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NOTES ON BOOKS OF THE DAY.

have-been four times in the East, visiting Constantinople,
various parts of Asia Minor, Damascus, Jerusalem, and
Cairo—have made three tours in Algeria, two journeys
in Russia, several in Sweden and Norway, repeated visits
to Spain, Portugal, and Italy, a second visit to Iceland,
voyages to the Canary Isles, Madeira, Dalmatia, &., and
other excursions which it would be tedious to enumerate.”
It was during those travels that Sir Henry chiefly wrote
his articles to the Edinburgh and Quarterly Review,
and he is, besides, the author of some volumes of essays
of a scientific and philosophical character. The value of
travel varies according to the nature of the traveller.
We must bring a prepared mind to what we see. In the
case of Sir Henry Holland, foreign travel has been
singularly fertile in intellectual results. Indeed, we
will venture that his autobiographical volume will prove
a memorable one. Perhaps there is no other man living
who has had so wide and varied an experience—his life
brings us into direct relation with all modern countries,
modern discoveries, the most celebrated personages in
society, the great events of the present. In the course
of his travels Dr. Holland underwent at times a great
deal of danger. As an English physician, he was
brought in his travels into some connexion with Ali
Pasha, and on two occasions he was exposed to the
tyrant’s rage. In one of these, Ali asked him whether
he knew of any poison which, put on the mouthpiece of
a pipe or given in coffee, might slowly and silently kill,
leaving no note behind, Sir Henry gave him the noble
answer: ‘“ As a physician, I have studied how to save life,
not to destroy it.’’

Before he settled in London practice, he was for nearly

became Queen Caroline.
héhe, where the captive Emperor afterwards resided.
“My love of volcanic rocks gave me interest in the
groups of basaltic columns, emerging above ground in

material for their waterfalls and fountains.”
mined that his practice should never exceed a certain

counted no less than six Prime Ministers among his
patients. He was physician to the Queen, and after-
wards to Prince Albert. “I was at Windsor Castle
during the last three days of that illness which closed

Premiers whom he attended, he seems chiefly to have

in by a patient who told him that he had taken rooms at
Brompton, in order to gratify a strong propensity which
he felt to kill Mr. Canning, and entreated to be protected
against himself. Dr. Holland took the necessary steps,
and caused Canning not to return that way home.
Lord Liverpool, when Premier, once said to him, “ Every
morning I receive many letters on matters of business.
Some are are indifferent; some may be satisfactory ;
some are certain to give me pain or anxiety.’ Another
| Premier, Lord Sidmouth, told him that no events of the
day had ever ruffled his night’s sleep. He speaks with
great affection of the frank, careless, generous character
of Lord Melbourne. “His devotion to the Queen—
especially in his later years—might almost be called a
romantic feeling. After the paralytic stroke, which first
clouded his life, this was even painfully testified by out-
ward emotion when any circumstance occurred to bring

a year travelling physician to the unhappy Princess who |
With her he visited Wilhelms- |
| suspicion about its trustworthiness.

limit, which gave him time for travel and society. He |

his life—a scene I can never forget.” Of the different |
| dead.
been attached to Mr. Canning. One day he was called

| things.

her name before him.” He speaks of Lord Palmerston’s
cheerfulness, his love of labour, his superiority to pain,
his fondness for science; and of the gravity, even to
gloom, and the painful care with which the Karl of

| Aberdeen approached the business of his high office. It

so happened that at St. Petersburg, Constantinople,
and Washington it fell to Sir Henry to be useful
in the foreign business of the country, or present
at critical emergencies. ‘To read the annals of his
long life is to watch the unrolling of the panorama of
the history of the century, and one sees how wisely
and carefully Sir Henry regulated the whole plan of his
life.

Lord Brougham’s “ Autobiography” is now concluded.
It cannot be said that the work is of any great value, but
at the same time the volumes improved as they went on.
Lord Brougham did not sit down to write till he was
past eighty, and he desired that every thing he wrote
should be published intact. This is the more to be
regretted, as no volumes ever required more careful editorial
care, and no writer ever required more protection against
his own garrulity and self-esteem. These volumes help
us to understand how great a man he was in his best days,
when he almost threatened to become too great for a
subject, before his acceptance of the office of Lord
Chancellor lowered his influence in the country. The
present Lord St. Leonards made his famous sareasm—
that it was a pity Lord Brougham did not know a little
law, and then he would have a smattering of most
Some things read oddly, as when we find a com-
plaint that Lord Lansdowne, through mere love of a
novelty, had brought a young man called Macaulay into
Parliament. There is a great deal of personal anecdote
and political information, but there will often be a
We must, however,

remember the affecting apology with which the aged

these beautiful gardens, and furnishing picturesque |

He deter- |

writer concludes his work: “If I have imperfectly per-
formed my work—if I have appeared to dwell too diffusely
on some subjects, whilst others of equal importance have

_ been passed over—if many statements have been feebly,

and some inadequately rendered, let it be recollected that
I began this attempt after I was eighty-three years of

age, with enfeebled intellect, failing memory, and but

| sador at St. James’s, but the English Government would

See ee eee

_ wards he served his Britannic Majesty both in a civil

slight materials by me to assist it. Above all, that there
was not a single friend or associate of my early days,
whose recollections might have aided mine. All were
I alone survived of those who had acted in the
scenes I have faintly endeavoured to retrace.”

Since the lamented death of Michael Faraday there
have been two biographical works about him; Dr. Tyn-
dall’s brief brilliant volume, and the larger work of Dr.
Bence Jones. This last named gentleman has now pub-
lished a work which gives us the story of the Royal In-
stitution up to Faraday’s time; or, to give the title |
exactly, “The Royal Institution : its Founders and its First
Professors.” No one could more fitly write on the
subject than the present Honorary Secretary. The founder
was that remarkable man, Count Rumford, whose history
reads like a romance. He was born in America; after-

and military capacity, and became a colonel and was
knighted ; afterwards he entered the service of the Elector
of Bavaria, and was made a Count of the Holy Roman
Empire; the Elector would have made him his Ambas-