The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-10 00:00:00

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE'S LAST STORY.

Mr. Hotten has just published au exquisite frag-
meat—the beginning of • new story by the late Nathaniel
Hawthorne. It was to be called " The Dolliver Romance."
It treats solely of an aged old apothecary, Dr. Dolliver,
sod his great granddaughter, Panels. The doctor's only
child " had died the better part of • hundred years
before, and Es graadchildren, a numerous and
dimly-remembered brood, bad vanished along his
weary track, in their youth, maturity, or incipient
age, till, hardly knowing how it had all happened, be found
himself tottering onward with an infant's small fingers in
his nerveless grasp." The intensity of desolation which the
old man felt, and the weight of his yams, are sketched
with the sweetest pathos, delicacy, and sympathy. AU
the younger portion of the inhabitant. unconsciously
ascribed • sort of aged immortality to Grandsire Dolliver's
infirm and reverend presence. They fancied he had been
born old, and "that he could the better tolerate his aches
and incommodities, his doll eats and dim eyes, his remoteness
from human intercourse within the crust of indurated
years, the cold temperature that kept him always shiver-
ing sod sad, the heavy burden that invisibly bent down his
shoulders—that all these intolerable things might bring •
kind of enjoyment to Grandsire Dolliver, as the life-long
conditions of his peculiar existence. But, alas, it was& ter-
rible mistake." And then Hawthorne gives • voice to all
the dull misery of an old age so desolate. Yet there were
momenta when he would suddesly take brighter hues of life,
when little Pupae was walking with him. " His chilled
sensibilities had probably been touched and quick-
ened by the warm contiguity of his little companion,
through the medium of her hand, as it stirred within his
own, or some inflection of her voice that set his memory
ringing and chiming with forgotten sounds. While that
music lasted, the old man was alive and happy. And there
were seasons, it might be, happier than even them, when
Pansie had been kissed and put to bed, and Grandsire Dol-
liver sat by his fireside gaging in among the massive coals
and absorbing their glow into those cavernous abysses with
which all men communicate. Hence come angels or fiends
into our twilight musings, according as we may have peopled
them in bygone years. Over our friend's face, in the rosy
flicker of the fire-gleam, stole an expression of repose and
perfect trust that made him as beautiful to look at, in his
high backed chair, as the child Pawls on her pillow ; and
sometimes the spirits that were watching him beheld a
calm surprise draw slowly over his features and brighten
into joy, yet not so vividly as to break his evening quietude.
The gate of Heaven had been kindly left ajar, that this
forlorn old creature might catch a eilErell within. All the
night afterwards he would be semi-oonscious of an intangible
blase diffused through the fitful lapses of an old man's
slumter, and would awake at early dawn with • faint
thrilling of the heart-strings, as if there had been music just
now wandering over them. . . ." At the last word of
this extract the pea was laid down. Hawthorne's human
work was over. He died quietly in • fainting fit during
the night, soon after writing the above.

The conservative journal the Press heartily ap-
proves of the prosecution of servants who absent themselves
from church on Sundays, and rebukes Lord Townshend for
attempting "to hinder a Christian widow in her kind en-
deavour to do her full duty to those committed to her
charge!"

Cord Stanley, M.P., presided yesterday at the
Lancashire general sessions in Preston. The motion to
grant a sum, not exceeding 401., for the purchase of vest-
ments, chalice, linen, crucifix, candlesticks, and other
article'', in order that the Roman catholic chaplain might
celebrate service in the Preston gaol after the manner of him
church, led to a long and animated disetudon, strong oppo-
sition bring offered to the grant by several of the magis-
trate,. Oo a division, however, the motion was carried by
24 votes to 19.

We read in the Atheneum :—" At the moment
of going to press we receive from Sir John F. W. Henschel
• copy of • circular addressed to him, requesting his sig-
nature to • declaration on the delicate subject of science
and religion ; also • oopy of • letter which Sir John has
sent to his correspondent, declining, for reasons stated, to
sign such a declaration. The papers arrive too late for in-
sertion this week ; but we announce the fact of their receipt.
because we know that thousende of inquirers will be glad
to hear that so eminent • man as Sir John Herschel has
raised his voice against this effort to degrade scientific bodies
into hostile sects."

