceum for the theatre. It is dangerous to confuse histrionic excitements with the actual business of real life.

A glance at the list of lectures offered to managers of lyceums for the next season, in the circular of one of the agents, shows at once that the whole class of entertainments is drifting in the direction of dramatic performances. A large and growing proportion of the so-called lectures are not really lectures at all, but dramatic monologues. Mr. De Cordova, for example, tells stories such as " Mrs. Smith's Surprise Party," ""The Spratts at Saratoga" (just as our own comic men would enact the "Jenkinses at Margate"), and "Miss Jones's Wedding: an Oil Story in Verse."

The Rev. E. Hall recites tales of his own composition, one of which is announced as "never published." Mrs. Lotty Hough was formerly an actress, and goes through a little play called "Popping the Question." The Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby-for the credit of the cloth it is fair to say this is an assumed name and character-gets sport of a peculiar American kind out of a "Search for the Man of Sin." Mr. Geo. Marden delivers "Humorous Poem-Lectures." Then come the regular readers, the ventriloquists, Geological and Anthropological Exhibitors, " Baritone Humorists," &c. In one of his early papers Artemus. Ward waxed indignant at the popular lecturers who were cutting out the show business-" individooals. who cram themselves with hi soundin frazis, frizzle up their hare, git trusted for a soot of black close, and cum out to lecture at fifty dollars a pop." Professional jealousy accounted for this acrimony, but Artemus might now easily find a place in the lyceums for his "sagashus beests and moral wax statoots of celebrated piruts and murderers." The eagerness of Americans for personal acquaintance with public men of all kinds has also a good deal to do with such popularity as still attends the lyceums. It is significant that, in the newspaper extracts given in the circular before us, the personal appearance of the lecturer is usually described with some minuteness, as if it were the most interesting part of the show. Thus we are informed that Mr. Parton is of a tall, spare figure, and wears glasses and white choker; his hair is thick and black, and so are his whiskers. He has a sober expression of countenance, with an occasional twinkle of the eye. Colonel George Marden, the spouter of "comic poem lectures," is a young man of medium height, portly figure, light complexion, and broad face. Josh Billings" is a poetical looking gentlemen, with a student stoop in his broad shoulders. One of the most remarkable figures in what is gracefully called "the menagerie of the lions of the lecture room," is the "Hon. William Parsons (of Ireland)." Mr. Parsons, we are informed, belongs to the ancient house of Parsons, Earls of Rosse. He graduated at Edinburgh under Professor Wilson and the "erudite Pillans ;" he entered for the English Bar, and was engaged on one of the leading metropolitan newspapers-in what capacity is. not stated-but following the natural bent of his genius, devoted himself to "the lecture platform of Great Britain and Ireland." The Reform League, we are assured, considered him their most effective speaker, and "always placed him where they anticipated the strongest opposition to their views." Mr. Bright once declared his eloquence to be electrifying, and he was asked to stand for a Yorkshire borough. It would seem that we had a great man among us without knowing it. It is some consolation to hear that in New York he is received as "a type of the vitality of the old country." It is rather invidious. that the writer of this description of the menagerie should single out "the urbane and vivacious Parsons" as distinguished by "his spotless linen." Mrs. Livermore, the recognized leader of the Woman's Rights movement in New England, is represented as "warmhearted, whole-souled," "a large, well-proportioned lady of fifty summers.' "She has not a grey hair," notes one almost too minute reporter, who must have carried a strong magnifying glass, "as far as we

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could discover." Her "dress is plain and womanly, her manner stylish and becoming." "Physically and intellectually," exclaims another enraptured admirer," she is a model;" but afterwards he intimates that he "cannot in some instances accept her statement of facts or recognize her deductions as logical," two trifling drawbacks to intellectual perfection. It is announced that Mrs. Livermore and General James A. Hall of Maine have arranged for a series of oratorical sparring matches before lyceums on the woman suffrage question. This, we are assured, will be a real debate, not a mere presentation of opposite opinions. On the whole, a perusal of this programme of the lyceums certainly does not tend to give one an elevated idea of the general culture or intellectual vigor of people who with all the advantages of national education can be amused by such trashy entertainments.-The Saturday Review.

