The Sun. — London, England, 1842-01-01 00:00:00

i 4. ° 3 Albe ?, al nir,. rxerero MORNI.NG SUN MAGAZINE DAY. 5 fof terdelti Were C heqe" land , t ik it e r terialfr r Ne. If Cep ;wick ° Color° rEg ENO WO) ope l the et .6s. P iniP l Opel ee-al , the Jaflh uese_t . firo i 3 , P -PO 9 sit ,ree'Y strls l til e hat rr icO hit 10 4 1 co 1 10 0 the fli l J n t ° rr 'af ()11 ,0 old , p 0 /A 11... for e° 161 ;.. 891 ot• .<, Pt ..° ~ o' ," ••• ./ ..• ••• 1(01 1 9 6 J " 90 lot 991 1691 V).g 4 , " 9) I s i a t ri' c-i BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE The consideration of the " Philosophy of Hero (lotus" is here resumed,d the question is dis cussed with a subtleness and figacity that induce us to attribute the authorship of the essay to Mr. De Quincey, one of the most accomplished clas sical scholars, and shrewdest reasoners of his day. We think, however, that he rather over-rates the intellectual character of Kerodotus, who in his history exhibits much of the gossip and the twaddler, strongly mixed up with materiel of surpassing value. In the course of his essay the author takes the opportunity of sneering at rieloe's well-known translation of the " Father *f History," as the old Greek was called, which is certainly a work that has long enjoy ed a very unmerited popularity, being exceedingly loose and inaccurate—iyi fact, more of a paraphrase than a translation. Beloe was a small-minded Man, but wondrously great in his own self-con ceit, as he has abundantly- testified in his "Sexa genarian,'_ a work which we remember to have read some few years ago. The " World of Lon don," of which the present is the Eighth Part, is chiefly confined to a description of the various classes of foreigners resident ill the great Baby lon. Of these, the French republican is hit off with the greatest nicety and exactitude; and the specimens adduced of his disjointed coffee-house conversation are highly characteristic. The re marks, too, on the Jewish portion of the London population are good; and there is strict truth in the following :—" You see many poor Jews, but never a Jewish beggar. Their hospitals, asylums, and benevolent societies embrace every variety of distress to which their unfortunate brethren may be exposed. Instead of hunting, as we do, for paupers and vagabonds over the face of the earth whereon to bestow their benevolence, their laudable selfishness takes care of its own in the first instance, and their overplus only finds its Way to general purposes of charity. The sooner we begin to imitate our Hebrew fellow-citizens in this particular the better." The " Heiress and hi s Friends" is a story told in a very simple, pleasing manner, without any attempt to " create a sensation" by undue means—the usual fault of periodical fictions. The " Copyright Ques tion!' is ably canvassed ; we quote an instructive Passag e ;_—"The book sellers, since Gibbon's death, are said to have made 200,0001. of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ; and hardly a year passes that a new edition of his immortal work, or of Hume's History of' England, does not issue from the press. The sums realized by the bookselling trade from the different editions th e Wealth of Nations, would have constituted large fortune for the heirs of Adam Smith. What a princely fortune would Milton or Shak speare have left to their descendants, if any there be, if they could have bequeathed to them the exclusive right of publishing their own works, even for half a century after their own death!" As may be surmised from its title, " Ten Years of the Whigs," is a political diatribeilm bued with a stro ng party spirit. Its good sense does not compensate for its rancour, and we could have dispensed with the account of the debate on the discussion of the Reform Bill in 1832, inasmuch as, however accurate, it is just ten yea rs too late. The " Legend of St. Rosalie " is a carefully versified poem by Delta. " Paris— Chronicles of the Cite" gives some curious par ticulars respecting the betrothal of Henrietta Maria to Charles the First of England. The writer, however, should have contented himself with describing the ceremonial observance's of this act, and not have attempted to draw cha racter; for lie shows a deplorable ignorance of that of Henrietta. He tells us, for instance, that " she eras not appreciated by her consort," when every one who is at all familiar with the nature of Charles knows that he was one of the fondest and most uxorious of husbands. We are assured also that she " was misrepresented and calum niated in England," where the truth is, her pri vate as well as her public character were both so notoriously bad, that it was impossible for even the subtlest calumny to make them worse. From Mr. Simmons's poem, entitled " The Prisoner of Ghent," we quot e a few passages. The subject is, the long imprisonment of a convict for having murdered a young girl in his early youth : Say then, who preachest man was sent Into this God-created world ' With high benificent intent Why my unripen'd soul was hurl'd, • Just as if started in the race— Vre Reason's cup had cool'd my lips— Etc I could sunder guilt from grace— Down, down where demons have their place In Death's unsouaded deeps ? One hour was mine of lovely things, Flowers, waters, forests, glancing wings, Then sudden night !—and slimy stone, Shut me and Madness up alone ! • They said 'twas Mercy saved me so— The slaves !—I could but briefly feel Their bursting mace's ponderous blow, Stretch'd on the limb-dividing wheel. _l_should not then have (lied the death hich takes a century to slay, OWnhee marble m rots a s ,ay. s v ,the charnel's breath I should not then have felt my mind, From lonely horror nareds rage, arid blind Whirl int o savagefrsee Like capti ve t ige r round his Who that had heard me strive to break With shouts that ceaseless solitude, Till my faint gasp refused to shriek, And mine became the Idiot's mood ; When s t rengt h of yout h and manhood ' s might r And the soundless torpor grew, n the sick un di scern i ng s i ght One blank interminable night, Of buri a l on l y knew ; Who then had deern'd the driveller there— Pleugh'd by the Avenger's fiery share— Of love , life, light, once drank his fill, As the lithe roe-deer drinks the rill ? Yes I—give me back one year of bloom, And though remorseless was my fall, And fiercely dire my monstrous doom, Yet I will face it all ! . So once again I may b ut rove With HER the fair and evening-eyed— That thing of radiance and of love— Sweet Maude, who in the chestnut grove So prized and perjured died. Oh ! but to watch her on this breast, Sink like a folded flower to rest Once---only once—as in that time— She free from falsehood—l from crime ! The bow of heaven had less of grace In valley -waters glass'd and bent— The very glory of her face . Fresh lustre to creation lent. This heart with fire was all too full ; . By winding brook and mossy stone, And thunderous wave and woodland lull, I loved with her the Beautiful, And lived for her alone. I sought one eve our trysting-tree, The linden bough was budding free, But wild December stript it bare, Before agairishe met me there. She came at last. I drank the start, The blush her treacherous cheek betray'd. Enough—the life-tide of her heart Was crimson on my blade. I had a rlpht- - who, aught her first 7 - mantes only boeiptii-sra. IoRAN. to %now When wrong'd in every dreamt thirst, To snatch her from the last, the worst Of sorrows here below. Not sweeter went our early hours, Beneath the happy chesnut flowers, Than wore that first red night away, When I and Murder watch'd her clay ! BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY. The present Number of this Miscellany is a capital one, and opens with a spirited prose tale, • entitled the " Razed House," which refers to a murder committed by an Italian brigand, under Very aggravated circumstances, about twenty •, Years ago. There is an earnestness and sim . plieity in this tale, and a minuteness of descrip tion as respects localities, that satisfy us it is founded on fact, and is no mere transcript of the fancy. " Richard Savage" maintains its wonted ability, particularly in the scene wherein the death of Ludlow is narrated. "Welch Rabbits" is by Dr. Maginn. It is a clever story, and turns upon the circumstance of a lady having taken it into her head to make a hearty supper in Welch Rabbits, and having been subjected, consequence, to a variety of horrid dreams. Among other visions, she imagined that the 1-ortiy form of her butler stood before her at . midnight with a black crape on his face, and t a fter disembarrassing her of all her portable Jeweller presented presented a brace of pistols at her, in to • 4 nitely her disgust and astonishment. The • floral which the Doctor deduces from his tale is th is - -Never eat more than you can digest, least of all at supper time sound doctrine, and Worthy to be enforced by so eminent a writer. Save Me From My Friends" is an agreeable incident, related in a gentlemanlike, _unassuming Style. A young man sett l es