4-812 T? 22 1 A A = =^= '— Al i.i. i = 1 — < I i _— 2 j tizsi - ■ r ' ' J = n 6 1 - i — 7 = JU 7 = _ j> 3 i ^^^ > ^ 9 I =■■■■■■= o ; — 1 1 — < **^ :#~3 nm \:^ ■sflFfc-"-""**. "^ : ' I «£ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES 27 c t" Jfeaitcts faSmrk .-flm*. READINGS RAILWAYS. ■V, LETGH HUNT. I LONDON : 0. GILPIN, 5, BISIIOFSGATL STREET. READINGS FOE RAILWAYS; on, gncctfoteS an* ctljcr JHjort dtorie*, REFLECTIONS, MAXIMS, CHARACTERISTICS, PASSAGES OF WIT, HUMOUR, AND POETRY; ETC. TOGETHER WITH POINTS OF INFORMATION ON MATTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST. COLLECTED IN THE COURSE Or HIS OWN READING. BY LEIGH HUNT. LONDON : C. GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE STREET, WITHOUT. PR CONTENTS. Page One of the most golden of Maxims 1 Railway Speed ib. Railway Safety 2 Transmission of Money by Railway 5 Effects of Railway Velocity on Sound 6 Preservatives against Fire... 9 Ditto, in Relation to Ships 10 Spontaneous Gases 12 Composition of Guttapercha 13 Gutta Percha Speaking- tubes 15 A Compliment Off-hand 17 House-painting ib. The Cutting Property of Coke 19 The Conservatory at Chats- worth 20 Making Love Drearily... 21 Craft in Love 22 Sleepand Death ib. Black Rain in Ireland 23 Spirit of Science 24 Spenser's Fairy Queen 25 The Tables turned upon Scandal ib. Humanity and Knowledge 26 Benefit of Volcanoes ib. Metals in the Human Blood 28 Transmission of Sound and Electricity 29 Subaqueous Electric Tele- graph 30 The Central Electric Tele- graph Office 32 Good Manners 35 Patent Electric Light 36 The " Murder out " respect- . ing Green Tea 39 Page Air and Water of Towns ... 40 Self Knowledge and the Knowledge of Others 44 A Rival to Chloroform ib. Slanderers ib. Fortune 45 Cheerful Aspirations ib. Drinkers 46 Death of an Elephant ib. The Sea-serpent 48 Wisdom 49 The Gutta Percha Tree ib. Royal Play-going 52 The Dead Sea 53 The Koh-i-noor Diamond ... 55 Subterranean Fire 56 Giving and Receiving 57 Bequests in Good Time 58 False Greatness ib. Recourse to Heaven 59 Gold in California ib. Gold Mines of Wicklow 63 Localities of the Gold in ge- neral 65 Remarkable Solar Spot 66 Origin of Meteoric Stones ... 67 Soame Jenyns 68 Country Lasses, and Town Ladies 70 A Rascal of Respectability ib. Bodily Rhetoric 71 Solitaries 72 Happy Metamorphosis of an Inquisition 76 Love and Cruelty ib. Self-importance 77 Worldly Marriages 78 Too much Profession 79 Monks versus Ships ib. Napoleon at Sea ib. Love 81 J 8 CONTENTS. Page A pretended Answer to a Letter that never was written 81 Love, again 82 Students in Painting 83 Strange Anecdote of a Duke ot Portland 84 Magnificence of the Mind ... 85 The Little Republic of San Marino ib. Armenian Jollity 88 Pleasant Anecdote of Pitt ib. A Self-appointed Keeper of the Wardrobe 89 Lovely St. Dominic 90 Gambling permitied at Aix- la-Cliapelle 91 A Happy Disposition ib. The Tables turned on For- tune ib. Modesty and the Rose 92 Observance of the Sabbath ib. Early Literature of Iceland 93 Claude Lorraine 94 Suicide 95 A Great Soul not easily Shaken 96 Mrs. Ilatcliffe and .Mr. Burke ib. Dr. Pocock. the Traveller ... 98 Vegetable Sensation ib. Mothers and Daughters in Normandy 100 Vegetable Reasoning 101 A Feeling Actress ib. Suicide, again 102 Wish of the German Poet, Gessner 103 Page A Pleasant Blunder in Ire- land 104 Premature Compliment 105 Anecdote of Foote and Dr. Johnson 106 Palm Sunday, and its Origin ib. Liberty All-important 107 Nations sometimes more Cri- minal than Individuals ... 108 The Two Kings 109 Hastings in Retirement Ill Animal Reasoning 112 Etienne Henri Mehul 113 Scotland in England 114 Happy Loo-Choo 115 Elegant Pastime 116 AGentle Tartar Speculation 117 In what Sense the King never dies ib. Female Mortality in Essex 119 A Family of Recluses at Windsor in 1740 120 Mother Carey's Chickens... 122 Consummate Honour 123 Loss Preferable to Injustice ib. Poisonous Plants 124 Captain Barnard, a Man su- perior to Unkindness 125 God to be studied in Nature 128 Ancient Anticipations of Modern Astronomy 129 The Determiner of the True System of our Universe ... 131 Hope 134 Industry of Nature 135 Night ib. PREFACE. It seems not a little extraordinary, that among the books which are recommended by their publishers to railway perusal, or which have been expressly designed for that purpose by their authors, there does not appear to be a single volume of the present description. They are, all of them (as far as I am aware), either reprints of novels, and other works of general literature, which might as well be read any where else; or scientific, statistical, or topogra- phical accounts of railways themselves ; which, however interesting to the subscriber, the mechanician, or the lover of the country (and they are often extremely so), go to the other extreme of the novels, etc., and tend to keep IV PREFACE. the mind too exclusively fixed upon the rail- way itself; so that the noise of it may be said to be always ringing in the ear. It has struck me, therefore, that a volume consisting of briefer passages on all subjects, not excluding the railway, but principally fur- nishing interest and amusement to any mood of mind, grave or gay, in which the traveller might happen to find himself, would be no unwelcome addition to the stock of the jour- neying public. They are of great variety as the title-page will have shown ; some of them so brief, as to be readable in a minute ; none of them demanding any tiresome length of attention ; and not one, I will venture to say, without some kind of worth; for it was that, and that only, which induced me to mark them for extract. Most of them, indeed, were marked solely for my own pleasure, in the course of a habit of that kind, in which I PREFACE. V have ever indulged ; and I thus offer to nobody a book which has not given entertainment and instruction to myself. May it help to give as much zest to their pleasant moments, and solace to their anxious ones, as it has done to those of the compiler serving to shorten the very speed of the rail- way itself, and to set them all down in good humour at their respective abodes. Should the volume meet with success, he proposes to give them another for the year, or the half year, ensuing, and so on at the like successive periods, if life and health per- mit him. Leigh Hunt. Kensington, Bee. 1st, 1849. READINGS FOR RAILWAYS. ONE OF THE MOST GOLDEN OE MAXIMS. It is the duty of every man who would be true to himself, to obtain if possible, a disposition to be pleased. — Steele. RAILWAY SPEED. The most extraordinary journey that has yet been made by the express trains upon the Great West- ern Eailway, was performed on Saturday, August 26th, 1848, with the " Courier " locomotive, from Didcot to Paddington, with the 12 o'clock express train from Exeter, consisting of six carriages, weigh- ing sixty tons. The " Courier " is one of the eight- wheeled class of engines, with eight feet driving wheels, eighteen inches cylinders, and twenty-four feet stroke : and the only difference between her B 2 READINGS FOE RAILWAYS. and the others of the class is, that her tubes are three inches shorter, and her fire-box larger, by, we believe, six square feet. The engine was driven by Mr. Heppell, who had charge of the celebrated ''Ixion," seven-feet driving wheel locomotive, during the gauge experiments. The fifty-three miles were performed — that is, from a state of rest, to the time the engine entered the station at Paddington — in forty -nine minutes, thirteen seconds ; or at an aver- age speed, including the lost time in getting up speed, when departing from Didcot, as well as the time lost in reducing speed when arriving at Pad- dington, of sixty-seven miles per hour. The forty- seventh mile post was passed at 3-46 -40§, and the fourth mile-stone at 4-23-241, so that forty-three miles were performed in thirty six minutes and forty seconds, or an average speed of upwards of seventy miles per hour. RAILWAY SAFETY. Mr. J. C. Eoberts, of Holywell, Flintshire, has invented a mode of enabling guards or passengers in a train to sound an alarm on the engineer's whistle, and call his attention to any danger which may threaten the train, or any portions of it. The means employed is electro-magnetism — a wire passing through all the carriages, with a spring to each compai-tment, enabling the passenger, by a KA.ILWAY SPEED. pressure of the finger, to bring the positive or ne- gative poles or ends of the wire together, and this acts on the steam whistle. The objection at first urged, that passengers might use it unnecessarily, or from mischievous motives, is met by a contriv- ance which would at once point out the compart- ment of a carriage in which the alarm had been sounded, and contra distinguish it from an alarm sounded by the guard ; because, in the case of a passenger sounding it, a bolt at that point holds the spring in the position in which it had been forced in giving an alarm, and it can only be released by means of keys to be in the possession of the guards. The passenger, therefore, could only give one sound on the whistle ; whilst a guard would be able to give a succession, according to some preconcerted plan, by which the engineer would know from whom the signals proceeded, and what he was to do. The inventor suggests that the engineer, upon an alarm being sounded, if not able to discover danger, should not necessarily stop the train, but wait till the guard had gone to the carnage from which the sig- nal proceeded, and ascertained whether there was good ground for the alarm. In cases where the alarm was given wantonly or mischievously, a fine of £5, or some serious sum, might be levied under the company's bye-laws. It is suggested that such a mode of communication would be very desirable in cases where a single carriage in the midst of a train gets off the rails unknown to the engineer; it might then prevent further mischief. 4 RAILWAY SPEED. To test the effect of the electro -magnetic process in sounding the whistle, an engine of Fairbairn's construction was got into working order with the steam up, and a steam whistle was screwed on to the left side of the front of the boiler, over the steam-gauge, to which was attached, in an iso- lated position an electro magnet. The magnet is formed of coils of copper wire, surrounding a bar of soft iron. A small battery, connected with it was placed in the tender, and a wire from the bat- tery, and another from the magnet were carried out to a distance of fifteen or twenty yards. The mere bringing of these two ends of the wire in contact, completing the electric circuit, draws down an armature or horizontal bar towards the poles of the magnet (which is placed under it), and this depressing the short end of the lever, its other end sets in motion a valve, allowing steam to pass from the boiler of the locomotive into the apparatus of which the steam whistle forms a part ; whilst the alarm is given instantly, and continued until the contract is broken. So efficient was the appa- ratus in power, that whilst the weight of only a power and a half is sufficient to depress the lever setting the machinery in motion, the magnetic power was equal to two cwt. The practicability of sounding the steam-whistle by this process was, therefore, placed beyond a doubt. The ends of the wire were brought into contact with one of the solid rails on which the engine stood, and with the wheels, with the same instantaneous effect on the TEANSMISSION OP MONEY BY EAILWAY. O whistle. To equip a train "with this apparatus it is proposed to have pieces of wire along the sides, through or underneath each of the carriages of the companies using them, with spring clips, and jointed staples at the end ; so that when the carriages are joined together, forming a train, these ends could be linked together in a moment, and the metallic contact necessary would be formed in the time the words could be pronounced. The ends might pro- ject beyond the carriages, so as to allow of the variable separation between the carriages, which sometimes takes place; or the wire might in such places be twisted into a kind of spiral spring, capa- ble of being lengthened at pleasure. TEANSMISSION OP MONEY EY EAILWAY. Me. Chubb has invented an iron box for the trans- mission of money, bullion, etc., on railways. A wrought iron box, lined throughout with hard steel plates, is locked down at the terminus to a strong iron plate in the guard's carriage ; the key of this lock, and also the key by which access can alone be obtained to the interior, is kept at the principal terminus by the officer who has charge of the cash. Each station master is provided with a key, which opens a small lid at the top ; when he has money to send, he unlocks the lid, places his bag of money or parcel in an open drum underneath, moves a B 2 6 HEADINGS FOR RAILWAYS. handle which turns the drum, and the cash is dropped inside. Before he is ahle to take out his key, he must move the drum back, and see that the money is gone. It will be observed that he cannot leave the lid unlocked. When the box arrives at the terminus, it is unlocked from the frame, taken into the office, and placed on a similar frame there. The cash-keeper only can with his key get access to the money. EFFECTS OF RAILWAY TELOCITY OK SOUND. Mr. Scott Eussell, in a paper read to the British Association, observed that, until the existence of the very high velocities now given to railway trains, no opportunities have existed of observing any phe- nomena in which the velocity of the observer has been sufficient to affect the character of sound. The author, having had occasion to make observa- tions on railway trains moving at high velocities, has been led to notice some very curious effects on sounds heard at fifty and sixty miles an hour. These effects are not heard by a person who is sta- tionary. He found that the sound of a whistle on an engine, stationary on the line, was heard by a passenger in a rapid train to give a different note, in a different key, from that in which it was heard by a person standing beside it. The same was true of all sounds : the passenger in rapid motion heard EFFECTS OE RAILWAY VELOCITY ON SOUND. 7 thein in a different key, which might be either louder or lower in pitch than the true or stationary sound. The explanation of this was given as follows : — the pitch of a musical sound is deter- mined by the number of vibrations which reach the ear in a second of time ; thirty-two vibrations per second, of an organ pipe, give the note C, and a greater or less number give a more acute sound, or one more grave. These vibrations move with a velocity of nearly 1,024 feet per second. If an ob- server in a railway train move at the rate of fifty- six miles an hour towards a sounding body, he will meet a greater number of undulations in a second of time than if at rest, in the proportion which his velocity bears to the velocity of sound ; but, if he move away from the sounding body, he will meet a smaller number, in that proportion. In the former case he will hear the sound a semitone higher, and in the latter a semitone lower, than the observer at rest. In the case of two trains meeting at this velocity, the one containing the sounding body, and the other the observer, the effect is doubled in the amount. Before the trains meet the sound is heard two semitones too high, and after they pass two semitones too low — being a difference of a major third. There were next explained the various effects which the noises of a train produced on the ears of a passenger at high velocities. The re- flected sounds of a train, from surfaces, like those of bridges across the line, were at ordinary velocities 8 HEADINGS FOE EAILWAYS. sent back to the ear changed by less than a semi- tone, so as to cause a harsh discord, which was an element of the unpleasant effect on the ear when passing a bridge. In a tunnel, also, the sounds reflected from any irregularities in the front of the train, or behind it, were discords to the sounds heard directly. He showed, however, that at a speed of 112 miles an hour these sounds might be those of a harmony with each other, and become agreeable, for the sounds reflected in opposite di- rections would have the interval of a major third. Sir David Brewster observed that, in his opinion, the explanation of the curious effect of rapid mo- tion of the observer on sound was to be souerht from physiological causes, and not acoustic ; and pointed out what he considered to be analogous phenomena with respect to light, such as the aug- mentation of light at the boundary of moving shadows, the perfect clearness with which objects could be seen through rapidly moving openings in screens, and the production of colour by screens in motion, under certain circumstances. Sir "W. S. Harris conceived that all the effects were to be explained by the undulatory theory, of sound in the manner in which they were ex- plained by Mr. Scott Russell. 9 PRESERVATIVES AGAINST TIRE. A series of experiments lias been exhibited, on the shingles, at low water, in front of Whitehall- wharf, in Cannon Row, to test the efficiency of the invention of Messrs. Paine to prepare wood in such a manner as to render it capable of withstand- ing the force of fire, and perfectly uninflammable, though exposed to the heat of flames or burning masses of wood or coal. The experiments were as favourable as could be wished. Three cottages or miniature buildings were ignited ; two of them constructed of the wood prepared by the patentees of the invention, the other of unprepared wood. The cottage built of unprepared wood was speedily consumed, whilst those of which the wood had been prepared by the invention, although partially charred by the terrific heat of the fire, never became absolutely on fire, and resisted the utmost effort of the flames. The expense of preparing timber under the patent of Messrs. Paine, is small, and by it many trees hitherto considered as of little importance, may be hardened and made into the most elegant pieces of furniture. The timber prepared against the " dry rot " is impregnated or imbued with sulphate of iron decomposed by muriatic acid. That which is prepared against fire is prepared with sulphate of iron, and with alum decomposed by muriate of lime ; and that 10 HEADINGS FOR RAILWAYS. which is prepared against worms is composed of sulphuret of barium, decomposed by sulphate of iron. This invention is very important in many respects. It renders all kinds of wood capable of resisting fire ; it hardens them, and produces on them a beautiful surface. PRESERVATIVES AGAINST EIRE IN RELATION TO SHIPS. Dr. Eeid has proposed a plan for extinguishing fires in ships. He writes in the " Daily News :" ''Elaine or combustion cannot go on where there is carbonic acid gas. This is one of the elemen- tary principles of chemistry. It may be shown in various ways : — A lighted taper plunged into a jar of carbonic acid gas, is instantaneously extin- guished ; or, if we take the glass of a common argand burner, and close the upper end of it by a flat plate of glass, or even by a piece of card or pasteboard, firmly, so completely as to prevent any current of air through the tube, on introducing, for about an inch or so, the flame of a candle at the other extremity (the glass of the argand burner being held upright) it will shortly, usually in the space of little more than a minute, be ex- tinguished, merely by the accumulation of the carbonic acid gas produced by its own combustion. PRESERVATIVES AGAINST TIRE. 11 The production of carbonic acid gas is completely at our command; for on adding dilute sulphuric acid to chalk, we can set at liberty, in the space of two or three minutes, enormous volumes of the so-called fixed air. The cost of material for a ship of 1,000 tons would not exceed, at the utmost, £15 or £20 sterling. By means of tubes proceed- ing from the upper deck, in connexion with a cistern containing the dilute sulphuric acid, to the quarters below, where there is most likelihood of danger from fire, or moveable hose (made of gutta percha), which can be introduced to any part of the vessel, — the oil of vitriol, previously diluted with water, can be at once poured over the chalk (which is to be thrown down in the place "where the fire rages), and immediately the car- bonic acid being set at liberty, the fire is extin- guished ; for combustion cannot go on in an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas. I have been much occupied in experimenting on this subject, and I find that from five tons of chalk as much carbonic acid gas can be obtained, as will be suffi- cient to completely fill a vessel of 1,000 tons burden. The expence of laying the tubes will not exceed £30 or £40; and, once laid, there is no further trouble or expense." 12 SPONTANEOUS GASES. An immense volume of natural gas, sufficient for the supply of a city, it is said, has just been disco- vered near Detroit, Michigan, while boring a 4-inch shaft of water. At a depth of 70 feet a vein or cavity was struck, from which issued a violent cur- rent of air, throwing up stones as large as hens' eggs, 10 or 15 feet high, accompanied by a volume of water, rising 10 or 12 feet. On applying a light to the air it burnt furiously, the flames rising 20 feet. It is proposed, says the New York Sun, to conduct this gas in pipes to Detroit, and light that city with it. The fact has frequently been noticed, that we have enormous jets of natural gas for ever burning — almost altogether uselessly too — in our own country. There is one between Newcastle and Shields, which, at night, forms one of the most singular and sublime sights we ever witnessed. " Spontaneous gas has been emitted from old col- liery workings, midway between Newcastle-upon- Tyne and North Shields, for the last twenty years, to the extent of thousands of gallons every twenty- four hours. The gas is brought up from an old shaft, by a tube of from three to four inches dia- meter, and has burnt night and day without inter- ruption for the period mentioned. The flame illuminates the whole neighbourhood, and the stormiest weather appears to have no influence to Composition or gutta perciia. 13 extinguish it. Some years -ago, some gentlemen had obtained a grant of the gas, with a view to rendering it applicable for lighting, and had a gas- ometer made to direct and distribute it. The gas was conveyed to the Wall's End station, and used there for some time ; but it was not considered sufficiently pure, as it came from the workings of the mines, for domestic use, and some of the par- ties dying, the scheme was not persisted in. There is no doubt that this spontaneous gas, by proper management in its purifications, might be rendered useful to a large population, and would be remu- nerative to a company employing capital to intro- duce it ; and, as it is found midway between New- castle and Shields, and near to the railway, the distance between these towns (eight miles) is no insuperable barrier to its conveyance to them both." COMPOSITION OF GUTTA PJSECHA. Me. F. "Whishaw, in a lengthy paper read to the British Association, has stated, " Contrary to the general opinion that gutta percha is a simple hydrogenous substance, Mr. Crane, (chemist to the Gutta Percha Company,) found it in its ordinary state to consist of at least two distinct materials, besides a notable proportion of sulphur, viz., 1. A white matter, gutta percha in its pure state. c 14 HEADINGS FOR BAILWATS. 2. A substance of a dark brown colour. Various experiments were made to ascertain its strength when mixed with other matter, and also as to what pigments would mix with it without rendering it brittle or deteriorating its qualities. From these it appeared that the only pigments that could altogether be relied on to be used with gutta perclia were orange lead, rose pink, red lead, ver- milion, dutch pink, yellow ochre, and orange chrome. Under the influence of heat and pres- sure, gutta percha would spread to a certain ex- tent, and more so if mixed with foreign matters. All the mixtures composed of gutta percha and other substances which had been subjected to experiment, except that containing plumbago, were found to increase its power of conducting heat; but in its pure state gutta percha was an excellent non-conductor of electricity. The best composition for increasing the pliability of gutta percha was that formed in conjunction with caoutchouc tar, and next in order that of its own tar, and the best material at present known for moulding and em- bodying was obtained by mixing gutta percha with its own tar and lamp black. The trade in this article seems to be advancing every day, and to be engrossing the attention of the natives of the Indian Archipelago, to the exclu- sion of other pursuits. The quantity imported into Singapore in the first four months of this year, according to the official reports, was upwards of GUTTA PEECHA SPEAKING TUBES. 15 700 piails, equal to 820 cwts., which is, however, short of the actual supply. The price had riseu from 12 to 20 dollars. A variety of information respecting the applica- cation of this new substance in the arts will be found in the Tear-book of Facts, 1816, p. 73. Tear-book, 1847, p. 105; and Tear-book, 1848, pp. 20 & 232. The facts herein stated comprise the introduction of gutta percha into use in Eng- land ; the natural economy of the substance, and its various applications, many of them secured by patent. GUTTA PEECHA SPEAKING TUBES. Me. F. "Whishaw has exhibited to the British Association the Telakouphanon, or speaking-trum- pet ; and, in doing so, said that speaking-tubes of gutta percha were quite new, as was also the means of calling attention by them of the person at a distance, which was accomplished by the in- sertion of a whistle which, being blown, sounded at the other end quite shrilly. Attention having been thus obtained, you remove the whistle, and, by simply whispering, the voice would be conveyed quite audibly for a distance of at least three-quarters of a mile, and a conversation kept. It would be obvious how useful these telegraphs must become 16 READINGS FOB, BAILWAYS. in large manufactories, and, indeed, private houses ; they might quite supersede the use of bells, as they were so very cheap, and by branch pipes could be conveyed to different rooms. And, indeed, if there' were no electric telegraphs, they might, by a person being stationed at the end of each tube of three- quarters of a mile, be made most speedily to convey intelligence for any distance. In private houses the whistle need not be used, but a more musical sound could be produced. He then amused the auditors by causing the end of a tube, which was of the length of 1000 feet, to be inserted into the mouth-piece of a flute held in a person's hand, regulated the notes, and, placing his own mouth to the other end of the tube, " God save the Queen" was played at a distance of 100 feet from the person giving the flute breath. Turning to the Bishop of St. David's, he said that, in the event of a clergyman having three livings, he might, by the aid of three of these tubes, preach the same sermon in three different churches at the same time. Mr. Whishaw also exhibited the gutta percha submarine rope or tele- graph, which consisted of a tube perforated with a series of small tubes, for the conveyance of tele- graphic wire, and which, for the purpose of pre- venting its being acted upon by sea- water or marine insects, was banded or braided round by a small rope ; and its being perfectly air-tight would render it quite impervious to the atmosphere. 