86 LITEEATUBE AKD THE EIIs'E AETS. 



Dryden and Pope. The poem by which Lis name is principally known to (lie 

 public will always remain among the classical pieces of English literature, \ 

 some of his smaller poems will never cease to hang in the memory of men while 

 the English language is understood. It must have been by an extraordinary com- 

 bination of position, of intellectual and social qualities, of prudence and of wisdom, 

 that the same man who was the friendly rival of Byron, Wordsworth, and Scott, 

 talked finance with Iluskisson and Peel upon equal terms, exchanged bon wot* 

 wfth Talleyrand, and wa3 the friend of all the eminent men and of many of the indi- 

 gent and miserable who flourished and suffered during three parts of a centuiy." 



COC.NT VALERIAN KRASINSKI. 



The Edinburgh papers announce the death of this venerable and distinguished 

 foreigner, which took place on the 2'2d December, lie has resided in Edinburgh 

 for the lait eight years, and was familiarly known to its liter, i , where hia 



singularly comprehensive stores of historic knowledge, his extraordinary memory, 

 and his pleasing and courteous manners, ever made him a welcome gue-t. He 

 belonged to one of the noblest of Polish families, was a native of the ancient 

 Polish province of White Russia, and took a leading part in the Revolution of 

 1830. On the termination of the struggle, the Count came in 1831, among the crowd 

 of exiles who sought refuge in Britain, and the last work which occni as the 



preparation of a final appeal to the British nation on the subject of Poland. Ili3 

 advocacy of Polish restoration, however, was not revolutionary, but conservative. 

 His first literary production during his exile was a translation of Borolowski's 

 " Court of Sigismund Augustus," an historical romance. Xext appeared his "His- 

 tory of the Polish Reformation,"— a work which at once established Count KY 

 eki's reputation as one of the most eminent historical writers of the day, and « 

 having subsequently been translated into German and French, acquired for him 

 pean renown, and won for him flattering notices from the most distinguished 

 men of letters in all countries, as well as from crowned heads, among whom was the 

 late King of Prussia, who bestowed upon him the gold medal for literary merit. In 

 13-47 he delivered in Edinburgh a course of lectures on "Panslavism and German- 

 ism," ire shortly afterwards published. His " Religious History of the 

 Slavonic Nations" appeared in 1S53. Early last year he commenced the publica- 

 tion, in parts, of a "History of Poland," the materials f . 



preparation. Besides the works now mentioned, Count Krasinski contributed 

 occasionally to some leading periodicals. Though often subjected to great priva- 

 tions, he ever resolutely rejected the most brilliant offers made to him by Russia, 

 and even declined the more flattering and honorable overtures made to him by the 

 Xing of Pi a life of honest, though not pail endence ill 



a free country to the golden chains of the destroyer of his native land, or even the 

 service of a monarch whose country Las borne an jry of 



that destruc 



SIR GEORGE I:A 1.1.1X0 ALE. 



The death of Sir George Ballingall, M. D„ Profes-or of Military Surgery in tlie 

 University of Edinburgh, took place ou the 4th of Decembc bia country 



, Altamount, near Blairgowrie, lie bad filled the chair of Military Sur- 

 gery in the University for thirty-two years, his appointment dating from 1828. He 



College of Surge' a Fellow of the ;■' 



Society; aa Honorary Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ire! 



