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ria, would effectually put an end to any designs he might have of returning. At the moment of his seizure with the epileptic fits prior to his last illness, he was jesting with Parry, an engineer sent out by the Greek Committee, who, by dint of being his butt, had got great power over him, and indeed became every thing to him. Besides this man there was Fletcher, who had lived with him twenty years, and who was originally a shoemaker, whom his Lordship had picked up in the village where he lived, at Newstead; and who, after attending him in some of his rural adventures, becare attached to his service: he had aleo a faithful Italian servant, Battista; a Greek Secretary; and Count Gamba seems to have acted the part of his Italian Secretary; Lord Byron spoke French very imperfectly, and Italian not correctly; and it was with the greatest difficulty he could be prevailed upon to make attempts in a foreign language. He would get any body about him to interpret for him, though he might know the language better than his interpreter. When dying, he

ture-room, Bold-street. This is a change upon which we congratulate him, upon more accounts than one. It is more central, more convenient for carriages; and, as the room is lighted by gas, Mr. Charles will be enabled to perform many beautiful experiments in the dark, which were impracticable, or extremely troublesome, in a room lighted up with candles.-See adv.

The Drama.

THEATRE.

"Now do I fear I've done some strange offence, That looks disgracious in the city's eye. If so, 'Tis just you should reprove my ignorance."

The professional pets of our leading actors and actresses did not know his situation till a very short time before he would form a somewhat amusing little history; all have fell into the profound lethargy from which he never awoke, I had their several whims, each exceeding the other in extravaand after he knew his danger, he could never speak intel-gance as the temperament of the public mind was, or indulligibly, but muttered his indistinct directions in three gent or inexorable. Mr. Kean, amongst the rest, has enterlanguages. He seems to have spoken of his wife and tained us nightly with his capricious fancies; and despite daughter-chiefly of the latter; to this child he was very the most forbidding aspect of the times, never yet failed in strongly attached, with indeed an immense parental feef adroitly "whistling down the wind" the innocuous conring; his wife I do not believe he ever cared much for, and sequences of his daring. Thus, when in 1820 he had the probably he married her from mercenary motives. temerity to be honest, there were not wanting numbers who vowed unalterable enmity to him for what it was their pleasure to designate his insolence; and yet, when in 1824 his humour relaxes, they seem as forgetful and forgiving as himself, yielding up all past iracibility to the cozening influence of present and anticipated pleasure. Self cheated thus of their resentment, many persons attended the theatre on Monday last, and ere the curtain had risen, a vehement burst of applause sufficiently indicated the general feeling of a very full house. On his entrance, Mr. Kean was most rapturously greeted by an overwhelming majority of the audience, the dissentients being, we should conceive, in the ratio of about one to ninety and nine. There were dissentients, however, weaker, if possible, than the impotence of their opposition; hissing geese, and cackling ganders, who annoyed nobody but those unfortunately seated in their harmonious vicinity. That all possess in common an unquestionable right to express their disapprobation of any performance, or of an actor or actress, we freely concede; nor are there many more jealous of this indu bitable prerogative than ourselves. But we think, nevertheless, that, having done so, we are bound by all the laws and usages of courtesy to let the act of doing it suffice; and not, as was the case on Monday, peevishly per severe in a fruitless contest with the public will, which butserves to disquietone's neighbours, and, by exasperating the many, to expose the feebleness of the few. And, after all, what, we would ask, was there in Mr. Kean's conduct, when last in Liverpool, deserving the marked censure of the town? Why, verily, in compliance with his auditory's earnest supplication, previous to leaving England, he delivered a farewell speech, to which speech some exception was taken, but why, we certainly cannot divine. Here is the oration in question, republished from the Liverpool Mercury:

I shall not attempt any summing up of the desultory observations which I have thrown together, in the hope of superseding the cant and trash that is, and will be said and sung about the character of this great man. All that is necessary to add, by way of conclusion, may be condensed into a few words. Lord Byron was a Lord of very powerful intellect and strong passions; these are almost de sufficient data for a moral geometer to construct the whole figure; at least, add the following sentence, and sufficient given-whether by early romantic experience, or by natural extreme sensitiveness to external impressions, was of all his intellectual faculties the imagination which was chiefly developed. Putting them together, we may conclude, as was the fact, that he was irritable, capricious, at times even childish, wilful, dissipated, infidel, sensual; with little of that knowledge which is got at hschool, and much of that acquired afterwards; he was capable of enthusiasm; and though intensely selfish, that hais, enjoying his own sensations, he was able to make great is sacrifices, or, in other words, he had a taste for the higher kinds of selfishness, i. e. the most useful and valuable kinds; he was generous, fearless, open, veracious, and a cordial lover of society and of conviviality; he was ardent in his friendships, but inconstant ; and, however generally fond of his friends, more apt to be heartily weary of them than people usually are. No more epithets need be heaped together; all that men have in general, he had in more than ordinary force; some of the qualities which men rarely have, he possessed to a plendid degree of perfection.

I

Such is the PERSONAL character of Lord Byron, as I have been able to draw it from having had access to pecuHy sources of information, and from being placed in a tuation best calculated, as I think, to form an impartial option. R. N.

NITROUS OXIDE, or laughING GAS.

"Ladies and Gentlemen,-I do assure you, most sincerely, that I can scarcely find words in which to express myself in answer to this very flattering and unexpected mark of your approbation and attention. I beg you, however, to accept of my warmest thanks. Whenever I have had the honour of apThe strange, and unaccountable effects of the Nitrous pearing before a Liverpool audience, I have always been most anxious to exert myself to the utmost of my humble abiliOxide, are witnessed every evening, at Mr. Charles's room, ties. I hope, therefore, that if ever I have failed in my enwith increased astonishment. The symptoms vary in al- deavours, you will attribute my deficiencies to a want of talent, and not of assiduity. But I should not fully do jusevery person who inhales it; occasioned partly by tice to my feelings if I did not remark, most respectfully, that in this town I have not experienced that warmth of approbathe quantity swallowed, and probably also by the consti-tion and that alacrity of attention with which I have been tational temperament of the person who takes it. Some honoured in other large cities and towns of the three kingthrow themselves into all sorts of attitudes, as if they were acceptable, I am deeply grateful; and to those in whose opidoms. To those, however, to whom my exertions have been fending or sparring, some dance, and some pull their own nion I have not been so successful, I wish greater gratis can ses with an earnestness that is truly ludicrous. One Englishman, strongly attached to, and proud of my country, tion and instruction from other and superior actors. As an sing a gentleman who had taken a pretty large dose, I look forward with anxiety to that period when I shall rekrocked down his companion who was holding the candle visit these shores; but, as a professor, I beg leave very respectfully to bid you farewell!" him. His friend lay sprawling under the table with Now, if this speech, as such, be offensive, the audience e candle in his hand, and his feet raised in the air to that insisted on its delivery were the offenders; for, it otect him. The pugnaceous hero, however, not being should be remembered, Mr. Kean did not gratuitously harangue them. If ingenuousness no longer rank ble to get at his sprawling companion's body, set to work amongst moral virtues, Mr. Kean was indeed blameable; ith his sole; which he pelted for some seconds, until his for he very frankly insinuated to his hearers, that their knuckles were not a little bruised by the "pummelling patronage had not been such as was likely to induce him roces," as the editor of the Saturday's paper expresses to revisit them. Nor was Mr. Kean the first to tell the people of Liverpool of their proverbial coldness towards ,in his “little discourses" on the subject. some rather significant hints on the subject of our frigidity, performers. Mr. Kemble, in his farewell address, gave us which has invariably constituted the theme-conversational