17 A COMPLIMENT OFF-HAND. One day, saya Menage, I held with both of mine one of the hands of Madame de Sevigne. When she withdrew it, Pelletier said to me, " That is the finest work which has ever gone out of your hands." HOUSE-PAINTING. M. Leclaibe, house-painter of Edinburgh, calls attention to a substitution which he daily makes of the white of zinc, and colours with a zinc base, for white lead, and colours with a base of copper and lead, in the arts and for ordinary purposes. In his practice, M. Leclaire employs the white of zinc, which appears to possess all the qualities of white lead, without any of its inconveniences. Thus, if we must give credit to his statements (and the results are of sufficient standing to render it easy to verify them), zinc-white is much whiter than white lead ; ground and used with oil, it re- flects the light, instead of absorbing it ; it furnishes finer and more transparent tones ; it covers better, and, with equal weights, a larger space ; it remains unchanged by sulphurous fumes, which immedi- ately blacken objects painted with lead ; finally, the manufacture and use of zinc-white has no injurious c 2 18 READINGS Poll EAILWATS. effect upon the health. But all this is not suffi- cient for the complete solution of the problem. In fact, although zinc-white was known in science, it has never been collected hitherto but as a produce of the laboratory. It was necessary to obtain it in quantities, and at an accessible price. Then, once obtained, and mixed with oil, it was necessary, in order to apply it readily to painting, that it should be made to dry easily. Now, the only drying substances we knew had a leaden base, and thus communicated all the effects of lead to the zinc -white, they deprived it of the advantages of being unalterable. It is necessary, therefore, to render the process complete, and its application common, to substitute colours which undergo no change for all these alterable colours. " After many years of research," says M. Leclaire, " I have succeeded in producing, if I may use such an ex- pression, the commencement of a reformation in painting, by completing the scale of unalterable colours, by the substitution of inoffensive and un- alterable colours for all such as had lead or copper for their base. So that I can now affirm, 1st. that the health of a great number of men may be saved, without any detriment to the profession; 2nd. that the interior and exterior of houses may be painted, without the least risk of the colours changing or blackening by sulphurous emanations ; 3rd. that pictures will be no longer liable to change their appearance and harmony with the lapse of THE CUTTING PROPERTY OF COKE. 19 time, as has happened with so many pictures of the old masters." M.Leclaire constantly employs about two hundred workmen in Paris. Prom the time that he substi- tuted zinc-white for white lead, not only has he never had a case of lead-colic, but he affirms that no indisposition has at any time appeared amongst his workmen which can be attributed to their profession. The work has been entrusted to the examination of a commission. THE CUTTING PROPERTY OF COKE. The following interesting fact was discovered some years ago, and it appears to furnish additional evidence as to the identity of the diamond with carbon, namely, that coke is possessed of one of the most remarkable properties of the diamond, in so far that it has the property of cutting glass. The word " cutting" is used in contradistinction to the property of scratching, which is possessed by all bodies that are harder than glass. The cut pro- duced by coke is a perfect clean diamond-like cut, so clean and perfect as to exhibit the most beauti- ful prismatic colour, owing to the perfection of the incision. Coke, hitherto, has been considered as a soft substance, doubtless from the ease with which a mass of it can be crushed and pulverised ; but it 20 HEADINGS FOE RAILWAYS. will be found that the minute plate- formed crystals, of which a mass of coke is composed, are intensely hard, and, as before said, are possessed of the re- markable property of cutting glass. The discovery of the extreme "diamond-like" hardness of the particles of coke will, no doubt, prove of value in many processes in the arts, as well as interesting in a purely scientific sense. This fact was noted at the late meeting of the British Association, by Mr. Nasmyth : in a con- versation which ensued, it was stated by Mr. Chance of Birmingham, that in all probability the knowledge of this fact would lead to a saving of nearly £400 a year in his establishment. THE CONSERVATORY AT CHATSWORTH. This immense structure is composed of glass panes, manufactured especially for it, placed in iron frame-work, of the lightest apparent kind, but, as subsequent trials have proved, of the most firm and substantial description. The length of the erection is nearly 300 feet, its height above 70, and its width 150. It covers nearly an acre of ground, through the centre of which is the carriage road, and the tubes of the hot water which regulate the required temperature measure six miles. A lightjbut beautiful gallery, erected at the base of the dome, and which transverses the entire building, MAKING LOYE DREARILY. 21 enables the spectator to review the whole of the interior from various points. The access to the gallery is by steps, placed with admirable taste in the midst of rock-work, in the fissures of which are plants, apparently natural productions. A tunnel surrounds the whole edifice, by which access is obtained to the stoves and pipes ; and rails are laid down to convey the coals per trains, and supply the necessary heat. The interior contains a vast num- ber of trees and plants, many of them of gigantic proportions, and the rarest of tropical growth. Birds of varied and exquisite beauty, whose deli- cate structure coidd not endure the rigours of our climate, are seen flying about ; and pools of water, in which plants suited to the required purpose have been encouraged to grow, contain gold, silver, and other fish. In this structure may be seen the largest crystal yet found in the world ; and also one, but of much smaller dimensions, which has been pronounced the most beautiful. MAKING LOVE DREARILY. "Who first looked sad, grieved, pined, and showed his pain, "Was he that first taught women to disdain. 22 CBAFT IN LOVE. He That sows in craft does reap iu jealousy. Middleton. SLEEP AND DEATH. Being burthened with the sorrows of the day, "We wish for night, which being come, we lay Our body down : yet, when our very breath Is irksome to us, we're afraid of death. Our sleep is oft accompanied with frights, Distracting dreams, and dangers of the nights ; "When in the sheets of death, our body's sure From all such evils, and we sleep secure : "What matter down or earth ? what boots it whether ? Alas ! our body 's sensible of neither : Things that are senseless feel nor pains nor ease ; Tell me, and why not worms as well as fleas ? In sleep, we know not whether our closed eyes Shall ever wake ; from death we're sure to rise. Ay, but 'tis long first. Oh ! is that our fears ? Dare we trust God for nights, and not for years ? Quarles. 23 BLACK RAIN IN IRELAND. Extract from a report of the proceedings of the Eoyal Dublin Society, in a late number of the Dublin Freeman's Journal. — " Professor Barker presented to the notice of the Society a bottle containing a portion of black rain, which had been transmitted to him from Carlow, with a view to satisfy the scruples of many persons who appeared to doubt that rain of this description had fallen. He had received communications on the subject from persons residing in several of the districts in which the rain had descended, and he was in a position to state, not only that such rain had actu- ally fallen, but to mention the space of country over which it had been diffused. The specimen which he presented to the society had been sent to him from Carlow, accompanied by a letter, in which the writer mentioned that at the time of its collection it was uniformly black, and resembled ordinary writing ink ; but he (Dr. Barker) found that, after allowing it to stand for a short period, the black colouring matter separated from the water with which it had been mixed, rendering the colour of the rain much lighter than at first. The places in which this phenomenon occurred were Abbeyleix, Carlow, Kilkenny, and Athy, from which it would appear that the black shower had extended over an area of more than four hundred 2J< HEADINGS FOR RAILWAYS. square miles. As far as he had been able to ascer- tain, it occurred about 6 o'clock in the evening of the 15th inst., being preceded by such extreme darkness that it was impossible to read, except by candle-light. After this darkness had existed for some time, a hail-storm, attended with vivid light- ning, but without thunder, occurred, and when this subsided the black rain fell. It was mentioned by his Carlow correspondent that, upon examining a quantity of this rain just after it had fallen, he found it had an extremely foetid smell, and a very disagreeable taste ; that it had left a stain upon some clothes on which it had fallen, and that cattle refused to drink it. At Abbeyleix and Athy, where the shower descended at the same moment, the appearance of the rain was precisely similar to that which fell in Carlow, but it was unaccom- panied by the lightning which had been observed at the latter place. Dr. Barker then stated that as yet he had not been enabled to make a complete chemical analysis of the rain." SPIRIT OF SCIENCE. An ignorant woman, who wished to be thought learned, went to hear a lecture on chemistry, in which the words hydrogen and oxygen frequently occurred. " Pray, sir," said she to the gentleman next her, " what is the difference between oxy-gin THE TABLES TURNED UPON SCANDAL. 25 and hydro-gin?" " Oxy-gin, madam," replied he, "is pure gin, and hydro-gin is gin and water." SPENSER S EAIRY QUEEN. The nohility of the Spensers has been illustrated and enriched by the trophies of Marlborough ; but I exhort them to consider the Fairy Queen as the most precious jewel in their coronet. — Gibbon. THE TABLES TURNED UPON SCANDAL. It should, methinks, be a rule to suspect every one who insinuates anything against the reputation of another of the vice with which they charge their neighbour ; for it is very unlikely it should flow from the love of virtue. The resentment of the virtuous towards those who are fallen is that of pity, and that is best exerted in silence on the occasion. "What, then, can be said to the nume- rous tales that pass to and fro, to the disparage- ment of those who have patience, and never doubt of hearing in a little time, for a truth, the same guilt of auy woman which I find she reports of another. 26 HUMANITY AND KNOWLEDGE. When you have seen more of life, and studied more men, you will find, or at least I think you will find, that the judgment is not false which makes us lenient to the feelings — yea, even to the crimes of our fellows. In youth, we act on the impulse of feeling, and we feel without pausing to judge. An action, vicious in itself, or that is so merely in our estimation, fills us with horror, and we turn from its agent without waiting to listen to the plea which his ignorance could make to our mercy. In our ripened years, supposing our judgment to have ripened also, when all the insi- dious temptations that misguided him, and all the disadvantages that he has laboured under, perhaps from his birth, are apparent to us, — it is then, and not till then, that our indignation at the crime is lost in our pity for the man. BENEEIT OE VOLCANOES. Potass, soda, certain earthly phosphates, lime, and magnesia, (says Dr. Daubeny, in his work on Volcanoes), must be present wherever a healthy vegetation proceeds. Now some of these bodies are naturally insoluble in water, whilst others are BENEFIT OF VOLCANOES. 27 dissolved with such readiness that any conceivable supply of them, in their isolated condition, would be speedily carried off", and find its way into the ocean. The first, therefore, must be rendered more soluble, the latter less so, than they are by themselves. Now the manner in which nature has availed herself of the instrumentality of vol- canoes to effect both these opposite purposes, is equally beautiful and simple. She has, in the first place, brought to the sur- face, in the form of lava and trachyte, vast masses of matter containing the alkalies, lime, and mag- nesia, in what I have termed a dormant condition, that is, so united by the force of cohesion and of chemical affinity, as not to be readily disengaged and carried off by water " Now nature has provided, in the carbonic acid which is so copiously evolved from volcanoes, and which consequently impregnates the springs in those very countries, more particularly where volcanic products are found, an agent capable, as completely as muriatic acid, though more slowly, of acting upon the descriptions of rock, of separat- ing the alkali and alkaline earths, and of present- ing them to the vessels of plants in a condition in which they can be assimilated. "Thus every volcanic as well as every granatic rock contains a storehouse of alkali for the future exigencies of the vegetable world, whilst the former is also charged with those principles which are 28 READINGS FOR RAILWAYS. often wanting in granite, but which are no less essential to many plants — I mean lime and mag- nesia. " Had the alkalies been present in the ground in beds or isolated masses, they would have been speedily washed away, and the vegetables that require them would by this time have been re- stricted to the immediate vicinity of the ocean." METALS IN THE HUMAN BLOOD. M. Millon states human blood to be known always to contain silicia, manganese, lead, and copper : and this determination being effected, it became a curious subject of inquiry, whether the copper and the lead are dissemiuated throughout the whole mass of the blood, or if, as happens with the iron, they are confined to the red particles. Experience has left no doubt on this subject. One kilogramme of the clot, carefully separated from the serum of many bleedings, yielded 0083 grains of lead and copper; one kilogramme of serum separated from the preceding clot, yielded only - 003 grains of these two metals. These three milligrammes of lead and copper, contained in the serum, ought undoubtedly to be attributed to the red globules dissolved or suspended in the lymph. METALS IN THE HUMAN BODY. 29 It appears then that the copper and the lead are not diffused throughout the blood, but are fixed with the iron in the globules ; and everything leads to the conclusion that they contribute, as it does, to organization and to life. Do they exert a decided influence on the health ? Does chlorosis exist on account of deficiency of copper, lead, and manganese ? or is their excess the secret cause of any obscure and disordered affection ? Therapeu- tics ought to answer these questions, and enlighten us in its turn. Legal medicine, on its part, will perhaps draw up useful hints as to the permanent presence of these metallic poisons, and with respect to their enormous variations, even in the midst of life. TRANSMISSION OE SOUND AND ELECTRICITY. During- a lecture lately delivered by Dr. Faraday, at the Royal Institution, two remarkable experi- ments were exhibited, with a view to shew peculi- arities in the transmission of electricity. A long strip of wood was suspended from the ceiling of the lecture-room, touching a wooden box at one end. A tuning fork was struck and applied to the other extremity of the connected strip of wood, then presently a loud musical note issued from the box, though the sound of the fork at the other end was inaudible. The next experiment was still more curious. A rod connected with a pianoforte, in a d 2 30 READINGS FOE RAILWAYS. room beneath, came through the floor of the lec- ture-room, and on the top of the rod Dr. Faraday- applied a guitar to act as a sounding board. When the piano was played, the sound seemed to issue from the guitar as loudly as if the instrument were in the room, but the instant the connexion was broken between the rod and the guitar, no note could be heard. Another analogy between vibra- tions producing sounds and electricity is the sensation resembling that of an electric shock, communicated on touching a vibrating bar of metal, or a vibrating string. The school trick, of fixing a wet string or piece of tape round the waist, and then pulling it through the fingers, was practised by Dr. Faraday on his assistant, for the purpose of shewing how readily the sensation of an electric shock may be imitated by vibrations. SUBAQUEOUS ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. The practicability of transmitting signals by elec- tric telegraph, under water, has been experimentally proved by the Electric Telegraph Company in Man- chester. The wire used on the occasion was copper, which, after having been wrapped in cotton, and passed through shellac, had been then covered with India-rubber, cemented by naphtha. Wire of a similar description had been used with success in the summit tunnel on the Lancashire and York- SUBAQUEOUS ELECTRIC TELEGEA.PH. 31 shire Railway, through which the signals were with great difficulty transmitted by the ordinary wire. In the experiment made at Manchester, one end of the coated wire was connected with the wires at the Hunt's Bank station, which communicated with the Telegraph Company Office at the Exchange Arcade, and the wire was then allowed to hang from the railway bridge over the Irwell, into the river, where it remained in a large coil of about half a mile in length, under water, while the other end of it was carried, still under water, some hun- dred yards higher up, and on the Salford side of the river, where it was connected with an instru- ment ; and signals were transmitted from the one place to the other with the utmost ease. The de- flection of the needle was only five degrees (a deflection which was easily accounted for upon the supposition that the coating of the signal had been cut through in some places by the wire which was thrown over it to sustain the weight necessary to retain the signal wire in its place, in consequence of the unusual strong current which was running, caused by the heavy rains of the night previously,) the ordinary deflection being two or three degrees, which in the rainy weather (such as the day on which the experiment was made), it would proba- bly amount to as much as fifteen degrees between Liverpool and Manchester. The coated wire re- mained in the water during the night, and next day the experiments were repeated with the same success." 32 THE CENTRAL ELECTRIC TELECRAPH OEFICE. The Electric Telegraph Company have completed their central office in Lothbury, the mechanical and electrical arrangements in connexion with which are very interesting. The office is a large and lofty hall, with galleries running round, supported by pillars. Under the galleries, at each end of the hall, are two long counters, over which are the names of the various places to which messages can be sent. Behind the counter are stationed clerks, whose business it is to receive the message, enter it in a form which will be presently described, and pass it to another set of clerks, who transmit it by machinery to the galleries above. Adjoining these, are a series of rooms containing the electro-magnetic telegraphs of Messrs. Wheatstone and Cooke. They are placed on desks; and before them are seated the clerks, whose province it is to work the apparatus. Each apartment is provided with an electric clock, showing true London railway time, which, as our readers know, is observed throughout the apartments. The wires are brought into the underground portion of the building by means of nine tubes, — each tube containing nine wires. They are subdi- vided as follows :— twenty-seven come from the North Western Railway, nine from the Eastern Counties, nine from the South Eastern, nine from CENTEAL ELECIEIC TELEGEAPH OEriCE. 33 the South "Western, nine from the Strand Branch Office and "Windsor, nine from the Admiralty, and nine are spare, to meet casualties. The Admiralty have now an uninterrupted communication between their offices in "Whitehall, and the dockyards at Portsmouth, for which accommodation they pay £1,200 a year to the Company. On a level with the rooms in which the wires are received, are several long and narrow chambers, devoted to the batteries. Of these there are 108, each battery consisting of twenty-four plates. Sand, moistened by sulphuric acid and water, is used as the exciting medium. The batteries thus charged are found to remain above a month in good working order. They are so numbered and arranged in reference to the wires, that any defect can be immediately rectified. Each railway has a division to itself, and thus all risk of confusion is avoided. At the date of this notice (January, 1848) the Company had laid down 2,500 miles of wire, and had upwards of 1000 men in their employ. There are fifty- seven clerks employed in transmitting and receiving messages, independently of those occupied in printing communications for the newspapers. This is carried on in a large room connected with the gallery. It is carried on with wonderful celer- ity, 1000 letters beiug printed each minute at sta- tions two hundred, or more, miles apart. The pro- cess has been thus briefly described : —a slip of paper, about a quarter of an inch broad, is punched 34 HEADINGS FOE RAILWAYS. into holes — these holes being the letters. Two cylinders, one, for example, in London, the other at Manchester, are connected in the usual manner by electricity. Supposing it may be desired by a party in London to print a paper at Man- chester, a slip of paper is placed over the cylinder in London, and pressed upon it by means of a spring which plays in the middle. Thus, when those por- tions of the paper which present no holes appear, the contact is broken ; where the holes are pre- sented, contact is made ; and, accordingly, the cur- rent of electricity will be conveyed or broken to the cylinder at Manchester, precisely in the same ratio as it is received from the cylinder in London. Over the cylinder in Manchester is wound a sheet of paper, dipped in a solution of prussiate of potash and sulphuric acid, which enables it to receive, and record by dark green lines, the strokes of electricity given out by making and breaking contact with the cylinder at London. There are various inge- nious mechanical arrangements connected with the process, which is the invention of Mr. Bain. A more detailed description of the office will be found in the Athenaeum, No. 1056, whence the above has been selected. Mr. Holmes, the head of the establishment, states that he has reduced the expenditure of the battery power by the telegraph, to one-tenth of the amount required before ; so that now, instead of working on the long circuit (a distance of about GOOD MANNERS. 35 250 miles) with an equivalent of about 240 pairs of plates, 24 pairs do duty with much more effec- tive result ; the reduced intensity not suffering so much by the defect of bad insulation. The most important point, however, is the economy of power when it is applied to the numerous stations throughout the kingdom, and the increased facility of working through a much larger amount of cir- cuit resistance. The addition consists in the substi- tution of a single small steel lozenge three-quarters of an inch long for the two 5-inch astatic magnetic needles, and placed between two small coils of peculiar shape. This form has the advantage, be- sides those already mentioned, of giving a signal free from that constant vibration of the needle against which so much has been said : the pen- dulous action of gravity being very limited, from, its better adapted form. GOOD MANNERS. Is the art of making those people easy, with whom Ave converse. Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy, is the best bred in the company. — Swift. 3G PATENT ELECTRIC LIGIIT. TnE light is produced by a galvanic battery of moderate size, embracing in its construction and elements several improvements, so as to render the battery constant, continuous, and regular in its action, and economical in cost. By means of solid copper wires, the electric fluid is conveyed to the lamp, which may be placed on a table or suspended from the ceiling. In this lamp are two cylinders of carbon, which are used as electrodes, that is to say, the current of electricity is passed from one to the other as they stand end to end, their ends being separated by an interval of from less than one-twentietb to about half an inch, according to the power of the electric current used ; and these cylinders are moved by a clock-work arrangement, in proportion as they are consumed, at a speed which is regulated by the current. To render the light continuous, it is necessary that these two pieces of carbon should first be brought into actual contact, that the current may pass, and then be separated to a short distance apart. This is accom- plished by means of the current itself, without manual aid. As the carbon gradually wears away (about half an inch an hour), the same regulated distance between the two electrodes is ensured by like means. The apparatus (if it may be so called) to effect this self-regulation is an electro -magnetic PATENT ELECTRIC LIGHT. 