metals, for example, which, by the action of heat, have passed to the state of transparent glass, after their combination with oxygen. Hence we are warranted to infer that the true cause of hydrophaneity, if we may be allowed the term, still remains to be explained. If we could here afford to pursue the inquiry, we might perhaps arrive at something like a solution of the problem in the chemical doctrine of the relative affinities of bodies for light. Should it even then be alleged that we had only removed the difficulty one step, and the question still be asked, what is an affinity for light? we could only answer that the same objection may be made to every doctrine which professes to account for any of the appearances of nature; that we know as little concerning the essence of chemical relations as concerning that of gravitation, the laws of which the immortal Newton has explained with so much sublimity and with such force of evidence; and that, in our present state of limited capacity and fleeting existence, we may indeed occasionally detect one or a few links, but can never trace even any considerable portion of that immense catenation of processes which has its origin in the supreme cause. Now, M. HAUY's theory of the petrifaction of wood appears to us to labour under equally formidable difficulties with his notions respecting the hydrophanous paradox; since in this treatise, as in other parts of his works, he adopts the ordinary opinion that the stony matter has taken place of the vegetable, in proportion as the latter has been decomposed. Yet various circumstances militate against the supposition. Thus, trunks of trees, from twenty to forty feet in length, buried at a small depth from the surface in sandy beds, are, from the bark to the very heart, converted into siliceous matter; although the sand, which is in immediate contact with them on every side, in no degree participates of the converting influence. we cannot easily conceive that the liquid, which held in solution the stony matter that has assumed the place of the woody particles, should not have agglutinated, and converted into granular quartz the sand which immediately surrounds the petrified trunks. With respect to the ligneous organization, which the theory of substitution supposes to be destroyed, we have to remark that the most minute fibres, scarcely discernible by the microscope, have perfectly preserved not only the form and situation which they manifest in the fresh state of the wood, but even all their appropriate shades of colouring. If, therefore, the stony had taken the place of the ligneous particles, the whole petrified mass would have been of an uniform colour, since the same stony matter would have succes sively filled all the vacancies occasioned by the decomposition and retreat of the ligneous molecules. Besides, if we carefully examine the condition of this description of petrified wood, we can perceive no symptom of previous decomposition. Some specimens exhibit not only the organic structure, but worms, which are themselves converted into agate; with their external surface whitish and opake, and their interior characterized by waving zones, of different tints, which appear to represent their intestines. The annual circles of the wood, and the medullary prolongations from the centre to the circumference, are distinctly traceable. It is, moreover, particularly worthy of remark that, in these and similar specimens, the only unsilicified portions are precisely those which have suffered decomposition. In the Camusian cabinet, are pieces of agatized wood, found at Naufle, near Grignon; which contain a multitude of the larvae of insects, apparently retaining their natural state. In others, the caterpillars are observed to be moveable in their cavities; a circumstance which is irreconcileable with the infiltration of a quartzose fluid that would have consolidated the mass. Saussure informs us that the collection of M. Annone, at Basil, contains a fossil crab, of which even the ova are petrified. All these factswould induce us to believe that the siliceous petrifaction in question is effected very rapidly, so as absolutely to preclude all idea of decomposition, and the tardy process of successive substitutions; because, from the moment at which bodies of so soft a consistency as worms, or caterpillars, are affected by putrefaction, they are unavoidably liable to such disintegration that their forms can no longer be preserved. Some petrified fruits may, likewise, be quoted in support of the promptitude of the silicifying process: among the most remarkable of which we may notice the fossil walnuts of Lonsle-Saunier, which were found at the depth of 180 feet, in an old salt-brine pit; and of which the shell and rhind retained the ligneous structure, when the kernel was converted into silex. In the catalogue of Davila, mention is made of similar specimens found in Piedmont, of which the colour and appearance are so little altered that a person would be tempted to eat them; and the inner part of the shell presents not the smallest vestige of infiltration. We cannot, therefore, regard this species of petrifaction as a mechanical operation, in which the stony matter has gradually, and particle by particle, taken the place of the substance of these organic bodies. M. Patrin's hypothesis of a chemical change or transmutation of the ligneous into the siliceous matter, without affecting the arrangement of the parts, M m 4 is is at least more plausible, and proceeds on the supposition that aëriform fluids, by combining with the elements of organized bodies, may assume the nature of stone. In taking leave of the present essay, we have to observe that, while it contains some superfluous statements and definitions, it omits others more immediately connected with its professed design. The properties of phosphorescence, for example, —flexibility, powder, fracture, &c., are passed over in silence; whereas the consideration of the general physical doctrines of electricity and magnetism is somewhat unnecessarily dilated. Yet the collector of precious stones may derive not a few useful and important hints, which M. HAUY has conveyed to them in a philosophical though very intelligible manner; and the reader will be gratified by the tabular and practical results of the text, as well as with the plates of the crystalline forms and instruments to which it refers. ART. X. L'Industrie Littéraire et Scientifique, &c.; i.e. The Union of Literary and Scientific Industry with Industry in Trade and Manufactures; or Views of Finance, Politics, Morals, and Philosophy, conducive to the Interest of all Persons employed in Productive Labour. Vol. I. in Three Parts. The Financial Part, by M. ST. AUBIN; the Political, by A. THIERRY. 