high pleasures bestowed, in none will it arouse indignation of
high power to base uses. Now, this we call a clear case for
national beneficence. He has done the state service, and they
know it; but they will not reward it."

Apropos of pensions: Upon the whole, we have the best exchequer in the
world, and to _soldiers_ we have evinced no special lack of liberality.
To give five hundred dollars a year to Mr. Audubon, R. H. Dana, Moses
Stuart, Edward Robinson, H. R. Schoolcraft, James G. Percival, C. F.
Hoffman, and some half dozen others, would be something toward an
"honorable discharge" of the country's obligations in the premises, and
probably no slight addition to the happiness of men who have added much
to the real glory of the nation, while it would cost less than a
morning's useless debate in Congress. In a recent letter to Lord
Brougham, on a cognate subject, Savage Landor exclaims:

"Probably the time is not far distant when the arts and
sciences, and even literary genius, may be deemed no less
worthy of this distinction than the slaughter of a thousand
men. But how, in the midst of our vast expenditure, spare so
prodigious a sum as five hundred a year to six, and three
hundred a year to six more!"

* * * * *

A MR. CHUBB has published in London, in a small volume, a paper which he
read before the Institution of Civil Engineers, on the construction of
locks and keys. It embraces a history of the lock and key from the
earliest ages, illustrated profusely with wood cuts. It forms an
instructive and entertaining essay; but we think Mr. Chubb might have
learned something more of the subject in the lock factories of Newark
and this city.

* * * * *

MR. TICKNOR'S History of Spanish Literature has been translated into
German, and is announced for publication by Brockhaus.

* * * * *

MR. DICKEN'S "David Copperfield" is at length completed, and Mr. Wiley
has published it in two handsome volumes, profusely illustrated. There
is a variety of opinions among the critics as to its rank among the
works of "Boz"; but it is not contended by any that it evinces a decay
of his extraordinary and peculiar genius. We copy a paragraph which
strikes us as just, from the _Spectator_:

"This story has less of London life and town-bred character
than most of its predecessors; b