of emulation. LORD BROUGHAM AND RELIGIOUS DEPUTATIONS. -The Scotsman, in a review of the recently published "Life of Dr. Heugh, D. D.," makes the following extract from the doctor's diary, and appends a characteristic reminiscence : a ready sale for their works in this country, to the exclusion of the productions of Derbyshire. He exhibited a beautiful table of black marble, inlaid with flowers of various colors, the work of Mr. Woodruff, of Bakewell; and he showed, by some smaller specimens, the mode in which the inlaying is executed, and the extreme minuteness and accu"London, 8th May, 1834—' * * I have been racy with which the parts to be inlaid are fitted to much with public men, in pursuance of the great the groundwork. Mr. Woodruff has asked for a object of our mission; and I have just returned design of some work which he desires to execute from the drollest, and most striking interview we in a style worthy of the show next year; and he are ever likely to have-a meeting in a private has no fear of being excelled by foreigners in exe- room in the Court of Chancery with Brougham, cution. Mr. Barker pointed to some products of who retained his robes, (as he just left his seat on lead, and declared himself willing to explain their the bench,) but laid aside all ceremony of office. manufacture to foreigners. He had always found We were half an hour with him in incessant conthat those smelters and manufacturers of lead who versation, and I can give no idea of the interest kept their doors closed to their competitors in the connected with it. He went to the subject in a trade were invariably surpassed by those who free-moment-told us Lord Grey and he had talked ly exchanged information at the same time that about it since the deputation were with him (Grey) they carried on an honorable and vigorous spirit-asked what we meant by a separation of church and state; but, without waiting for an answer, Lately, at the laboratory of the Ecoles des Mines immediately gave us his views of the meaning of in Paris, the chemical professors gave him the it, which were quite correct. He said, looking analyses of various metallic products, which he had me keenly in the face, "But, you know, they say never before seen analyzed; and with the utmost that the people who most need religious instruction liberality they offered to submit to analysis all are not over-fond of getting it, and that the volunI replied; mineral substances which he would at any time tary principle will never do for them." send to them, and to furnish him with the results when he went to the scriptural argument, to which without any charge. Such an offer made him I also replied. He then went over the "grievances" blush with shame to think that England, the richest with a volubility and point which it would be difcountry in the world in metals and minerals, was ficult to describe.' London, 13th May. In the without any school of instruction in mining and House of Lords last night the chancellor presented metallurgy; while France, so comparatively poor our petition. He did it ample justice-spoke forty in her metallic products, possessed the finest minutes upon it-drew forth the Archbishop of school in the world. He felt that, standing there Canterbury-and defended our petition against atwith all his English associations and prejudices tack. Of course he does not approve of separation weighing upon him, he was not in so fit a condition -so at least he says, and must say; but he is lying to give an impartial judgment on the merits of this open to light.' great exhibition as if he were on the Continent of Europe or in America among his Anglo-Saxon brethren. But if he might judge from what he had recently heard from enlightened foreigners of various nations, he should say, that this gathering of all nations was viewed by them as the grandest design which had ever been conceived by any nation in the world, and calculated to produce most important results, both in a social and commercial point of view, to the inhabitants of every country who may participate in it. AN EMIGRATION LOTTERY.-A proposal has recently received the sanction of the French government, for shipping off five thousand Parisian emigrants to California, by means of the proceeds of a lottery for seven millions of francs. The details of this singular scheme, the consent of government to which is regarded with some surprise, show that the total number of prizes is seventy, representing an aggregate value of 1,200,000 francs. The principal prize is to be a gold ingot weighing about 130 kil., and worth 400,000 francs. The other prizes will be of the value of 200,000 francs, 100,000 francs, and in minor sums down to 5,000 francs. One franc is to be the amount of subscription, and each subscriber is to have an equal chance. THE" Galway Vindicator" tells an extraordinary story about a woman who had been burnt by the potato blight! She was employed near Oranmore, weeding in a potato field, when she suddenly perceived a burning blast of air, which scorched and blackened her skin, even corroding the flesh, and all around her. She found that the potatoes were as suddenly blackened and destroyed. 