OR, Literary and Scientific Mirror. " UTILE. DULCI." This familiar Miscellany, from which all religious and political matters are excluded, contains a variety of original and selected Articles; comprehending LITERATURE, CRITICISM, MEN and MANNERS, AMUSEMENT, elegant EXTRACTS, POETRY, ANECDOTES, BIOGRAPHY, METEOROLOGY, the DRAMA, ARTS and SCIENCES, WIT and SATIRE, FASHIONS, NATURAL HISTORY, &c. forming a handsome ANNUAL VOLUME, with an INDEX and TITLE-PAGE. Persons in any part of the Kingdom may obtain this Work from London through their respective Booksellers. No. 370.-Vol. VIII. The Envestiga'or. Par Comprehending Political Economy, Statistics, Jurispru- g (ORIGINAL.) TUESDAY, JULY 31, 1827. means of revenue was the fines paid in the King's court AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO THE amounted to £1061 10s. 14d. per day ;† a sum which in ORIGIN OF THE CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND. BY ERASMUS GOWER. (Continued from page 10.) CHAPTER III. The means of revenue allowed the King by the feudal system have been already enumerated. But as a misconception of my language may perhaps occur, I think it necessary to state, that in speaking of the obligations of the King's vassals, and their freedom from imposts, I only mean the Norman vassals. As a necessary consequence, the conquered Anglo-Saxons were not protected from the King's rapacity by the provisions of the feudal system, and of course were cruelly plundered. Every means of extortion was practised upon them, and thus was the King enabled to maintain his dignity in despite of the scanty revenue noticed in the last chapter. Having thus explained, I now proceed to notice the pecuniary situation of each Norman King, leaving the battles, Esieges, &c. to other historians. PRICE 34d most he could obtain. Such were the means by which the first Henry obtained revenue; and so unjust and cruel were his exactions, that his death was hailed as a national deliverance. At the beginning of his reign, Stephen, to please his Anglo-Saxon subjects, and to obtain their assistance against his rival Maud, abolished the Danegelt, and swore never to renew it; he also vowed not to seize the bishopricks when they became vacant: and thus these two sources of revenue those days was considered enormous, and which far were for ever destroyed. During the stormy and troubled exceeded the revenue of any other European monarch. period of Stephen's reign there was no settled or intelliTo this revenue his son William Rufus succeeded; and gible mode of obtaining revenue. It would seem as if, as an addition to it, he seized the whole of the Conqueror's during the struggle between him and Maud, one party treasures at Winchester, amounting to sixty thousand subsisted by plundering the other: in fact, in a country pounds of silver, besides gold and precious stones. But, distracted by intestine divisions, no other mode of obtainaccording to the Anglo-Saxon historians, this revenue ing supplies could be available. Thus any attempt to and treasure was not equal to the expenditure of Rufus. § obtain an account of Stephen's revenue would be vain and By his dress, table, pleasures, presents, &c. the treasury fruitless; and we must, therefore, rest unsatisfied respectat Winchester was exhausted; and in purchasing the aiding the operations of the feudal system during his reign. of foreigners against his brother Robert, the revenue was But the reign of Stephen is of the greatest importance in absorbed. As before and often observed, the provisions prosecuting the present inquiry. By abolishing the Daneof the feudal system, as regarded the King's revenue, gelt, he deprived the Crown of a great source of revenue, presented no resource, so that Rufus was obliged to have and hastened the period of its humiliation. By restoring recourse to a singular expedient, viz. that of seizing on the bishopricks, he raised a powerful hierarchy, which the bishopricks as they became vacant, and enjoying their learned to set the power of the Monarch at defiance; and revenues. Vain were the clamours of the Pope and by bestowing the Crown lands upon his adherents, he laid clergy, for Rufus declared that if they remonstrated too the King at the mercy of the provisions of the feudal sysseverely with him, he would sell the bishopricks' lands to tem, as regarded his dignity. In my opinion, the reign of the Jews, to whom, for a large sum, he had granted great Stephen hastened the liberties of England a full century; privileges. This threat was effectual. During his reign and the strife between him and Maud called into existence he enjoyed the revenue of the vacant bishopricks; and his a powerful and turbulent aristocracy, without which the death, in the New Forest, has been regarded by monkish English constitution would have been incomplete. historians as a punishment for thus defrauding the church of its due. When the Conqueror had finally subjugated the AngloSaxons, he voluntarily pledged himself not to require more from the Normans than the services required by the Feudal system. This was necessary for the safety of his mewly-acquired dignity, as his Norman followers were When the first Henry ascended the throne, he is reported o independent not to guard jealously their rights and to have seized on the treasures at Winchester. How this privileges. Yet, as before observed, no pledge was given could be the case, when, as stated by the Anglo-Saxon o the conquered Anglo-Saxons; and, if fear of the power historians, Rufus had dissipated them, seems strange in of the Normans prevented the Conqueror from plundering the extreme. Here is one of the falsifications of historians; them, he satiated his cupidity by most unmercifully tax-for as it is an undoubted fact that Henry did seize great ing his Anglo-Saxon subjects. He revived the tax of treasures at Winchester, which treasures were amassed by Daugelt, originally levied by the Saxon monarchs for the the Conqueror, so it follows, of course, that Rufus could payment of the tribute imposed by the Danes. The not have dissipated them. Thus, then, the Anglo-Saxon Dastgelt was a tax of two shillings on every hide of land historians are convicted of a wilful falsehood, and Rufus in the kingdom, and in those days was