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and were all buried there; which place bears the name of Macfadden to this day. Brux left no children but one daughter, named Katherine, under the guardianship of though his vassal. Brux's taking the earl's side was the the Earl of Mar, against whom Muat had rebelled, alcause of the quarrel. never to marry any but him who would revenge the death The young lady made a of her father. The Lord Forbes had four sons; one of them falling in love with Katherine Cameron, undertook to revenge the death of the Camerons. Muat, hearing of this, sent him a defiance or challenge, to meet him on the 8th of May, at a place called Badenyoan, near the head of Glenbucket. They both kept the appointment; but being afraid of treachery, each brought a great number of their friends and followers along with them. When they met, and both parties solemnly vowed to live in peace with whoto prevent more bloodshed, they agreed on a single combat; ever of them should be victorious. But at this place Forbes killed Muat; and here there was a monument set up, which is called Clachmuat, or Muat's stone to this day. Of this event, tradition gives an account somewhat differlowing only are perhaps worthy of notice, viz. That Katherine Cameron, after her father's death, lived under the immediate care or guardianship of her mother, Lady Brux, exasperated by the treacherous murder of her husband, and a woman animated by a spirit suited to the times; and who, successive outrages of the Muat clan, is stated to have made the vow, (ascribed with less probability to the youthful Katherine,) "That whoever should bring to her Muat's daughter and the estate of Brux." Such a prize, so to be head, or evidence of having killed him, should have her bes, the youngest of Drimminor's sons, a warm admirer of won, could not remain long uncontended for. Robert Forthe young lady, challenged Muat, fought, and killed him with his dirk or skien, after a long and desperate contest, as narrated in the poem. Going directly from the field of ample credentials of his zeal and success, Forbes was probattle to the house of his fair one, and bearing, no doubt, ceeding to claim the promised reward, and to deprecate the postponement of his happiness to any distant period, when Lady Brux, in a tone and manner sufficiently characteristic to the time and preparatory ceremonials of the marriage, of her feelings on the occasion, settled at once all dispute as by declaring, that "Kate Cameron should go to bed with Rob Forbes as lang's Muat's blood was reekin' on his gully." Of this arrangement, report sayeth, that the galblushing bride did not permit the maiden scruples she was lant Forbes expressed entire approbation, and that his about to make to stand a moment in competition with her filial obedience.

scure, are not a whit less dark and revolting than the history of despotism on the large scale of a Turkish or Russian despot, before opinion or dread of the bowstring had interposed a restraining power on their actions. The Bailie More in Strathspey-or Big Bailie-not much more than a century back, hung at pleasure; and, as is not unusual in such ́eases, took great pleasure in hanging :-so true it is, "that increase of appetite doth grow by what it feeds on ;" and this whether for good or evil. On one occasion, the Big Bailie hanged two brothers on the same tree. He was, however, surpassed in enormity by another of these Highland janissaries in the same district. Bailie Roy, or the Red Bailie, who proceeded with Jeddart justice, then the only justice to be obtained, to hang a man, and try him afterwards. The Red Bailie's victim was named Stewart. Those hangings were always attended with the immediate confiscation of goods to the vizier; and indeed this was often the leading object of the execution. Roy once boiledent, and with additional circumstances, of which the folthe heads of two thieves he had hanged, and afterwards spiked them; and he anticipated the French Terrorists in Nogades. Two men he drowned in sacks near the manse of Abernethy, in Strathspey. This vizier founded a family, and purchased an estate with the fruits of his rapine and confiscations. Another of those wretches, Bailie Bane, or the Fair Bailie, for they were of all complexions, though of one nature, became so detested for his rapacity and cruelty, that the oppressed people drowned him in the Spey, and pretended that he had been thrown into the river from horseback. When affecting, with great sorrow, to search for his body in the Haughs of Cromdale, a man inquired what they sought, and when informed, said, "Turn back, turn back; ye'll find him up the water, like the fiddler's wife. He was ever acting against nature." The viziers, though they had holdings on the estates, had no emoluments save what they were able to extort from the wretched people by confiscations and fines, which they both imposed, and pocketed; they were also entitled to a few days of labour from the tenants or vassals; for they were still in fact vassals. This was called the Bailie's Darg,-it was in addition to the laird's dues, and was severely exacted. They were also entitled to a kind of legacy-duty, consisting of the best cow, ox, horse, or other property of which a man died in possession, and which, like the modern legacy-duty, was remorselessly levied from widows and orphans, at the time they most needed solace and assistance.