37 instrument, placed immediately under the plate of the lamp, and through which the current of elec- tricity is made to pass. The principle of this in- strument is extremely ingenious, and in some de- gree resembles a galvanometer: the galvanic current passing through a coil of wire, magnetises a bar of soft iron which is passed through the coil ; and, in proportion as the current is strong or feeble, the magnetised bar rises or falls. When the current is in excess, it actuates an escapement, and the two electrodes are drawn to the required distance apart; and when the current passing is less than the regulated quantity, the motion is reserved, and the electrodes are drawn closer together. By these means, not only is the light rendered steady and constant, but only so much of the generated fluid is allowed to pass as is developed in light — effecting an economy of the battery power never before ap- proached. The light equalled between 800 and 900 wax candles. The prismatic rays were subsequently shown by Mr. Slaite, and were as vivid and bright as those from a sunbeam, and perfectly identical in colour, showing the light to be, in purity, equal to that of the sun. Exhibitions of this electric light were subse- quently given in Trafalgar Square ; and great in- terest has been excited by the alleged probability of the invention superseding gas lighting. Its completeness has been much disputed by prac- E 38 HEADINGS FOK BAILWATS. tical men ; more especially, the trouble and expense attending the working of the battery, in which nitric acid being employed, it is maintained that changes are continually occurring at both poles. The reader will find the invention minutely de- scribed and illustrated, from the Patentee's specifi- cation, in the Mechanics' Magazine, No. 1275. In Paris, an exhibition of another electric light has been given in the Theatre du Palais Eoyal, with great success. "We believe it was about 1820 that Bunsen first caught tbe idea of attaching cones of carbon to the poles of the conductors from the battery, and inclosed in an exhausted glass globe ; and this produces a light so vivid, that the eye cannot bear it for an instant. The experiment was repeated in Paris, some time since, on a large scale, at the Place de la Concorde, and far surpassed any previous conceptions. The flame was wonderfully intense ; and as the reflector was turned to different portions of the surrounding scenery, each object arose to sight with a light equal to day, and with a suddenness from the darkness that appeared magi- cal. The illumination of the theatre in the Palais Eoyal is thus described: — The electric light, with continuous spark, obtained by the new battery of M. M. Lemolt and Archerean, was used by the manager to illumine the house. The intensity of the spark eclipsed the lights of the lustre, and those on the stage. By the aid of an ingenious piece of mechanism connecting him with the wires THE " MURDER OUT" RESPECTING TEA. 39 from the battery, M. Lemenil, an actor, placed in front of the stage, emitted from himself a spark of such brilliancy, that the theatre was as light as during bright sunshine. The importance of the peculiar arrangement of this battery is, that the spark obtains a continuity of brightness before unknown. The spark itself, although smaller than the flame of a common gas-burner, is said to be equal to three hundred burners ; it consequently surpasses all the hydro-carbon lights, and it throws its rays to a distance three times as great. On December 5th and 7th, this electric light was publicly exhibited in London, with success. Not to laugh when nature prompts, is but a knavish hypocritical way of making a mask of one's face. — Pope. THE " MURDER OUT " RESPECTING GREEN TEA. In the proceedings of the London Chemical Society, there is an interesting paper by Mr. War- rington, on the Analysis of Tea, in which he states that he has not only removed the whole of the colouring matter, or glazing, from green tea, but been able to analyze the matter removed, and 40 HEADINGS FOB RAILWAYS. prove it, by chemical evidence, to consist of Prus- sian blue and gypsum principally. So that, in fact, the drinkers of green tea, as it comes to the English market, indulge in a beverage of Chinese paint, and might imitate the mixture by dissolving Prussian blue and plaster-of- Paris in hot water. The Chinese do not drink this painted tea ; they only sell it. A lawyer in the district of Colombia having wearied the court by a very long and dull argu- ment, his colleague respectfully suggested to him the expediency of bringing it to a close. The lawyer angrily replied, " I will speak as long as I please, sir." "You have spoken longer than you please, already," retorted his companion. — Massachusetts Journal. AIR AND WATER OE TOWNS. A report on this inquiry has been read to the British Association by Dr. Smith. In commencing his statement the author says, it has long been believed that the air and the water have the most important influence on our own health, and super- stitions have therefore constantly attached them- selves to the receptacles of the one and emanations AIE AND AVATER OF TOWNS. 41 of the other. The town has always been found to differ from the country. This general feeling is a more decisive experiment than any that can be made in a laboratory. The author proceeds to examine all the sources from which the air or the water can be contaminated : the various manufac- tures of large towns, the necessary conditions to which the inhabitants are subjected, and the de- teriorating influences of man himself, are explained. If air be passed through water, a certain amount of the organic matter poured off from the lungs is to be detected in it. By continuing this experi- ment for three months, Dr. Smith detected sulphuric acid, chlorine, and a substance resembling impure albumen. These substances are constantly being condensed upon cold bodies, and, in a warm atmo- sphere, the albuminous matter soon putrifies, and emits disagreeable odours. The changes which this substance undergoes by oxidation, etc., are next examined, and shown to give rise to carbonic acid, ammonia, sulphuretted hydrogen, and probably other gases. The ammonia, generated fortunately from the same sources as the sulphuretted hydrogen, materially modifies its influences. The conse- quences of the varying pressure of the atmosphere have been observed ; and it is shown that the ex- halations of sewers, etc., are poured out in abund- ance from every outlet when the barometric pressure is lowered. By collecting the moisture of a crowded room, by means of cold glasses, and also dew in the E 2 42 HEADINGS FOR RAILWAYS. open air, it is found that one was thick, oily, and smelling of perspiration, capable of decompo- sition and production of animalcules and confervse, but the dew beautifully clear and limpid. Large quantities of rain-water have frequently been col- lected and examined by Dr. Smith ; and he says, " I am now satisfied that dust really comes down with the purest rain, and that it is simply coal ashes. No doubt this accounts for the quantity of sulphites and chlorides in the rain, and for the soot, which are the chief ingredients. The rain is often alkaline, arising, probably, from the ammonia of the burnt coal, which is no doubt a valuable agent for neutralizing the sulphuric acid so often found. The rain-water of Manchester is about 2i degrees of hardness, harder, in fact, than the water from the neighbouring hills, which the town intends to use. This can only arise from the ingredients obtained in the town atmosphere. But the most curious point is the fact that organic matter is never absent, although the rain be continued for whole days. The state of the air is closely con- nected with that of the water ; what the air contains the water may absorb, — what the water has dissolved or absorbed it may give out to the air. The enormous quantity of impure matter filtering from all parts of a large town, into its many natural and artificial outlets, does at first view present us with a terrible picture of our underground sources of water. But, when we AIR AND WATER OF TOWNS. 43 examine the soil of a town, we do not find the state of matters to present that exaggerated character which we might suppose. The sand at the Chelsea "Water- works contains only 1*43 per cent, of organic matter, after being used for weeks. In 1827, Liebig found nitrates in twelve wells in Giessen, hut none in wells two or three hundred yards from the town. Dr. Smith has examined thirty wells in Manchester, and he found nitrates in them all. Many contained a surprising quantity, and were very nauseous. The examination of various wells in the metropolis showed the constant formation of nitric acid, and in many wells an enormous quantity was detected. It was discovered that all organic matter, in filtrating through the soil, was very rapidly oxidized. The presence of the nitrates in the London water prevents the formation of any vegetable matter : no vegetation can be detected, even by a microscope, after a long period. The Thames water has been examined from near its source to the metropolis, and an increasing amount of impurity detected. In the summary of this report, Dr. Smith states that the pollution of air in crowded rooms is really owing to organic matter, and not merely carbonic acid ; that all the water of great towns contains organic matter ; that water purifies itself from organic matter in various ways, but particularly by converting it into nitrates ; that water can never stand long with advantage, unless on a large scale, and should be used when collected, or as soon as filtered. 44 SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF OTHERS. ""What I have known with respect to myself," says Dr. Priestley, " has tended much to lessen both my admiration and my contempt of others." A RIVAL TO CHLOROFORM. A new agent for producing insensibility to pain has lately, it is asserted, been discovered in Norway, and tried with much success in Christiniana. The Morgenblad states that it consists of sulphurate of carbon, which may be obtained in abundance from charcoal, with very little trouble and a small cost. It is employed in the same way as chloroform, the place of which it will probably soon take. The discovery has been made by M. Herald Phanlow, an apothecary in Christiniana. slanderers. Thet talk, as they are wont, not as I merit : Traduce by custom, as most dogs do bark ; Do nothing out of judgment, but disease; Speak ill, because they never could speak well : And who'd be angry with these race of creatures ? "What wise physician have we ever seen, CHEERFUL ASPIRATIONS. 45 Mov'd with a frantic man ? The same effects That he doth bear to his sick patient, Should a right mind carry to such as these : And I do count it a most rare revenge That I can thus with such a sweet neglect, Pluck from them all the pleasure of their malice, For that's the mark of all their ingenuous drifts. Ben Jonson. FORTUNE REDUCED TO HER TRUE RANK. Fortune's an under power, that is herself Commanded by desert. 'Tis a mere vainness Of our credulity to give her more Than her due attribute ; which is but servant To an heroic spirit. Nail. CHEERFUL ASPIRATIONS. Be your highness, Like those steep hills that will admit no clouds, No dews, nor least fumes bound about their brows, Because their tops pierce into purer air, Expert of humour ; or like air itself That quickly chaugeth, and receives the sun Soon as he riseth ; ev'rywhere dispersing His royal splendour ; girds it in his beams, And makes itself the body of the light. 46 HEADINGS TOR RAILWAYS. Hot, shining, swift, light, and aspiring things Are of immortal and celestial nature ; Cold, dark, dull, heavy, of infernal fortunes, And never aim at any happiness : Tour excellency knows, that simple loyalty, Faith, love, sincerity, are hut words, nothings ; Merely devis'd from form. Chapman. DRINKERS. He that holds more wine than others can I rather count a hogshead than a man. Randolph. DEATH OE A LARGE ELEPHANT AT LIVERPOOL. The fine elephant, Rajah, so many years the boast of the Liverpool Zoological Gardens, has been shot, in consequence of having killed his keeper. It was at first thought advisable to destroy the elephant by poison ; and for this purpose two ounces of prussic acid, with twenty-five grains of aconite (monks- hood), were mixed with treacle, and administered in a bun. This the animal devoured. In about five minutes he betrayed slight symptoms of unea- siness and sickness, sank on his knees, lay down on his side, and made a spasmodic movement of the legs, as if dying. It was then thought that the DEATH OF A LAEGE ELEPHANT AT LIVEEPOOL. 47 poison was taking the desired efiect ; but in a few minutes he recovered himself, rose, and walked about his stable, and appeared in his ordinary healthy state. In about three-quarters of an hour, as the poison had not taken effect, the elephant was shot by rifle-ball. This elephant had been in the possession of Mr. Atkins between eleven and twelve years ; it cost him SOOL, and at the time of its death, being im- proved in size and appearance, was estimated worth 1,000Z. The animal was thirty-five years old, and the following are its principal dimensions : — Height, 10 feet ; girth of body, 18 feet ; length along the back-bone, 12 feet ; round thickest part of the head, 12 feet ; round the top of trunk, 3 feet 6 inches ; length of the trunk, 8 feet ; round of the tusk, 1 foot; round the fore-shoulder, 1 foot 6 inches ; round small part of the fore-leg, 3 feet ; round the foot, 4 feet ; length of tusks, 4 feet ; length of the ear, 2 feet 3 inches ; breadth of the ear, 1 foot 9 inches ; weight, nearly 4 tons. In many cases it is very hard to fix the bounds of good and evil, because these part, as day and night, which are separated by twilight. — Whichcote. 48 THE SEA-SEEPENT SUPPOSED TO BE ANTI- DILTJVIAN. " "Who shall say," asks the "Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Beview, " that a tribe of ani- mals is extinct ? Does not the crocodile occur in the wealdon, cheek-by-jowl with the plesiosaurus ? and do not crocodiles still exist ? Is not the elephant both fossil and recent ? is not the hyena fossil and recent ? do not insects, scarcely distin- guishable from our own, exist in the secondary series ? We have seen the impressions of the wings of dragon-flies, that would defy the scrutiny of an entomologist to distinguish them from those of recent genera. Hence we infer, that although certain species, now found in a fossil state, may perhaps no longer exist in a recent state, yet there is no law of nature, no analogical reasoning, which should forbid the existence of their congeners. Although we may not, perhaps, have the identical species of plesiosaurus discovered by Miss Anning, and described by Mr. Conybeare, yet there is nothing to forbid the existence of a cognate species. So that it is perfectly consistent with the pro- foundest discoveries of the geologist to imagine the enaliosaurians existing in their pristine glory. All that geology would require is, that the Nor- wegian species should not be identical with those of the lias or the wealdon. Seeing, then, that THE GUTTA PERCHA TREE. 49 unquestionable evidence brings before us an animal not known in our methods ; seeing that this animal presents many points of similarity to the enaliosauri which still exist ; we trust that it will neither be considered impossible nor improbable that, in certain unknown forms of the enaliosauri, a key to the mystery of the sea-serpent will even- tually be found." WISDOM SHUT OUT BY SELF-SUEEICIENCT. It is one of the hardest things in nature to make any man as wise as he should be, who imagines himself wise enough already. — Quevedo. THE GUTTA PERCHA TREE. The gutta percha tree is of a large size, from 60 to 70 feet in height, and from 2 to 3 feet in dia- meter. Its general appearance resembles the genus Durio, or well-known Doorian, so much so as to strike the most superficial observer. The under surface of the leaf, however, is of a more reddish and decided brown than the Durio, and the shape is somewhat different. Only a short time ago the tuban tree was toler- ably abundant on the island of Singapore ; but 50 READINGS FOE RAILWAYS. already all the large timber has been felled, and few, if any, other than small plants are now to be found. The range of its growth, however, appears to be considerable; it being found all up the Malayan peninsula, as far as Pinany, where it ia ascertained to be abundant ; although, as yet, the inhabitants do not seem to be aware of the fact ; several of the mercantile houses there having sent down orders to Singapore for supplies of the article, when they have the means of supply close at hand. The tree is also found in Borneo, and probably in most of the islands adjacent. The localities it particularly likes, are the allu- vial tracts along the foot of hills, where it flou- rishes luxuriantly, forming in many spots, the principal portion of the jungle. But notwith- standing the indigenous character of the tree, its apparent abundance and wide-spread diffusion, the gutta will soon become a very scarce article, if some more provident means be not adopted in its collection than at present in use, by the Malays and Chinese. The mode in which the natives obtain the gutta, is by cutting down the trees of full growth, and ringing the bark at distances of about 12 to 18 inches apart, and placing a cocoa-nut shell, spathe of a palm, or such like receptacle, under the fallen trunk, to receive the milky sap that immediately exudes upon every fresh incision. This sap is collected in bamboos, taken to their houses, and THE GUTTA PEECHA TREE. 51 boiled, in order to drive off the watery particles, and inspirate it to the consistence it finally assumes. Although the process of boiling appears necessary when the gutta is collected in large quantity, if a tree be freshly wounded, a small quantity allowed to exude, and it be collected and moulded in the hand, it will consolidate perfectly in a few minutes, and hare all the appearance of the prepared article. When it is quite pure the colour is of a greyish- white ; but as brought to market it is more ordi- narily found of a reddish hue, arising from chips of bark that fall into the sap in the act of making the incisions, and which yield their colour to it. Be- sides these accidental chips, there is a great deal of intentional adulteration by sawdust and other materials. Fortunately, it is neither difficult to detect or clean the gutta of foreign matter, it being only necessary to boil it in water until well softened, roll out the substance into the thin sheets, and then pick out all impurities, which is easily done, as the gutta does not adhere to any thing, and all foreign matter is merely entangled in its fibres, and not incorporated in its substance. The quantity of gutta obtained from each tree varies from five to twenty catties, so that, taking the average at ten catties, which is a pretty liberal one, it will require the destruction of ten trees to produce one picul. Now, the quantity exported from Singapore to Great Britain and the Continent, 52 HEADINGS FOE BAILWAYS. from 1st January 1845, to June 1847, amounts to 6,918 piculs ; to obtain which 69,180 trees must have been sacrificed. How much better would it therefore be, to adopt the method of tapping the tree practised by the Burmese in obtaining the caoutchouc from the Ficus elastica, (viz., to make oblique incisions in the bark, placing bamboo to receive the sap which runs out freely), than to kill the goose in the manner they are at present doing. True, they would not at first get so much from a single tree, but the ultimate gain would be incal- culable, particularly as the tree seems to be one of slow growth, and by no means so rapid as the Ficus elastica. We should not be surprised, if the de- mand increases, and the present method of exter- mination be persisted in, to find a sudden cessation of the supply. EOTAL PLAT- GOING. A king ought now and then to take pleasure in hearing and reading of comedies, because thereby he may perceive and hear many things done in his realm, which otherwise he would not know. — Wit's Commonwealth. S3 THE DEAD SEA. The following interesting facts are from Captain Lynch's Official Eeport of the American Exploring Expedition to the Dead Sea. " The bottom of the northern part of the Dead Sea is almost flat (a plain). The meridianal lines at a short distance from the shore vary but little in depth ; the greatest depth found up to the date of this letter (May 3rd) was 188 fathoms, or 1,128 English feet. Near the shore, the bottom is generally a saline incrustation, but the intermediate portion of soft mud, with several rectangular crystals — most frequently cubes of pure salt. On one occasion, we obtained only crystals with the lead line. '' In the same proportion that the north part of the Dead Sea is deep, so is the southern part shallow, to the extent that for a quarter of its length the depth was found to be but 18 feet. Its southern bed presented no crystallizations, but its shores are covered with incrustations of salt, and on landing, the footmai'ks in an hour's time were covered with crystallizations. " The shores in face of the peninsula, and its western side, present evident marks of destruction. " Birds and insects are, without doubt, to be found on the shore ; sometimes ducks on the sea, for we saw some, but we could find no living object i2 54 READINGS FOR RAILWAYS. in the sea. However, the salt sources it receives contain fish belonging to the ocean. " I feel cer- tain," says Capt. Lynch, "that the result of our expedition will confirm to the very letter the history of the Holy Land, as regards the sunken cities." After the examination of the Dead Sea, the ex- pedition proceeded to determine the height of the mountains, and the level of a plain, from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean sea. They found the summit of the western coast of the Dead Sea more than 1,000 feet above its sur- face, and level with the Mediterranean. It is a singular fact, that the distance from the top to the bottom of the Dead Sea — that is, the height of its shore, the elevation of the Mediterranean, and the difference of the level between the bottom of these two seas, and the depth of the Dead Sea — should thus be an exact multiple of the elevation of Jeru- salem above it. Another fact not less curious is, that the bottom of the Dead Sea forms two sunken plains, one elevated, the other depressed. The first part, south, is composed of clay or fat mud, covered by an artificial bay; the latter, the upper part and more north, of mud, incrustations, and rectangular salt crystallizations, extending to a great depth, and with a narrow ravine defiling in the midst of it, corresponding with the Jordan at one ex- tremity, and Wady Seib at the other. 55 THE KOH-I-NOOR DIAMOND. In the Delhi Gazette the Koh-i-noor diamond is described to be " the largest and most precious in the world." This is very far from being the case. The Koh-i-noor, or " mountain of light," formed one of the eyes of the jewelled " peacock" of the famous "musnud," or throne, of Aurungzebe, the " Tukht- i-taoos " (peacock throne). Its twin jewel, the " Koh-i-toor," is numbered among the crown jewels of Eussia. The latter weighs 139 carats, and is a facsimile of the other ; and of this I possess an accurate model. It is a rose cut ; and it is pre- sumed they originally constituted together a double rose cut diamond, similarto that of the "Maximilian" diamond, which descends as an heir-loom to the eldest son of the reigning Emperor of Austria. The Deria-i-noor, or " Sea of light" which studs one of the armlets of the Schah ci Persia, is a table diamond, but of extreme purity, and weighs 186 carats. The diamond of the Rajah of Matan, in the island of Borneo, the " Pit," or regent diamond of France, and that which studs the imperial sceptre of Russia, infinitely surpass in value the Koh-i-noor. Runjeet Singh, Rajah of the Punjaub, plundered the Koh-i- noor from the ex-princes Schah Shujahool-Moolk, and Schah Pemaun. At the death of Runjeet Singh, this diamond fell, by " lot of inheritance," to Schah Soojah-ool-Moolk, and, at his death, was 56 READINGS FOR RAILWAYS. bequeathed to the hideous idol of Orissa. The recent wars in Mooltan, and the disturbances in the Punjaub, have induced the British resident at Lahore to secure, as a hostage, the person of the Maherajah (boy king) Dhuleep Singh, and at the same time to seize the Koh-i-noor. The " Naonoh " diamond, plundered during the Mahratta war from a Peshwah, or feudal chieftain, is a kindred exploit. SUBTERRANEAN FIRE. The village of Lower Haugh, near Eotherham, on the estate of Earl Pitzwilliam, has an extensive bed of coal beneath it, which has been burning with greater or less intensity for at least twenty years. The coal in certain places bassets out, that is, it comes up to the surface of the ground ; and it was at one of these bassets that the fire origi- nally commenced, having been ignited by a "clamp" (a fire for burning stones intended for road mate- rials). The subterranean fire has continued to ad- vance in various directions up to the present time, its progress being manifested by the appearance at intervals of smoke and flames at the surface of the ground ; the spread of which has generally been stopped, however, by puddling the eruptions with clay, &c. "We understand that a good many years ago the destruction of the mausoleum of the GIVING AND RECEIVING. 57 "Wentworth family was threatened by the approach of the fire, but happily the calamity was averted by severing the bed of coal. Latterly, the work of destruction appears to have been going on with unwonted rapidity. The ground in several large tracts is one huge hot-bed. The exposed earth is quite warm, even in the depth of winter. The unnatural heat engenders a disagreeable smoke, which is continually ascending and adulterating the atmosphere, doubtless to the detriment of animal health ; and the houses in the worst locali- ties are often fitted with warm air strongly charged with sulphur, rendering them as habitations little better than a coal-pit. The cellars, naturally, are the worst. GIVING AND RECEIVING. Gifts and thanks should have one cheerful face ; So each that's done, and ta'en, becomes a brace : He neither gives, or does, that doth delay A benefit, — or that doth throw't away ; No more than he doth thank, that will receive Nought but in corners, and is loath to leave, Least air, or print, but flies it. Such men would Run from the conscience of it, if they could. Ben Jonson. 58 BEQUESTS IN GOOD TIME. Gkipe, to me all, when he is dead, will give ; Will part with nothing while he is alive : "What thanks is that to gape for dead men's shoes ? To give them only when you cannot chuse ? Give now ; 'tis left then 'gainst your will I know It is twice giv'n, what living we bestow. He leaves a good name, who gives while he lives, And only carries with him what he gives.* Heath. FALSE GKEATNESS. Men merely great In their affected gravity of voice, Sourness of countenance, manners, cruelty, Authority, wealth, and all the spawn of fortune Think they bear all the kingdom's worth before them ; Tet differ not from those colossic statues, Which with heroic forms without o'erspread, Within, are naught but mortar, flint, and lead. Chapman. * That is to say, — he only carries his money out of the world with him, whose "good works follow him." 59 RECOURSE TO HEAVEN. I stand like one has lost His way, and no man near him to inquire it of : Yet there's a providence ahove that knows The road which ill men tread, and can direct Inquiring justice. Passengers that travel In the wide ocean, where no paths are, Look up, and leave their conduct to a star. Sir Robert Hoivard. GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. The discovery of large deposits of gold on the San Francisco, in Upper or West California, is one of the most striking events of the " strange eventful " year 1848. It appears that in the beginning of the last century, gold was found in the back sands of the rivers of Wesc California, and it was said that the country abounded with gold ; but this was soon forgotten. In 1825, a mine was worked near St. Diego ; and in 1810, a small thread of gold was wrought in the province of St. Barbara ; but the refinding of the Gold Washings dates from other circumstances. In 1839, Capt. Suter, a Swiss emigrant, settled in Wett California, and built a 60 HEADINGS FOR RAILWATS. fort named New Helvetia, on the Sacramento. In the spring of 1848, one Mr. Marshall, in widening a mill-cutting upon Capt. Suter's estate, found some gold of coarse scales : this was on the American river, twenty-five miles ahove the Sacramento. He raised from one ounce to three ounces of gold daily ; and another finder, upon the same stream, soon washed out a pound of gold in one day. In the ravines of South Fork, gold is found in the bed of all the small streams. It is very coarse in grain ; in some specimens it holds mechanically small pieces of quartz, showing that it had been separated from the rock, and in other cases moulded in the crevice of the rock. Pieces have been found here as heavy as four or five ounces ; from the weight of these specimens it is expected that the gold cannot have been carried far, and that the mines must be in the neighbourhood of Sierra Vevada. Within three months from the day of the discovery, the whole population of St. Fran- cisco had rushed to the Gold Washing : and up to September the total produce of gold in California was above 100,000Z. The number of gold huntera was then 6,000 ; the lowest earning being an ounce, or Bl. 10s. per day, and some earning even 51. An official survey of the district has been made by Colonel Mason, the officer in command at Mon- terey, and dispatched to the American government, as the country belongs to the United States. GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. 