i n London as a por -I.4ittipainter ; he is gradually acquiring fame and I rtune, when his prospects are suddenly clouded 1 , 4 31 the arrival of his two maiden aunts in Of ' metropolis, who, by their utter want ° • tact and indiscreet gabble, contrive to get lttn Into a world of scrapes. Ultimately the clouds • uiliperse, the aunts retire to their fitting home in 143 n1e wild, imperfectly-civiliscd country town or other, and the young artist's fortunes are once .again in the ascendant. "French Cookery" is an • !!say on a very interesting theme." I revere a • fan who gives good dinners," says the author; " it is vulgar-minded to attempt to despise what contributes to the pleasure of the many; and to how large a majority of mankind is the palate created to be an organ of enjoyment !" These are remarks that would have greatly pleased Dr. Johnson, with whom dinner was one of the most serious and important duties of the day, and who held it as an axiom that the man who pro fessed not 11 care for this meal, would soon end in caring about nothing. The " Philosophy of Smoking" is a smart, lively rhapsody, of which we may say with justice, "ex furno dat lucem." The accompanying illustrations are uncommonly spirited and whimsical. " Raising the Devil" is by a writer whose pen there can be no mistaking— Thomas Ingoldsby, whose broad humorous le gends are the gems of this Magazine. "My First Morning in Calcutta" contains some good descriptions, drawn evidently from the life. As a specimen of the poetry of the Miscellany— which, by the bye, is generally very superior, especially when of a humourous turn—we quote the lively stanzas entitled " Cupid in London," which is from the pen of a gentleman who signs himself " R. More" : Young Cupid, grown tired of his wild single life, And the pranks he had long been pursuing, Determined to marry a sweet little wife, So in earnest he set out a-wooing. But disdaining to win her by magic or art, Or aught save his beauty and merit, Away with contempt threw his bow and his dart, No longer their pow'r to inherit. Then to London he came one fine morning in May, When the full tide of fashion was flowing, His purse was brim-full, his heart light and gay, And his cheeks with fresh roses were glowing. As a fine handsome youth he was soon known in town, — All the ladies his manners delighted; Not a ball or a rout with the world would go down Unless Mr. Love were invited. His cab was "perfection," his horse "quite a love," And his Tiger "the least of the little;" No one else ever wore such a hat or a glove, And his Stultz was a fit to a tittle. The bride that he sought for was easy to find In the midst of such dazzling attraction ; And soon a fair maiden he met to his mind, Whom he loved at first sight to distraction. 'Twas at Alinack's he met with the clear lovely Or], She was called " the prize flower of the season ;" And her exquisite form in the waltz to entwirl Was enough to deprive him of reason. So he told her his love, and she whispered " Oh fie!" As she blushed and looked round for her mother ; And Cupid inquired, with a tremulous sigh, If her heart ever beat for another. But her mind was as pure as her beauty was bright ; And she told him no one e'er could win her Who in frivolous pastime alone took delight— The beau of a ball or a dinner. Ashamed and dejected, poor Cupid retired, Resolving to cut—cutting capers, — And chambers next day in the Temple he hired, And filled them with law-books and papers. Then to study the Law, like a man he went down, No scholar could ever be apter, For he bou2,ht an arm-chair, with a wig and a gown, And in Blackstone he read a whole chapter. At the end of a fortnight he grew thin and pale, And he thought he should die without jesting; So he dressed all in black, which he thought must prevail, For it made him look quite interesting. Then he called on his love, looking grave as a judge, And to plead his first suit was beginning ; But she laughed in his face, said the law was all fudge, And her heart would never be winning. Distracted he left her—transported with ire To think that his plan should miscarry; He tore up his gown—threw his wig in the fire— And kicked all his books to Old Harry. Next morning to Melton he rode like a dart, To adopt a new method to please her, For he vow'd that he'd conquer her obdurate heart, Or break his own neck—just to tease her. So he rode like a madman his wild steeple chase, And followed the hounds like a Tartar; And he galloped like wildfire at each hurdle-race, To win it or die like a martyr! Then his fame got abroad as a sportsman of note, And he thought he was now quite a hero, So he went to the maid in his bright scarlet coat, But his ardour soon tumbled to zero. For she told him his deeds were unworthy of fame, (Her remarks were all true to the letter,) That a fox or a bare were but pitiful game; And the riding his groom could do better. Poor Lovi now indUlged in a grief without bounds, FOr a week or two "sans intermission ;" Then he sold off his hunters, and gave up the hounds, And purchased a cornet's commission. In a cavalry reg'ment to battle he went, And he said not a word of his going ; But resolved that in action his life should be spent, Or at bast that his blood should be flowing. And soon in a charge which he gallantly led At the enemy's troops in platoon, He got a sad cut (while defending his head) In the arm from a heavy dragoon. Disabled from duty, he homeward returned, The news of a victory bringing ; And now with affection his loved maiden burned, And the town with his praises was ringing. One morning he called with his arm in a sling, And attired as a dashing young lancer ; To refuse him this time was a difficult thing, For she loved him, indeed,—when a dancer. When he talked of his passion, she listened with pride, And her heart by assault was soon carried ; And she shortly appeared as the young soldier's bride, For in less than a month they were married. FRASER'S MAGAZINE. The advent of the new year gives Oliver Yorke an opportunity of casting a retrospective glance on that which has just terminated. Of course, his remarks assume a strong political hue ; and vehement abuse of the Whigs, mixed up, by way of piquant contrast, with complimentary allu sions to the Tories, enable him to get through three or four pages with tolerable animation. But what does he mean by speaking of Mr. O'Connell as the " moribund Mayor of Dublin ?" In an official sense, the great Repealer has only just entered upon his civic career, and as for being "moribund" in any other sense, we be lieve he has no intention of dying for many years to come. "My Life and Times" is an autobio graphical sketch, from the pen of Mr. Apperley —the Nimrod of the sporting world. It is agree ably and unassumingly written, though we must enter our protest against the heading, as being too pompous for the subject-matter. Mr. Ap perley, clever as he confessedly is, sometimes instructive, always entertaining, has not yet ac quired sufficient standing as an author, to be justified in mixing up his personal reminiscences with the age in which he lives, as if he were one of the influencing spirits of that age. Having hinted this objection, we have said all that we have to say against Nimrod's autobiography. One of his earliest recollections is of Bishop Percy—the well-known collector of those fine old English ballads which have immortalized his name. Yet late in life, when he had been pro moted to the Bench, the Bishop actually pro fessed to be ashamed of his " Relics !" He con sidered the pursuit of poetry beneath the dignity of a Prelate—just as if posterity cares two straws for him in any other capacity than that of a poet! Congreve, it may be remembered, hade the same puerile vanity, and preferred being considered as a gentleman rather than as a dra matist. Mr. Apperley furnishes us with some amusing anecdotical souvenirs of his father, who, he says, " was called in his time an out-and-out Church and King man, alias a bigoted Tory." He was specially fond of Bishops,whom he seemed to regard as occupying a station midway between man and Deity, and was never so happy or so proud as when he could fill his house with lawn sleeves and shovel-hats. This is a species of biped nearly, if not quite, extinct. A few quaint samples of the breed may now and then be dis covered among the Ely fens, dressed out in rusty black, wearing cauliflower wigs, creaking shoes, set off with large brass buckles, and coats with capacious pockets, from which a Number or two of the Quarterly Review may be seen peeping out ; but nowhere else, do we believe, are these bind idolaters of Episcopacy to be met with. As well may you hunt for the fossil remains of the Mammoth. We heartily sympathise with the elder Mr. Apperley's distrust and apprehension of attornies. Such distrust argues a healthy moral sense. Who can like a shark, or fall in love with an aligator ? " A Chapter on the Dogs of several of my Acquaintances," contain some characteristic skethes of these faithful animals. We quote an account of a