8vo, pp. 464. Paris. THE "HE title of this book will embarrass a number of readers, and will afford one more example of the aukwardness of speaking scholastic language when the object is to address the public at large, and when the plainest and most familiar terms ought to be employed. The plan of the work in all its intended extent is not explained, but the title might have been much simplified, if we may be allowed to judge from the volume before us; which consists of two parts, and which should have been called "Observations on French Finance," and "Principles of International Policy." However, after this disappointment in limine, it is some satisfaction to find that both the writers who figure here are men of talents and liberality; the one applying a great store of historical knowlege and sound reasoning to financial questions; the other discussing in the spirit of peace, and we may even say of generosity, those feelings and prejudices which have so long been made instrumental in arming one nation against another. I. Observations on French Finance.-We begin our report by M. ST. AUBIN'S portion of the volume, and shall extract, as a curious historical document, the following statement of the expenditure of the French government in the year 1682; a year 15 which Sterling. £100,000 which was the last of the administration of Colbert, and which may be fairly taken as an average of the whole reign of Louis XIV.; who had not, on the one hand, met at that time with disaster, nor, on the other hand, carried taxation to the length to which he extended it towards the close of the century. privy purse, The Queen's household, 60,000 Public buildings, par Household of Monsieur, ticularly Versailles, 300,000 (the King's eldest Ambassadors, 40,000 brother,) 70,000 The royal stud, 40,000 Secret service, 100,000 Plate, 50,000 Salaries to members of Body guard and house hold troops, 50,000 The Swiss confedera Travelling and small do nations, All other expences con- The general expenditure. Carry up, £2,600,000 All other expences, The sum of five millions sterling far exceeded the annual revenue of Spain or England in those days: but the most striking feature of the account is the large amount of the civil list; which, including the repairs at Versailles, is not less than one-sixth of the whole national expenditure. Such are the blessed consequences of intrusting the executive power with an uncontrouled disposal of the public money! It is a remarkable fact that, in France, the government, when it comes forwards in the capacity of a borrower, is obliged to pay a higher rate of interest than private indivi-< duals; at present, it pays seven per cent., which is more than is asked by a capitalist from his neighbour even on a second mortgage: while in this country, and in Holland, the reverse has long been the case. Our readers, however, will soon see a very substantial cause for this important distinction, when apprized that it has for many centuries been the practice of French sovereigns to make very light of the engagements of their predecessors; appropriating, without scruple, on their accession Roads and bridges, 15,000 Assistance to trade and manufactures, 24,000 The Bastile, 4,000 The paving of Paris, accession to the throne, all the disposable funds of the treasury, and paying their creditors à la Hudibras with such convenient words as Bureau de révision, ré-assignation, liquidation, and, of late, consolidation; all of which mean that, instead of receiving the money that is due to a creditor, he is to present his documents before a Board invested with one or another of these pompous titles: which, after having adjourned a demand from year to year, will pay perhaps half the amount in longdated securities. This system was called benefice d'inventaire, and was uniformly adopted by every individual in the long line of French princes, with the exception of the unfortunate Louis XVI. and the present king. Not only did the demise of the crown lead regularly to such a joyeuse entrée, but a change of ministry often gave a pretext for putting off lawful claims by the convenient allegation of the necessity of consolidating the arrears, repairing past irregularities, or putting le service au courant. This, says M. ST. AUBIN, reminds me of the plan of the notorious Cardinal Dubois; who, when involved in epistolary arrears, was accustomed to commit the unanswered letters to the flames; observing, "Je vais mettre l'ordre dans ma correspondence." It was thus that at the close of the reign of Louis XIV. the arrears of the year 1711 were turned over to 1712, those of 1712 to 1713, &c. &c. until 1720, when the Mississippi scheme plunged the whole in one common vortex. Again, in our own time, the Executive Directory, after having taken possession of all the disposable funds for the year 1795, deferred the adjustment of accounts from year to year, till 1799, when it made its own exit, and was succeeded by Bonaparte: who, by one sweeping law, (dated 30 Ventose, an. 9,) suspended all farther proceedings, and referred the claimants to the grand bureau de liquidation in the Place Vendôme. He continued his financial arrangements on the same hopeful plan, making it a rule to put off every contractor who had not found means to be paid in money, to the succession beneficiaire of the next year. Expence of standing Armies.-M. ST. AUBIN is a vehement opponent of military expence, and ridicules (p. 71.) the undue proportion of officers to soldiers which has been kept up for ages in France, but which since the time of Bonaparte has gone beyond all bounds. A Prussian writer, on examining the returns of the French army, declared that he found there a greater number of Generals than Frederic II. had of Serjeant-majors at the beginning of his reign. * Eight millions *The General-officers of the British army very far outnumber its Serjeant-majors. sterling, |