61 Colonel Mason thus describes the lower mines, or Mormon diggings, " The hill sides were thickly strewn with canvas tents and bush arbours ; a store was erected, and several boarding shanties in operation. The day was intensely hot, yet about two hundred men were at work, in the full glare of the sun, washing for gold — some with tin pans, some with close woven Indian baskets, but the greater part had a rude machine, known as a cradle. This is on rockers, six feet or eight feet long, open at the foot, and at the head has a coarse grain or sieve ; the bottom is rounded with small cleets, nailed across. Four men are required to work this ma- chine — one digs the ground on the bank close to the stream, another carries it to the cradle, and empties it on the grate, a third gives a rocking motion to the machine, whilst a fourth dashes on water from the stream itself. The sieve keeps the coarse stones from entering the cradle, the current of water washes off the earthy matter, and the gravel is gradually carried out at the foot of the machine, leaving the gold mixed with a heavy fine black sand above the first cleeks. The sand and gold mixed together are then thrown oil* through augur holes into a pan below, are dried in the sun, and afterwards separated by blowing off the sand. A party of four men thus employed at the lower mines averaged 100 dollars a day. The Indians, and those who have nothing but pans or willow 62 HEADINGS FOR RAILWAYS. baskets, gradually wash out the earth, and separate the gravel by hand, leaving nothing but the gold mixed with the sand, which is separated in the manner above described. The gold in the lower mines is in fine bright scales." After dwelling, at some length, on the position of the mines, Colonel Mason continues : — " Before leaving Sutters, I satisfied myself that gold existed in the bed of the Feather River, in the Tuban and Bean, and in many of the small streams that lie between the latter and the American fork ; also, that it had been found in the Corummes, to the south of the American fork. In each of these streams the gold is found in small scales, whereas, in the intervening mountains it occurs in coarser lumps. Mr. Sinclair, whose rancio is three miles above Sutters, on the north side of the American, employs about fifty Indians on the north fork, not far from its junction with the main stream. He had been engaged about five weeks when I saw him, and, up to that time, his Indians had used simply closely woven willow baskets. His net pro- ceeds (which I saw) were about 16,000 dollars worth of gold. He showed me the proceeds of his last week's work — fourteen pounds avoirdupois of clean- washed gold. The most moderate estimate obtained from men acquainted with the subject, was, that upwards of 4,000 men were working in the gold district, of whom more than one-half were Indians, and that from 30,000 to 50,000 dollars GOLD IN CALIFORNIA. 63 worth of gold, if not more, was daily obtained. The entire gold district, with very few exceptions of grants, made some years ago by tlie Mexican authorities, is on land belonging to the United States." The superabundance of information of this great discovery has been manifested in newspapers, guide-books -to the country, narratives of travels and adventures, etc. Mr. Wyld, and other geogra- phers, have published maps of the district ; and, as an accompaniment to Mr. Wyld's map, he has printed some thirty pages of useful " Geographical and Mineralogical Notes." GOLD MINES OF WICKLOW. About half a century since, gold was first disco- vered in the stream and valley leading from the Croghan mountains, in the clay- slate tract, in the county of Wicklow, in Ireland. This metallife- rous portion extended for upwards of ten miles, and very large quantities of gold were obtained from it, some lumps being worth £80. Government took up the matter, and regular steam works were established, but they were destroyed in the insur- rection of 1798. They were resumed in 1801, with the addition of works for the discovery of aurife- rous veins ; but the search was unsuccessful, and 61 GOLD MINES OF WICKLOW. the whole of the works were abandoned ; yet they were stated to have produced £2,000 of the purest gold every year. Neither the government commissioners, nor the crown lessees made a single experiment or trial to discover the matrix or source of this gold, which continues to be produced. The mode ot washing is ruder than any plan adopted by the Africans in the most uncivilized part of their wash- ing grounds. The celebrated work of Sir It. Murchison, on the Ural mountains, has called the attention of some men to the Wicklow district, in consequence of the extraordinary analogy existing between the two places, particularly as regards the immense lode, or body, of magnetic iron ore that carries itself in such vast strength through the Carysfoot and Croghan mountains, as well as those of Ural. It seems certain that this iron ore is the matrix of the gold. It is found with it, and, as it were, precipitated by it ; so that whatever success may attend the capitalists that invest in the under- taking, it will not be denied that a highly interest- ing question remains to be solved respecting the gold region of Wicklow. In the Ural mountains they commenced, as in "Wicklow, by washings ; and it is now said that the Count DomidofF and the emperor realize £600,000 a-year profit. The Wicklow gold is of the purest quality, worth £3. 18s. Gd. an ounce. 65 LOCALITIES OF THE GOLD IN OENEEAL. The following are the principal localities in the "Wicklow mountains in Ireland, at Leadhills in Scotland, and in some parts of Wales. In Prance, there is a true gold mine, that of Gandette, in the valley of Oysans. It yields native gold in a vein of quartz. It was worked before the revolution by Louis xviii., then Compte de Province. The vein being too poor, the working was abandoned. The auriferous rivers were very numerous. "We may mention the Ariege, the Gondu, the Cere, the Ehone near Geneva, the Ehine near Strasburgh, the Salat, the Garonne near Toulouse, and the Herrault near Montpellier. Piedmont contains gold mines, which are worked at the present day with profit. At Macnynorga, at the foot of Mount Rosa, veins of auriferous sulphuret of iron are worked with great activity. In Germany, Saltz- bourg furnishes gold. Hungary and Transylvania possess very important gold mines. The gold mines of Siberia are also very important. The gold is accompanied by the same minerals as found in the auriferous deposits of the New World. Asia contains many gold mines. Africa possesses numerous and important auriferous deposits. America furnished, in modern times, the largest amount of gold. North America produces little, and only in South Carolina, Southern America, g2 G8 READINGS FOB RAILWAYS. and especially Brazil, Choco, Chili, are the most productive portions. It is also found in Virginia. Mexico, Peru, and Columbia furnish gold, but that of Mexico is principally drawn from the silver mines. REMARKABLE SOLAR SPOT. Mr. W. Pringle, of Edinburgh, has communi- cated to the Philosophical Magazine, No. 214, the details of the perception with the naked eye, of a large obscuration of spot on the sun's disc, appear- ing like a good-sized bean in shape and size, on Tuesday, Janury 25. The observations took place at 2 h. 30 m. p.m., the sun's disc being of a blood- red colour at the time, owing to the intervention of a haze or fog, which enabled the eye steadily to gaze on it. The obscured part, viewed with teles- copic power of 60 to a 120, resolved itself into two large central spots, stretching in a direction appa- rently parallel with the sun's equator, surrounded by a great number of smaller spots, particularly on the north side. This mass of maculae melted into the elliptical appearance seen by the naked eye. Herschel only once saw a similar spot with the naked eye (1779). Probably if the solar orb was more frequently examined during a fog, more of these maculae might have been noticed. Sunset or sunrise would only be favourable times for such ORIGIN OP METEORIC STONES. 67 observations. In a subsequent communication, Mr. Pringle states : the great point of interest and im- portance deducible from the fact established, is the extraordinary enlargement of the solar spot, thus rendering it distinctly and palpably visible to the unprotected eye at the distance of ninety-five mil- lions of miles. More than the usual tremendous agencies must have been in force to have produced so great an obscuration. "Without a micrometrical observation, it is, of course, impossible to approxi- mate to its exact dimensions ; but if the calcula- tion be correct, which assigns about 50,000 miles as the minimum diameter required for a spot to be visible to the unaided eye, Mr. Pringle was strongly inclined, from the space obviously occu- pied by the obscuration on the solar disc, to con- sider it, at a rude guess, to have been in diameter at least one-fiftieth part that of the sun. ORIGIK OF METEORIC STONES. Various theories have been broached with respect to meteoric stones. Some have thought that they are projected from volcanoes on the earth with such force as to convey them through the air at a great distance ; and others are of opinion that they are projected from volcanoes in the moon. With regard to the latter it has been said, that if 68 READINGS TOE RAILWAYS. a body were projected at a rate equal to 6,000 miles in a second, that is, three times faster than. an ordinary cannon ball, it might be thrown be- yond the bounds of the moon's attraction, and brought in two days within the limits of the earth's attraction. There is, however, no evidence in support of the one theory more than the other. But there is no necessity to go either to the moon, or to the volcanoes of the earth, for a feasible theory on this subject. "When it is considered, that in the whole of the metals a large quantity is carried off in various chemical forms, as in vapours, so attenuated as almost to set at defiance the closest experiments, and disseminated through the atmosphere, it certainly requires but little acquaintance with the wonders of chemical science to imagine it possible, that in the upper regions of air some electrical or other influence might bring them within the limits of cohesion, when their specific gravity would at once cause them to fall to the earth. 8UAME JENYNS. A disagreement about a name or a date will mar the best story that was ever put together. Sir Joshua Eeynolds luckily could not hear an inter- rupter of this sort ; Johnson would not hear, or if he heard him, would not heed him ; Soame Jenyns SOAME JENTNS. 69 heard him, heeded him, set him right, and took up his tale, where he had left it, without any diminu- tion of his humour ; adding only a few more twists to his snufF-hox, a few more taps upon the lid of it, with a preparatory grunt or two, the invariable forerunner of the amenity that was at the heels of them. He was the man who bore his part in all societies with the most even temper and undis- turbed hilarity of all the good companions whom I ever knew. He came into your house at the very moment you had put upon your card ; he dressed himself to do your party honour in all the colours of the gay ; his lace, indeed, had long since lost its lustre, but his coat had faithfully retained its cut since the day when gentlemen wore embroidered figured velvets, with short sleeves, boot cuffs, and buckram Bkirts ; as nature had cast him in the exact mould of an ill-made pair of stiff stays, he followed her so close in the fashion of his coat, that it was doubted if he did not wear them : because he had a protuberant wen just under his pole, he wore a wig that did not cover above half his head. His eyes were protruded like the eyes of a lobster, who wears them at the end of his feelers, and yet there was room between one of these and his nose for another wen, that added nothing to his beauty ; yet I heard this good man very innocently remark, when Gibbon published his history, that he wondered any man so ugly could write a book. Such was the exterior of a man, who was the charm 70 READINGS FOE RAILWAYS. of the circle, and gave a zest to every company he came into. — Cumberland's Memoirs. COUNTRY LASSES AND TOWN LADIES. 'Tis a rare wench ! she i' th' blue stockings ; what a complexion she had when she was warm ! 'Tis a hard question, of the country wenches, which are simpler, their beauties, or themselves. There's as much difference betwixt a town lady and one of these, as there is betwixt a wild pheasant and a tame. By this light, I hate a woman drest up to her height, worse than I do sugar with muscadine ; it leaves no room for me to imagine I could improve her if she were mine ; it looks like a jade with his tail tied up with ribbons, going to a fair to be sold. Right — There goes such scouring, washing, per- fuming, daubing to th' other, that they are the least part of themselves : indeed there's so much sauce, a man can't take the meal. Suckling. A RASCAL OF RESPECTABILITY. Thet say he's one, was wise before he was a man, for then his folly was excusable ; but since he came to BODIEY RHETORIC. 71 be of age, which had been a question till his death, had not the law given him his father's lands ; he is grown wicked enough to be a landlord. He does pray but once a year, and that's for fair weather in harvest; his inward senses are sound, for none comes from him ; he speaks words, but no matter : and therefore is in election to be one of the peace and quorum, which his tenants think him fit for, and his tutor's judgment allows, whom he main- tains to make him legs and speeches. He feeds well himself, but in obedience to government, he allows his servants fasting days. He loves law, be- cause it killed his father, whom the parson over- threw in a case of tithes ; and in memory wears nothing suitable ; for his apparel is a cento, or the ruins of ten fashions. He does not much care for heaven, for he's doubtful of any such place, only hell he's sure of, for the devil sticks to his con- science ; therefore he does purpose when he dies, to turn his sins into almshouses, that posterity may praise him for his bountiful ordination of hot pot- tage. BODILY RHETORIC. Let us call our sins To a true reck'ning ; first, to arm our wits With complete steel of judgment ; and our tongues With round artillery of phrases : Then 72 EEADI3GS FOB KAILWAYS. Our bodies must be motions ; moving first What we speak ; afterwards, our very knees Must humbly seek to talk, and suit our speech ; For a true furnish'd courtier hath such force, Though his tongue faints, his very legs discourse. Decker. SOLITARIES. " !N"atfee," says Cicero, " abhors solitude ;" and many an ingenious argument has been adduced to prove, that a lover of solitude is a being totally divested of the common sympathies of humanity. Among my papers, however, I find a remarkable account of a solitaire, that goes far towards invali- dating this opinion. It is a verbal abridgment of a paper, published in a periodical work, about the year 1781. The name of this solitary was Angus Roy Fletcher, who lived all his life in a farm at Glenorchy. He obtained his livelihood principally by fishing and hunting. His dog was his sole attendant ; his gun and dirk, his constant compa- nions. At a distance from social life, his residence was in the wildest and most inaccessible parts of the lofty mountains, which separate the country of Glenorchy from that of Eannock. In the midst of these wilds he built his hut, and passed the spring, the summer, the autumn, and the principal part of the winter. He possessed a few goats, SOLITARIES. 73 which browsed among the cliffs. These were his sole property, and he desired no more. While his goats grazed among the rocks and heaths, he ranged the hills, and the banks of rivulets, in quest of game and fish. In the evening he re- turned to his goats, and led them to his solitary hut. There he milked them with his own hands ; and after taking his supper of the game or fish he had caught, and which he dressed after his own manner, he laid himself down in the midst of his dogs and his goats. He desired to associate with neither men nor women ; but if a casual stranger approached his hut, he was generous and open, hospitable and charitable, even to his last morsel. Whatever he possessed he cheerfully bestowed upon, his guest; at a time, too, when he knew not where to procure the next meal for himself. When the severity of the winter obliged him to descend to the village, he entered with evident reluctance into society, where no one thought as he did, and where no one lived or acted after his manner. To relieve himself from all intercourse with his species, as much as possible, he went every morning, before the dawn of day, in search of game ; and never returned till night, when he crept to bed without seeing any one. With all this, he dressed after the manner of a finished cox- comb ! His belt, bonnet, and dirk fitted him with a wild and affected elegance ; his hair, which was naturally thick, was tied with silken and varie- H 74 READIXGS FOB RAILWAYS. gated cord ; his look was lofty, liis gait stately, his spirit to a degree haughty and high-minded : and were he starving for want, he would have asked no one for the slightest morsel of food. He was truly the solitary man ; and yet was he hospitable, charitable, and humane. General Boon seems to have had an ardent love of deep seclusion. He was principally instru- mental in the first settlement of Kentucky ; and preferred the wildest solitudes to reside in. The country in which he had fixed himself, however, having become gradually peopled, he retired be- yond the Missouri. Population soon began even there ; and at the age of seventy, he removed two hundred miles beyond the abode of civilized man. About the year 1814, a strange person was occa- sionally seen in AValston fields, about three miles from Carnwath, in the county of Lanark, He ap- peared with great emaciation of figure and coun- tenance, and, from his dress and general appearance, seemed to have seen better days. He avoided all intercourse ; was never seen in the day, and only -occasionally early in the mornings. The peasantry were not a little surprised and even alarmed at such a circumstance, and at length watched him, when it was discovered that he had taken up his residence in a small cave, formed by nature in a large hill in the neighbourhood. The curiosity of the country was increased by this circumstance ; SOLITARIES. 75 but no one dared to enter his habitation, and after a time he ceased to be talked of. At length, on the 11th of April, 1820, as a shep- herd passed near the cave he heard a deep groan, and, upon advancing nearer, he discovered him lying near the mouth of the cave, in the last agonies of death. The shepherd ran to the nearest house to procure assistance ; and, returning to the spot, found that the unfortunate man had breathed his last during his absence. On entering the cave, some heath was observed in a corner, arraved in J ml the form of a bed ; some straw, from which it was evident, from the chaff, he had extracted corn ; also some raw potatoes and turnips. A small leathern parcel lay on the floor, which, upon investigation, was found to contain several letters, so defaced that only one of them was in the smallest degree legible. It was kept with two one-pound notes, and wrapped up with great care ; but it had neither date, signa- ture, nor direction. Of this letter the following is a literal copy : — '' Amice, conscientia nostrarum factorum pectus meum deturbat : — Vivere non possum : mori non audeo — Insanus sum. — Si ingurore meo mortem mihi non consciscam,certe factum nostrum vulgabor, igitur si tibi vita dulcis sit — fuge, et ne mecum peris. — Vale, si adhuc possis esse beatus, sis beatus — iterum vale, longe vale." Had this unfortunate being remained in society, his mind had, doubtless, recovered its tone, compass, and authoritv. 76 HAPPY METAMOEPHOSIS OP AN INQUISITION. The great boast of modern Palermo (and a beauti- ful thing it is) is the promenade of the Marina, outside of the Porta Felice. Here a noble line of palaces facing the bay, a fine carriage road, and a broad pavement called "Banchetta," for pedestrians, present themselves. At the eastern extremity of the Marina, which is a mile long, there is a botani- cal garden, with a graceful modern building, in which lectures are occasionally delivered ; and ad- joining to this there is another garden, called the " Flora," open to the public at all times, and af- fording the most delightful walks through avenues of acacias, or orange, lemon, citron, and lime trees. Part of the ground is laid out in parterres of flowers and sweet smelling plants, which are watered by several fountains. Statues, small temples, and sculptured cenotaphs, all of pure white marble, are scattered here and there with happy effect. This gay and lovely garden is said to occupy the very spot on which the Inquisitors were wont to cele- brate their Auto da Fe. LOVE AND CRUELTY. "We are indebted to Brantome for the following anecdote of the devotedness of lovers in " the olden SELF-IMPORTANCE. • 77 time." In the reign of Francis I. of France, a young woman having a talkative lover, ordered him to he dumb. His obedience for two long years made all the world believe that he was .sunk in melancholy. One day, in a numerous assembly, the young woman, who was not known to be his mistress, undertook to cure him, and did it with a single word — " JSpeak ! " SELF-IMPORTANCE. Once travelling through shire, I called upon a gentleman residing near one of the finest waterfalls in that county. As time was of some value, I could only partake of a slight repast, which my host prolonged by giving a history of the pro- gress he had lately made in draining some meadows. An opportunity at length occurring, I ventured to hint that I should wish to be directed to the water- fall. " Oh ! the waterfall ! ah ! true — there is a waterfall; but, my dear sir, it is almost at the bottom of the valley. Surely you would not at- tempt to go there, among the long grass and briars. Never mind the waterfall. Take a walk with me, and I will show you something that is really worth seeing, and where you will be in no danger of falling over a precipice." "With that he led me into his garden. "There," said he, "there is a h2 78 HEADINGS FOB EAILWAYS. garden I planted and gravelled myself. There you may rove about as much as you please." " But, sir, I have travelled several miles to see the water- fall ; and unless " — " Oh ! the waterfall ! anybody can see the waterfall ! The commonest fellow in the country can do that. But," pausing with all the solemnity of dignified anger, " I do assure you, sir, very few can have an opportunity of seeing my garden." WOELDLY MAEEIAGES. "We worldly folk account him very wise That hath the wit most wealthily to wed : By all means, therefore, always we desire To see our issue rich in spousals sped. "We buy and sell rich orphans. Babes scant-bread Must marry ere they know what marriage means : Boys marry old trots, old fools wed young queans. "We call this wedding, which, in any wise, Can be no marriage, but pollution plain ; A new-found trade of human merchandise ; The devil's net ; a filthy fleshly gain ; Of kind and nature an unnatural stain ; A foul abuse of God's most holy order, And yet allow'd almost in ev'ry border. Sackville. 79 TOO MUCH PROFESSION. Oh, sir ! your passion's dead, and you are weaving garlands of fine expressions for its funeral. Grown. monks versus ships. The town of Salerno was once full of religious houses. " To whom," inquired the president Du- paty, " does that beautiful house, situated on the top of yon hill, belong ? " " To monks." " And that on the declivity?" "To monks." "And the one at the foot of yon eminence?" "To monks." " The monks, then, possess all Salerno ?" " There are ten convents, five parishes, one bishop- rick, two seminaries, and a chapter. There are so many convents in the town that there is not a single ship in the harbour." NAPOLEON AT SEA. Boueeienne, in his Memoirs, gives some interest- ing particulars of the habits and occupations of Napoleon when at sea. In the following passage, the good natural feeling manifested appears in strange contrast with the recklessness induced by 80 HEADINGS FOE RAILWAYS. a military conqueror's usual pursuits : — " In a long voyage it is impossible to prevent accidents from men falling ovei'board. This occurrence happened several times with us, from the crowded state of our vessel. On these occasions it was strange to witness the instinctive force of humanity in the bosom of that man, so lavish of the blood of his fellow-creatures on the field of battle, and who was about to shed torrents of it in that very Egypt whither we were going. "Whenever a man fell into the water, the commander-in-chief had no rest till he was saved. He instantly ordered the ship to lay to, showed the most lively uneasiness till the un- fortunate was recovered, and ordered me to recom- pense liberally those most active in the rescue. Sailors who had thus distinguished themselves, when guilty of some breach of discipline, were always exempted from punishment. I remember, during one dark night, a noise was heard as of a man overboard. Bonaparte instantly gave the word to put the ship about, till the presumed victim should be rescued from inevitable death. The crew hastened from all quarters ; exertions were re- doubled ; and at length we fished up —what ? The victim was — a quarter of beef, which had slipped from a noose over the side. He ordered me to reward the sailors who had exposed themselves on this occasion more liberally than usual. ' It might,' said he, ' have been a man ; and these brave fellows have shewn neither less activity nor less courage.' ' — Constable s Miscellany, No. 57. 81 LOVE. A passion celebrated by all, yet truly felt by few. " Dost tbou know wbat the nightingale said to me ?" says a Persian poet : " "What sort of a man art thou, that canst be ignorant of love ?" Rather would I inquire, " What sort of a man art thou, that canst be capable of love ?" Since, though of all the passions it is the most productive of delight, it is the most unfrequent of them all. How many of us feel the passions of hatred and revenge, of envy and desire, every day ! But how few of us are capable of feeling an ardent affection, or of conceiving an elevated passion ! A PBETENDED ANSAVEE XO A LETTER THAT NEVEE WAS WEITTEN. [This is one of Swift's jokes, written to Stella; and excellent of its kind. Nothing can be more natural, or like notices of what had actually oc- curred.] — Dr. Swift to Mrs. Johnson. — " Jack Grattan said nothing to me of it till last night ; it is none of my fault : how did I know you were to dine abroad ? You should have sent your mes- senger sooner ; yes, I think the dinner you pro- vided for yourself may do well enough here ; but 82 HEADINGS FOE RAILWAYS. pray send it soon. I wish you would give a body more early warning, but you must blame your- selves. Delany says, ' He will come in the even- ing ;' and for aught I know, Sheridan may be here to dinner. "Which of you was it that undertook this frolic ? Tour letter hardly explained your meaning, but at last I found it. Pray do not serve me these tricks often. You may be sure, if there be a good bottle, you shall have it. I am sure I never refused you, and therefore that reflec- tion might have been spared. Pray be more positive in your answer to this. " Deanry House, " Sunday Morning, April 30, 1721. " Margoose, and not Mergoose ; it is spelt wifrh an «, simpleton. " JS"o, 1 am pretty well after my walk. I am glad Archdeacon P. got home safe, and I hope you take care of him. It was his own fault ; how could I know where he was ? and he could have easily overtaken me ; for I walked softly on pur- pose ; I told Delany I would." LOVE. Love is composed of all that is delicate in happi- ness and pleasure ; it is a union of desire, tender- ness, and friendship ; confidence the most un- bounded ; and esteem the most animated and STUDENTS IN PAINTING. 