THE HEIRESS OF BRUX.

SINCE we are noticing feudal manners, we give an instance of the indomitable pride and fierce spirit of revenge which animated our ancestors, which is, we believe, unparalleled. It is given from the traditionary stores of a gentleman, originally of "the north countrie," whose reminis cences would be a treasure of Jacobite and popular antiquarian lore:

Brux is the seat of the ancient Camerons, who were engaged in a quarrel with MUAT, Laird of Abergeldy, who at that time possessed most part of that country which is called Braemar, upon the river Dee. To put an end to their disputes, Cameron, Laird of Brux, and Muat of Abergeldy, agreed to meet at the hill of Drumgaudrum, near the river Don, and to bring twelve horsemen on each side, and there decide their quarrel by the sword. Muat treacherously brought two men on each horse, so that they were two to one. Brux, and all his sons, and most of his party, were killed on the other side, Muat's two sons, the Laird of Macfadden, and several others, were killed upon the spot,

AN OLD ENGLISH BARONET'S OPINION OF
MODERN MANNERS.

"ALL is grown pride and poverty, excess and want, show
and unsubstantiality. We drive out eight or twelve miles
to dinner, when we should be thinking of bed-time; and if
I have been shooting in the morning, I live all day in
hopes of a disappointment. I visit men and women who
care for neither me nor my wife, and whose only thought,
from the moment I enter their houses, is to make the
greatest display possible; and, to do them justice, this is
the exact feeling we have towards them.
days some of my friends thought that I sometines kept low
In my younger
company:-Low company did I? Is it family they alluded
to? I am sure I visit more and bastards among
this high grade! Or did they mean dunces and fools ? I
can produce five to one in our privileged order. As for
honour and honesty, credit and reputation, I assure you
that the intrusion of sycophants and flatterers is so predo-
minant, and the pretensions of upstart professional gentle.
men, ashamed of business, trade, and reasonable employ-

ment, so pressing, that I have greater selection to make | small peculiarity, which mere wealth toils to imitate than ever I did in my life. Then, during the visiting season, my servants, carriages, and horses, are, from morning till night, ay, and through the night, employed in greater scenes of idleness and demoralization than they ever knew in my very idlest days; when I drove from race course to race course, and drank claret and champagne by the dozen. It cannot last, I plainly see, for some of us are brought to an end year after year. The Rev. Mr. and his wife and family, is just gone off to the continent, while the valuable Rectory goes through a course of sequestration. Mr. Mhas cut down the fine plantation of Oaks, which his grandfather planted, and W's race-horses all went to the hammer last week."This unfortunate baronet had been entrapped into fashionable society by a fine lady wife. She died when he had just full time to understand and despise that utterly worthless and presumptuous state of society, which looks down with superciliousness upon the lower orders. He had found that a "superior style" is only superior show. Characters of wit, he discovered, were very laboured, very uncertain, and yet more wearisome from their sameness. But what proved most offensive to his feelings was to hear upstart great ones talk of "their family and their pedigree." A remark of his will not soon be forgotten in his own neighbourhood. The conversation had continued for two or three hours of " Who are they? what are they?" in reference to the whole circle of the neighbourhood having pretensions to gentility, and all in reference to family consequence and property, when Sir-the greater part of that House is pronounced not to be Harry said, "I think a man ought to be stripped of honour as soon as he has lost character. There is not a man in this county can boast higher pedigree than three, one of whom I should little scruple to name a notorious blackleg, the second an arrant swindler, and the third I could put upon trial for his life for forgery. There is a fourth who can trace his pedigree to half the great families in the country, and yet is more infamous than all the rest put together; and it is not a little remarkable that the two proudest people in our neighbourhood are natural children. The gentleman is son of a West India planter; and his lady is the daughter of a celebrated baronet and Mrs.