[From the New York Evening Mail.]

BIBLIOMANIA.

PROMINENT BIBLIOMANIACS.

WILLIAM THURSTON HORN.

He

There have been probably books more copiously, more elaborately illustrated; books upon the ornamentation of which vastly more money has been expended, but we doubt seriously that there are any illustrated books either in England or America at the present day that will surpass, in richness of material and beauty of execution, those illustrated by Mr. William Thurston Horn, of Wall street. Mr. Horn is a gentleman of wealth, whose business is of such a nature as to exact an inconsiderable portion of his time, and he is consequently able to pursue almost uninterruptedly the study of literature and art. is, we believe, a fine classical scholar, a rarity in these practical days; is well read in history and general literature, and has a quick eye for all that is beautiful in Nature and in Art. With these accomplishments it is not unnatural that he should eschew the grosser pleasures so fascinating to many of our men of wealth, and live in a little world of his own in the delightful atmosphere of the bibliomania. It must not, however, be supposed that because "he lives and moves and has his being" among his books and engravings, that he is in anywise oblivious or indifferent to the mighty events that are daily transpiring around him. If bibliomaniacs, as a class, cling tenderly to the past, they do not altogether relax their hold upon the present. And the example of Mr. Horn-whom we look upon as a representative bibliomaniac—is a standing rebuke to those who think otherwise. His tastes lead him into fields but little gleaned by American amateurs-English history, historical memoirs, and literary biography--for which, having few competitors, he finds abundance of the choicest material; while those who work in the ordinary fields are oftentimes compelled to wait years for the necessary engravings. In illustrating Mr. Horn confines himself mostly to portraits, in which department of engraving we find the productions of some of the most eminent masters of the burin, such as Faithorne, Hollar, Houbraken, Vertue, Bartolozzi, Sherwin, Marshall, Scriven, and others. The books upon

which this gentleman has exercised his skill are the best exponents of his taste and mental constitution. We shall accordingly proceed to enumerate a few of the more prominent ones, and our readers may judge of the exceeding richness of the collection to which they belong when we say that there are in it scores of others but little inferior.

In the literature of the fine arts beautiful copies of the lives of Holbein, Rembrandt and Anthony Van Dyke, copiously and richly illustrated with portraits of themselves and their contemporaries, and specimens of their respective styles, are worthy of the special attention of the art lover. The most prominent works in English historical literature are Sir Robert Naunton's amusing "Fragmenta Regalia," illustrating the Court and favorites of England's greatest Queen; Weldin's Court of James I., with eighty different portraits of James-a remarkable collectionin addition to scores of other fine portraits'; Fox's Court of James II., printed on drawing paper, and enlarged to two volumes, with numerous fplatest Mrs. Jameson's Court of Charles II., in which we see the frail beauties of that profligate court flitting before us in all their fascinations; a superb copy of Cunningham's "Life of Nell Gwynne"-the wayward but noble-hearted orange girl who captivated all England-enlarged to folio size and extended to three volumes, with over two hundred choice proof engravings.

In the department of literary biography, a department, by the way, of Mr. Horn's Library, which is unusually rich, we have the lives of Milton, by Hayley; Shakespeare, by Dr. Nathan Drake; and Dryden, by Sir Walter Scott. Drake's Shakespeare, to the general reader, as well as to the literary student, is one of the most entertaining of books. Mr. Horn rejoices in the possession of a beautiful large paper copy of this work, copiously illustrated, and extended from two to four volumes. The life of Dryden is a bibliographical rarity, being the life prefixed to the edition of Dryden's works edited by Sir Walter Scott in 1808, of which only fifty copies were struck off separately on quarto paper for private distribution among the friends of the author. There is a charming copy of the life of Sir Philip Sidney, enlarged to folio size, and extended to three volumes; a copy on large paper of that curious book by Todd, illustrative of the writings of Gower and Chaucer; a copy of Chambers' Burns, four volumes, extensively illustrated, and a magnificent copy, elaborately ornamented, of Zouch's life of "Honest Izaac Walton."

