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FINE ARTS IN FRANCE. The Academy of the Fine Arts adjudged on the 27th of September, the four grand prizes for the best specimens of historical painting. The successful candidates are Jean Louis Beyard, Theophili Vauchelet, Emile Signol, and Eugene Roger. The subject for the competitors for the prize this year was Jacob refu. sing to part with Benjamin. Vauchelet is said to compose well, but to be an indifferent colourist: Roger to have succeeded best in expressing the naivete of the character of Benjamin. The critics, however, object to the whole of the competitors a want of feeling for that high style of art which their subject demanded.-Some of the French journals have been puffing off the statue of a young sculptor, a competitor for the Academy's prize, and broadly hinting, that if he be unsuccessful, it must be owing to underhand intrigues. This looks very like an attempt to concuss the judges. We notice it merely because it affords us an introduction to the remark, that we have observed an at¡tempt at something of the same kind in this city, an offence which we cannot allow to be repeated with impunity.

FRENCH LITERATURE.-While performing the obsequies of the late Comte Daru, several of his literary friends seized the occasion to deliver funeral orations. Silvestre de Sacy celebrated his domestic virtues,-Cuvier his literary eminence,-Mirbel his integrity,-Fornaux and Levoy alluded to the political crisis at which he had been taken from them. On the whole, there appears to have been a fair division of labour.-Some one has published at Paris short-hand notes of Guizot's lectures on modern history. The lectures are eloquent, but seem rather to consist of brilliant expositions of isolated points of history, than a comprehensive and philosophical view of its broad deep stream.-G. A. Crapelet has published, from a manuscript in the King's library, with a translation into modern French, "L'Histoire du Chatelain de Coucy et de la Dame de Coucy." This is one of the most burning tales of love and vengeance which has come down to us from the times of the Crusades. There is a naivete in the contemporary history, which renders it far superior to any of the modern versions.-The Institute has awarded the prize for the best history of the times of Philippe Auguste to M. Capefigue. The work is represented by the Parisians as one of great research, but rather of a gossiping and credulous character.-Gouvion St Cyr has published his "Memoires sur les campagnes des Armies du Rhin et de Rhin et Moselle, de 1792 jusquà' á la paix de Campo Formio." The Marshal is one of the few republican officers who remain. The history of these armies, if well told, will be a valuable addition to military history, showing the school in which those armies and generals were formed, which the powerful mind of Napoleon afterwards BO effectively combined and directed.-Deschiens has announced a "Collection de Materiaux pour L'Histoire de la Republique." The work is to contain a bibliography of the Parisian journals, which, from the important part they played in the storms of the revolutionary period, must be at once interesting and instructive.

FRENCH THEATRICALS.-The Theatre Italien promises to make a splendid winter campaign. Sontag is there, of whom the French Malibran is expected critics speak more favourably than our own.

in the couse of this month. Garcia, her father, has returned to the stage, and is said to have performed Almaviva in a style that quieted the anxiety of his friends, who feared he might throw away in his age the favour acquired in his youth.-A Mlle. Heinefetter (so the name is spelt in the French Journals) has made her debut in the Italian Opera, under circumstances of rather a romantic character. She was a performer in the Theatre at Cassel, but, conscious of her talents, aspired to the applause of a wider public than that pocket-edition of a royal residence affords. But the Elector treated her wishes as criminal insubordination on the part of a subject, and forbade her to leave his theatre or his territories. The fair lady took flight, and was received on the French frontiers by M. Emile Laurent, director of the Theatre-Royal Italien. There was woe in the royal halls of Hesse Cassel-there were denunciations of the renegade in its Journals-there were estafettes thick and frequent on the roads to France, enquiring the route of the deserter; and the venerable monarch, like another Menelaus, thought of taking the field, despite the sixty winters on his back-but in vain. The cause of all this hurly-burly is said, by the French critics, to be tall and elegant, with dark locks clustering round an expressive countenance, and a pretty little mouth. Her movements and attitudes are graceful, at times even dignified. Her voice is represented as a magnificent soprano, gentle and flexible in the middle, full and deep in the low notes. She is remarkable, also, for justice of intonation. The poor prince of Hesse Cassel The author of a new piece, entitled "Le Clerc de la Bazoche," had introduced, as one of his characters, the notorious Jacques-Clement The censors ordered the whole part to be struck out, We are quite aware of the ticklish situation of any French Ministry after the King's heart; but the cowardly manner in which the present one shows its consciousness of that situation, is more likely to draw down danger than avert it.-The Semiramide of Voltaire has been received with an enthusiasm that has set the adherents of the classical drama a-prophesying its resuscitation.-The receipts of the performance at Rouen, in aid of the subscription for erecting a statue to Corneille,