some arbitrary disposition of a vehicle or a garment: and in this poor avoidance of the old or the vulgar, they place all their pride, and exhaust all their talents. The principle of exclusion is not inconsistent with enjoyment, if the Exclusives but possessed the social qualities; but they have neither wit, enthusiasm, imagination, nor learning: the only distinctions they can reach are such as might be attained by stable boys and cabriolet drivers-they consist merely in a violation of all those points of manners and feelings that other classes hold to be respectable. This is an unhappy peculiarity, which, while it separates them from the rest of their countrymen, equally holds them apart from maintaining real fellowship among themselves. They are stars, indeed, but anxiously watching each other's fall: they are atoms of matter brought together by the attraction of cohesion, but rejecting all real union by their principles of repulsion. Among other virtues of the Reform Bill, we anticipate that it will put down the Exclusives and the Fashionable World; not by interfering with it directly, but by raising the middle classes so far in independence, importance, and virtuous ambition, as to drive the industrious ennuyes into their real insignificance. Political power has more to do with the Exclusive principle than has been commonly imagined; a secret which has, however, struck the German Prince, during his attentive observation of the phenomenon of English society. At present, it is rather equivocal taste to be in the House of Commons

the actress."

FASHIONABLES.

Of all the castes into which this country is divided, none is so unhappy as that of the Fashionables, for they alone feel the burden of existence: the other end of society resorts to vice through poverty, the Exclusive to crime from the lack of the power of self-amusement. The extremes meet in the character of their enjoyments, if not in their theatre. A London Exclusive of the present day is pronounced by the Prince Puchler Muskau, an excellent judge-"a bad, flat, dull impression of a roué of the Regency and a courtier of Louis the Fifteenth; both have in common, selfishness, levity, boundless vanity, and an utter want of heart; both think they can set themselves above every thing by means of contempt, derision, and insolence." Nothing can be more true than this. The class of Fashionables in England are stupid among themselves, and boorish to all others. The Nobodies, we must say, very frequently deserve their contempt, by endeavouring to imitate these odious models. The object of fashionable ambition is always a paltry one: the brilliancy of its votaries consists in a display of some

"good society:" wait a while, and there will probably be less "good society" in it than even now; for, to be a patient and intelligent guardian of the public interests, is no qualification for "good society;" to be upright, impartial, and persevering in the discharge of duty, implies no pretension to fashion; nay, a man might possess all the talents and the virtues of the model of a legislator, and yet possess no claim to be any thing but a Nobody.

THE BARN OWL.

AMONGST the numberless verses which might be quoted against the family of the owl, I think I only know of one little ode which expresses any pity for it. Our nursery. maid used to sing it to the tune of the Storm, "Cease, rude Boreas, blust'ring railer." I remember the two first stanzas of it :

"Once I was a monarch's daughter,
And sat on a lady's knee;
But I'm now a nightly rover,
Banish'd to the ivy-tree.

Crying hoo hoo, hoo hoo, hoo hoo,
Hoo hoo, hoo, my feet are cold!
Pity me, for here you see me,
Fersecuted, poor, and old."

I have

I beg the reader's pardon for this exordium. introduced it, in order to shew how little chance there has been, from days long passed and gone to the present time, of studying the haunts and economy of the owl, because doomed it to destruction from all quarters. Some few, cerits unmerited bad name has created it a host of foes, and tainly, from time to time, have been kept in cages, and in aviaries. But nature rarely thrives in captivity, and very seldom appears in her true character when she is encumbered with chains, or is to be looked at by the passing going to change; and I trust that the reader will contemcrowd through bars of iron. However, the scene is now plate the owl with more friendly feelings, and under quite

different circumstances. Here, no rude schoolboy ever approaches its retreat; and those who once dreaded its diabolical doings are now fully satisfied that it no longer meddles with their destinies, or has any thing to do with the repose of their departed friends. Indeed, human wretches in the shape of body-snatchers, seem here in England to have usurped the office of the owl in our churchyards; "et vendunt tumulis corpora rapta suis."

