A sage, who had that look espied,
Where kindling passion strove with pride,
Had whispered "Prince, beware!

From the chafed tiger rend the prey,
Rush on the lion when at bay,
Bar the fell dragon's blighted way,
But shun that lovely snare.'

XX.

At once, that inward strife suppress'd,
The dame approached her warlike guest,
With greeting in that fair degree,
Where female pride and courtesy
Are blended with each passing art
As awes at once and charms the heart.
A courtly welcome first she gave,
Then of his goodness 'gan to crave
Construction fair and true

Of her light maidens' idle mirth,
Who drew from lonely glens their birth,
Nor knew to pay to stranger worth
And dignity their due;

And then she pray'd that he would rest
That night her castle's honoured guest.
The monarch meetly thanks express'd,
The banquet rose at her behest,
With lay and tale, and laugh and jest,
Apace the evening flew.

XXI.

The lady sate the monarch by,
Now in her turn abashed and shy,
And with indifference seemed to hear
The toys he whispered in her ear.
Her bearing modest was and fair,
Yet shadows of constraint were there,
That show'd an overcautious care

Some inward thought to hide;

Oft did she pause in full reply,

And oft cast down her large dark eye,
Oft check'd the soft voluptuous sigh,

That heaved her bosom's pride.
Slight symptoms these, but shepherds know
How hot the mid-day sun shall glow
From the mist of morning sky;

And so the wily monarch guess'd,
That this assumed restraint express'd
More ardent passions in the breast,
Than ventured to the eye.

Closer he press'd, while beakers rang,
While maidens laugh'd and minstrels sang,
Still closer to her ear-
But why pursue the common tale?
Or wherefore show how knights prevail,
When ladies dare to hear?

Or wherefore trace, from what slight cause
Its source one tyrant passion draws,
Till mastering all within?

Where lives the man that has not tried,
How mirth can into folly glide,

And folly into sin!

497

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

Freezing of Alcohol.

MR. HUTTON, of Edinburgh, has read to the institute of that city a notice respecting some experiments on the freezing of alcohol, which requires a degree of cold that had never before been produced by any means, and which is stated by him as 116 degrees below zero of Fahrenheit. The fluid was frozen into a perfectly solid mass, composed of three strata, the uppermost of a yellowish green, the second of a pale yellow colour, and the third, which greatly exceeded the rest in quantity, and was the pure alcohol, nearly transparent, and colourless. It was proved that the alcohol was not decomposed in the process, but merely separated from two foreign substances which it had held in solution; these are highly volatile, and cannot be separated but by freezing; to them the alcohol owes its peculiar flavour. Mr. Hutton has not made public the method of producing such a degree of artificial cold, but he has stated his sanguine hopes that it will be sufficient to congeal the gases which are at present considered as permanently elastic.

We are informed that Sir H. Davy is now making a series of successful experiments on fluoric acid, a hitherto undecompounded substance, the result of which will confirm his doctrine respecting chlorine, the oxymuriatic gas of the French school of chymistry. This gas, Sir H. Davy holds to be a simple and distinct acidifying substance, while the French school maintain it to be a peculiar compound of oxygen.

Marine Transit.

Mr. William Chavasse, a lieutenant in the British East-India Company's Madras establishment, has invented an instrument, which he calls the Marine Transit, for ascertaining the longitude at sea. The principle is this: that equal quantities of mercury will pass through a given aperture in equal times, if the same height of column, reckoned from the discharging aperture, can be uniformly maintained, provided that changes of temperature have no effect on the result; or if they have, that the quantity of the deviation may be estimated, and added or subtracted as the case may require.

Sawing Cast Iron with a Carpenter's Saw.

M. Dufaud, in a letter to M. d'Arcet, director of the iron works at Montalaire, published in the eighty-second volume of Ann. de Chim. announces that he has succeeded in sawing cast iron with a carpenter's saw, and that all that is necessary to insure its being sawed as easily and in the same space of time as dry wood, is that the iron be heated to a cherry red. For heating the iron a furnace is preferable to a forge fire, as the temperature is thus rendered VOL. I. 2D ED.