considered a most loses a great part of his character for prodigality: but if xorbitant impost. It is singular that no proof exists as Rufus did not dissipate these treasures, Henry most certo the extent to which this tax was levied in the reign of tainly did. In the struggle between him and his brother The Conqueror. Did the Norman land proprietors tamely Robert of Normandy, the treasures and revenues of Henry submit to pay a tax not sanctioned by the feudal system? were exhausted, and the Anglo-Saxons could with justice Or was the Danegelt only levied on the Saxon land pro- complain that the extortions of the Conqueror were mild Trietors? These questions cannot be satisfactorily an- compared to those of his son Henry. To maintain his swered. I should be inclined to think that the tax was dignity, Henry raised the Danegelt from 2s. to 3s. per hide only levied on the Saxons, as the Normans were too of land; and every Saxon who was possessed of money jealous of their rights to give up, without a struggle, the was, under different pretexts, forced to deposit it in the greatest of them, viz. on exemption from taxation. How- King's exchequer. Nor were the Saxons the only sufferers. ever this may be, it is certain the Conqueror derived a Like his predecessor, Henry kept possession of the vacant great revenue from the Danegelt. Nor was this his only bishopricks; and when he had nearly exhausted their reHe demanded and obtained the tolls venues, he sold them to the highest bidder. He also, arising from bridges, markets, highways, &c. These going a step further than Rufus, seized on all ecclesiastical tolls were levied only on the Anglo-Saxons, as the King's benefices which became vacant, and sold them for the utVassals claimed exemption from such imposts. Another * Ingulf. + Ibid. § Eadmer. extra resource. * Ingulf. + Ibid. Ibid. During the struggle between Stephen and Maud, the King's council of nobles and prelates rose in power and influence: they assumed a new attitude in the state, and claimed powers and jurisdiction which were not sanctioned by the feudal system. To his vassals' demands, Stephen, to secure the crown, was obliged to accede; and thus was laid the foundation of that power which, in the field of Runnymede, dictated to King John the terms of reconciliation. I have thus briefly passed over the first epoch in the origin of the constitution of England; and though to a superficial observer it may appear that I have been wandering from the subject, yet as the foregoing remarks are necessary to prove the truth of my theory, they could not be omitted. The reign of the second Henry, of Richard, and of John, will occupy the next chapter; and then I shall proceed to the most important epoch of this inquiry, which I place in the reign of the third Henry. Days. End of Chapter III. Tide Table. Morn. Even. Height. Tuesday ..31 3 21 3 47 14 h. m. h. m. ft. in. Festivals, &c. 6 Moon's first quarter. 6 Lammas Day. 0 2 3 6 43 7 23 13 Sunday.... 5 9 9 9 39 15 11 6 8th Sunday after Trinity 1 Transfiguration. 8 Name of Jesus. Full Moon 26 The Bouquet. "I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that ties them." MONTAIGNE. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF A SAILOR'S LIFE. THE SHARK. But ah-a shark bit through his waist, Lord Byron and Thomas Moore have extolled the scenery of Italy and Greece till every village bas blue and library lounger has learnt to prate of "* and "Adrian Gondoliers." Egean Waves," tions are as creditable as they are delightful, but neither I believe that their descripByron nor Moore had visited the West Indies, or the beauties of the tropics would at least have shared their eulogiums. They never saw the sun setting on the blue hills of Jamaica they never beheld its meridian glories sleeping on the waveless surface of the Carribean sea they never heard the mellowed and sleepy sound of the conch shell swell out in the evening air-or the wild choral song of the pearl fishers and manati-men; and, though "I ply but vainly on a broken string," at me for some time with a serious and steadfast e a true and genuine sailor, with all the reckless hardihood the approach of death, and they were carrying his swollen sense of the word, and a sort of walking repository of most and superstition of his kind-a ghost seer in the most ample body unresistingly to the beach. of the legends with which the invisible world is connected. chor. I took the helm, and the schooner began to make A breeze soon after set in, and we at length weighed an He had intrigued with two or three mermaids-and had her way slowly up the gulf. The Spaniards, restored to been one of a party which had landed on the back of kra- good humour by the prospect of debarking, suffered the ken, like Sinbad of yore, mistaking the sea monster for a sympathetic whine, which Prince frequently addressed to desert island. Many and wild were the legends he has them, with no fresh fish, Massa," to pass unresented. related to me of the Northern Seas, and they almost bor- Andersen, however, was evidently disappointed that his rowed a tone of probability from the earnest and implicit prediction was likely to remain unverified; and as he rebelief he himself gave them, and the nervous language in clined sulkily upon the spare mast, at a little distance, I which they were told. He was the oracle of the black could not avoid recurring to the subject, in order to tease people, who have a constitutional tendency towards ro-him a little, and therefore asked him, gravely, which of fined intellect assort better with the ideal world than the answered, in a subdued tone," Belay, belay, skipper; mance and mystery. real one, and thus it is that the slave thinks less of his when you have sailed the high seas as long as I have, you Their strong passions and con- the hands he concluded the shark had its eye upon: He restrained liberty than those who have taken the thankless will give those saws more credit. Many a likely lad have quietly beside me, a brief dialogue, something like the ing temples, never to leap down from it in life, who wat trouble of thinking for him. After having seated himself I seen take to his hammock, with parched lips and burn following, passed between us:-"Skipper, I was dreaming as hale and as hearty, and as full of fun as one of Mother last night."