versely to and forming a slight angle' with that immediately below it. The whole surface presented by each set of blades meets the water at the greatest depth in an angular position, and in rising or descending allows the water to pass through the small openings between the plates. One of the most important and remarkable points of the invention is the method of conveying the motion to the shaft of the propeller. This is effected through the medium of drums and pulleys connected by straps or ropes, the working of which is perfectly smooth and noiseless, a great advantage compared with the system of spur wheels and pinions previously employed, the noise and tremulous motion from which is represented as intolerable. In bringing his invention before the public, Mr. Blaxland has followed a course, which, by establishing a direct comparison with the old system, settles the question of superiority in the most unanswerable way. His first application of the propeller was to the Jane, a paddlewheel steamboat of three tons, with an engine of three-quarter horse power. Retaining the same engine, he moved this vessel at a speed of 7 1-2 miles per hour, obtaining an increase of 2 1-2 on its previous velocity. The propeller has been now applied in the same way to another steamboat, the Swiftsure, from which the paddle-wheels have been removed, while the engines, of 20-horse power each, are retained, and on Saturday last, at 12 o'clock, five of the Lords of the Admiralty, namely, Lord Haddington, Sir G. Cockburn, Sir W. H. Gage, Sir G. F. Seymour, and the Right Hon. Sir H. T. L. Corry, together with the Hon. S. Herbert, the Secretary, were received on board by Mr. Blaxland and Mr. Steinman, co-proprietor with the inventor of the patent. The vessel then proceeded down the river to within a short distance of Deptford Dockyard, and returned to Whitehall Stairs by a quarter-past 2 o'clock. During the whole trip their Lordships paid the closest attention to the working of the system, and informed themselves minutely on every particular. The apparatus, by which the proper degree of speed is communicated to the propeller, which, in this instance, was moved by ropes laid in grooves over the drums, appeared in particular to raise their admiration at the smoothness and quietness with which it worked, and on leaving the vessel their Lordships expressed themselves very much pleased with all they had seen. Mr. Blaxland was ordered to bring the propeller to the Admiralty in the course of the week. That which was used on the occasion was constructed with only two arms, the plates at each extremity being five in number. Notwithstanding the disadvantages presented by the build of the Swiftsure, which renders her name somewhat ironical, Mr. Blaxland has succeeded in increasing her speed from 7 1-3 miles to 9 per hour. An increase of speed such as this, which Mr. Blaxland in every instance promises, together with the other advantages of getting rid of such incumbrances, both in weight and bulk, as paddle-wheels and boxes, and the absence of all swell from the motion of the propeller, render it almost beyond a doubt that Mr. Blaxland will shortly see his invention generally adopted. It was expected that the Jane would also have been in attendance last Saturday, but this was prevented in consequence of her having been sent to Endfield, where the capabilities of the invention for canal navigation were to be tested. London Times of May 30.

VOLTAICO-ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTS IN WATER.

WE extract the following account of some curious and novel electrical experiments from a late London paper:

It had, heretofore, been imagined, that aqueform fluids, such as water, and the denser solid earth, had neither of them the capability of acting as conductors of electricity, and reconducting it to the battery after its passage. Dr. Franklin, having tried the former, sought to convey the electric matter down two rivers in America, and to regain the voltaic fluid at the point where the battery was erected, but after sedulous experiments, found it ineffectual. This, however, the two experiments of Thursday completely determined to be practicable, and Messrs. Wright and Bain, of the Polytechnic Institution, who are the operators and discoverers, having obtained permission of the Duke of Sussex to experiment on the broad sheet of the Serpentine River, they, at three o'clock, on Friday, June 3, demonstrated the truth of their experiments to a number of scientific gentlemen, among whom was Mr. Herapath, and others. The method of operation was thus: Near the house of the Humane Society, on the right hand of the river, was stationed a small voltaic battery, to which one end of two copper wires were affixed by the hands of the experimentalist, the remaining portion of the wires being conveyed, the one to the left, and the end just immersed in the water, and the other in like manner carried along the right path of the river up to the bridge which divides the park from Kensington Gardens; the end of this latter wire was then permitted to drop into the water over the bridge, on the top of which, part of it was attached to a coil of wireand needle. The purport of the experiment was to show, that after the wire had been charged with the voltaic electricity, the fluid passed out from the ends of the wires and travelled through the whole intervening length of the Serpentine-water, a space of nearly a mile in length, returning to the battery it had set out from, and thereby completing a concentric circuit of about two miles and a half. The needle above mentioned, situated on the bridge as a test, abundantly proved by its deflections, the genuineness of the experiment; and signal-flags stationed at that point, and communicating with another in a boat down at the other end of the river, demonstrated by their motions the velocity with which the aqueously-conducted electricity travelled. A second experiment, made upon parallel wires extended across the Serpentine, was equally felicitous in its proofs and results.