battle with a spotted hyaena, the scene of which is laid in South Africa:— The previous night some wild animal, conjectured to have been the spotted hyaena, had killed three calves in the kraal of Mr. Rennie, about eight miles distant from the location of Liddesdale. As this was an aggression that the high-spirited Scotch gentleman could not afford to have repeated often, he summoned his neighbours, the M'Leods, to his assistance ; and with rifles, cutlasses, and pistols, and all the dogs they could muster, they beat the covers around, killing four hymnas, besides dislodg ing several others, who escaped. A variety of game was destroyed ; consisting of the gemsbok and the hartebeest, with other specimens of the antelope tribe, forming a fine day's sport. But the dislodged hyaenas fled down the banks of the river, and at night ventured on the farm of Liddesdale, gaunt and hungry. The first brute that made its way, creeping stealthily towards the inclosure, came upon the sleeping Hottentot; and instantly placing its ponderous jaws over the poor herdsman's throat, snapped his destructive teeth, and tore out the sufferer's windpipe. The African could utter but one dismal yell. Brian started op, barked violently, awakening Liddesdale, who, jumping from his his bed, seized his rifle, stepped forth, followed by the stag hound, to discover what had happened. The dog► rushed forward, baying and menacing; and Liddesdale could only see by the glimmering light of the stars, something receding from him. It was the body of the Hottentot being dragged along by a fierce and strong hymna, that never once let loose the hold at the throat. Brian had rushed into a thicket, and made an attack on the brute. Liddesdale hesitated to fire, being apprehen sive that he should shoot the man or his own dog. On a sudden all rolled down the edge of a steep bank together. Liddesdale followed, the hyaena fled before Brian, and Liddesdale examining the poor h'rdsman's wound, found it to be mortal, for he had been suffocated with his own blood. Brian returned; it seemed like an extraordinary instinct, and an intervention of Providence, for at the same moment the cattle in the inclosure were lowing dis mally, and the heart-piercing shrieks of Mrs. Liddesdale floated in the night air. The dog flew to the inclosure. The bold heart of Liddesdale quailed. He sprang over the fence, and there beheld an appalling sight indeed. A large spotted hymna had dragged the boy Alick from his bed, and vas inflicting grievous wounds on his flesh; but at the next moment the hyaena uttered a dismal howl, and Liddesdale saw Brian snap upon the beast and drag it backwards from the poor child, giving the fero cious brute a powerful gripe, which made the stag hounds teeth meet at the vertebrae of the neck, and there he held his antagonist fast. The first effort of Liddes dale was to raise his shrieking boy; and gently again to place him on his bed. He then rushed with a sabre on the hyaena, who was struggling with mighty efforts, and rolling over and over with Brian, who, however, never relinquished his hold, notwithstanding being torn every moment with the sharp claws of the hymna. Liddesdale observing this, disabled the murderous beast by a cut across each joint of the leg-bone, and at length succeed ed in plunging the sabre into the heart of the hyaena, when the crimson blood rushed along the floor of the cabin. In the third Part of the "Summer Holiday" —the two former have already appeared—there are several interesting particulars respecting celebrated English oaks. Strange to say, how ever, the author makes no mention of four of the most celebrated ones—viz. the one in Windsor Park, for ever associated with Jack Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor; the huge Fairlop oak which was cut down a few years since, and was considered, we believe, the largest and oldest in the country ; the one in which Charles the Second took shelter on his flight from Wor cester, and the famous one, still shown to the inquisitive traveller, beneath whose ample shade Sir Phillip Sidney is said to have been born. In quoting the line " Time bath moulded into beauty many a tower," the author is guilty of two inaccuracies. In the first place, he attri butes it to Mason, whereas it was written by Sir Walter Scott; and secondly, he substitutes "moulded" for " mouldered," thereby destroy ing all the poetical beauty of the idea. Of the few remaining articles, the cleverest, or at any rate the most humourous, is the " Letter from Barney -Brallaghan to Oliver Yorke, Esq." THI4I SUN, LONDON SATURDAY,... JANUARY 1, 1842. should premise are all enjoying themselves at one of their hebdomadal meetings, and cracking their offensive jokes on each other:— This ended, Dapper drew Roughshod away from the table, and offered to lay him a wager that he 'would make Addlepate repeat the words, , ' I wish you wouldn't move my glass," two-and-thirty times within the hour." The wager was accepted, and all of us (with the ex ception of the poor helpless victim and his Butt. col league) were quietly informed of it. Dapper resumed his seat, and drawing Addlepate's glass a little away from him, said— " And how are you by this time, Wiseacre ?" " I wish you wouldn't move my glass," said the victim. " I don't," said the wit, again removing it. " But you do," said the other, drawing it back again ; " and I wish you wouldn't move my glass." After a short interval, the experiment was repeated by Dapper, and was met, in precisely the same manner and with precisely the same words, by Addlcpate. Suffice it to say that the wager was won easily in 49 minutes. This excellent jest was received with loud laughter and great applause. For my own part, having wit nessed its performance on the four previous evenings of my attendance at the '• School" (that is to say, on every evening since I have had the honour of belonging to it), I must•confess, that though it had not become posi tively tiresome, I was less charmed by it than upon the first two or three occasions ; and, unless it be one of the standing and chartered jests of the society, I shall pro pose that its performance be limited to every second meeting, unless a new member chance to be present for the first time, in which case it will be indispensable to his perfect knowledge of the merits of the " School for Horse-play." After this there commenced a brief silence, which was occupied by Dapper and Roughshod in exchanging winks and glances with each other. It was sufficiently intelligible that an entertaining attack upon the new member was the object. " Mr.—Mr.--- I beg your pardon, but I really forget your name," said Roughshod, addi•essing Mr. Courtly. " Courtly, sir," replied the latter. " Courtly, with an o ?" inquired the wit ; at the same time, by sundry nods and winks, preparing the initiated for one of his brilliant sallies. " Exactly so, sir," replied Courtly. " Why, then," continued the illustrious Horse-player, " as we all in this society give nicknames to one another, we shall call you Squintly, with an eye. Do ycni take?" At this joke the applause was unbounded : even the poor Butts seemed to appreciate it, for they laughed louder than the rest of the company. " Pray, Gentlemen, am I a bona fide member of your School,' not having paid my admission-fee 2" inquired Courtly. Being answered in the negative, he asked what was the amount of the fee. " Only ten shillings," briskly replied the attorney's clerk ; " which is sixpence less than all the profits you seem likely ever to make by your profession—the fee for one half-guinea motion." Mr. Courtly rose, drew forth his purse, and threw tett shillings down upon the table ; observing with a grave look, that he considered the fee to be exorbitant— monstrous. " You are now regularly admitted, though merely as a Butt," said Roughshod ; " and, as you will remain so till you have proved yourself worthy of promotion by saying as good a thing as the worst you have heard to-night, you may as well go to sleep for the next twelve month at least." This, of course, was greatly applauded. METROPOLITAN MAGAZINE. The pen of the " Irish Barrister" this month strikes off in a brilliant sketch the character and distinguishing powers of Mr. Blackburne, the Attorney-General for Ireland. Tracing his career from the time of his school-fellowship in 1801 with Moore, the poet, to 1803, when he ob tained the classical gold college-medal for his distinguished answering, and to his subsequent preparation for the bar, when, like Lord Hale, " he loved to toil terribly," the writer pounces with MI spirit upon the period, when, after a few day's call to the bar, he astonished the lawyers of half a century's standinc , by his work ing out of tough motions and cases . of complexity, with :an adroitness that led Sergeant Ball to " Who is that surprising boy ?" The first occasion on which he signalized himself was when Curran was " pitchforked" into the Rolls, and the bar split itself into two divisions on the propriety of presenting him with an address ; Blackburne