We have good reason to believe that Lieut.-
General Sir J. Yorke Scarlett, K.C.8.. Adjutant-General to
the Forces, will succeed General Sir George Brown, G.C.8.,
KB., as Commander of the Force. in Ireland at the ex-
piration of Gwent Brown's command on the Ist of April
next.—Gßiled Service Ga:etk.

The GEORGIA.—We are informed that the go-
vernment has declined to interfere in the care of the steamer
Georgia, seized off Lisbon by the Federal frigate Niagara.
Times.

ADMIRALTY MEDITIRRANRAN CRON?. —We
understood that his Groom the Doke of Somerset. First Lord
of the Admiralty and Rear• Admiral the Hon. J. R. Drum-
mood, CB., will leave Whitehall ori the ht proximo for
Marseille.. there to embark ia the Admiralty yacht fur
Serriee Gautte.

THE REPRESENTATION or SOUTH Dt'RHAM.—A
meeting of some of the leading liberals of this division wag
held at the King's Head, Darlingtoo. on Monday. Lieut.-
Colonel Benefield, of Hurworth Hones, occupied the chair,
and the following members of liament were peewit :
H. Pease, Es q. (South Durham)
; R. D. Shaft*, Eaq. (North
Durham) ; W. Henderson, Eaq. (Durham city) ; H. Fen-
wick. Esq. (Sunderland) ; Right Hoo. W. Hutt (Oateebead);
W. B. Beaumont, Fee. (South Northumberland). It was
determined to brie( forward another liberal candidate at
the next election, It being considered that the state of the
register fully warranted such a course, and Captain Frede-
rick Beaumont, of the Royal Eogineers—consio to W. B.
Beaumont Eaq., M.P.—was the gentleman spoken of as
likely to be brought forward to stand with Mr. Pena.—
Darlington and Stockton Times.
REIGATE—It i 8 said to be the intention of the
Hon. E. T. Monson to become a candidate for the repre-
sentation of Reigate in parlisment at the next general
election. His brother, Lord Mormon, it will be remem-
bered, was M.P. for Reigate until he succeeded to the
peerage.
Tim Nrw Potiez HAT. —For the reason that
nothing could be uglier than the hat so long worn by the
Metropolitan Police, we rejoice in the substitution of the
new helmet for that heavy head-covering, which was the
most unserviceable article man has knows. The new hat,
although preferable to the old one, is by no means a sue-
!o es, whether as regards serviceableness or beauty ; which
last will assuredly follow the perfect adaptation of
the article to its function. It seems to us too
high io the body, so that the condensee of the wearer
is put out of proportion with the black mass above it.
. This is strongly apparent in the front view, where
the upright sides are seen to be ugly, and not in
accordance with the contour chosen by nature when she
moulded the face of man, and set out the entitle curves of
his cranium above the visage. For this roans we recom-
mend Six R. Mayne, who is probably not meddled with in
so slightly showy a matter as the clothing of humyrmi-
dons, either to study for himself the contours of the
human skull, or to consult some intelligent artist who has
already done so, so that he may benefit by added know-
ledge in time for the next supply of hats to the police. '
The countenancesof the " foroe" would assuredly wear a less '
lugubrious expression than they do if the serviceable brims of
their new " Islets"— such is the proper name of the hat now '
adopted—were made to droop lees than ie sow the can with '
them ; the depressed corners of the mouth of a melancholy
constable are iatensitied in expression by the echo of its
form which is produced by his hat's too much sloping rim.
At the same time that this change may be adopted, we
recommend that a Dearer approach than is at pretest made
by the rims in question to a horizontal lfoe should be se-
cured.
These alterations would certainly, as respect"
denetural advantages, afford increased protection to the
wearer rigaiost blows, and, by diminishing the quantity of
material employed, reduce the weight of the garment. We .
should not advise the reduction of the height of the crest :
as now worn, but rather the reveres. —Atlienreum.
The Bishop of Winchester has consented to at- I
teed at the Hartley Institution, Sonthaingeon, on the 30th '
inst., to distribute the prier to the easeasefal candidates as
the Oxford local examinations.