Among his illustrated books bibliography is well represented by the works of Clarke, Horne, Griffiths, and Hartshorne, all on large paper, and a fine folio copy of "Dibdin's Bibliomania," one of five copies printed on drawing paper. The latter is illustrated with over two hundred of the rarest portraits. The chef d'œuvre, however, of the collection, and a masterpiece of book illustration, is Boydell's magnificent folio edition of "Milton's Poetical Works," which is considered the ne plus ultra of the typographic art. To the lover of beautiful printing it is even a joy to look upon this monument of Mr. Bulmer's skill; but when he casts his eyes from the letter-press to the engravings with which it is adorned, he becomes fairly dazzled with its excessive beauty. In addition to the set of marvellous plates designed for this work by Westall,

plates have been taken from the most rare and costly editions of the poet's works to decorate this particular copy. The experienced amateur is probably aware that, in illustrating such a work as this, there is not so much difficulty in obtaining beautiful engravings as there is in obtaining those the most beautiful. And this is just what Mr. Horn has accomplished. There is not a single common or ordinary engraving in the whole book. About forty years ago, Joseph Haslewood, the celebrated antiquary, illustrated a copy of the Baskerville edition of Milton, for which, in addition to other engravings illustrative of the text, he had collected thirty different portraits of Milton. This feat was considered worthy of being recorded in the annals of book illustration. And Haslewood, be it remembered, had the print emporiums of all England to choose from. But what would the author of the "Roxburghe Revels" have said had he seen the unprecedented collection of eighty portraits of Milton collected by Mr. Horn-none of them engraved since Haslewood's time. The binding of these volumes alone cost, we believe, three hundred dollars, and is a credit to the taste and professional skill of Mr. Mathews, the Roger Payne of America. It is safe to say that this is undoubtedly the finest copy of Milton in existence.

THE WALTONIANS.

From its first appearance, one hundred and eighteen years ago, that enchanting pastoral, "The Compleat Angler" of Izaac Walton, has been a favorite book with all persons of pure and cultivated literary tastes. Thousands there have been who could not distinguish between a trout and a salmon, who could not even bait a fish-hook properly, and who have yet loved this book as probably no book of the kind has ever been loved before. Its sweet simplicity of style, its pure and unaffected humor, its beautiful transcripts of nature, its healthy morality, and the genial spirit of contentment which it breathes, all conspire to render it one of the most delightful, as it is one of the most unique works in our literature. The demand for such a work is no bad indication of the literary culture of a community. And the eagerness with which this book is sought after in the United States is a pleasing assurance that our taste for genuine literature has not been wholly corrupted by the flashy sensational writers of the present day. To satisfy this demand several editions have been published in the United States, one of which, edited in a loving spirit by an American scholar, is in a literary point of view by all means the most satisfactory edition ex

tant.

For illustrators Walton's "Angler" has always had peculiar charms. But from the costliness of the materials necessary to illustrate it, only the most wealthy followers of the pursuit have attempted it. John Allan illustrated a copy, extending it from two to four volumes, with over two hundred and fifty extra illustrations, the whole inlaid to quarto size, and which, on the dispersion of his library, was purchased by a wealthy gentleman of this city for $600. Thos. H. Morrell's unique copy, with two hundred and forty extra plates, was sold in 1869 for $340. Mr. Lane (of the Erie Railroad) illustrated a copy very extensively, and at great expense, afterwards publishing a a volume to commemorate his achievement. Mr.

Charles Congdon has been engaged upon a copy of Walton since 1857. He has amassed a fine collection of engravings for it, but says he shall devote a few more years to it before resigning it to the handsof the book-binder. General E. A. Carman is an enthusiastic Waltonian. He has been operating on a copy of the "Angler" for some years, and we have no doubt that when finished it will reflect the highest credit on his taste. When about to commence his copy the General expressed himself as willing to spend $1,000 upon it. When completed he will find, if he has been at all elaborate, that it will have cost him about double that sum. Mr. Horn says that the taste of any man who has frequent contact with engravings is being constantly refined, and in order to have an illustrated copy of a work of which the owner shall not be ashamed when he grows older, he should try his hand on at least three different copies of any one work. There are, doubtless, many of the craft who entertain the same idea, but very few of them are as fortunate as Mr. Horn in possessing the means to practice it. Mr. Horn has himself, combining precept with example, illustrated about a dozen diferent editions of this immortal pastoral-including the Bagster, Major, Gosden, Bethune, Pickering and other choice editions-thus making rather an interesting cabinet of Waltoniana.