-"Were you?"-"Yes, and a d-d queer Carey's Chicks, before the shark appeared in our lee way. dream it was."-" Ay?"—“Ay, and I know as how ill Skipper, I know a story of a shark, a fearful bloody story, luck will come of; 'twas all about sharks."-"Out with and one that haunts my memory night and day, dreaming it, I see that's what you want."-" No, I don't; but or waking. When I was at Campeachy I formed a sort of bra shiver me if there be'nt a shark beating about the bows pot friendship with a pearl fisher, who had served under now; and what d'ye think of that?""Nothing: are Mina in the expedition to New Orleans, and could tell ye afraid 'twill swallow the ship?"-"No, I aint; but long stories of burnings and bush-fightings, and things I think it will swallow some one on board of her. I tell that I had never heard of before; and I used to sit in his let a man be dying or doomed on these seas, and a shark over his campaigns and his wanderings. He was a meny you, skipper, it's fate to some of us; I never saw it miss; wig-wam all night, and swill rum grog, while he wat follows in the wake of the ship, as sure as the grave, to fellow, and knew how to keep the joke fresh; and I like receive him when he is thrown overboard. To be sure his grog, and was compelled to like his company, for the it's all one-as well feed sharks as land crabs, as well lie yellow fever had broke out in our ship, and I was throw in a shark's belly as in a doctor's rum puncheon; but I upon my shifts till she came off her quarantine, so that don't just like the thought of being crushed to hashed was contented to sling my hammock in the pearl-diver meat between the grinders of those sea devils. It's silly, but as long as he would allow me. skipper, but I would like to lie quietly in the earth at last, drunk; perhaps he had made me so for particular ends after having been upon the salt sea all my life."-I rose but if he did, he was punished for it. It was ver and went forward; the sea was like molten lead, and dark and squally, and we were sitting alone in the hu One night I w rippled along the hull of the schooner with a quiet and over the sleeply light of a mangrove fire. After lookin trickling sound; while the sails, which had shone so brightly during the day, had assumed the colour of night, Jose said, " Andersen, I will put my life into your hand and flapped supinely against the masts and cordage like I have need of a friend to advise with, and I think yo funeral palls. There is nothing so imposing, and withal will not betray me. You may have heard (for rumour so soothing, as night on the ocean. every object assumes a shadowy and spectral character, plundered, about two years ago, and that two black me and impresses the sailor with a feeling of awe that is In that wide solitude loud-lipped) that the Cathedral of Nuestra Senora seldom otherwise excited. All the objects on the shores the wheel. There was another man who evaded detect were indistinct, except the fire-flies, with their topaz-They died like men of honour, with the secret in the who were implicated in the sacrilege, suffered publicly coloured lights, that were travelling across the gulf, like hearts, and he yet lives, unknown and unsuspected. those floating lamps which the Hindoo girls launch into am that man! Hush! looked over the bulwarks, and, as Andersen had told me, did it. Madre de Dios!-such commotion as it ma the Ganges to discover the fate of their affections. I tempted my eye, and I never knelt at the altar withe there was the watchful monster winding lazily backward The gold and silver vesse and forward like a long meteor, sometimes rising till in the town; the people seemed to have made a vow wishing to tear them down. The devil assisted me, and its nose disturbed the surface, and a gushing sound, talk of nothing else, and the Padres yelled as if it we others resting motionless on the water as if listening to the sound of our voices, and thirsting for our blood.ment is far off. a deep breath, rose through the breaker, at doomsday. The poor blacks yelled too, but my nait As we were watching the motions of the monster, Prince, buried under ten fathoms water, among the rocks of was never mingled with their confessions;-my punish the cook, a little lively negro, suggested the possibility of old fishing station. I know the place well. Assist me destroying it. Andersen uttered an incredulous humph," raising them to-night, and I will share them with yo The gold cups and candlesticks and I laughed outright, and asked Prince if he meant to and we will both take the first chance of going to Ha engage him in single combat with his bush knife as the Prince laughed, and shook his head-" No, no, skipper, advantage of a man's necessities and we went down to th vain. Night dark-old Jamaica negro did the famous Port Royal Tom. me give um a hot bellyful-make a brick hot in de stove beach immediately, where Jose unfastened his doree, an and give um for nyam"(eat.) I consented, and Prince we put off for the fishing station. The sea was high, an "I consented at once-for the devil is ever ready to tal forthwith commenced his culinary operations. They were we had enough to do to manage our slight craft. Jose simply to heat a firebrick in the stove-wrap it hastily up experienced eye was not long in discovering the repositor in some old greasy cloths, as a sort of disguise, and then of his treasure, though the night was so dark, and t to heave it overboard. This was the work of a few minutes, drift so strong, that we could scarcely see beyond the bow and the effect was triumphant. The monster followed its excepting when a streamer flashed through the clouds, an hissing prey-we saw it dart after the brick like a flash of showed the heavy black waves mounting round about u lightning, and gorge it instanter. Prince whooped and It's a plaguy bad night, messmate,' said I. Jose turse laughed with exultation, and hurrying up to the surly-the lightning glaredo over his face it was as pale Spaniards, who took no sort of interest in the circumstance, death. congratulated them with a kind of sarcastic raillery on the doree while I strip.' He did not lose an instant in preps prospect of "fresh fish for supper." the