Star.
London, England, 1830-01-11 00:00:00

LITERARY DIPAOMATISTS.

Although it does not seem to have been particularly
noticed by die Court Circular, we understandthat his Ex-
cellency Don MANURE DK GOROSTIZA had a private in-
terview and presented his credentials to the Noble Earl at
the head of the Foreign Department on Wednesday last.
It was our intention, bad we known this circumstance at
the time, to have taken that opportunity of congratulating
the Mexican Government on its choice of a Minister so
calculated to promote the best interests of his country
here, while his talents and thorough acquaintance with
the capabilities and resources of Mexico, cannot fail to
become the means of facilitating and promoting that
friendly intercourse and close alliance between the two
countries, which it is the interest of both to cultivate.
We have already remarked on the coincidence, so ho-
nourable to the governments of Columbia and Mexico, that
they should have placed two literary men of eminence
to represent and watch over their interests in England,
while President JACKSON, with an impartiality and dis-
crimination so honourable to him, named Washington
lay IN t; Secretary of on here. These selections
form a striking contrast with the practice, both in our
own country and France, where the nomination of lite-
lary men to situations of eminence and trust, continues to
he avoided with such marked and scrupulous tenacity that
there is at this present moment, scarcely one solitary ex-
ception to the general rule of apparently perpetual exclu-
sion. The works of the North American Secretary are
familiar to all classes of readers, and have gained for their
author imperishable fame in Europe; those of the Colum-
bian Minister, Don FERNANDIE MADRID, though less
known, have placed him in the first rank among the
national poets of his country. We have before
us an edition of his Poesias, very elegantly printed
in London, and including his tragedy of A tala, which
the author has treated with a pathos and tenderness
worthy of the subject. A more elaborate dramatic pro-
duction of Senor MADRID, and one on which a wider
field was open for the talents and patriotism of a South
American writer, has made its appearance at Paris. It
is also a tragedy, and entitled Geatimocin, the butt of
the Mexican Emperors sacrificed by FERDINAX.D
Coavas, the sanguinary conqueror of the Incas. We
shall take another opportunity of calling the attention
of our readers both to the dramas and minor poems of
Sollol* MADRID. .

With regard to the distinguished Envoy of Mexico, be
may be truly ranked among the most popular of the living
dramatists of Spain ; with the additional merit of having
greatly improved the style and manner of the Spanish
drama. Though only four of his Comedies have ap-
peared in the Brussels Edition, they are quite sufficient,
both on the score of originality, wit, and lively dialogue,
to establish the fame of the Author. A brief notice
of El Teatro Escogido, has been given in the last num-
ber of the Foreign Quarterly Review, in which the most
popular of the Author. Comedies, Indugencia Para
Todos, is shortly analysed. We lament that the Editor,
who is so conversant with Spanish Literature, and whose
November number is so rich in the extent and variety of
its other articles, should have passed so hastily over the
works of Senor GOROSTIZA. We trust he will return
to the subject and treat it at greater length. In-
dependently of his claim as a dramatist, the Mexican
Minister ranks very high as a political writer, and is
not less deeply versed in the concerns of his own country,
than he is thoroughly acquainted with the arcane of
European diplomacy.

We cannot close these remarks more appropriately,
than by adding the following interesting memoir, which
appeared in a recent number of the Court Journal :

" &Mr MANUEL EDUARDO GOROSTIZA, the ISM r•-
presentative of the Mexican States, belongs to one of the
most illustrious families of Biscay. His father was a
General of the highest reputation in the Spanish army,
honoured with difficult and confidential commands, and
was at length nominated Governor of Vera Crus, and
Inspector-General of all the branches of the military ser-
vice. His mother, Dena ROSARIO CRPZDA, of the il-
lustrious family of Santa Teresa de Jesus, may be cited as
one among many examples that the fair sex may success-
fully devote themselves to the more abstruse studies. At
seventeen years of age she not only knew Greek and La-
tin perfectly, but she presented herself publicly to defend
a thesis in Latin, and obtained by the usual steps every
degree in law and divinity, including that of Doctor; an
honour which few other persons have attained, and in
consideration of which the city of Cadiz, her native place,
granted her the honorary title of Regidora.
" The present Mexican Minister was born atVera Cruz,
during the government of his father in that province. At
his death the family returned to Spain, where the subject
of this memoir finished his education under the careful
superintendence of his mother. From the earliest age he
manifested brilliant talents, the most assiduous applica-
tion, and a poetical genius which attracted the attention
of all who knew him. In a short time, and while still
very young, he composed different works, which were
favourably received by the public ; and soon after he had
attained his majority, he wrote various plays in prose and
verse, which have placed him among the best dramatic
authors of Spain. He may indeed be considered as the
chief and founder of a new school, which combines in itself
the invention, interest, and metrical flow of CALDERON,
with the precision and regularity of MOR•TIN. Having
joined the Constitutional party in Spain, he emigrated in
1823, and on arriving in England, he ffered his services
to the country of his birth. The Mexican Government
accepted them immediately, and named him their Consul
General in Holland, giving him afterwards the rank of
elsavgi d'Affaires; and in consideration of the services
which he bad rendered the skill with which be had con
ducted the negotiations of the Republic, and the high
reputation which he had acquired at the different German
Courts to which he was accredited, they have now ap-
pointed him Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of
London."

An interesting work, in three volumes, has just hoes
published by Mr. MURILIIT, entitled " BliaTnill Visit
to her Uncle in England." These little volumes con-
sist of extracts from the journal of a young Lady—Miss
MONTAGUEI6O having posed her childhood at Rio
Janeiro, was seat, at the close of that period, on a visit
to her English friends. Basil's's letters contain her
observations on men and manners, climate and oduc-
tions, which possess a smartness and juvenility that ars
quite sefreshing.
Lord ALBLIIT CONTNGHAM has been wounded is s
duel with the Baron de MOITIZA, the French Chargd
d'Affaires at Berlin. Some general reflections had been
• the character of the British nntiest
-4 young nobleman It
met, argued with thought
swerds, ai
Atria: was wholly unacquaint-
onset his Lordship was wounded in
ids interfered, and the affair tenni-
favourable impreesioa upon the
houeurable conduct of our noble

cut by the Baron on the
which the high spirited
'aunt. The combatants
•upon with which lord
id, and in thp first once
the hued. The seconds
sated, leaving the most
public mind of the hoc
countryman,