course, then, was the arena chosen for the enterprise; but admirable as were the projected plans, and skilfully as they were executed, such was his luck, or so profound were his calculations, that they failed five successive seasons. Fitzroy, however, was one of those men who, when satisfied that what they engage in ought to succeed, according to the means employed, only derive fresh vigour from every fresh defeat. He played his game a sixth time, and won. The same day that saw my uncle rise with thousands, saw him seek his pillow at night, a frantic beggar! He was too proud a man, too honourable, I will add, not to throw down his last guinea, in satisfaction of such demands. He never suspected villany in the business. He paid his losses, therefore; and in less than a week afterwards, an inquest sat upon his body, which was found at the bottom of his own fish pond.

I had my share of this infernal plunder; but so ravenous had been my appetite for revenge, that not one pang of remorse disturbed the riotous enjoyments in which it was lavished. On the contrary, the very consciousness that it was my uncle's money I squandered, gave a zest to every excess, and seemed to appease the gnawing passions which had so long tormented me. In two or three years, however, boundless extravagance, and the gaming-table, stripped me of my last shilling. It was in one of the frenzied moments of this profligate reverse of fortune, that I committed the crime for which, if tomorrow dawned upon me, I should be publicly arraigned.

Fitzroy had been fortunate the whole night. I had thrown with constant bad luck. He had pocketed some hundreds; I had lost more than I could pay. I asked him for a temporary loan of fifty pounds, to make good what I owed, and stake the small remaining sum for the chance of retrieving all. He refused me. It was the first time he had ever done so. But he not only refused me, he taunted me with sarcastic reproofs for my folly, and muttered something about the uselessness of assisting a man who, if he had thousands, would scatter them like dust. He should have chosen a fitter moment to exhort me, than when I was galled by my losses, and by his denial of my request. I was heated with wine too; and half mad with despair, half mad with drink, I sprung upon him, tore him to the earth, and before the bystanders could interfere to separate us, I had buried a knife, which I snatched from a table near me, up to the handle in his heart! He screamed-convulsively grappled me by the throat-and expired! His death-gripe was so fierce and powerful, that I believe, had we been alone, his murderer would have been found strangled by his side. It was with difficulty that the horror-struck witnesses of this bloody scene could force open his clinched hands time enough to let me breathe.

I have done! I remember, as if it were but yesterday, the silent response which my heart made, when my uncle pronounced that withering sentence on me. No!" was my indignant exclamation; "I may deserve a hundred public deaths; but if I know myself, I would never undergo one !-NOR WILL I. When that which I have written shall be read

other hopes and fears-other punishments, perchance, than man can awaken or inflictwill await me. My first crime-my first revenge, and my last, I have recorded; my last crime others must tell, when they speak of the murderer and SUICIDE, JAMES MORLEY.

DOMESTIC HABITS OF PETER THE GREAT.

THE ways and manners of Peter the Great were unpolished, but they were simple, frank, and natural. In his humble abode at Petersburgh, an abode which a mere artisan would think hardly good enough for himself, a bed, a chair, a table, a lathe and some books, formed the whole of the furniture. When he was not at home, the deck of a ship, the floor of a hut, or the bare ground served him as a bed; now and then straw when he could get it; if not he leaned his head on the officer who attended upon him, who lay across under it, and whose business it was to remain in that position as motionless as the bolster which he represented. Every thing in him was hostile to luxury, and looked to be useful: his clothes were plain, and even of a coarse cloth, calculated to wear well; his shoes, which were solid and clumsy, were frequently mended. At his table, which was usually a frugal one, nothing came amiss to him, except fish, which this naval prince could never bear. His habitual food, that which he preferred, was such as was eaten by the people. He ate little but often, wherever he might chance to be, and no matter with whom. He drank, however, to excess, from habit, from taste, perhaps even from vanity. Deplorable orgies, but less frequent than they are supposed to have been, where he was too often seen overcome by a shameful or a furious intoxication, but where, still oftener, proving himself more powerful than his excesses, he kept his senses, and patiently bore the rash language which intemperance prompted to his convivial companions. His court, at common times, consisted only of a few officers to convey his orders; luxury was banished from it by sumptuary laws; no plate was seen there. He waited upon himself, rose at four in the morning, and lighted his fire with his own hands.