It will be seen, by the advertisement, that Mr. Charles left Dale-street, and now exhibits in the Lyceum Lec

of all the ladies and gentlemen, of any celebrity, who have ever been here.

We are truly grieved to perceive the devastating rafour years, on Mr. Kean's whole man. His frame appears vages made, we know not how, in the short interval of already stricken in years, the faltering step of age is ob servable as he halts on the stage, when unmoved by the inspiration of the scene. His cheeks seem fallen, the wonted brilliancy of his eye is fast fading, and his voice, which was never of great power, is now almost incapable of any thing beyond the intonation of a whisper. With all the original fire of his genius, Mr. Kean, physically, is but the shadow, now, of his former greatness. We should regret to see him outlive his fame, as we lament the conviction that this our modern "Richard," will never be" himself again."

Mr. Kean is assuredly the most emphatic, as well as the most fantastical and incorrect, reader of his day; and a tragedian in whose performances there is perhaps less variety than in those of other eminent actors. The same gentle tapping on his sconce's front, as though he knocked there for information of what he should be about,-the same pawing of his vest, gesticulative intercourse with his heart, long and sudden pauses, quick transitions of articulation, often inarticulate, and the same varied rapidity of ever-changing attitude, always beautifully picturesque certainly-pervade every character he assumes. But every one knows, that, with these studied peculiarities, Mr. Kean introduces into all his representations touches of nature and coruscations of genius, accompanied by an occasional energy and freedom of action, which have astonishingly reconciled the world to much bombast, many very ridiculous mannerisms, and a most strange misrepresentation of our best understood dramatic characters. Indeed, so cogent is the ascendancy of a great name, added to an admiration of Mr. Kean's many and dazzling beauties, that they actually beget a kind of veneration for his very faults; and so powerful hath the infatuating influence of this gentleman's style of acting operated on the public mind, that (we speak it to the great credit of his tactics) he has succeeded in identifying himself with most characters of note, in a higher degree than any of his cotemporaries. Richard, Othello, Richard II., Shylock, Sir Edward Mortimer, with Sir Giles Overreach, are the most prominent of parts peculiarly his own; with each is the name of Kean synonymous.

Mr. Kean appeared first as the "Crook-back'd Tyrant," then as Othello, and subsequently as Lucius Junius Brutus, Hamlet, and Sir Giles Overreach. We congratulate, sincerely, the managers on the very fortunate result of their engagement with this gentleman; a well-filled theatre each evening of the past week will have sufficiently caused them no little self-gratulation. Of Mr. Kean's five performances, we may remark, that Othello and Sir Giles were, as they generally have been, the most decidedly suc cessful. In both he elicited numerous of those sparkling bursts of genius, and vivid flashes of passion, which have contributed so essentially to raise his name so high in the. list of English actors. His Richard has been pronounced, by universal consent, the feeblest personation of the character he ever exhibited here. It was, in truth, a lamentable falling off, arising, probably, in some measure, from the petful provocation he received from a small portion of the audience, on appearing first before them; and, doubtless, occasioned in part by that visible decay of his physical powers, noticed above. We have stated Mr. Kean's reading to be emphatic, fantastical, and incorrect; and in support of this assertion, his Richard abounds with very many conclusive examples. Not to multiply illustrations, we would select, for instance, the opening soliloquy is the winter of our discontent," as evidence of Mr. Kean's peculiarly impressive and finely-marked elocution. Of his fantasticalness, we could adduce proofs enumerable; Lady Anne, it is of course, or should be, his policy to enone, however, must suffice. In Richard's interview with force a conviction of his unfeigned penitence for the murder of her lord, and to imbue her with the belief of his ardent love for herself. Mr. Kean did no such thing. He was too palpably sarcastic to impose on any woman, much less on one of Lady Anne's breeding, and in the act of performing the last sad offices to a husband, prematurely cut off by the fell sword of him who' then sought her love. Lady Anne's intimation that Richard might "live in hope," quite rendered Mr. Kean, or rather Mr. Kean on hearing it rendered himself, ridiculous; for on the instant, turning his back upon the object to whom he was addressing himself, he flew off in a tangent to the side boxes, and gabbled forth in broken, unintelligible accents,

"Now

"I swear, bright saint, I am not what I was." Of Mr. Kean's obviously inaccurate reading, instances

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144

were not wanting. Thus, instead of

"Why were laws made, but that we're rogues by nature?" Mr. Kean makes of this simple self-questioning only, an interrogatory and a replication; reading it,

"Why were laws made? b-b-but that we're rogues by nature." Again, Richard, in arms, "his stirring soul alarmed," exclaims,

"Come forth, my honest sword, which here I vow,
By my soul's hope," &c.

which, Mr. Kean, pausing and attitudinizing, renders,
"Come. Forth. My honest. Sword. Which-here I vow."
He finishes the impassioned context of this passage, how-
ever, very effectively, with an heroic exit.

