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He has traced them down to the brackish water whither they go generally, though not universally, to deposit their spawn, and he has followed the young in their extraordinary spring journeys up the great rivers and into the brooks and rivulets in which they seek out for themselves appropriate haunts. In numbers they are immeasurablethe shoals advance up the stream forming a black line along the shore; nor are these journeys confined to the water-they cross fields, and climb posts and pales, in order to reach the place of their destination.

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Extraordinary species of wheat. Sir R. K. Porter, the British Consul at Caraccas, has forwarded recently to this country a small quantity of the Victoria Wheat, so much praised by that eminent naturalist, Humboldt, for its productiveness, and wonderful rapidity of growth. According to Humboldt, the produce of this wheat at La Victoria, in South America (whence it takes its name,) is from 2160lbs to 2560lbs. per English acre, which, reckoning the Winchester bushel to weigh 60lbs. would be from four quarters and a half to rather more than five quarters per acre. But extraordinary as this produce appeared to Humboldt, who compared it with the produce of an acre of wheat in France, i. e. 800 to 960lbs. (or two English quarters per acre), the rapidity of its growth is the most astonishing point to an English agriculturist. Supposing it to retain in this country its South American qualities, an acre of Victoria wheat, sown on the 15th of February, would be ripe on the 1st of May. Thus, if the produce were threshed and sown for a second crop on the 15th of May, a second crop might be reaped on the 1st August. We only fear that these wonderful

effects cannot be realised in this cold climate with two crops of wheat per annum the farmer might laugh at the repeal of the Corn Laws.

March of the Press in its infancy.-Paris was the tenth town in Europe in which a printing press was established; it was set up by Ulrich Gering, a native of the can. ton of Lucerne, in the house of the Sorbonne, and in the year 1469. This Gering had been taught the art by Elias Helie von Lauffen, who introduced it into Switzerland, and commenced the operations of the Lucerne press by publishing Marchesinis Biblical Lexicon Mamotrectus sive Primicerius, in the year 1470. The first work which issued from Gering's press, at the Sorbonne, was the "Epistolæ Gasparini Pergamensis;" it was also published in the year 1470. Gering continued his labours until 1508, and died on the 23rd of August, 1510, bequeathing very considerable property for the benefit of young scholars and the poor of Paris. Strasburgh was the next town which had the advantage of a press, and soon afterwards Lyonsthe one in 1741, the other in 1743. In 1830 there were 233 towns in France, which had altogether 620 printing-houses; and 259 towns in which 1142 booksellers were established. At that time Paris alone had 80 presses-above one-eighth of the whole number; and nearly one-half of the booksellers, namely, 506, dwelt within its walls. Though Lyons claims to rank next, it had but 12 presses and 24 booksellers. The average result is, that there is one press in France to every 51,327 inhabitants, and one bookseller to every 27,768. The proportions are far more indicative of intellectual advancement in three or four contemporary states, namely, Prussia, Saxony, Weimar, and Switzerland.

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In the first there are 280 printinghouses, and 693 presses, the majority being in Berlin, Halle, Cologne, and Breslau; and here the proportion is one printing establishment to every 46,213 souls, taking the population of 1830, which was 12,939,877, as the basis of the calculation. As to Saxony, the proportion must be infinitely more striking; for Leipsic alone employs 120 presses. Weimar, including the whole territory of the grand duchy, possesses 12 printing-houses, with a population of 230,000 souls ; the proportion is consequently one printing-house to every 19,166 inhabitants. And, lastly, Switzerland, the population of which amounts to 2,000,000, possesses between 145 and 150 presses attached to 46 printing establishments, which work scarcely more than two-thirds of the year round; here the proportion is one printing press to every 4,913 souls.

Curfew Toll.-At Chertsey, in Surrey, the Curfew bell is tolled every evening at eight o'clock from Michaelmas-day to Lady-day. The clerk first rings up or raises the bell, he then rings it for a few minutes, when he stops, and after a short pause tolls the number of the days of the month.