Such were his habits at home; when he went out, it was generally on foot, or in a hackney-coach, and he sometimes borrowed of the first passer by the money to pay his fare. He daily spent several hours at the senates, but particularly at the Admiralty; after which, and always followed, like the great Frederick, by a favourite dog, he went alone, and without guards, to mingle among his people; preferring the society of foreign and Russian traders and sailors, especially the Dutch, from whom he could scarcely be distinguished by his dress. There, without ceremony, he took a part in their business, their pleasures, and their conversation, questioning them continually, and gaining know. ledge from their replies. Many a time was he seen working with his own hands in the

manufactories which he had established! It

is known that he often offered himself to pilot the European vessels which came to Cronstadt, and that he received, like other pilots, the pay of a service which he considered as an honour, and which he was desirous to render honourable. Another time, having been compelled by the state of his health to stop at a forge, he for some hours became a smith. Nor let it be supposed that there was any thing puerile in this; for in him, every thing, even to the major part of his most trifling actions, tended to a great purpose. For this reason, on his return to Moscow, he went to the master of the forge, and inquired what he paid his workmen. "Well, then," said he, "I, at that rate, have earned eight altins (about thirteenpence), and I am come for the money." Hav. ing received it, he added, that, "with this sum he would buy himself a new pair of shoes, of which he was in great want." This was very true; and he hastened to the market to make his purchase, which he afterwards felt a pleasure in wearing. "See what I earned by the sweat of my brow," said he to his courtiers; thus priding himself on the fruits of his labour, in the eyes of a nobility whom he wished to cure of the Oriental and haughty indolence with which they were imbued.- De Segur's History of

Russia.

66

VARIETIES.

Liability of Common Carriers.-Hackneycachmen were adjudged by Holt (C. J.), not to be carriers within the custom of the realm; and consequently not chargeable for any loss or damage happening to the goods of a passenger, unless there should be an express stipulation, and money paid distinctly for their conveyance.

Stage-coachmen are not in general responsible, except such as take a separate

price for the carriage of goods as well as persons; though, if a passenger in a stagecoach have his portmanteau with him, the carrier is not absolved from his liability, but must be answerable to the passenger if the portmanteau be lost; and there is no distinction between mails and other coaches. The postmasters-general are not, as such, liable for losses of bills or notes, or other valuable securities taken out of letters, put into the post-office, although the robbery be committed by a clerk engaged in the office

as sorter of letters.

A common-carrier being considered in the nature of an insurer of property intrusted to his care, is answerable for any accident, however inevitable, happening to such property, through the intervention of any human agency (except the enemies of the king), as by accidental fire, although it began in an adjoining premises, and communicated afterwards to the warehouse where the goods were deposited, and even where no negligence could be imputed to the carrier; but if he kept the goods in his possession, not as a common-carrier, but merely as a gratuitous accommodation to the owner until an opportunity might occur of forwarding them to their ulterior destination, he is not held answerable for the loss occasioned by

such accidental fire.

Should a carrier be robbed of property accountable for its value; and if the vessel intrusted to his care, he is nevertheless held by which goods are to be conveyed become accidentally, during the voyage, incapable of preserving the property uninjured, he is still chargeable, although the vessel was proved to have been tight when the goods were put on board; but where it is established that God, as by the rising of an unexpected and the damage was occasioned by the act of violent gust of wind, or tempestuous sea, and the proprietor of the vessel was in consequence compelled, for the safety of his passengers, to disburden the ship by throwing any part of the property overboard, he is not in such case liable for the loss.

Coach-proprietors are liable for injuries sustained by their passengers, arising from the negligence or misconduct of drivers; but if there be no negligence on the part of the proprietors, and it appearing that the accident or injury arose from inevitable causes, such as the horses taking fright, they are not subject to an action.-Notes of a Lawyer in the Atlas.--No. 149.