surface almost immediately, and his uneasy movements and keep near the place, he crossed himself, and droppe To-night or never,' he replied, wear up th soon betrayed the success of our manœuvre. His agonies heavily, but quietly, into the water. I thought I heard The shark rose to ration, and after repeating his caution to wear up the craf became terrible. The waters appeared as if disturbed by cry as he descended, and my anxiety began to take th a violent squall, and the spray was driven over the tafferell, shape of fear. Jose had scarcely dived a fathom when h where we were standing, while the gleaming body of the rose again to the surface, apparently senseless and inani fish repeatedly burst through the dark waves, as if writh- mate. ing with fierce and terrible convulsions. Sometimes also rocks. I called to him, but he returned me no answer. we thought we heard a shrill, bellowing cry, as if indi- called again, and louder, and still no reply. Cold wit cative of anguish and rage, rising through the gurgling fear, I paddled towards the place where the lightning ha I thought he had stunned himself against th In a short time the sounds broke away into distance, and upon the waves. of the waters. the agitation of the sea subsided. The shark had given it into the boat. As I did so, blood-warm blood spoute His fury, however, was soon exhausted. shown me his floating body. One arm was lying listless himself to up the tides, as if unable to struggle against over my breast and knees: a streamer flashed across t I seized hold of it hastily, and dragg I have, in this respect, the advantage of them: I have seen and heard both. Of all the beautiful scenery of the West Indies, that of the Gulf of Dulce, on the Spanish Main, is the most beautiful. My little schooner has floated there, with idle sails flapping in the undulating swell of the tides, when the waters around me were as blue and translucent as the skies that hung over them, and the vessel seemed like a sunny cloud sleeping in middle air. The purple summits of the high-wooded mountains were still towering in the sunshine but a soft gray evening shadow had gathered over their sides, and the rich and varied colours of their foliage were only distinguishable when a division of the hills suffered the descending radiance to fall on the lower heights. On the centre of the gulf, however, the mellow evening light reposed without a shadow, save what was caught at intervals from the ocean birds, or was reflected from fishing vessels. The waters were"glassed in light." Various windmills and wigwams belonging to sugar and indigo plantations relieved, with their white walls and rising smoke, the quiet and sombre monotony with which sun-down had invested the dark wooded shores; and glimpses of gipsy fires were deepened. It was in this place that the Mayflower was in many places flickering through the bush as the evening overtaken, in a voyage to a small settlement at the bottom of the gulf, by one of those breathless calms that are common in the last month of the dry season. I had three Spanish passengers on board, who had made extensive like purchases of British goods at Bellese, and had engaged mules to meet them at this retired village, in order to evade the harbour dues of Omor. As the tide was flow. ing, I considered it expedient to drop anchor, much to the distress and annoyance of the Spaniards, who had calculated on being landed that day, and had exhausted their lungs in whistling for winds ever since the calm set in. Their invocations, however, were ened around us, and the schooner floated like a log. The sailors sulked and leaned idly over the bulwarks; one of the Spaniards took up his guitar and played, while the other two stretched themselves out as if for sleep, and I reclined upon the companion in deep and sad meditation. What was I dreaming of amid those far foreign lands, in that lonely ship, surrounded by high dark hills? It was of a distant fireside-and the happy hours when, with all the sanguine confidence of boyhood, I threw my arms around the neck of my widowed parent, and cried, "Mother, I will be a sailor, and win gold for you on the wide sea."-Then I thought of her melancholy but truthful foreboding, in the words of the proverb, that "the steed would be gone ere the grass was grown;" and I laughed, in bitterness of heart, over all my wild hopes and childish calculations. From this abstracted mood I was aroused by one of the sailors, a Norwegian, of the name of Andersen, the only white man, besides myself, in the vessel, who sauntered up to the companion, and seated himself on one of the Spaniards' patakees (a kind of box, made of plaited bark, diced in various colours) at my feet. This man reminded me of some of those wild and gypsy-looking figures that darken the foreground of old Flemish pictures. large brawny limbs, and a set of features that, besides the He was full six feet high, with determined pucker of a tobacco-chewer, were as bronzed and weather-worn as those of Belzoni's mummy. He was duras !! NAPOLEON IN SOCIETY. NAPOLEON'S TALENTS AS A CALCULATOR. hands, Napoleon received news of the battle of Vittoria. The military commissioners paused and hesitated; nay, All is now over with Joseph," were almost his first words though selected, doubtless, as fitted for the office, they after receiving the intelligence. Send to countermand were even affected by the whole behaviour, and especially the order for the watch." Properly considered, this anec. by the intrepidity of the unhappy prince. But Savary, dote indicates no indifference as to his brother's fate, nor then chief of the police, stood behind the president's chair, anxiety about saving a petty sum; it was the rigid calcu- and controlled their sentiments of compassion. When lation of a professed accountant, whose habits of accuracy they proposed to further the prisoner's request of an audi induce him to bring every loss to a distinct balance, how-ence of the First Consul, Savary cut the discussion short, ever trivial the set-off may be. But although the Empe- by saying that was inexpedient. At length they reported ror's economy descended to minute trifles, we are not to their opinion, that the Duke d'Enghien was guilty of suppose that among such was its