iptions. Mr. Davenport has resided in it more than eleven
years, during which time it had never been cleansed, and the books,
beds, and furniture were rapidly decaying, every thing being covered
with dust. The windows were all broken, the whole place presenting a
most dilapidated appearance. Verdict was "That the deceased died from
inadvertently taking an overdose of opium."

* * * * *

The eminent Italian poet, GIOVANNI BERCHET, died near the first of
January. Born, says the _Athenaeum_, at Milan, in 1788, he imbibed at an
early age that hatred of the rule of Austria which a few years
afterwards inspired his muse. It was when the well-known political
events of 1821 forced him to leave his country, that his active mind,
fervently devoted to the principles of rational liberty, burst forth in
those powerful and touching strains which are to this day deeply graven
on the heart of every Italian patriot, and which, during the sanguinary
contest of 1848, beguiled the weary march of the troops, and animated
the combatants in the conflict. He was the first who had the courage to
forsake the old beaten track of insipid sonnet-making. His poems stand
alone, unrivalled in the novelty of their language and conception, and
in the noble spirit which pervades every line. Few Italians can repeat
his _Clarina_, his _Matilde_, or the _Hermit of Mont Cenis_, without
feeling strong emotion. But by far the best of his productions, which
unfortunately are not numerous, are the _Fantasie_. The language and
versification are beautiful and varied, and we strongly recommend all
Italian students to leave, with all due respect, Tasso and Petrarch for
a while, and read a page of Giovanni Berchet. This distinguished
patriot-poet was for some time member of the Sardinian parliament, and
his loss is deeply mourned in all Italy.

* * * * *

The death of the younger of the celebrated Misses BERRY, is mentioned in
the London _Times_. She died, after a short illness, at the advanced age
of nearly eighty-eight, in the unimpaired vigor of all her faculties.
Her varied talents and incomparable amiability threw light and life
around the graver and loftier powers of her sister, and their union,
unbroken for an hour through the greatest portion of a century, made
them the charm of the most brilliant circles in Europe. Her sister, in
her eighty-ninth year, equally unfaded in her great intellectual