Management of Bees.-Mr. Nutt, who has paid great attention to bees, has laid down a system, the principal feature of which is to leave the parent stock untouched. When the hive is filled with its pure and treasured sweets, the contents of which are to be preserved sacred for the use of the stock, to obviate the necessity of swarming, which is occasioned by want of space for continuing the labours of the bees, Mr. Nutt places fresh receptacles, or collateral boxes, against the sides of the hive; and a communication being established by connecting aper

tures, the bees, finding fresh room, increase their labours. To these hives are ingeniously adapted ventilators, for the purpose of securing a free ventilation and uniform temperature to the hive, the necessity of which is indicated by a thermometer. These ventilators are connected with a point, which eluded the attention of all other inquirers into the natural history of the bee," the temperature of the working hive." Under ordinary circumstances this point is 80 deg.; the rise of the thermometer to 90 deg. indicates the necessity of recourse to ventilation. When the thermometer suddenly rises to 120 deg. or 130 deg., this implies that the hive is full, and indicates the necessity of providing a fresh receptacle, and which is done by placing another box on the opposite side of the parent hive. În order to remove the bees back to their present stock, further recourse must be had to the action of the ventilator, by which the internal heat of the hive may be reduced to the external temperature, when the bees recoiling from this cooling point, the connection between the two may be closed, and the box removed without endangering the existence of a single labourer.

Extinguishing Fires by Steam.Experiments, calculated to shew the utility of steam in extinguishing fires, have been lately exhibited at Glasgow. In a house 15 feet by 15 and 10 high, combustible materials were put in the four corners and centre, and set on fire, and allowed to burn till the flames reached a height of about 9 or 10 feet; steam was then admitted into the house, which extinguished the flames in less than two minutes, and, on opening the door in a few minutes after, the burning was found to be completely extinguished.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW.

NOVEMBER, 1833.

ART. I.-The Duchess of Berri in La Vendée; comprising a Narrative of her Adventures, with her Private Papers and Secret Correspondence. By GENERAL DERMONCOURT, who arrested her Royal Highness at Nantes. 1 vol. 8vo. London: Bull and Churton, 1833.

If the relation between the portrait in the front of this volume and the original be considered a fair specimen of the good faith of General Dermoncourt, then we despair of being able to put any confidence in this narrative. The contour, the expression, the symmetrical arrangement of lips, eyes, and curls in this portrait are highly creditable to the general's taste and skill in design; but, even for a Frenchman, it is about the boldest of all the impudent enterprizes which have lately come to our knowledge to attempt to pass this representation of a creature of youthful loveliness and grace upon us for the Duchess of Berri! Her royal highness is, in truth, destitute not merely of the higher qualifications which constitute beauty, but even of the results of that common attention to personal neatness, which is, we may say, universal amongst those in a far more humble class of the community. When much younger than she now is, we remember her, with all the evidences upon her of one who was never destined by nature to shine as a specimen of her art. In short, no person who has ever seen the duchess, can believe that the pretended portrait of her, given in this volume, has any other object than that of ridiculing her by the unfavourable contrast which the reality presents as compared with the imitation. But there may be many reasons to explain the superfluous flattery of this portrait, independently of any motive which might involve the morality of General Dermoncourt, and acting on this impression, we shall proceed, without further inquiry, into the narrative which forms the principal portion of the contents of the present volume.

The history of the Bourbon family is intimately associated with La Vendée. It was, in the worst of times, the rallying point of this family, and its enthusiastic and disinterested devotion, however unworthily appreciated, is, perhaps, on that account, the most deVOL. III. (1833) No. III.

