to the Memoirs.  They consist of “characters,” similar to those of Chesterfield and other writers, and of “sketches” and essays; these last being set in a species of framework, intended to connect them into a series.  They are not the best specimens of the author’s composition; and perhaps were hardly worth publication.  Allowance is to be made, as Mr. Phipps remarks, for their unrevised state; and revision might have removed crudities and imparted more closeness and strength.  It would not, however, have altered their main defects; which may be summed up by saying that they belonged to another age, without reaching the peculiar force and finish which alone can give interest to an obsolete mode.

[Footnote 3:  Memoirs of the Political and Literary Life of Robert Plumer Ward, Esq., Author of “The Law of Nations,” “Tremaine,” “De Vere,” &c.  With Selections from his Correspondence, Diaries, and unpublished Literary Remains.  By the Honorable Edmund Phipps.  In two volumes.  Published by Murray.]

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THE BAGPIPE.—­In Gothic sculpture and tracery angels are sometimes portrayed practising on the bagpipe.  It was occasionally used in churches before the introduction of the organ, which occurred early in the fifteenth century.  Written music came into use about the same time, and both were loudly denounced by many of the old school-men as unnecessary and vain innovations.

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THE IVORY MINE: 

A TALE OF THE FROZEN SEA.

I.—­YAKOUTSK.

Yakoutsk is one of the principal cities of Siberia, a country the name of which excites exaggerated ideas of sterility and desolation.  Watered by rivers, which in every direction do the work of railways, with richly-wooded mountains and valleys, with green slopes, cultivated fields, soft meadows, gardens, and grassy islands in the great streams, with all the common vegetables in pretty fair abundance, with an endless source of commerce in furs and ivory, Siberia, except in its extreme northern provinces, presents, like most other lands, a very considerable amount of compensation for considerable rigor of climate.  Yakoutsk is a completely northern town on the great river Lena, with wide streets and miserable huts, all of wood, in many of which ice is still used in winter for panes of glass.  A very eminent traveler tells us that on his visit there were 4000 people living in 500 houses; with three stone churches, two wooden ones, and a convent.  It had once an antiquity to show—­the ancient Ostrog or fortress built in 1647 by the Cossacks; but which menaced ruin more and more every day, being not of stone, but of wood, and at last disappeared.  Even here progress is observable, and wretched cabins give way gradually to houses, some of which are even elegantly arranged in the interior.  It is a great commercial center:  from the Anubra to Behring’s Straits, from the banks of the Frozen Sea to Mount Aldana, from Okhotsk and even Kamschatka, goods are brought hither, consisting chiefly of furs, seals’ teeth and mammoths’ tusks, which afford excellent ivory, all of which are sold in the summer to itinerant traders, who give in return powerfully-flavored tobacco, corn and flour, tea, sugar, strong drinks, Chinese silks and cottons, cloth, iron and copper utensils, and glass.