amounted to 4000 francs.-A M. Hyppolite Cournal has made his des but as a dramatic author, with a drama entitled Le Majorat. To judge by what the French critics say, the play must be rather decla matory, too much a picture of the author's ideas, and too little of the external world-in short, undramatic, but, at the same time, a work indicative of a vigorous mind.

Theatrical Gossip.-The London theatrical world has been all agog
during the last ten days, which have been signalised by the opening
of Drury Lane and Covent Garden; by the benefit given at the
Opera House to Covent Garden-the most effective of all the aids yet
afforded to that establishment; by the commencement of the winter
performances of the Adelphi; by the close of the English Opera
House, under excellent prospects as to its re-opening; and finally,
by the conclusion of the most successful season of the most success-
ful theatre in the metropolis, Astley's.-Drury Lane opened with
"Hamlet," the part of Hamlet by Young, who is twenty years too
old for it, and that of Ophelia by a Miss Faucit, who made a very
successful debut. The box-office keepers, and other officials at this
Theatre, have been all dressed in the royal livery, and are said to
have a very showy appearance.-Covent Garden opened with "Romeo
and Juliet." The great attraction of the evening was Miss Fanny
Kemble's debut as Juliet. It was completely successful, and, in the
ardour of their enthusiasm, some of the Londoners are already com-
paring her to Miss O'Neil. We must wait a little, to see how she will
turn out. Her mother, Mrs Kemble, formerly Miss De Camp, played
Lady Capulet; and her father, Charles Kemble, played Mercutio.
Abbot was Romeo, Warde Friar Lawrence, and Meadows the Apothe-
cary, so that the play has seldom been more strongly cast. The name
of Miss Kemble's tragedy is, "Francis the First," but it is said it will
not be produced this season.-Sinclair and Miss Ellen Tree are to
perform at Covent Garden, Liston and Miss Graddon at Drury Lane.
-Charles Incledon has appeared as Young Meadows at Drury Lane,
and was received with applause, but we are afraid his voice will never
equal his father's.-During the season, nine new pieces have been pro-
duced at the English Opera House, eight of which were successful.
Two were translated German pieces-the rest were "neither stolen,
taken, borrowed, nor translated."-In the "Marriage of Figaro,"
which was played at the King's Theatre for the benefit of Covent Gar-
den, Madame Malibran Garcia sustained the part of Susannah, being
the first time she had ever appeared in an English part. She seems to
have gone through it to admiration. Miss Paton played the Countess.
-The piece called "Black Eyed Susan," in which T. P. Cooke plays
William, has been performed for the hundredth successive night at
the Surrey, to bumper houses.-Young Kean is now performing at
the Haymarket, which is to close in a few days.-Catalani, it is said,
has retired from public life, and expressed a resolution not to sing
again unless for charitable purposes.-The Chester Musical Festival
cleared the sum of L.1000,-Wallack is about to sail for America.-
Our old friend Jones has by this time made, or is about to make, his
debut at Drury Lane, as Lord Ogleby, in the "Clandestine Marriage."
We wish him all success, for he deserves it.- We understand that
the Misses Weston, who have been recently added to our company,
are not to remain.-Miss Smithson is at Glasgow.
WEEKLY LIST OF PERFORMANCES.
Oct. 3-Oct. 9.

SAT.
MON.
TUES. Sweethearts and Wives, & Giovanni in London.
WED. The Rencontre, John of Paris, & Mary Stuart.
THUR. Marriage of Figaro, & Do.

School for Scandal, & The Invincibles.
Paul Pry, & Do.

FRI.

Charles II., Happiest Day of my Life, & Giovanni in London.

TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

WE have read "The unhappy Guest" with much interest; it shall appear as soon as possible." A Queer Yarn" is under consideration, The "Adventure on the Coast of Kent" lies at our publisher's.-The article on the Fine Arts in Glasgow in our next, if possible.-Mr Brydson's farther communications have been received with thanks. We cannot answer his question with regard to Oban, because we do not know. The stamped edition goes to subscribers in the neighbourhood. We have received "E.'s" traditionary notice, and shall be glad to see the others to which he alludes." A Friend" is very indefatigable in picking up pieces of information for us, which are frequently of use.

We should like much to receive the communication alluded to by the Author of "Anster Fair," and if interspersed with his own remarks, so much the better.-The Translation from the "Condè Lucanor," by Calderon, is a great deal too long for our pages, but perhaps the Author could favour us with some shorter specimens."Forget-me-Not" shall have a place as soon as possible.-The Lines by "F. W." of Teviotside, will scarcely suit us.-The Translation from the "Cancionero General" is spirited, but the original poem wants interest.-The Lines by "G. L." of Stockbridge will not do.➡ "Stanzas to Miranda" shall have a place.-Mr Balfour's Poem is still unavoidably postponed, together with other interesting articles.

LITERARY CRITICISM.

The Borderers, a Tale. By the Author of "The Spy," "The Red Rover," "The Prairie," &c. In three volumes, 8vo. Pp. 299, 311, & 316. London. Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. 1829.

PRICE 60.

all appearance were inclined to have made a yet longer stay, had they not been frightened off by a jealous servingman's tales of the Indians.

wished to be left alone with the stranger, removed from the apartment. When they returned, the stranger had disappeared. Next morning, a detachment of troops arrived. The contents of the search-warrant which they produced remained a secret with Mark Heathcote; but the manner in which the strict examination of every corner of the house was conducted, and some chance expresTHE materials out of which Mr Cooper has constructed sions which fell from them, impressed the household with this work, are not so new to his readers on this side of the the conviction, that the object of their pursuit was the Atlantic as those which his novels have generally con- mysterious visitant of the preceding evening. The solsisted. A sketch-feeblenough, it is true-of the his-diers remained about the settlement for some days, and to tory of King Phil to be found in Washington Irving's Sketch Book; the destruction of an out-settlement of Europeans, in which there was an Indian captive and a child, has already been described by Cooper's fair countrywoman, the amiable author of "Hope Lessly;" and the attack of a frontier village, with the interposition of one of the fugitive judges of Charles I., lured from his hiding-place by the danger of his countrymen, is a legend which Sir Walter Scott has put into the mouth of Major Bridgenorth. These, with the opportunities which they afford of contrasting Indian character with that of the white intruders, or of pourtraying the effect of converse with Europeans upon the mind of the natives, and of domiciliation in a wigwam upon a child of civilization, will go nigh to exhaust the contents of "The Wept of Wishton-wish." But, as Mr Cooper has wrought up his materials after his own fashion, it will be fair to give an outline of his story, and some specimens of his way of telling it, before indulging in further remark upon it.

Captain Mark Heathcote, a strict but conscientious Puritan, laid aside his sword at an early period of those civil wars which terminated in the temporary abolition of monarchy in England, and crossed the Atlantic with his family. But even in the non-conforming province of Massachusetts, he felt his peculiar notions restrained by the presence of divines, and resolved, at an advanced age, to remove bis habitation farther into the forest, there to worship God entirely according to his own notions. After a pretty diffuse retrospective detail of these events, the author begins his story in good earnest, by introducing us to the old man and his family at their settlement of Wishton-Wish, so called after an American bird, the first that the new-comers saw in the valley. Mark is riding home from his harvest field when he encounters a traveller, on a sorely jaded horse, who entreated food and shelter. In a newly-planted colony such things are readily granted. The stranger was introduced to the family, and the night was wearing away in sober conversation, when a remark of one of the inmates, that the rumours of disquiets among the savages must be unfounded, since one from the source of information travelled unarmed, led him to produce his concealed weapons. A witless boy, employed in tending the cattle, immediately recognised, on the blade of his long hunting knife, the wool of a wedder which was amissing. The master of the family called upon the stranger to explain this circumstance; and was answered by a request that he would look at the pistols on the table, as he might find on them something still more astonishing. and family, understanding from old Heathcote that he