83 solid. Filling the entire capacity of the soul, whether in sickness, in sorrow, or in poverty, it elevates the character by purifying every passion ; while it polishes the manners with a manly soft- ness. When the flame of a love so pure and delicate as this goes out, a friendship the most solid and affecting springs from its ashes. And where love like this exists, far better is it to be joined in death, than by the malice of a wayward fortune, to drag on years in anxious separation. He who is capable of acting greatly and nobly, when under no influence of affection, animated by the applause of a woman whom he loves, would act splendidly and sublimely. STUDENTS IN PAINTING are often led astray by the worst parts of Reynolds, Rubens, and the Venetian school, instead of form- ing their style from the Roman and Florentine, and the grace and beautiful simplicity of the antique. On this subject, a celebrated professor and critic thus expressed himself, on being applied to by some young men for recommendations to the school for painting : " One tells me he paints like Titian, another like Vandyke, and they all draw like the devil knows who." — Sass's Journey to Rome and Naples. 84 STEANGE ANECDOTE OE A DTJKE OE POETLAND. In EDgland, horresco-referens ! — the present Duke of Portland, at the death of his father, caused all the deer in Bulstrode Park to be slaughtered, and buried. A great number were destroyed in this manner. No person was allowed to eat of their flesh ; nor to benefit himself by their skins. The keepers shed tears ; the gentry remonstrated ; the whole kingdom sent forth execrations ; and the slaughter was stopped. His Grace, soon after, sold the estate, and left a country, which had been so grossly insulted and offended.* Not long after this event, I chanced to travel near the spot, and con- versed with one of the keepers. " It is all true, sir," said he; "the number of tears I shed, no man can tell ! The deer, the stags, even the little fawns, most of which I had fondled in my arms, I saw barbarously butchered, before my face : and I could not sleep for weeks, but I fancied I heard them bleating to me for mercy." * Why this was done, has, I believe, never been explained, even to this day, April 5, 1837. 85 MAGNIFICENCE OE THE MIND. All tilings received do such proportion take As those things have wherein they are received ; So little glasses little faces make, And narrow webs on narrow frames are weaved. Then what vast body must we make the mind, "Wherein are men, beasts, trees, towns, seas, and lands ; And yet each thing a proper place doth find, And each thing in the true proportion stands ? Doubtless this could not be, but that she turns Bodies to spirits, by sublimation strange ; As fire converts to fire the things it burns ; As we our meats into our nature change. From their gross matter she abstracts the forms, And draws a kind of quintessence from things, "Which to her proper nature she transforms, To bear them light on her celestial wings. Sir John Da vies. THE LITTLE REPUBLIC OE SAN MARINO. The republic of San Marino affords nothing by which we may accurately judge of the effect of climate ; but it proves how compatible happiness 86 HEADINGS FOE RAILWAYS. is with a sterile soil and an elevated region. This small republic, standing upon an indurated sand- rock, has neither soil, climate, nor spring- water to boast ; but it has independence and happiness. It consists of an abrupt mountain, surrounded by small crags lying around it ; enveloped, for the most part in clouds ; with neither a flower nor a rivulet ; and frequently covered with snow, while the country beneath glows with alternate shade and sunshine. This republic owes its origin to the circumstance of a Dalmatian having fixed upon this craggy eminence for a hermitage. Having obtained, during the course of a long life, a high reputation for sanctity, many religious persons resorted to him ; and, having effected what the world regarded a miracle, the princes of the country gave him the entire property of the mountain. From this time the eminence increased in population ; and a repub- lican form of government was instituted, which exists even at the present day : an interval of 1,300 years having elapsed since its creation. The history of this unique republic comprises only seven folio pages. The first commemorates the origin ; the second records the purchase of another castle (a.d. 1100) ; the third, the purchase of another castle (a.d. 1170) ; the fourth mentions a war (a.d. 1460), in which the inhabitants assisted Pope Pius II. against one of the lords of Eimini, and for which they received four small castles in recompence ; the fifth gives an account THE LITTLE fiEPUBLIC OF SAN MAEINO. 87 of their territories, rev.erting to its ancient limits; the sixth records some of the intrigues of Cardinal Aberoni to overturn the republic ; the seventh, and most interesting, page records a proposition that was made to them by Bonaparte, of increasing their territory, which, in conformity to ancient principle, they had the magnanimity to refuse. Thus, among precipices, the natives of San Marino, 5,400 in number, enjoy a liberty and a tranquillity entirely unknown in any other part of the world. The natives of this republic seem to be indebted for a great portion of their happiness to three peculiar regulations : viz. the commissary, who pronounces judgment, must always be a fo- reigner, a doctor of laws, and resident only three years ; the physician must be thirty-five years of age, and remain only three years ; and the school- master is chosen for the purity of his morals, his humanity, mildness of temper, and useful knowledge. One of the chief doctrines he is called upon to instil into the minds of his pupils is to make them satisfied with their condition, to love their country as their own house, and their fellow-citizens as their own families. Thus situated, and thus edu- cated, the inhabitant of San Marino thinks that everything which is valuable is centred on his native rock. 8S AKMENIAN JOLLITY. The Armenians, like the Turks, never take their women out with them in their parties of pleasure. These are composed exclusively of the privileged sex ; and amusing things they are ! They get their heavy bodies carried to some open spot in the country, by horses or asses ; there they cross their legs and sit down, and gorge in unsociable silence. When their meal is over, they take their cup of coffee, and light their eternal pipes, which they keep smoking till it is time to return home. All their amusement concentrates in this ; they have no idea of pleasure beyond smoking ; and the only variety they know is occasionally to substitute the Persian pipe for the usual chibook. These parties are called Keffs. Keff is a Turkish word, in use by all classes of Levantines. It signifies what, in my school days, we used to term " a jollification." It applies admirably in this sense to the Armenian parties. — Mac Farlanes Constantinople. PLEASANT ANECDOTE OP PITT. Pitt was an unfortunate statesman ; but he had a lofty eloquence, capacious views, and a noble mind. Sir Walter Parquhar calling one day, the premier A SELF-APPOINTED KEEPER OF THE WARDROBE. 89 observed him to be unusually ruffled. " What is the matter?" exclaimed the patieut. " Why, to tell you the truth," replied Sir Walter, "I am ex- tremely angry with my daughter. She has per- mitted herself to form an attachment for a young gentleman by no means qualified, in point of rank or fortune, to be my son-in-law." " Now let me say one word in the young lady's behalf," returned the minister. " Is the young man you mention of a respectable family ? " " He is." " Is he respect- able in himself?" "He is." "Has he the manners and education of a gentleman?" "He has." " Has he an estimable character ? " "He has." " Why, then, my dear Sir Walter, hesitate no longer. You and I are well acquainted with the delusions of life. Let your daughter follow her own inclinations, since they appear to be virtuous. You have had more opportunities than I have of knowing the value of affection, and ought to respect it. Let the union take place ; and I will not be unmindful that I had the honour of recommending it." The physician followed the direction of his patient ; the lovers were united ; and the patronage of the minister testified his satisfaction. A SELF-APPOINTED KEEPER OF THE WARDROBE. Mr. C. Hughes, a country comedian, had a wig, i2 90 HEADINGS FOR RAILWAYS. which generally hung on a peg in one of his rooms. He one day lent the wig to a brother player, and some time afterwards called upon him. Mr. Hughes had his dog with him, and the man happened to have the borrowed wig on his head. Mr. Hughes stayed a little while with his friend, but, when he left him, the dog remained behind. For some time he stood, looking full 'in the man's face ; then, making a sudden spring, he leaped on his shoulders, seized the wig, and ran off with it as fast as he could ; and, when he reached home, he endeavoured, by jumping, to hang it up in its usual place. The same dog was one afternoon passing through a field near Dartmouth, where a washer- woman had hung her linen to dry. He stopped and surveyed one particular shirt with attention ; then seizing it, he dragged it away through the dirt to his master, whose shirt it proved to be. — A Natural History, drawn from the Writings of JBiifon, Cuvier, etc. LOVELY ST. DOMINIC. St. Dominic invented the Inquisition. He never spoke to a woman, or looked one in the face. He caused eighty persons to be beheaded, and four hundred to be burned alive in one day. 91 A"N ORDINANCE OF FREDERICK II. OF PRUSSIA RESPECTING AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. The city having from time immemorial derived great benefit from a gambling house, we, in our parental goodness, permit it to be opened from May to August, the months that foreigners gene- rally resort to the city for the benefit of the waters ; but this indulgence is not to have any bad effect on the morals of the citizens ; and the police are to turn out everybody whom they suspect not to be able to afford to lose money. — Frederick. A HAPPY DISPOSITION. Goltho by nature was of music made ; Cheerful as victors warm in their success, He seemed like birds created to be glad ; And nought but love could make him taste distress. Sir W. Davenant. the tables turned on fortune. Nothing is a mysery, Unless our weakness apprehend it so. We cannot be more faithful to ourselves 92 HEADINGS FOE BAILWAYS. In anything that's manly, than to make Ill-fortune as contemptible to us As it makes us to others. Beaumont and Fletcher. MODESTY AND THE EOSE. Of all flowers Methinks a rose the best. Why, gentle madam ? It is the very emblem of a maid ; For, when the west wind courts her gently, How modestly she blows, and paints the sun With her chaste blush ! When the north comes near her, Rude and impatient, then, like chastity, She locks her beauties in her bud again, And leaves him to bare briars. Fletcher. OBSEBVANCE OF THE SABBATH. The poet G-rahame begins his poem on the Sab- bath by observing, that he who has lived three- score years and ten, has lived ten years of sab- baths. The sabbath is one of the greatest of all earthly blessings ; it is the most beautiful of all the institutions of society ; and that the poor may EABLY LITEHATUBE OF ICELAND. 93 never be deprived of this inestimable indulgence is my earnest and most fervent prayer. But I think I observe a disposition in some country gentlemen, to debar them the comforts arising from this sacred holiday. Poor sons of toil ! oh, grudge them not the breeze That plays with sabbath flowers ; the clouds that play With sabbath winds ; the hum of sabbath bees ; The sabbath walk ; the sky-lark's sabbath lay ; The silent sunshine of the sabbath-day ! A sabbath should be a day of mental tranquil- lity to the old, and of innocent hilarity to the young, after the hour of thankfulness and devotion. The rich have their parties and their amusements ; they even play at games not sanctioned by the laws ; and yet would they debar the poor from meeting on the green, and from indulging in healthful and innocent exercises ; thus converting their cheerfulness into melancholy, their gaiety into hypocrisy, and their religion into fanaticism. EAKLY LITERATURE OE ICELAND. Iceland, with fields divided by vitrified cliffs, without a tree, abounding in precipices, burning lakes, and barren mountains, produced a Thurleston, a Thordsen, and a Frode, with two hundred and forty poets, at a time when Sweden, and Denmark, 94 HEADINGS TOE RAILWAYS. and Norway cultivated no science ; when the Tartars were emerging from the northern king- doms of Asia, and overrunning all the empire of the Saracens; when the houses of England, France, and Germany were thatched with straw ; and when scarcely a poet appeared in Britain I CLAUDE LORRAINE. Claude le Lorraine, — the greatest of all land- scape painters, if we except Titian, — studied in the fields. Every variation of shade, formed by the differeut hours of the day, and at different seasons of the year, by the refraction of light, and the morning and evening vapours, he minutely observed. His distances are admirably preserved ; and his designs broken into a variety of parts : and yet, though thus divided, every group and every com- partment form a whole, on which the fancy loves to pause, and the judgment to linger. "An air of loveliness and content," says G-essner, "pervades all the scenes which Lorraine's pencil has created. They are rich, without wildness and confusion ; and, though diversified, they everywhere breathe mildness and tranquillity. His landscapes are views of a happy land, that lavishes abundance on its inhabitants ; under a sky, beneath which everything flourishes in healthy luxuriance." Claude was an ideal painter, as Praxiteles was SUICIDE. 95 an ideal statuary ; his pieces being compositions, for the most part, formed of detached scenes, which he had observed in Italy, uniting into one picture. We never see them but with enjoyment ; we never think of them but with delight ; and we never fail to turn to them with new pleasure, even after dwelling upon scenes in Nature's loveliest attitudes. Every piece tells a history ; — he selects with grace and with judgment ; — and, being all poetry himself, he seems as if he were born to make poets, for a time, of all his beholders. Dr. Bcattie says of Corelli, that the harmonies of his Pastorale are so ravishingly sweet, that it is impossible not to think of heaven when we hear them. A female servant, belonging to the Earl of Radnor, in the same manner, told a learned friend of mine, that she never looked at the pictures of Morning and Evening, in his lordship's collection, but she thought of Paradise ! A compliment even more grateful to the genius of Claude, than the celebrated exclamation of the old vicar, when he beheld Grotius. SUICIDE. "What more speaks Greatness of man, than valiant patience, That shrinks from under his fate's strongest strokes? These Roman deaths, as falling on a sword, 00 HEADINGS FOE RAILWAYS. Op'ning the veins, with poison quenching thirst, ("Which we erroneously do style the deeds Of the heroic and magnanimous man) Was dead-eyed cowardice, and white-cheeked fear : "Who, doubting tyranny, and fainting under Fortune's false lottery, desperately run To death, for dread of death. That soul's most stout, And bearing all mischance, dares last it out. Beaumont and Fletcher. A GEEAT SOUL NOT EASILY SHAKEN. Each small breath Disturbs the quiet of poor shallow waters : But winds must arm themselves, ere the large sea Is seen to tremble. — Habbington. MRS. EATCLIEEE AND ME. BT7EK.E. Oue romance writers frequently select, as the theatres of action, the forests of Germany, the vales of Languedoc, the mountains of Switzerland, the plains of Tuscany, or the delightful environs of Rome, Naples, and Palermo. For elegance of taste and sentiment, for the variety and strength, the beauty and force of her description, Mrs. Fat- cliffe — bred in the schools of Dante and Ariosto, MRS. BATCLIFFE AND MB. BURKE. 97 and whom the Muses recognise as the sister of Salvator Eosa — stands unrivalled in her department of romance. It is impossible to read this enchant- ing writer, without following her in all her magic windings. If she traverse the tops of the Pyrenees, the romantic plains of Gascony, the odoriferous shores of Languedoc ; the mountains of Switzer- land, or the vales of Savoy, we are never weary of the journey. If she lead us through a forest, at morning, evening, or in the gloom of night, still are we enchained, as with a magic girdle, and fol- low from scene to scene, unsatiated and untired.* * For this criticism Mrs. Ratcliffe was pleased to send me her thanks. Some time after, I was invited to supper. Her conversation was delightful ! She sung " Adeste Fideles " with a voice mellow and melodious, but somewhat tremulous. Her' countenance indicated melancholy. She had been, doubt- less, in her youth, beautiful. She was a great admirer of " Schiller's Robbers." Her favourite tragedy was " Macbeth." Her favourite painters were, Salvator, Claude, and Gaspar Poussin. Her favourite poets, — after Shakespeare, — Tasso, Spencer, and Milton. There was, for many years, a report that this accomplished lady was afflicted with insanity. How the report came to be raised I know not ; but, I believe it never was the case. She had not only an elegant taste, but a comprehensive understand- ing. She died in 1823, and was buried in the chapel of ease (belonging to the parish of St. George, Hanover Square), at Bayswater. I have read her " Romance of the Forest," four times ; her " Italian," five times ; her " Mysteries of Udolpho," nine times ; and my imagination is, even now, always charmed whenever I think of either. K 98 DE P0C0CK, THE TEAVELLEE. That celebrated oriental traveller and author was a man of mild manners and primitive simplicity. Having given the world a full detail of his re- searches in Egypt, he seemed to hold himself excused from saying anything more about them, and observed in general an obdurate taciturnity. In his carriage and deportment he appeared to have contracted something of the Arab character, yet there was no austerity in his sdence, and though his air was solemn, his temper was serene. When we were on our road to Ireland, I saw from the windows of the inn at Daventry, a cavalcade of horsemen approaching on a gentle trot, headed by an elderly chief in clerical attire, who was followed by five servants at distances geometrically mea- sured and most precisely maintained, and who upon entering the inn proved to be this distin- guished prelate, conducting his horde with the phlegmatic patience of a Schiek. — Cumberland's $Iemoirs. VEGETABLE SENSATION. Some years since, a lady resided in a small village in the county of Carmarthen, whose conversation was distinguished by an unusual degree of elegance. VEGETABLE SENSATION. 99 She was a little disordered in her mind; a malady, which was supposed to have originated from an at- tachment to the late Sir W. Jones. This derange- ment, however, was partial ; being chiefly exhibited in her eating little or nothing but herbs ; in walk- ing on high pattens in the midst of summer ; in holding a rod, six feet high, in her hand by way of a walking-stick ; and in fastening a large muff" be- neath her bosom, with a leathern strap. "I am convinced," said she to me, one day, as we were walking on the borders of the Towy : "lam con- vinced that these mosses on which we are now walking, have sensation : for, last night I put some of them into a glass among other flowers ; and this morning I find them much more lively in appear- ance, than when I plucked them from their parent roots. I have no doubt, they derived comfort from the delicious perfumes of the violets, which the glass contained; as well as from the water, in which I put their stalks." This idea, extravagant as it may appear to some, does not appear equally so to me ; for that some flowers thrive or fade in proportion to the assimi- lation of plants, near which they grow, I have had many opportunities of observing; at first with doubt, but at length with an assurance amounting to conviction. 100 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS IN NORMANDY. The constant and anxious surveillance which mothers and other elderly relatives exercise over the young women is a positive proof of their frailty ; for it is the remembrance of what they themselves once felt, and the observation of what is daily taking place around them, in spite of dueunaship, which makes them thus suspicious and vigilant. They have, it would seem, no notion of that " deity in the bosom," which in some countries, is supposed to be the best guardian of a woman's honour; and prefer depending upon material lets and hindrances to love. For this reason, the daughter, as I have already observed, if there be but one, always sleeps with her mother, goes to church with her mother, visits with her mother, makes love, or has it made to her, in her mother's presence. If there be many daughters, which seldom happens in France, they all sleep in the same apartment with their mother, who thus comes to be regarded in the light of a spy. It may be doubted, however, whether all this vigilance and restraint be productive of much good. The powers of invention, which are naturally very great in womankind, are only by these means made more active and vigorous ; and many a girl of seventeen,who might, under ordinary circumstances, have been remarkable for her simplicity, is thus rendered a very Machiavel in the politics of love. A FEELING ACTEESS. 101 These circumstances cause the women here to re- gard the state of marriage as the Lacedemonians did that of war, — as a state of liberty ; and to plot, scheme, and long for it, as captives long for a de- livery from bondage. — St. John's Journal of a Re- sidence in Normandy. VEGETABLE SEASONING. The plane-tree exhibits the power of exercising a sagacity for securing food, not unworthy of an animal. Lord Kaimes relates, that among the ruins of New Abbey, in the county of G-alway, there grew in his time, on the top of one of its walls, a plane-tree, upwards of twenty feet in height. Thus situated, it became straitened for food and moisture, and, therefore, gradually di- rected its roots down the side of the wall, till they reached the ground, at the distance of ten feet. "When they had succeeded in this attempt, the upper roots no longer shot out fibres, but united in one ; and shoots vigorously sprang up from the root, that had succeeded in reaching the earth. A EEELING ACTEESS. The celebrated Mademoiselle Lecouvreur, of the Theatre Franchise, passing through the streets at a k 2 102 HEADINGS FOE. RAILWAYS. late hour, on a raw cold niglit, was accosted by a poor woman with four little children, who in a tone of bitter suffering, beseeched the actress to take pity on her destitute condition. Mademoiselle Lecouvreur searched in her pockets, and finding nothing, "Wait," said she, "my good woman, I will give you more than you could have hoped for;" and instantly throwing off her mantle, she began to recite the imprecations of Camilla, with a vehe- mence and superior talents, that soon collected a crowd around her, notwithstanding the inclemency of the season. She then made a collection among the audience, and with the fruits of her charitable exertion gave the poor woman a sufficient sum to provide lodgings and clothes for her infants. SUICIDE. This strong desire of death, that hath possess'd Tour will thus far, does not express the signs Of that true valour, your spirit seems to bear : For 'tis not courage, when the darts of chance Are thrown against our state, to turn our backs And basely run to death ; as if the hand Of heav'n and nature had lent nothing else T' oppose against mishap, but loss of life : Which is to fly, and not to conquer it. For know, it were true valour's part, my lord, WISH OE THE GERMAN POET, GESSNEE. 103 That when the hand of chance had crush' d our states, Ruin'd all that our fairest hopes had built, And thrown it in heaps of desolation ; Then why those ruins for our thoughts to climb Up, 'till they dar'd blind fortune to the face, And urg'd her anger to increase those heaps, That we might rise with them; and make her know, We were above, and all her pow'r below : Why this, my lord, would prove us men indeed. But when affliction thunders o'er our roofs ; To hide our heads, and run into our graves, Shews us no men, but makes us fortune's slaves. Jones. WISH OE THE GERMAN POET, GESSNER. What was G-essner's wish ? All that a delicate imagination might desire to possess ! A cottage overhung by walnut trees ; doves flying among the boughs ; a bee-garden, hedged with hazels ; and, at each corner, a bower, formed of vines. Behind the garden, a meadow ; and, before it, a grove of fruit- trees ; in the midst of which a small lake, in the centre of which an island, containing an arbour. On the south side of the orchard, a vineyard ; and on this, north, a field waving with corn. " With 104 HEADINGS FOR RAILWAYS. such an habitation," says the poet, " the richest of monarchs, when compared with myself, would be comparatively poor." A PLEASANT BLUNDER IN IRELAND. It has been said that Goldsmith's comedy of She Stoops to Conquer, originated in the following adventure of the author. Some friend had given the young poet a guinea, when he left his mother's residence at Ballymahon, for a school in Edgworth's Town, where, it appears, he finished his education. He had diverted himself by viewing the gentlemen's seats on the road, until night-fall, when he found himself a mile or two out of the direct road, in the middle of the streets of Ardagh. Here he inquired for the best house in the place, meaning an inn ; but a fencing-master, named Kelly, wilfully mis- understanding him, directed him to the large, old- fashioned residence of Sir Ralph Peatherstone, as the landlord of the town. There he was shown into the parlour, and found the hospitable master of the house sitting by a good fire. His mistake was immediately perceived by Sir Ralph, who, being a man of humour, and well acquainted with the poet's family, encouraged him in the deception. Goldsmith ordered a good supper, invited his host and the family to partake of it, treated them to a bottle or two of wine, and, on going to bed, ordered PREMATURE COMPLIMENT. 