was among the fifty-six dissidents, and the bold eloquence of so young a man, lay ing down imperiously the law of bar-etiquette, aggravated many, but gained him eminence from all. This was the first act of the drama, and thereafter his rise was rapid, to the foremost rank at the Chancery bar. He realised money and reputation, and by speedy and ascendant steps obtained the Attorney-Generalship. His excel lency as a lawyer cannot but be admitted ; but to the " unswerving firmness" of his political creed, tergiversation altogether supplants uni rmity. An Emancipationist under the Wel lesley Government, he ran into the reverse under the Liverpool : a sterling Reformer under Lord Grey, he fluctuated with astonishing facility to the opposition host, and attached himself, thane in the garb of a renegade, to the Peel and Stanleyite faction. Comment there need be none on this; honour succumbed to pelf and place, and each inconsistency !listened a blot upon his scutcheon. His contrariety of opinion has put the " sweet wine of Reform into the vinegar-bottles of Toryistn," and thereby Bete• rioratively broken up the otherwise healthy esti mation of his character. Three more chapters from Mrs. Trollope, conclude " The Blue Belles" of England, whereby those cerulean vestals are laid to rest. It terminates in the happy union of Constance—who, throughout the tale, is an amiable personation of a young fine-minded Englishwoman—with Mr. Fitzosborne. The eccentricities and emotions of " A Bachelor of Fifty" are amusingly developed, and a dark military intrigue with a bright beauty is helped on by the instrumentality of " Othello," in the " Tales of the Pump-room." MONTHLY MAGAZINE. After the chances and mutations attendant upon a long literary existence, this oldest of the living Magazines commences its forty-fifth year under the editorship of Mr. Benson Hill. Corn pared with its late counterpart, it could not be capable of wider dissimilarity. Papers replete with mysticism, and profound in the- exploded doctrines of Boehmen, Fox, and Swedenborg, have disappeared with all their gravity and learning, and yield a place to the lightsome and jocose. If the old depth be wanting, smartness plays over the surface of the present, and the series of papers read brisk and interesting. " Kindred Meads" lay the scene in a pretty part of Berkshire, deducing their name from the fa mily " Kindred," among whom the writer in troduces Shakspeare ; and either legendarily or truly, relates them to be the actual family whose members the poet has imortalised in his ' Seven Ages." A literary curiosity appears in the shape of an original letter of Edmund Kean's, which in a psychological point of view must be con sidered either the production of insanity or a rhapsodical eccentricity. The following is the account given : The great tragic actor above-named had beed,forisome time indebted to an innkeeper, near Hammersmith, who received the sum due to him, after many fruitless appli cations. The money was sent in a note, of which the following is an authentic and literal transcript : " Dear R—s. Time, the Apex of the Universal wheel, will whirl away at last, and when the Chaos,shall have overwhelmed this world, new states, new suns, new times will yet arise, and with new names. I enclose you the amount of your bill, and thank you for your kind in dulgence. Sincerely, Edmund Kean." Mr. R—s would neither part with this document nor allow any one to copy it, but another tragedian, hav ing, what the members of his profession call " a rapid study," learnt it at two readings, repeated it once the same day, to a still apter memory. It was set down, verbatim, at once. The "French fictions now most popular in England" are uncharitably re - viewed ; -the " Corinna" will a l ways b e a d m i red for its ideal beauty, and "The Hunch-back of Notre-Damer for its intrinsic loveliness, though a nice-edged criticism may carp at their morality. An °Ha podrida of other brief but readable papers winds up the Number. NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. Mr. Hood opens the present Number of this Magazine in a most appropriate fashion—that is to say, by a lively Anacreontic in honour of the New Year. Next follows a prose sketch, with the quaint title of the " School for Horse-Play." which is the production of Mr. Poole, the dra matist, and gives a quizzical account of a club which is supposed to meet weekly at the sign of the" Hog and Hop-sack," in Chancery-lane, and whose members consider it the height of humour to pass off insults on each other, in the shape of coarse jokes on each other's real or imagined peculiarities. In pourtraying this club we have little doubt that the author had a real model in his eye, and intended to satirize the sayings and doings of sundry of those lawyers' clerks, whom Boz has delineated with such truth and force in the " Pickwick Papers." If so, the sarcasm has been most justly applied. " Recollections of Eton" are ingeniously put together, and we can ourselves bear testimony to the truth of some of the writer's reminiscences. For instance, he mentions his having gone to Langley-Broom, which was a preparatory school to Eton,and speaks of the Master as having "wielded the birch with a most powerful arm, andhaving been termed the Prince of Floggers." He was, indeed, a rare flagallent, wielding the birch and the cane with equal skill; and the smart of his vigorously-flourished ferula, as 11 forced us night after night thrgligh ypq in different Greek of the New Testainent, still tingles in our imagination. A " Strange Pas sage in the Life of Charles Welford, Esq." is a very strange tale indeed, the point or force pf which we do- not exactly unclewa r d. ffith : neas Quiddy" pontains ono 1:)r two graphif scenes, and an amusing episode on the subject of a haunted house. We extract from Mr. Poole's " School for Horse-play," the following 4iirPl3- ing passage. The members of the club, we THE DUBLIN MAGAZINE. This Magazine opens the New Year with great spirit. The "Curse of Kishoge " is one of the happiest imitations of the unrivalled Ingoldsby Legends that we have met with. The hero, a " Kerry boy," fond of love and whiskey, rides a race at Midnight with the Spectre Chieftain of the Lakes of Killarney, O'Donoghue, from whom he wins a steed; is subsequently charged with horse-stealing, condemned to be hanged, and only escapes the rope by the not uncommon miracle of his constant attachment to the bottle. For as his biographer writes :- - he that could lope With a parson or pope, Faith it frightened the whiskey to see his mouth ope ; By the powers of delf Fathew Mathew himself Among all, his apostles ne'er met such a swiper ; Let him bring the worst rascal That e'er used a cask ill, And Pat would have drunk him as drunk as a piper. Oh ! 'twould gladden.the heart of the veriest grumbler. To see how he swallowed down tumbler on tumbler ! Of " Frigid= sine" Or brandy or wine, he Would quaff as a fish does of sea-water briny. " Nuts and Nutcrackers" is a very clever pa per, ,of which, though not partial to continua tions, we are glad that we have not seen the l as t in this number. it will afford us a couple of amusing extracts, of which the " Polish Count" shall be the first : You cannot open a newspaper without meeting some narrative of what, in the phrase of the day, is denomi nated an attempted imposition. Count Skryznyzk, with black moustachoes and a beard to match, who, after being the lion of Lord Dudley Stuart's parties, and the de light of a certain set of people in the west end, who, when they give a tea party, call it a soiree, and deem it necessary to have either a Hindoo, or a Hottentot, a Pole or a piano-player, to interest their guests, was lately brought up before Sir Peter Laurie, charged by 964 with obtaining money under false pretences, and sen tenced to three months' imprisonment and hard labour at the treadmill. The charge looks a grave one, good reader, and per haps already some notion is trotting through your head about forgery or embezzlement ; you think' of widows rendered desolate, or orphans defrauded; you lament over the bard-earned pittance of persevering industry lost to its possessor ; and, in, your heart, you acknow ledge that there may have been some cause for the par tition of Poland, and that the Emperor of the Russias, like another monarch, may not be half so black as he is painted. But spare your honest indignation; our.un pronouncable friend did none of these. No; the head and front of his offending was simply exciting the sym pathies. of a feeling world for his own deep wrongs; for the fate of his father, beheaded in the Grand Place at Warsaw; for his four brothers, doomed never to see the sun in the dark mines of 'robolsk ; for his beautiful sister, reared in the lap of luxury and wealth, wandering houseless and an outcast around the palaces of St. Peters burgh, wearying heaven itself with cries for mercy on her banished brethren; and last of all, for himself, he, who at the battle of Pultawa led heaven knows how many and how terrific charges of cavalry,—whose breast was a galaxy of orders only outnumbered by his wounds, that he should be an exile, without friends, and without home!