Though it is our especial province to point out the discrepancies, lash the follies, and condemn the errors of our histrionic instructors, we can assure them we dwell on their faults, be they what they may, very unwillingly. It is with pleasure, therefore, we revert to Mr. Kean's Richard, though but to exemplify one of its chief beauties; not because there were not more, but by reason of our space being too circumscribed to enumerate all. His tent scene, we have no hesitation in saying, could not be surpassed, except by himself. On rushing from the couch, where his vision had been so fearfully portentous, Mr. Kean appeared, in reality, under the strong impulse of a "terrible dream." He was indeed a man of shaken soul, on whose trembling flesh hung cold drops of sweat, whose blood, growing chilly, seemed in awful truth to freeze with horror." Mr. Kean's "Who's there?" to Catesby, was absolutely electrifying; and betokened a mind frightfully conscious of the past, dreadfully alive to the appalling prospect then flitting in terrible review before

him-of the future.

Of Mr. Kean's Hamlet we have little to say, of which little, a very trifling portion will be in anywise favourable. It was at the outset weak, finical, and pettish; and during the progress of the play, became coarse, maudlin, and ranting to a degree, that absolutely astounded us. Mr. Kean, on this occasion, so obtruded himself on the audience, as totally to preclude the possibility of their recognising one solitary characteristic of Hamlet. This, nevertheless, did not prevent our admiring Mr. Kean's acquirements as a finished swordsman. The grace, elegance, and variety of his positions and action, in fencing with Laertes, fully justified the estimation in which Lord Hamlet's foil accomplishments were held, and cannot be too highly extolled. In speaking thus freely of Mr. Kean's Hamlet, we, of course, wish to be understood as alluding only to his enactment of the part on Thursday. may, and we hope, for his fair fame's sake, he does, ordinarily play it in a style very dissimilar.

Не

We have frequently entertained a notion of devoting some leisure hour to a lecture on the extraordinary con

THE KALEIDOSCOPE.

Correspondence.
Gymnasia

AND

MISCELLANEOUS RECREATIONS.

How often have I bless'd the coming day,
When toil remitting, lent its turn to play;
When all the village train, from labour free,
Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree;
While many a pastime circled in the shade,
The young contending as the old surveyed;
And many a gambol frolick'd o'er the ground,
And sleights of art, and feats of strength, went round.
Goldsmith.

"It is a call to keep the spirits alive."-Ben Jonson.
ted stating that the person performing it is required to
In explaining the feat in our last, No. 14, we omit-
remove from the table, with his mouth, a small piece of
wood or other matter placed on its edge, as shown in the
figure.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

NO. XVI.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR,-Unless your readers, who may choose to amuse duct of our audiences, now and then; and, by way of pre- themselves with such matters, comply exactly with the dilude, would now ask those at all conversant with Shak-rections for accomplishing the feat I am about to describe, speare, who where present on Thursday, why they endured it will appear so easy as scarcely to deserve a place amongst so very patiently Mr. Kean's outrageous garbling of the the Gymnastic puzzles. The great difficulty in performing text of their favourite bard? We should have conjectured that justice to themselves, to the town, to Mr. Kean, would surely have extorted from them some symptom of their disapproval of such wanton spoliation. The celebrity of an actor ought not to stop our ears as well as

LICEUM.

ON TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, and FRIDAY Erening the 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th of October.

MR. CHARLES, the VENTRILOQUIST, has the

honour to acquaint the Ladies and Gentlemen of verpool, that, in compliance with the wish of several fa lies of distinction, he has removed his Entertaining Instructive Exhibition from the Golden Lion, Dale-street, the LECTURE-ROOM, LYCEUM, where he will enterta Visitors with an Evening's Entertainment, viz: Experiments in ELECTRICITY, GALVANISM, CHEMISTRY, PL SOPHICAL RECREATIONS, Illusions in VENTRILOQU as also the ludicrous effect of the LAUGHING GAST Admittance, 2s. 6d.-Children, Half Price. Doors open at half past Seven.-Performance to commen at Eight, and to close at Ten.

MR. LEWIS (from the Royal Academy, Londo

the real Inventor of the New Mathematical System Writing, under the immediate and especial patronage of fully announce his arrival in Liverpool, where he he Majesty and other branches of the Royal Family, and nea every person of distinction in the United Kingdom, re for a short time, to give instruction in his new Mathemati course of SIX SHORT and EASY LESSONS-Thones cal System of converting bad Writers into good one, in the and Gentlemen who are not satisfied with their present pr formance, have therefore an opportunity of attainingsqui and beautiful style of Writing; so free, elegant, and expo tious, as no other method of teaching ever yet discovered a possibly impart; and from which it is impossible for the ever after to deviate. Mr. Lewis's system and method of struction is very different (in every respect) from all others: and he challenges any Teacher in existence to produces tem half so comprehensive or efficacious. It is not conf to one particular style of Writing, for how inelegant d surd would it be for a Lady to write a bold, masculine, cantile hand; or, for a Gentleman to be confined to stu light, effeminate style, adapted only to epistolary correpe dence, complimentary cards, invitations, &c. Mr. Len system is, therefore, equally applicable to all purposes, a to persons of all ages; and however bad the pupil may w or whatever may be his capacity, it will positively co him for any situation whatsoever, so far as regards bi Writing.

Terms for the whole 'ourse, One Guinea. Persons who cannot write at all are taught a BEAUT HAND IN TWELVE LESSONS, for Two GUINEAS.

Numerous Specimens may be seen by applying to Lewis, at his Lecture Rooms, No. 5, Paradise-street, Church-street.

SHORT HAND taught in SIX LESSONS, for ONE GEIL, the plan made use of by the Public Reporters, with ther mode of following a speaker by contractions, hitherto te a secret; and their infallible method of abbreviating and d cyphering, without burthening the memory.

Elocution and Ornamental Writing taught Velvet, Satin, and Glass Painting, and various other use ful and fashionable accomplishments taught by Mrs. Laws, in a few lessons, on moderate terms.

Pupils are detained only one hour each Lesson, and may attend any time that suits their own convenience. The charge for Out Attendance is regulated tance and number of Pupils.