ROBERT HOE, JR.

But the prince of Waltonians is Mr. Robert Hoe, Jr., who has illustrated a copy of Walton's "Angler" which cannot be equalled by anything of its kind in Europe or America. It is the edition edited by Sir Harris Nicholas (1832-1836) with illustrations by Stothard and Inskip. In getting up this beautiful work the publisher, William Pickering-the modern Aldus-who was himself a disciple of "Honest Izaac," spared no expense in the effort to make it a typographic monument to the memory of "The Father of Angling." With him, indeed, it was literally a labor of love. When artist, editor, and publisher all labor together con amore, the result cannot be otherwise than beautiful.

And when such a book is still further beautified at the hands of a bibliomaniac who has wealth, taste, and time to lavish upon it, who shall attempt to describe it? Enlarged from two to ten volumes, it fairly teems with beautiful engravings of piscatorial subjects, rare old views, and portraits of the prominent characters mentioned in the text. The illustrations for this work have all been judiciously selected; nothing of a mediocre character has been admitted into it. Every valuable illustrated work on the science of angling has been laid under contribution to add to the embellishments of Mr. Hoe's Walton. Another of Mr. Hoe's triumphs in book illustrating is the "Life of Thomas Stothard, the Raphael of England," by his enthusiastic daughter-in-law-Mrs. Anna Eliza Bray. In order to admit engravings of a large size every page of this work has been neatly inlaid, in Whatman's drawing paper, folio size, by that skilful artist, Mr. George Trent.

In illustrating the life of an artist the great point is to bring together, in the choicest condition, as many of the engraved specimens of his style as it is possible to collect. In the life of Stothard an amateur has a fine field for the display of his taste, and

The

THE NEW YORK FRAUDS.

a

It is not our custom, nor indeed is it part of our plan, to touch upon politics in any way; but the matter in question is of such general interest, and of such immense importance to the community at large, that we have been induced for once to make an exception to our rule, by reprinting the following article from our able contemporary, the Saturday Review:

The perpetrators of the New York frauds have apparently been disappointed in their expectation that the whole affair would blow over. Their hopes were founded on a long course of precedent, for their dishonesty has been for some years generally known and deliberately tolerated; but in the end paradoxical experience proves an unsafe guide. In fable and proverb the pitcher is at last broken, or the typical wolf becomes real; and, to the surprise of the community, honesty appears likely to obtain a temporary triumph even in the city of New York. The merit of the probable change will belong exclusively to the conductors and writers of the New York Times, who have relied with rare perseverance and courage on the ultimate prevalence of truth. That the rulers of the

city and the State were a gang of worthless and impudent scoundrels was doubted neither by their friends nor by their enemies; but the imaginations of most men are too feeble and vague to embody the abstract notion of rascality in millions of stolen dollars. Instead of wasting time and energy in moral declamation, the New York Times extracted from the municipal accounts figures which proved on their face the unparalleled amount of the embezzlements which had been committed. All parties in New York knew beforehand that both Tweed and Fisk, after becoming bankrupt as petty tradesmen, had, notwithstanding their want of any visible means of subsistence, contrived to amass large fortunes, and to live in scandalous luxury and splendor. It could not be doubted that they flourished at the expense of the taxpayer, except so far as one of them had also the resource of robbing the shareholders of the Erie Railway; yet there was neither protest nor attempt at resistance until the New York Times began to publish the details of the alleged expenditure on the county court house and on the militia armories. The plasterer's bill for the court house during two years amounted to £500,000, and the carpenter was equally exacting and equally fortunate. The carpets for the same wonderful building were supposed to cost £60,000, although a skilled appraiser has valued the carpets actually laid down at less than £3,000. A new hotel, called the Metropolitan, of which Tweed is the principal proprietor, has by a remarkable coincidence been at the same time furnished with time furnished with a gorgeous supply of carpets; and the New York Times proves, by a simple calculation in the Rule of Three, that if the court house carpets cost £60,000, the hotel carpets must have cost £300,000. The municipal contract for printing and stationery is let to a firm in which Tweed again is a partner, and consequently the bill for two years reaches the normal amount of £500,000. It is of course necessary for Tweed and his chief accomplices to transfer a portion of their gains to conspiring tradesmen and to subordinate agents; and much money is spent in the manipulation of elections and in bribing the judges who are appointed by tions, a margin of private plunder is left the reigning faction; but, after all deduc

