378 GASKELL, ELIZABETH C. 



South, and Northern men now residing there, have 

 expressed their utmast fear lest the War Department 

 should withdraw its agencies, asserting that the state 

 of society is such, that they could not remain in the 

 South with safety. Quite a number have urged me, 

 with all their might, to do what I could to prevent 

 such withdrawal. This fear is doubtless much exag- 

 gerated, and probably based on the unusually large 

 criminal list, yet it does exist. Every possible ma- 

 terial interest now favors such immigration. 



General Howard urged in his report the ne- 

 cessity of some further legislation to provide 

 effectually for the aged, infirm, and helpless 

 negroes, to furnish school buildings and sites 

 for the benefit of the children of freedmen and 

 poor whites, and to guarantee to the freedmen 

 the right to rent and purchase real estate. His 

 estimates of the amount necessary for the ex- 

 penditure of the Bureau for the fiscal year com- 

 mencing January 1, 1866, were $11,745,050. 



On the 28th of December, 1865, General 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



Howard communicated to the Secretary of the 

 American Freedmen's Aid Commission, at Wash- 

 ington, the following table showing the number 

 of Freedmen then receiving supplies from the 

 Bureau, and the probable number who would 

 need them through the winter: 



G 



GASKELL, Mrs. ELIZABETH CLEGHORNE, an' 

 English author and novelist, born in 1823, died 

 at Alton, England, November 12, 1865. Her 

 maiden name was Stevenson, and she was the 

 wife of a Unitarian clergyman, who was for 

 several years a resident of Manchester. Her 

 first novel, " Mary Barton," published in 1848, 

 at once attracted attention by its vigorous 

 sketches of character and its graphic illustra- 

 tions of English factory life. Indeed, so faithfully 

 were these portrayed that the manufacturers 

 manifested some degree of hostility toward both 

 the work and its author, and thus greatly in- 

 creased its circulation. This was followed by 

 "Moorland Cottage" (1850), "Ruth" (1853), a 

 tale of considerable power, and, like most of 

 her works, founded on her observation of the 

 habits and privations of the poor; and sub- 

 sequently by "Cranford," "Lizzie Leigh," 

 "Round the Sofa," and "Sylvia's Lovers." 

 Mrs. Gaskell, however, is better known in Amer- 

 ica by her "Life of Charlotte BronteY' pre- 

 pared for the " London Daily News," and re- 

 published by the Appletons. The great inter- 

 est taken here in the author of " Jane Eyre," 

 insured for the biography a wide circulation, 

 and the fascinating style in which it was writ- 

 ten added to its popularity ; but her too frank 

 disclosures of certain domestic details exposed 

 her to not a little censure among the family 

 friends, and to some personal inconvenience. 

 Mrs. Gaskell's novels are distinguished by their 

 singularly quiet and natural tone, their forcible 

 delineations of character, and the purity and 

 felicity of their style. Her last work, just com- 

 pleted, is entitled "Wives and Daughters, " and 

 is now republished in this country ; and the 

 latest work of her pen was a little story for the 

 Christinas number of " All the Year Round," 

 which forms one of "Doctor Marigold's Pre- 

 scriptions." 



Mrs. Gaskell had just begun to reap the full 

 reward of her literary labor, and was preparing 

 to give her husband a pleasant surprise by 

 taking him to a lovely home which she had 

 purchased, when her death took place. While 

 reading to her daughters in the family circle, 

 she suddenly expired. 



GASTEIN, CONVENTION OF. The village of 

 Gastein is a watering-place in Austria, in the 

 Inn village, situate about forty-nine miles from 

 Salzburg, and three thousand feet above the 

 sea. At this place a convention was con- 

 cluded between Austria and Prussia on Au- 

 gust 14, 1865, for the regulation of the ad- 

 ministration of the duchies Schleswig and Hoi- 

 stein. In virtue of this agreement Austria as- 

 sumed the administration of Holstein, and Prus- 

 sia the administration of Schleswig. England 

 and France announced, in diplomatic notes, 

 their dissatisfaction with the arrangement. (See 

 AUSTRIA and SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND 

 DISCOVERIES IN 1865. In no department 

 of Physical Science is there so great and so con- 

 stantly increasing zeal manifested as in Geo- 

 graphical discovery. Governments prompted 

 by the desire of increasing their commerce or of 

 territorial acquisition, corporations which seek 

 in hitherto unknown lands markets or sources 

 of wealth, Geographical Societies which desire 

 to add to the knowledge already attained of the 

 earth's surface, and individuals with whom the 

 love of adventure and discovery is a passion, or 

 who are prompted by the higher motives of 

 philanthropy and religion, all endeavor to pro- 

 mote the progress of discovery and exploration 

 in every quarter of the globe. Some idea of 1 1 1 o 

 extraordinary activity with which geographical 

 investigation is prosecuted, may be acquired 

 from the fact that in the year 1865 no less than 

 sixteen hundred and fifty distinct publications 



