"The Prophet's dress was neat and plain as a Quaker's, all gray homespun except the cravat and waistcoat. His coat was of antique cut, and, like the pantaloons, baggy, and the buttons were black. A neck-tie of dark silk, with a large bow, was loosely passed round a starchless collar, which turned down of its own accord. The waistcoat was of black satin-once an article of almost national dress-single-breasted, and buttoned nearly to the neck, and a plain gold chain was passed into the pocket. The boots were Wellingtons, apparently of American make.

"Altogether the Prophet's appearance was that of a gentleman farmer in New England-in fact, such as he is; his father was an agriculturist and revolutionary soldier, who settled down East.' He is a well-preserved man; a fact which some attribute to his habit of sleeping, as the Citizen Proudhon so strongly advises, in solitude. His manner is at once affable and impressive, simple and courteous; his want of pretension contrasts favorably with certain pseudo-prophets that I have seen, each and every of whom holds himself to be a Logos' without other claim save a semi-maniacal self-esteem. He shows no signs of dogmatism, bigotry, or fanaticism, and never once entered-with me at least-upon the subject of religion. He impresses a stranger with a certain sense of power; his followers are, of course, wholly fascinated by his superior strength of brain. It is commonly said that there is only one chief in Great Salt Lake City, and that is Brigham.' His temper is even and placid; his manner is cold-in fact, like his face, somewhat bloodless; but he is neither 'morose nor methodistic; and, where occasion requires, he can use all the weapons of ridicule to direful effect, and ‘speak a bit of his mind' in a style which no one forgets. He often reproves his erring followers in purposely violent language, making the terrors of a scolding the punishment in lieu of hanging for a stolen horse or cow. His powers of observation are intuitively strong, and his friends declare him to be gifted with an excellent memory and a perfect judgment of character. If he dislikes a stranger at the first interview, he never sees him again. Of his temperance and sobriety there is but one opinion. His life is ascetic; his favorite food is baked potatoes with a little buttermilk, and his drink water; he disapproves, as do all strict Mormons, of spirituous liquors, and never touches any thing stronger than a glass of thin Lager-bier; moreover, he abstains from tobacco. Mr. Hyde has accused him of habitual intemperance; he is, as his appearance shows, rather disposed to abstinence than to the reverse. Of his education I cannot speak: 'men, not books-deeds, not words,' has ever been his motto; he probably has, as Mr. Randolph said of Mr. Johnson, a mind uncorrupted by books.' In the only discourse which I heard him deliver, he pronounced impetus, impetus. Yet he converses with ease and correctness, has neither snuffle nor pompousness, and speaks as an authority upon certain subjects, such as agriculture and stock-breeding. He assumes no airs of extra sanctimoniousness, and has the plain, simple manners of honesty. His followers deem him an angel of light, his foes a goblin damned: he is, I presume, neither one nor the other. I can not pronounce about his scrupulousness: all the world over, the sincerest religious belief and the practice of devotion are sometimes compatible not only with the most disorderly life, but with the most terrible crimes; for mankind mostly believe that

Il est avec le ciel des accommodements.'

He has been called hypocrite, swindler, forger, murderer. No one looks it less. The best authorities-from those who accuse Mr. Joseph Smith of the most heartless deception, to those who believe that he began as an impostor and ended as a prophet-find in Mr. Brigham Young an earnest, obstinate, egotistic enthusiasm, fanned by persecution and inflamed by bloodshed.' He is the St. Paul of the New Dispensation; true and sincere, he gave point, and energy, and consistency to the somewhat disjointed, turbulent, and unforeseeing fanaticism of Mr. Joseph Smith; and if he has not been able to create, he has shown himself great in controlling circumstances. Finally, there is a total absence of pretension in his manner, and he has been so long used to power that

he cares nothing for its display. The arts by which he rules the heterogeneous mass of conflicting elements are indomitable will, profound secrecy, and uncommon astuteness."-pp. 239-40.