—ln a word, by a beautiful and highly• wrought narrative, that drew tears from the lady and ten shillings from the gentleman of the house, he became , amenable to our law as a swindler and an impostor, simply because his narrative was a fiction. In the name of all justice, in the name of truth, of honesty, and fair dealing, I ask you is this right ? or if the treadmill be the fit reward for such powers as his, what shall we say, what shall we do, with all the popular writers of the day? How many of Bulwer's stories are facts? What truth is there in James? Is that beautiful creation of Dickens, "Poor Nell," a real or a fictitious character? And is the offence, after all, merely in the manner, and not the matter, of the transgression ? Is it that, instead of coming before the world printed, puffed, and hot-pressed by the gentlemen of the Row, he ven tured to edite himself, and, instead of the trade, make his tongue the medium of publication? And yet, if speech be the crime, what say you to Macready, and with what punishment are you prepared to visit him who made your heart-strings vibrate to the sorrows of Virginius, or thrills your very blood with the malignant vengeance of Iago? Is what is permissible in Covent Garden ori minal in the City? or, stronger still, is there a punish ment at one place and praise at the other? Or is it the costume, the foot-lights, the orange peel, and the saw dust,—are they the terms of the immunity ? Alas, and alas! I believe they are. Next to this, the relative fates of Willis, the American author of " Pencillings by the Way," / and the Boy Jones, claim our especial notice. Never was good honest John Bull's predilection for strangers more happily - - hit off than in the ,5010004.31.4.4.tract , wr , ,- Of all the lions that capfloo,and.thewhigisical surdity of a second-rate set in fashion 'ever courted and entertained, never had any one less pretensions to the civility he received than the author of " Pencillings by the Way" —poor in thought, still poorer in expression, without a spark of wit, without a gleam of imagination —a fourth-rate looking man, and a fifth-rate talker, he continued to receive the homage we were wont to be stow upon a Scott, and even charity extended to a Dickens. His writings the very slip-slop of " corn merage," the tittle-tattle of a Sunday paper, dressed up in the cant of Kentucky; the very titles, the contempti ble affectation of unredeemed twaddle, Pencillings by the way ! Letters from under a bridge. Good Lack— how the latter name is suggestive of eaves-dropping and listening; and how involuntarily we call to mind those chance expressions of his partners in the dance, or his companions at the table, faithfully recorded for the edi fication of the free-born Americans who, while they ridicule our institutions, endeavour to pantomime our manners. Fpast a number of per sons h ave d r i ven a thriving many iyin years gtradein a singular branch of commerce, no less than buying up cast Court-dresses and second-hand uniforms for exportation to the colonies. The negroes, it is said, are far prouder of figuring in the tattered and tarnished fragments of former greatness, than of wear ing the less gaudy, but more useful garb, befiting their condition. So it would seem our transatlantic friends prefer importing through their agents, for that purpose, the abandoned finery of Courtly goss ip, t o t h e more use ful but less pretentious apparel Of commo n -pl ace infor mation. Mr, 'Willis was invaluable for thi s nurrae ; he told his friends every thing that he heard, and he heard every thing that he could; and, like moray, b e enjoyed a duplicate of blessings —f or v 4 jl 4 vli s de lightedwasdined by ours. 'Y He sea titnerbeydhhisiloluvntvcou4trkliyi,raewin ear:vs O'Connor did all h might ; and yet, i n th e fry*s; kraiic-,d, Ole ci, lie. hie. read his OWn poetry, and W m e irst t e rie w fth h is o , le a li r o iv n al w starts up equally desirous 9,f-court secrets, and fifty times as entrpr4kn A i - in their search ; he risks his liberty, BETINI 121 m the pursuit, and what i hi‘ 10 . 10 A AgO4 y tell you his name, and Yolt,te allivered—l mean the boy Jones ; not under a bridge, but under a sofa ; not in Almacks, obtaining it at second-hand, but in Buckingham Palsce—in the very apartment of the Queen---the adventurous youth has dared to illittPlkte iiialself, No lady, however, sends her album tg him for same memento of his genius. His tem ple is not defrauded of its curls to grace a locket or a medallion; and his reward, instead of a supper at Lady Blessington's, is a voyage to Swan River. For my part, I prefer the boy Jones: I like his singleness of purpose: I admire his steady perseverance; still, however, he had the misfortune to be born in England—his father lived near Wapping, and he was ineligible for a lion. To what other reason than his English growth can be attributed the different treatment he has experienced at the hands of the world. The similarity between the two characters is most striking. Willis had a craving appetite for Court gossip, and the tittle-tattle of a palace ; so had the boy Jones. Willis established him self as a listener in society; so did the boy Jones. Willis obtruded himself into places, and among people where he had no possible pretension to be seen; so did the boy Jones. Willis wrote letters from under a bridge: the boy Jones eat mutton chops under a sofa. The portly figure of Sir William Rowan Ha milton, President of the Royal Irish Academy, adorns the portrait gallery of the " University Magazine" for this month. The " Vice Legate's Ball," the " Chapters on ei hostcraft," and " Gas par the Pirate," are all very clever. There is an excellent Review of " Tyler's History of Scot land," fast becoming one of the few standard histories originally written in the English lan guage. Altogether the Number is a very good one. LITERATURE. NARRATIVE OF THE LATE EXPEDITION TO SYRIA. In 2 Toll. By tir. I'. Bunter, Esti. London, Colburn, 1842. The writer of these exceedingly interesting volumes accompanied the Syrian expedition as an amateur observer, and being on terms of inti macy with Admiral Walker, and several distin guished officers in the Turkish, British, and Aus trian squadrons, had ample opportunities of col lecting the best information relative to the pro gress of the stirring events of which he was an eye-witness. His narrative is full of life, and interspersed with anecdotes of " hair-breadth 'scapes," and acts of personal prowess, such as are usually only to be met with in works of fic tion. But Mr. Hunter has kept strictly within the bounds of truth ; so that the future historian of this chapter in the world's history will meet with no safer guide than is supplied by his pages. Most of the work appeared from month to month in the " United Service Journal," and the praise which we bestowed upon it in a detached form renders it unnecessary that we should now do more than congratulate the officers and men com posing the Syrian expedition on so correct an account of their exploits being now presented to the public in a more compact and accessible shape. The volumes are embellished with por traits of Admiral Stopford and Commodore Na pier —the latter the real hero of the expedition— and with plans of the engagements along the Syrian coast. We had marked some extracts for quotation, but at present we have only space for the following description of Izzet Mehemet Paella, the new Prime Minister of the Sultan. How strikingly it agrees with what we have writ ten of this Minister, the constant readers of The Sun need not be told : Syria began to offer temptations, and to be bid for at the Porte. Izzet Mehemet Paella, one of the old school of three-tailed grinding Bashaws, rich as a Crcesus with the fruits of long extortion, landed at Beyrout, rejoicing in the grandiloquent title of Governor of Syria and of Egypt. There can be no better proof of the watchful surveillance ever incumbent on the European representa tives at the Porte, who may be true well-wishers of Turkish ascendancy, than the appointment, at such a moment of a man like Izzet Pacha to chief authority in Syria. One of the most noted of that selfish class of local administrators, who have mainly contributed to the late abject condition of the Ottoman empire,—a man who has, before now, kept back even the shirts and shoes of his soldiers, in order to put the money allowed for their purchase in his pocket ! It is true he for a few days valiantly defended Varna against the Russians ; but he also evacuated it to her General (well known for certain persuasive powers) at a very opportune moment. True it is, also, that he has many enemies in the Divan ; but, at the same time, he has more friends there than any other Pacha ; and a single individual, however rich and astute, cannot pur chase up tlle good opinions of a whole Sanhedrim, such as is the Council at