natural sphere. On the having fought against the Republic, intrigued with Engcontrary, in the first year of the Consulate, he discovered land, and maintained intelligence in Strasburg, for the and rectified an error in the statement of the revenue, to purpose of seizing the place; great part of which allegathe amount of no less than two millions of francs, to the tions, and especially the last, was in express contradicprejudice of the state. In another instance, with the skill tion to the only proof adduced, the admission, namely, of which only a natural taste for calculation, brought to ex- the prisoner himself. The report being sent to Buonaparte cellence by constant practice, could have attained, he dis. to know his farther pleasure, the Court received for answer covered an enormous overcharge of more than sixty thou- their own letter, marked with the emphatic words, "Consand francs in the pay accounts of the garrison of Paris. demned to death." Napoleon was obeyed by his satraps, Two such discoveries, by the head magistrate, must have with Persian devotion. The sentence was pronounced; gone far to secure regularity in the departments in which and the prisoner received it with the same intrepid galthey were made in future. Attending to this remarkable lantry which distinguished him through the whole of the peculiarity throws much light on the character of Buona- bloody scene. He requested the aid of a confessor. parte. It was by dint of his rapid and powerful combina- "Would you die like a monk?" is said to have been the tions that he succeeded as a General; and the same laws insulting reply. The Duke, without noticing the insult, of calculation can be traced through much of his public knelt down for a minute, and seemed absorbed in profound and private life. EXECUTION OF THE DUKE d'enghien. He devotion. "Let us go," he said, when he arose from his knees. All was in readiness for the execution; and, as if to stamp the trial as a mere mockery, the grave had been prepared ere the judgment of the Court was pronounced. Upon quitting the apartment in which the pretended trial had taken place, the Prince was conducted by torch-light down a winding stair, which seemed to descend to the dungeons of the ancient castle. "Am I to be immured in an oubliette ?" he said, na Napoleon's general manner in society, during this part of his life, has been described by an observer of first-rate power; according to whom, he was one for whom the admiration which could not be refused to him, was always mingled with a portion of fear. He was different in this manner from other men, and neither pleased nor angry, kind nor severe, after the common fashion of humanity. He appeared to live for the execution of his own plans, and to consider others only so far as they were connected with, and could advance or oppose them. He estimated his fellow-mortals no otherwise than as they could be useful to his views; and, with a precision of intelligence which seemed intuitive from its rapidity, he penetrated the sentiments of those whom it was worth his while to study. Buonaparte did not then possess the ordinary tone of light conversation in society; probably his mind was too much On the evening of the 14th of March, a body of French burdened, or too proud to stoop to adopt that mode of soldiers, and gens d'armes, commanded by Colonel Ordenpleasing, and there was a stiffness and reserve of manner ner, acting under the direction of Caulincourt, afterwards which was perhaps adopted for the purpose of keeping peo- Duke of Vicenza, suddenly entered the territory of Baden, ple at a distance. His look had the same character. a power with whom France was in profound peace, and When he thought himself closely observed, he had the surrounded the château in which the unfortunate Prince power of discharging from his countenance all expression, resided. The descendant of Conde sprung to his arms, save that of a vague and indefinite smile, and presenting to but was prevented from using them by one of the atten- turally recollecting the use which had sometimes been the curious investigator the fixed eyes and rigid features dants, who represented the force of his assailants as too made of those tombs for the living. No, Monseigneur," of a bust of marble. great to be resisted. The soldiers rushed into the apartWhen he talked with the purpose of pleasing, Buona-ment, and, presenting their pistols, demanded to know answered the soldier he addressed, in a voice interrupted parte often told anecdotes of his life in a very pleasing which was the Duke d'Enghien. If you desire to arrest by sobs," be tranquil on that subject." The stair led to a manner; when silent, he had something disdainful in the him," said the Duke, you ought to have his description have already said, a grave was dug, beside which were postern, which opened into the castle ditch, where, as we expression of his face; when disposed to be quite at ease, in your warrant."-" Then we must seize on you all," drawn up a party of the gens d'armes d'elite. It was near he was, in Madame de Stael's opinion, rather vulgar replied the officer in command; and the Prince, with his six o'clock in the morning, and day had dawned. But as His natural tone of feeling seemed to be a sense of internal little household, were arrested and carried to a mill at there was a heavy mist on the ground, several torches and superiority, and of secret contempt for the world in which some distance from the house, where he was permitted to lamps mixed their pale and ominous light with that afforded he lived, the men with whom he acted, and even the very receive some clothes and necessaries. Being now recog- by the heavens,-a circumstance which seems to have given objects which he pursued. nised, he was transferred, with his attendants, to the citadel of Strasburg, and presently afterwards separated rise to the inaccurate report, that a lantern was tied to the button of the victim, that his slayers might take the more It must be admitted, looking around the city of Paris, from the gentlemen of his household, with the exception certain aim. Savary was again in attendance, and had and traveling through the provinces of France, that Buo- of his aide-de-camp, the Baron de St. Jacques. was allowed to