Speakers in the House of Commons.-The millions who read the speeches made by the members of the House of Commons (especially on such occasions as the recent debates), will be struck with the fluency, the ease, the comprehensiveness, and the learning of the speakers; they will envy those who have been present at the display; and they will secretly pine for an opportunity of witnessing that which, even at second-hand,

is so delightful and instructive. We can assure such, that their second-hand pleasure is more perfect than the original enjoyment. One evening in St. Stephen's chapel would cure their raptures. It was wise to make the public gallery so small that but a few persons could be accommodated; had it been more commodious, popular respect would diminish in proportion. To admit the multitude to a parliamentary debate would be to draw off the veil of mystery and awe, and to show that legislators are neither more profound nor deliberative than other men. The by-play of parliament is never reported. The coughs, the hems, the yawns, the whispers, the snuff-taking, the nasal applications, are never reported. Speeches read well, but they are delivered with difficulty. There is no note taken of the struggles in the throat, the drawl of the voice, the embarrassment that limps through an ill-constructed sentence, the fumbling in the pockets, the quiver of the hands, the loss for words, the frequent appeals to the pocket-handkerchief, the nods to fill up breaches in the sense, the bluster to supply thought, the ardour for want of argument, the prodigality of words, and parsimony of ideas, the tautologies of expression, the mumps and stumbles. These are never taken down in short-hand: in fact, the printed speech is, in nine cases out of ten, the arranged essence of what the speaker indicated, not what he spoke and, in comparison with the delivered rhapsody, is like the costume of a theatre by night, compared with its sickly appearance by day.

-Ibid.

and as constantly affirmed by those more la borious and profound in their investigations, collected several specimens for microscopic examination. The result of his task, which required both patience and perseverance in accomplishment, brought unanswerable conviction, that, however wonderful it may appear, insects really do possess numerous and distinct eyes. The species submitted to this close microscopic examination consisted of the boat-fly, dragon-fly, cicada, ephemera, dyticas, cimex, nepa, curculis, ant, gnat, bee, wasp, musea, ichneumon, millipedes, dynastes, silpha, bombardier, inquisitor, cock-chafer, peach-fly, cicindela, ear-wig, bupreates, cyrambyx, grass-hopper, locust, 'cricket, montes, cock-roach, black-beetle, labanus, stamoxys, moth, butterfly, lobster, and cray-fish. The number of eyes in the above list were found to vary according to the species. In some forty were counted, in others a thousand, and so on in progression, until upwards of thirty thousand were met with in some species.-Technological Repository.-No. 21.

Skill of the Boyeros in tracking the Footmarks of Cattle.-The Boyeros, whose duty it is, when a party of travellers is journeying over the vast and pathless pampas (extensive solitary plains in South America), to attend to the cattle, used in the journey, during halts, and to collect them together when needed, are remarkable for their wonderful skill in tracking the cattle when they stray, as they frequently will in the night, spite of every precaution. The facility with which they do this appears almost incredible. They of course track the stray cattle by their footmarks, and they can instantly tell the footmarks of their own oxen (oxen being engaged to draw the carts) can distinguish those of an ox from those of a bull or cow--those of the mare from the horse-whether the animal they are tracing is a mild or a tame one-whether mounted or not-and all this not merely on bare ground, but through deep pastures or tangled forests. It is the practice of the Boyeros, at all times when riding, to keep their eyes bent upon the ground over which they are passing; so that they thus acquire, from time to time, a knowledge of the peculiar character of every foot-mark left by the animals that precede them on their march.-Monthly Magazine.

-No. 39.

Snaring Partridges.-The plains in some parts of South America abound with game. The sport of sharing partridges is effected sometimes by means of horse-hair nooses, fixed to the end of a long cane; at others by riding swiftly round in a circle, decreasing the extent of the circle at every turn, till the bird, becoming at length literally bewildered and giddy by its efforts to escape, at last suffers itself to be approached near enough to be killed with a riding-whip.-Ibid.

Fires.-M. Aldini, of Milan, has invented a dress which enables the wearer to traverse with impunity the flames of a large fire, for the purpose of rescuing those who may be exposed to their fury, or of saving property from destruction. This dress is composed of a tissue of asbestos, which it is well known is not combustible, covered with metallic gauze, through which it is also well known fame will not penetrate. The forms of the parts, of which the dress consists, seem to have been suggested to M. Aldini by ancient armour. It is so contrived, however, as to leave the body and limbs at perfect liberty to make whatever efforts necessity may require. M. Aldini, with great liberality, has announced, that if any government or academical body is desirous of profiting by his invention, and will address a letter to him on the subject (free of postage) to Milan, or to Bologna, he will send in return drawings and models, or even a complete suit, constructed according to his directions.-Literary Gazette.