Up to the year 1813, the barn owl had a sad time of it at Walton Hall. Its supposed mournful notes alarmed the aged housekeeper. She knew full well what sorrow it had❘ brought into other houses when she was a young woman; and there was enough of mischief in the midnight wintry blast, without having it increased by the dismal screams of something which people knew very little about, and which every body said was far too busy in the churchyard at night-time. Nay, it was a well-known fact, that if any person were sick in the neighbourhood, it would be for ever looking in at the window, and holding a conversation outside with somebody, they did not know whom. The gamekeeper agreed with her in every thing she said on this important subject; and he always stood better in her books when he had managed to shoot a bird of this bad and mischievous family. However, in 1813, on my return from the wilds of Guiana, having suffered myself, and learned mercy, I broke in pieces the code of penal laws which the knavery of the gamekeeper and the lamentable ignorance of the other servants had hitherto put in force, far too successfully, to thin the numbers of this poor, harmless, unsuspecting tribe. On the ruin of the old gateway, against which, tradition says, the waves of the lake have dashed for the better part of a thousand years, I made a place with stone and mortar, about four feet square, and fixed a thick oaken stick firmly into it. Huge masses of ivy now quite cover it. In about a month or so after it was finished, a pair of barn owls came and took up their abode in it. I threatened to strangle the keeper if ever, after this, he molested either the old birds, or their young ones; and I assured the housekeeper that I would take upon myself the whole responsibility of all the sickness, wo, and sorrow that the new tenants might bring into the Hall. She made a low curtsy; as much as to say, "Sir, I fall into your will and pleasure;" but I saw in her eye that she had made up her mind to have to do with things of fearful and portentous shape, and to hear many a midnight wailing in the surrounding woods. I do not think, that up to the day of this old lady's death, which took place in her eighty-fourth year, she ever looked with pleasure or contentment on the barn owl, as it flew round the large sycamore-trees which grow near the old ruined gateway.

When I found that this first settlement on the gateway

when the weather is gloomy, you may see an owl upc apparently enjoying the refreshing diurnal breeze. Ti. s year (1831) a pair of barn owls hatched their young, on the 7th September, in a sycamore-tree, near the old ruined gateway.

hunting for it by night, mankind would have ocular deIf this useful bird caught its food by day, instead of and it would be protected and encouraged everywhere. It monstrations of its utility in thinning the country of mice, would be with us what the ibis was with the Egyptians. When it has young, it will bring a mouse to the nest about proper idea of the enormous quantity of mice which this every twelve or fifteen minutes. But, in order to have a bird destroys, we must examine the pellets which it ejects from its stomach in the place of its retreat. Every pellet contains from four to seven skeletons of mice. In sixteen months from the time that the apartment of the owl on the old gateway was cleaned out, there has been a deposit of above a bushel of pellets.

I was sitting under a shed, and killed a very large rat, as The barn owl sometimes carries off rats. One evening it was coming out of a hole, about ten yards from where I another shot. As it lay there a barn owl pounced upon it, was watching it. I did not go to take it up, hoping to get and flew away with it.

This bird has been known to catch fish. Some years ago, on a fine evening in the month of July, long before and minuting the owl by my watch, as she brought mice it was dark, as I was standing on the middle of the bridge, into her nest, all on a sudden she dropped perpendicularly into the water. Thinking that she had fallen down in epilepsy, my first thoughts were to go and fetch the boat; but before I had well got to the end of the bridge, I saw the owl rise out of the water, with a fish in her claws, and take it to the nest. This fact is mentioned by the late much revered and lamented Mr. Aitkinson, of Leeds, in his friend of his, to whom I had communicated it a few days "Compendium," in a note, under the signature of W., a after I had witnessed it.

the description of the amours of the owl by a modern I cannot make up my mind to pay any attention to writer; at least, the barn owl plays off no buffooneries here, the world over, whether under the influence of Momus, Venus, or Diana.

such as those which he describes. An owl is an owl all

the eggs of their pigeon, they lay the saddle on the wrong When farmers complain that the barn owl destroys horse. They ought to put it on the rat. Formerly I coul! get very few young pigeons, till the rats were excluded etfectually from the dove-cot. Since that took place it has produced a great abundance every year, though the barn owls frequent it, and are encouraged all around it. The barn owl merely resorts to it for repose and concealment. If it were really an enemy to the dove-cot, we should see the pigeons in commotion as soon as it begins its evening flight; but the pigeons heed it not; whereas, if the sparrow-hawk or wind-hover should make their appearance, the whole community would be up at once, proof sufficient that the barn owl is not looked upon as a bad, or even a suspicious, character by the inhabitants of the dove-cot.