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serving of admiration. Perhaps a better proof of the truth of this assertion cannot be quoted than the conduct of General Lafayette, at the era of the French revolution of 1830. This experienced politician was not satisfied that the Bourbon influence was eradicated from France, until he inquired into the state of the people's minds in La Vendée; and with the view of tranquillizing that important district of France, the general, then a powerful politician, not only sent agents to La Vendée, but proposed to station amongst its suspected inhabitants a national guard. The circumstances, in which this district was placed at the time, rendered such a project very easy of execution, for it must have found in the heart of La Vendée a powerful body of men, who not only would have supported that scheme, but were ready to lend themselves, in any efficient way, as partizans favourable to the new state of things. The community to which we allude, consisted of a class of recent origin, called the owners of national property, and who formed an intermediate link between the two previous orders into which the Vendean state was divided, namely the nobles and the farmers. It is to the influence of this rising community, that the French people owe the valuable services which they derive from the patriotic character of the Vendean members, who represent that province in the character of deputies. The liberality of these owners of national property, is referable, -as in almost all cases of what is called, love of country can be traced-to considerations of personal interest: their tenure in fact, consists only with the maintenance of a liberal policy on the part of the state, and it is unnecessary to remark, that, under such circumstances, the Vendean landholders are not very backward in declaring against the Bourbons. When, therefore, Lafayette proposed his national guard for La Vendée, he did so under the assurances that the scheme would receive no inconsiderable share of assistance

in its execution from these owners. A gentleman named Dumas, who was despatched to the place in question to ascertain the practicability of the intended project, returned, after due investigation, a report to the effect, that not only was a national guard wanted in La Vendée, but that a great deal of the good to be accomplished by it depended on the speed with which it would force a march to its place of destination. Unfortunately, when the report of M. Dumas reached Lafayette, that eminent man was reduced in political influence, and M. Guizot, by the chances of the revolutionary dice-box, became the official person who was authorised to judge upon the propriety of sending a national guard to La Vendée. Guizot is one of the political economists who think that insurrections, whether metropolitan or provincial, can be prevented by the rule of three, or some other of Cocker's arithmetical formulæ; Dumas, a man of the world, knowing the value of such speculative methods in their application to practical life, went at once to the new king, and submitted the matter to the royal judgment. Philippe candidly declared that he looked on the whole affair as a poet, instead of a king,

and that of course he was more disposed, in reference to it, to indulge in a lyric, if necessary, than in the warlike disposition which had been now suggested to him. "Sire," said the petitioner, with an economy of words truly deserving the praise of being laconic, "Sire, the Latins termed their poets Vates." By this, Dumas not only admitted the poetical pretensions of his majesty, but likewise sarcastically imputed to the king the office of soothsayer, who unconsciously predicted a misfortune to himself in the threatened revolt and continued disaffection of La Vendée.

Notwithstanding this apparent indifference on the part of the government, yet the spirit which agitated La Vendée would not allow it to be inactive. Measures were taken to suppress political disorders, adverse in their character to the new order of things, and amongst the military agents, appointed, on account of their avowed principles, to proceed to the disturbed district, the present author, General Dermoncourt was by no means the least distinguished. It is only a matter of courtesy, which is due to an entertaining companion, to listen to him during a moment or two whilst he indulges the very pardonable instinct of being garrulous about himself. He tells us, that his appointment to the command of a military sub-division at Nantes, in 1830, took place only after he had served nearly half a century in the French army in the four quarters of the globe. He was a determined Bonapartist, and folded his arms in dignified reserve during the whole interval of the restoration, with the exception of a short period when he joined the conspiracy of Belfort, an enterprise which, he assures us, rendered the continuance of his head on his shoulders, for some time, a matter of very considerable uncertainty. But it proved, when the revolution broke out, that the virtuous general, by acting on this spirit of opposition to the Bourbon dynasty, was only laying up treasures for himself in the paradise, into which Louis Philippe was about to convert the blessed kingdom of the French. At least the government, newly invested with power, readily accepted the proffered services of the general, who was forthwith placed in that situation in which it was expected that he would justify the fullest confidence of his employers. A very full and highly instructive account follows of the geographical peculiarities of La Vendée, from which it would appear that the nature of the country was altogether the cause which has modified the singular warfare of the inhabitants. In the first place, the agricultural arrangements of the district are particularly adapted to a system of ambuscade and every other form of sudden and concealed attack. The cross-roads are bordered on each side by wide and deep ditches, clusters of trees, and bushes; every man's farm is surrounded by a thick hedge, except at a certain point where an opening is made, which is temporarily closed by a wicket, and through it a communication is kept up constantly with the neighbouring estates. These confidential openings are intimately known to the inhabitants of the country, who, in case of being pursued at any

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