Anglo-mania in France. --The French people, in their newly-awakened love for what they are pleased to call liberty, are just at present fain to admire and imitate the English in all things-those same English whom, ever since the last accession of the same liberty fever, they have been holding up to the indignation of all mankind, for having stepped in just in time to strangle in its birth that real freedom, which, not being able to achieve for themselves, they could not bear to see others in the enjoyment of. But this Anglo-mania is not so much to be wondered at in the French now; for of all the most accredited methods of inspiring admiration, there is none so short and so sure as that of giving the proposed admirer a good sound beating." Great let me call him," exclaims Zanga of Alonzo, "for he conquered me!" The French never consented to believe, much less to call, the English a great people, till we had thoroughly thrashed them: but now, from the cut of their coats, to that of their constitutions-from the texture of their muslins, to that of their metaphysics-from the tone of their lyres, to that of their literature-ell must be English. -London Weekly Review.

Anecdote of a Reporter.-The following curious anecdote is related of Mark Supple (who was a reporter to the Morning Chronicle), by Peter Finnerty, his crony, coadjutor, and fellow-countryman. Mark was big-boned, loud voiced, and had as much wit and fun as an Irish porter could carry often more than he could carry himself, or knew what to do with. He took his wine every day at Bellamy's, and then went up into the gallery, and reported like a gentleman and a man of genius. The members hardly knew their own speeches again, but they admired Mark's free and bold manner

of dressing them up. None of them ever came to the office in the Strand to complain that the tall Irishman had given a lame, sneaking version of their sentiments-they pocketed the affront of their metamorphoses, and god-fathered speeches they had never made. Mark's way was the hyperbole; a strong vein of Orientalism, with a dash of the bog-trotter. The thing took, and Mark Supple was a favourite, and presumed upon it. One evening, as he sat at his post in the gallery, waiting the issues of things, and a hint to hang his own tropes and figures upon, a dead silence happened to prevail in the house. It was the period that Mr. Addington was Speaker. The bold leader of the press-gang was never much on serious business bent, and at this time he was particu larly full of meat and wine. Delighted, therefore, with the pause, but thinking that something might as well be going forward, he called out lustily, "A song from Mr. Speaker!" Imagine Addington's long, prim, upright figure, his consternation, and utter want of any preparation for, or clue to repel, such an interruption to the rules and orders of Parliament. The House was in a roar; Pitt, it is said, could hardly keep his seat for laughing. After the bustle and confusion were a little abated, the mace-bearer came up into the gallery to take the audacious culprit into custody; and demanded indignantly to know who it was, but nobody would tell. Mark sat like a tower on the hindmost bench of the gallery, imperturbable in his own gravity, and safe in the faith of the united brotherhood of reporters, who alone were in the secret. At length, as the Sergeant-at-Arms was making many fruitless inquiries, and getting impatient, Mark Supple pointed with his finger to a fat quaker, who sat in the middle of the crowd, and nodded assent that he was the man. The quaker was, to his great surprise, taken into immediate custody; but after a short altercation, and some further explanation, was released, and the hero of our story put in his place for an hour or two, but let off on an assurance of his contrition, and of showing less wit and more discretion for the future.Atlas.

List of Clubs in London, with the Number of Members.-Senior United Service Club, 1500; Junior United Service, 1500; Athenæum, 1000; Union, 1000; University, 1000; Brookes's, 500; Randle's, 500; White's, 500; Crockford's, 500; Albion, 400; Alfred, 500; Graham's, 500; Cocoa Tree, 500; Arthur's, 800; Wyndham's, 400; Guards, 400; Colonial, 400; St. James's, 400; Traveller's, 500; Oriental, 1000; Stratford, 500.-Total number of members, 13,000.

