The Press.
London, England, 1853-09-10 00:00:00

451

of Chantouni from the earliest time; relates
the. heroic- adventure of poor Bedmat. who, de
serted by his brother guides. and frostbitten
in the fret, trod the virgin summit of Mont
Blanc in 1186. Then follows De Satemsure's
suceessful attempt in the following year, the
patiiculers of which are given at full length.
as he appears to have been the first and last
setentthe observer upon the mountain-top.
arious persons, chiefly foreigners, including
the wife of one of the guides, safely ascended
the mountain until the year D 420, when Dr.
Hamel made his disastrous expedition, in
which three guides were hurried by an Ma
lanche into the unknown depths of a erevass.
Since then the rage to ascend Mont mane no,
gone On increasing, the danger, perhaps, giving
the adventure a relish. In analysing the list
of the forty-four persons who have. ascended
since that time we find that Britons earry of
the palm of daring. twenty-seven out of that
number being of our nation. The first lady.
however, who lead the pluck to make the me
eent was a Freneliwoman, Mlle. Heurlethe
d'Angeville, who when on the top made one of
the guides lift her upon his shoulder, that she
might be able' to boast of having been higher than
any one else. The account of the ascent made
by the author, in company with Messieurs
West, Floyd. and Philips. is by far the most
graphic and minute yet written. Albert Smith
appears from Ins earliest years to have. hail an
ambition to scale Mont Mime. In his Way
hood he tells us he got hold of 114. Saumsure's
narrative, which so fired hint that he con.
strueted a peepshow of the mountain.
lie little dreamt then what auriferous
diggings he would find on the old mountain-
top, in the shape of his panorama, to which he
is so sueeessful a showman. We say showmen
bemuse he accepts the designation with a
boldness which takes from it all its sting; in-
deed, in acting, if we may so 14-1.111 it, in an
illustrated page of physical geography, he
does no more than Charles Kean when he con-
deseends to hang some Assyrian %laws absent
himself to berm a sort of moving foreground to
his picture of ancient Nineveh. To return to
the book, however, we. minuet help entering
our protest against some of the woodcuts. Wee
are not at all convinced of the integrity of
"The. Crevice in the. Glacier du Tacconay:'
where the. guide has to cut hand and foot holes
up a perpendicular surface of ice. and to as-
cend at the. same time; whilst the " Sealing
the Mur de la Cote" as depicted, or even as
set forth in the text, we positively disbelieve.
This part of the journey is described as "all
" almost perpendicular wall of ice four or five
" hundred feet high ;" yet ur this terrific hie
wall the. travellers are depleted as picking
their way like. SO Many flies, their only hold
upon the smooth, " alineeest perpendicular our
"face." being the footholds cut by the adzes of
the guides. Up this surface Albert Smith,
generally " bewitched." more than half asleep,
and bothered much in his own mind about
" two bedsteads and the King of Prussia,"
managed to creep without foutalip, for slsy
such would have been certnite destruction. We
are. tempted to ask after such an achievement,
what our friend Albert Smith might not ac-
complish if he only has the good fortune to
have his wits about him" Apart from
these manifest exaggerations, the book is au
exceedingly interesting one, and shows that
the author is an acute observer, beetle of
mental as well as of physical phenomene.

Edmund Burke's First Principles. Selected by
the Rev. Robert Montgomery, A.M. Lon-
don : Routledge and Co.
Tins is a well-printed volume of extracts from
Burke's writings, intended to exhibit "the
first principles " of his philosophy. The de-
sign of the selection is happier than its execu-
tion. To systematise the extracts as Burke's
" first principles" they should be classified
under general beads, and the parts of his
works from which they have been chosen
should be expressly indiated. In 114104 two
small volumes of a similar kind. but better
arranged, were published. In his comments
and essay. Mr. Montgomery makes several slips.
He occupies flair pages with testimonies to
Butke's s .:rout " men oppoodtuliiru in their