Constantinople. Solim Pacha, on old Izzet's arrival, at once became deprived of power, although locally appointed as his lieutenant ; nay, Izzet was placed superior even to the Commander, for the time being, of the Sultan's forces. And what were his first proceedings in Beyrout ? He sent for the members of the Shora, or municipal council, and inquired what debts of the late government remain uncollected, On being informed that every pars of available taxes had pre viously been called in, he asked if there were not other imposts which it had been found impracticable to realise. The latter was by no means difficult, for their Egyptian rulers had ceased only to impose burdens when the acme of their capabilities had been tested. A sum of 20,000 piastres was found to be standing against the town. " Let that money," said the new Governor, " be collected from the 'inhabitants by to-morrow at noon, and all who fail shall suffer forfeiture of their effects." Alas ! alas ! for the first fruits of the vaunted reformation in Turkey. HISTORY, ARMORIES, AND ANTIQVITIES OF THE TOWER. ORDNANCE OFFICE, TOWER. The re-arrangement of the Tower Armories, consequent upon the recent sad disaster, necessarily calls for a new guide-book, demonstrative of their altered localization. Mr. Hewett's brochure at the same time that it supplies this desideratum, combines with itself an authenticity derived from the Tower records. One object held in view by the writer is to imbue visitors with a moderate degree of understanding as to the exhibition in spected, so that they may judge of its merits, and enjoy its beauties; while the critical niceties which he undertakes to explain respecting the panoply of our old champions, the accoutrements of their steeds, and the uses of their war-arms, will afford keen eyes a task of discovery at a fu ture visit in the originals themselves. Among the delineations of the machines of torment which were formerly used in the various torture chambers, the refined cruelty of the " Mater Dolorosa " is thus described : This was an image of the Virgin, made of wood and iron, and so constructed that " the victim subjected to its embraces had by degrees his life squeezed out of his body." The Jungfern Kuss (the maiden's kiss) was a somewhat similar punishment ; it was inflicted bj an " Iron Virgin, seven feet high, which stretched forth both its arms in the face of the criminal, and with broad hand swords hewed him into little pieces, which were swallowed by fishes in hidden waters.' Among the antiquated relics of the gun-foun dry department, burnt in half by the late con flagration, was the following curiosity : A brass 6 pounder gun, date 1581, with the figure of a frog on the barrel, and the motto, Ich sing and spring I sing and spring Mein feind durch dring. • My foe transfixing. Among those not much damaged, it is to be rejoiced that two French brass mortars are pre served, if only for the sake of their fine motto— " Non solis radios, sed Jovis fulmina mitto"—" I dart not sun-rays, but the bolts of Jove." Much to be regretted, however, is the loss of the Chi nese trophy, composed of military arms and dresses taken at Chusan, and set up only a day or two previously to the fire. To the many Christmas-goers who will frequent the Tower at the present holiday season, at the same time that Mr. Hewitt's book is to be recommended as their best cicerone, they should especially examine the rich armour-suits described at page 66, made to commemorate the unionof our Eighth Henry with Katharine of Arragon, among the love-badges of which the rose and pomegranate abound. Among the many fables propagated, in early times, of the Tower, one legend states that its foundation stones were . 1 cemented together with the blood of beasts." GOVERNESSES, or MODERN EDUCATION. Authoress, :12, Newmoi-street, Oxford-street. Guided by the canons of pu're reason, and basing her system of instruction upon the new and enlightened p r i nc i p l es that distinguish the Kantesian school, Madame B. Riofrey has effected great service to the heads of the educa tional world by her publication of this work. Swayed by the belief that to be a good governess it is necessary to enter into the feelings of the mother, and that as the infant mind with its delicate faculties should be, in its early years, carefully rendered a recipient of only the purest intuitions, our authoress, in fashioning her book, has been studious to lay down, in a series of clearly-written chapters, the elevated truths and . refined morality which ever y f ema l e teac h er o f youth should possess. In these pages, such wi!,, see, as in a glass, the loveliness of the Dutie s which devol ve u p on th em to i ncu lca ,- „ , as pre ceptors of their speci es , an d in tie advocacy of which the authoress labour:, with praiseworthy solicitude and earnest,:ess. Believing the mind to be a ri ch -garden, which, according to the seed in it by the hands of the sower, is de"_ # :ined thereafter to produce the golden fruits of good, or the opposite of evil, Madame Riofrey enforces the fact, with candour and firmness, th a t the governess who exercises influence over so valued and precious a possession, must be her self a highly moral and religious character. Man, it has been observed, is an imitative animal, and the soul is said to be so passive and unresisting in Sts primitive years, that, like a stream, it reflects within its depths whatever virtues or whatever vices may casually overshadow it in its rising source. Truly, said the philosopher—"derriere l'education est cache le mystere du perfectionne went et du bonheur de l'humanite." In these early years, when impressions of the good, the beautiful, and the religious write themselves in effaceably upon the mind; so vice, more strong than virtue, if it only gain an exercise of its powers, burns deeper than a searing-iron. Care ful, therefore, should all men be in the choice of the guardians of youth, and reciprocally wary should teachers be to set before them selves such high models of moral come liness as are recommended in this book, dedicated to their use and service. Better than brilliant external accomplishments, our authoress recommends interior mental vir tue : in her estimation the finished touch of the harp-strings is far less worthy of commendation in a youthful lady, than a simple development of some sweet moral feeling, or the practice of some ingenuous virtue. Subversive this may be in a great measure of the present method of edu cation, but it is the only healthful view that ought to insure acceptation. The pearl of mind has hitherto been put in a false setting; but it is to be hoped that time " mental gem," under Ma dame Riofrey's new plan of tutelage, will ac quire in the next generation a fairer lustre than it has customarily gained under the old. The papers which constitute the volume are admir ably calculated to work out the ends proposed, Petrarch, Wordsworth, Tiraboschi, Latnartine, and others, need only be mentioned to stamp its choicely-written lessons in different languages as worthy selections ; w hil e no l ess t h an f orty ethical chapters from the pen of Madame Rio frey herself enjoin her salutary and efficacious precepts. LAYS AND LYRICS. Menzies, Edinburgh, 1841 The author of this volume of Poems states, i❑ his Preface, that he was prevailed on to publish them by several kind old friends, who even so licited him to do so by a round robin, which they sent to Min with all their signatures attached. Such solicitations were not to be denied, and the result is the little volume before us, which, though it gives few decisive tokens of what Wordsworth has somewhere called " the vision and the faculty divine," yet exhibits a quick ap prehension of the music of verse, and abounds in such healthy, unaffected feeling, as does great credit to the author's head and heart. Some of his minor lyrics, such as " Fatherland," and the " Harp of the Troubadour," are really very cre ditable specimens of versification. CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE. Part IT MASSINGER AND FORD. Part IV: MID DLETON'S LIFE OF CICERO. Part IV. WYCHERLE Y, CONGREVE, cyc. Part IV. Moxon, London, 1841. These are republications of some of our stand ard works, in monthly half-a-crown Parts, which are got up with great care and neatness. By issuing them in this cheap and commodious form, Mr. Moxon is conferring a great benefit on the reading public. SIR WALTER SCOTT'S PROSE WORKS. Cadell, Edinburgh, 1841. In addition to the Sixth Part of Sir Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon, which brings down the history to the battle of Dresden in 1813, and General Moreau's death, we have here also the entire novel of the " Monastery," printed first in one octavo number ; and, secondly, in a neat duo. decimo volume. Both reprints are very cre ditably executed. FROM THE FRENCH PAPERS. We extract the following from the Debats :—" The Companies of the two Versailles Railroads held sepa rate general meetings on Monday, to come to a final ' resolution as to a