had succeeded so well, I set about forming other establishments. This year I have had four broods, and I trust that next season I can calculate on having nine. This will be a pretty increase, and it will help to supply the place of those which in this neighbourhood are still unfortunately doomed to death, by the hand of cruelty or superstition. We can now always have a peep at the owls, in their habitation on the old ruined gateway, whenever we choose. Confident of protection, these pretty birds betray no fear when the stranger mounts up to their place of abode. I would here venture a surmise, that the barn owl sleeps standing. Till lately, a great and well-known distinction has alWhenever we go to look at it, we invariably see it ways been made betwixt the screeching and the hooting of upon the perch bolt upright, and often with its eyes closed, apparent-when I am in the woods after poachers, about an hour be owls. The tawny owl is the only owl which hoots; and ly fast asleep. Buffon and Bewick err (no doubt, uninten-fore daybreak, I hear with extreme delight its loud, clear, tionally) when they say that the barn owl snores during and sonorous notes, resounding far and near through hill its repose. What they took for snoring was the cry of the young birds for food. I had fully satisfied myself on this and dale. Very different from these notes is the screech of score some years ago. However, in December, 1823, I was much astonished to hear this same snoring kind of noise, which had been so common in the month of July. On ascending the ruin, I found a brood of young owls in the apartment.

Upon this ruin is placed a perch, about a foot from the hole at which the owls enter. Sometimes, at mid-day,

And sell bodies torn from their tombs.

the barn owl. But Sir William Jardine informs us that

this owl hoots; and that he has shot it in the act of hooting. This is stiff authority; and I believe it, because it comes from the pen of Sir William Jardine. Still, however, methinks that it ought to be taken in a somewhat diluted state; we know full well that most extraordinary examples of splendid talents do, from time to time, make their appearance on the world's wide stage. Thus, Franklin brought down fire from the skies:-" Eripuit fulmen

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cælo, sceptrumque tyrannis." Paganini has led all London captive by a single piece of twisted catgut;"Tu potes reges comitesque stultos ducere."+ Leibnitz tells us of a dog in Germany that could pronounce distinctly thirty words. Goldsmith informs us that he once heard a raven whistle the tune of the "Shamrock" with great distinctness, trath, and humour. With these splendid examples before our eyes, may we not be inclined to suppose that the barn owl which Sir William shot in the absolute act of hooting may have been a gifted bird, of superior parts and knowledge (una de multis,+ as Horace says of Miss Danaus,) endow ed, perhaps, from its early days, with the faculty of hooting, or else skilled in the art by having been taught it by its neighbour the tawny owl? I beg to remark, that though i unhesitatingly grant the faculty of hooting to this one particular individual owl, still I flatly refuse to believe that hooting is common to barn owls in general. Ovid, in his sixth book "Fastorum," pointedly says, that it screeched in his day :

"Est illis strigibus nomen; sed nominis hujus

looked into their pleasant garden. Half up the lower casement of the window, there was a white muslin curtain, made out of one of her mother's old-fashioned tam. boured aprons, drawn across from side to side, for the window had no shutters. It would be only to' distress the reader to tell what she suffered. Long she struggled, and weak she grew; and a sough of her desperate case went up and down the town like the plague that walketh in darkness. Many came to inquire for her, both gentle and semple; and it was thought that the Dominie would have been in the crowd of callers; but he came not.

In the midst of her suffering, when I was going about my business in the room, with the afflicted lying-in woman, I happened to give a glint to the window, and startled I was, to see, like a ghost, looking over the white curtain, the melancholious visage of Dominie Quarto, with watery eyes glistening like two stars in the candle light.