We have marked in Italics certain peculiarities of expression, which, to say the least, are not worthy of imitation; and there is scarcely a paragraph in the book in which similar violations of grammar and taste do not occur. But we must not be too fastidious in dealing with travellers, who, like Mr. Burton, do the best they can to entertain and instruct us. The author gives a pretty graphic account of certain scenes occasionally witnessed in crossing the plains:

Many of these English emigrants have passed over the plains without knowing that they are in the United States, and look upon Mr. Brigham Young much as Roman Catholics of the last generation regarded the Pope. The Welsh, Danes, and Swedes have been seen on the transit to throw away their blankets and warm clothing, from a conviction that a gay summer reigns throughout the year in Zion. The mismanagement of the inexperienced travellers has become a matter of Joe Miller. An old but favorite illustration, told from the Mississippi to California, is this: A man rides up to a standing wagon, and seeing a wretched-looking lad nursing a starving baby, asks him what the matter may be: Wal, now,' responds the youth, guess I'm kinder streakt-ole dad's drunk, ole marm's in hy-sterics, brother Jim be playing poker with two gamblers, sister Sal's down yonder a' courtin' with an in-tire stranger, this 'ere baby's got the diaree, the team's clean guv out, the wagon's broke down, it's twenty miles to the next water, I don't care a if I never see Californy."-p. 229.

We can only make room for one more extract. We make choice of that which describes an arrival of emigrants at the Great Salt Lake city:

"As we issued from the city, we saw the smoke-like column which announced that the emigrants were crossing the benchland; and people were hurrying from all sides to greet and to get news of friends. Presently the carts came. All the new arrivals were in clean clothes, the men washed and shaved, and the girls, who were singing hymns, habited in Sunday dresses. The company were sunburned, but looked well and thoroughly happy, and few, except the very young and the very old, who suffer most on such journeys, troubled the wains. They marched through clouds of dust over the sandy road leading up the eastern portion of the town, accompanied by crowds, some on foot, others on horseback, and a few in traps and other 'locomotive doin's,' sulkies, and buckboards. A few youths of rather a rowdyish appearance were mounted in all the tawdriness of Western trappings-Rocky Mountain hats, tall and broad, or steeplecrowned felts, covering their scalp-locks, embroidered buckskin garments, huge leggins, with caterpillar or millepede fringes, red or rainbow-colored flannel shirts, gigantic spurs, bright-hilted pistols, and queer-sheathed knives stuck in red sashes with gracefully depending ends. The jeunesse dorée of the Valley Tan was easily distinguished from imported goods by the perfect ease with which they sat and managed their animals. Around me were all manner of familiar faces-heavy English mechanics, discharged soldiers, clerks, and agricultural laborers, a few German students, farmers, husbandmen, and peasants from Scandinavia and Switzerland, and correspondents and editors, bishops, apostles, and other dignitaries from the Eastern States. When the train reached the public square-at Great Salt Lake City the squares' are hollow as in England, not solid as in the States-of the 8th ward, the wagons were ranged in line for

the final ceremony. Before the invasion of the army the First President made a point of honoring the entrance of hand-cart trains (but these only) by a greeting in person."-pp. 225-26.

It would be a great mistake to think that the volume before us is devoted exclusively to the Mormons. There is nothing of any interest to be seen in the Great West of which it does not take more or less notice. But our author is too discursive, too fond of introducing tedious episodes, too partial to obsolete statistics. We could also have excused Mr. Burton, had he withheld that long list of works published on Mormonism, with the accompanying notes. The same remark will apply to several tedious letters which he has copied, and, we think we may safely add, most of the matter contained in the "Appendices." The latter consists principally of municipal ordinances, bills, by-laws, &c., &c., of almost interminable length, but of very slight importance, alternating with extracts from newspapers, chiefly from the Deseret News. In short, we would not advise any indolent person to take up "The City of the Saints," especially in warm weather; it would be no use.

Those for whom it was intended

But it was not intended for such. will hardly be disappointed, namely, the student of history, the ethnologist, the curious in matters religious and moral-in short, all seekers after knowledge who have the resolution and patience to separate the wheat from the chaff. In one word, it is a book that contains a large amount of information that is both useful and interesting, but also a large amount that is neither one nor the other.

Die Länder am unteren Rio Bravo del Norte. (Mexico during the last Forty Years.) Von ADOLPH UHDE. Heidelberg: Mohr.

Those of our German readers interested in the history and destiny of Mexico will find this work worthy of their attention. The author has not taken up his pen thoughtlessly. In every page of his book we have evidence of study and research. He has also had peculiar facilities for obtaining information, having for some time held the position of British consul at Matamoros; and what his sympathies are in regard to the antagonistic factions may be inferred, from the fact that he contributed greatly to the successful resistance made by that city when attacked, in 1851, by Carbajal. In his opinion, Mexico might have been a Spanish colony to this day, and much better off than she is, had it not been for the proscriptive policy of the home government in excluding the creoles from all offices of trust and emolument. While there were only about 80,000 Spaniards in the whole country, the natives, including Creoles, Indians, and half-breeds, amounted to nearly seven millions; and, out of the latter number, only 300,000 had to take up arms in their war of independence, in order to expel the Spaniards. The work of M. Uhde goes far to prove that the present interference of the European powers, especially

of France and Spain, in Mexico, should surprise nobody; that we had a right to anticipate such a state of things, whenever any internal dissensions in the United States semed to point out the proper moment for it. The author is of opinion that, had the clergy supported Santa Anna, the country would have been in a very different condition to-day from what it is. He feels sure that a strong centralized government can alone give peace to Mexico; and yet he cannot see how such is to be established, because the country, exhausted as it is after nearly forty years of almost uninterrupted civil war, is too poor to support such a government.

Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession; with a Narrative of Personal Adventures among the Rebels. By W. G. BROWNLOW, editor of the Knoxville Whig. Philadelphia: George W. Childs. 1862.

We are indebted to the courtesy of the publisher for some of the proofsheets of this curious book-we mean, curious in style and treatment, but in matter replete with interest; at least as far as we can judge from the twenty-four pages before us, including the whole table of contents. The volume opens with an autobiographical sketch of the Parson, and we must confess that it is one of the oddest specimens of its kind we have ever read. The author evidently acts on the principle that open confession is good for the soul, for he conceals nothing. He commences by telling us that "It is a delicate task for a modest man to write out a memorial of himself, and especially when he shall undertake to give both his private and public life." Passing over his account of where his father and mother, as well as himself, were "born and raised," we come to where he gives us some particulars as to his age, size, politics, religion, morality, &c. "I am about six feet high," he says, "and have weighed as heavy as one hundred and seventy-five pounds; have had as fine a constitution as any man need desire. I have had as strong a voice as any man in East Tennessee, where I have resided for the last thirty years, and have a family of seven children." (It would seem as if the strength of his voice had some necessary connection with the number of his children.) "I have written several books, but the one which has had the largest run is the one entitled: "The Iron Wheel Examined and its False Spokes Examined; being a vindication of the Methodist Church against the attacks of Rev. J. R. Graves, of Nashville.' I never was in attendance at a theatre, I never attended a horse-race, and never witnessed their running save on the fairgrounds of my own county. I never courted but one woman, and her I married." But to quote all the comical confessions made by the Parson were to quote the whole autobiography. That the book will be universally read throughout the North, we have little doubt; and that it deserves to be read by all, we feel certain.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Genius of Christianity; or, the Spirit and Beauty of the Christian Religion. By VISCOUNT DE CHATEAUBRIAND, author of "Travels in Greece and Palestine," &c., &c. A new and complete Translation from the French, with a Preface, Biographical Notice of the Author, and Critical and Explanatory Notes. By CHARLES J. WHITE, D. D. Fourth revised edition. Large 12mo, pp. 764. Baltimore: John Murphy & Co. 1862.

This work did not reach us until the last sheets for the present number were going to press; but, had it been the earliest on our table, it would have been superfluous, on our part, to enter into any particulars as to the character of a book which has been translated into every language in Christendom that has any literature. The best critics of Europe are still in doubt, whether it is more valuable in a religious than in a literary point of view; for there are no finer literary disquisitions to be found anywhere than it contains, especially those in Parts II, and III., under the titles of the Poetic of Christianity, General Survey of Christian Epic Poems, of Poetry considered in its Relations to Man, the Bible and Homer, the Fine Arts and Literature, Philosophy, History, Eloquence.

Each subject is treated as none but a scholar and a man of taste could have treated it. Of the religious part it may be said, that it breathes throughout the genuine spirit of Christianity. There is no bigotry, no intolerance, but a practical illustration of the noble precept, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Chateaubriand makes no effort to justify wrong, let who may do it; but benevolently reminds us that to err is human, and that, before we condemn any individual or class, we ought to see whether the good they have accomplished will counterbalance the evil. It is in this spirit he speaks, for instance, of the Jesuits. "And what," he says, "can the Jesuits be accused of? A little ambition, so natural to genius. Consider what the Jesuits have done; recollect all the celebrated writers whom they have given to France, or who were educated in their schools, the entire kingdoms gained for our commerce by their skill, their toils and their blood, the miracles of their missions is China, Canada and Paraguay, and you will find that the charges agains them are far from balancing the services which they have rendered to society." The whole work is complete in this volume. We are sincerely glad to see such a book coming from a Baltimore house at the present crisis; for we regard it as an agreeable evidence of returning prosperity. In times past none of our publishers issued better books than the Messrs. Murphy & Co., or got them up in better style. In common with most persons, they have suffered not a little from the war. From all these considerations, it is pleasant to see them resume the publishing business with so invaluable a work as the Genius of Christianity.