105 a hot cake for his breakfast ; nor was it until his departure, when he called for his bill, that he dis- covered that, while he imagined he was at an inn , he had been hospitably entertained at a private family of the first respectability in the country. Dramatic Table- talk. PREMATURE COMPLIMENT. . Strap, o relates, that as a musician was employing his talents in the streets of Lassus, a town chiefly inhabited by fishermen, a crowd collected around him, and seemed to enjoy his music with no little delight. At length, the signal being given that the fish-market was open, all the fishermen left him but one. "When the musician saw only one re- maining, he began praising his taste, and admiring the pleasure with which he seemed to listen to the piece he had played, when the rest of his com- panions had precipitately left him, upon hearing the first bell. " What ! " said the fisherman, who was deaf, " has the bell rung ? By Jupiter, I did not hear it ! " and off he ran, after his brother fishermen. 106 CHAEACTEEISTIC ANECDOTE OE EOOTE AND DE. JOHNSON. Sdakespeaee makes Palstaff not only witty, but the cause of wit in others ; and Goldsmith said, that no man could be in Caleb Whiteford's com- pany, without catching the itch of punning. The English Aristophanes, as Poote was called, was one of these ; and no greater proof can be given of his comic powers, than in the following anecdote, re- lated by Dr. Johnson : — " The first time," said he, " I was in company with Poote, was at Fitzher- bert's. Having no good opinion of the fellow, I was resolved not to be pleased, — and it is very dif- ficult to please a man against his will. I went on eating my dinner pretty sullenly, affecting not to mind him ; but the dog became so irresistibly comic, that I was obliged to lay down my knife and fork, throw myself back in the chair, and fairly laugh it out. Sir, he was irresistible." PALM-STTNDAY, AKD OEIGIN. Palms were worn, as emblems, by those who had made pilgrimages to the Holy Land : and the custom of carrying branches of palms, on Palm- Sunday, is said to have been derived from the worshippers of Serapis. It was introduced into LIBERTY ALL-IMPORTANT. 107 the service of Christianity by the Alexandrian system of philosophy ; who esteemed gods, angels, and the souls of men, to be of one substance ; who believed that the soul had a pre-existent state ; and that those of good men advanced in regular grada- tion to a higher state of perfection. LIBERTY ALL-IMPORTANT. Let not any one falsely persuade himself, that those who keep watch and ward for Liberty are meddling with things that do not concern them, instead of minding their own business. For all men should know, that all blessings are stored and protected in this one, as in a common repository. Here is the tradesman's security, the soldier's honour, the agriculturist's profit. Lastly, in this one good of Liberty, the religious will find the permission of their rites and forms of worship, the students their learned leisure, the aged their re- pose, boys the rudiments of the several branches of their education, maidens their chaste nuptials, matrons their womanly honour and the dignity of their modesty, and fathers of families the dues of natural affection, and the sacred privileges of their ancient home. To this one solicitude, therefore, let all other cares yield the priority. If you omit, be occupied as much and sedulously as you may, 108 READINGS FOE RAILWAYS. you are doing nothing : if you apply your heart and strength to this, though you seem to be doing nothing, you will, nevertheless, have been fulfilling the duties of citizens and men, yea, in a manner pressed down and running over. — Petrarch. NATIONS SOMETIMES MORE CRIMINAL THAN INDIVIDUALS. Some nations are more criminal in their punish- ments, than criminals are in their offences. In England, to murder a man is to incur the penalty of death. In Japan, almost all crimes were once punished with death. The Basheans of the North Philippine Islands even punished theft with bury- ing alive. Dampier saw them bury a young man for this crime. They dug a hole ; and many persons came to bid him farewell; among them was his mother, who wept as she took the rings from his ears. He yielded without a struggle ; he was put into the pit ; and they covered him with earth ; cramming it close, and stifling him. In the Hindoo creed, it is stated, that the blood of a tiger pleases a goddess one hundred years ; that of a panther, of a lion, and of a man, one thousand years ; but the sacrifice of three men, one hundred thousand years. And let a Hindoo com- mit ever so enormous a crime, he would suppose THE TWO KINGS. 109 himself perfectly safe, if lie could be assured that his friends would throw his body or his boues into the Ganges. " To kill one bundred cows," says the Dlierma Shastra, " is equal to killing a Bramin ; to kill one hundred Bramins is equal to killing a woman ; to kill one hundred women is equal to killing a child; to kill one hundred children is equal to telling an untruth !" THE TWO KINGS. James the Fifth's (a very social debonair prince, residing at Stirling, in Buchanan of Arnpryor's time,) carriers were frequently passing along the common road, near Arnpryor's house, with neces- saries for the use of the king's family ; and he, having some extraordinary occasion, ordered one of these carriers to leave his load at his house, and he would pay him for it ; which the carrier refused to do, saying he was the king's carrier, and his load was for his Majesty's use ; to which Arnpryor seemed to have small regard, compelling the car- rier to leave his load, and telling him, if James was King of Scotland, he was King of Kippen, so that it was reasonable he should share with his neigh- bour king in some of the loads so frequently car- ried that road. The carrier representing this usage, and telling the story to some of the king's ser- L 110 HEADINGS FOE RAILWAYS. vants, it clime at length to his Majesty's ears, who shortly after, with a few attendants, came to visit his neighbour king, who happened to be at dinner. King James having sent a servant to demand access, was denied the same by a tall fellow with a battle-axe, who stood porter at the gate, telling him there could be no access till dinner was over. This answer not satisfying the king, he sent to demand access a second time ; upon which he was desired by the porter to desist, otherwise he would find cause to repent of his rudeness. His Majesty, finding this method would not do, desired the por- ter to tell his master that the gude man of Ballin- guich (the name which the king bore when he wandered about the country in disguise, and which, it seems, was known to Arnpryor) desired to speak with the King of Kippen. The porter telling this to Arnpryor, he in all humble manner came and received the king, and having entertained him with much sumptuousness and jollity, became so agreeable to King James, that he allowed him to take as much of any provision he found carrying on that road as he had occasion for ; and seeing he made the first visit, desired Arnpryor, in a few days to return it at Stirling ; which he performed, and continued in very much favour with the king, always thereafter being termed King of Kippen while he lived. — Campbell's Tour in Scotland (from Buchanan of Achmar.) Ill HASTINGS IN BETIREMENT. Hastings, the saviour of India,* purchased an estate at Dalesford, in the county of Worcester. " In this house," said he, in a letter to Sir Stephen Lushington, " in this house I live, because it is the house in which I passed much of my infancy ; and I feel for it an -affection of which an alien could not be susceptible. I see in it, too, attractions which that stage of life imprinted on my mind, and my memory still retains." There is something exceedingly affecting in the following lines, written by this celebrated character, on his return from India ; particularly if we associate with them his succeeding persecutions. Short is our span ; then why engage In schemes, for which man's transient age, Who ne'er by fate design'd ? Why slight the gift of Nature's hand ? What wanderer from his native land E'er left himself behind ? For me, O Shore, I only claim To merit, not to seek for fame : The good and just to please. A state above the fear of want, Domestic love, — Heaven's choicest grant, — Health, leisure, peace, and ease. * That Hastings was the saviour of British India, is certain. Whether he had a moral right to save it is another question. 112 ANIMAL EEASONING. That beasts have reason has been argued by Plutarch, Montaigne, and many other writers, with great force of argument. That it extends to birds and insects, and even to fishes, is equally probable. Nor was the poet so excursive as he has been esteemed, when he fabled fish to be able to com- municate to each other, that the waters of the Euxine were more pure, soft, and agreeable than those of any other sea. It is impossible, at present, to state how far animal reason extends ; since even leeches are endowed with retrospective faculties. For, when salt has been sprinkled over their backs, in order to make them disgorge, salt being a poison to most insects, they retain its impression so firmly that they will not, till they have recovered perfect health, stick to a wound afterwards with any per- tinacity. Serpents will even obey the voice of their masters : the trumpeter bird of America will follow its owner like a spaniel : and the jacana frequently acts as a shepherd to poultry. It pre- serves them in the fields all the day from birds of prey, and brings them home regularly at night. In the Shetland Islands there is a gull which defends the flock from eagles ; it is, therefore, regarded as a privileged bird. The chamois, bounding among the snowy mountains of the Caucasus, are indebted for their safety, in some degree, to a peculiar species of pheasant. marriage ETIENNE 1IENEI MEHUL. 113 This bird acts as their sentinel ; for, as soon as it gets the sight of a man, it whistles ; upon hear- ing which, the chamois, knowing the hunter is not far distant, sets off with the greatest activity, and seeks the highest precipices or the deepest re- cesses of the mountains. Eagles, and some other birds, not only live in pairs, but procreate year after year ; they hunt together, and the male feeds the female during the time of incubation. What is this but a species of ? Man has the power neither to eat, to walk, nor to speak, until he is taught. Being the most helpless of animals, the utmost of his earliest power is to suck, to move his limbs, and to weep. Nor is he the only animal that has the divine faculty of contemplation. Though the most inti- mate acquaintance with vegetable anatomy dis- covers no organ that bears any analogy with the seat of animal sensation, it would nevertheless betray a species of ignorance to deny sensation to plants. It would betray a still greater, to deny reason to animals, since the faculty of imagination is proved by their capacity of dreaming. ETIENNE 1IENEI MEHUL. "When Mehul the composer was sixteen years of 114 READINGS FOE RAILWAYS. age, he visited Paris, and was taken by a friend to the rehearsal of Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride. He had no money, and being very desirons to witness the performance, which was to take place on the following day, he determined to conceal himself in the boxes till then. He was discovered, and turned out ; but the attempt came to the ears of Gluck, who gave him a ticket of admission, invited him to his house, and became his friend- He devoted himself earnestly to dramatic compo- sition, and having undertaken to compose an opera, in which he found his progress continually interrupted by calls, invitations, and engagements of various kinds, he actually intreated the superin- tendent of the police to confine him in the Bastile till he had finished it. The indulgence, however, was denied him. Mehul was the intimate friend of Cherubini, and lost the place of Maitre de Chapelle to Napoleon, which was offered to him on the death of Paiesello, by begging permission to share it with him. — From the Harmonicon. SCOTLAND IN ENGLAND. Henry the Fourth of France had always a pecu- liar regard for Pan, a small town in the province of Gascoigny, abounding in beautiful prospects : and it would be difficult to describe the pleasure he re- happt Loo-cnoo. 115 ceived, during the siege of Laon, from revisiting the forest of Folambray ; where in his youth he had been accustomed to regale himself with milk, new cheese, and various kinds of fruit ; and wan- dering about frequently without either shoes or bonnet. The late Lord Fife entertained a similar regard for Scotland. The house, in which his lordship resided, at Westminster, was built by himself. The earth, the stone, the timber, and the shrubs, were all brought from Scotland. So, though his lordship resided in England, his house stood on Scottish ground. HAPPY LOO-CHOO. The great Loo-choo Island is also fortunate in many respects. It lies out of the usual track of trading ships ; it has no want of foreign commo- dities ; and produces nothing to tempt the avarice of strangers. The inhabitants have no arms, and no monev ; and cannot be made to understand the nature of war. Kcempfer relates, that they are all either fishermen or husbandmen ; that they lead a contented life ; are cheerful and affectionate ; and that after their daily work is done, they take their children and wives into the fields ; where they sit, drink a little rice liquor, and play upon musical instruments. Hall and Macleod's accounts of this 116 READINGS TOE KAILWATS. interesting people are equally picturesque and en- gaging. The Deity is known to them by the name of Boosa ; but there is nothing in the climate of this island to make the inhabitants wiser, better, or more happy, than their neighbours : and yet they are so. ELEGANT PASTIME. The Princess Czartorinska signalised her love of poetry in a curious manner. This princess was one of a small party who resided in a hamlet, in Poland, and who gave themselves up to every spe- cies of innocent amusement. Among these, they devoted a considerable portion of time to erecting a marble pyramid ; on each side of which were in- scribed the names of those writers, who had con- tributed to their pleasure, or instruction. Each side was ornamented with appropriate emblems. On the compartment, which recorded the names of Anacreon, Petrarch, Metastasio, and La Fontaine, was a myrtle : the cypress, the yew, and the weep- ing willow encircled Shakespeare, Milton, Eacine, Young, and Eousseau : the laurel adorned Tasso : other emblems characterised Virgil, Gessner, and De Lille : while lilies, roses, and jessamines, and beds of violets, encircled the names of Madame de Sevigne\ Madame Eiccoboni, Madame de la Payette, and Madame des Houlieres. On this pyramid was IN WHAT SENSE THE KING NEVER DIES. 117 placed the following inscription, written by De Lille :— Les dieux des champs aux dieux des arts. A GENTLE TARTAR SPECULATION. It is said that when Gkengis Khan conquered China, there was a deliberation in his council as to the propriety of destroying all the Chinese, in order that the whole of that immense empire might be converted into pastures for flocks and herds. IN WHAT SENSE THE KING NEVER DIES. It has been said that, constitutionally, "the king never dies," and that " the king can do no wrong." On such forms of expression, the following passage from the Treatise on Government, by Algernon Sidney, furnishes an admirable commentary : — '• The names of kings are used in treaties when they are either children, or otherwise incapable of knowing what alliances are fit to be made or re- jected ; and yet such treaties do equally oblige them, their successors, and people, as if they were of mature age and fit for government. No man, therefore, ought to think it strange, if the king's IIS HEADINGS FOB BAILWATS. name be used in domestic affairs, of which he neither ought nor can take any cognizance. In those cases, he is perpetually a minor; he must suffer the law to take its due course ; and the judges, though nominated by him, are obliged by oath not to have any regard to his letters or personal de- mands. If a man be sued, he must appear ; and a delinquent is to be tried corum lege, but no otherwise than secundum legem terras, according to the law of the land, not the king's personal will and opinion. And the judgments given must be executed, whether they please him or not, it being always understood that he can speak no otherwise than the law speaks, and is always present as far as the law requires. For this reason, a noble lord who was irregularly detained in prison in 1621, being by Habeas Corpus brought to the bar of the King's Bench, where he sued to be released upon bail, and an ignorant judge telling him he must apply himself to the king, he replied that he came thither for that end; that the king might eat, drink, or sleep where he pleased, but when he rendered justice he was always in that place. The king that renders justice is indeed always there : he never sleeps ; he is subject to no infirmity ; he never dies, unless the nation be extinguished, or so dissipated as to have no government. ~No nation that has a sovereign power within itself does ever want this king. He was in Athens and Koine, as well as Babylon and Susa ; and is as PEMALE MORTALITY IN ESSEX. 119 properly said to be now in Venice, Switzerland, or Holland, as in Trance, Morocco, or Turkey. This is lie to whom we all owe a simple and un- conditional obedience. This is he who never does any wrong. It is before him we appear when we demand justice, or render an account of our actions. All juries give their verdict in his sight. They are his commands that the judges are bound and sworn to obey, when they are not at all to consider such as they receive from the person that wears the crown." — Gorton's Topographical Dictionary. EEMALE MORTALITY IN ESSEX. All along this country it is very fx-equent to meet with men who have had from five or six to ten or twelve wives ; and I was informed that in the marshes over against Cauvey Island was a farmer who was then living with the twenty-fifth ; and that his son, who was about thirty-five years old, had already had about fourteen. Indeed, tbis part of the story I only had by report, though from good hands ; but the other is well known, and will be attested, about Fobbing, Ourringham, Thunderfly, Benfleet, Prittlewell, Wahering, Great Stambridge, CricJcsea, JBurnham, Denby, and other towns of the like situation. The reason, as a merry fellow told me, who said he had had about a dozen, was this, 120 HEADINGS FOR RAILWAYS. that they, being bred in the marshes themselves, and seasoned to the place, did pretty well ; but that they generally chose to leave their own lasses to their neighbours out of the marshes, and went into the uplands for a wife ,- that, when they took the young women out of the wholesome fresh air, they were clear and healthy ; but, when they came into the marshes, amongst the fogs and damps, they presently changed complexion, got an ague or two, and seldom held it above half a year, or a year at most ; and then, said he, we go to the uplands again, and fetch another. A FAMILY OF RECLUSES AT WINDSOR, IN THE YEAR 1740. I cannot help giving your ladyship an account, which I have had lately from persons of veracity and good sense, of a family who had lived upwards of fifteen years in the town of Windsor. This family consists of an old woman and two sons, the eldest ot which appears to be about forty, and the other only three or four years younger. Since they first settled here they have never been out ol their house (except once one of the sons) ; nor have they ever suffered any one to come into it. When they had lived there three or four years, some malicious people broke all their windows towards the street, in order to provoke them to FAMILY OF KECLUSES AT WINDSOR. 121 show themselves ; but the poor creatures did not make the least complaint, nor did they even mend their windows. Some years afterwards, in a wet winter, their neighbours observed one morning that they had put up wooden shutters. These, however, were also soon broken ; but they did not appear, nor did they in any shape resent the injury. They mended them, as it is supposed, themselves ; for the shutters appeared patched in an awkward manner, with rough pieces of wood and old boards. Since the breaking of their windows they have always lived backwards, which was first discovered by the officers of the land-tax, who go regularly once a year, and break open their doors to demand it. This intrusion they never strive to prevent, and always pay very readily and justly. At their first coming to Windsor they took up goods of a mercer in that town, to the value of seven or eight pounds, but did not pay for them. He had been ever since endeavouring to -see or speak to them, in order to get his money ; and has several times employed bailiffs to serve them with writs, but in vain, for these did not dare to break open the doors, and people may call, knock, and insult them for four-and-twenty hours together, and they will not answer nor even seem to hear. This year, however, the officers of the land-tax gave the bailiffs notice when they were to go, and they got in along with them ; and though the original debt was increased M 122 HEADINGS FOE EAILWATS. to nearly double by the various law expenses, they payed it without the least dispute. These recluses have two estates near "Windsor, one of which has tenants upon it ; but they never demand any rent, nor can their farmer get a sight of them. The tenant of the other died some years ago, since which time the ground has laid unculti- vated, nor have they ever endeavoured to let it. The neighbouring cottagers put in cows, horses, hogs, or whatever they please, and the owners never inquire about the matter. The land-tax gatherers say that they are hale, well-looking people, who speak little, courteously, and sensibly. When they are asked of their living in this manner, and how they procure food and clothes, they are entirely silent. MOTHER CAEEY's CHICKENS. "Why were petrels, in past times, thought to predict a storm ? — Because they seem to repose in a common breeze, but, upon the approach, or during the continuation, of a gale, they surround a ship, and catch up the small animals which the agitated ocean brings near the surface, or any food that may be dropped from the vessel. Whisking like an arrow through the deep valleys of the abyss, LOSS PREFERABLE TO INJUSTICE. 123 and darting away over the foaming crest of some mountain wave, they attend the labouring bark in all her perilous course. "When, the storm subsides, they retire to rest, and are no more seen. Our sailors have, from very early times, called these birds " Mother Carey's chickens. "—Knapp — Know- ledge for the People, Part TV. CONSUMMATE HONOUR. I. Speak the height of honour. II. No man to offend ; Ne'er to reveal the secrets of a friend ; Eather to suffer than to do a wrong ; To make the heart no stranger to the tongue ; Provoked, not to betray an enemy, Nor eat Ms meal I choak with flattery ; Blushless to tell wherefore I wear my scars, Or for my conscience, or my country's wars ; To aim at just things, if we have wildly run Into offences, with them all undone. 'Tis poor in grief for a wrong done to die : Honour to dare to live, and satisfy. Massinger. LOSS PREEEItABLE TO INJUSTICE. A good man should and must Sit rather down with loss, than rise unjust. Ben Jonson. 124 POISONOUS PLANTS. These vegetables emigrate with great difficulty. It has been asserted, that no animal will eat food that, in its natural state, is injurious to it. In- stinct, they say, if not disrelish, will teach the animal to avoid it. In Europe, however, we see frequent instances to the contrary. In Africa the fact is still more evident ; for the cattle north of the Cape, are extremely partial to the amaryllis disticha, which almost infallibly kills them. "With the bulb of this plant the Bushmen poison their arrows. There also is a plant, called the euphorbia, which is of such a poisonous nature, that if some branches are thrown into the fountains, where the animals on the Orange River drink, it has so pow- erful an effect upon them, that they die in less than an hour afterwards. It is succulent, and grows to the height of fifteen feet. With this plant, also, the Hottentots poison their arrows ; its juice being mixed up with a species of caterpillar that grows upon another plant. It is curious that the flesh of these animals, which die of this poison, is not in the smallest degree injured. In Java there are several vegetable poisons. Prom the sap of the upas is prepared a substance equal to the strongest animal poisons. There have been many fables relative to this tree. That it exists is certain ; but shrubs and plants grow POISONOUS PLANTS. 125 round it, and no barrenness is observed in its neighbourhood. "When it is felled, there is, cer- tainly, an effluvia from its juices, which mix with the atmosphere, and produce cutaneous eruptions ; but the Dutch account is fabulous. The most poisonous of all trees, however, is the tohettik of the same island. It is far more fatal in its effects than the upas. It grows in deep, black mould, in the midst of almost inaccessible forests. Neither of these trees have found an opportunity of propa- gating out of their own island. CAPTAIN BARNARD, A MAN SUPERIOR TO UNKINDNESS. New Island (one of the Falkland Islands) has of late become remarkable for having become the solitary residence of a Captain Barnard, an Ame- rican, whose vessel was run away with in the year 1814, by the crew of an English ship, which, on her passage from Port Jackson, had been wrecked on the south side of this island. Capt "Weddell, in his voyage from the South Polar Eegions, met with Capt. Barnard in 1821. Barnard was at New Island with his vessel, in the performance of a voyage for seal furs, and when on the south side of the island, he met with the crew of a wretched English ship. Their number was about thirty, in- 126 HEADINGS FOB KAILWAYS. eluding several passengers, some of whom were ladies. He kindly took them to his vessel, treated them with all the hospitality which their destitute condition required, and promised to land them on his passage home, at some port in the Brazils. Owing to the additional number of people, hunting parties were frequently sent out to procure supplies ; and when the captain, with four of his people, were on an excursion of this kind, the wretched crew cut the cable, and in defiance of the Americans who were on board, ran away with the ship to Eio Janeiro, whence they proceeded to North America.* On Capt. Barnard's return, he was struck with astonishment at finding his ship carried off. On reflection, however, he soon guessed the cause, which he attributed to the fear of being taken to America, where they would become prisoners of war. Nothing in the way of supplies having been made for him and his four companions, he was forced to consider how they were to subsist ; and, recollecting that he had planted a few potatoes, they directed their attention to them, and in the course of the second season obtained a serviceable supply. They had a dog, which now and then caught a pig; and the eggs of the albatross, which were stored at the proper season with potatoes, * It is to be lamented that Captain Weddell has not pub- lished the name of the vessel to which these unworthy people belonged. A MAN STJPEBIOE, TO UNKINDNESS. 