communicate with no one. He remained taken his place upon a parapet which commanded the naparte has, in the works of peaceful grandeur, left a stamp of magnificence not unworthy of the soaring, and, a close prisoner for three days; but on the 18th, be-place of execution. The victini was placed, the fatal word was given by the future Duke de Rovigo, the party fired, at the same time, profound spirit, which accomplished so twixt one and two o'clock in the morning, he was many wonders in warfare. His conduct towards the Em- obliged to rise and dress himself hastily, being only in- and the prisoner fell. The body, dressed as it was, and press Josephine was regular and exemplary. From their formed that he was about to commence a journey. He without the slightest attention to the usual decencies of sepulture, was huddled into the grave with as little cereaccesion to grandeur till the fatal divorce, as Napoleon answered that it was unnecessary. The linen which he mony as common robbers use towards the carcasses of the once termed it, they shared the privacy of the same apartment, and for many years partook of the same bed. was permitted to take with him amounted to two shirts Josephine is said, indeed, to have given her husband, upon ascertained. He was transported with the utmost speed only, so nicely had his worldly wants been calculated and whom she had many claims, some annoyance by her jea- and secrecy towards Paris, where he arrived on the 20th, lousy, to which he patiently submitted, and escaped the and after having been committed for a few hours to the reproach thrown on so many heroes and men of genius, that, proof to every thing else, they are not so to the allure-Temple, was transferred to the ancient Gothic castle of tients of female seduction. What amours he had were of Vincennes, about a mile from the city, long used as a 4 passing character. The dignity of his throne was splen- state prison, but whose walls never received a more illusdidly and magnificently maintained, but the expense was trious or a more innocent victim. There he was permitted sall limited by that love of order which arose out of Buo- granted for the purpose of being withdrawn, he was to take some repose; and as if the favour had only been aparte's powers of arithmetical calculation, habitually awaked at midnight, and called upon to sustain an interand constantly employed, and the trusting to which contributed, it may be, to that external regularity and deco-rogatory, on which his life depended, and to which he rum which he always supported. In speaking of his own peculiar taste, Buonaparte said that his favourite work was a book of logarithms, and his choicest amusement was working out the problems. The individual to whom the Emperor made this singular avowal, mentioned it with starprise to an officer near his person, who assured him that not only did Napoleon amuse himself with arithmetical cpbers, and the theory of computation, but that he frequently brought it to bear on his domestic expenses, and diverted himself with comparing the price at which particular articles were charged to him, with the rate which they ought to have cost at the fair market price, but which, for reasons unnecessary to state, was in general greatly exceeded. Las Cases mentions his detecting such an overcharge in the gold fringe which adorned one of his state apartments. A still more curious anecdote respects watch, which the most eminent artist of Paris had orders to finish with his utmost skill, in a style which might be come & gift from the Emperor of France to his brother the King of Spain. Before the watch was out of the artist's requested the attendance of his valet de chambre, but was replied with the utmost composure. On the ensuing The inquisitors before whom he was hurried formed a .. murdered." the toilette, known under the name of Windsor; because Transparent Soap.-Tallow is the basis of all soaps for olive oil forms a paste too difficult to melt, and having an odour too powerful for mixing with perfumes. Tailow soap dissolved with heat in alcohol, returns to its solid state on cooling. It is this fact which has led to the discovery of transparent soap. When well prepared, this soap should have the appearance of fine white sugar-candy. It may also be coloured, and vegetable colours are for this purpose preferable to minerals. Any person can make the soap by putting into a thin glass phial half a brick of Windsor soap, cut small, filling the phial half full of alcohol, and placing it near the fire till the soap is dissolved. This mixture put to cool in a mould gives the transparent soap.-Edinburgh Journal of Science. Comparative nutritive Properties of different kinds of Food. In bread, every hundred pounds weight are found to contain eighty pounds of nutritious matter; butchers' meat, averaging the various sorts, contains only thirty-five pounds in one hundred; broad beans, eighty-nine; peas, ninety-three; lentils, (a kind of half pea but little known in England,) ninety-four pounds in one hundred; greens and turnips, which are the most aqueous of all the vege tables used for domestic purposes, furnish only eight pounds of solid nutritious substance in one hundred; carrots, fourteen pounds; and, what is remarkable, as being in opposition to the hitherto acknowledged theory, one hundred pounds of potatoes only yield twenty-five pounds of substance valuable as nutrition. Poetry. THE SABBATH-DAY. Heaven-appointed day of rest, Whisperer to the conscious breast Of that eternal Sabbath bright Storms cannot dim, nor sorrows blight! Holy day, with brow serene, Type of distant realms unseen; Day in which to man is given Intercourse to hold with Heaven! Hallowed day! oh, be it thine The heart to cleanse, the soul refine, And teach, obedient to its God, To yield submissive to the rod; Nor dare arraign, or question aught, Obscure soe'er, with mercy fraught. Teach it the mortal strife to bear, The pangs to which all flesh is heir; Nor less in prosperous hour to know From whence derived all bliss below; Nor too depress'd, or too elate, Whate'er its transitory state. If good, the knee all grateful bend; If ill, by faith to heaven ascend, And seek the peace forbidden here, Or granted but in hour of prayer! Holy day, with summons