SEPARATE APARTMENTS FOR LADIES.

the dis

As Mr. and Mrs. LEWIS's engagements in London will only spectfully request that those Ladies and Gentlemen wh permit them to remain a short time in Liverpool, they may be disposed to favour them will make early applicati To Correspondents.

we have this week introduced into the Kaleidoscope, obliged us to defer the able article on Geology and Work Making, which we had announced for this week's publication

late for admission this week, without disturbing the rangements we had previously made. Next week this nail to Anti-Barbarus shall appear.

it arises from the position in which the hand must be held. LORD BYRON.-The length and extreme interest of the note Measure the distance between the outside of the elbow and the extremity of the longest finger :-Mark that distance blindfold us, nor shall it so operate with ourselves, more stick must be held horizontally before you, as shewn in LEARNED QUOTATIONS-The letter of Quotator reached on a walking-stick or ruler, as shown by figure 2. This especially when, as with Kean and Macready, greater pre- the annexed sketch, No. 1; the middle finger being placed tensions than ordinary are put forth to supereminence. Mr. Kean's short engagement terminated on Friday, exactly over the mark;-the fingers must be kept at right with Sir Giles Overreach; and a matchless performance angles with the stick, and the thumb placed over them, as it was, certainly. The eye, the tone, the gesture, from shown by the little fist grasping the stick (fig. 2). The his first entrance on the stage until the fall of the curtain, were all in such perfect unison with the sentiments and puzzle then is to bring that end of the stick which, in the feelings of Sir Giles, that we lack words to convey an ade-figure, touches the breast into contact with your mouth, quate idea of the admirable manner in which this cele- whilst the hand and fingers remain in the position already brated performer represented the part. As Sir Giles, Mr. described.-Yours, truly, Kean is unequalled; nor is it the only character, we think, in which he may, unequivocally, be pronounced without a rival. The House, we are happy to say, was in every part excessively crowded.

October 25.

THE COUNCIL OF TEN.

We cannot refrain expressing our surprise that the Council of Ten, who appear to have visited the theatre every night during Mr. Kean's engagement, should have nothing to say about Mrs. M'Gibbon, especially as we, who have only paid transient visits to that place of amusement, have been so highly delighted, and so deeply interested by the performance of that lady. Notwithstanding the imputed coldness of the Liverpool audience, it is much to the credit of the taste of our native town that we can truly state, that Mrs. M'Gibbon's performance, during the past week, has been most rapturously applauded; and, on several occasions, hailed with several distinct rounds of applause.-Edit. Kal.

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PRIZE FIGHTING.-At the request of Philanthropos, and several
other correspondents, we have transcribed, from the
cury, an editorial article on this subject.
THE DRAMA. The letter of T. M, a Friend to the Dra
reached us too late for insertion this week. It is, be
so very loosely and ungrammatically written, owing,
presume, to the carelessness of an amanuensis, that it m
THE FORTUNE HUNTER, an original translation from the
pass the ordeal of a careful revisal previous to being publiab

man, is in reserve for our next.

L'HERMITE EN ITALIE.-We have postponed, until next week the chapter which we had prepared for present publicatie The length of the notices of the late Lord Byron has r dered this necessary.

MR. KEAN. The letter of A Stranger shall appear next we when we shall take the liberty to express our direct dise from the opinion of the author, on many points. Had seen Kean's Sir Giles on Friday night, he would not haw hazarded the opinion, that Mr. K. is a mere charlatan. Ashtonian and Anon in our next.

We have received Y. Z.'s Essay on Education.

Printed, published, and sold, EVERY TUESDAY,
E. SMITH & CO. 75, Lord-street, Liverpool.

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This familiar Miscellany, from which religious and political matters are excluded, contains a variety of original and selected Articles; comprehending Literature, Criticism, Men and Manners;
Amusement, Elegant Extracts, Poetry, Anecdotes, Biography, Meteorology, the Drama, Arts and Sciences, Wit and Satire, Fashions, Natural History, &c. &c. forming a handsome Annual
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Burnley-T. Sutcliffe;
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tham & Co.
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ONDON Sherwood & Co. Booksellers; E.Marlborough, Newsvender; alborne, Derb.-W. Hoon; Ishtes-T. Cunningham; ton, S. Bassford; Birmingham-R.Wrightson Bon-Kell; Brand wood; Factors T Rogerson; Brand J. Stanfield; riatel-Hillyard & Morgan;

No. 227.-VOL. V.

Men and Manners.

NO. XXXX.

SIENNA.

-N. Whitley;
Hanley-T. Allbut;
Harrogate-T. Langdale;
Haslingden-J. Read;
Huddersfield-T. Smart;

FROM L'HERMITE EN ITALIE, THE LATEST WORK OF M. JOUY. [Translated expressly for the Kaleidoscope.]

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1824.

Idel parlare of the inhabitants of Sienna is become proerbial among the Tuscans; and it is certain that there is to country where the language of the peasantry differs so ittle from that of the well-educated people. There is, in heir pronunciation, a softness and delicacy which can be xpressed only by the Italian word marbidezza. After aving heard them converse, it is easy to believe the story of the market-woman at Athens, who reproved a grammaian for having expressed himself incorrectly. The inhaatants of Sienna relate, with much self complaisance, the loving anecdote :

A traveller having lost his way in the country, inquired he road to Sienna of a man labouring in the fields, who mmediately left his work, accompanied the traveller to the edge of a river, and pompously said to him,

"Signor,

Varcate il fiume, salite il monte,

Avrete Siena in fronte."

This poetical reply seems to justify the assertion of the Tennese that their peasants speak Italian according to the s of the dictionary della Crusca.

formed of pieces of testaceous fossils. Near it there are
some quarries of alabaster, which is manufactured at Vol-

terra.

The neighbourhood of Sienna is adorned by numerous country-houses, pleasantly situated in the midst of gardens. The town is built on the declivity of a mountain, hollowed out into many curious subterranean abodes, which are still inhabited by some of the descendants of those who probably formed them during the time of the civil wars.