I told one of the women who happened to be in the way, to go out to the sorrowful young man, and tell him not to look in at the window; whereupon she went out, and remonstrated with him for some time. While she was gone, to Abraham's bosom. This was a most unfortunate thing; sweet Mally Stoups and her unborn baby were carried away and I went out before the straighting-board could be got. ten, with a heavy heart, on account of my poor family that might suffer, if I was found guilty of being to blame.

Causa, quod horrendà stridere nocte solent." || The barn owl may be heard shrieking here perpetually on the portico, and in the large sycamore-trees near the house. It shrieks equally when the moon shines and when the night is rough and cloudy; and he who takes an interest in it may here see the barn owl the night through I had not gone beyond the threshold of the back-door when there is a moon; and he may hear it shriek, that led into the garden, when I discerned a dark figure within a few yards of him, long before dark; and again, between me and the westling scad of the setting inoon. Oa often after daybreak, before it takes its final departure to going towards it, I was greatly surprised to find the weepits wonted resting-place. I am amply repaid for the painsing Dominie, who was keeping watch for the event there, I have taken to protect and encourage the barn owl; it pays nie a hundred fold by the enormous quantity of mice which it destroys throughout the year. The servants now no longer wish to persecute it. Often, on a fine summer's evening, with delight I see the villagers loitering under the sycamore-trees longer than they would otherwise do, to have a peep at the barn owl, as it leaves the ivy-mantled tower: fortunate for it, if, in lieu of exposing itself to danger, by mixing with the world at large, it only knew the advantage of passing its nights at home; for here

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THE STICKET MINISTER.

IN our parish there lived a young lad, a sticket minister, not very alluring in his looks; indeed, to say the truth, he was by many, on account of them, thought to be not far short of a haverel; for he was lank and most uncomely, being in-kneed; but, for all that, the minister said he was a young man of great parts, and had not only a streak of geni, but a vast deal of inordinate erudition. He went commonly by the name of Dominie Quarto; and it came to pass, that he set his affections on a weel-faured lassie, the daughter of Mrs. Stoups, who keepit the Thistle Inn. this there was nothing wonderful, for she was a sweet maiden, and nobody ever saw her without wishing her well. But she could not abide the Dominie: and, indeed, it was no wonder, for he certainly was not a man to pleasure a woman's eye. Her affections were settled on a young lad called Jock Sym, a horse-couper, a blithe heartsome young man, of a genteel manner, and in great repute, therefore, among the gentlemen.

In

He won Mally Stoups' heart; they were married, and, in the fulness of time thereafter, her pains came on, and I was sent to ease her. She lay in a back room, that * He snatched lightning from heaven, and the sceptre, from

tyrants.

+ hou canst lead kings and their silly nobles. One out of many.

They are called owls (striges,) because they are accustomed to scicech (stridere by night.

The eccentric traveller, sportsman, and naturalist, whose fight with a cayman is so well known.

and had just heard what had happened, by one of the women telling another.

get my motherly anxieties, and I did all I could to console This symptom of true love and tenderness made me for the poor lad; but he was not to be comforted, saying, “It was a great trial when it was ordained that she should lie in the arms of Jock Sym, but it's faur waur to think that the kirk-yard hole is to be her bed, and her bridegroom the

worm."

Poor forlorn creature, I had not a word to say. Inderd. he made my heart swell in my bosom; and I could never forget the way in which he grat over my hand, that he took between both of his, as a dear thing, that he was prone to fondle and mourn over.

But his cutting grief did not end that night; on the Sabbath evening following, as the custom is in our parish, Mrs. Sym was ordained to be interred; and there was a great gudeman were well thought of. Everybody expected the gathering of freends and neighbours; for both she and her Dominie would be there, for his faithfulness was spoken of by all pitiful tongues; but he stayed away for pure grief; he hid himself from the daylight, and the light of everyhuman eye. In the gloaming, however, after, as the betherel went to ring the eight o'clock bell, he saw the Dominie standing with a downcast look, near the new grave, all which made baith a long and a sad story, for many a day among us: I doubt if it's forgotten yet. As for me, I never troubles; and the death of a young wife and her unborn thought of it without a pang: but all trades have their baby, in her nineteenth year, is not one of the least that I have had to endure in mine.

both mortifications and difficulties, and what was werse But, although I met, like many others, in my outset, than all, I could not say that I was triumphant in my endeavours: yet, like the Doctors, either good luck or expecernment, insomuch that I became just wonderful for the rience made me gradually gather a repute for skill and disrequest I was in. It is therefore needless for me to make a strive for the entertainment of the reader, by rehearsing all the han'lings that I had; but, as some of them were of a notable kind, I will pass over the generality, and only make Nota-bena here and there of those that were particular, as well as the births of the babies that afterwards came to be something in the world. From the Howdie, an Autobiography, given in Tait's Magazine, by John Galt.