6 It was either of this interview, or one very similar in circumstances, that we have heard a description, by another of the deputation, representing the proceedings of Lord Brougham as still more "droll" and "striking." His lordship, on coming out of the court to meet the deputation, immediately, on being informed of their object, burst out in a volley of exclamations to the effect that, but for dissent there would be "no vital religion-no vital religion, gentlemen, no vital religion." While pouring forth this in a most solemn tone, he was all the while shaking violently the locked doors of a lobby full of committee-rooms, into one of which he wished to find entrance, and calling for an absent official not only in passionate tones, but in phraseology which the reverend deputation, at first unwilling to trust their own ears, were at last forced to believe was nothing better than profane swearing. At last he suddenly drew himself up to the wall opposite a locked door, and with a tremendous kick smashed the lock, and entered, exclaiming, (first in a vehement and then in a solemn tone, but without pause,)" that fellow! where the - does he always go to! No vital religion, gentlemen, no vital religion-no, no, no.” ON Sunday a monster train, conveying no less than 1,400 Parisians, paid a visit to the metropolis. Every cab and means of conveyance in the station of the South-Eastern Railway and vicinity proved inadequate, and a number of omnibuses were engaged to carry them to their destination in Leicester square. The hotels and lodging houses had not sufficient accommodation, and numbers had to be quartered in the Strand and vicinity. SHORT ARTICLES: Emigrants to Vancouver's Island; Farewell Address from Cardinal NEW BOOKS: Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 33.-Voices of the Night, 39. TERMS.-The LIVING AGE is published every Satur-1 Agencies. We are desirous of making arrangemen Complete sets, in twenty-four volumes, to the end of March, 1850, handsomely bound, packed in neat boxes, and delivered in all the principal cities, free of expense of freight, are for sale at forty-eight dollars. Any volume may be had separately at two dollars, bound, or a dollar and a half in numbers. Any number may be had for 12 cents; and it may be worth while for subscribers or purchasers to complete any broken volumes they may have, and thus greatly Binding.--We bind the work in a uniform, strong, and good style; and where customers bring their numbers in good order, can generally give them bound volumes in exchange without any delay. The price of the binding is 50 cents a volume. As they are always bound to one Postage.-When sent with the cover on, the Living Age consists of three sheets, and is rated as a pamphlet, at 4 cents. But when sent without the cover, it comes within the definition of a newspaper given in the law, and cannot legally be charged with more than newspaper postage, (14 cts.) We add the definition alluded to:- numbers, consisting of not more than two sheets, and A newspaper is "any printed publication, issued in Monthly parts.-For such as prefer it in that form, the Living Age is put up in monthly parts, containing four or five weekly numbers. In this shape it shows to great advantage in comparison with other works, containing in each part double the matter of any of the quarterlies. But we recommend the weekly numbers as fresher and fuller of life. Postage on the monthly parts is about 14 cents. The volumes are published quarterly, each volume LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 334.-12 OCTOBER, 1850. From the British Quarterly Review. The Court and Reign of Francis the First, King of First wielded the sceptre was indeed an important It was the birth-time of her period for France. Reformation, the period which stands distinguished in her artistic history as that of the renaissance, and the era of her most distinguished scholars. ALTHOUGH from the progress of historical in- The reign of Francis was, moreover-and this to quiry we can no longer assign to the sixteenth Frenchmen was no small attraction-the comcentury that preeminence which it occupies in the mencement of that series of court splendors which estimate of earlier writers, who, unacquainted, or made France for almost three centuries the centre at best but superficially, with the history, political of attraction to all the gay and reckless spirits of and literary, of previous centuries, viewed this era Europe, and gave her an influence-most poweras a kind of marvellous spring-tide, suddenly cloth- ful, because unsuspected-which was often felt ing the earth with unlooked-for beauty and verdure, even in the cabinet and on the field. Nor were after the desolation of an Arctic winter; or as a the passing events of this reign less interesting. burst of meridian sunlight flashing upon the black" Never, perhaps," to quote the eloquent remarks and cheerless night of "the dark ages"-still, of the author before us, "did the reign of any we willingly allow that there was much in the European monarch