The population of Sienna is nearly the same as that of Pisa; that is to say, it amounts to about 16,000 inhabitants. The town is nearly five miles in circumference, and is built in the form of a star, It is more animated than Pisa; but no part of it presents a view comparable to that of the quay of the Arno. Its pure air and elevated situation render it a salubrious abode. Sienna was founded by the Gauls, who began to build it in 364, after the taking of Rome, under the conduct of Brennus. It then became a Roman colony, and received the name of Sena. Sienna experienced great revolutions in the fifth century, under the reign of Honorius. After having been subject to various conquerors, it at length succeeded in erecting itself into a republic, which, like all those of Italy, was soon disturbed by internal factions. It then experienced the fate common to all people divided by civil broils; it be came the prey of its neighbours. The Florentines, having surprised the town, took possession of it; and their chief, Petruccio, governed it with the most rigorous despotism. I had exchanged the society of my friend Gottlieb for Happy the people who groan under a tyranny that is urged of the Imperial Attorney, to whom the reader has al- to extremity; to them the dawn of liberty is at hand. At eady been introduced. He was summoned by business the death of Petruccio the inhabitants of Sienna banished Grosseto, in the marshes of Tuscany, and was under his children, and again took upon themselves the governbe agreeable necessity of passing through Florence, ment of their town: but, harmony not having been reThither I agreed to accompany him. At two leagues' dis stored to the people, they fell into the power of the Spaniatce from this city we saw the ruins of the ancient ards; and Philip the Second sold them, fortunately for ole, one of the twelve Etruscan towns. Polybius, himself, to the Grand Duke, Cosmo the First. Since that iny, and several other Greek and Roman authors, attest time Sienna has formed a part of the Tuscan government. ancient celebrity. The Tuscan augurs and soothsayers The streets of Sienna are steep and winding: its palaces ade it their place of residence, and communicated thence and houses have an antique and almost uniform exterior. superstitions to the Romans. In the fourth century, The town may be compared to a shell, and most of its icon, one of the lieutenants of the great Theodosius, hav- principal streets terminate in the grand square, which ocng formed a league with the inhabitants of Fiesole, gained cupies its central hollow. This place is ornamented by a Victory there over Radagassus, the King of the Goths. beautiful fountain, and is the scene of the horse races so Alter the contest 100,000 men remained on the field of bat celebrated at Sienna for the emulation which they excite The Florentines destroyed this town, whose popula- among horse proprietors, as the horses run without being ion was considerable, that Florence might have no rival mounted. The town-hall is situated at the bottom of the 'dispute with her the title of Firenze la Bella. square; and near it there is a chapel, continually open to The road between Sienna and Florence, which are at the public. High mass is performed there every day, bout ten leagues' distance from each other, is mountain-early in the morning, for the special advantage of the and picturesque, and winds through a country agree- neighbouring tradesmen, who give their attention to it ibly diversified with pleasant valleys, water-falls, and hills without leaving their shops and stalls. vered with olives and vines. It passes through Poggiensi, a large and populous town, where the Etsa takes its urce. Many teeth and bones of cetaceous animals, prinpally lamia, have been dug up in the surrounding counFurther on, in the road to Volterra, is situated that cient Etruscan town, whose walls are constructed of stones

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white marble; the cupola is supported by pillars of marble; the pavement is composed of mosaic, and represents traits taken from the Old and New Testament. A sort of gallery, surrounding the nave of the church, is ornamented by about seventy coloured heads of popes and anti-popes, projecting from it, which have the appearance of so many people leaning from windows, and present the most singular coup d'ail. Under them there is a long range of smaller figures, representing the emperors of the west. The pulpit is also very remarkable; its central. point is supported by the figure of a lion, surrounded by four other animals; the vaulted roof is painted with golden stars, upon a ground of azure, to represent the sky. But the part of it most worthy of admiration is the chapel of Chigi, and the tomb of the legate of that name, who played so distinguished a part in the negociations of Munster, which preceded the treaty of Westphalia. This chapel is incrustated with lapis lazuli, and ornamented with gilt ornaments in bronze, executed after the designs of Bernin. In the library there is a group representing the three graces, of no great beauty indeed, but not the less curious on that account, as they are said to be the work of Sophroniscus, the father of Socrates. The sacristy is a long narrow apartment, and its walls are entirely covered by fine pictures, painted by Raphael. This great artist has represented himself at every age; in childhood, youth, and manhood. These pictures may be said to be specimens of his second style; that is, they were done at the period of his life which succeeded his journey to Florence, where he had studied the works of Leonardo da Vinci. How singular a resemblance there is between his fate and that of Virgil; both died young, and just as they were about to complete their best works. Painters may be excused for considering Friday an unlucky day; Raphael died at Rome on the Good Friday of the year 1520.

Before Sienna was united to the French empire it contained a great many rich convents and churches. My travelling companion and I went to see the citadel, a sort of establishment for which Napoleon had a greater predi lection than for churches; it appeared to us to possess considerable strength. The Flemish Lieutenant-colonel, who was entrusted with the command of it, shewed us all the fortifications with a degree of complaisance seldom found among superior officers. The palace of the Grand Duke, which Eliza usually inhabited during a few weeks every year, is much less striking than that of Pisa. The theatre of Sienna is tolerably large. We witnessed there. the performance of a rope-dancer, which was truly astonishing. Amongst other feats of agility, this man leaped over a carriage and six horses, placed in the pit. He sprung from the stage, and turning round several times in The finest monument in Sienna, or rather the only one the air, descended immediately in front of the horses. worthy of Italian magnificence, is the cathedral: its ar- There is at Sienna a fine public walk near the gate of chitecture is Gothic, and it is justly considered a master- the citadel: it is surrounded by lofty avenues, and equals piece of art. The front is entirely covered with figures in size the largest square of the Champs Elysées. This of saints, about a cubit in height. This church is in-walk leads to another ornamented by several rows of trees, vested, both internally and externally, with black and whose thick foliage affords the most grateful coolness dur

ing the heats of summer. Such, however, is the caprice of fashion, that these beautiful avenues are deserted for the race-course in the principal square, where the people are entertained by various exhibitions of jugglers, mountebanks, punchinellos, and stentarellos. The price of admission to these shows seldom exceeds half a paulo, a small coin of about five sous in value.

The inhabitants of Sienna are passionately devoted to the study of the belles lettres, and their city contains more academies than any other in Europe. These seats of learning are generally distinguished by whimsical names. The most remarkable among them are l'academia degli intronati, academy of the stunned; l'academia degli rossi, academy of the unpolished, whose special occupation is the cultivation of dramatic poetry; l'academia degli innominati, academy of the anonymous, and the academy of the sciences, much esteemed for the literary productions of its members.

zano, a country little known, as it is seldom visited except, Euler receives no milder treatment: "he is vortex mad,
from necessity. I determined to continue my journey too, and is one of those bigotted philosophers whose brains
towards Rome, which we had agreed to make the place of are turned in a vortex, or they would never prefer such
our future rendezvous. My friend promised to send me complex vertical schemes before the simple doctrine of
there the account of his journey, which is the subject of projectile and centripetal forces. Such philosophers!"
the two following chapters. The information they contain exclaims our indignant defender. Leibnitz's attempt to
may serve to satisfy the curiosity of the reader, but it rob Sir Isaac Newton of the honour of the invention of
will not be the means of inducing him to visit those pes- Fluxions, is, as we might expect, a cause sufficient to
tilential countries. The Imperial Atttorney set out, ac- make him rave with rage, and to call down all the thus
companied by his wife, and a counsellor of the Imperial der of his indignation. To tell us flatly, that not he
court of Florence, and I, a few days afterwards, took the that first found, bu, he that first published, deserves the
road to Monte Pulstane, a small town near Sienna, much praise, is an assertion that would move the bile in a sto-
renowned for its excellent wines.
mach less apt to boil than Emerson's. It is robbing, s
Liverpool.
he truly says, the inventor of his due praise, to give it to
the thief that stole it. But however much Sir Isaac New
ton might have approved of Mr. Emerson as the champion
or defender of his principles, he would not have admind

Biography.