127 formed a substitute for bread, and tbe skins of tbe seals for clothes. They built a house of stone, still remaining on the island, which was strong enough to withstand the storms of winter, and they might have been comparatively happy, but that they were cut off from their relations and friends. To add to the misfortunes of Capt. Barnard, in being separated from his wife and children, his companions, over whom he exercised no authority, but merely dictated what he considered was for their mutual advantage, became impatient even of this mild controul, took an opportunity to steal the boat, and he was left on the island alone. Being thus abandoned, he spent the time in pre- paring clothes from the skins of the seals, and in collecting food for winter. Once or twice a day he used to ascend a hill, from which there was a wide prospect of the ocean, to see if any vessel ap- proached; but always returned disappointed and forlorn : — no ship was to be observed ! The four sailors, in the meanwhile, having experienced their own inability to provide properly for themselves, returned to him after an absence of some months. He still found much difficulty in preserving peace among his companions — indeed one of them had planned his death — but, fortunately, it was disco- vered in time to be prevented. He placed this man alone, with some provisions, on a small island in Quaker Harbour ; and, in the course of three 128 BEADING S FOE EAILWATS. weeks, so great a change was made in his mind, that when Capt. Barnard took him off, he was worn down with reflection on his crimes, and became truly penitent. They were now attentive to the advice of their commander. In this way they continued to live, occasionally visiting the neighbouring island in search of provisions, till the end of two years, when they were taken off by an English whaler, bound for the Pacific. Capt. Barnard informed Capt. "Weddell, that a British man-of-war had been sent expressly from Bio Janeiro to take them off, but by some accident the vessel, though at the islands, did not fall in with them. GOD TO BE STUDIED IN NATURE. To study God, God's student, man was made ; To read him as in nature's text convey'd ; Not as in heav'n ; but as he did descend To earth, his easier book. "Where, to suspend And save his miracles, each little flow'r And lesser fly shows his familiar pow'r. Sir TV. Davenant. 129 ANCIENT ANTICIPATIONS OF MODERN ASTIiONOMY. The opinions held by the successors of Thales, are in several respects remarkably accordant with mo- dern ideas. Anaximander maintained the tenet of the earth's movement about its axis, and of the moon's light being reflected from the sun. Anax- agoras, who transferred the Ionic school from Mile- tus to Athens, in addition afforded a conjecture that, like the earth, the moon had habitations, hills, and valleys. All these truths were taught upon a more extended scale by Pythagoras, who appears to have reached the sublime conception of the earth's motion round the sun, which Philolaus, his successor in the Crotonian school, is generally be- lieved to have taught openly. According to the Pythagoreans, not only the planets, but the comets themselves, are in motion round the sun, and not floating meteors formed in the atmosphere. But such philosophic views as these, instead of obtain- ing the suffrages of antiquity, met with little accep- tance, because opposed to the evidence of the senses; but they slumbered for eighteen centuries, owing to the powerful confirmation given to the doctrines of Aristotle by the apparent motions of the hea- venly bodies. These gleams of truth vanished from the world with the existence of the Ionic and Cro- tonian schools. A blind submission was yielded for ages to the dogmas of the peripatelies, who held 130 HEADINGS FOR RAILWAYS. the earth to be the quiescent centre of the universe, the celestial bodies its servants, moving in circular orbits, and with uniform velocities, and comets, simply meteors, generated in the terrestrial atmos- phere. The divine Plato indeed, the master of Aristotle, is said to have renounced his opinion upon one of these points in his old age, and to have admitted that the centre ought to be appropriated to some more noble object than the earth, or, rather, than terrestrial substance. It is a plausible con- jecture, that the elements of his system were first suggested to the mind of Copernicus, by notices of the opinions of the disciples of Thales and Py- thagoras. They won few converts, however, among the Greeks, and in some instances, exposed their professors to persecutions. The Athenians con- demned Anaxagoras to death for philosophical views, a fate from which he was saved by the interest of Pericles ; but he was sentenced to per- petual banishment, and died in an obscure town on the Hellespont. Philolaus also suffered perse- cution on account of his doctrine of the earth's annual revolution, which so shocked the prejudices of men as to subject him who maintained it to the suspicion of impiety. 131 THE DETERMINER OF THE TRUE SYSTEM OP OUR UNIVERSE. Nicholas Copernicus, or Tepernic, was born at Thorn, near the place where the Vistula crosses the Polish frontier, some time in the years 1472, 1473. He was educated with an eye to his father's profession, that of medicine, but was happily di- verted from it by accidentally hearing a course of lectures, which inspired him with a passion for astronomy. He was at Bologna in Italy in 1494, studying the science under Dominic Maria, and settled for a time at Rome as a teacher of mathe- matics, where he established a considerable reputa- tion. His uncle, who was a dignified ecclesiastic, bishop of Ermeland, upon a vacancy occurring in the canonry of his cathedral church of Iranenburg, appointed Copernicus to a place in the chapter, who had previously taken orders, probably in Italy. Here he passed the remainder of his days, dividing his time between his ecclesiastical duties, the gra- tuitous practice of medicine among the poor, and astronomical researches. He went but little into company, seldom conversed except of serious and scientific topics, was mild and gentle in his manners, and steadfast in his friendships. Iranenburg is a small town on the coast, not far from the junction of the Vistula with the sea. There, in a house situated on the brow of a moun- tain, overlooking the waters of the Gulf of Dantzic, 132 HEADINGS FOB RAILWAYS. he pursued his inquiries into the economy of the universe in peaceful seclusion, confident that he was doing a great work for posterity to appreciate. His mind was profoundly impressed with the idea that simplicity characterises the arrangements of nature ; and struck with the want of this in the received hypotheses, he seems to have come to the conclusion that such scenes of complexity could not be true representations of tbe heavens. It does not appear when his own views became settled ; but in the year 1530, the manuscript of his work " On the Ee volutions of the Heavenly Bodies " was finished. In this production he disclosed his sys- tem, — the Earth, a planet revolving round the sun in an orbit between Venus and Mars ; its rotation upon its axis producing the apparent diurnal pro- cession of the heavens ; the complicated movement of the planets being the consequence of their own motions in space, combined with that of the earth. It is difficult to appreciate fully the freedom of spirit and independence of thought displayed in thus rising superior to the prejudices of centuries, now that the truth of the system has been long settled ; neither is it easy to conceive the delight and awe which must have filled the mind of its author, when, after years of patient and intense application, he was permitted to gaze upon the mechanism of the heavens unveiled, in its simpli- city and grandeur, from his mountain home at Fra- nenburg. TIIE DETEEHINEB OE OUE UNIVEESE. 13 The prudence of the great discoverer in pro- pounding his views is no less admirable than his sagacity in seizing hold of them. Aware of the obstinacy with which human nature clings to its early-imbibed opinions, he was careful not to rouse hostility by abrupt dogmatic attack upon the ancient theory. He communicated privately with his friends, Eeinhold and Eheticus, astronomers ; Schomberg, a cardinal ; and Gyse, a bishop. "With these parties his views found acceptance. They were discussed in their respective circles, and obtained a number of converts ; not, however, without opposition, for Copernicus was satirized upon the stage at Elburg. His work, completed in 1530, was still in manuscript in 1540, notwith- standing repeated efforts to induce him to publish it. An arrangement at length was made, during the latter year, for Eheticus to furnish an account of the manuscript volume ; and, that being favour- ably received, Copernicus consented to the appear- ance of his own production. It was committed into the hands of Eheticus ; Andrew Osiander, of Nuremberg, superintended the printing, and Car- dinal Schomberg bore the expense. But the illus- trious author did not live to read his work in print. A copy was handed to him as he lay a paralytic upon his bed. He saw it, touched it, and in a few hours afterwards expired, May 23, 1513. The cathedral of Franenburg received his ashes without pomp or epitaph, except that upon his tomb-stone 134 HEADINGS FOR RAILWAYS. some spheres were cut in relief. The great square of Warsaw lias a statue in honour of his memory, and the civilized world holds his name in rever- ence, as one whose genius dissipated the illusions of the senses, and discovered the true astronomy. Copernicus is described as a man of ruddy com- plexion and light hair. A portrait painted by himself, half-length, came into the hands of Tycho Brahe, who made it the subject of an epigram, to the effect that the whole earth would not contain the whole of the man who whirled the earth itself in ether. HOPE. "With him went hope in rank, a handsome maid, Of cheerful look, and lovely to behold ; In silken sarnite she was light array'd, And her fair locks were woven up in gold. She always smil'd, and in her hand did hold An holy- water sprinkle, dipp'd in dew, • "With which she sprinkled favours manifold, On whom she list ; and did great liking show, Great liking unto many, but true love to few. Spenser. 135 INDUSTRY 01" NATURE. To be rich, be diligent, move on Like heaven's great movers that enrich the earth, "Whose moment's sloth would show the world undone ; And make the spring straight bury all her birth. Eich are the diligent, who can command Time, nature's stock ; and could his hour-glass fall, Would, as for seed of stars, stoop for the sand ; And by incessant labour gather all. Sir W. Davenant. NIGHT. Midnight was come when ev'ry vital thing With sweet sound sleep their weary limbs did rest; The beasts were still ; the little birds that sing, Now sweetly slept beside their mother's breast : The old and all were shrouded in their nest, The waters calm, the cruel seas did cease : The woods, and fields, and all things held their peace. , 136 HEADINGS FOE BAILWAYS, The golden stars were whirl' d amid their race, And on the earth did laugh with twinkling light "When each thing nestled in its resting place, Forgot day's pain with pleasure of the night ; The hare had not the greedy hounds in sight, The fearful deer, of death stood not in doubt, The partridge dream' d not of the falcon's foot. The ugly bear now minded not the stake, Nor how the cruel mastiffs do him tear ; The stag lay still unroused from the brake ; The foamy bear fear'd not the hunter's spear : All things were still in desert bush, and briar : "With quiet heart now from their travels ceas'd, Soundly they slept in midst of all their rest, SacTcville. PRINTFD BY WARD A>,D GRIFFITH. B£AR ALLEY, CITY. By Special Appointment to H.R.H PRINCE ALBERT; H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE, HIS HIGHNESS THE VICEROY OF EGYPT, &C, &C. Particul ui attention is requested to their HUNTING BOOTS. Messrs. M. and Co. Iiave a proce s, peculiarly their own, of so manufacturing them of Patent Japanned Leather, as that thev are EXTKEAiELY ELEGANT, DUKABLE, and PERFECTLY WATERPROOF. JAMES MEBWIN & CO., Boot Makers, 118, REGENT STREET, To the Nobility and Gentry, pledge themselves to the following, as facts:— Prices litlle more than half usually charged by the High Price or Credit Houses, for articles of the same quality. 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They speedily remove all the distressing symptoms attendant upon a Disordered State of the Stomach and Biliary Organs, and are infal- lible for Sick Headache, Flatulent Distensions and Acidity of the Stomach, Depressed Spirits, Disturbed Sleep, Violent Palpitations, Irregular Appetite, General Debility, Spasms, Costiveness, &c. Sold in Bottles, price Is. lid., 2s. Sd., or lis. each, in every Town in the Kingdom. CAUTION. Be sure to ask for "NORTON'S PILLS," and do not be per- suaded to purchase any of the various imitations which have sprung up in consequence of the success of "NORTON'S CAMOMILE PILLS." A Clear Complexion. GODFREY'S EXTRACT OE ELDER FLOWERS, is strongly recommended for Softening, Improving, Beautifying, and Preserving the SKIN, and in giving it a Blooming and Charming Appearance, being at once a most fragrant perfume and delightful cosmetic. It will completely remove Tan, Sunburn. Redness, &c, and by its balsamic and healing qualities render the skin soft, pliable, and free from dryness, scurf, &c. ; clears it from every humour, pim- ple, or eruption ; and, by continuing its use only a short time, the skin will become and continue soft and smooth, and the complexion perfectly clear and beautiful.— In the process of Shaving it is inval- uable, as it annihilates every pimple, and all roughness, and will af- ford great comfort if applied to the face during the prevalence of cold easterly winds. Sold in Bottles, price 2s. 9d., with directions for using it, by all Medicine Vendors and Perfumers. JOHN CASSELL'S NEW MAGAZINE FOR THE PEOPLE. THE WORKING MAN'S FRTEND AND FAMILY INSTRUCTOR, On January 5th, 1850, the First Number of a New Magazine bearing the above title was issued, to be continued weekly. It will contain thirty-two closely printed pages, crown 8vo, while its price will be only One Penny. —Monthly Parts 4|d., or, if containing five Numbers, 5£d. each. 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JACOB UNWIN Presents his grateful acknowledgements to his friends and the puhlic for the liberal encouragement which has been accorded to his diligence and assiduity du- ring the last twenty-three years, and trusts that his increased facilities for the despatch of business will meet with a continuance of their patronage. With a view of rendering his Office most complete, he has adopted Steam Power, with the addition of the only Licence from the Patent Desiccating Com- pany (Davion and Symington, Patentees) in London, by which the work is thoroughly dried, and the ink firmly set, as fast as printed, and fit for pressing or binding. Public Companies, Merchants, and Traders, supplied with every article of STATIONERY and ACCOUNT BOOKS. Lithography and Engraving of every description. Estimates furnished for every kind of work, which will be completed in the best style, and on most reasonable charges. 31, Bucklersbury, London, Jan. 1850. Published Monthly, price One Penny, THE MOTHER'S FRIEND. EDITED BY ANN JANE. The work speaks for itself — It commends itself to circulation wherever it is known. — It counsels with wisdom, and encourages by sympathy— It reproves with fidelity and skill. The following Ministers have expressed their high approval of the work — Rev. Drs. J. Pye Smith, Leifchild, Morison, Raffles, Steane, and Messrs. Craig, Carter, Gogerly, Goulty, J. A. James. J. Sherman, &c. &c. Sunday School Teachers, Mothers in Israel, or any who wish to elevate the in- tellect of those beneath them in worldly circumstances — aid its circulation. Vol. II. is now ready, price Is. 6d. cloth. A Specimen No. for January, 1850, will be forwarded, on application, post free. London : B. L. GREEN, 62, Paternoster Row. Huddersfield: THOMPSON; and all Booksellers. GUTTA PERCHASrUfilMG.: Amongst the peculiar properties possessed by this Tubing, which render it an article of great value not only to manufacturers, but to the public generally, are the following: — Lightness, combined with remarkable strength (the f-in. tuhes having resisted a pressure of 337 lbs. on the square inch). Non-affection by the carbonic, acetic, hydrofluoric, or muriatic acids, or alka- lies. This remarkable property renders Gutta Percha so valuable for the convey- ance of water, lining of cisterns, #c, being free from the deleterious effects to health resulting from the use of lead. Peculiar power of resisting frost. Readiness with which it can be connected, by a coupling joint, with the water tap, or pump, & used for watering gardens, washing windows, damping rooms, &c. Great lengths in which it can be made (50 to 500 feet) without a joint. Remarkable ease with which the requisite joints can be made. Facility with which it can be cut open in case of stoppage, &c. Extraordinary power of conducting sound. Being totally unaffected by rain, moisture, salt water, acids, alkalies, oil, grease, &c, is useful lor the following purposes : — Lining for Water Cisterns and Manure Tanks,' Chemical Vessels, Damp Walls, Pump Buckets, Valves, Covers of Rollers, Splints, Life Buoys and Air-tight Cells, Galvanic Battery Cells, Lining for Coffins, Electrotype Moulds, Lining for Emi- grants' Boxes, &c, Bed Straps, Washers, Sounding Boards for Pulpits, Boats, Powder Magazines, Cold Water Baths, Lining for Bonnets, &c. The Gutla Percha Sheet is easily joined into any shape by heating the edges with a warm iron GlMiPERGHA SOLEf nutta Percha Soles keep the feet WARM IN COLD AND DRY IN WET WEATHER. They are much more durable than leather, and also cheaper. These Soles may be steeped for months together in cold water, and when taken out will be found as firm and dry as when fir*t put in. No one whose occupation exposes him to wet and rain should be without Gutta Percha Soles. i CUTTA PERCHA MILL BAN DS.I The increasing demand for the Gutta Percha Strapping, for driving-bands, lathe-straps, &c, fully justifies the strong recommendations they have every- where received. [j OOMESTIC^ELEGRAPH; Guttapercha Tubing being so extraordinary a conductor of sound, is now ex- tensively applied for conveying messages from one room or building to another, in lieu of bells. Also as Railway Conversation Tubes, by which parties can converse, notwithstanding the noise of the train. Every variety of Gutta Percha Articles manufactured by the GUTTA PERCHA COMPANY, PATENTEES, 18, WHARF ROAD, CITY ROAD, LONDON, And Sold by their Wholesale Dealers in Town and Country. VALUABLE WORKS, PUBLISHED BY PARTEIDGE & OAKEY. i. NEW WORK BY THE AUTHORESS OF THE PEARL OF DAYS. Royal lomo, with two engravings„2s. REAL RELIGION ; or, the Practical Application of Holy Scripture to the Daily Walk of Life. 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London:— PARTRIDGE & OAKEY, Paternoster-row; at.d 70, Edgeware- road (Hanbuiy & Co., Agents). CHTTBBS' LOCKS, FIRE-PEOOF SAFES, AND CASH BOXES. CHUBBS' PATENT DETECTOR LOCKS give perfect security from false keys and picklocks, and also detect any attempt to open them. They are made of all sizes, and for every purpose to which locks are applied, and are strong, secure, simple, and durable. CHUBBS' PATENT LATCH, for front doors, counting-house doors, &c, is simple in construction, low in price, and quite secure. The keys are particularly neat and portable. CHUBBS' PATENT FIRE-PROOF SAFES, BOOK-CASES, CHESTS, &c, made entirely of strong wrought iron, so as effectually to resist the falling of brickwork, timber, &c, in case of fire ; and are also perfectly secure from the attacks of the most skilful burglars. CHUBBS' CASH and DEED BOXES, fitted with the Detective Locks. CHUBB & SON, 57, St. Paul's Churchyard, London; 28, Lord- street, Liverpool; and 16, Market-street, Manchester. Now ready, in one handsome volume, small 8vo, price Five Shillings, THE FACES IN THE FIRE; A STORY FOR THE SEASON. With Wood Engravings, and Coloured Illustrations by T. H. Nicholson. Uniform with Dickens's "Christmas Carol." WILLOUGIIBY & CO., Warwick Lane, and Smithneld. NEW WORK OF BIBLICAL INSTRUCTION, Published by G. WATSON, 5, Kirby Street, Hatton Garden, London. Royal 32mo, 4d. stitched, 6d. cloth, lettered, STEPS TO THE BIBLE MINE; Or, The Miner's Friend. Designed as a guide to Fire-side and Social Conversa- tion on that Sacred Volume, emphatically styied " The Book." By Elizabeth. "The Sunday-school Teacher will find the solution of these questions as pro- fitable an exercise for the understanding and heart, as any in which we can en- gage."^Sunday-school Magazine, April, ISIS. " We believe all parents and teachers who see the work will join us in thank- ing the pious author for her labour of love." — Mother' t Magazine. " Parents who wish to promote an interest in the study of God's word in their families will find in this little volume most valuable assistance." — Raggcd-Schooc Union Magazine, .May, 18-19. B RHEUMATISM, LUMBAGO, &c, &e. ersons afflicted With the above painful Disorders, may hear a safe and iain means of CtJ HE, for which remuneration will only be expected ac- ling to the circumstance s of the parties, and the benefit, derived from the of the Medicines, for which no charge "ill be made, except Is. 6d. in the ; instance, for Packing, Porterage, Booking, etc. Applications sent to MR, WILLIAM MARSHALL, SURGEON OCULIST, UOSAMO.N BUILDINGS, ISLINGTON GREEN, MIDDLESEX, Will meet with every attention. Second Edition, complete in one volume, ILLUSTRATED WITH FRONTISPIECE, AND MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, HOME INFLUENCE. A TALE FOR MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. BY GRACE AQUILAR. ondon : — Groombridge & Sons, Publishers, 5, Paternoster Row. 2DWARD MILES, SURGEON DENTIST, 15, LIVERPOOL. STREET, Behind Bishopsgate Church (so called) London. Sets of Teeth very far in advance. Stopping which does not discolour. See " Miles on the Teeth," C. Gilpin, Is. 6d. post free. Hours, 9 till 4, except the day called "Tuesday." KEATING'S COUGH LOZENGES. L CERTAIN REMEDY for disorders of the Pulmonary Organs— in difficulty breathing — in redundancy of Phlegm — in incipient Consumption (of which igh is the mo*t positive indication,) they are of unerring efficacy. In Asthma, 1 in Winter Cough, they have never been known to fail. BEATING'S COUGH LOZENGES are In e from evety deleterious ingredient ; y may, tnerefore he taken at all times, by the most, delicate female and by the ingest child ; while the Public Speaker, and the Professional Singer will find m invaluable in allaying the hoarsei^s and irritation incidental to vccal ex- ion, and constquently a powerful auxiliaiy in the production of melodious inciation. J repared and sold in Boxes, Is. lid., and Tins, 2s. 9d., 4s. 6d., and 10s. 6d. h.by THOMAS KEATING, Chemist, &c, No. ?9, St. Paul's Church Yard, ndon. IMPORTANT TESTIMONIAL. St. Pauls Cathedral, Mlk. Nov.. 1849. Sir,— I have much pleasure in recommend n g your Lozenges to those who iy be distressd with hoarseness. They have affbided me relief on several oc- ion» when scarcely able to sing Iroin ihe effects of Catarrh. I think they would very useful to Clergymen, Barrsters, and Public Orators. I am, Sir, yours thfu'lly, THOMAS FRANCIS, Vicar Choral. fo Mr. Kf.aiing. ADVENTURES OF A MEDICAL STUDENT. New Edition, complete in One Volume, post 8vo, cloth, price 10s. 6d. THE ADVENTURES of a MEDICAL STUDENT By Robert Douglas, Surgeon, Royal Navy. NEW EDITION. WITH A MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. " This volume will be welcome in every circulating library, club, and mes! room." — United Serviee Gazet'r. " A most remarkable series ot narratives, remarkable for the power— we wi not hesitate to add, the genius — with which the whole of them are treated. "- Jnhn Bull. _ " We can imagine no more delightful reading than this volume. Every sketc is a drama in itself, most powerfully told ; indeed, many of them hold you breatl less throughout." — Weekly Chronicle. TEGG'S DRAWING BOOK. Just Published, in One handsome Volume, oblong, half-bound, price 6a. TEGG'S ELEMENTARY DRAWING BOO! OF LANDSCAPES, HEADS, HANDS, AND FEET. Containing many superior Drawings by D. Fabronius and M, Ferogio, &c, &c LONDON : WILLIAM TEGG & CO., 85, Queen-street, Cheapside. BURROWS AND SON'S GRANTHAM BISCUITS, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 53y tl)c dFacitltu, FOR THEIR INVIGORATING AND DIGESTIVE PROPERTLE To be had of all the most respectable Grocers and Confectioners in the United Kingdom. Houndsditch, London, 1850. H. Colwell, Truss and Instrument Maker, 76 A, CHEAPSIDE, legs to call attention to the following Prices: Best Plain Truss £0 5 On the principle of Salmon's expired Patent 7s. and 10 6 Coles' ditto 10s. and 15 Egg's, or the German Truss 10s. and 15 Silk Net Suspensories 3 6 Cotton ditto 2 6 acing Stockings, Knee Caps, and Ankle Pieces, for Weak Joints and Varicose eins. Leg Irons, Ladies' Back Boards, Dumb Bells, and every other article in le trade, at equally moderate charges. Testimonials of the Press. "Mr. Henry Colwell's Trusses designed for Prolapsus Ani are admirable in their [instruction, and for the efficacy with which they perform their office ; but those hich are intended for Prolapsus Uteri are the most perfect instruments we have ver seen.'' — The Chemist. " In science and skill in adapting his Trusses to the peculiar circumstances of le case, Mr. Colwell is inferior to no artist in London.'' — United Service. " Mr. Colwell, has in the most philanthropic and praiseworthy manner possible, roken through theextortinate system so longpervading the Truss-making trade. [is inventions for Prolapsus surpass any thing of the kind we have ever seen, nd are not more than one-third the price charged by other manufacturers." — Sun. "Mr. Colwell has combined lightness of spring and delicacy of workmanship ith the greatest security, ease and comfort to the patient." — Reading Mercury. " Mr. C. is an eminent Truss-maker." — Morning Herald. %* Ladies attended by Mrs. Colwell. DENTAL SUKGEEY ! BEAUTIFUL TEETH! Mr. Edward A. Gavin, Surgeon Dentist, egs to announce to his Patients and the Public generally, that he has removed om Torrington-street, Russell-square, to 33, SOUTHAMPTON-STREET, STRAND, here he continues to perform every operation connected with the Teeth, upon lose successful principles and moderate charges which have ensured him so luch patronage. By his peculiar and scientific method he pefectly and painless- ' fixes Artificial Teeth in the Mouth. The extraction of roots, or any painful Deration whatever, is rendered unnecessary. . single beautiful Mineral Tooth, which no time or wear can aflect .. .. .. .. .. .. from 5 complete Set of ditto .. .. .. .. 5 Small pieces and partial sets at the same moderate proportion. Mr. Gavin so guarantees the strength and durability of all Teeth supplied y him, that, under any circumstances, no charge is made by him in the impro- jble event of their becoming defective. Old pieces of Teeth rexno- elled, and made to fit with security and comfort. The attention '. Families and Schools is especially directed to his successful method >r regulating all deformities of the teeth in children and youth ; thereby ensuring beautiful contour and expression to the mouth. Teeth extracted with newly ivented instruments, causing the least possible degree of pain, leaning and beautifying the Teeth preserving the enamel uninjured .. 