The Express.
London, England, 1857-06-27 00:00:00

4i.th n Crs u.

CORMORANTS AT THE KISIIRT LAI( Ks—The great
cormorant ntdifies not only on nunlike rocks, but shoo oa
wooded islands in freshwater lakes. Lori Shannon's game-
keeper, at Csstle Martyr, duel es that be mantled me year
upwards of eighty ounnerante nests on lofty fleatth &-
tree.. The curiously indented mid toe of the ourperant
tierces the two-fold purpose of enabling him to grasp
slippery fish and the bough of a tree. Milton was evidently
ewers of the tree-perching habits of this bird, for Le thus
pictures Eat= :

up he Sew. and on the tree of 11:o

AM the fishermen on the Kerry lakes bear this 'Reedy fowl
a grudge; and no wonder, for he has prodigious stomach
capacity, and can easily dispose of half his weight of fish in
a day.— Van:fans in Ireland. By C. R. Weld.

TILE DRTRALTER'e GRANIMON.—OId Gresham
chuckled over the ides, em he sat rimming, like • half•forced
peach, in Orange's window, upping a warm jelly, though
the thermometer stood at Eal degrees in the shade. " A
strange histury—a stnusge history this shout the
defaulters," mumbled to Beau Brockstone, who was
Mrleg to mean* the blank countenance of an elderly
ee, of the London pave, who aces hie linither fleets
gradually deserting him, and whom. rheumatism interdicts a
Mao kat mud Cones. " But it serves I:titanium right. What
beim bad he to eagraff a fine young fellow like his eon
Based en the abaft of a atiam-engine P For my part,
I strenuously oppose—in my own family—all intermar-
riars with the shopocracy. They are sure to end ill.
When pat, roue are prosperous, they are purse-proud.
When they meet with reverse., they come on their high
connexions fur assistance. I blackballed two bookers and an
army agent', son, last year, at White's, entirely upon prin-
ciple ; and one of them hen since appeared m the merle."
The sir noble with which old Gresham abook out the finest
of cambric handkerchiefs, as he spoke, and superciliously
applied it to his crane's bill of • nose, purported that the arms
he had figured on a shield at Cressy and Poietiers.
Yet in the memory of man, the grandfather of the saucy im-
peder had bees a dryaalter ; though in en small a way, and
Ia ee shady a pilaw, that he felt pretty safe from cocogmuon.—
The Toro elriitecracia of Mrs. Oore,

THE CONSPIRACY OP THE CENERALS.—The
Commander-ha-Chief of the Army of Perin regularly assem-
bled every Thunday the general officers of his army and
his division. He was of opinion that a &delve measure
was necessary. Without knowing the day, he knew that it
woe near at hand, and he was resolutely devoted to its soma-
plishment. On the 2fith of November, Gem. Magna received
all the generals of the army of Paris at his house; they were
twenty-one in number. Ile then took on Itimsedf the
grave resolution of making known to them a ascret which
was not exclusively his own. This confidence, essentially
delicate, would have been dangerous if it had not been placed
in officers guided by duty end honour. The general-in-chief
exposed rapidly to his comrades the situation of France, the
Imperative nrieseity of raving society menaced by demagogy,
the dolga which he knew the elect of the people entertained
of making a new appeal to national sovereignty, and the can-
t:Mend which he plaoed in the army to protect the liberty of
the vote against the attack of factions. He n ade known hie
Arm resolution, for his own part, to engage his fall and entire
responsibility in an enterprise eminently national; ho ex-
premed a hope of being imitated by the generals of the army
of Paris; but he added that, if there were amongst them
some who could not conscientiously follow him, he left them
the liberty to explain themselves dearly, remarking, how-
ever, that he relied en their Renee of honour end theirv=
bity not to reveal what ho had stated. . . .
the emotion was calmed down and silence re erialdiehed,
General Mignon mid, " Let us all swear that not one of as
will speak to any one whatsoever of what has taken place
between us:" The twenty-one generals all took the tank
with fervency, and it has been so well kept that we are the
first to make known, after the lapse of fire years, the exist-
ence and the result* of this memorable meeting.—History of
the Be-estatolishmeat of thc Empire. By M. de Caseagnac. •
AN ELECTRICIAN'S PHILOSOPHICAL ROOM.—Bat
to proceed now into the penetrate' of the mansion, the
philosophical room, which is about sixty feet in length and
upwards of twenty in height, with an arched roof(—it was
built originally ere • music ball,—and what wonderful things
you pill see. A great many rows ;:o.fissspets and
ands
saucers some bits of metal, and wires from them inie
saucers containing some dirty-looking lie in which, with
much attention, you may espy • few crystals. It was the
in relation of a battery by which the stream of the
eisento fluid could be maintained without !legging, not
for 'houn only, but for days, weeks, yearn that
wag tbe foundation of some of Mr. Croats most
remarkable discoveries. Crystals of all kinds, insmy of
than aseewunde brims by human skill, ere in peeper.
But you a& startled in the midst of your obeervations by the
smut orechlfog mound that attends the passage of the elec-
tric spark, yon bur also the rumbling of distant thunder.
The ran Is already plashing in great drops against the glass,
end the sound of the passing 'parks continues to startle your
ear. Your host is In bigh glee, for • battery of electricity is
about to come within his reach a thousandfold mono powerful
than all these is the room strung together. You follow his
body steps to the organ gallery, and curiously approach the
flt whence the noise proceeds that has attracted your notice.
Too see at the window a huge brass conductor, with a dis-
charging rod neer it parting into the Boor, and from the one
knob to the other sparks are leaping with increasing rapidity,
and noise, rap, rap, rap—bang, bang, bang; you are
afraid to approach near this terrible engine, and well you
may; foe every speck that paters would kill twenty men at
one blow, if they were linked together hand in hand, and
the spark sent through the circle. Almost trembling, you
note that from this conductor, wires pane of without the
window, and the electric fluid is conducted harmlessly away.
On the instrument itself is inscribed in large letters the
warning words—

?I 01l toe Yawn.

Nevertheless, your hem does not fear. lie approaches as
boldly as it the flowing stream of fire were a harmless spark.
Armed with his insulated rod, he plays with the mighty
power; he directs it whom he will; he sends it into his
batteries; having charged them thus, he shows you
how wire is melted, dissipated in a moment, by its pas-
sage; how metals—silver, gold, and tin—are inflamed,
and burn like paper, only with most brilliant hues. Re
shows you • mimic enrols, end a falling star, and so proves
to you the muss of those beautiful phenomena; and then he
telb you that the wires you had noticed, as passing from
tree to tree round the ground., were connected with the con-
ductor before you ; that thtty colle•dcd the electricity of the
atmosphere as it floated by, and brought it into the room in
the shape of the sparks that you had witnessed with such
awe. And then, perhaps, he will tell you that the electricity
lies in a thunder-cloud in cones, alternately positive and
negative, and be will add that he is able at all times thus to
measure the electric.sl state of the atmosphere ; and he will
tell you many curious facts which he has subsequently ob-
served relative to that state at various periods of the day and
night, and at the different seasons of the year. —Xemeriek
el 4tttlrote Crow, tAo iikotriciato.