union. The project was agreed upon several months ago by the respective Councils of Ad ministration. It consisted in a junction of the two un. dertakings, taking the shares at the average price from those quoted on the Exchange during several years, or in other words, five shares in the Versailles and Meudon road are to have only an equal interest in the new Com pany with three shares in the Versailles and St. Cloud road. The meeting of the latter confirmed this treaty by a majority of '234 to 1, and that of the other by 405 to 76. These votes put an end to a deplorable opposition, which has done great injury to the cause of railroads in general in France, as it has occasioned loss to the shareholders of each of these particular undertakings. The Government must be sensible from this result of the error committed by the Legislature in authorising the construction of two railroads for the same place. Before signing the Treaty, the Directors of the two Companies obtained a promise that a Bill should be presented for relieving the United Company, for a certain number of years, from the payment of the interest and the sinking fund, on the loan of 5,000,0001. granted to the Versailles and Meudon road. By means of this relief, and the economy to be made by a concentration of the service, and by prolongations and embranchments, which will render the two stations in Paris more useful and profit able, the two undertakings may rise to prosperity. Already the town of Versailles and the Council-General of the Eurc-et-Loire, have voted a subvention of 1,200,000 f. for the formation of a railroad from Ver. seines to Chartres. With the concurrence of the country and the State, France may now hope to rise from the inferiority in which she has hitherto remained as compared with other kingdoms in respect to railroads." A young woman, named Marie Decourcy, had been living for some time with Julliard, a journeyman shoe maker, but became at length weary of his ill treat ment, and some time ago she left him. The man de termined to be revenged for her desertion, and three days afterwards lay in wait, as she came out of a shop where she worked, and induced her to go home with him in order to take away some things which she had left. Scarcely had she entered the room than Julliard gave her a deep wound in the breast, but was pre- I vented from completing his design of murdering her by the porteress of the house, who came on hearing the girl's screams. Julliard was arrested, and yesterday made his appearance before the Court of Assizes, by which he was found guilty of a deliberate attempt at m fe urder, and condemned to hard labour at the hulk s f or ' li. The Gazette des Tribunaux says that Just-Brazier and Colombier are reported to have acknowledged all the facts imputed to them on their trial, and to have made besides some important disclosures. The exa mining commission of the Peers met again yesterday, it, adds ; a new information has been set on foot, and se veral writs of arrest have been issued. The Gazette des Tribunaux says that no decision has yet been come to on the demand for mercy made by the prisoners under sentence of death.—The Debats says, " Yester day, after the sitting of the Chamber of Peers, the exa mining commission met at the Petit Luxembourg in the residence of the Chancellor, and decided that a supple mentary examination should take place immediately. It appears certain that revektions made by Colombier and Just-Brazier have caused five or six arrests, which were effected on Monday night."—" We are assured," says the National, " that the head Registrar of the Court of Peers went on Monday evening, at 9 o'clock, to the gaol of the Luxembourg, in order to announce to Quenisset, Colombier, and Just-Brazier that their punishment had been commuted to deportation."— The France reports that, among the persons just ar rested, is a gun-maker, who sold or remitted the pistols to Colombier. On the 21st inst., the Prussian Ambassador at Munich made an official communication to the Court of Bavaria of the promise of marriage between Princess Mary of Prussia, daughter of Prince William, uncle bf the King, and the Prince Royal of Bavaria. The marriage is not, however, to take place before the month of October 1842. The Prince Royal of Bavaria, Maximilian Joseph, was born on the Bth November, 1811. He received his education in different German Universities. Princess Mary of Prussia is the youngest of the daughters of the uncle of the King of Prussia. She is only in her seventeenth year, having been born on the I.sth October, 1825. She is said to be exceedingly amiable and beautiful. M. Delecluze has lately made a discovery among the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci, carrying back a knowledge of the steam-engine to at least as tar back as the 15th century. He has published in the Artiste a notice on the lite of Leonardo da Vinci, to which he adds a fac-simile of a page from one of his manu scripts, and on which are five sketches with the pen, representing the details of the apparatus of a steam gun, with an explanatory note upon what he desig nates under the name of the Architonnerre, and of which note the following is a translation :—" Invention of Ar chirnedes.—The Architonnerre is a machine offine copper, which throws balls with a loud report and peat force. It is used in the following manner:—One-third of this instrument contains 4 large quantity of charcoal fire. When the water i•:s well heated, a screw at the top of the vessel whi'fn contains the water must be made quite tight. Or., closing the screw above, all the water will escaPe below, will descend into the heated portion of instrument, and be immediately converted into a vapour so abundant and powerful, that it is wonderful to see its fury, and hear the noise it produces. This machine will carry a ball of a talent in weight." It is worthy of remark that Leonardo da Vinci, far from claiming the merit of this invention for himself, or the men of his time, attributes it to Archimedes. EARTHQUAKE IN ROSS•SHIRE.-011 Mon day the 20th instant, exactly at four o'clock, P.M., a severe shock of an earthquake was felt at Kintail, and in several of the neighbouring, parishes to the great alarm of the inhabitants. There was nothing peculiar in the state of the weather, or the appearance of the day, unless it might be a stillness and calmness in the atmosphere, which, although remarked at the time, is not uncommon at even this season of the year. There was no recurrence of the shock. The noise which invariably accompanies such visitations, like the rushing of water or the rattling of a carriage, was very distinct. We have before noticed the extreme prevalence of light ning, with occasional thunder, in th e wes t an d nort h Higlands this winter, but the above is the only case of earthquake in the same districts, which has come to our knowledge.—lnverness Courier. The exportation to London of rabbits from France amounts to some thousands weekly ; but they are inferior to the English. American venison has also become an article of importation to this country. — Manchester Guardian. MORNING SU _ THE TEN HOURS FACTORY QUESTION. A REPORT ADDRESSED TO THE SHORT-TIME COMMIT. , TEES OF THE WEST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE, OF CER•• TUN CONFERENCES HELD WITH THE RIGHT HON. SIR ROBERT PEEL, DART., M.P , &ND SEVERAL OF HIS COL LEAGUES, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE TEN HOURS FAO- TORY QUESTION, AND OTHER IMPORTANT MATTERS, Having been deputed by you to wait upon the lead-. ing members of the present Administration, to urge upon their attention the necessity and importance of a Bill for the better regulition of infantile and youthful labour in factories, we beg to present to you an abstract of our proceedings in the various interviews with which we were honoured, as the best mode of laying before you the results of our labours in the discharge of the duty confided to us. INTERVIEW WITH SIR ROBERT PEEL, BART., FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY, ETC. The first visit of the deputaton was to Sir Robert Peel, upon whom they waited by appointment on the 23th of o:!tober, at his official residence, Downing street. Robert received the deputation in the most courteous manner, and awaited in silence their statement. The Deputation opened the business by saying " We have been deputed to wait upon you, Sir Robert, by the short-time Committees of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in consequence of a letter from Lord Ashley, stating that Sir Robert Peel's opinions were not yet matured upon the Factory question. We were is hopes that you would have come, by this time, to a satisfactory conclusion respecting the Ten-hours Bill, and we now press upon your attention the necessity which exists for introducing such a Bill at an early period of the ensuing session—a Bill for the better re gulation of labour in factories. Sir ROBERT—" Will you please first to explain the nature of the Bill you propose ?" The deputation ex plained