5 topping carious Teeth with a valuable mineral cement, which does not discolour, and effectually arrests further decay, rendering the Tooth firm and useful as ever 2 "TRUE TIME." W, Stickland, Watch & Clock Manufacturer, 22, GRACECHURCH STREET, Solicits an inspection of his Stock. The best quality only made, and the wholesale PRICES charged, and a warranty with each, TAND A CARR'S COMMMERCIAL AND • PRIVATE BOARDING HOUSE, 4, SCOTT'S YARD, BUSH LANE, CANNON STREET, CITY, LONDON. Terms, 4s. per day, including tea. bed, and breakfast. Servants and boot- cleaning, 8d. per day, charged in the bill. N.B. — Private Rooms if required- WILLIAM HUGHES, 7, SCOTT'S YARD, CAN- NON STREET, CITY, LONDON. William Hughes respectfully intimates to Ladies and Gentlemen intending to visit the Metropolis on business purposes or otherwise that they will find at the above establishment, a home replete with every comfort, and very moderate terms. Scott's Yard is centrally situate, being close to the principal mercantile houses and the Bank of England, whence the omnibuses start for all parts of London and its vicinity. Private Rooms if required. A cards of terms with a map of the city of London may be had on application. 1st. month, 1850. WEDDING CAKES, CHRISTENING CAKES, BIRTHDAY CAKES. JAMES TURNER begs to solicit the attention of the Public to his very superior, and handsomely decorated Wedding Cakes, a variety of which are always on show, from 10s. 6d. to 5 guineas each. Also a great variety of Cakes for Christenings, Birthdays, and Funerals. School and Luncheon Cakes. JAMES TURNER, CONFECTIONER AND BISCUIT BAKER, 67, BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHIN, LONDON. In a few days, foolscap 8vo«, sewed, price Is. THE SOLDIER'S DESTINY.— How he is made— the great inducement to become a soldier. What he is made — the spirit of the fife and drum. And what becomes of him. The goal of glory. The lau- rels earned and gathered. The moral of Bellona's sword, and halo crown of air. A story of the time, by GEORGE WALLER. Published by C. Gilpin, 5, Bishopsgate Street, London. C LIFE AND FIKE ASSURANCE COMPANY, ESTABLISHED 1837. Empowered by Special Acts of Parliament, 3 Vict., cap. 20, and 10 Vict. cap. 1. 62, KING WILLIAM STREET, LONDON. CAPITAL, ONE MILLION. Georgb Bousfield. Esq. THOMAsCHALLIS,Esq.&Ald. Jacob George Cope, Esq. John Dixon, Esq. Directors. Joseph Fletcher, Esq.. | Thomas B. Simpson, Esa Richard Hollier, Esq. I Hon, C. P. Villiers, M.P, Chas. Hindley, Esq. M.P. John Wilks, Esq. Thomas Piper, Esq. | Edward Wilson, Esq. Secretary — Thomas Price, LL.D. Actuary — David Oughton, Esq. Annual Premiums for Hie Assurance of £100., payable at Death. 25 30 35 40 45 £ s. d. 1 16 3 £ s. d. 2 1 5 £ s. d. 2 7 8 £ s. d. 2 15 7 £ s. d. 3 6 IN the Life Department. — All BuMness relating to Life Assurances, De- ferred Annuities, and Family Endowments, transacted on the most liberal terms. In the Fire Department. — Houses, Furniture, Stock-in-Trade, Mills, Mer- chandise, Rent, Shipping in Docks, and risks of all descriptions, insured at mo- derate rates. Loans of £1,000. and under, advanced on personal security, and the deposit of a Life Policy. A liberal Commission allowed to Solicitors, Auctioneers, and Surveyors. NATIONAL FreeHolil JLanii Society. Offices,— 11, POULTRY, LONDON. DIRECTORS. Sir Joshua Walmsley, M.P., President. VICE-PRESIDENTS. Richard Cobden, Esq., M.P., and Joseph Hume, Esq., M.P. TRUSTEES. Charles Gilpin, Esq., William John Hall, Esq. Samuel Morley, Esq., and 'William Arthur Wilkinson, Esq. SECRETARY. Thomas Beggs, Esq. The chief object of this Society is to qualify its members to vote at Election; for Counties. For that purpose, Freehold Estates of considerable extent are divided into Plots of sufficient value to confer the right of voting, and the quali- fications so obtained are allotted to the members at cost price. The constitution of this Society is now adapted to the whole kingdom, and country members will incur no more trouble or expense than those resident in town. The Rules may be obtained at the Offices, price threepence each, or a copy wiU be sent by post in return for three penny postage stamps. All communications to be addressed to the Secretary. CHARLES GILPIN'S !' LIST OF NEW BOOK S, 5, BISHOPS'MTE STREET WITHOUT The Acknowledged Doctrines of the Church of Rome. Being an Exposition of Roman Catholic Doctrines, as set forth by esteemed doctors of the said Church, and confirmed by repeated publication, with the sanction of Bishops and Ministers of her Religion. By Samuel Capper. 8vo. cloth, lettered, price 14s. The Island of Cuba : its Resources, Progress and Pros- pects, considered especially in relation to the influence of its prosperity on the interests of the British West India Colonies. By R. R. Madden, m.r.i.a. 12mo., cloth, price 3s. 6d. " This little volume contains a large amount of valuable information, inti- mately connected with the progress of society and happiness of man." — Christian Times. " We recommend the book to the perusal of all who are interested in the great work of negro emancipation." — Standard of Freedom. " As supplying the latest information concerning Cuba, Mr. Madden's book is extremely valuable." — Economist. " We cordially recommend the volume."— Anti-Slavery Reporter. A Voyage to the Slave Coasts of West and East Africa. By the Rev. Pascoe Grenfell Hill, R.n., Author of " Fifty Days on Board a Slave Vessel." 12mo., cloth, lettered, price Is. " This brief but interesting narrative proceeds from one who has witnessed the horrors of the Slave-trade, as carried on in various parts of the globe. * # * * The unpretending style in which the narrative is written, and the stamp of truth which it carries with it, induce us to recommend it to an extensive perusal."— Standard of Freedom. The Fugitive Blacksmith ; or Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington, Pastor of a Presbyterian Church, New York. Foolscap 8vo , sewed. The sixth thousand, price Is. "This entrancing narrative * * * We trust that thousands of our readers will procure the volume, which is published by Mr. Gilpin at a mere trifle— much too cheap to accomplish the purpose for which, in part or mainly, it has been published— the raising a fund to remove the pecu- niary burdens which press on the author's flock. Nothing short op THE SALE OF FlFTY THOUSAND Or SlXTT THOUSAND COPIES could be at all availing for this object. * * * We very cordially recommend him and his narrative to the kind consideration of our readers" — Chris- tian Witness. I - 0. Gilpin't Litt of Books, 5, Bishopsgate Without i Sparks from the Anvil. By Elihu Burritt. i2mo., sewed. The thirteentli thousand, price Is. " These are Sparks indeed of singular brilliancy."— British Friend. " They deserve to be stereotyped, and to form part of. the standard litera- ture of the age."— Kentish Independent. " We say to all, read it, imbibe its spirit, and learn, like the writer, to work for and with God, towards the regeneration of your race."— Nottingham Review. " Reader, if you have not read the ' Sparks from the Anvil,' do so at once." — The Echo. A Voice from the Forge. By Elihu Burritt, with a Portrait. Being a sequel to " Sparks from the Anvil." 12mo., sewed, price Is. •' In every line coined from the reflecting mind of the Blacksmith of Massa- chusetts, there is a high philosophy and philanthropy genuine and pure. His sympathies are universal, his aspirations are for the happiness of all, and his writings are nervous, terse, and vigorous." — London Tele- graph. " The influence of the small work before us must be for good, and we wish it every success. The various essays it contains are written with natural eloquence, and contain many just and original sentimeuts."— Scottish Press. Ihe Prize Essay on Juvenile Depravity. By the Rev. H. Woeslet, a.m., Easton Rectory, Suffolk. To this Essay on Juvenile Depravity, as connected with the causes and practices of Intemperance, and the effectual barrier opposed by them to education, the above Prize of £100. was awarded by the Adjudicators, Dr. Harris of Cheshunt ; the Rev. James Sherman, Surrey Chapel ; and Dr. Vaughan of Harrow. Post 8vo., cloth, price 5s. " We earnestly commend this very able essay to the early attention of those whose philanthropy leads them to seek a remedy for the fearful amount of juvenile depravity which now gangrenes society, and will prove fatal if not checked and removed. The author admirably uses his statistics, and shows an intimate knowledge of human nature, in its multifarious circumstances." — Christian Examiner, April, 1849. " It is impossible to read many sentences of this volume without perceiv- ing that you are in the company of a Christian philanthropist — a man who is bent, as far as in him lie.-?, on the removal of a great national evil ; and who has sufficient patience and courage to investigate the sources of that evil, to examine with candour the various remedies proposed for its removal, and to point out with honesty that which he believes to be the only appropriate and effectual remedy. We might say much in praise of the style in which the essay is written,— it is elegant, classical, and pointed, — but we choose rather to dwell on the importance of the matter." — Teetotal Times, April, 1849. " We may observe that this Prize Essay, as a whole, will amply repay a perusal; the statistics it contains are especially valuable and instructive. We strongly lecommend our friends to obtain the work, and read it for themselves."— The British Friend, March, 1849. " Mr. Worsley's is unquestionably a very able treatise." — Patriot, April, 1843. C. Gilpin's List of Books, 5, BiskopsgaU Without. A Popular Life of George Fox, the First of the Quakers ; compiled from his Journal and other authentic sources, and interspersed with remarks on the imperfect refor- mation of the Anglican Church, and the consequent spread of dissent, By Josiah Marsh. 8vo., cloth, price 6s. 6d. The worn abounds with remarkable incidents, which pourtray a vivid pic- ture of the excited feelings that predominated during those eventful periods of our history — the Commonwealth and the Restoration. The Campaner Thai : or, Discourses on the Immortality of the Soul. Foolscap 8vo , price 2s. 6d. By Jean Paul Fr. Richter. Translated from the German by Juliette Bauer. " Report, we regret to say, is all that we know of the 'Campaner , Thai,' one of Richter's beloved topics, or rather the life of his whole philosophy, glimpses of which look forth on us from almost every one of his writings. He died while engaged, under recent and almost total blindness, in enlarging and remodelling this ' Campaner Thai.' The un- finished manuscript was borne upon his coffin to the burial vault; and Klopstock's hymn, ' Auferstehen wirst du !' ' Thou shall arise my soul,' can seldom have been sung with more appropriate application than over the grave of Jean Paul."— From Carlyle's Miscellanies. A Kiss for a Blow. (Twenty-third thousand.) A Col- lection of Stories for Children, showing them how to prevent quarrelling. By H. C. Wright. In 18mo., price Is. "Of this little book it is impossible to speak too highly— it is the reflex of the spirit of childhood, full of tenderness, pity, and love : quick to resent, and equally quick to forgive. We wish that all children could imbibe its spirit, then indeed would the world be happier and better." — Jfary Howitt. " This volume, of which it were to be wished that every family in the coun- try had a copy, has been reprinted in London by Charles Gilpin; it is an invaluable little book." — Chambers's Tracts. Portraits in Miniature, or Sketches of Character in Verse. By Henrietta J. Fry, Author of the " Hymns of the Reformation," &c. Illustrated with Eight Engravings. 8vo., price 10s. 6d. This little volume holds many a name dear to the best interests of society, like those of Elizabeth Fry, J. J. Gurney, W. Wilberforce, Hannah More, Bishop Heber, &c ; and it is thought that such a transcript of those who have as it were trodden the paths of life by our side, may serve to quicken amongst us, the fragrance of their Christian graces, and like living Epistles written on our hearts speak to our spirits the language " Come up hither." A Selection of Scripture Poetry. By Lovell Suuire. Third Edition, containing many original Hymns not hitherto published. 18mo., cloth, price 2s. 6d. The same to be had nicely bound in silk, with gilt edges, price 4s. The Autobiography of a Working Man, by « One who has Whistled at the Plough." This work contains the " Barrack Life of a Dragoon ;" what the author did to save Britain from a Revolution ; his Court Martial and Pun- ishment at Birmingham ; the Conspiracy of the Secret Com- mittee of the Trade Unions in London to " Assassinate the Cabinet Ministers, and Capture the Palace, Royal Family, and Bank of England ;" how planned and how prevented. Post 8vo., cloth, price 7s. "Here is a genuine, fresh, and thoroughly true book; something really worth reading and remembering." — Manchester Examiner. "The well-known author of this work, who has attracted much public at- tention, and has acquired a well merited reputation, has done the public a great service by publishing his autobiography." — Economist. " This is one of the most interesting works which has come under our notice for a long time. It is the genuine record of the inner and outer life of a genuine working man. * * * There are few writings in our language, which, for power of graphic description, surpass the letters by him under the signature of ' One who has Whistled at the Plough ;' and in his auto- biography we find the same facility of description, &c." — Leeds Times. The Rhyming Game; a Historiette. 16mo., sewed, price 6d. This little book is designed as a winter evening recreation for young per- sons. Its object is, that of calling up their ideas into ready exercise, and habituating the mind to a prompt and accurate description of objects, as well as a more subtle delineation of thoughts and feelings ; and it has par- ticularly in view the monition that, even in their recreations, they may remember " l'utile," as well as " l'agreeable." Skyrack ; a Fairy Tale. With Six Illustrations. Post 8vo., cloth extra, price 2s. 6d. "It is simply the story or an old oak ; but it carries you away to the forest, and refreshes you with its dewy, sunny, solitary life. The spirit of the book is pure as the breezes of the forest themselves. All the imagery, and the whole tone of the story are of that kind which you wish to per- vade the mind of your children. In a word, we have rarely enjoyed a more delicious hour, or have been more thoroughly wrapt in sweet, silent, dewy, and balmy forest entrancement, than during the perusal of Skyrack."— Standard of Freedom. The Pastor's Legacy; or, Devotional Fragments. From the German of Lavater. By Henrietta J. Fey. 18mo., silk, price 2s. 6d. " This is an exquisite little gem." — Christian Examiner. *** An edition may be obtained with the German appended to the work, done up in the same manner, for 3s. An Inquiry into the Extent and Causes of Juvenile Depravity. Dedicated, by special permission, to the Right Hon. the Earl of Carlisle. By Thomas Beggs, late Secretary of the Health of Towns' Association, and author of " Lectures on the Moral Elevation of the People." 8vo., cloth, price 5s. "Few men were better qualified to deal with such a case than Mr. Beggs, whose lot it has been largely to be mixed up with the working classes, and who has made their characters, habits, and circumstances, the subject brought very largely into sympathy with the subject could scarcely read a chapter of it without tears. Its revelations are those of the darkest chambers of spiritual death and moral desolation. The work has our cor- dial commendation. It is one of the class of books which cannot be too widely circulated."— British Banner, August 25th, 1849. « Mr Beggs writes with all the confidence which a practical knowledge ot the subject has given him, and it is impossible to peruse the pages of his work without obtaining a fearful insight into the extent of the moral de- pravity of the lower orders of society. In the paths or vice m which his reverend competitor fears to tread, there Mr. Beggs boldly steps forward, and denounces while he exposes thosegigantic and appalling evils, which must be brought to light before they can be etfectually grappled with and overcome."— Journal of Public Health, July, 1849. " Whether we regard the graphic picture of the actual condition ot the neglected classes, or the important collection of original and selected statistics which this volume contains, we must pronounce it to be one ot the most trustworthy expositions of our social state and evils which has yet been produced."— Truth Seeker, July, 1849. Sand and Canvass: a Narrative of Adventures in Sojourn among the Artists in Rome, &c. With [flustrations. By Samuel Bevan. 8vo., cloth, price 12s. Egypt, with 1 " The random high spirits of this book give salt to the sand, and colour to the canvass."— Athenaeum. . . "The truth is never disguised. but things are mentioned with an air ot sin- cerity that is irresistible. "We never recollect to have opened a book which possessed this charm in anything approaching to the same degree. It captivates and excites, giving reality and interest to every incident that is introduced."— Horning Post. Fifty days on Board a Slave Vessel. By the Rev. Pascoe Grenfell Hill, m.a., Chaplain of H. M. S. Cleopatra. Demy 12mo., cloth, lettered, price Is. 6d. " This curious and succinct narrative gives the experience of a short voyage on board one of the slave ships. We shall be rejoiced, if the publicity given to this little but intelligent work by our means, assist in drawing the attention of the influential classes to the subject."— Blackwood's Magazine. , . , ., „, « We hope this little work will have a wide circulation. We can conceive nothing so likely to do good to the righteous cause it is intended to pro- mote." — Examiner. « Mr. Hill is a pleasant, unaffected, and elegant writer, with a fund or good sense, and his brief and popular work is well adapted for general circula- tion."— Spectator. |l C. Gilpin's List of Books, 5, Bishopsgate Without. Captain Sword and Captain Pen; a Poem. By Leigh Hunt. Third Edition. With a New Preface, Remarks on War> and Notes detailing the Horrors on which the Poem is founded. Foolscap 8vo., cloth, gilt edges, price 3s. 6d. The Pastor's Wife. A Memoir of Mrs. Sherman, of Surrey Chapel. By her Husband. Second Edition, with a Portrait, foolscap 8vo., cloth, price 5s. "This constitutes one of the most tender, beautiful, instructive, and edi- fying narratives that for a long time has come under our notice. * * * We anticipate for it a very extended popularity and usefulness among the mothers and daughters of England."— Christian Witness, January, 1849. "We have been truly delighted and instructed by the perusal of this Memoir. It is fresh and beautiful in the display of all the practical graces of the Christian character. It will be a blessing and a consolation, we doubt not, to hundreds of Christians. From its authorship we are i delighted to think it will obtain a wide circulation."— Evangelical I Magazine, January, 1849. " This excellent book will, doubtless, attain a high place in our religious _ literature. We have read nothing half so touching as the account given | of the closing scene of Mrs. Sherman's earthly career."— Court Journal, September 8th, 1849. V> " This volume deserves a wide circulation. However painful the task Mr. Sherman undertook in compiling the Memoir, we are persuaded he will I be repaid by the benefit it will confer upon the members of the Church of Christ."— Wesley an Times, January 23rd, 1849. " This volume deserves a large circulation, and we feel it a pleasure to Ifc commend its perusal to the various classes of our readers, especially to those whose sex may enable them to tread in Mrs. Sherman's steps."— f Nonconformist, January 24th, 1849. The Demerara Martyr. Memoirs of the Rev. John Smith, Missionary to Demerara. By Edwin Angel Wall- bridge. With a Preface by the Rev. W. G. Barrett. Svo., \ cloth, price 7s. " There will one day be a resurrection of names and reputations, as cer- tainly as of bodies." — John Milton. "The book is a worthy monument to the distinguished Martyr whose history forms its leading subject. * * # A valuable contribution to the cause of freedom, humanity, and justice in Demerara." — Patriot. " We have perused this work with mixed feelings of pain and admiration; pain, arising from the sense of wrong and misery inflicted on a good man ; admiration, that the author has so fully redeemed his friend and brother minister from calumnies and misrepresentations of Satanic malice and wickedness."— Standard of Freedom, August 30th, 1848. " A work of great interest by one of the Missionary labourers has just appeared, under the title o"f the 'Martyr of Demerara.' It consists of Memoirs of the Rev. John Smith, Missionary of that colony in the times of rampant slavery ; and details the events in the history of that devoted and persecuted man, which closed in his virtual martyrdom— an event which never ceased to influence the public mind in England until colonial slavery itself had ceased to be."— Leeds Mercury, September 16th, 1849. C. Gilpin's List of Books, 5, Bkhopsgate Without. The Peasantry of England; an Appeal on behalf of the Working Classes ; in which the causes which have led to their present impoverished and degraded condition, and the means bv which it may best be permanently improved, are clearly pointed out. By Gr. M. Perry. 12mo., cloth, |L . price 4s. Dymond's Essays on the Principles of Morality, and on the Private and Political Rights and Obligations of Mankind. Royal 8vo., paper cover. 3s. 6d. Neat embossed cloth, 4s. 6d. The high standard of morality to which these Essays aim at directing the attention of mankind, justly entitle them to the extensive circulation which they have obtained in three previous editions ; and the present cheap and popular form in which they now appear, having reached a sale of nearly Seven Thousand in twelve months, is an unequivocal proof of public approbation. Cards Of Character: a Biographical Game. In a neat case, price 5s. "This game contains much amusement and instruction. It consists of brief sketches of the lives and characters of about seventy of the prin- cipal persons of the past age.and questions corresponding in number with the Cards. The game is well arranged, and very simple." Hymns Of the Reformation. By Luther and others, from the German ; to which is added his Life from the original Latin of Melaucthon, by the Author of " The Pastor's Legacy." ISmo., neatly bound in silk, 3s. 6d. | An Encyclopaedia of Pacts, Anecdotes, Arguments, and Illustrations from History, Philosophy, and Christianity, in support of the principles of Permanent and Universal Peace. By Edwin Paxton Hood, Author of " Fragments of Thought and Composition," &c. 18mo., sewed, price Is. 6d. Parables : translated from the German of Krum- macher. Containing the Hyacinth ; the Persian, the Jew and the Christian ; Asaph and Heman ; Life and Death ; the Mother's Faith, &c. lGmo., sewed, price Is. Memoirs Of Paul Cuffee, a Man of Colour. Compiled from authentic sources. By Wilson Armistead. 18mo., cloth, price Is. " The exertions of this truly benevolent individual entitles him to the esteem of the world, and the grateful remembrance of latest posterity." C. Gilpin's List of Boohs, 5, Biahopagale Without Narrative of William W. Brown, an American Slave. Written by Himself. The Eleventh Thousand. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, price 2s. 6d. " We would that a copy of this book could be placed in every school library in Massachusetts. We hope and believe that it will be widelv circulated."— Boston Whig. "It is an interesting narrative, and should be read by every person in the country. We commend it to the public, and venture the assertion, that no one who takes it up and reads a chapter, will lay it down until he has finished it."— New Bedford Bulletin. "We have read Mr. Brown's Narrative, and found it a thrilling tale."— Laurence Courier. ledge of God. The Water Cure. 1843-4-5, and 6. 4s. 6d. Letters from Grafenberg in the years By John Gibbs. 12mo., cloth, price " The inquirers after health, the philanthropist, and the medical practitioner will do well to read Mr. Gibbs' book, for which we thank him, and which we beg very sincerely to recommend to careful perusal." — Nonconfor- mist, September 8th, 1849. " We strongly recommend its perusal." — Limerick Chronicle. Charles Gilpin, 5, Bishopsgate Street Without. How Little Henry of Eichenfels came to the Know- 16mo., sewed, price Is. Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger ; r Excursions through Ireland in 1844 and 1845, for the purpose of per- sonally investigating the condition of the poor. By A. Nicholson of New York. 12mo., cloth, price 5s. "We have derived much pleasure from Miss Nicholson's book — it is worth a cart-load of such absurd books as Kohl's, which, brimful of blunders, was nevertheless much praised and widely circulated."— TaWs Maga- zine. Narrative of a Recent Journey of Six Weeks in Ireland, in connexion with the subject of supplying small seed to some of the remoter districts ; with current observations on the depressed circumstances of the people, and the means pre- sented for the permanent improvement of their social condition. By William Bennett. 12mo., cloth, price 2s. " Nor will I give the slightest countenance to any consideration of Ireland, as a thing separate and apart from ourselves." — Old MS. "We cordially recommend 'Six Weeks in Ireland,' by W. Bennett; the work is cheap — full of daguerreotype drawings from life — not of course, ordinary drawings, but plain pen-and-ink sketches; by which one may comprehend the Whole matter that came under the writer's notice." — Tail's Magazine. ..', ONE SHILLING BOOKS. 121110, sawed, Thirteenth Thousand, pri SPARKS FROM THE ANVIL. BY ELIIIU BURIilTT. " These are Sparks indeed of singular brilliancy."— British Friend. "They deserve to be stereotyped, and t.j form part of thejStandard literature of the age.'' — Kentish Indepem " We say to all, read it, imbibe its spirit, and learn, like the writer, to work for and with God, towards the regeneration of your race."— No 1 1 i U'jli a in I! e vie w , " Header, if you have not read the 'Sparksfrom the Anvil,' do sa at once." — The Echo. 12mo, sewed, Sixth Thousand, price is. A VOICE FROM THE FORGE. BY EL1HU IJUlftuTT. Being a sequel to " Sparks from the Anvil " ■■ In every line coined from the reflecting mind of the Blacksmith of Massachusetts, there is a high philosophy and philanthropy gen- uine and pure. His sympathies are uni nation- are for the happiness of all, and his writings are nervous, terse, and us." — London Telegraph. " The influence of the small work before U3 must be for good, and we wish it every success. 'Die various essays it contains are vvi with natural eloquence, 'mil contain many just iannts."-^Scotlish Press. !8mo, Twenty-third Thousand, price Is. A KISS FOR A BLOW. BY H. C. WRIGHT. A Collection of Stories for Children, shotcwg them how i quarrelling. ''Of this little book it is impossible to speak too highly— it retiex of the spirit of childhood, full of ten pity, and quick to resent, and equally quick to forgive. We wish that all children could imbibe its spirit, then indeed would the world be rand better.'-' — Mary Wowitt. "'"his volume, of which it were to be wished that every family in sountry had a copy, has been reprinted in London I v * ule-- i'n,; it is an invaluable little book."- < LONDON :. RlrES GILPIN, 5, BJSHOPSGATE SI'.'M I. I ^ THE LI BRARY — jPMTORsrrrw ca^ifor«!K - LOS AJNGELES , •.*£■*. . r> i University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. ccd 9 L Ap R 1 3 «ft REC'D YRL J r JN 2 1 2305 PR 12 R22 ^SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 367 739 1 CI * i-l „3§T5 > Univen Sout] Lib I ■ L J, it