63

more uniform throughout the mass. The iron should be so placed as to have a firm bearing everywhere, except where the saw is to pass, to prevent any part from being torn off by the saw; and the iron should be cut briskly, using the whole length of the saw, the teeth of which should be set fine. By this simple method not only plates but mill-gudgeons, and even anvils, have been cut with great facility. When the piece to be cut is large, two saws should be employed, for the convenience of using and cooling them alternately: the saws receive little or no injury. This useful process, though not generally known, is not new; several years ago M. Pictet observed a workman saw a hot cast iron pipe in the workshop of Mr. Paul of Geneva.

On Saturday the 20th of February, this useful process was tried in the presence of several gentlemen, at the iron-foundry of Mr. Williams, in Waterford, and the success of the experiment was complete. The operation was repeated several times, and always with facility. The iron, as stated above, should be heated to a cherry red, and the saw need only be selected according to the fineness of the pieces into which the metal is to be cut. The ope ration is perfectly easy, and the saw remains uninjured.

The Triton.

Didot, the famous French printer, lately published "A memoir on the properties of a new diving-machine called a Triton," by which a person may, 1, Remain in the water as long as he pleases; 2, He may descend into the water to as great a depth as the column of water displaced by his bulk permits; 3, He may use his arms, legs, and body at pleasure; he may walk or labour with ease, at that depth to which he has descended; 4, He runs no hazard; he may give notice when he thinks proper to those who, on the surface, attend his operations; 5, He is not inclosed in the machine, which is but small, and does not prevent his entering into fissures, or narrow clefts; 6, The sea being often dark, as Halley informs us, he may carry a lantern down with him to the depths of the sea, to enlighten the sub-marine grottoes, or the holds of vessels, into which he may have penetrated; 7, The machine is not costly. The principal novelty in this machine is the adoption of artificial lungs, by which the difficulty hitherto found of breathing in the sea is remedied.

Humboldt's Voyage.

M. de Humboldt has just completed the astronomical part of his celebrated voyage. His last number consists principally of the preliminary Dissertation, which explains all the means he had taken for making his observations; and which means he has employed with such remarkable advantage. There is another Discourse, by M. Oltmanns, in which he states all the modes of calculation which he adopted, in order to derive from the observations of M. Humboldt, and astronomers in general, the most accurate and important results. For this Discourse M. Oltmanns was awarded the Lalande Medal, by the French Institute.

APPENDIX.

AMERICAN OFFICIAL LETTERS, &c.

CRUISE OF THE SQUADRON UNDER COMMODORE RODGERS.

Letter from Commodore Rodgers to the Secretary of the Navy.

United States' frigate President, Boston, Sept. 1, 1812. SIR-I had the honour yesterday of informing you of the arrival of the squadron, and have now to state the result and parti

culars of our cruise.

Previous to leaving New-York on the 21st of June, I heard that a British convoy had sailed from Jamaica for England on or about the 20th of the preceding month, and on being informed of the declaration of war against Great Britain, I determined, in the event of Commodore Decatur joining me with the United States, Congress, and Argus, as you had directed, to go in pursuit of them.

The United States, Congress, and Argus did join me on the 21st; with which vessels, this ship, and the Hornet, I accordingly sailed in less than an hour after I received your orders of the 18th of June, accompanied by your official communication of the declaration of war.

On leaving New-York I shaped our course south-eastwardly, in the expectation of falling in with vessels, by which I should hear of the before mentioned convoy, and the following night met with an American brig that gave me the sought-for information; the squadron now crowded sail in pursuit; but the next morning was taken out of its course by the pursuit of a British frigate, that I since find was the Belvidera, relative to which I beg leave to refer you to the inclosed extract from my journal; after repairing as far as possible the injury done by the Belvidera to our spars and rigging, we again crowded all sail, and resumed our course in pursuit of the convoy, but did not receive further intelligence of it, until the 29th day of June, on the western edge of the banks of Newfoundland, where we spoke an American schooner, the master of which reported that he had two days before passed them in lat. 43°, long. 55°, steering to the eastward. I was surprised to find that the convoy was still so far to the eastward of us, but was urged, however, as well by what I considered my duty, as my inclination, to continue the pursuit.