The Sun. — 1837-03-17 (London, England)

MODERN MUMMY.—The following story was in circulation whilst I was in Egypt, which, though I will not vouch for its " whole" truth, is not sufficiently improbable (considering the eccentric habits of my countrymen) to be al' together regarded as fiction. An English traveller had a great desire to be mummified after the manner of the ancient Egyptians ; and having paid in advance to the operators, bound them by a solemn oath to do his bidding, prepared his sarcophagus, and, having written a long notice of his life and opinions, swallowed a dose of arsenic. He was, of course, "gathered to his fathers ;" his body underwent the embalming process, and, the papyrus having been placed on his ambitious breast, was enclosed in the red granite case, and deposited in a tomb that had been prepared for its reception. Not many years afterwards some roguish Arabs sold the precious relic to a Learned Frenchman, who carried it to Paris, vain beyond belief of having acquired such a treasure, which, judging from the splendour of the case, he thought must be a Pharaoh at least. A party of brother savans were ins ited to assist at the ceremony of enrolment, when, after some hundred yards of fine linen had been removed, the papyrus was discovered, which, in plain English, declared the great defunct to have been Mr. Peter Simpkins, of Fenchurelistreet and Camberwell. grove, sosp-boiier and salt-refiner to the llayal Family, and many years an inmate of St. Luke's. —Scott's Egypt, 4-c.  In consequence of the head, and then the body, of a male child having bee:. found in emptying a cesspool at Ely, the greatest agitation has pervaded the whole community. On Thursday an inquest was held on the body at the Shire Flail, at which the miserable mother of the inra:tt made the following confession name is Elizabeth Scii2, and she is sixteen years of age. She requested to go into a private room, where she sail that the child was born alive, and was a boy—that she took a knife and cut off its heal. She then fetched an old piece of linen, which she wrapped round the body, and thr.•w it into the place where it was found—she also thrk w the knife there. The jury returned a verdictof " Wilful murder" against her, and she was committed, on the Cooncr's warrant, to Cambridge gaol.—Cantbridy? Independent Pregs.  13ALLooNING.—Wc understand that Mr. Green doubts The possibility of stecrinn, the balloon. That it is beyond cur Pf,Wer at present, is admitted. But what steers a bird? What enables th .t floundering voyager, a crow, to steer perfectly at his will from fiLltr to forest, and make turnings among the branches, that would raise the envy of the Joelcey Club ? What steers and carries the wild swan, as heavy as an infant, a thousand miles ahead through the tempest and again 1 the tempest ? The united action of the w ings and the tail. The buoyancy of the balloon would render the wings unnecessary, except for addition to the steerage power. Tire true and only difficulty to be mastered is, that of enabling the balloon to go faster or skpret than the wind ; for it it only in such cases that the rudder can have anything to act upon. The steerage of a bird and of a fish exhibit the power of direction in a surrounding element. The means are complete in both, but varied, from the circumstances of the animal. The bird derives its buoyancy from the wing; the tail, whose chief or only purpose is steerage, scarcely aiding that buoyancy, and being scarcely moveable but in the lateral direction required for the steerage. The fish is generally buoyant by its nature. The tail supplies at once its progress and direction, and it is therefore a powerful and peculiarly active instrument. Either would answer the purpose of the balloon. But its buoyancy brings it nearer to the fish than the bird. Its requisite would be a rudder of such length and force as at once to accelerate (or retard) and guide. This rudder might he a long frame, with a wheel or vane kept in rapid motion at its cnd. For this, some modification of the steam-engine would be required ; but we have overcome so many of the difficulties of the steam-engine, that we are not entitled to doubt much of ultimate success even here.— Blackwood.