present so many and such varymighty events of this stirring age to arrest atten- ing phases. A contest for empire, a captive tion, and yet more in the characters of the chief monarch, a female regency, and a religious war; actors to awaken interest. The statesmen, the the poisoned bowl and the burning pile alike doing military commanders, the poets, the reformers, the their work of death amid scenes of uncalculating all-unrivalled artists of the sixteenth century, each splendor and unbridled dissipation ;" and, we may pass before us distinct in their several individual- add, a Ronsard and de Bellay making sweet meloities;-men well fitted to be leaders by that only dy in their graceful verse; a Jean Goujon and a divine right, as the author of "Wallenstein" hath de Juste almost rivalling the artists of Italy; a Budæus, a Ramus, a Stephens, foremost in the ranks of scholarship, challenging the attention of learned Europe; and unmoved by threats, undaunted by the frowns, as unseduced by the smiles, of an absolute monarch, Calvin and Beza, lifting up a voice of solemn warning against a corrupt church and a profligate court. Such are the conflicting elements of the reign we are about to contemplate. it Of the spirit giant born, Who listens only to himself, knows nothing but feels itself commissioned to claim and uphold Preeminent for scenes like these, nor scarcely less so for the munificent patronage of literature and the arts, was the court presided over by Francis the First, a monarch whose magnificent taste, showy qualities, and brilliant career, have combined to cast a lustre around his memory, which authentic history will, however, refuse to allow. The period during which Francis the CCCXXXIV. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXVII. 4 Francis the First was not born heir to a crown; the son of the Count d'Angoulême and Louisa, daughter of the Duke of Savoy, his prospects were but distant, during the reigns of Charles the Eighth and Louis the Twelfth. He was born in 1494, and the death of his father within two years placed him more exclusively under the superintendence of his mother, a woman of the type unhappily too common in France-beautiful and gifted, but bold, licentious, and wholly unscrupulous-indeed, apparently utterly destitute of the moral sense. Louis, at this time Duke of Orleans, became guardian of the young count, and with fatherly care placed him under the tuition of De Gouffier Boisy, an eminent scholar, and appointed the Mareschal de Gie his governor. As he advanced from childhood, the ambitious hopes of his mother were strengthened; the sons of Louis died in infancy; two daughters alone survived, and the monarch very early formed the project of a marriage between the elder and the young count. This, was, however, determinately opposed by the haughty Anne of Brittany, and negotiations were entered into with Maximilian on behalf of his son. These were, however, broken off; the death of Anne a few years after removed the obstacle pre- | become the minister of his pleasures while living, sented by her opposition, and three months after and his unscrupulous apologist after his death. her death, Francis, now in his twentieth year, There are few characters which we can contemreceived the hand of the Princess Claude. So plate with more conflicting feelings than that of profound was the grief of the king at the recent Marguerite, Queen of Navarre. So much is there death of Anne, that even on an occasion on which to admire, while so much is there which demands every possible amount of splendor and festivity stern censure, that we can scarcely be surprised was, as a matter of indispensable importance, lav- her apologists have been so many-that her generished a royal marriage-he yet would not permit ous self-devotion to her brother should be viewed the mourning garments of his court-and on this as the counterbalance of her imperfections as a occasion they were of unusual deepness-to be laid wife, and that her spirited advocacy of the French aside; and poor Claude, and her young, but reformers, and the protection she afforded to Beza, loveless bridegroom, "simply dressed in black should be taken as a "set-off" against her immoral cloth, handsomely, and in funeral fashion," says verses, and still more immoral "Heptameron." Brantôme, stood before the altar in the chapel of St. Germain-en-Laye, and saw around them, instead of the accustomed gems, and flowers, and white bridal draperies, nought but a vast assembly clad in robes of mourning. Poor, gentle Claude, well did this mournful array forshadow her married destiny! It is singular that the writers of this century, so careful in noting omens, should not have noticed this, which, like the incident of the royal fleur-de-lis falling, dashed in pieces on the ground, on the eve of the fatal battle of Pavia, and the solemn omen of the doors of the royal vaults swinging open, just as the crown was placed on the brow of Henri Quatre, combine the marvellous with much poetic beauty. Viewed now as the presumptive heir of France, Francis saw without anxiety the subsequent marriage