ONE OF SIR H. DAVY'S EXPERIMENTS.

MR. WATT's observations on the respiration of diluted hy dro-carbonate by man, and the experiments of Dr. Beddoes on the destruction of animals by the same gas, proved that its effects were highly deleterious

As it destroyed life, apparently by rendering the muscular fibre inirritable, without producing any previous excitement, I was anxious to compare its sensible effects with those of nitrous oxide, which at this time I believed to destroy life by producing the highest possible excitement.

interests. The Prince Royal seriously employ shimself in the affairs of government; his anti-constitutional sentiments, which have been publicly avowed upon different occasions, (recently even in the presence of several princes whose territories enjoy constitutions he drank to the extinction of all constitutions in Germany,) do not presage any near or favourable change for the Prussian states. The king lot of Bavaria, the principal constitutional power of Germany, is at this moment in extreme agitation; the storm which everywhere threatens, is on the point of breaking out in the Rhenish provinces, belonging to Bavaria The present King of Bavaria formerly excited great hopes, but which have not been realised. He was very popular when Prince Royal, and saluted by the unanimous applause of his people when he came to the throne. These brilliant illusions, however, have passed away, and some parts of his private conduct have given great offence. His Bavarian Majesty loves nature and women, and makes frequent journeys to Italy, to visit the Pope and his mistresses, usually returning from these campaigns much fatigued. Meeting by chance with a beautiful English woman, who came to pass the winter at Munich, he became so captivated with her, that, forgetting all sense of propriety, he wishMy friend, Mr James Tobin, junior, being present, after a ed to present her himself to the queen. A scene followed forced exhaustion of my lungs, the nose being accurately clos- which became a scandal at court, and amongst the public, for ed, I made three inspirations and expirations of the hydro-the king, in the height of his amorous warmth, persisted in atcarbonate. The first inspiration produced a sort of numbness tempting to present Lady E to the queen, whilst the and loss of feeling in the chest, and about the pectoral muscles. latter, actuated by just indignation, quitted the apartment, After the second, I lost all power of perceiving external saying to him, "I was aware long since that you would deceive things, and had no distinct sensation, except that of terrible me as you have deceived your people." It appears, however, oppression on the chest. During the third expiration, this that this lesson went for nothing. Lady E- became the feeling subsided, I seemed sinking into annihilation, and had avowed mistress of the king, who went in the spring to do just power enough to cast off the mouthpiece from my unclos- penance for his sins at Rome. ed lips.

In the first experiment, I breathed for nearly a minute three quarts of hy fro-carbonate, mingled with nearly two quarts of atmospheric air. It produced a slight giddiness, pain in the head, and a momentary loss of voluntary power; my pulse was rendered much quicker and more leeble. These effects, however, went off in five minutes, and I had no return of giddiness. Emboldened by this trial, I introduced into a silk bag four quarts of gas nearly pure, which was carefully produced from the decomposition of water by charcoal an hour before, and which had a very strong and disagreeable smell.

A short interval must have passed, during which I respired common air, before the objects around me were distinguish able. On recollecting myself, I fain ly articulated, "I do not think I shall die. Placing my finger on the wrist, 1 found my pulse thread-like, and beating with excessive quickness. In less than a minute, I was able to walk, and the painful oppression on the chest direc ed me to the open air.

After making a few steps, which carried me to the garden, my head became giddy, my knees trembled, and I had just sufficient voluntary power to throw myself on the grass. Here the painful feelings of the chest increased with such violence as to threaten sunocation. At this moment I asked for some nitrous oxide. Mr. Dwyer brought me a mixture of that gas with oxygen, and I breathed it for a minute, and believed my self recovered.

