We regret deeply to notice the death of Mr. Bayard
Taylor, the American Minister at Berlin, who died suddenly, on Thurs- day, of dropsy. Mr. Taylor was originally, like his friend Horace Greeley, a compositor, and rose gradually on the Press till he became recognised as one of the best, perhaps the beat, of descrip- tive special correspondents. His power of comprehending the circumstances around him was extraordinary, and many collec- tions of his letters to the Tribune are now accepted as valuable accounts of travel. The best, perhaps, are "The Byways of Europe" and "Northern Travel," but his account of India is also singularly accurate and fair. Two of his novels, "Hannah Thurston" and "The Story of Kennett," deserve more attention than they received. The former contains an episode, the story told by the Quaker mother in the beginning of the second volume, which indicates that Mr. Taylor had a rare power of pathos ; while the latter is the best description we know of New England life, and of an element in it, the influence of the Quakers, which is now passing away. Mr. Bayard Taylor had a comprehension of that sect, and a deep sympathy with its ways of thinking, unusual in literature, and very unusual among special correspondents.
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