of his feeble father-in-law with the beautiful Mary Tudor, whose romantic story has so often been told, and at the splendid bridal-feast he officiated as bridesman; while poor Claude, still mourning the death of her mother, and the neglect of her husband, was the chief attendant on the bride. A series of shows, and tilts, and entertainments succeeded, during which the young duke became the admired of all beholders. That among these admirers the young queen held a foremost place, and that she became passionately attached to Francis, has been asserted by Brantôme, and Miss Pardoe we find believes it; but we think, from the lately published letters, which the readers will find in the first volume of "Letters of Royal and Illustrious Women" of the poor girl who was compelled to yield her hand to the old king, while her heart had been given irrecoverably to Charles Brandon, the reason of her marked attention to Francis is obvious. As heir-presumptive, and still more as actual king, his power was sufficient both to dismiss Charles Brandon from France, and to compel her stay there. This is urged with much pathos, though with much homeliness, in her letters to the triumphant lord high-cardinal;" and this is urged by Brandon himself in his very mean-we had almost said sneaking-letter, in which he deprecates the king's anger for having married the devoted young queen, who so willingly flung aside crown and sceptre to ally herself with 66 The marriage of Francis with Claude was most ill-assorted. Without being absolutely learned; without, like our Henry the Eighth, being able to superintend the Latin grammars of his subjects, and to turn over the folios of St. Thomas Aquinas for his delectation, Francis possessed a competent amount of knowledge, and a cultivated taste. This latter he probably owed in great measure to his sister, the gifted Marguerite, who, only two years his senior, was the companion and guide of his studies, his inseparable associate, and for whom he throughout his life felt the deepest attachment. Marguerite the "Marguerite des Marguerites," as her brother fondly so termed her, grew up indeed to be a woman of no common attainments. As she emerged from girlhood her proficiency as a linguist excited universal admiration even in that learned age, while her superiority in other branches" cloth of frieze." of learning was eminent, and she excelled in all the usual accomplishments of the time. Great was the influence of this gifted woman over her clever and impulsive, but less gifted brother; and great, indeed, was the contrast between the beautiful, and graceful, and highly endowed sister, and the wife, whose occupations alternated between the missal and the broidery-frame. But greater still, unfortunately for France, was the moral contrast. The daughter of Anne of Brittany was trained up in strictest morality, and the most delicate reserve; while the daughter of Louisa of Savoy early learnt to laugh at correctness of deportment, and grew up pleasure-loving, and light in conduct-to use the mildest term; while, so far was she from exerting a beneficial restraint over the impetuous passions of her brother, that she condescended to There is generally so little of romance in the alliances of the sons and daughters of royalty, that we trust the reader will excuse this digression on behalf of the fair fame of the beautiful and devoted Mary Tudor. On the 1st of January, 1515, Francis the First became King of France; and when he made his solemn entry into Paris, the personal beauty, the graceful bearing, the courteous deportment of the young monarch, who had not yet completed his twenty-first year, won the hearts alike of all classes. Festivals more splendid than had ever before been known, banquets at which the guests assembled, not by hundreds, but by thousands, graced his inauguration; and giving way to the admiration which from boyhood he had felt for chivalrous romance, he determined to model his court upon the fancied arrangement of Arthur's or Charlemagne's, and to collect around him an assembly of which the men | two hundred gendarmes overcame four thousand, should all be gallant, but of which it certainly and routed them rudely enough. And you must could not be said, as Maistre Wace has sung of the court at Caerleon, that the women were all virtuous. There was no lack, however, of fair and accomplished women, and feast succeeded feast, and pageant and tournament succeeded pageant and tournament; and although mighty events, the result of centuries, were slowly developing themselves, the court of France and its idolized monarch yielded themselves up to pleasure, as though life were but one long dream of enjoyment. But even thus early the spectre had taken his unbidden place at the banquet, although the gay revellers knew it not, for there was Bourbon, the constable of France, who in after years was to work so much woe. understand that the conflict that night lasted from three o'clock in the afternoon until between eleven and twelve, when the moon failed us; and I assure you, madame, that I saw the lansquenets measure pikes with the