In five minutes the painful feelings began gradually to diminish; in an hour they had nearly disappeared, and I felt only excessive weakness, and a slight swimming of the head. My voice was very feeble and indistinct

I afterwards walked slowly for half-an-hour with Mr. Tobin, and on my return was so much stronger and better as to believe that the effects of the gas had entirely passed oft; though my pulse was 120, and very feeble, I continued without pain for nearly three quarters of an hour, when the giddness returned with such violence as to oblige me to lie on the bed; it was accompanied with nausea, loss of memory, and deficient

sensation.

In about an hour and a half, the giddiness went off, and was succeeded by an excruciating pain in the forehead, and between the eyes, with transient pains in the chest and extremities. Toards night these affections gradually diminished; and at ten no disagreeeble feeling, except weakness, remained I slept sound, and awoke in the morning very feeble, and very hungry. No recurrence of the symptoms took place, and I had nearly recovered my strength by the evening.

NOTES ON GERMANY.

Ar the frontiers of Austria, every one that arrives is scrutinized and searched with great strictness-a prohibited book or a masonic paper is of itself sufficient to lead to arrest and imprisonment Nothing but an English passport sets aside the rigoura and vexatious movements of the police.

Prussia, great and powerful since 1815, divides with Austria the tutelage of Germany. These two principal powers of Germany are the only ones who have refused to their people Constitutional Institutions. From this difference of ideas with regard to government, continual conflicts arise, and the small states which are all constitutional, find thems Ives placed in a very difficult position, in being obliged to follow the impulse which they receive from the Courts of Vienna and Berlin such being often in direct opposition to their wants and their

Next in order comes the Prince Elector of Hesse, whose small empire does not reckon more than 500,000 inhabitants. For a long time the daughter of a watchmaker at Berlin, raised to the title of the ountess Reichenbach, has lived publicly with this prince, and has a numerous family by him. The electress was forced to receive her at court with all possible distinction. Several times this unfortunate princess took refuge in a foreign country belonging to the family of the King of Prussia, but the influence of the Cabinet of Berlin succeeded in obliging her husband to take steps to induce her to return home, and she for some time lived at Cassel in good understanding with her rival. The events in France having produced a great agitation in Germany, this prince became frightened; and purchasing considerable property at Frankfort, for his dear countess and her family, he retired thither himself, whilst public opinion openly pronounced against himself and his mistress. The people agreed with the Chamber of Representatives, in refusing their consent to a constitutional prince abandoning his states, and residing in a foreign territory; and he was forced to return home. Not daring to occupy his magnificent palace at Cassel, he chose a small frontier town for his resi dence, which produced much aggravated discontent in the capital. Seeing that this state of things could not long continue, he handed the reigns of government to the nereditary prince, intending to reside at Montpellier, in France. Scarcely installed in his high functions, the Prince Regent, following the example of his father, purchased the wife of a Prussian officer for 30,000 crowns, gave her the title of Baroness de Schaumberg, and concluded with her a marriage Morganate, in which the female is a sort of privileged concubine.

In Saxony, the old king (who, through his friendship for Napoleon, lost half his territories) promenades the streets of his capital every morning before daylight, repeating his prayers. The Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt passes much of his time in eating and drinking.

The other little sovereigns n Germany possess most of them such small states, that their existence is unknown to the rest of the world, unless some happy chance draws them forth from their profound obscurity. The Prince of Cobourg would never have been known in Great Britain or elsewhere, but for his marriage with a princess of England; nor would the Prince of Hombourg, who reigns over a population of 20,000 and has an army of 200 men, have been distinguished but for his marriage with an English princess.

ANIMAL LIFE. Average duration of human life, by an experienced zoologist :-Quadrupeds. The horse, from 8 to 32 years; ox, 20; bull, 15; cow, 23; ass, 33; male, 18; sheep, 10; ram, 15; dog, 14 to 25; swine, 25; goat, 8; cat, 10.-Birds. Pigeon, 8 years; turtle dove, 35; goose, 28; parrot, from 30 to 100: raven, 190.-Amphibid. Turtles and tortoises, 50 to 100.

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