which perhaps suggests to the ringleaders a feeling, like that expressed by Lord Clive, of astonishinent at their own moderation. Of a large number of armories rented by the city, some are garrets worth a fifth or a tenth part of the nominal rent, and others have not even a local existence; and it is almost unnecessary to say that the real or supposed lessors are intimately connected with the managers of Tammany Hall. The city accounts, which are on a larger scale than those of the county, have not yet been obtained; but of the whole municipal taxation, amounting to £6,000,ooo a year, it may be conjectured that a -half or a third is intercepted by the Tweeds, the Connollys, the Sweeneys, and the Halls.

If the struggle were confined to the city, or even to the State of New York, the result might perhaps be doubtful; but the indignation which has been aroused will be fatal either to the Democratic party or to the Tammany gang, which has hitherto controlled both the city and the State. Accordingly some Democrats have already. denounced the municipal government, and the Republicans who had, on condition of connivance at fraud, been allowed to occupy some minor offices, are rallying round the respectable section of their own party. It is thought that Mr. Hoffman, the Governor of the State, who has hitherto supported the conspirators, though he is not suspected of sharing their illicit gains, is beginning to waver. It is his duty to take care that the Attorney-General prosecutes the delinquents, and if he fails to take notice of the frauds which have been publicly exposed, he will be justly regarded as an accomplice. On the whole it seems probable that the city rulers will be disavowed by the great body of their party; but they may still have power to secure the votes of the Irish rabble of New York, and any schism will ensure the victory of the Republicans in next year's Presidential election. There was reason to suppose that Governor Hoffman, who will be more or less discredited by his connection with Tweed and Hall, would be the Democratic nominee for the Presidency. Some of the most thoughtful and moderate politicians still doubt whether the criminals will be interrupted in their fraudulent career. The Nation thinks that, holding the lowest social position and having long defied the opinion of the res

Soon

pectable classes, the Tammany leaders will successfully defy the moral condemnation which they have provoked. It is doubtful, according to the same authority, whether men of the order of Tweed and Fisk will be checked even by the prospect of conviction and of penal servitude; and it is suggested, apparently in earnest, that the only sufficient remedy would be a resort to Lynch law, after the example set by San Francisco twenty years ago. The District Attorney-General, the legal representative in New York of the Federal Government has publicly recommended the adoption of the San Francisco precedent in the event of a failure of justice through the connivance of the Governor with the criminals. after the acquisition of California, the capital was in the hands of a body of gamblers, swindlers, and highway robbers, who appointed members of their own body to the chief judicial and executive offices. At last the respectable inhabitants of San Francisco rose against their oppressors, and having seized the ringleaders, they hanged them in the main street of the town after a brief and irregular trial. The survivors were ordered to quit the State on pain of death; and immediately afterwards the ordinary administration of the law was resumed. San Francisco has from that time been an orderly and thriving community; but Lynch law in New York would mean civil war; and, even to get rid of Tweed, of Fisk, and of Hall, the risk and the evil would be too great. In California the thieves were a small minority, who had for a time obtained power by fraudulent manipulation of the ballot-boxes. The constituents and accomplices of Mr. Oakey Hall, though they also habitually falsify the elections, form perhaps a numerical majority of the whole population. Yet in the recent case of the Orange procession, the city mob learned to its cost that the genuine American citizens will not allow the wide limits of liberty or of license which they recognise, to be transgressed with impunity. It is probable that, either immediately or after a short interval, the revelations of the New York Times will result in the deposition of the city government, and in the exclusion of Tweed and his associates from the State Senate and Legislature. If the State were once purified, means might be found to restrain the monstrous iniquities which are perpetrated