A. W.

Sienna was formerly much celebrated for its improvisatori. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF MR. WIL. the weapons he sometimes made use of.

LIAM EMERSON.

(Concluded from our last.)

I was told, that twenty years ago, they were frequently
seen running through the streets like maniacs, challenging
each other to trials of their poetical skill, and inviting
every one whom they met to give them subjects for their
compositions, which they immediately poured forth with
the most grotesque and extravagant gesticulation. The
Chevalier Bernardin Perfetti acquired the greatest share
of fame in this sort of extemporaneous poetry. He not
only gained the palin of excellence from his compatriots,
who erected a monument to him in their cathedral: but,
in 1725, he had, like Tasso, the honour of being crowned
at the capitol. The Italians, particularly the Tuscans, are
enthusiastically fond of this species of literary contention.
Sienna does not confine her glory to the merit of having
given birth to a few improvisatori: seven of her citizens
have ascended the Pontifical throne, among whom were
Gregory the Seventh and Alexander the Third. This town
was also the native place of the blessed Jean Colombin,
the founder of the Jesuits. St. Catherine, the patron saint
of young girls, who, of all the saints in Paradise, is surely
entrusted with the jurisdiction on earth the most involved
in difficulty and perplexity, was born at Sienna, in 1347.
She was the daughter of a dyer; and embraced, in early
youth, the order of the penitential sisters of Saint Domi-
nico. Her claims, however, to the esteem of mankind,
were not founded merely on her singular piety: she ren-
dered great services to her country, by reconciling the Flo-
rentines with the government of Rome; and so powerful
was her influence with the Holy See, that she determined
ope Gregory the Eleventh to leave Avignon to establish
is residence at Rome. She died in that city, in 1380, at
the age of thirty-three. I did not fail to inquire for the
house which she had inhabited at Sienna; but it had long In the earlier part of his life, principally by the aid of
been converted into a chapel. It is ornamented by several his dictionary, he had acquired a stock of Latin sufficient
large pictures representing the principal circumstances of to enable him to read and translate mathematical works in
her life, and her most celebrated miracles. It contains that language; and he once had a design to give a trans.
also a small room, in which, it is said, that Jesus Christ | lation of the Jesuits comments on the Principia. It ap-
appeared to her, behind which there is a closet, where she
used to sleep, extended on the floor. In an adjoining ora-
tory is preserved the picture of the crucifix, with which the
stigmata of Saint Catherine were impressed. I did not see
this precious relic, as it was kept locked up, and exhibited
only to those who had solicited an express permission. It
was reported that it had been carried away by a French

General.

The town of Sienna appears to have been built on the crater of a volcano. Some naturalists have thought that the mountain of Sienna incloses a sort of volcanic matter, which is deposited at so great a depth that it cannot be thrown up to the surface of the soil, but that it is frequently the cause of violent internal commotions. The terrible earthquakes experienced at Sienna in 1798 seem to corroborate this opinion. The territory, however, in the neighbourhood of Sienna is not generally good, and it is well known that the land in the immediate vicinity of Vesuvius and Etna is exceedingly productive.

The object of my friend's journey to Grosseto was to visit the baths of sulphurated water at Petricolo and Scan

"

In so difficult a problem as Emerson himself allows that
of finding the procession of the equinoxes to be, one would
have thought that he would have had some patience with
His style in conversation was generally abrupt and blunt, those who differed from Sir Isaac and himself. But these
abounding in such coarse expletives as those already noticed, are a clan, and Mr. T. Simpson has the misfortune to be
and often vulgar and ungrammatical. And this was the rea- one of the clan. There seems, unfortunately, to have b
son that led many people to suppose he was not able to sisted some kind of animosity or jealousy between the
write any thing like grammar, or tolerable English, and two great contemporary mathematicians, excited and f>
that his prefaces, therefore, some of which are not ill writ-mented perhaps by some who were mean enough to ca
ten, could not be his own composition, but must have tales between them, in order to curry favour. One of
been made, or at least translated into English for him by Emerson's correspondents in London informed him, thư
some other hands. But we cannot with certainty judge Simpson had said, in company with some mathematica
how a man will write from his language in common con- friends, "that he took Emerson (referring to his book £
versation. Though Emerson was no accurate gramma Fluxions) to be an industrious, plodding writer, but a
rian, his reading was extensive enough to supply him with man of no genius." This was quite enough to irritat
a sufficient stock of proper words and expressions on such Emerson to acts of hostility. We meet with freque
subjects as he had occasion to treat of, and the vigour and complaints in his books of the little encouragement give
energy of his mind would give force, weight, and perspi- to mathematical learning in his time, and especially r
cuity to his sentences. He was one day told that this opi- England. How far this complaint may be well or
nion respecting his prefaces was entertained by many; founded, I know not; but this is pretty certain, that if
and the disparity of his conversation and writing was any reward or recompence had been offered him for his
pointed out as the reason of it. After a momentary pause mathematical labours, and had not come to him in his
he exclaimed, with some indignation, "A pack of fools! own way, he would not have accepted it. He did not
who could write my prefaces but myself." They do, in wish to be admitted a fellow of the Royal Society, “be
fact, carry with them every mark of legitamacy; they cause (he said) it was a d-d hard thing that a man she
could have no other father. Indeed, the original prefaces, burn so many farthing candles as he had done, and the
as well as the original manuscripts of most of the Author's have to pay so much a year for the honour of F.R. S. f
works, in his own hand-writing, with a great number of his name. D-n them, and their F. R. S. too." Es
his original letters, are now in the possession of the pub-reaped one reward of his toils in quest of science, what
lisher, all of which are well written, and in a good style. was very acceptable and grateful to him; and that
There are, also, in some of them, quotations from the the acquaintance and friendship of Mr. Montagu, **:
Greek authors, elegantly written by himself.
baving an estate at Eryholme, near Hurworth, someti
visited that neighbourhood, and spent a good part of `--
time in company and conversation with Emerson, and
his decease bequeathed to him a legacy of £10 or gues
When Mrs. Montagu's agent called upon him to disc
this legacy, Emerson told him he would much rather a
seen Mr. Montagu himself than his money. Ac
spoke, doubtless, from his heart; for he never meal-
Mr. Montagu's name but in terms that strongly ext
the sincerity and ardour of his affection and esteeta
him. Mr. Montagu, in his visits to Emerson,
often go to him in the fields, when he happened to be
work there, and would accompany him home, but cos
never persuade him to get into a carriage. On these c
sions he would sometimes exclaim, "D-n your wh
wam! I had rather walk." Inheriting a small patri
nial estate, of about 60 or £70 a year, he was as indepe
dent and happy as if he had enjoyed
So many thousand
He was never known to ask a favour, or seek the caud
nance of a rich man, unless he possessed some emine
qualities of mind.