His son

On the night of the stranger's visit, an Indian boy had been taken prisoner, and had been kept on the settlement by Mark, in hopes that intercourse with his family might prove a means of civilizing and converting him to Christianity. Mr Cooper paints in a quiet and touching manner the boy's loneliness among strangers, and his yearnings after his native haunts:

"Instead of joining in the play of the other children, the young captive would stand aloof, and regard their sports often passed hours in gazing at those boundless forests in with a vacant eye; or, drawing near to the palisadoes, he which he first drew breath, and which probably contained all that was most prized in the estimation of his simple judgment. Ruth, touched to the heart by this silent but expressive exhibition of suffering, endeavoured in vain to win his confidence, with a view of enticing him into employments that might serve to relieve his care. The resolute of his origin. He appeared to comprehend the kind intenbut still quiet boy would not be lured into a forgetfulness tions of his gentle mistress, and frequently he even suffered himself to be led by the mother into the centre of her own joyous and merry offspring; but it was only to look upon their amusements with his former cold air, and to return, at the first opportunity, to his beloved site at the pickets. consciousness of the nature of the discourse of which he was Still there were singular and even mysterious evidences of a occasionally an auditor, that would have betrayed greater familiarity with the language and opinions of the inhabitants of the valley, than his known origin and his absolute withdrawal from communication could give reason to expect. This important and inexplicable fact was proved by the frequent and meaning glances of his dark eye, when aught was uttered in his hearing that affected, ever so rehaughty gleamings of ferocity that escaped him, when Eben motely, his own condition; and once or twice, by the Dudley was heard to vaunt the prowess of the white men in their encounters with the original owners of the country."

The winter passed tranquilly over the heads of the inhabitants of Wish-ton-Wish. They began to take an interest in their Indian boy, and many were the devices suggested by the good-natured yeomen for securing his return, with a view to admit of his joining in their hunting expeditions. At last, on a day when the spring was soon expected, the old Puritan declared that the boy might now be allowed to accompany them, for he was assured that he would return. The hunting party were late of coming back; and when they did come, the Indian was not with them. While they were discoursing of his disappearance, and of a portent which had present

ed itself to one of their number, the conch-shell, which hung at the postern gate sounded, at first feebly, then with a more confirmed note. It proved to be the stranger who, on his former visit, had departed so mysteriously, and with him the Indian boy. The stranger demanded a conference apart with old Mark, which was just ended when the conch again sounded, at first feebly, then with a more confirmed note, as if it had been an echo of the stranger's summons. A party proceeded to the postern, but no answer was returned to their challenge. One of them remained in ambush, but no one appeared, nor was the summons repeated. Towards morning, as the whole family were assembled, debating what might be the meaning of this disturbance, the conch was again heard, and again, as formerly, at first with a feeble, then with a stronger blast. The stranger undertook to join the ambush this time. He had ensconced himself, along with one of the farm-servants in one of the out-houses, when, after a very interesting scene, it

"The roof of the block rekindled, and by the light that shone through the loops, it was but too evident the interior was in a blaze. Once or twice smothered sounds came out of the place, as if suppressed shrieks were escaping the females; but they ceased so suddenly as to leave doubts among the auditors whether it were more than the deception of their own excited fancies. The savages had witnessed many a similar scene of human suffering, but never one before in which death was received with so unmoved a calmness, The serenity that reigned in the blazing block communicated to them a feeling of awe, and when the pile came, a tumbling and blackened mass of ruins, to the earth, they avoided the place, like men that dreaded the vengeance of a Deity, who knew how to infuse so deep a sentiment of resignation in the breasts of his worshippers."

and set about burying their dead, and re-edifying their dwellings, with, all the deep religious trust, and stubborn perseverance of their sect.