Swiss, and it can be no longer said that the lansquenets are mounted hares, for it was they who did the business; and I do not believe that I lie when I say that, by five hundred and five hundred at a time, thirty-five charges were made before the battle was won.' The night on which this letter was written was passed in rejoicing by the whole camp; and so unanimously was the chief praise of this hard-won battle ascribed to Bayard, and so willingly did Francis award the superiority to him, that he determined to receive knighthood from the hand of this flower of chivalry; "the romantic tastes in which he loved to indulge having caused him to overlook the fact that every monarch of France was necessarily viewed as a knight, even from the cradle. It was a picturesque sight, when, on that very battle-field, Francis summoned Bayard to his side, and, bending the knee, asked of his illustrious subject the accolade. The monarch, who claimed to be the imitator of Arthur and Charlemagne, and who, when a mere boy, had distinguished himself by his prowess, now set forth on his expedition to Italy, in the very spirit of chivalrous romance; and as Charlemagne, ere his departure for Fontarabia, led his gallant army beneath the jasper-studded towers of the fair Galiena to receive the farewells of her bevy of damsels, so the young king summoned his nobles and generals to receive the farewells of the ladies ofIn good sooth, sire!' cried Bayard, with ready his court at Amboise. On the appointed day, courtesy, deeming further opposition to his sovBourbon, who, in right of his office, was to take ereign's will disrespectful, 'I am ready to perthe chief command of the invading army, rode form your pleasure, not once, but many times; and into the courtyard, surrounded by a numerous suite may my poor agency be as efficacious as though the of richly habited gentlemen and pages, dressed in act were performed by Oliver, Godfrey, or Baldroyal state, with diamond-studded poniard, sash of win. My trusty sword!' cried he, brandishing cloth of silver, and jewelled helmet, surmounted by it, and then returning it proudly to its scabbard ; the plume of white and crimson feathers. Ill could certes, thou shalt henceforth be guarded as a the king brook this assumption of state, but still precious relic, and shalt never be unsheathed again, less could he brook the haughty bearing of the except against the infidel!'" And doubtless a duke, and the sorrowing glance which his idolized crusade against the infidel, if fairly practicable, Marguerite cast upon him who had been her boy- would have presented no common attractions to lover, as he rode so proudly into the courtyard, and the eager imagination of Francis; and, during his the look of contempt which she cast on Alençon, subsequent interview with Leo the Tenth, the wily who was standing by her side, and to whom she pontiff endeavored to persuade him to undertake a had been compelled to yield her unwilling hand. crusade against the Turks, promising to bestow The agitation of Marguerite soon passed away, and upon him a title more attractive to a romance-lovshe bade farewell to Châtelherault, Trevulzio, and ing monarch than that bestowed by his predecessor the other leaders, among whom, conspicuous among upon Charlemagne himself—even the proud desigthe loftiest, was the knight sans peur et sans re-nation of "Emperor of the East." Francis, or proche," Bayard, with graceful composure. But probably his more astute advisers, courteously dethe incident had been observed by Bonnivet, Bour-clined the suggestion, and, after a brilliant career, bon's bitterest enemy, and it was not forgotten in after years. 66 he returned to France, to pass stringent edicts against violations of the forest laws, and to deprive his Parliament of the small remains of free-agency which yet remained to them. Constituting his mother regent, Francis now set forth, and, unappalled by the dangers incurred in crossing the Alps, pressed forward to Milan. Ere, Meanwhile, Ferdinand died, and bequeathed the however, Milan opened its gates, the obstinately crown of Spain to his grandson, Charles, the great disputed battle of Marignano was won, in which future antagonist of Francis; and curious is it to the young monarch fought on foot, pike in hand, mark the extreme contrast in person, disposition, and Bayard even outdid his former prowess. The habits, and training, of these two great arbiters of letter sent by Francis to his mother on this occa- Europe's destiny: the handsome, impulsive, brave, sion is very characteristic, both for its enthusiasm voluptuous Francis, who lived but for pleasure; and its gasconade. As to the latter, this seems to and the cold, reserved, business-loving Charles, belong to a French monarch as much as the exces- who lived but for power. Conscious of the imsive rouge of the court lady under the ancien ré-portance of conciliating the king, whose dominions gime. "I promise you, madame," says he, "that intercepted between Spain and Flanders, Charles however well led and brave the Swiss were, our entered into a treaty with Francis, and became, |