pears, also, from his mottes to his several books, that he
sometimes dipped into the classic authors, for we must not
suspect him of having been much conversant with such
gentry as Lucretius, Horace, and Virgil. He had in his
library Homer and Virgil-Travestied, and these he read
with more pleasure than Pope's or Dryden's translations.
In argument, whether in conversation or writing, the fire
and impetuosity of his temper were too apt to break forth,
and betray him into the use of such terms as should al-
ways be avoided, especially by mathematicians and philo
sophers, whose employment is, or ought to be, the cool
and dispassionate inquiry after truth. His zeal in sup-
port of Sir Isaac Newton is outrageous, and he has treated
the oppugners of his philosophy as if he had a personal
quarrel against them. "J. Bernoulle (according to him)
is a low critic, laborious and tedious to the least degree;
a blunderbuss, a person of eternal contradiction, blind,
bigotted, prejudiced, mad; and a whole section of one
hundred pages is nothing but a heap of absurd, incon
sistent stuff." He therefore leaves him (in his great mercy)
to be drowned in the gurges of his own contriving.

Notwithstanding his imperfect and desultory course education, he acquired a general knowledge of most f ences. He had even paid attention to medicine, at la so far as it had been combined with mathematical pr ples, according to the plan of Keil, Morgan, &c. H. teemed Morgan above all others as a physician; and ha

!

Keil to be the best of anatomists. Mr. Emerson often
tried, in practice, the effect of his mathematical specula-
tions, by constructing a variety of instruments, mathema-
tical, mechanical, or musical, on a small scale. He had
made a pinning-wheel for his wife, which is represented
by a drawing in his book of Mechanics. He was well
skilled in the science of music, the theory of sounds, and
the various scales, both ancient and modern; but he was
a very poor performer, though he sometimes obliged his
friends in the country by tuning and repairing their mu-
sical instruments. He carried that singularity, which
marked all his actions, even into this science. He had, if
I may be allowed the expression, two first strings to his
violin, which he said made the E more melodious when
they were drawn up to a perfect unison. His virginal,
which was a species of instrument like the modern spinnet,
he had cut and twisted into various shapes in the keys, by
adding some occasional half-tones, to regulate the present
scales, and to rectify some fraction or discord that will
always remain in the tuning. This he never could get
regulated to his mind, and generally concluded in a pas-
sion, by saying, “It's a d-d instrument, and a foolish
thing to be vexed with." Mr. Emerson was fond of an-
gling, and while he thus amused himself would stand up
his middle in water for several hours together. When
e was building a house upon the small farm which he
ossessed by the side of the Tees, he never hesitated to
plunge into the water, for the purpose of collecting stones
from the bed of the river. He was affected, about that
time, with some slight gouty symptoms, and said that
ading was serviceable to him, because the water sucked
the gout out of his legs; a theory for which he was pro-
ably not indebted to his favourite Keil or Morgan. When
he wrote his treatise of Navigation, he must needs make
and fit up a small vessel; with this, he and some friends
embarked on the river Tees, that ran by his door at Hur-
worth; but the whole crew got swampt frequently; when
Emerson, aniling, and alluding to his book, said, "They
nust not do as I do, but as I say." In the earlier part of
his life he attempted to teach a few scholars; but whether
from his concise method, for he was not happy in explain-
ing his ideas, or the natural warmth of his temper, he
made little progress in his school, which he therefore soon
dropped. He never had a scholar that did him any credit,
except Mr. Richardson of Darlington, who was always a
great favourite with him, and of whom he used to say,
hat he was the only boy who had a head in his school.
Being requested once, by letter, to communicate some
articulars of his life, by a friend who wanted to put them
ogether, he wrote for answer, "I never knew you were
tommenced biographer before; they will have little to do,
I think, that set about writing my life; I am sure of this,
half of it will be lies; therefore I chuse to die in the
same obscurity that I have lived.

to leave them to, and money would be of more service to fingers, diamonds on his brooch, and a gemmed quizzing-
them than books." He valued his library when it was glass at his side; there is an honest fellow who cannot
sent to York, at 40 or £50. Emerson, like other great afford a hat, whose feet, summer or winter, know not
men, had his foibles and defects. He was singular and the luxury of shoe or stocking, and whose whole ward-
uncouth in his dress and manners, and hasty and impe-robe consisting of but two articles, viz. a tattered jacket,
tuous in his temper; but whatever failings he had, they and about half a pair of small clothes; and, not to mul-
were overbalanced by his virtues. He had a great, firm, tiply pictures, while the Lieutenant dashes by in a coach-
and independent mind, that could not be brought to sub-and-four, the stranger gazes at the gallant and costly
mit to any thing mean, base, or disingenuous, by any pageant, while he empties his pocket to satisfy the throng
power on earth: a pure, genuine, and ardent love of truth, of beggars who pray him, in the name of God, to give
and a detestation of falsehood of whatever species. His them a penny.-American Tourist.
honesty and integrity were such, that all who knew any
thing of him reposed the most implicit confidence in him;
and no man could ever justly say that Emerson had de-
ceived him. He had great pleasure in doing a good and
friendly service to any deserving person, whenever he had
it in his power; and under a rough and forbidding exte-
rior, he concealed a humane heart, that wished to promote
the welfare and happiness of his fellow-creatures. He lies
buried in the church yard at Hurworth, at the west end
of the church; against which is erected to his memory a
stone, with the following inscription. His wife survived
him near two years; they had no children.