NEW LITHOGRAPHIC PROCESS.

AN account of the new application of Daguerre's discovery by Signor Rondoni is given in several foreign journals as an extract from a statement which has been published in the Memoirs of the Astronomer of the

Roman College. What the writer of the account states is to the following effect: "A drawing of the nebula of Orion had just been finished, when our lithographer, Signor Rondoni, called and communicated his important discovery. He informed us that he had been successful in his efforts to produce on stone the effect at first produced by Daguerre on metallic plates. He is in possession of a composition which enables him to place on stone photographic images; and he is able to print therefrom, by the ordinary methods of lithography, as many copies as can be obtained from a drawing by the hand on stone. In proof of this, he proceeded to put his process to the test on the nebula of Orion, and the experiment was quite successful." The first proofs were sent to M. Arago, who speaks in high terms of the process of M. Rondoni, and has presented the proofs to the Academy of Sciences at Paris. It thus appears that an important discovery has been made; but it is not distinctly stated that the figure of the nebula is transmitted directly to the stone. That it is so transmitted is the first impression produced on reading the account; but there are a few Italian words under the plate given of the first proof, from which it may be presumed that the Daguerreotype figure on the stone must be transmitted, not from the object itself, but from a drawing made in the usual way by the hand.

A NEW EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

THE following announcement has appeared at Rome, under date of March 14: "Cardinal Angelo Mai has just completed a work, on which he has been occupied for upwards of ten years. It is an edition of the New Testament, with the variations of all the manuscripts existing in the principal libraries of Rome, and other parts of Italy, and with numerous notes, full of philological research. The text adopted by Cardinal Mai, as the basis of his edition, is that of the celebrated manuscript, No. 1209, in the library of the Vatican, which dates from the sixth century. At the suggestion of his Eminence, the Papal Government has resolved to publish, at its own expense, a fac-simile of this manuscript, which is in gilt uncial letters, and in close writing, (scriptis continuis,) that is to say, the words are not separated from each other by spaces. Our celebrated engraver, Ruspi, is to execute a copperplate engraving of this fac-simile, copies of which will be presented by the Holy See to all the Sovereigns in Christendom."

MONUMENT TO WALTER SCOTT.

AN engraving has just been published in London, from a drawing by the architect, Mr. Kemp, of the monument to the memory of Sir Walter Scott, at Edinburgh. It is a Gothic elevation, something in the style of what are called "crosses," and bears in some portions a resemblance of the great tower of the Cathedral at Antwerp. It is in style between the florid and the simple Gothic, having flying buttresses, finials, crockets, &c., and being ornamented with quatre feuils, and more minute embellishments. There are many tabernacles, but they are not occupied by figures. The statue of Sir Walter is placed in the centre, beneath the principal arch. It is robed in a flowing drapery, and stands on a pedestal.

CHRONOLOGY.

128,726
2,130

Employed in colonial vessels,

Total, 130,856 The total number of houses was 16,776, of which 6,375 were of stone or brick, and 10,401 of wood.

In the county of Cumberland, which includes the towns of Sydney, Paramatta, Liverpool, Campbell Town, and Richmond, there were 58,108 souls. Notwithstanding the large accession to the number of inhabitants occasioned by the continued arrival at Sydney and Port Philip of ships with emigrants, the demand throughout the colony for laborers was in November last greater than the supply. By the evidence of Capt. King, VOL. III.

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R. N., (a colonist of great local experience,) given before a committee of the legislative council in July, 1841, it appeared, that if from 10,000 to 12,000 working hands were to arrive in the colony during the succeeding twelve months, that number would, in his opinion, not exceed the wants of the colonists. The local government was fully apprised of the unexpectedly large influx of laborers to be expected from the emigration which had taken place from the United Kingdom; but it was known that, unless the stream were continued, it would be wholly inadequate. And, as respected sheep farming, it was doubtful whether industrious weavers from Paisley, or button-makers from Birmingham, were not more acceptable to the colonists than people brought up in, and exclusively devoted to, their own especial systems and branches of husbandry.

HAMBURGH, May 5. About 1 o'clock in the morning a fire broke out in the Deichstrasse, which raged for three days, involving the destruction of a large portion of this ancient city. At this period the tide was low, and the engines were unable to check the fire in its first out

break. The flames immediately spread to | The means thus taken proved in a measneighboring warehouses, which, with ure efficacious; the fire had extended to their combustible contents, were soon the Binnean Alster, and on that side, of destroyed, while the fire made further course, its ravages were stopped. On the ravages in every direction. The Deich- morning of the 8th, the wind nearly strasse consists in great measure of ware- ceased, and heavy showers of rain took houses; some of the principal merchants place. These circumstances put an end transact business there. to this tremendous conflagration.