that the leading provisions they were anxious to see enacted were— 1. A clause declaring that in future no person be tween 1:1 and 21 years of age should be employed more than ten hours per day in any mill or factory.' The Deputation added that it was mote urgent now thus, ever to have a legislative protection for those above 13 years of age, owing to the immense increase in the pro• portion of females now working in factories. ".2. That to insure the fulfilment of this clause., no young person should be permitted to stay or be found in the mills between six o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the morning. The mill-owner or manager infringing the law to be subjected to the penalty of im prisonment. _ " 3. The gradual withdrawal of all females from the factories.. "4. The boxing off of all dangerous p ar t s o f ma chinery, under a heavy penalty, with a power of re covering compensation for any injury sustained through neglect of this provision. Sir ROBERT said—" The last point is a mere mat ter of detail ; but don't you think there would be very great hardship in the proposal respecting female labour? Suppose a widow, with two daughters, without any other means of support than her and their labour. Would it not be very unjust to step in between her and an honest employment, and say, you shall not be al lowed to support yourselves by your own labour?" The Deputation—" There are certainly difficulties connected with this portion of the subject, and the one so strongly stated by you is not the least. Such cases, however, would be the exception, not the rule ; and it is the latter, not the former, to which all legislation is directed. Special cases might be provided for by special enactments. We do not believe that any evils which might arise from even a rigourous and entire prohibition of female labour could be comparedl with those which spring from the present system. The females employed in factories are generally the offspring of parents who have been similarly situated. They get little, if any, education worthy the ne.mo pre vious to entering the mills ; and, as soon as they enter them (generally at a very early age, in or.insequence of the connivance of parents, medical mrn, and factory owners, to evade the present law) they are surrounded by influences of the most vitiating and debasing nature. They grow up in total ignorance of all the true duties of woman. Home, its cares and its employments, is woman's true sphere, but these poor things are totally unfitted for attending to the one, or participating in the other. They neither learn, in the great majority of eases, to make a shirt, darn a stocking, cook a dinner, or cleats a house. In short, both in mind and manners, they are altogether unfitted for the occupancy of a domestic posi tion, as is evidenced by the fact that the wealthy and middle classes very rarely engage any of this class as servants. Yet those who are thus considered unfit even tea fill the office of menial to the rich, arc the only partiea among whom, ordinarily, the male factriry labourer has a chance of obtaining a wife. They are married early. Many are mothers before 20. Thriftlessness and waste even of their small incomes, and consequent domestic dis comfort and unhappiness, generally succeed. Through these means is engendered a vast amount of imnao rality and misery, and while such are its results as re. spects private life, the operation of thc system is not less injurious in a national point of view. It throws the bur den of suppoi ring the family on the wife and the child, and compels the adult male, upon whose shoulders the duty ought rightfully to fall, to be reluctantly idle. It is an inversion of the order of nature and of Providence — a return to a state of barbarism, in which the woman does the work while the man looks idly on. The conse quence of throwing loose such a mass of partially informed men in such circumstances, cannot fail to be fraught with danger to the State. Disaffection and dis. content must be engendered among parties so situated. If, therefore, such evils, both private and public, can be distinctly traced to this source, we think it is the im perative duty of Government and the Legislature to step in and arrest their operation to the utmost practi cable extent." Sir R. PELL—" I still see great difficulties the way, admitting all you have stated. I believe that fe male and youthful labour is preferred, in consequence of its greater cheapness ;i s it not ? And D ' Lso, because it is, in some departments, better adapted for the pur pose in view than adult labour." The DEPUTATION—" You are right as respects the cheapness, Sir ; but the other point tnP.y admit of doubt. For instance, it is objected that ail.ults could not stoop to the machinery, to the height of which children are perfectly adapted. But this objection could easily be obviated by having the ray'ies raised, and other machi nery fixed a little higher from the ground. And as to dexterity of fingers ; You must be aware that the utmost fineness of touch - and quickness of movement may be acquired and retained by constant practice." Sir R. PEtri,—" It is ex ident that the course you propose woiald have the effect, if adopted, of compelling the empinyment of a greater number of adults, and con sequently higher priced labourers ; and the result of that would be to raise the price of British manufactures, and thus place our manufacturers under greater disad vantages in foreign markets than at present. Now, the complaint of our manufacturers is, that the competi tion in those markets is already so great that it is with the utmost difficulty they can maintain a footing in them. I feel deeply for the working classes of this country, and I am sure that if any measure could be devised by which the deep distress they now suffer could be alle viated it would be the duty of the Government imme diately to adopt them. But we have not only their case to consider, but also the effect which such mea sures would have upon the employment of capital, and the interests of tho se c l asses wino h ave i n v e sted their capital in these pursuits." The DEPUTATION.--.." Hitherto, Sir Robert, the in terests of the capitalists have been attended to almost exclusively : and the consequence le, that the intro.. duction of self-acting machinery, and machinery re quiring the attendance of w omen an d c hild ren only, together with intense competition between our own merchants, has thrown vast numbers out of work, and reduced the wages of those who are employed to the barest pittance which can support existence. This evil is likely to be still further aggravated by the im mense increase of machinery abroad. The policy of the late Government had been to allow that it should be freely exported. Of late years machinery has been extensively introduced on the Continent. Belgium, Saxony, Prussia, and other places have, instead of taking our goods, succeeded in their primary object— that of supplying their own markets ; in some instances they have gone farther, and now compete successfully with us in neutral markets ; and in some articles even come into direct competition with us in our own mar kets. Above all, America is a rival that threatens ul timately to destroy one of the staple manufactures of this country—cotton. It can be shown that, in con sequence of the American manufacturer possessing the the advantage of having the raw material almost at his own door, he is enabled, notwithstanding a higher price of labour, inferior machinery, and less economical processes of management, which give an advantage to the British manufacturer of 17 per cent., the American is yet enabled, with his water power and cheaper raw material, in all fabric in which quantity is more a ma t ter of considers. tion than quality, to beat us in the end by a small per centage. Now, the disparity at p resent existing be tween us as respects machinery, cheap labour, and superior management, must, in the nature of things, be continually lessening, and a closer approximation take place. The population of the United States of Ame rica, by natural increase, aided by i m migration, will lower the cost of lab o u r , i m p roveme nts will be daily introduced in the machinery, effecting more with a less ex. pendit tire of power, and experience will improve their modes of management, until at l e ngt h they will be on a par with us in all th e se points, while the substantial and permanent drawback of having to send to Amer ic a .t for our raw material, bring it 1 home, and re-transport for sale in its manufactured state, will still press upon us. " n- . but do you not think th a t, t. st according SirlPEEL—" to yo `Fel l, ovvt admissions, the argum en t s against any interference w hi c h might aid the process which you h av e ei s •y much o clearly and re ng s t t h ro e n n g d l ? y „ described as now going on,are v The DEPUTATION—" Pardon us, Si r R o b er t, suc h i s not the case according to the light in wliich we view the subjeot. It is an axiom in political economy, that