Quod sub Pedibus sepultum
Et neglectum jacet
Aliquando fuit
GULIELMUS EMERSON.

Vir

· Prisca Simplicitatis,
Summæ integritatis,
Rarissimi ingenii.
Quantus fuerit Mathematicus
Si scripta ejus perlegeris
Quorsum narraret saxum?
Si non perlegeris,
Perlege, et Scies.
Obiit 21 Mail, 1782.
Etat. An. 81.
Juxta sepulta jacet
ELIZABETHA UXOR.
Que obiit 27° Martii, 1784.
Ætat. An. 76.

The Traveller.

DESCRIPTION OF DUBLIN.

This city presents the most extraordinary contrast of poverty and magnificence to be met with in Europe. As you approach it, you find the suburbs composed of hovels, the sides of which are partly stone and partly earth, the roofs of turf, the entrances about four feet and a half high, and the whole dimensions of each not exceeding twelve or fourteen feet square. These miserable caves may or may not have a hole for a window, and an aperture on the top to let out the smoke, if the luxury of fire can be afforded. Around the door the dirty children are huddled-not onehalf are decently clad, some of them still evince notions of During the greatest part of his life he had enjoyed civilization by slinking into the house, or turning their bare trong and uninterrupted health; but as he advanced in parts against a wall. I saw hundreds whose whole dress ears he was afflicted with the stone and gravel to an ex- consisting of a mass of rags, of all colours and all sorts of fuciating degree. In the agony of these fits he would fabrics, will not furnish one piece of cloth eight inches awl round the floor, on his hands and knees, sometimes square, and these tatters seemed to be sewed together only praying and sometimes swearing, and devoutly wishing to prevent them deserting each other. Having passed the that the mechanism of the human frame had been so suburbs, the dwellings improve; and on reaching Sackvillecontrived as to go to wreck without all that clittermy-street, you imagine yourself in one of the most elegant cities clatter, as he called it. As he grew weaker, the violence in Europe. In walking over the city, the late Parliament of his disorder abated, and he died, at last, apparently House (now the Bank) the Exchange, the quay along without much pain, on the 21st of May, 1782, and in the the Liffey, and several of the public squares, excite the sighty-first year of his age. stranger's admiration. There is no part of London which can compare with the centre of Dublin in beauty and magnificence. But, in turning the eye from the architectural splendour which surrounds him, upon the crowds which flow along the streets, the stranger will be struck with the motley nature of the throng. Here is a lass almost buoyant with satin and feathers; there is a trembling girl of eighteen, purple from cold, shrinking from shame, and drawing around her the poor rags which, with all her care, scarce cover her body; here is an exquisite, perfuming the air as he passes, with rings on his

Mr. Emerson, with much persuasion, about a year before his decease, was prevailed on, by his friend Dr. Cloudsley, of Darlington, to sit for his portrait, which was taken by Sykes, and is now in the Doctor's possession. Towards the close of the year 1781, being sensible of his approaching dissolution, he disposed of the whole of his mathematical library to a bookseller at York: his instruments he had, for many years, been in the habit of disposing of, at es, for a mere trifle. When asked why he chose to his books, he said "he had none but a pack of fools

tic

The Housewife.

"Housekeeping and husbandry, if it be good,
Must love one another as cousins in blood:

The wife, too, must husband as well as the man,
Or farewel thy husbandry, do what thou can."
Walnuts an excellent Family Medicine.-Every body
eats walnuts; every body knows how to make a pickle of
walnuts; few, however, know the medicinal virtue of
walnuts. Now the fact is, walnuts, when prepared, secun-
dum artem, are an excellent opening medicine and altera-
tive; and this is the way to prepare them: Get the green
walnuts fit for pickling, put them in a stone jar, filled up
with moist sugar, at the proportion of about half a pound
of sugar to a score of walnuts; place the jar in a saucepan
of boiling water for about three hours, taking care the
water does not get in, and keep it simmering during the
operation. The sugar, when dissolved, should cover the
walnuts, if it does not, add more. Cover it close, and in
six months it will be fit for use; the older it gets the bet-
ter it is. One walnut is a dose for a child of six years of
age, as a purgative; and it has this great advantage over
drugs, that, whilst it is an excellent medicine, it is at the
same time very pleasant to the palate, and will be es-
teemed by the young folks as a great treat. Who can
say as much of salts, jalap, and other doctor's stuff? and
in a large family it will abridge the doctor's bill ten pounds
a year.-Economist.

Ague. Two tea-spoonfuls of the best flour of brimstone, taken in a gill of Port wine, whenever the fit comes on (the patient going to bed immediately, and wrapped up in blankets) is said to be a certain cure for the ague; to be repeated, if necessary.

Alleged Cure for the Tooth-ache.-To a table spoonful of any kind of spirits, add the same quantity of sharp vinegar, and a tea spoonful of common salt; mix them well together; hold the liquid in the mouth, so that it can enter the cavity of the tooth. It will give almost instantaneous relief.-Economist.

To choose a Goose-The bill and feet of a young one will be yellow, and there will be but few hairs upon them; if old, they will be red; if fresh, the feet will be pliable; if stale, dry and stiff.' Green geese should be scalded; stubble geese should be picked dry.

Scientific Records.

Sulphur in Oil Gas.-In Paris there is a company for lighting by gas, which uses the oil obtained from the seeds of the brassica oleracea arvensis; and it has lately been found that the sulphur contained in this seed was dissolved in the gas, and had a pernicious effect on the neighbourhood where it was consumed. The gas attacked metallic substances and effected respiration. The brass burners were soon corroded and destroyed, and filled with an efflorescence, which has been analysed, and shown to be a sulphate of zinc and copper, a sub-sulphate of copper, phosphate of copper, and oxide of iron, with some traces (accidental) of silica. This shows the necessity of washing the gases thoroughly, and of not using these seeds, if the washing does not clean the gas.-Bulletin des Sciences Technologiques.

Native Oil of Laurel.-Dr. Hancock has published, in the Quarterly Journal of Science, an account of a volatile oil obtained from a tree of the laurine family, which abounds in the fertile regions between the Orinoco and the Panine, in America. It is procured by striking into the tree with an axe, and as it is not distributed equally in every part, some skill is necessary to find out the proper spot. The native oil resembles the essential oil obtainep by art in many of its properties, but is purer. It is very volatile, and very little heavier than alcohol. Its elabora tion in the plant is a curious fact, and may lead to some interesting researches and discoveries in vegetable physiology.Chemist.

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