was found that the Indians were in the neighbourhood, The family had not, however, all perished in this fiery and a hot rencontre was the result. They were worsted, destruction. Those of them who had found shelter in however, and in conformity to their mode of warfare, the block, took refuge, when all their efforts proved unwhen discomfited in a first attack, kept themselves quiet availing, in the exhausted well; and as soon as the Infor a while. The stranger employed the interval in seek-dians had withdrawn, they issued from their confinement, ing to elicit some information from a captive, who, on its being discovered that he belonged to the tribe of the besiegers, was sent as an envoy to enquire their intentions and cause of quarrel. He brought back for answer a bundle of arrows, wrapt in the skin of a rattlesnake. It being now evident to those in the house that their utter destruction was contemplated, the men betook themselves to the outer defences. In a short time the attack was renewed: the Indians pressed on with ferocity; the Europeans defended themselves with dogged resolution. The besiegers applied fire to the out-houses, which lay at some distance round the palisadoes, and in a few moments they were in a flame. Still the war continued, till the heat, the flashing of the flames, and arrows tipt with fire, succeeded in spreading the conflagration to the dwelling-house and its defences. The family of the Heathcotes betook themselves to the blockhouse, a kind of citadel, the basement story of which was built with stone, the upper one, like all the rest of the buildings, of wood. Owing to the hurry of the moment, and the simultaneous irruption of the Indians, a grandchild of the captain, and a half-witted boy who was carrying her, fell behind, and were captured. The Indians strove to extend the burning to the blockhouse :

The story now passes over several years in silence, and when we again get sight of Wish-ton-Wish and its inhabitants, we find both considerably altered. The clearing has been extended wide and broad into the forest; where once the solitary mansion of Mark Heathcote stood, there is now a gentleman's residence, and a populous village, with its church, and that indispensable appendage of a frontier settlement, a large defensible building. Many of old Heathcote's hirelings have become householders, and influential men in their little community. The Patriarch himself has grown older, and the lapse of years has begun to tell its tale even on his son. But the most marked difference is on the bereaved mother, whose sorrow for her daughter's loss, formerly mentioned as having been captured when a child by the Indians, has paled her cheek and dimmed her eye. Her wasted form serves, like the scorched and blackened ruin in their neighbourhood, to keep alive the fearful past in the bosom of happier days. One Sabbath morning, an inhabitant of the village, who had been on the outlook, brought to Heathcote a European, who had adopted the dress and customs of the In

dians.

"At this trying moment the appalling cry was heard in the block, that the well had failed. The buckets ascended her brother, the same half-witted lad who had been taken One of the females recognised in the changeling as empty as they went down, and they were thrown aside as no longer useful. The savages seemed to comprehend captive on the night of the burning of Wish-ton-Wish. their advantage, for they profited by the confusion that suc- The mother's hopes to learn something of her child's fate ceeded among the assailed to feed the slumbering fires. The were again excited; but in vain, for the weak intellects of flames kindled fiercely, and in less than a minute they be the youth had been so engrossed and confused with the came too violent to be subdued. They were soon seen play-associations of his forest life, that no blandishments could ing on the planks of the floor above. The subtle element flashed from point to point, and it was not long ere it was stealing up the outer side of the heated block itself.

"The savages now knew that conquest was sure. Yells and whoopings proclaimed the fierce delight with which they witnessed the certainty of their victory. Still there was something portentous in the death-like silence with which the victims within the block awaited their fate. The

recall the remembrance of his boyish days. As ineffectual were all attempts to discover what had brought him back.

The time arrived for the community to meet together in a new church which they had built, but the service of the day was doomed to receive a fearful interruption. While it was proceeding, the mysterious stranger entered the building, and called upon the men to stand to their whole exterior of the building was already wrapped in flames, and yet no show of further resistance, no petition which was soon enforced by the whoops of the savages arms, for the Indians were upon them; a summons for mercy, issued from its bosom. The unnatural and rising on all sides from under the arches of the forest. frightful stillness that reigned within was gradually communicated to those without. The cries and shouts of tri- Under the command of this extraordinary man, to whom umph ceased, and the crackling of the flames or the falling all yielded an involuntary obedience, the villagers divided of timber in the adjoining buildings alone disturbed the aw-themselves into three parties, two of which hastened to ful calm. At length a solitary voice was heard in the block. oppose the enemy, while the third proceeded to the rescue Its tones were deep, solemn, and imploring. The fierce of the Heathcotes. beings who surrounded the glowing pile bent forward to old Heathcote, his son, and grandson, with the stranger This last division was defeated; and listen, for their quick faculties caught the first sounds that were audible. It was Mark Heathcote pouring out his taken prisoners. A dispute arose between the allied spirit in prayer. The petition was fervent, but steady; leaders of the Indians, Metacom, (the King Philip of and though uttered in words that were unintelligible to Washington Irving, and Conanchet, the young Sachem those without, they knew enough of the practices of the coof the Narragansets, the same who had, when a boy, been