MESMERISM.*

BY RICHARD CHENEVIX, ESQ. F. R. AND E. S. M. R. T. A.†

ANIMAL magnetism is true. In the whole domain of human acquirements, no art or science rests upon experiments, more numerous, more positive, or more easily ascertained. As this assertion is in direct contradiction to the vast majority of current prejudices, it is just to state the grounds upon which it is made.

In former times, whenever animal magnetism was mentioned, I joined the general tribe of scoffers; and so much was I convinced of its absurdity, that, being at Rotterdam in 1797, I laughed to scorn a proposal made to me by an English resident there, to witness some experiments in which he was then engaged. His assertion was, that a somnambulist of his should, in her sleep, without any signal from him, leave her chair, and seat herself on any other chair which he should mentally designate. The respectability and general understanding of this person left no mode of accounting for so extraordinary an illusion, but to suppose him labouring under monomania.

In 1803 and 1804, while travelling in Germany, I heard many very enlightened men of the universities talk of animal magnetism, nearly with the same certainty as of mineral magnetism; but their credulity I set down to the account of German mysticity, and thought it not incongruous that the nation which took its philosophy from Kant, and Tiehte, and Schelling, should believe that certain motions of the hands could, by the will of the mover, transmit an influence to the person acted upon, which should produce the wonders related of animal magnetism. I remained an unbeliever.

In 1816, some persons of my acquaintance proposed to take me to the house of a lady in Paris, whose daughter was an artificial somnambulist, and, in the terms of the art, lucid. I went to laugh: I came away convinced.

To suspect any thing like a trick in the parties concerned was impossible. They were of the highest respectability and distinction, and some of them I had known for many years. The magnetiser was, indeed, in the frivolous French metropolis, called a charlatan, which made me suppose that he was not so; and the event proved that I was

From the London Medical and Physical Journal.-No. CCCLXI.

We are informed that Mr. Chenevix intends paying us a visit in London, and that he is prepared to convince the most sceptical that "mesmerism" is not the system of juggling imposition which by many it has been believed to be. For our own parts, we candidly confess we are yet to be converted.

VOL. II.

right. He was, indeed, poor; he exercised his art for money; he gave public lectures at three francs a ticket. Many young physicians have as fair a claim to the title as he had. But, from the hour above alluded to till the period of his death, I remained acquainted with the Abbé Faria, and never knew a man to whom the epithet impostor was less applicable.

No sooner had the Abbé Faria begun to operate than the countenance of the young lady changed, and in two seconds she was fast asleep, having manifested symptoms which could not be counterfeited. The sit

ting lasted about two hours, and produced results which, though I still remained a sceptic upon some of the most wonderful phenomena, entirely convinced me of the existence of a mesmeric influence, and of an extraordinary agency which one person can, by his will, exercise upon another. The Abbé Faria offered every means to dispel my remaining doubts, and gave me all necessary instructions to obtain total conviction from experiments of my own. I most zealously attended his labours, public and private, and derived complete satisfaction upon every point relating to mesmerism ; even upon those which appear supernatural. Many of the experiments I repeated, not only upon persons whom I met at his house, but upon others totally unacquainted with him or his studies, and was ultimately compelled to adopt the absolute and unqualified conclusion announced above: "Mesmerism is true." Other occupations, however, prevented me from continuing the subject, and I had only casual opportunities for exercising the art, until accident called back my whole attention to its truth and importance.

Witness of some of the wonders which have lately been the subject of discussion in the French Academy of Medicine, and surprised at the pusillanimity of that body, which cannot deny, yet has not manliness enough to avow, the facts which one half of its members declare they have witnessed, I resolved, with all due humility, yet not shrinking from the task, to devote some time to the collection of facts, and to offer the results to a much more enlightened public than that to which the art is compelled to appeal in France.

My first opportunity for renewing my practice was in May, 1828, when I cured a woman who had been six years an epileptic; this patient had also a strong tendency to paralysis of the left leg and thigh, and was subject almost daily to spasmodic contractions in her hands and feet, which were accompanied with racking pain, and sometimes lasted twelve hours. She had occasional absences of mind and loss of memory, and never slept more than a couple of hours at once, and this but rarely. From the very first day this woman was mesmerised, the sympNo. XXIII-APRIL 4, 1829.