sweet; Hallowed day, with purpose meet The sick to heal, the lost restore, And bid the wanderer stray no more! Holy day, with seraph voice, That calls the weary to rejoice, And spreads around this desert scene A calm so tranquil, so serene, That seems, almost, to mortal sight Reveal'd the far-off world of light! Thrice hallowed day! oh, ever be The whisperer of eternity; The messenger of matchless love, Ordain'd to lift the heart above The sorrows and the wrongs that here Would else o'erwhelm it with despair! Thrice hallowed day! to thee is given The gates to ope, and lead to heaven; Nor be thy sacred bidding done Till Sabbaths mingle into one! SONG OF THE FARIES. We are come, we are come, from our splendid home, We have wantoned in sweets of a golden clime, We have watched the sun's last passing gleam, When they beamed from their thrones o'er the deep-blue main. We merrily glide as joyous and free THE PASTOR'S GRAVE. "Grave of the righteous! surely there The brightest bloom of beauty is: O may I sleep on couch as fair W. R-N. And with a hope as bright as his !"—Edmeston There is a lone, sequester'd place, By placid KEN's meand'ring stream; A spot that Time shall ne'er deface From recollection's brightest gleam. O'ershadow'd by old sycamores, There rests the pious and the good,While many a tear his loss deplores, And consecrate his solitude. His requiem the wild birds sing, At early morn or evening mild; And Nature's harp his dirge does ringMeet elegies for Nature's child! "No sculptur'd" stone his virtues tell,They are engrav'd on many a heart; A record far more durable Than that produc'd by graphic art. Methinks I hear some swain exclaim, While from his cheek he wipes the tear, "The Pastor true, whose only aim Was to do good-sleeps softly here! "He kindly sooth'd the couch of pain, Pitied the friendless and the poor; Want never told his tale in vain, Nor met with insults at his door. "His warning voice no more I hear, That made the sinner seek his God; But while I roam a pilgrim here, O may his steps by me be trod !" A widow mourns the husband kind, Friendship is sighing o'er that tomb He was a friend-long tried-sincere! Alike was fortune's smile or gloom, To him who lonely moulders here. The Christian views with eye of faith, The tearless land-the happy shore; Where friends that sever'd were by death, Again shall meet-and part no more. Lone spot-round thee may flow'rs still bloom, And breezes mild thee gently fan! The heart is mould'ring in that tomb That glow'd with love to God and man. High Park, Liverpool, July, 1827. LINES. O tell me not the moon is bright, The placid charms of such a night Are not to be enjoyed by me; For to the sad they speak of joy departed, And add fresh sorrows to the broken-hearted. It mocks mine anguish to behold All nature in unbroken rest; All calm and still, while I unfold A jarring tempest in my breast; It brings to mind the days of old, Ere torture's iron hand oppressedThat blessed time ere I had learned to mourn, And tells me that it never will return. Within my bosom all is war, P. M. I prais'd the Earth, in beauty seen I prais'd the Sun, whose chariot roll'd I prais'd the Moon, whose softer eye IMPROMPTU, ADDRESSED TO A SICK LADY. Dear Ann, I love you WELL; But though you're ILL, I pr'ythee cry not, For I love you STILL. This pun is taken from a whimsical little work, late published, entitled "Absurdities," in prose and ver by A. Crowquill; from which we intend to give son selections in the next Kaleidoscope. L'UNION FORTUNEE. on the surface. If the specific gravity of the person at te imité de l'Allemand, die Glückliche Ehe Von Gellert. tempting this be greater than that of water, it will be impossible to succeed; since, independent of floating with out motion of the limbs, he has the whole weight of the head to support above the surface; whereas, in floating on the back, half the head is immersed in the water, whereby a great part of its weight is neutralized. Du mariage on conte, en tous lieux, les disgrâces, Aussi délicieuse au moins que la première; ON SWIMMING WITH THE STREAM. Some remarks which have been lately published in one of our newspapers, relative to a recent aquatic exploit, evince on the part of the editor an utter ignorance of the laws which affect bodies moving in fluids. We should not think it worth the trouble to waste a word upon a writer whose ignorance upon very many of subjects on which he treats, is only equalled by his presumption: there may, however, by possibility, be others as ignorant as himself upon the particular subject under consideration; and we shall, therefore, endeavour to show the wide difference between swimming, and the combined action of swimming and drifting, or floating; or, in other words, the La mort tous deux frappa. Quand? Au bout de huit difference between swimming a few miles in still water, jours, ar autrement personne en croirait mes discours. 2, Stafford-street. ALB. and in a river with a strong current in favour of the swimmer. The late exploit of Dr. Bedale and Mr. Vipond has been noticed in the London papers as if those gentlemen had actually swam sixteen or eighteen miles; and in Blackwood's Magazine the distance between Liverpool and Runcorn is stated to be twenty-four miles, which we now believe to be about one-third more than it really would measure by water. C D B A We will suppose, for the sake of illustration, that a person swims across the Mersey, from Liverpool (A) to Woodside, or some other part of the opposite Cheshire shore, B, a distance, in a right line, of one mile; and we will further suppose that he does this in one hour, about the time of high water, when there is little or no current, either in his favour or against him. Again, we will suppose that the same person undertakes the same task when the tide is setting in the direction from A to D, at the rate of six miles in the hour. He shall swim precisely at the same rate as before, and for precisely the same time; but at the end of the hour he will not, as before, find himself at B, one mile off, but at C, or Eastham, six miles off, although he has not made one stroke more in the water than in his former experiment. The law by which he is carried from A to C by the combined action of swimming and drifting, instead of arriving at B, is, or ought to be, familiar to a schoolboy. It is this: tions, it will be moved in a diagonal of the parallelogram The same principle applies, of course, to the passage from Liverpool to Runcorn, and any editor who narrates the late exploit of Dr. Bedale and Mr. Vipend, without informing his readers, at the same time, that these gentlemen had a very rapid current in their favour, publishes an exparte statement, calculated to mislead the public. 0 Swimming-The Viscount de Courtivron has exhibited his experiments on the Seine. He left the swimming school in a boat, containing thirteen swimmers, and when he reached the quay d'Orsay, M. Courtivron went into the water dressed as an infantry soldier. At the distance of thirty fathoms from the boat, he raised himself out of the water, and fired a musket, containing four charges, and the report of which was very loud. At this signal an oid soldier, who was placed on the Pont Royal, jumped into the Seine, the height being 64 feet, and carried to M. Courtivron a tin box containing despatches. After having read the contents, he swam to the boat to impart them to his comrades. Instantly sixty-four persons, who had come with the Colonel in other boats, jumped into the water, and followed his movements, he directing them by the sound of a horn. The swimmers executed in the water horizontally the movements which are executed paper. vertically on land.-French the 18th ult.)-The whale, noticed in our paper a few The Sea Serpent Caught.-(From a New York paper of days since, as having passed Portsmouth-bridge, over the Piscataqua river, in New Hampshire, has been taken, as will be seen by the following account, copied from a New Hampshire paper:-"On Friday morning he was seen by many market-people coming down the river. An expedition was immediately set on foot by Colonel Decatur, of the navy yard, and Mr. Z. Willey, to take him, which was not successful til Tuesday evening at five o'clock, when a harpoon from Mr. Willey took effect, followed by two harpoons and four lances from Colonel Decatur, near Pine Point, in the Berwick branch of the Piscataqua, about ten miles from town. He continued towing the two boats attached to him till Wednesday morning, sometimes going with the greatest velocity, and with imminent danger to the boats at the Horse-races, which was nearly three hours, and from five to seven o'clock in the morning was in view of thousands who flocked to see him, being then in sight of Portsmouththe bridge, and secured in Spinney's Creek, thence carried bridge. He was finally despatched at seven o'clock, near to Badger's Island, where preparations were yesterday made for his public exhibition. From Friday to Wednesday morning the river had been filled with boats, either trying to take him, or to view the sport. The bridge, or margins of the river, have been thronged with spectators, especially on Monday afternoon, when he was in view the whole time, and the river perfectly calm. The appearance of a whale in any river in the United States would be considered an extraordinary and gratifying circumstance, and for five days our citizens have had that opportunity, which may never occur again. The length of the whale is about 50 feet, and his breadth about 16 feet; his head is shaped like that of a horse, and he differs from all others that have been seen by those acquainted with that species of fish. His motion was undulatory, and it is the opinion of Colonel Decatur that this is the very As swimming is the order of the day, we shall propose our readers two aquatic feats, which are the most puz. ng of any we ever accomplished, and we believe we Fe in our time attempted all manner of vagaries in the when a body is acted upon by two forces in different direc- sea serpent which has so long been a visitor on our coast.' ter, not omitting that most ridiculous of all aquatic its, cutting the toe nails in the water, which we can formed by lines drawn in the direction of the two moving cutler to that of a watch-house:-"BLADES PUT IN." sure our readers (besides spoiling the penknife) is no imovement whatever upon the ordinary paring operation. e that as it may, the two exploits represented by the anexed figures are far more difficult to accomplish. Fiare 1 represents a person lying at full length on his back the water, his toes (though not shown in the figure) out f the water. In this position the arms are to be raised in narch over the face, the fingers of each hand touching; and almost the whole of each arm out of the water. The person performing the feat must remain, and must speak or whistle, in order to show that he does not float merely by holding his breath. The arms in the figure are raised too much over the best; they ought to be thrown further back, so as to or an arch above the face. No. 2 is equally if not more difficult. The whole of the send being out of the water, the arms extended as in the act of swimming, but kept motionless. The body lying horizontally on the water, so that the heels may be seen powers. Thus, while the swimmer turns his head to B, * One of the Liverpool critics, whose paragraph, like much A wag removed the following board from the door of a This reminds us of the freak of another wag, who placed over a surgeon's door a board inscribed MANGLING DONE HERE." The following ludicrous advertisement was observed posted in a window near Worcester Cathedral :-" henney body that whants henney sauft water my fathr will carrey it for yo." Α certain Mrs. Hamilton, who is said never to have displeased An article has been "going the rounds" respecting a her husband during forty-seven years of married life. correspondent of the Charleston Mercury explains the wonderons event by saying-Major General H. was ordered off on duty before the expiration of the honeymoon, and did not return until his wife was dead.---New York Statesman. Sporting Pun.-On Thursday evening, a person genteelly dressed, but quite "dished," as the saying is, was seen reeling through the streets. His coat bore the marks of his having been floored more than once; when a gentle man observed, that he supposed he had been at the races; to which a punster replied, that there was no doubt, from his appearance, that he had been on the ground," |